I was really worried, you know?」

「I’m sorry.」

I said that to Touka-chan, who looked like she was about to cry. While I had said my apology at the start, it made me feel like I had once again done something to apologize for.

Since it may have been my first time to sleep for a whole day, actually, I myself was surprised.

「But, I’m envious of Rin-neesama who can see Suku-neesama sleeping.」

「…..? What do you mean?」

「Are you not aware of it? Suku-neesama, whenever the people around you are still awake, you absolutely won’t sleep, you know? Though, Rin-neesama said that wasn’t the case when you were young.」

At Touka-chan’s words, I unintentionally tilted my head.

「In the past, you did a strangling technique on Ren-niisama when he went to wake you up, right?」

「Hmm, I don’t remember any of that.」

「So since you were sleeping you didn’t really remember it, huh……It seemed at that time all you could do was still protect yourself while sleeping. But before I knew it, other than Rin-neesama, no one else could see Suku-neesmaa’s sleeping face…..」

Hmm, certainly, other than Rin-chan, it had been a long time since I could remember defenselessly sleeping before someone else.

Well, in the first place, I hadn’t been around anyone in the past years after all.

By the way, the person that Touka-chan called Ren-niisama was actually the name of Rin-chan’s actual brother. His full name was Takajou Renya-san(恋夜).

Even Rin-chan said that he had an「appearance pure build.」He was a really cool-looking brother. (9: though barely appeared or still hasn’t appeared? either way reading ahead, I don’t remember him appearing)

And with that influential power, ever since his youth, if he just walked around here and there, before you knew it a crowd would have already formed. So to avoid trouble, he had lived most of his life disguising himself.

By the way, appearance -pure build- was not a metaphor. Aside from his looks, the rest of his specs were that of a disappointment.

It was just that, he was really kind. His heart was open wide, something like that. He even had the calmest personality out of Rin-chan’s siblings.

If he lived normally, it felt like he would easily get caught up with frauds and scams, but regarding that, as expected of the Takajou family, they had him perfectly protected.

Right now, he was totally absorbed in the acting business. He was a famous person, the kind that you could see on TV’s on the street corners.

By the way, Ren-san was the second son. The eldest son was Takajou Shiran-san(紫蘭), who Rin-chan said had「all stats max,」a superhuman.

That person was a ridiculously talented person. In reality, he was a dreadful person who had schedules where even the seconds were being included.

Though I hadn’t met the two of them in about ten years. The both of them are quite a bit older than me.

「I wonder if Ron-san is doing fine?」

「Ron-neesama is….I don’t know too much, either. Isn’t she somewhere around the world randomly traveling around?」

Including Rin-chan, for the three of us, that person was someone we could call our older sister. The Ron-san that was mentioned right now was Takajou Ronri (龍麗).

Touka-chan was a bit different, she was the daughter of Rin-chan’s father’s younger sister. In relation to Rin-chan, she was a cousin.

That person had a free-spirited personality. Just as you’ve thought that she suddenly disappeared, before you know it she either came back with a huge amount of money or a rare animal. She was quite the mysterious person.

That person also, I think I met her just before I was about to live alone. Touka-chan and Saku-chan, thanks to meeting people like them who I didn’t think I’d meet, nostalgic memories came to the surface.

I thought of meeting up with her again for such a long time. But I’m with Rin-chan right now, so I would probably meet her one day.

The Takajou family–parents, siblings, and relatives–was a family that doted on Rin-chan.

「So, today we’re going to Shuuya’s place, right?」

「That’s right, it’s an invitation from the Round Table. Since I already contacted them, let me guide you to their clan house.」

「That helps-…..N? Touka-chan, won’t you get lost? Are you gonna be alright?」

「I-It’s alright!」

「I’ve gotten quite a bit worried…」

When I remembered Touka-chan’s absolute lack of a sense of direction and got anxious as I asked about it, her eyes avoided me a little.

And just like that, while being quite anxious, we went toward the clan house of the《Knights of the Round Table》.

☆

「Hohou, so thou are Sukuna, ain’t ya?」

「Ah, yeah.」

Before the little beastfolk girl who was folding her arms, I was kinda, like, having a problem reacting.

「I, Arthur, am the leader of the clan《Knights of the Round Table》. Nice to meet ya!」

「I’m Sukuna. I see, so you’re the leader.」

Looking only at her height, she looked completely like a grade-schooler. In the worst case, her body might have been smaller, although she seemed to be the leader of this clan.

While being quite surprised, for now, I tried going with the practice of acting more formal toward higher-ups, and then the person before me gave me a questioning face.

「Away with the formalities. You’re the same age as Rinne, right? Then, I am way younger than ya! Gahahaha!」

「Then let me do so, A-chan.」

「A-chan!?」

It seemed that she was surprised, but I wonder what she was surprised about?

However, with this girl apparently being way younger than me, it seemed she might actually be a little girl like how she looked.

Since this was not a game where it was gory or bloody, so it had a rather low target age rating.

Well, even if she wasn’t as young as she looked because of her age, you could set the avatar freely, so.

「Now, now, ’tis fine. I shall specially grant you permission.」

「…..? Thanks?」

「Ahem. However, what was it, Sukuna? You really don’t have any intimidating air. Something like a -strong person’s aura-, something like that, even though I can definitely sense those kinds of things.」

「Aura….」

Was it because my equipment was made out of cloth? I mean, Aria’s attire was a rust-colored kimono and looked unexpectedly chic, after all.

Or was it because I wasn’t that tall? It wasn’t like I was troubled even with a shorter height, but I’m sure that big people had some kind of pressure too.

Even though if I was told to have such an intimidating air I wouldn’t be very happy, being told I had no intimidating air, I didn’t know what to say about that.

「Isn’t the Round Table’s strongest, Arthur-san, that has the least intimidating air, huh?」

「Touka-jou! if you say that then it’s just the end! And also, give me some of your height!」

「I can’t, it’s my identity after all」

Lining up A-chan who looked around 140 cm and Touka-chan who looked around 190 cm, the disbalance was too much and it overwhelmed me.

Their height difference sure was severe. Although, in the first place, there weren’t even that many guys that were taller than Touka-chan, so the one that was the outlier was Touka-chan after all.

「You two sure do get along.」

「After all, if you put Touka-jou in your party, there wouldn’t be any mistakes in support! Before I came to Fias, I hired her once for a while.」

「She is a benefactor that properly taught me how to look at maps.」

「I-I see?」

I knew what A-chan was saying. After all, I’d been in Touka-chan’s hands during that Armored Mount Gorilla battle.

But still, there was something that was somewhat wrong about what Touka-chan was saying…was it that recently, Touka-chan became capable of looking at maps?

「Fufun, I know what you are thinking about, like, I can grasp the idea. You see, me and Touka are『RL friends.』Same as your relation with Rinne.」

「Ah, I see. So the part about you properly teaching her how to look at maps was something far from the past?」

「Umu. Our meeting goes back to six years ago…」

「Ah, I’d like to refrain on that.」

「Wut!? My masterpiece of an epic tale that would bring you to tears was!?」

「By the way, Arthur-san is two years younger than me.」

「Ah, then she really is quite younger.」

「You guys are unexpectedly the same, with how you don’t listen…..」

Was it because Touka-chan and I were being a bit mean? A-chan reacted like she was taken aback for a bit, but for some reason, Touka-chan was happy.

Was it because rather than being teasing, it was something related to how close they were?

It might have been one of the things they joked around about.

I didn’t really know why Touka-chan was happy, but since she looked so happy, I should stop spoiling the fun.

「Let’s stop standing around talking here. Since you have visited my clan, I shall guide you inside our home.」

「By the way, streaming is…?」

「It’s fine, since there are also streamers among our clan members. And in the first place, we don’t have anything to hide, so do as you please.」

「Okay then, let’s stream!」

Getting permission from A-chan, I operated the menu card to start the stream and then we went on to take a step toward the home of the Round Tables.

———————————————————————-

Author notes:

Nana basically adds chan male or female. Towards older people she calls them -san a lot.

On the other hand, Kohaku and Shuten being called without honorifics is actually quite a rare case.