“―So, how’s the class?”

Two days had passed since then, and it was after school on Thursday.

While heading home, I asked Hina about the class situation.

“Eh… I guess it’s better than I thought…?”

“Yeah, that’s a pretty ambiguous answer.”

Seeing Hina give a troubled little smile as she carefully chose her words, I couldn’t help but let out a wry smile of my own.

Honestly, I should have gone to check things out myself, but Class A is Emera’s own garden of women she created.

If I, a man, tried to get close, I’d be chased away instantly.

In fact, when I peeked into the class on the first day, Emera immediately stepped forward and threatened me with something like, “If you want to fight me, I’ll accept your challenge?”

Other boys also seemed interested in checking out Class A, but Emera’s attendants would come out and literally slap them across the face with a mop before sending them away.

It’s now completely off-limits for men.

The most pitiful thing is probably the Class D guys who got shafted because of Emera.

Since all of Class A are girls, naturally there will be classes that have more boys.

The teachers should’ve at least divided the boys and girls more evenly, but maybe because they wanted to accommodate the girls who didn’t fit into Class A, they ended up making Class D an all-boys class.

As a result, the guys in Class D were really upset.

“Um… you see, Furei-san is nice to me…”

While I was recalling the scene from Tuesday, Hina fidgeted and said with an upturned gaze while pressing her index fingers together.

Not that it’s unexpected…

“You mean she gives out snacks?”

“You figured it out…? They’re always asking things like, ‘Do you… want some chocolate…?’ or ‘Cake… maybe…?’ and she just keep giving me treats…”

Yeah, it’s weird that cakes come up here, but the Tenjouin sisters have cakes delivered to school.

They eat them as snacks or distribute them to their attendants.

“Well, I saw how things worked last year. But Furei doesn’t give out sweets that often unless she really likes someone among her attendants. I think she’s taken a liking to you, Hina.”

When she’s in a good mood, she’ll share cake or other treats with her attendants, but most of the time she gives things out as a form of payment or reward.

So if she’s giving you things on a regular basis for no reason, like she mentioned earlier, that’s proof you’ve become one of the few people she treats as special.

And especially when it’s sweets instead of money—Furei usually reserves that kind of thing for her favorites.

There’s almost no doubt about it—the reason Furei noticed Hina so quickly is because of Hina’s appearance.

If it weren’t for the Tenjouin sisters—whose striking looks steal all the attention—people would definitely be making a fuss over Hina too. Her appearance is exceptional, and back in middle school she was really popular.

Of course, anyone who tried to get close to her with bad intentions was chased off by me, but without the Tenjouin sisters around, things would probably be the same in high school.

More than anything, since she’s especially small for a high schooler, I’m pretty sure Furei sees Hina like a little animal.

“Rather than being liked… it feels more like I’m being… fed…?”

Hina pressed her palms together again and gave another awkward smile.

Yeah, that’s my sister for you.

Her intuition is spot-on.

In reality, Furei doesn’t see Hina and the others as equals.

What Furei thinks of her attendants is more like “my pets.”

That’s why she dotes on them.

I realized this when I saw last year how Furei would stroke a girl who was often by her side, treating her like a dog—petting her head, cheeks, and jaw.

I doubt I’ll be able to forget Furei’s face from that moment anytime soon—her eyes narrowing as she gave that bewitching, suggestive smile… a smile full of hidden meaning.

“And also… everyone else keeps staring at me… it’s scary…”

“Yeah, well… the girls all fight over the ‘Furei’s favorite’ position. And right now she’s probably paying the most attention to you, right? They’re jealous.”

Last year was already bad enough with how messy things got over who would be Furei’s favorite.

Well, if someone gets favored by her, it’s like their future is secured, so I can understand why people go all out… but honestly, I don’t like it.

“But Emera isn’t like that, right?”

“Yeah, she’s indifferent or something. She just sits there silently watching me and Furei interact. But… for some reason, I don’t know why, Furei always sits sideways on Emera’s lap, and Emera keeps stroking her head and cheeks…”

I know.

That’s a scene I’ve seen all last year too.

Everyone around was cheering with things like “Awesome!!” or “Eye candy!!,” but to me, it felt like they should have found somewhere else for their romantic antics.

“For Emera, Furei is everything in life, so worrying about it is pointless. It’s a world we can’t understand.”

“Oh…”

Seeming satisfied with that explanation, Hina nodded with an expression that was hard to read.

From Hina’s perspective, being stared at by Emera without emotion must be scary.

After all, you don’t know what she’s thinking.

“She hasn’t been making you run errands or anything?”

“No, not so far. Actually… when Furei-san asks me things like, ‘Do you want ○○?’ and I accidentally nod… someone else ends up being sent out to buy it, so I feel kind of bad…”

“Yeah, I figured. Well, it’s better if you just go along with her. I know you don’t like making other people run around for you, but if you refuse too much, that’ll put her in a bad mood too.”

That girl’s mindset is that giving food to pets is happiness, so rejecting that isn’t good.

If Furei ever thinks “This one isn’t cute,” it’s honestly over.

“But…”

“Those who get sent on errands receive money or snacks as payment, so it’s fine. It’s not a one-sided relationship. Plus, they’re competing for the role of being sent too.”

“Yeah…”

It seems Hina doesn’t understand the mindset of people who volunteer to run errands themselves, and she nodded confusedly.

Those kinds of people are the ones who go out of their way to please Furei.

However—Furei doesn’t like shallow humans like that.

The more they volunteer to run errands, the lower their status becomes in Furei’s eyes, becoming just a well-behaved errand runner. They don’t realize this.

“Everyone wants to do it, so there’s no need to worry. If you’re currently favored, just go along with Furei.”

All I can tell Hina now is advice on how not to anger Furei unnecessarily.

If we were in the same class, I could help her handle things much better… but since we’re in different classes, I can’t step in to support her, so this is the best I can do.

As we talked about the Tenjouin sisters like that, we arrived home in no time—

“Both of you, welcome back. I’ve been waiting.”

An unexpected guest was waiting at the entrance.

“Maria-san…”

Already inside the house and sitting by the door was an unbelievably beautiful woman who looked to be in her twenties. Her hair split cleanly down the middle, half gold and half white, and her eyes were a brilliant shade of blue.