“Come on, what’s it going to be? If you’re going to grovel, then hurry up and do it, okay?”

Certain that there’s no way I could get into 70°C boiling water, Emera seized the moment and taunted me as hard as she could.

She really has a bad personality… or rather, she’s like those early-chapter manga characters you see a lot on SNS—the disposable stepping-stone types who get put in their place immediately.

Maybe she’s lost her composure because everything she imagined has been crushed one after another, but honestly, it was kind of ridiculous to watch.

“Fine. I just have to get in, right?”

“…Huh?”

When I showed my willingness to enter, Emera froze completely and looked at me with a blank expression.

And then—as I started walking toward the incredibly large bathtub that could probably fit dozens of people—

“Wait, wait a minute! Do you even know what you’re doing?! It’s 70℃! That’s about 30℃ higher than the water temperature you normally bathe in!”

—Just like with the bear, she suddenly started panicking.

It’s stuff like this that makes her look like such a small fry.

Or rather, she really is a coward.

She is just bluffing and then loses her composure and panics when things actually happen.

It’s fine if power or money works on the other person, but she’s extremely weak against those who don’t respond to it.

At least, for me—who has someone real close by, someone I absolutely must not defy—Emera wasn’t frightening at all.

If it were Maria-san in this situation, she’d be laughing while tossing me in by herself.

I thought about that as I put my foot into the hot water.

It’s hot—and painful.

I feel like my skin is burning.

But… it’s not unbearable.

“Are you an idiot?! You’ll die!! Stop being so stubborn!”

As I immersed myself in the hot water up to my shoulders, Emera was flustered more than when she made the proposal.

“Count properly for thirty minutes, okay?”

“—! What is with this guy? Why is he totally unfazed…!? I seriously don’t get it…!”

When I told her to keep track of the time, Emera looked at me like she was staring at something incomprehensible.

In contrast to that, Furei approached with a stopwatch in hand.

“That type of person… when it’s about themselves… they’re pretty quiet… but if it’s for someone important to them… they’ll face any hardship… That’s why… people like that… are a real problem if you make them an enemy…”

“But this isn’t something you can overcome with willpower, right!? Just like with Pochi—he really doesn’t seem human…!”

“I don’t know about that… But… it would be better not to anger him any further…”

Furei was whispering something to Emera, and Emera was shouting back at her.

Even though she was always gentle with her little sister, she really had no composure left now.

“Absolutely not. If he’s a dangerous element, we have to crush him completely…!”

“How?”

“That’s…”

“If my assessment… is correct… even Hitomi wouldn’t… be able to win. Right now… we can still make it… This is the turning point…”

“Even though we’re the ones who caused all this in the first place…!?”

“Regarding Hina’s photos… Those girls… wanting to raise their standing with Onee-chan… rushed ahead on their own… If we explain it… he’ll understand…”

“There’s no way he’ll believe that…!?”

“Maybe, you’re right… But if we delete the photos… we can still negotiate… I’ll handle the negotiations…”

“……”

I could only make out Emera’s shouting, but judging from what she was saying, Furei might have been trying to talk her around in my favor.

She probably wanted Hina’s photos deleted too, so at least our interests aligned there.

Well, not that I planned to let this end just by deleting the photos.

“—Aima-kun, time…”

After Emera finally fell silent and I waited for the time to pass, Furei informed me that thirty minutes had elapsed.

“Mind showing me the stopwatch, just in case?”

“Nn…”

When I checked the screen, the timer had indeed gone past thirty minutes.

Maybe I was overthinking it, but at least they hadn’t tried anything like telling me to get out of the boiling water early and then going, ‘Oh, it actually hasn’t been thirty minutes~.’

“Alright… as promised, you’ll delete the photos, right?”

I stepped out of the scalding water, enduring my burning-hot body, and gave the instruction to Emera.

However—she just fell silent, neither saying anything nor making any move at all.

“Onee-chan…”

“It’s not over yet…”

Apparently, Emera doesn’t intend to keep her promise.

Well, I knew she wouldn’t end it with this, but ignoring Furei’s persuasion is…

She must have nowhere left to retreat.

Her pride is high, and more than anything, she probably hasn’t been in a situation like this before where she was cornered.

That’s why she doesn’t know how to back down at times like these.

And on top of that, she’s probably thinking I won’t be able to hold back my anger now that she’s already taken photos of Hina in her underwear.

Normally, I’d just settle this by force, but I can’t be the first one to lose patience.

If I’m going to ignore Shirayuki-san’s warning, it’ll only be when Emera throws away the whole ‘trial’ act and actually tries to use real force.

That way, even if I go too far, I won’t feel as guilty.

For now, I decided to play along with Emera’s little game—and right as I was bracing myself…

“—Fufu, looks like you’re doing something interesting, Eito-kun?”

A woman who looks to be in her twenties, with gold hair and white hair split cleanly down the middle, entered the large bath.

Immediately after that, Emera and Furei turned pale with fear and froze like statues.

“Does this look like something fun to you, Maria-san? …Maria-san!?”

Partly because of how overheated my body felt, but even more because my mind had been completely occupied with Emera, my brain lagged behind the girls in recognizing the familiar woman who had suddenly appeared.

Maria-san looked amused as she watched me double-take, the corners of her mouth relaxing into a smile.

“I got a message saying Eito-kun was visiting, so I wrapped up my plans and came home early, buuut—turns out you really were here. Thanks to that, the plan I’d been preparing since forever got completely blown away, sooo… you’re going to explain what’s going on, right~?”

Maria-san spoke in that drawn-out tone of hers.

It was the tone she used whenever she was about to blow her top.

And the gaze she directed forward—wasn’t at me, but at Emera and Furei.