Chapter 357

After spending the entire weekend with her chattering away, even the noisy atmosphere of the Club Room—filled with the sounds of members stomping their feet and shouting their kiai—felt quiet by comparison.

Was it somewhat relaxing? Or perhaps a little disappointing?

Keeping those ambiguous feelings to myself, I picked up my Cell Phone in the Drying Room, where the only sound was the whirring of the dryer.

Afterward, I looked up a guide on how to properly insert an anal plug and was reading it carefully when—

“...What are you doing?”

A chilling voice came from behind me.

I flinched and turned my head, spotting Renka standing there with a laundry basket in her hands.

When did she get here? The door should have been closed... I hadn't even heard it open, nor had I sensed her presence until she was this close.

I guess I was just that focused.

“Why are you here?”

“Chinami told me to leave this next to the washing machine... but that's not the point! What the hell are you doing right now...!”

Renka's face was scrunched up in a heavy scowl.

She must have looked over my shoulder and seen the browser window I had open.

I placed my Cell Phone down on the small table in the corner of the Drying Room and shrugged.

“I was just killing time until the dryer finished.”

“That's not what I mean...! I'm asking why you're looking at that kind of stuff...!”

“What was I looking at?”

“That... that weird thing...! The thing for your butt...!”

Renka was really quite something.

Even after all the times we'd slept together, she still couldn't bring herself to say 'anal plug'... no, she couldn't even say the word 'plug.'

Of course, this was exactly one of her charms.

“A plug?”

“Yeah...! Why are you looking at that...!? Don't tell me you're thinking of using it on me...?”

“I am thinking about it. I told you before, didn't I?”

“Bullshit!! You're actually going to do it!?”

Renka shrieked.

She seemed completely dumbfounded by my honest answer.

'Isn't her voice too loud? Won't the club members outside the Drying Room hear?'

Any such worries seemed to have been entirely obliterated by her looming sense of crisis over the plug.

“You're being too loud.”

“Shut up!”

“I won't do it if the President doesn't want me to, so calm down.”

“...Really?”

“Yeah.”

“E-Even so, why were you looking at that kind of crap in the first place...”

Her momentum suddenly died down.

I chuckled, took the basket from Renka's hands, and stepped into the separate laundry room to set it down.

Then, as Renka hesitantly followed me inside, I took her by the wrist, holding her much more gently than usual.

“What are you...”

She was pulled toward me without resistance, her face flushing bright red.

Thinking to myself how I loved that our Renka was still so easy to read, I used my free hand to brush her bangs aside and softly revealed my true colors.

“But can't we try it just once?”

Renka's complexion instantly turned icy.

“Y-You're completely out of your mind, you crazy bastard...! Hey...! Am I just some toy to you!?”

“A toy? I'm just asking for your consent.”

“No! I'm not doing it...!!”

“I won't put it in, I'll just touch around the outside. If you don't like it, tell me immediately.”

“A-Around the outside...!? Ah...”

It hadn't been an explicitly graphic explanation, but it must have sounded even more erotic and vulgar to Renka's ears.

Her body swayed heavily.

As if her mind had grown dizzy, she squeezed her eyes shut. Stumbling while I held her wrist, she gritted her teeth.

“Are you seriously crazy...? Do you really think I'd agree to something like that...?”

“I'm holding onto that hope as I try to persuade you.”

“What you're doing isn't persuasion, it's coercion!”

“I have no intention of doing that.”

“Then what's with this tight grip on my hand!?”

“I'm holding it because it feels nice.”

“Ugh...! Stop messing around...!”

“I wasn't trying to be funny.”

“And wipe that smirk off your face...!”

“I wasn't doing that either.”

“...A-Anyway, I'm not doing it! I wouldn't do it even if it killed me, so don't get your hopes up...!”

Renka's resolve was incredibly strong.

It was standard for a rebellious female knight's weakness to be her ass, so it was a shame that didn't apply to Renka.

In that case, maybe I should just sneak my hand over there while we're having normal sex.

I could also touch it while offering to give her a massage... There were plenty of methods.

“Are you sure we can't? Just once.”

“No, you piece of Trash.”

“Is that so? Got it.”

Was it suspicious that I backed off so easily, despite how clingy I'd been a moment ago?

Renka's eyes narrowed.

Casually ignoring her blatant glare of suspicion, I asked, “What did you do with the Master over the weekend?”

“...We just... hung out.”

“I mean, what did you guys do while hanging out?”

“We did this and that.”

“I wanted to hear the details, so why are you answering like that? Are you messing with me?”

“I just tried playing dumb like you do. Annoying, isn't it? So...”

Smack!

“Hyak!?”

Her whole body jolted as my hand slapped her thigh for her snarky remark.

I had missed that reaction. I had been so disappointed not to see her over the weekend that I'd just have to wring every last drop of desperation out of her by tormenting her throughout the weekdays.

I flashed a wicked grin at Renka, who was glaring at me with a humiliated expression, and reached up to grope around the top shelf of the laundry room before pulling down a small wrapper.

It was the blueberry candy I always gave her.

“I-I'm not eating that...!”

Seeing her immediately display a rejection entirely devoid of sincerity the moment she laid eyes on it, I stepped closer and said, “Say ah.”

“...”

“Hurry up.”

Like always, Renka only reluctantly opened her mouth after I urged her a second time.

'I love that you're always so consistent. Please don't change even when I touch your weak spots.'

Swallowing those words, I slowly popped the candy into Renka's mouth.

After fondling Chinami all over and finishing up with club activities, I was heading to the parking lot.

“Matsuda-kun!”

Miyuki, who seemed to have just finished her Student Council work, stepped out of the school building, spotted me, and waved with a bright expression.

I lazily dragged my feet in her direction, but she hurried over to me at a brisk pace and spoke.

“Did your club activities go well?”

“Same as always. Did you just finish too?”

“Yeah. Let's hurry back and play games together. Help me build Home.”

She was talking about the console game we hadn't played for the past few days.

We were supposed to play it yesterday, but we couldn't because Miyuki's sex drive had suddenly exploded. We'd have to stay up late playing it today.

“Sure.”

As Miyuki and I walked to the parking lot so close that our shoulders were practically brushing, Hiyori and Miho stepped out from one of the buildings.

It looked like they had just finished their club activities as well.

Hiyori was crossing the schoolyard, chattering merrily with Miho with a refreshed expression on her face.

We weren't too far away, and there weren't many students around, so her spotting me was only a matter of course.

“Huh!? Matsuken... sunbae-nim!”

Seeing Miyuki there, she had completely aborted her attempt to speak casually and frantically slapped a 'sunbae-nim' onto the end of her sentence. It was truly...

I couldn't tell if I should praise her tact or just call her a fox.

“Matsuken...?”

Hearing the nickname Hiyori used for me, Miyuki tilted her head before looking up at me.

Receiving a look that demanded an explanation, I answered.

“That's just what she calls me.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. If you got just a little closer to her, she'd probably start mushing your first and last name together like she does with me.”

“Like Hanami?”

“Probably.”

While Miyuki and I were having that conversation, Hiyori and Miho approached us and bowed their heads.

“Hello, Miyuki Hanazawa.”

“Hello.”

It was an energetic greeting from Hiyori and a subdued one from Miho.

Miyuki offered them a gentle smile and returned the greeting.

“Hi.”

Hiyori gave an awkward smile upon running into Miyuki, looking as though she had a guilty conscience, but the moment their eyes met, her expression quickly morphed back into total composure.

She must have remembered the time she ran away when Miyuki was guarding the school gates... Since I knew all the background details, the situation struck me as somewhat amusing.

“I'm wearing my skirt properly, aren't I?”

Hiyori asked confidently, having noticed Miyuki inspecting her skirt.

Nodding slowly, Miyuki replied.

“You are.”

“Are you heading home now?”

“Yeah. What about you two?”

“We're going home, too.”

Hiyori, who loved to play around, was going straight home after school?

How very strange. Why would she do that? Was she on her period?

While I was seriously contemplating Hiyori's ulterior motives, she turned her gaze toward me and made an unexpectedly bold remark.

“You said you're going home, right? Then could you give us a ride just to the subway station?”

“Huh? The subway station?”

“Yep. Just to our transfer station. It's only a five-minute drive.”

That wasn't an issue.

I could give them a ride all the way to their houses, not just the subway station.

But Miyuki was here right now.

Hiyori and Miyuki still hadn't gotten as close as Hiyori and I were.

Besides, Miyuki had seemed slightly puzzled by the nickname 'Matsuken' just a moment ago, which left me feeling a little uneasy.

I stole a glance at Miyuki and saw that her expression was surprisingly fine.

Did she mean it was up to my discretion since it was my car? She also seemed to think that giving a ride to a junior she knew wasn't something to worry about all that much...

For now, it didn't seem like I needed to be overly anxious.

It was a mountain I had to climb eventually for the sake of the harem, anyway.

No, rather than a mountain, it was more like the most basic of hills.

If I shied away from even this, I might never be able to marry all four of them.

“Hiyori...! That's rude...”

I shot a look at Miho, who was reprimanding Hiyori, before giving a willing nod.

“I'll give you a ride.”

At that, Hiyori began clapping her hands rapidly in delight, and then she and Miho both expressed their thanks.

Hiyori was quick-witted.

She had undoubtedly guessed the nature of my relationship with Miyuki as well.

Asking for a ride only to a station five minutes away was probably part of her consideration for that.

So she definitely wouldn't mention the fact that the two of us had gone on a solo date, or that I had bought her a keychain.

Holding onto that hope, I told Hiyori and Miho to follow us and began to walk again when—

Slip.

I felt a warm sensation in my hand and cast my gaze downward.

Miyuki had grabbed my hand, interlacing her fingers with mine.

Was she doing this for Hiyori and Miho to see from behind?

Given the circumstances, that seemed to be the reason... If she was feeling something akin to anxiety, she'd probably bring it up to me in private after we dropped those two off, right?

Anyway, for a random event like this to just pop up out of nowhere—I had to wonder what was up with today.

I gave a lot in my shrine offering yesterday, so the gods wouldn't penalize me too harshly, right?

Let's just believe that and keep going.