She really had no idea what kind of demi-humans Ursula was going to bring in, 'Vampires and succubi aren't strong enough already?'
Right now Iris, Elio, Ursula, all of them were already so troublesome one by one, and not only that, they had tons of support behind them. If she didn't put in some more effort, Hachiman was seriously going to get stolen away.
Even though Tsubaki was helping her, just relying on Tsubaki and the Rurikawa family power wasn't enough. What face would she, the childhood friend, even have at that point.
Thankfully she wasn't only Hachiman's childhood friend, she was also the student council president of the school.
All those girls in the school's sports clubs also counted as being on her side, right? If necessary, she could have those physically strong, stamina-packed sporty girls come help, and fight back against the demi-human faction led by Iris.
The girls' swimming club, tennis club, track and field club, girls' volleyball club, even the Discipline Committee, so many girls with excellent physical ability, surely they could beat Iris's group.
But even though her idea was to focus on Sobu High and have those sports clubs that wanted Hachiman as their coach or manager listen to her, she still couldn't ignore girls around her she could recruit.
The long straight–haired duo in this apartment, made up of those college-senpai and third-year kouhai, didn't seem physically strong, but their personalities looked good. They didn't seem wild or loud. She could consider bringing them in.
Hayasaka Yuuko lived in this apartment and also secretly had a crush on Hachiman at first sight. Rather than wait for Iris to discover her and pull her over, she might as well pull Hayasaka Yuuko to her own side first.
She clearly didn't want Hachiman to become a househusband. She wanted him to study well, work well, and marry her. So how had she ended up, just like Iris, helping him build a harem?
Thinking about Iris using the excuse of "assistance" to pull a bunch of girls in to tempt Hachiman made Kaede grit her teeth.
But since everyone was pulling in external help, if she didn't do it too, she'd collapse from exhaustion and really stay collapsed. Hachiman would get snatched away by Iris and the others.
It wasn't just demi-humans like elves or merfolk, even the humans couldn't be underestimated.
Tsubaki's relationship with her was very good, so she didn't need to worry for now. But Ichinose Ayano from the Ichinose family was very ambitious. She looked silent and calm like Yukinoshita Yukino, but behind the scenes she had secretly brought in so many sisters.
Ichinose Honami, Ichinose Marika, Horigome China, plus Ichinose Ayano herself made four people already.
She and Suzu, plus Tsubaki, Maid Shion, and Makoto, had to pull in good friends and their close personal maids just to barely outnumber the Ichinose family.
If she hadn't noticed that Ichinose Marika's surname on the transfer paperwork was "Ichinose," who knew when she would have realized this Ichinose family sneaking infiltration.
"Ayano, if you want to see Hachiman in the future you don't need to sneak around. You can come to the house anytime. Iris and the other demi-humans have way stronger physical ability than us. We don't have numbers on our side, so it's hard to win," Kaede looked at Ichinose Ayano, whose looks and vibe were both amazing, and smiled as she invited her to join her side.
Tsubaki was her good friend and wouldn't betray her. She even spent money to support her, Suzu, and Hachiman. But the trouble was that now Tsubaki seemed to really like Hachiman and listened to him.
She wasn't sure if Ichinose Ayano was also like that.
"Princess Iris is indeed very strong as an elf princess. Kaede-onee-sama, you and Master can also visit my home anytime. Honami, Marika, and the others will definitely take very good care of you and Suzu-onee-sama."
Ichinose Ayano smiled brightly as she spoke to the twin sisters who only held the status of Master's childhood friends.
She wanted them to recruit her? Rope her in?
The elf princess's side had strength and influence. If she were going to join anyone, of course she'd join that side. How would she join Kaede and Suzu?
Honestly Kaede and Suzu's side wasn't bad either. As the Master's childhood friends, their bond was deep but their power wasn't huge. If she brought Honami, Marika, and China over, she could hold an important position like Rurikawa Tsubaki.
But whether childhood friend or princess-from-the-sky, she chose neither.
Pleasing Master was what mattered most.
She felt Kaede misunderstood something. Everything Princess Iris was doing wasn't aimed at anyone, nor was it about stealing Master.
Iris just wanted to please Master, wanted him to feel more comfortable, more satisfied.
It sounded unbelievable that a dignified elf princess would bring her sisters and a whole group of elves, then rope in many demi-humans and humans, all just to make a single human male happier.
But from her own experience, Iris really meant that. The expressions she showed when spending time with Master were exactly the same as her desire to please him and receive his favor.
If Iris just wanted to "support" her for Master's sake, why would she go this far?
"Mm..... we can also visit Tsubaki's home when we have time. Her house is bigger."
Looking at Ichinose Ayano, who kept calling Hachiman "Master," Kaede laughed sweetly but felt irritated inside.
Hachiman sure played wild. He had an elegant, well-bred politician's daughter playing a master-servant game with him.
But remembering all the theme parties Iris often planned at home, Kaede didn't feel much anymore.
Compared to Iris, strong, cute, and totally spoiling Hachiman, just a little master-servant play with Ichinose Ayano was nothing.
Suzu stared at Ayano's natural expression and blinked in confusion.
She felt Ayano didn't look like she was playing a game at all. She looked like she genuinely treated Hachiman as her Master.
Treating Hachiman as Master wasn't a problem, but then what about Yukinoshita Yukino, the other politician's daughter in the Service Club?
That day at the mermaid diva's concert, the Yukinoshita sisters had also been there. And before the concert, Hachiman had gone to the aquarium with the Yukinoshita sisters, the Tohsaka sisters, Komachi, and the others.
Tohsaka Touka, the Tohsaka family's eldest daughter, was even more mature, taller, and more beautiful than Yukinoshita Yukino. She also had two adorable little sisters.
Long black hair, wealthy, sister trio, these were all Hachiman-weakness attributes. Stacked together the effect was terrifying.
Tsubaki was still growing out her hair so she didn't count as true long straight black hair yet. If the Yukinoshita and Tohsaka families united and came as a whole family, their side would definitely lose.
Realizing this, Suzu immediately felt a huge crisis.
"Kaede, huge danger!"
———
At the Hikigaya house, in Hachiman's bedroom.
"Hachiman... can't you change the condition and let me off?"
"Bocchi-chan and the others all have way better figures than me. I can't compare to them at all. You don't need me, right?"
Yamada Ryou sat with Hachiman on the bed. She stared dead-on at the three pink-haired beauties crawling toward Hachiman, and slowly tried one last struggle.
Nijika, Lala, Honami, Bocchi-chan.
Well... putting Nijika aside for now, the other three pink-haired girls, each with different personalities, were all big soft beauties. Their figures were so good, they were so pretty, why drag her in too?
She felt she was fairly cute, sure, but Hachiman had plenty of girls around him with similar looks. He could barely keep up with all of them already. Why did Nijika drag her over for mugwort night too?
"..."
"..."
Lala and Ichinose Honami had no time to talk. Gotou Hitori, who was still watching and learning, technically had the time, but since no one else spoke, she didn't dare speak either.
She gave Yamada Ryou a sympathetic glance, then continued kneeling beside Honami and Lala. She lowered her head, timid and nervous yet excited, watching their demonstration.
She had been brought by Princess Iris to the student guidance room once, but back then she only got a taste of it, and seeing what Sakura Shino and the others did had made her panic in embarrassment.
So technically this was her first proper time joining.
She hadn't expected her first time would be together with Nijika and Ryou. Too bad Kita had only just met Hachiman. Otherwise she could have learned from even more first-time experiences.
Gotou Hitori lowered her eyes to the pink empathy wristband on her wrist, then sneakily looked at Ijichi Nijika, who sat beside Yamada Ryou.
"Ryou, so now you finally know how it feels to be sold out? You're not escaping tonight!", Nijika had no idea that even Hitori had long wanted to sell her out but didn't have the courage. Seeing Ryou, who always tried to sell her out, now panic so hard she was desperately looking for an escape plan made her feel amazing.
Help Hachiman conquer her, right? And her sister, and PA-san too, right?
She'd help Hachiman conquer Ryou first.
"I can help you conquer Nijika and her sister, and besides PA-san who handles audio, there's also a big-sister type who's good at bass and loves drinking who comes to the shop a lot."
Yamada Ryou ignored Nijika's look. Seeing that Lala and the others weren't going to stop Hachiman at all, she quickly turned to Hachiman for one last struggle.
"Of course, I'll also help you bring back Kita, who ran off alone. The Kessoku Band can't stay disunited."
Now that Kita knew the Kessoku Band's secrets, how could they let her wander alone. They couldn't exclude her.
If they were going down, they'd all go down together.
"What 'big sister who loves drinking'? She's just a drunk. She even gets drunk during performances."
Nijika made a face of disgust when Ryou, in her panic, tried to sell out not just their bandmate Kita but even the always-drunk older girl.
The woman who always came to drink at the shop was Hiroi Kikuri, her sister's junior and also in a band.
Since her apartment didn't have a bath, she often came to Nijika's home to shower, and they were pretty close.
She looked good when she cleaned up, like her sister, but unfortunately her sister's junior was even messier, always drunk, reeking of alcohol, making a scene, impossible to approach.
And now Ryou was trying to use that drunk to lure Hachiman? She must really be desperate.
"She may be a drunk, but she's SICK HACK's bassist, singer, and leader. She's really popular."
Ryou felt she needed to defend someone she admired when Nijika showed that much disdain.
"That's personality, okay? Rock without personality is death!"
She was showing real sincerity here. Otherwise she wouldn't have brought up Hiroi Kikuri.
If Nijika allowed it, she would have liked to try having a drink during performances too.
"This isn't rock right now!"
Nijika was speechless.
Was Ryou actually not panicking? Why was she talking about personality?
"Ryou, it's not about your figure, or the numbers. No matter how good Seika-onee-san or PA-onee-san are, no matter how many they are, they can't replace you."
Seeing the conversation drifting, Hachiman had to pull them back.
He knew the drunk they mentioned. Hiroi Kikuri's drunken state was just a special mode. The real her was quiet, introverted, shy like Bocchi-chan, easily flustered and timid.
He wouldn't need Ryou's help to get close to her. He could easily do it himself.
"Hachiman, you mean my personality is irreplaceable?", Ryou blinked, looked down at Hachiman holding her hand, then glanced at Honami, Lala, and idle Gotou Hitori.
At a moment like this, Hachiman could have held Bocchi-chan. Bocchi was so obedient and cute, and her figure was arguably better than Ryou and Nijika combined.
But Hachiman insisted on holding her and Nijika.
"Irreplaceable... yeah, of course. Ryou, you're unique by my side."
Hachiman thought a moment, then nodded earnestly.
Most traits girls had, kind, tsundere, lively, shy, socially anxious, were shared among many girls to different degrees.
Even crazy-pervy-girl types weren't unique to just one.
But Ryou being this much of a gremlin, a hospital heiress who was poor enough to eat grass, who borrowed money and never paid back, who scammed friends without mercy, yeah, that was one-of-a-kind.
"Then fine. Since you say that, you can do whatever you want."
Hearing a satisfying answer from Hachiman, Yamada Ryou thought for a second, then reached out, grabbed the hand Hachiman had placed on Nijika's shoulder, and interlaced her fingers with his.
"Whatever you did to Nijika, you can do to me too. You can even do more than what you did to her."
"Ryou?"
Nijika had thought Ryou would keep resisting. Who knew that once Ryou confirmed Hachiman wasn't letting her go, she immediately surrendered and even told him he could do whatever he wanted.
"Ryou, why'd you suddenly accept it?"
Hachiman was confused too. He knew Ryou's personality, she liked being eccentric and liked being called a weirdo. Even her childhood friend Nijika couldn't understand her sometimes.
Normally Ryou didn't really reject him. Otherwise she wouldn't extort him. Extorting was a sign of closeness. If she really disliked him she wouldn't bother.
But her giving up this decisively did catch him off guard.
He'd actually planned to have Ryou sit aside with the empathy wristband and watch Nijika's "bullying" to learn.
"Nijika's already about to pin my hand down. Instead of pointless fighting, I might as well enjoy it."
Ryou shot a look at the stunned Nijika, put both hands over her reddening cheeks, and whispered shyly.
"But Hachiman, you have to take responsibility. After doing this and that to me, besides giving me the same allowance as Bocchi-chan, you also have to take down the manager and PA-san."
"Mm, and of course you have to take Nijika and Kita too."
"Our band has to stay united. We can't leave anyone out."
"Ryou?"
Nijika stared at Ryou, who usually had no expression, suddenly acting all bashful. She leapt at Ryou in frustration and squeezed her cheeks.
Ryou was definitely doing this out of revenge.
[T/N: WAR OF ATTRITION!]
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
[email protected]/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining P@treon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through P@treon.