50: Writing a Guarantee

"Do royal princesses even have the 'pure and innocent' trait?"

"Not only is she an expert actress, but she also has so many tricks up her sleeve."

"We've all been completely played by Kanade since we were kids."

The girls exchanged glances and, with perfect coordination, launched a joint attack on Jingu Kanade.

Jingu Kanade's face darkened at their words. She had known this would happen once her identity was exposed.

"Akira, you have to believe me."

"I'm really not a scheming girl!"

Jingu Kanade desperately didn't want Akira Sawamura to see her as a manipulative woman.

"It's fine. A Kanade who occasionally plays little tricks is actually pretty cute."

"It's an unexpected kind of gap moe."

Akira Sawamura gave Jingu Kanade a thumbs-up, not holding back his encouragement and praise.

Everyone: ...

"Akira!"

"Akira Sawamura!"

"Hey! Stop ganging up on Kanade like that!"

"Sure, she kept it from us for years, but it didn't actually affect us."

"And it didn't cause us any real harm."

"No matter what, Kanade is still our childhood friend who grew up with us."

Akira Sawamura played the peacemaker, trying to ease the tension between Kanade and the others.

"Fine!"

"As long as Kanade promises us right now that she won't use her princess status to pressure you into marrying her in the future—"

"We'll let bygones be bygones."

"Otherwise, don't blame us for working together to push her out of the group."

Damn it!

Without the trump card of her princess status, wouldn't she be back to competing with them on equal footing?

Then what was the point of keeping her identity a secret all these years?

Jingu Kanade was full of resentment in her heart.

"That's right. Since Kanade is a shrine maiden of Ise Grand Shrine, she should stay one for life."

"And what exactly are you planning to do to exclude her?"

"The simplest way—expose her identity and send her back to royal life."

"Make her a princess who lives under the spotlight."

Akira Sawamura blurted out, "That's so evil."

"Who's the evil one here?!"

Akira Sawamura immediately raised his hands in surrender.

"No, no, no! My dear sisters, I truly understand my mistake now."

"I apologize—it was my fault."

"I swear I will never use my princess status to force Akira into marrying me."

Hearing this threat, Jingu Kanade's usually calm and icy expression immediately crumbled.

If her identity was exposed and she was sent back to the Imperial Palace, seeing Akira Sawamura every day before adulthood would be nearly impossible.

By the time she came of age and had freedom of movement, it would be too late.

"Kanade, we recorded that."

Seeing nearly all the girls pull out their phones to show they had recorded her promise, Jingu Kanade's lips twitched.

These childhood friends were far too ruthless.

Did they really not trust her words at all?

"I don't think a verbal promise is secure enough. She should write a guarantee as well."

"With her signature, fingerprint, and seal."

Kujou Sakurako suggested cleverly.

"That makes sense. Kanade, you wouldn't want your princess identity exposed to the public, would you?"

The girls surrounded Jingu Kanade once again, their mischievous smiles making them look like a gang of villains.

"Akira, save me!"

Jingu Kanade immediately turned to Akira Sawamura for help.

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't you think you've bullied Kanade enough?"

"Once she finishes writing the guarantee and we each get a copy, we'll completely forgive her."

"You all—!"

"Waaah! Akira, this is all your fault!"

Jingu Kanade felt incredibly unlucky, her eyes reddening as she complained tearfully.

Not only had she exposed the identity she had worked so hard to conceal,

Now she was being forced to sign such an unfair guarantee under pressure from the others.

"Kanade, if you had told me your real identity in private,"

"Do you think I would have ever told them?"

"I-I was afraid that if you knew, you'd start avoiding me."

"Kanade, you seriously overthought this."

"Including you, I've already met more than one princess."

"Are you a little too full of yourself?"

When it came to completely ruining someone's composure, Akira Sawamura never held back.

He didn't care about Japan's unspoken rule of 'reading the room.'

Jingu Kanade: ...

This damned childhood friend!

Somehow, despite being the one at fault, he was making it sound like she was the arrogant one.

Even with her usual good temper, Jingu Kanade felt the urge to punch Akira Sawamura.

"Besides, there are identities even higher than princesses."

Before he could finish his sentence, Akira Sawamura instinctively shut his mouth.

"Go on, say it! Why aren't you continuing?"

"We thought Kanade was already our biggest rival."

"But now you're telling us you have an even stronger childhood friend abroad?"

"What childhood friend?"

"Ladies, that was someone introduced to me by Coco back then."

"She's Coco's major backer."

Akira Sawamura felt incredibly wronged and quickly explained.

"As for her identity, I'm not in a position to say."

"Besides, I have the same 24 hours in a day as you all."

"I've spent most of my life in Japan—where would I even get an international childhood friend?"

Of course, he did have a few, but that was something he kept to himself.

Upon hearing this, the girls collectively let out a sigh of relief.

"This is the prestige of Taia."

"Without an arrogance that disregards all of humanity, one could never earn Taia's acknowledgment."

Busujima Masamune stroked his beard and sighed in admiration.

"Grandfather, how is Akira arrogant?"

"He's obviously the kindest person to everyone."

"That's only towards you all. To outsiders, his attitude is completely different."

"He ignores everyone."

"He doesn't even take Japan's prime minister seriously."

"Saeko, have you ever noticed something?"

"Akira has never had a single male friend since childhood."

"Master, that's only because I haven't met any like-minded ones."

"What can I do about that?"

"Besides, little boys are dirty when they're young. Many have runny noses."

"Girls, on the other hand, are clean and smell nice. They're way cuter."

Akira Sawamura spread his hands, looking entirely justified in his reasoning.

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