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Inside the room, Rias still lay quietly in Bokue Keikain's arms.
With the silver-haired maid gone, she finally emerged from her ostrich-like state, lifting her head to look up. Her pale green eyes reflected the young man's face.
"Dummy…"
Rias suddenly muttered a soft curse.
It hardly sounded like actual blame—more like a girlfriend's playful, sulking complaint.
She sighed theatrically, as if helpless.
"Now I'm screwed."
"Why?"
Bokue arched an eyebrow, perplexed.
After all, from her dragging him to the student district, to getting a hotel room, to insisting on doing this, it had all been Rias's initiative. By logic, this result should be exactly what she'd hoped for. Why was she suddenly saying she was doomed?
"What else could it be?!"
Rias pouted, exhaling, and rolled her still slightly damp eyes.
"We did… that sort of thing right in front of Grayfia-onee-sama, and now she's gone off to report everything to my brother. If the family hears about it… just think, Bokue—if you had a little sister out there doing this, how would you react?"
"Uh…"
Bokue gave it some serious thought.
"I'd eliminate that bastard overnight."
"…?"
As though shaken to her core by these "siscon" remarks, Rias—despite her exhaustion—sat upright in astonishment, staring at the young man before her in disbelief.
"Bokue, you can't possibly be—"
"My sister's only thirteen."
He slanted his eyes, then raised his hand to indicate a height of around four and a half feet.
"She's about this tall."
'Thirteen?' Rias paused, thinking that was just after elementary school graduation, heading into middle school. That might be okay, then.
But the next moment, Bokue added:
"But even at eighteen, it'd be the same."
???
Rias's mind once again turned into a cat-eared question mark. So he really is a siscon, huh?
After a short silence, the redheaded girl spoke in a quiet voice:
"So… that means we're officially together now, right?"
"Hmm?" Bokue raised his voice slightly, then responded with an affirming grunt.
"Of course. Why, is there a problem?"
"No problem from me… but what about Akeno?"
Rias hesitated, stumbling over her words. "Although I'm not sure why, I think she really does like you. You've picked up on that, haven't you?"
"Yeah, I have."
Bokue gave a small nod.
He wasn't clueless. The spat between Akeno and Rias in the old schoolhouse previously made it obvious. If that didn't count as interest, then what would?
"I don't know… Maybe it's just my imagination."
Rias shook her head.
"But I always felt like Akeno seemed to have known you from before, you know? Think about it—at school you don't interact that much, even on missions we were usually paired up, while Koneko was with her… so what do you think?"
"Probably not the case, though?"
Bokue also looked a bit uncertain.
If it were true, it'd mean he had some prior acquaintance with her—but he had no memory of that. Akeno's not the kind of person who'd be easy to forget, anyway.
"Okay, if we can't figure it out, let's not dwell on it."
Seeing the confusion on Bokue's face, Rias consoled him softly.
Now that they'd confirmed their relationship, even the cadence of her speech revealed a hint of warmth and tenderness. But immediately, she switched topics:
"That's not actually what I wanted to ask."
"Huh? Then what is?"
"What I really want to ask…"
Rias paused, shifting her gaze downward, lowering her voice:
"If Akeno doesn't give up and still wants to go after you, would you accept her?"
"…"
They'd just formalized their relationship, and now she hit him with a potential love-triangle bombshell—was that normal?
Any normal person might think, What the heck…? But Bokue only pondered for a single second before replying:
"Probably—I would."
"Huh?!"
Rias nearly jumped out of her seat. "What's with 'probably would'?! Shouldn't you be saying you'd turn her down?"
"Well… how to put it…"
Bokue thought back.
"I read a book once, and it had a passage I thought made sense, though I've forgotten the exact quote. Roughly, it said: 'If you reject a girl, you're not just refusing the wedding that might've been yours, but also turning down the entire life that girl might've had with you.'"
"But what if you've already accepted one girl's entire life first?" Rias asked, frowning.
At this point, she was mildly annoyed—romance is selfish, after all. Saying you'd accept another woman's pursuit in front of your girlfriend would anger even the most patient person.
"That leads to a different question," Bokue replied. He glanced aside, continuing: "Life's choices are like hiking and encountering forks in the trail—some are correct from a certain perspective, but if you actually take them, you might regret it. Just like your engagement."
"If you accepted that engagement, you'd have all the advantages: the Underworld prospers, the family's status is secured, everyone gets what they want. Everyone would be happy to see it…
"…Except you."
"But that's totally different from Akeno's situation!"
Rias couldn't help interrupting.
Bokue only shook his head again.
"It's the same, or you can think of it inversely. If I turned Akeno down, what would happen?"
"She'd—"
Rias opened her mouth but froze. Indeed, if Bokue rejected Akeno, someone as perceptive as her would realize it was because Rias "got to him first." And in a matter as inherently selfish as romance, it could lead to the two best friends truly falling out.
The result? Rias might lose a dear friend she's known for ages, and Akeno would lose both love and friendship, while Bokue also lost out. Who actually benefits from that?
In that scenario, nobody.
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"Besides," Bokue suddenly added in a more upbeat tone, "it's not really selfish."
He explained:
"From my analysis, the essence of jealousy is taking something that 'should be all for one person' and dividing it among others. It can't even be the concept of 'not fearing scarcity but inequality'—it's fearing both scarcity AND inequality."
"…So what's your point?"
Rias felt like she was choking on a string of old proverbs, so she pressed further.
"So just give enough to everyone," Bokue said with a shrug. "In more concrete terms, it means I just have to work a little harder."
"Huh? Why does this hinge on whether you're working harder or not?"
Rias was more confused than ever.
But then she noticed the boy eyeing her with a fond, knowing gaze.
"It's not that much trouble, you know—especially if you can't even hold on for two hours, Rias."
Two hours? Two hours of what??
A spinning buffering icon hovered over Rias's head. After a few seconds, she realized with horror: That kind of "two hours"?!
Her brow throbbed, her blood pressure spiked. She almost felt like she'd spit blood on the spot. But when she opened her mouth, it all turned to a soft murmur:
"Ugh, never mind. I can't win an argument with you. Just… treat me well from now on, and don't you dare forget your old love when you find a new one, got it?"
"Mm."
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