The Villainess Reika-sama

[92]

…I didn’t wanna go.
To begin with I didn’t want anything to do with that family. Going now would be even worse because that fasting course would definitely come up. It would be as good as announcing,
‘Hello everybody! I was fat enough to warrant fasting!’
…Yeah, no wayyy.

But thinking about it, a tea party probably meant that she wanted to get to know the kids in her son’s school year. With a lot of other people there it wouldn’t have been too bad. If it wasn’t for the fasting issue, that is.
Actually, I had been invited to something like this a few times before, but I got out of it by pretending to be shy. It’s a shame that something like that wasn’t possible at my age. How depressing…

The days continued to pass by. Dog Lover-kun continued to force his 『I ♡ Beatrice!』 photo collection on me. Okaasama got excited about the tea party and began dragging me to beauty salons and clothes shopping. Before long, the day of the tea party had arrived.
It was a casual thing so I just brought some flowers and chocolates with me. Well, I say ‘just’ but this chocolate was actually bought from the newly opened Japanese branch of a French chocolatier. A rising star of the chocolate world, they call him. I decided on this since I figured the sweet-toothed Kaburagi might appreciate it.
Anyhow, I arrived there for the first time feeling nervous. It didn’t take long for Madam Kaburagi to show me in, and I was brought to a large room overseeing the garden. Actually there were already a number of people there. Pretty much everybody was somebody from the Pivoine, so I let out a sigh of relief. Although naturally Kaburagi and Enjou were there too.

“Reika-san, might there be some people you haven’t met before? Allow me to introduce you,” said Mrs. Kaburagi before doing exactly that. Once she was done, she left to greet new guests.

I decided to just approach someone I knew. Nouzen Sarara-sama was here.
She was a Pivoine member, but spent most of her time reading quietly by herself. Sarara-sama had this tranquil and dignified air to her, and it felt like she lived in her own world, never taking part in the pointless conversations that the rest of us had. Any conversation I made might have seemed inane to her, so I’d always shied from talking to her. Thanks to that we weren’t really close.
I had to say though, I admired her constant composure. That was something I knew I had trouble with.
At any rate, it was surprising that somebody like Sarara-sama would even come to an event like this. I’d never seen her really talk to Kaburagi in the Pivoine salon, and neither he nor Enjou seemed to pay much attention to her.
Could it be that she was forced here by her parents like I was?

“Gokigen’yoh, Sarara-sama. I must admit I was not expecting you here.”

“Gokigen’yoh. Of all places, I wouldn’t have expected you here either, Reika-sama.”

“I must admit that this is my first time as a guest here. And you, Sarara-sama?”

“I do in fact visit here on occasion. The Kaburagi family are kind enough to allow me to peruse their book collection. Chairman Kaburagi is in fact a rare book collector.”

“Goodness, truly!?”

That dreamy Kaburagi-Papa’s hobby was books!? Gosh, why haven’t I been reading more books! I don’t know a thing about rare books! And what a refined hobby too!

In my mind, I pictured Kaburagi-Papa sitting in his study, dignified, reading from an old, leather-bound book…

It fits him so well! And what does my family’s Tanuki do for fun!? Collecting reading glasses for his eyesight!?

“Truly. In his spare time he tours Europe looking for rare books on his own, you know. This wondrous collection is the direct result of all that effort!”