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"WHAT DO YOU MEAN NAOYA...
saved her?! hanami would never intentionally hurt shinoa!", suguru rebutted.
"suguru, naoya-sama would never lie to us. he's a very good man for shinoa, better than that best friend of yours!", pyua huffed.
"mother, I think you're forgetting to consider shinoa's feelings. how does she—"
"suguru", daiji suddenly interrupted with his booming voice.
"don't think that I forgot about the bet that you made with your mother. you said it yourself that if you failed the mission, shinoa would be married off to naoya-sama at the beginning of this year", the twins' father reminded.
"I—how'd you two know about the mission?!"
"the entire village knows about it! honestly, you should be ashamed, suguru. how did you and the supposedly most strongest shaman fail such a simple task?! do you even care about your own reputation? OUR reputation?? do you know how hard your mother and I worked to raise both you and shin—"
"ENOUGH!", suguru yelled, his locks of hair more scattered than his thoughts.
"SUGURU THIS, SUGURU THAT. REPUTATION THIS, MONEY THAT! DO YOU EVEN CARE?? DO YOU GUYS EVEN CARE ABOUT WHAT I WENT THROUGH?!", suguru shouted, dumping his bottled up emotions onto his parents, as he watched their faces contort into a mixture of disbelief and perplexity.
"s-suguru, of course we care...", pyua mumbled.
"do you?", the dark-haired male airily laughed, his words laced with dubiety.
"do you really?", he repeated.
"or is wealth and status all you both ever cared about?"
pyua's eyes widened, as a gasp had slipped out of her mouth.
"SUGURU! THAT IS NO WAY TO TALK TO YOUR MOTHER AND I!", daiji reprimanded.
the older of the twins scoffed.
"why do I even bother? at this point, it's not even about protecting the weak anymore. it's about whether the weak deserves to be protected".
"w-what are you—"
"pardon the intrusion, but a letter has arrived for suguru-sama", a servant interrupted.
the dark-haired male deeply exhaled, as he snatched the envelope from the housekeeper and ripped it open without any hesitation.
impatiently skimming over the boring words and honing in on the important piece of information written, suguru had immediately crumbled up the paper and stuck it inside his sleeve.
