Kirishima handed Yaeka back to her father after picking her up from elementary school. Finding an empty seat and settling in, he turned his gaze toward Ryunosuke.
"It's been a long time, Kid. Seeing you grow so pale and pampered, it looks like school life has been treating you well."
Ryunosuke scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "It's all thanks to your help, Kirishima-san. If you hadn't shown me a shred of mercy back then, I'd probably be a nameless corpse rotting in a ditch somewhere."
Kirishima went to light a cigarette, but remembering the child in the room, he immediately extinguished it. He spoke in a calm but authoritative tone. "Back then, you really were backed into a corner."
"That hopeless father of yours was a true scoundrel. You don't harbor a grudge against me for sending him to Africa to plant potatoes, do you?" Kirishima asked with a mocking edge.
Ryunosuke responded with profound calmness, as if they were discussing someone else's life entirely. He took a sip of his tea, watching his own reflection ripple in the cup, and spoke slowly.
"I don't hate you, Kirishima-san. If you hadn't sent him away, I wouldn't be the man I am today."
"With my personality, no matter how badly he treated me, I wouldn't have had the heart to fight back just because he was my father. Your actions actually helped me."
Kirishima stared intensely into Ryunosuke's eyes, searching for the slightest hint of a lie. In the underworld, offending the wrong person is the ultimate risk, and he could usually spot a fake in a heartbeat. After a long silence, Ryunosuke's expression remained flat and sincere.
Finally, Kirishima concluded that the boy wasn't looking for revenge, and he let out a sigh of relief. Deep down, he respected the kid. To pay off such a massive debt through sheer individual effort, without resorting to theft or violence, was proof of a true man.
Kirishima invited him for a drink. At first, Ryunosuke declined, explaining he didn't have much of a stomach for alcohol, but Kirishima insisted. "What's the problem? You're an adult now; what are you afraid of?"
Reluctantly, Ryunosuke agreed to stay.
The little girl sitting beside Kazuhiko, Yaeka, tried to take a sip of her father's matcha. She gave it a tiny lick with her small tongue and immediately pulled a face.
"Bitter!"
Kazuhiko patted his daughter's head. "Of course it's bitter. Don't go drinking Dad's stuff; that's a drink for adults." He poured some regular tea into her cup. Yaeka accepted it with both hands and lapped at it like a cute kitten.
◆━⊰✿✧✿⊱━◆
That night, Ryunosuke drank until he was heavily intoxicated. Since arriving in this world, this was the first time he had truly let loose. Normally, he avoided alcohol like the plague.
He set his glass down. But since the debt is gone today, I'm happy. I'll consider this a rare indulgence.
Before long, everyone was drunk. Ryunosuke and Kirishima exchanged contact information. Kirishima promised to head to court the next morning to handle the paperwork for lifting Ryunosuke's blacklist status and unfreezing his assets. Finally, his bank cards would be functional again.
Ryunosuke, Kazuhiko, and Kirishima eventually collapsed into a deep sleep right on the floor. Three grown men without a woman to look after them tended to be a messy sight.
The only one sober, Yaeka, first covered her father with a blanket. Then she approached Kirishima, awkwardly dragging a blanket larger than herself to cover him. She was too small to move them to beds, so she let them sleep where they lay.
Wiping sweat from her brow, she looked at Ryunosuke. She brought another blanket for him, but this time, she did something different; she slipped into the embrace of his arms herself.
In his sleep, Ryunosuke felt something unfamiliar and reflexively pulled the small figure closer. Yaeka's body trembled slightly, but she didn't resist; instead, she nuzzled deeper into his chest.
Yaeka looked up and asked the semi-conscious Ryunosuke, "Onii-chan, will you come and marry me?"
Ryunosuke opened his weary eyes, his head spinning. He looked at the little girl in his arms and playfully pinched her nose. "You're still so small and already thinking about things like that."
Yaeka pressed him further. "What about when I'm big? Will you marry me then?"
Seeing the girl's determination, Ryunosuke smiled and gave her an answer: "If you still want to marry me ten years from now, I suppose that's fine..."
Yaeka immediately kissed Ryunosuke's cheek. Soon, all four were fast asleep. Yaeka curled up in Ryunosuke's arms with a look of pure happiness on her face.
◆━⊰✿✧✿⊱━◆
The Next Morning.
A vein throbbed on both Kirishima's and Kazuhiko's foreheads simultaneously as they saw Ryunosuke still sprawled on the floor with little Yaeka in his arms.
Kazuhiko's temper exploded! Kirishima quickly scooped up the still-sleeping Young Lady and carried her away...
CRASH!
Kazuhiko kicked Ryunosuke's backside with such force that he was sent tumbling right out of the house.
"GET OUT OF HERE!"
"Ow!" Ryunosuke rubbed his sore rear, still dazed and confused. "What'd you kick me for, you jerk?! I paid my debt! Why the attitude?!"
Kazuhiko rolled up his sleeves. "If you don't leave right now, I'll kick you until you can't sit down for a month!!!"
Ryunosuke stood up, grumbling. "What is wrong with those people?" He walked away reluctantly. Meanwhile, Yaeka woke up rubbing her eyes, wondering why she had suddenly appeared in her own large bed.
◆━⊰✿✧✿⊱━◆
After leaving the Sakuragi-gumi, Ryunosuke stared at the keys in his hand—the keys to his original home. The house that had once been seized as collateral was now legally his again. He decided to go back and check on it.
Ryunosuke arrived in a somewhat secluded suburban area. There stood an old house; his home. It wasn't massive, about 147 square meters with a modest, detached yard. Because it had been uninhabited for so long, birds had built nests in the eaves. As he approached, a flock of crows took flight in a panicked flutter.
The house had been built in the 80s and looked quite weathered. Ryunosuke stepped inside without taking his shoes off, as the floor was covered in a thick layer of dust and the wood groaned as if it might snap under his weight.
He sighed, looking at the dust beneath his feet. "This is going to need a total overhaul. I can't live in this state."
He planned to head to the supermarket to buy cleaning supplies and basic necessities. Although his royalty savings could easily buy him a brand-new luxury apartment, this old house held the memories of his mother. Ryunosuke couldn't bring himself to abandon it—even if his scoundrel of a father had lived there, too.
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