Edea: Hero Summoning Conspiracy - 165 Firsts
.
Another month flew by quick and it was almost winter. The temperature was slowly getting colder but the new products from the collaboration of Kazuno Tech and Kouzuki Corp was still hot off the shelves. Many have judged that the collaboration of these two companies may have just set a new bar when it came to gadgets. They could barely keep up with the demand so things have been very busy with the two companies.
Most of the work that the company couldn’t handle were delegated to the research team headed by Matsumoto Kippei whose members couldn’t help but curse at their boss. His mischief had caused the CEO to be displeased at him, so they have been overloaded with all the work that could be pushed to them and there was nothing they could do about it.
None of them could complain. Mei told them that any complaints they had could be directed towards Kazuya. Everyone knew how worse off they would be in if Kazuya knew about it so no one dared to inform their boss of not only Mei’s discovery over the matter. They would have to explain everything includingHikaru figuring out that Kazuya had been responsible for the whole guild helping the guild’s little sister out.
Of course, none of them knew the fate that they were going to be in after the busyness died down. In desperation, Kippei and some of his members explained their predicament to Kazuno Kaguya who had shown herself in the company because of a promotion that was being made. They told the CEO’s little sister about their situation and asked if the little sister can pacify the big sister.
“I see… Not to worry, I will make sure that everyone has something to look forward to after this ordeal.” Kaguya smiled at the others but when she looked at Kippei, her gaze made the head researcher felt an ominous glint that made his legs shiver.
Kaguya, or Kazuya was already in a bad mood because he was forced to make another appearance. This was so that he could promote the new products more as well as make the rumors that something had happened to her because she was linked to Kouzuki Kazuya come to a rest. Many of Kazuno Kaguya’s fans have gone hostile towards the Kuroganes because of her sudden announcement to take a rest after all.
With the exposure of what happened to Shiroyuki Tomoyo being a plan hatched by the Kurogane clan, Kaguya’s disappearance had been blamed towards the clan who wanted to move against Kaguya but did not have the slightest idea how to. Kazuno Kaguya was like a ghost who only appeared whenever she want to and the Kuroganes were baffled at how someone could evade their radar like she could. Even Kazuno Mei’s whereabouts could easily be located even if she had been heavily protected but no one could catch her little sister’s shadow if she didn’t want them to.
“(I only need to keep up with this farce for a little longer…)” Kazuya sighed as he changed out of the kimono that he wore for the shoot. He was currently in the room at the topmost floor of Kazuno Tech’s building where Kaguya and Mei was known to have resided.
*ring… ring… ring…*
Kazuya’s face darkened as soon as he looked at his phone. Kuronuma Ayame had been calling him ever since she got wind that Kazuya had been shooting a promotional video for Kazuno Tech. Ayame who was once an endorser of the company had rejected taking part of the project and demanded that Kaguya face her before she even thought about collaborating with the company again.
“Looks like you’ve been quite popular while I’m away” Kazuya felt a little hostility from behind him.
“Big sis…” Kazuya turned around and found Mei grinning at him. “I’m still in the middle of changing…”
“Don’t change the subject. It’s not like you haven’t seen me changing before, right?” She grinned. “You even pick out what kind of underwear I…”
“Ugh…” Kazuya gave up and just hastened his actions. “(It’s only because you said that you wouldn’t wear anything if I didn’t do it for you…)” he complained in his mind and remembered the time he tried to call her bluff. Mei had already walked out the door before he folded and dragged her back into the room.
“You’ve been having fun while I was away from the looks of it. Even becoming a father of a little toy without telling me.” She pouted.
“I already explained to you what happened…” Kazuya sighed. Mei had been bringing up this topic ever since she found out about Kippei’s mischief. “She was the very first person I met when I first started playing the game. That’s why we’re friends.”
With Mei’s discovery the relationship between Autumn Mist and Kazuya’s Winter Fog, She had been paying special attention towards Kazuya’s interactions with the opposite sex. He was already an adolescent, so Mei has been especially suspicious towards his relations with other women. Since they were still living apart, she couldn’t spend as much time with Kazuya as she wanted so she couldn’t help but shower him with both affection and frustration whenever he stayed with her.
Find authorized novels in Webnovel,faster updates, better experience,Please clickfor visiting.
She wasn’t in the Kouzuki household so the information to the developments took some time to get to her. She was especially concerned about Kazuya’s apparent betrothal to Shiroyuki Tomoyo. She wanted to strangle Kouzuki Kou for such a thing but Mei could only hear about how the old man had been thrashed by both Kyouko and Kazuya.
“I know. That’s why I find it strange. That girl is the only person you play with that is not part of the company. Not only that, she turned out to be your teacher and you even went as far as to helping her using the members of the guild as well as the Kouzuki corporation’s entertainment company.” Mei couldn’t help but list out the peculiarities she observed.
Kazuya had paid too much attention to this so-called teacher of his who was not only beautiful, but very young as well. Mei knew that Kazuya had liked her ever since he was at a young age so her understanding of his preferences when it came to women were towards those who were older than himself. Hikaru was a natural beauty who fit the criteria so why wouldn’t she feel threatened?
Hamasaki Hikaru was not only a teacher in Kazuya’s school but she was also the friend that he had met in a game he played for a long time. They spent time with each other that Mei had no idea about so of course she was worried that he might have a change of heart. She wasn’t always there for him and though Mei had been patiently enduring, she was feeling quite lonely by herself. Kazuya’s time had been split not only between her and Kyouko but he also had to spend some time with the Kuroganes.
“I knew I couldn’t fool you…” Kazuya immediately gave up after seeing her lonely and worried expression. “Big sis knows me the best after all.” Kazuya held Mei’s hand and led her towards the sofa to sit down. “Let’s see… where do I start…”
He didn’t find any reason to keep it from Mei now that they were at this point. His explanation started by reminding Mei of the dreams that he had once proven by obtaining the funds for their company. From there, Kazuya had explained that he had used the knowledge he had to find the people that he hired for the company. They were the people that society had overlooked and would only have been discovered after their passion and hard work were either stolen or taken for granted.
The common point that these people shared with Kazuya was the game that he had started playing many years ago. He had decided to use the game as a means to communicate with this people with the purpose of giving them a chance to pursue their passion with Kazuya’s help. Majority of these people had nothing to lose and decided to risk it with Kazuya while some had decided to be skeptical about it and rejected were now regretful.
“So, you utilized the knowledge from your dreams to this extent as well…” though Mei was surprised, she was not as shocked as she was when he first told her about it. It had already been a proven fact and this was just additional evidence towards the authenticity of his statement.
“But of course, as I have changed the supposed natural flow of things, there were some unexpected changes. This is where Hamasaki Hikaru-sensei came in.” Mei didn’t fail to notice the guilty expression on Kazuya’s face as he explained the life Hikaru would have had if all things progressed as normal in his ‘dream’.
Revealing that Hikaru had been formerly known as the daughter of Kurogane Sousuke was a shock. She immediately felt pity for the young woman who appeared to be cheerful when they met. Mei immediately understood why Kazuya had given her this much attention. With Kazuya’s personality, he would have blamed everything on himself and silently tried to make things right.
“Like I told big sis before, I used to play NGO when in my previous li… dream. I did not know the things I knew now but Autumn Mist was a person that spent a lot of time with me and one of the very few I could consider friends. I can’t just sit here after seeing that the changes I made had the opposite effect on her. It may have been through an online game but she was still one of my friends.” Kazuya confessed.
“I understand.” Mei nodded and extended her hand to stroke his cheek gently before pinching it. “You should have told this to your big sis long ago! How do you think I feel when I heard about your entanglements with other women?” she pouted. “You even have that other girl making a scene in the lobby downstairs when she demanded to see your other self.”
Kazuya’s face darkened as he knew exactly who Mei meant. After getting wind of the shoot at Kazuno Tech’s headquarters, Ayame accompanied the staff and tried to get in to look for Kaguya. Since he didn’t bother to confirm nor deny the rumors to protect people who might be linked to him, Ayame had taken Kaguya’s silence as betrayal.
After pouring her heart out to the person she had treated as her best friend, Kaguya turned out to be engaged to Kazuya. How could Ayame not feel betrayed? She felt like a fool whenever she remembered how she was given advice by the friend who apparently held the position she wanted to be in and tried to work hard for. She wanted answers from Kaguya herself, Ayame wanted to know why she was treated like that after their apparent friendship, most of all, Ayame wanted to erase the hope she had held deep inside that all of this was just a misunderstanding and some circumstances she doesn’t know about had forced this matter.
“Kuronuma Ayame’s matters is more Big sis and Kanade-san’s fault more than mine. I wanted to avoid getting to know that girl as Kaguya but both of you had insisted.” He sighed. “I don’t intend to show myself to that girl in either identity so I don’t think that big sis has anything to worry about when it comes to her.”
Kazuya indulged Mei and kept answering the questions she asked. He understood how lonely she had been and felt guilty for putting off things for this long. This side of Mei that was jealous and cute was something he hadn’t seen in his previous life so as he spoiled her, he could also feel the attachment she had for him.
“Don’t worry big sis, everything will be back to normal soon. This farce has lasted long enough.” Though it was technically safe for Mei to move back to the Kouzuki residence now, it still wasn’t the right time.
“Soon?” Mei was surprised at the sudden news. Though she was initially going to suggest moving back with them, Mei knew that the collaboration between the two companies was only viewed as Mei and Kyouko finally working together again after all these years. Though the Kurogane clan may see differently, they were only some of the exceptions. She felt that some time was still needed before they could actually return to the way things were.
“Natsu-san and his wife are better at me when it comes to magic. I believe that they would be able to make big sis’ improve in a much faster rate.” Kazuya already told her about the couple that had recently started living in the Kouzuki residence as Tsuna’s distant relatives so she knew all about their capabilities.
“Which reminds me…” Mei suddenly pounced at Kazuya. She pushed him down on the sofa and grinned. “Natsuhiko Akira and I had an interesting talk while he was giving me pointers in my office. He told me about how you have been keeping a lot of secrets from me and your mother.”
“Secrets?” Kazuya was startled. He wondered of Natsu revealed anything about Edea because he still didn’t know how to open up that topic.
“From your expression, I can already tell that you’re guilty!” Mei grinned. “Natsuhiko-san recently had me studying the basics of formations, so I was able to notice a few things. When I asked him about It, he came clean and told me all about the formations you’ve placed on mine and Kyouko’s clothes!” Kazuya’s nervousness immediately dispersed after hearing her words. Mei of course took it as Kazuya surrendering and admitting it.
“I didn’t mean to hide it. It’s nothing but additional security after all. I will spare no expense to protect mom and big sis.” Kazuya didn’t think that it was a big deal and admitted it without hesitation.
Mei of course didn’t think that it had been a simple matter. He had fallen sick when he first made the first set of jewelry that was supposed to protect them. She hadn’t been very clear about Kazuya’s progress through the years so she had always assumed that he had to go through difficulty whenever he gave them gifts for protection. When Natsu informed her that from what he could see, the security and formations around Mei was even higher than Kyouko’s, how could she not feel touched?
“You naughty boy! You have gone through every piece of your big sis’ clothes and even underwear!” Mei giggled.
“Uhh…” Kazuya didn’t know what to say. This was the reason why he had wanted to keep it a secret from them. He couldn’t help but curse Natsu for not taking their reaction in consideration after their discovery of this. “Sorry for not asking for permission…” he immediately decided to follow Matsumoto’s advice on how to deal with women’s irrationality. Kazuya apologized even though he had done it for her sake.
“If apologizing was enough then there wouldn’t be need for laws and police officers! I want Justice!” she demanded.
“O-okay…” Kazuya agreed as he watched Mei’s hand slowly get lifted up. He immediately closed his eyes and made sure that all the protective formations around his body wouldn’t activate. Kazuya didn’t want to hurt her while Mei gave him punishment so he concentrated to avoid any reflex from activating.
“fufu…” Mei smiled mischievously at the boy and how cute he acted. She could tell that Kazuya had retracted the usual mana that covered him so that she wouldn’t be hurt if she chose to punish him. This made the warmth in her chest increase further.
“!!?” Kazuya’s brain immediately received a shock as a soft feeling came on his lips. He was expecting pain from getting hit but instead felt Mei’s lips pressed against his. Kazuya was still pressed down on the sofa so there was no room to back away.
He placed his hands on her shoulders intending to push her away but something soft had slid its way in his mouth which made his mind go blank. It was at this moment that Kazuya had realized that he had received his first kiss in this life. His first kiss in his previous life and his first kiss in this life had been ironically taken by the same person. The only difference was that in this life, Mei was unlike the half drunk big sis that pushed him down when he was helping her go to bed one night.
“(Looks like I wasn’t able to avoid it in this life as well…)” he thought as he peeked at Mei who had her eyes closed. “(Fine then! I’ve already clarified with Natsu-san about the summoning requirements anyway…)” Kazuya made up his mind and returned Mei’s kiss earnestly.
“!!?” Mei’s eyes opened in shock as Kazuya responded to the kiss. This was also her first kiss so she was shocked after getting such an intense response from a boy that was years younger than her. Her heartbeat sped up and was like a beating drum as Mei gradually felt that she was losing the strength to keep herself up. When she felt Kazuya’s arms move, she immediately backed away and abruptly ended it.
Though Mei was shocked, she still had her pride as the elder of them both so she immediately tried to put up a calm front before Kazuya opened his eyes. She wondered if this was Kazuya’s first kiss after the comfortable feeling she immediately got after his response.
“Your big sis has decided to give you a reward for caring about her safety by giving you her first kiss officially but… why does it seem like you’re already experienced?” Mei looked at Kazuya suspiciously.
“That was my first kiss too… (at least on this life…)” Kazuya slowly sat up and realized something was wrong with what she said. “Wait, what do you mean by ‘officially’?” Kazuya looked at the mischievous smile that appeared on Mei’s alluring face. He couldn’t help but stare at the soft and red lips that only moments ago were pressed against his before he frantically tried to clear his thoughts.
“fufu… Isn’t it obvious?” me giggled. “Your big sis has already unofficially claimed it long ago. Now that you know about it, always think of your big sis whenever those pesky girls try to seduce you okay?”
.