Father too, Sakurako-san said it herself, it’s an embarrassment to the Kanou house. I know that I shouldn’t leak it outside
Kanou house’s embarrassment.
Kanou house currently is in a state where it’s managed to maintain its family status with the help of other noble families
Sakurako-san said.
True, Kanou house itself hardly has any assets.
I hear that they’re given honorary positions in various foundations and so on, but they’re barely maintaining their status as a member of the nobility.
Along with Kouzuki and Kaan house, they were also one of the big three nobility, and so they’re allowed to survive only because of that status.
It would be a betrayal of their goodwill to have a relationship with a woman from a shop and gave birth to a child while the house is still in that state
Oh, they will incur the wrath of the other noble families saying Everyone’s trying to help you, and yet, what are you doing?
Therefore, we’ve kept my secret from the outside world so far
Sakurako-san seems lonely.
Some people inside the Kanou house speak horrible things to Sakurako-san. I wasn’t getting along with Sakurako-san either
Mariko said.
That was until I met Kou. Recently, I’ve come to realize that being cold to Sakurako-san is wrong after discovering the circumstances of the people who were living in Kou’s home
Minaho-neesan, Katsuko-nee, and Nagisa, women who were forcibly kidnapped and turned into prostitutes.
Yukino, Mana, the twins, and the Kurama girls who lost their homes.
Agnes had no place to return to from the beginning.
Many of them grew up in terrible circumstances.
That’s why I started talking to Sakurako-san in school to get close to her. Sakurako-san’s problem isn’t her fault. I thought of it that way
Mariko’s changed a lot in the past few weeks.
She knows thinks of how other feel.
Still.
I can understand Sakurako-san’s secret now, but.
I look at Sakurako-san.
So, why does Sakurako-san want to do prostitution?
I can’t connect them.
Oh, well, that’s because Kou.
Mariko said.
That’s because of her Great-Aunt in Kanou house
Great Aunt?
The previous head of the family, our grandfather, is already dead, but it’s his sister. She’s already 80, and still healthy
Oh, it’s their Grandfather’s sister, so it’s Great Aunt.
She was someone from the early Showa era when the Kanou house was still doing well. Therefore, she still looks down on people from the other noble families, and won’t even talk to me because I’m not from the nobility. She’s quite mean, pompous, and a nasty tongued woman
I see.
That Great Aunt of ours was married off to another family, but.
There was a quarrel in the family she’s married into, divorced and moved back, and she’s been staying at a detached home ever since
Sakurako-san said. Mariko added.
Though it’s called a detached home, it’s completely separate from the main house, she has her own kitchen, bathroom, and even entrance
Usually, she doesn’t show up to Sakurako-san and everyone at all. They’re living in the same property and yet, they live separately, something like that?
And so, a few times a year, there are family gatherings at the Kanou house’s main residence
And so that Great Aunt comes too.
Great aunt, believes that the decline of the Kanou house is due to the mismanagement of her brother, meaning when Sakurako-san and my Grandfather were the head of the family. She always speaks out loud during family gatherings. Then she says If I knew that it would happen, then I should’ve taken over as the head. Despite her coming home due to her failed marriage. Great Aunt had no qualifications to be the head of the family, she never ran a company before. She’s just saying whatever she wants Mariko seems to hate that woman.
She sure is a troublesome woman, however, since she’s the oldest in the Kanou house, is on the main bloodline, nobody can resist her despite finding her annoying
She’s the sister of the late previous head.
Therefore, her attitude towards Sakurako-san’s father, the current head, is arrogant.
So, that Great Aunt of ours went all out during our gathering recently
Mariko sighed.
My mother and I were there too. It was Grandfather’s memorial service. And so, it’s just the main and branch families of the Kanou house, but.
Mariko’s expression turned cloudy.
I don’t know what bothered her, but during the middle of the gathering, the Great Aunt, started criticizing the late predecessor’s death, during his memorial service. Then, she started cursing the current head, Sakurako-san’s father
Sakurako-san’s expression turned dark.
And in the end, she pointed at Sakurako-san, and said: This girl’s a daughter of a prostitute
Huh?
Wait a minute, I thought Sakurako-san’s mother was from a store in Ginza, right?
I asked.
That was what I heard earlier.
Yes, how do I say it? I don’t know the details, but I heard that it’s a place where women dress up and pour alcohol to their customers
Mariko said.
So, she’s the so-called hostess or something? It’s a high-class club or something
Yes, that, it’s that kind of shop, Kou
Then that means.
Well, I get that they’re also in the nightlife business, but I think that they’re different from prostitutes, right?
They don’t sell their bodies for money every time.
No, not that I know much about it.
But, I don’t think you can call them prostitutes.
I thought so too, but, this Great Aunt
Mariko looked at Sakurako-san, who’s looking down.
Great Aunt kept calling Sakurako-san a daughter of a prostitute, loudly, and she doesn’t stop even when others tried to. I don’t know what made her mad, but, anyway, she kept pointing at Sakurako-san and kept calling her that. The head of the house has a daughter of a prostitute as her child, Kanou house is already over, Why are you not expelling this daughter of a prostitute? Kanou house is being stained by this daughter of a prostitute, and she kept rambling That’s horrible.
If she speaks ill of me, it only troubles Father and Mother, and so Great Aunt must be finding pleasure in watching the head family look troubled
Sakurako-san said.
It’s Father’s fault for having an affair and making a child from an outsider woman
However, for her to make a fuss about that during a family gathering.
But, since Great Aunt’s hysteria has become too loud, the people from the Branch family got angry and decided to take Great Aunt from the main house and back to her detached home
Mariko said and looked at Shiranui-san.
Shiranui-san and her family received that order
I’m ordered because the men of the branch family can’t hold her back, and ordinary women aren’t strong enough
She’s an elderly woman with a status of the head.
Only a woman bodyguard like Shiranui-san can touch her and bring her out.
Women of the Shiranui house and I took her out
Shiranui house is a clan with the role of Kanou house’s bodyguards.
Shiranui Shie-san is Sakurako-san’s bodyguard.
The other women of her clan are probably in charge of guarding the women of the main house.
But, that didn’t go well. The fact that Sakurako-san’s bodyguard, Shiranui-san, participated in her deportation, heated up the Great Aunt even more
What did she do?
I have a fiance
Sakurako-san speaks suddenly.
Oh, Misuzu had one too before.
Misato, the young lady of the Kurama house was the same.
The nobility marries their children to strengthen their relationship with other families.
Even when Kanou house already lost its momentum, they still have a high level of prestige, so many families would love to get married to them.
We have the previous case of Mariko’s mother married to the Torii house.
It’s not weird to see that Sakurako-san already had a marriage partner in another family since childhood.
No, I ‘had’ one
Sakurako-san.
Great Aunt has spoken to that house about me
That angry Great Aunt exposed Sakurako-san’s secret?
Yesterday, they canceled the engagement
Oh, so that’s why.
Shiranui-san’s being weird with Sakurako-san.
Even the driver from the Kanou house was worried about Sakurako-san.
That’s because Sakurako-san’s become mentally unstable due to her broken engagement.
That family had been a long time friend with the Kanou house so they promised not to tell anyone about my secret, but.
Sakurako-san speaks in pain.
They seem to be unable to accept that they’re marrying a daughter of a woman in a nightlife business
That’s.
Even in nobility, there are families who think that way
Ruriko said.
Yes, they say that they can’t allow her to their home unless it’s a legitimate daughter of the Kanou house
Sakurako-san’s face turned pale.
In exchange for not speaking of the secret in public, I was told to never see who was my fiance ever again
They were engaged ever since childhood, and yet.
Mariko knew who that fiance of Sakurako-san is.
I don’t think that he cares about such things, but the head of their family is a very serious person
He can’t accept the fact that she’s a child from an affair with a woman from a nightlife business.
No, he and Yoshihiko-san agree with Father
Sakurako-san told Mariko.
They sent a mail. Their family did their research and confirmed that my real mother was the woman from that shop. And so, they can’t forgive that it’s been kept in the dark for so long.
So that’s what the serious person was angry about.
However, Yoshihiko-sama loves Sakurako-sama from the bottom of his heart
Shiranui-san shouts.
If you talk to him, he will understand!
That her being a child of an affair isn’t her fault.
That it was the inconvenient circumstances in the Kanou house that she couldn’t tell her fiance about it.
That he shouldn’t blame Sakurako-san herself.
However.
That’s enough, Shie
Sakurako-san says with a dark expression.
I’ve given up already
Is that why?
Is that the reason why?
When her fiance since childhood broke off their engagement.
Sakurako-san’s become pessimistic.
So, that’s why Sakurako-san wanted to do prostitution?
Becoming a prostitute girl for real.
No, she had no interest in the act of prostitution itself.
That’s not the case, but.
Sakurako-san smiled feebly.
Yoshihiko-san’s mail had an attached file
File?
An investigative report about my real mother they found using a detective agency
The hostess from the Ginza high-class club.
I called the person, and it shocked me
Sakurako-san said.
First, I never really thought what my real mother would be like
That’s.
I also feel that my mother, who was a hostess, was a filthy woman. As a daughter of nobility, she should be from a different world. And so, I never wanted to meet my real mother. Rather, I thought that she was a bad person because she deceived her father. On the other hand, I assumed that it was my mother who was a lascivious and greedy woman. No, I couldn’t accept my birth unless I think of it that way Sakurako-san’s eyes start tearing up.
I thought that my mother abandoned me after giving birth, and gave me to the Kanou house for money. No, I was under the impression that my mother approached Father, deceived him, and gave birth to me to gain money from the Kanou house
But, that wasn’t what you saw in the report?
Ruriko asked.
Yes, I misunderstood everything
Tears spill from Sakurako-san’s eyes.