Chapter 122 – Ichijouji Reina’s Daily Life – Six

“AI is truly amazing these days, isn’t it.” A middle-aged man said while looking at a hologram that displayed a game character.

“Indeed, they’re almost indistinguishable from humans.” Another middle-aged man said while nodding, “What do you think of it, Reina?” So bothersome. I didn’t care about this in the slightest, but I suppose I should reply since he talked to me.

“Their reactions are certainly very human-like, both when talking and dying.” I replied. The man smiled at this reply, so it must have been the ‘correct’ answer. Giving my opinion on this topic was the right choice.

After that, they went back to their own talk regarding the developments of AIs, which I promptly decided to ignore. It was a real bother that I had to attend those new year celebrations just because I was a noble, but I suppose it couldn’t be helped.

As I thought of that though, a familiar face appeared, “Hey, Reina, you free?” Yahiko approached me while saying that.

“Yes, sure.” I replied. I didn’t feel like talking to him much, but it was an excuse for leaving those middle-aged men.

“It’s a pleasure to see you, Mr. Kujo.” One of the men talked to Yahiko just before we started leaving… Annoying.

“Such a rare occasion, to see the children of the dukes getting closer like that…” The other man said.

“Well, they’re from the same school, aren’t they?” The first of them two replied… They must be thinking I have some form of romantic relationship with Yahiko… How bothersome, what’s the ‘correct’ answer in this situation?

“We don’t have this kind of relationship, thank you very much.” Yahiko told them…

“Oh, I see?” One of the men said. So denying it is the ‘correct’ choice? Let’s follow along.

“It’s disgusting to see people assuming love just because a man and a woman know each other.” I told them… The three went silent when I said it, was it an ‘incorrect’ choice? I thought making it clearer would be for the best though… Let’s try rephrasing it, “Even the royal family can marry who they want these days, why should nobility need to care about arranged marriages?”

“I think she’s a bit tired, so we’ll take our leave first.” Yahiko said while grabbing my hand and moving away from the two middle-aged men.

“O-of course.” I could hear one of them say as we moved out… Was my complementation to the conversation ‘incorrect’ too? How troublesome.

Once we reached a place we could talk at with ease, Yahiko said, “Sorry about that, but… aren’t you way too bad at mimicking others’ behaviors?”

“Not exactly, but…” I started replying, but he cut me off.

“You don’t really know what are the ‘correct’ answers to give in those situations perhaps?” He asked.

“I just didn’t have enough samples to work with for that scenario.” I replied. Love talk is not something I’m used to seeing after all… Yahiko seemed to be better at this kind of thing than me though, I’m a bit envious of that.

“Well, you don’t really need to say anything if you don’t know what to say. Just smiling would probably be enough.” He said.

“Is that so…? I’ll keep it in mind.” I replied, “In any case, it seems like I have wasted enough time here, so I’ll be going home.” I told him as I noticed that Mr. Yamamoto had just arrived.

“Alright, then. Let’s play more later.” He said as I left.

“Sure, let’s play again.” I replied, and then got in the car.

******

I crushed the cake and threw it away… The nerve of that man, how can he seriously leave a letter saying ‘Happy New Year, there is a gift in your room’ while celebrating this with his ‘family’ that involves the second wife and her children.

I torn the dress apart and threw it away too. As if I need a gift from that mother-in-law. I didn’t grow out of the size of the clothes my mother gave me, so why would I need someone else’s!? I especially don’t need this woman’s clothes!

I broke the gorgeous hair clip and threw it away as well. Why does this sister-in-law think I need such an unpleasant thing in the hair that my mother gave me? I don’t need a sister-in-law!

I destroyed the bouquet, throwing it out too. This brother-in-law’s gift is unnecessary… And I definitely don’t want this person giving me mom’s favorite flowers, that’s just annoying… He absolutely cannot call me sister-in-law!

And I definitely don’t need a gift from that man. Let’s burn away this photo without even looking at it, why is he doing such nauseating things-!?

… I can’t throw this away. A beautiful old photo of mom… I hate this man. I hate everything he does, but I can’t hate this gift… This is suffocating.

“Mom…” I murmured to myself while hugging her photo and burying my face on the pillow. I really can’t forgive that man, but this was a nice gift, let’s take it for what it is… I can’t help feeling happy when seeing mom’s face from this photo, it is an important image that will be carefully saved in my memories…

I hate this. Let’s store this treasure in my treasure box, then destroy the packaging that the photo came in… Now I finished throwing away all those useless gifts.