Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? Shunkashuutou: Prologue

Prologue

Satomi Koutarou was extremely bad at getting up in the mornings. Even if he had an important event in the day, that wouldn’t change. That’s how Koutarou had lived until now, sleeping without regard to the surroundings or issues around him. So the sight of Koutarou and Sanae sleeping together in room 106 was a common one that put those who saw it in a pleasant mood.

“…Hey, Koutarou, wake up.”

However, there was an exception to every rule, seeing Koutarou spread-eagled, sleeping without a care was aggravating to someone who was tense in anticipation of an important event. Especially so when Koutarou was central to the event.

“Koutarou! Can’t you understand I’m telling you to wake up!? Honestly…”

Theia shook Koutarou, pulling her eyebrows together in annoyance. Today was the day she’d been waiting and waiting for, the performance of the second part of the play. So for Koutarou who was playing one of the main characters, the morning was full of work like having a final check through of the script to avoid forgetting any lines. Despite this, Koutarou was still sleeping together with Sanae, making Theia dissatisfied.

“Why you… Today’s the performance, yet you’re so carefree… what do I do?”

Theia sat next to the still sleeping Koutarou, crossed her arms and began to think of how to wake him up. If it had have been just after they met, she would have probably used weapons, or trodden on him. It had probably become shaking him with both arms after summer, and in winter, she wanted to see his sleeping face. But she couldn’t do that now, she had to wake him up somehow.

“If it’s now…”

A scene from a movie she’d once seen came to Theia’s mind, a scene full of romance where a character woke their lover with a kiss. Immediately after remembering, the actors in her mind were replaced with her and Koutarou. Theia’s cheeks were instantly dyed a deep red and she shook her head back and forth.

“I-I can’t do something like that! Wake up already! Wake up!”

To hide her embarrassment after thinking about something so daring, Theia raised her voice and started shaking Koutarou more violently.

“Nn, nnn~~~”

With that, Sanae, who had been sleeping whilst clinging on to Koutarou, let out a small sound. With the spiritual waves flowing over her changing chaotically from a slight anger, to strong affection and then to severe shyness, Sanae had woken up before Koutarou.

“Nnn~~~ Theia? What are you making such a fuss over this morning?”

Sanae yawned several times as she sat up, rubbing at sleep filled eyes, she lifted her gaze sleepily to Theia.

“Ah- n-no, i-it’s nothing…”

Theia frantically searched for an excuse, she couldn’t say she’d imagined a kiss and gotten embarrassed. Fortunately, she didn’t just have an excuse, she had an actual reason.

“T-that’s right! It’s the performance today, so I wanted to wake Koutarou up! But I really can’t, so it irritated me!”

The moment she heard the word performance, Sanae suddenly woke up properly. She had worked hard as support to Koutarou so she was invested in the play. Because of that, her sleepiness vanished in an instant.

“Well, we need to hurry up and wake him up then!”

“R-right, we have a mountain of things to do.”

Rather than being suspicious of Theia, Sanae was an ally, seeing this, Theia let out a sigh of relief.

“What’s up?”

“Nothing. So then, do you have a good way to wake him up?”

“Hmm, well, you know Koutarou, he’s a Japanese man who always keeps his promises.”

Sanae said pridefully, almost like she was talking about herself. Sanae already didn’t see Koutarou as an outsider.

“I know that.”

“So, if I go and tell his mind that it’s time to get up, he’ll get up right away. Wait a minute, I’ll go and do that.”

Sanae hugged Koutarou and closed her eyes. Then, touching spirits with Koutarou, she sent a message to his mind. The wall around his heart would have interfered and made this difficult, but now there was no wall around his heart between him and her. The charm hanging from her neck amplified those bonds too, so simply sending a message was as easy as breathing.

“Ngh~~~ Fuahh…”

Before long had passed, Koutarou stretched out. Feeling Koutarou wake, Sanae released him and spoke to him using her voice.

“Get up Koutarou, today’s the performance.”

“Ah, that’s right, that was today.”

After stretching and yawning, Koutarou, along with Sanae who was on top of him, got up. Sanae had been kneeling on his chest, still in the same position, she was now at eye level with Theia and flashed a prideful smile and victory sign at her.

“Mission complete♪”

“Good work.”

“Ehehehe, it was an easy job.”

Seeing the strength of Koutarou and Sanae’s bonds so clearly demonstrated had surprised her, but she soon remembered her own objective and grabbed Koutarou’s hand. She didn’t have time to worry about the little things now, the performance was drawing closer by the minute.

“Come on, Koutarou, wash your face and let’s go! We have a lot to do today!”

“I get it, I get it… Anyway, morning, Theia.”

“That’s right, morning!”

Koutarou knew what kind of time it was, so he obediently followed Theia’s grasp. From the strength in her small hand, he could feel her enthusiasm for the performance.

Koutarou was bad at getting up, but Yurika was no better. She could be woken relatively easily, but she didn’t have much willpower, so even once she was woken up, she’d soon go back to sleep. Both Koutarou and Yurika were somewhat troublesome to wake up. Often, extreme measures that would make Yurika complain were needed, like cold water or a squeaky hammer.

“Ho, It’s an easy victory today, ho-!”

“We’ve got a secret weapon from Theia-chan, ho-!”

After washing his face, whilst he was returning to the main area, the two haniwa – Karama and Koroma overtook him. They were working together to carry a small bottle. The bottle itself was clear, but the liquid inside it was a deep red, making the bottle look red. There was a white label stuck to the bottle with the product’s name written on it in red and black. The label was written in a foreign language, so Koutarou didn’t understand what it said, but he knew that it was to wake Yurika up. Koutarou soon lost interest and headed towards the dining table.

“So you’re finally done then.”

“The performance is today, so if I hadn’t washed my face properly, you’d have been angry.”

“True, so I’m not angry, this is praise.”

“Then say it a little more kindly.”

“It’s okay, I’ll be kind to you… here, Koutarou.”

“Thanks.”

It was still early, so the dining table wasn’t prepared for the meal, instead, the script that Sanae had given him was spread across the table. He was going to use the time until the meal to go over the programme again.

“Yurika-chan, wake up, ho-.”

“You can still make it in time, ho-.”

Yurika stirred, then mumbled.

“Noo… I can shtill eat…”

“There’s no choice, ho-.”

“Let’s do it, ho-.”

“Unfastening cap, ho-!”

“Bottle is in position, ho-!”

“Ngug ngug… ack, kuh, kyaaaaaaa!!”

“She’s up, ho-.”

“In one shot, ho-.”

“Geh, ack, s-spi-spicyyy!! What happened!?”

“She’s like a fish out of water, ho-.”

“Humans don’t want to be like that, ho-.”

The room had gotten a little noisy, but whilst clinging to his back, Sanae had blocked Koutarou’s ears so he could keep reading through the script in peace. If he made a mistake in the play it would cause a lot of people bother, especially his partner Harumi, so Koutarou was serious.

Kiriha and Ruth had arrived in room 106 and begun preparing breakfast. As they did, a delicious scent filled the air and it naturally became difficult to concentrate on the script. On top of that, leaving the script on the table would get in their way, so Koutarou put the Kabutonga card he’d been using as a bookmark in between the pages, and temporarily stopped looking it over.

Sanae sniffed and after a pause, said.

“It smells like traditional dashi.”

“But it doesn’t smell like miso, so I suppose it’s not miso soup.”

“Yurika, what do you think breakfast is?”

“I’m sorry, I cahn’t shmell or tashte anything right now.”

“We’re sorry, Yurika-chan, ho-.”

“We didn’t know it was that spicy, ho-.”

“You lot are being bad mannered, sit down and wait properly.”

Sanae was floating in the air with her nose twitching, Theia was lying on her stomach with her legs swaying through the air and Yurika was soothing her now cherry-red tongue with the glass of water in her hands. The three’s postures were bad, nothing like what a girl waiting for breakfast should be like.”

“Okaay.”

Sanae obediently returned to Koutarou’s side and knelt next to him, straight backed and waiting.

“I have to, at least today you have a point.”

Theia too obediently followed his words, for a while she’d been driving in how a knight acted and their manners, so if she didn’t do the same it would be setting a bad example. For the sake of the play today being a success, and to protect her own pride, she too sat down politely.

“I really can’t do it.”

“Well… I’ll let you off, Yurika. You can’t start until your tongue’s better after all.”

“Right.”

Yurika was still on the verge of tears, soothing her tongue. She was hunched over, but taking the circumstances into account, taking issue with that would be cruel. So Koutarou, whilst slightly troubled, let her off.

“We should have breakfast now.”

“Everyone, sorry to keep you waiting.”

As everyone sat themselves around the table, Kiriha and Ruth came into the room. Kiriha carrying an aluminium pot, and Ruth carrying a tray with bowls on, breakfast was ready.

“Kiriha! What’s for breakfast!?”

“Udon.”

“Udon? In the morning?”

“Your highness, we’ll need stamina for the play, so we made udon because it’s easy to digest and get energy from.”

“I see, that’s a good idea.”

“Yurika, it looks like it’s udon, isn’t that good?”

“Really!?”

Breakfast today was udon, it wasn’t a breakfast-like meal, but it was common before sports, the play would require a long time of endurance, so it was an appropriate meal. The slightly transparent tuna dashi, a product of Kiriha’s fastidiousness, put the final touched to the meal.

“Ruth, the bowls.”

“Then have these please.”

Kiriha and Ruth worked together to set the places, then Kiriha cheerfully poured the udon soup into the bowls. Koutarou could feel her femininity from that action and found himself unintentionally fixated.

“A long time ago… mom was like this too…”

Whilst Koutarou looked at Kiriha, he found himself remembering his mother. It had been a long time since he’d lost her, so he could only partially remember her. Kiriha now brought these parts to mind and calmed Koutarou’s feelings.

“What’s wrong, Koutarou?”

Noticing his gaze, Kiriha smiled at him whilst continuing to pour the soup.

“I just thought it looks delicious.”

“Ruth and I are confident in our meal.”

As she’d said, Kiriha closed her eyes slightly and looked at him with a confident expression, but that was only for a few seconds before she returned back to her work.

“Please eat a lot, Satomi-sama.”

Ruth placed one of the bowls that Kiriha had filled with soup in front of him. Ruth was cheerful as well, and like Kiriha seemed familial. If Kiriha had the mother role, Ruth was the capable eldest daughter. Even with the handicap of being an alien, Ruth was still more skilled at housework than Yurika or Sanae. As far as skill at housework was concerned, Ruth wouldn’t lose to Kiriha.

“Let’s eat!! Uwaa, hot!?”

“Your mouth is still swollen, of course that would happen if you just crammed hot food into it.”

“Buh I want to eat it while it’s tasty, and if I don’t, someone might take it.”

“No one’s going to take it, you idiot!”

“Yurika-chan, do you want some water, ho-?”

“I’d like some strawberry milk.”

“We don’t have any, ho-.”

Then Yurika, Sanae and Theia would be the little sisters. With Kiriha and Ruth watching over them, the three of them continued their carefree conversation.

“I wonder when this all became normal…”

At first, Koutarou and the Invading girls had fought, but with the passing of time, they’d come to deeper understandings of each other, from enemies to friends, and finally to something like a family. They’d understood that each with their poor points, they came together to form the pieces of a family.

“We really didn’t get on at first… everyone was desperately trying to drive each other out…”

Koutarou thought back on the days since he met the girls. They were extremely normal days that had piled up between them, finally making them come together.

Translator's Notes and References

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