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The party is nearing its climax, judging from the state of affairs. The people are drunk and have gone full rogue. The only people that are sober now are me, Ran, Nako, and Datte. The stoppers need self-control.

“I’ll be going to the restroom for a bit.”
“Then me too.”
“That’s convenient, I guess I’ll go too.”

Taking the opportunity, Ran and Nako followed me. I feel you. You want to leave this place even just momentarily. The alcohol and merry-making is fine, but some of the boys are chugging with clothes off. The ones who are already smashed are being pushed further down.

“Kotochan is so cold to me…”
“She’ll be normal after some time, okay? There, there, drink some more now.”

Ayaka endlessly spouts off, meanwhile, Isami makes her drink more, making the situation even worse. If I ever get near, Ayaka will lock on to me, so I have to stay away. Ran and Nako might also be forced to drink by Isami, so they can’t be too close.

“…”

Shirose and Ruru are silently typing on their laptops with alcohol in their free hands. They’ve probably been hit by a flash of inspiration and are writing it down before they forget it. Pretty much an occupational disease at this point. They’ve been like that since high school, though.

“Today’s party was on the milder end, huh.”
“There’s only a few people, after all. It would probably be more lively if there were more thrill-seekers.”
“Datte reserving a small conference room was a pretty nice move too. A normal room would’ve been too small; more importantly, this room has great soundproofing, really helps.”

True that. There’s a lot of yelling and screaming exchanged, so some passerby might get curious and open the door otherwise. In that room, I’ve been smacking people with the paper fan Datte brought in and Nako has been serving out some chokeholds, it’s been one act of violence after the other. But for better wording, these were just acts of suppression.

“Still, where are we going?”
“Why don’t we have some ramen to end the night with? Kotone, you can still eat, right?”
“Good to go.”
“As usual, just what is with that digestion speed?”

Going to the bathroom was just a pretext, a lie. Our true goal is to escape the chaos. For how it’s going, things probably won’t settle down until a few of them get knocked out drunk. That’s why we caretakers ran away.

“Datte alone should be able to handle things.”
“So a sacrifice is necessary.”
“We don’t need to suffer too.”

If I was still Souji, I likely would have been left with Datte. When I was still alive, whenever the girls suddenly vanished, things rapidly devolved into a hellscape. Since when it’s only men drinking, a lot of us lose even more restraint.

“Still, Kotochan, is it okay for you to sneak out of the hotel?”
“You’re asking that now?”

The bedtime curfew has long passed. Currently, it’s no longer the same day. And yet no teacher has called for me yet. Personally, I’m grateful for that. Because if I was seen smacking people around, my public image would be all ruined.

“We have Nako too, so we should be fine for whatever.”
“Please don’t expect too much from me. In the first place, we’re just going to the nearby ramen shop; there shouldn’t be any danger.”

There’s a possibility that there are some roaming drunkards, you know? If we get entangled with those, things might turn for the worse. Especially since we’re an all-woman group. Still, if we recruit more people, we might end up going to another place to party. It won’t be good for Kotone to be loitering late at night.

“Well, I guess I’ll contact them.”
“Who?”

My bodyguards. They’ve likely let their guard down and are currently drinking booze, thinking that I didn’t do anything more and that I’m following the student curfew. From the moment I was with the rogue’s den, that’s nothing but a hopeful fantasy.

That’s that. There’s no need to tell them where I’m currently at. I contacted them, so there’s nothing more to relay. All they have to do is desperately search for me. They found me with hints this morning, so I wonder how this will go.

“You’re really free-spirited.”
“Something like this should be fine every now and then. They’ll be in trouble if their impression of me stays that of being behaved and docile.”
“That’s harassment, Kotochan.”

I’m just being generous. It’s not like I need to contact them to take a short outdoor walk, and there’s nothing written saying that. They were originally supposed to watch over me in secret to begin with, so I’m already being generous. It’ll be trouble if anything ever happens, after all.

“Now that you mentioned it, you did say that you’d do something like you did this morning.”
“It’ll probably happen during New Year’s. Though I won’t move as long as the other party doesn’t.”
“Who are you against?”
“Kotone’s father.”

They seem to look convinced from my answer. Maybe they could guess how this was going based on what they know of me? There was a kid back in the day who teased me for not having a father and I beat him relentlessly for that.

“What did her father do?”
“He gave Kotone a reason to kill herself. That should be plenty enough of a reason.”

I’m also part of it, but it’s clear that the main problem comes from the father. Kotone’s mother reformed herself, so she’s off the list. Rather, she might even cooperate with me on this. I’ve got a rough list of who would be my allies. All that’s left is figuring out how much help I can get.

“Will we get dragged into it too?”
“Ran, Nako. I won’t be relying on people I’m connected with as Souji. Because I think I should handle this as Kotone.”

Honestly speaking, if I have the cooperation of the rogue’s den, we’d probably be uncontested. I can easily see my side having an overwhelming victory. That’s not good. It’s meaningless if I don’t win only with Kotone’s connections.

“That’s a relief, I guess.”
“That’s true. We’ll be risking our jobs if we carelessly stir up trouble with the twelve families.”

Ran and Nako understand just how bad it could get. However, I know that if I ask for their help, they’d cooperate regardless of what happens to their jobs. The thrill-seekers are crazy, but I know for a fact that the caretakers can be even worse when they hold nothing back.

“Kotone, could you behave already?”
“Kotone, I’d really appreciate it if you learn some self-restraint.”