Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 1025: Yunohana’s Gratitude

"Then how are you?" Kaiden asked his mother. "Have you eaten yet?"

Kaiden Grey waited for Vespera’s answer with his tea cooling between his hands, comfortably surrounded by his family in the Circle’s private sitting room.

"Have you eaten yet?" he repeated when Vespera glanced at something beyond the camera.

"I have food here."

"I know you do. But that wasn’t the question."

She looked back at him.

"...I will eat it."

"While it’s still food, please."

Vespera lifted a covered plate into view, proving its existence to her troublesome son. Beside him, Alexandra leaned forward to inspect it.

"Lady Vespera, could you take a proper break? Your food will get cold while you work."

"I am taking one now."

Kaiden smiled at her through the screen. "Then we’ll let you enjoy your meal. Call me later?"

"Yes."

He waited until she reached for the cover before saying goodbye. Alice waved from the sofa’s arm, and their mother’s gaze lingered on her children until the call ended.

Sonoda returned a little later with news from the council. The ministers were still discussing the discovery with the Circle, and the garrisons needed updated instructions before anyone approached another occupied district.

"We would appreciate some time to prepare, my lord. The investigators will contact us as soon as they have anything substantial."

"Of course. We’ve done three dungeons today. We can stop here for now."

"Three," Luna repeated, stretching her legs beneath the table. "Pretty good day, honestly. Until the mosquito."

"Why lie? Watching the mosquito get eaten was the highlight of your day, gremlin bestie."

"..." The fact she didn’t have a comeback to that told everyone how right Nyx truly was.

Yunohana stood beside her chair and addressed the family.

"Then, if you are willing, I would like to make a small detour on our way home. There is a place I would very much enjoy showing you."

"Does it have food?" Nyx asked.

"It does."

"I’m willing."

"Shocking," Luna muttered.

Kaiden grinned, then looked up at their hostess. "What sort of place?"

"A garden court with several shops. Clothing, ornaments, sweets... The family who owns the kimono house takes wonderful care of its work. You seemed to enjoy the yukata at the estate, so I thought you might like to have something special made for you."

"Made for us?" Alexandra asked.

"Kimono, designed and fitted for each of you. We can choose the fabrics and discuss the work today. Once they are finished, I would be delighted to find an occasion for you to wear them."

Aria’s fingers tightened around his arm.

"Kai."

"I heard."

"We should embrace the local culture..." Aria’s eyes were dead set on getting herself a kimono as gorgeous as Yunohana’s. The ultra graceful Japanese woman had sparked the yandere’s endless desire to appear as appealing to Kaiden as possible.

"You have an interested customer already," he told Yunohana.

Yunohana’s smile warmed, but she remained standing before him with her hands folded.

"There is something I would like to say first, Lord Grey."

He set down his cup, giving her his attention.

"When you told your mother that you wished to stay, I was deeply moved. More than I managed to express at the time."

Yunohana glanced toward the windows overlooking the city before meeting his eyes again.

"I have been receiving reports from those garrisons for so long. Requests for replacements, for healers, for another attempt at a gate we could not clear. Today, men who expected to spend another night behind a shield are calling their families to say they are coming home."

Her voice softened with happiness at the thought.

"You spoke so fondly of our people after everything that happened. I shall remember that. I am very much in your debt."

Kaiden could hear how much she meant it. She had watched them return from the depot and offered every comfort available to her, while wondering whether they would soon be leaving Japan altogether.

He was glad he could give her a better answer.

"We’ve been happy here, Yunohana. You’ve made us feel welcome from the moment we arrived."

"This afternoon will be my treat." She bowed to him and his family, smiling as she straightened. "Please choose whatever pleases you."

Alexandra sat up. "That’s very generous, but you really don’t have to buy everyone clothes as well..."

"I would enjoy it, Lady Alexandra. Will you indulge me?"

The blonde woman looked around for support. Nyx was already getting off the sofa.

"Come on, Lexi. Time to try pushing our big curves into some tight clothes."

"H-hey..." Alexandra yelped.

"They will be made to your measurements. No need for worry," Yunohana said with a smile. She, too, was a very well endowed woman. "You can tell the seamstresses what you liked about the estate’s robes, and anything you would like them to change."

"Consider my curiosity to have peaked~"

...

Their cars left the main road for a narrower street lined with pale shopfronts and wooden signs. Through the window, Kaiden saw a display of painted fans beside a confectioner whose counter was crowded with little boxes tied in colored string.

The convoy stopped beneath the entrance to a walled garden court. A stone path ran between shallow ponds to a kimono house at the far end, with smaller shops opening onto covered walkways on either side.

Women stood beneath an awning choosing hair ornaments from a tray. Beyond them, customers at a sweets shop had turned toward the arriving cars.

The Circle’s escort was out before Kaiden opened his door. Guards checked the walkways and spoke to the shopkeepers while their captain approached Yunohana.

She listened to his report, then thanked him in Japanese.

"The shops are still open," she explained to the family. "The captain will keep the central garden for us while we visit. Other customers can finish their shopping along the sides."

At the entrance, a young man raised his phone. A guard stepped into the camera’s view and spoke to him, polite but firm.

The phone came down immediately.

"They’re asking people not to take photographs," Sonoda told Kaiden. "And to give your family some privacy."

More faces appeared along the street as word traveled. A pair of schoolgirls clutched each other’s sleeves behind the guards, whispering excitedly while Aria stepped out beside him.

Aria smiled and waved to them. Both girls waved back so hard that one caught her friend’s hand in the face.

"Oh, dear."

"Your beauty claims another victim, moon bestie."

"Nyx, don’t even make such a joke. The only victim is Kai."

"I’m afraid the decision isn’t up to you~"

An older customer tried to cross from the sweets shop with a gift box held before him. The captain met him at the garden’s edge, listened to his explanation, then bowed to the man and guided him back toward the covered walkway.

The customer accepted the refusal with a disappointed smile. He held up the box from behind the guard instead, and Kaiden thanked him with a wave.

Normally, he would’ve accepted the gift himself. But with the recent developments, he thought it was best to behave with a bit more reservation.

Yunohana led her guests toward the kimono house. Its front windows displayed robes in soft colors, with patterned sashes and hair ornaments arranged beside them. Alexandra slowed at a pale blue garment scattered with tiny white flowers.

Nyx caught her looking and took her hand.

"We’re trying that one."

"I was only looking."

"Good eye. Blondie."

The proprietress was waiting inside with her attendants lined up behind her. She bowed to Yunohana, then turned to the family and welcomed them in careful English.

"We are very happy to have you. Please, come inside."

And just like that, it was time for the gang to spend some time shopping! And what a shopping trip it would end up being...