Chapter 467, ongoing
"Excuse me, can we sit here?"

"You're welcome, sit down."

"Excuse me...you guys should sit together."

The three people following the old man, to be more precise, two men and one woman also bowed like the old man in front, and then looked at each other, and sat down one after another on the right side of the old man in tacit understanding.

The other old man who was being spoken to was observing this old man who was obviously of a superior status. He had a purple silk scarf tucked into his collar, his pure silver hair was combed back neatly, his black and white suit fit his tall figure, and his trouser lines were ironed straight... Uesugi Yue felt that the last time he saw such a handsome old man was decades ago.

At that time, he was still a young man full of vigor and vitality. Sitting in the position of shadow emperor of this country, he thought he was invincible and that the higher he went, the more lonely he was. Then suddenly one day, he was visited by the old bastard named Gilbert Jean Angers. Although the brave young man fought hard, he finally fell under the knife of the despicable old guy.

While Uesugi Yue was observing the old man, the old man was also observing him. If there was one difference, it was probably that the old man chose a more direct approach. With a friendly smile on his face, he said to Uesugi Yue:
"Hello, are you...Utsunomiya's elder?"

"Please don't call me that. I don't deserve it. I think I can still live for a few more decades—"

"Hahaha, sorry for the offense. My name is Tachibana Masamune, and I'm... a friend of Utsunomiya-kun. What's your name?"

"..."

"What? What's the problem?"

"...No, I just didn't expect that boy to love the friendship of the elderly so much."

"Haha, just kidding. By the way, they are our younger generations... Children, you should be polite and greet your elders properly."

The last words were addressed to the three young men on the right. Uesugi Yue wanted to say, you didn't even give them a chance to speak... The three young men stood up again without any complaints and bowed respectfully to Uesugi Yue. Then, Uesugi Yue heard the words "Yabuki Sakura, please take care of me." "Saeki Ryuji, please take care of me." "...please take care of me" in turn, which sounded like greetings from the Edo period.

To be honest, it's not that Uesugi Yue has never seen this way of greeting. In fact, it's quite the opposite. When he was young, almost everyone he met would speak to him in this respectful, antique-like manner. However, as he works as a ramen chef day after day, he feels that this way of greeting should have been abandoned by the times.

Just like the little girl among Utsunomiya and his friends, what was the way to say hello... "AHELLO~" The unique Japanese English pronunciation added a factor that he couldn't understand.

"You are really strong."

Uesugi Yue sighed, "Master Yue, just call me Master Yue, everyone calls me that. The guy at the wedding today also called me an old guy, I don't mind it, after all, I'm really old... Of course, if you call me that, I'll be angry with you."

In Uesugi Yue's opinion, the old man in front of him was probably the one who spoke the most logically and purposefully he had ever met.

Of course he knew who 'Tachibana Masamune' was - as the last emperor after his abdication, even though he lived an 'ascetic' life as a ramen chef, Uesugi Yue was actually secretly paying attention to the general direction of the Snake Eight Clan. Oh, don't get me wrong, he wasn't worried about the country and the people, and wanted to contribute to the family again, and of course he wasn't thinking about raising his arms and rising up one day... He was just simply worried that these people would come to his door again one day.

In fact, although Tachibana Munemasa, who can be called the "most competent head of the family", is unlikely to have royal blood, in terms of his work ability, even Uesugi Yue has to admire his strong ability.

Uesugi Yue had never thought about making a "re-debut", so he naturally wouldn't think about showing off his glorious past. In fact, if the other party hadn't been pressing him step by step, and after he fooled around, he let the three juniors come forward one by one - Uesugi Yue was planning to just fool around and change seats.

The junior's greeting lacked the honorific surname, so there was only a short "please give me your guidance" which sounded a bit impolite. In fact, it was just that Uesugi Yue did not introduce himself.

This is why Uesugi Yue felt that the old man in front of him had a clear purpose, or more precisely, a ruthlessness that would not give up until the goal was achieved. Of course, this ruthlessness was also an undercurrent hidden under the smile, or it could be called "a soft knife in another sense".

"I think it may be that my working environment is different from ordinary positions. Although I have no bad intentions, I did act a little too harshly. I apologize."

"Here you go again. You don't have to be so polite to me. I'm just an old guy selling ramen. Even if you agree with me so much, it won't be a good thing for you."

"Haha, you're joking again. It seems that I left a bad impression on you... I should be responsible for what I said... It seems that it is not time yet. If possible, please give me a chance to apologize to you."

“…Ah, this, that is fine too, hmmm.”

This statement is quite a concession, but it is also one of his personal charms. When Tachibana Masamune tried to find him in vain, he planned to buy him a drink to apologize at the next dinner, and Uesugi Yue agreed.

No matter what, he didn't think his identity could be recognized by the other party. In short, Uesugi Yue, who was quite confident that he had burned the palace clean, thought so.

This could probably be considered as an encouragement to the younger generation, so Uesugi Yue couldn't say much.

"Haha, thank you for your tolerance..."

"Head, it's the young master calling."

Tachibana Masamune was about to say something with a broad smile on his face, but Sakura beside him had already pushed a phone from the transparent glass table to his right hand side within his reach with her two slender white hands.

Tachibana Masamune had to shift his gaze to his mobile phone, then raised his eyes and gave Uesugi Yue in front of him an apologetic smile. After receiving the other party's nod of forgiveness, he picked up the phone, stood up and walked aside.

……

No matter how you look at it, the place looks messy and shabby, as if it had been robbed.

If Gen Chisei's memory is correct, the place remained as peaceful as before yesterday. Since he had some free time, he came to Eri to have dinner with him, and Eri accepted it. The well-behaved sister could see that he was tired, and did not take the opportunity to drag him to play another game. Instead, she sensibly let him go back to sleep.

There has been no abnormality so far.

Facing the situation of Eri's clothes scattered everywhere, Gen Chisheng, with a confused mind, opened the door to his sister's room. At this time, the comics on the bookshelf beside the wall slid down due to the vibration, and Gen Chisheng's confused mind was finally awakened.

Gen Chisheng glanced around his surroundings and found that it was impossible to break in from the outside - in fact, Gen Chisheng didn't think anyone could do it. Aside from this specially reinforced floor, the inner walls of Eri's room were reinforced with special steel plates, and the door was an airtight door of a vault several tens of centimeters thick, plus a series of defensive facilities... With this kind of defense, Gen Chisheng felt that even if a dragon wanted to break in, it would hit its head on the outer wall and bleed.

The PS game console that was once cherished like a treasure fell half on the ground, and the other half... or one corner remained on the table, leaning against the edge of the table, revealing an empty tape. The things that were originally placed inside were also gone, which was the game that Gen Chisei had prepared to play with Eri today.

Genji gradually began to understand what was happening, but his brain refused to accept it.

This is impossible no matter how you think about it.

This isn't some melodramatic TV show. My retainer, my father, and my sister would actually leave me behind to go out together. "...Father?"

"Chisheng~ is there something wrong?"

Just as Yuan Zhisheng sat down with his head slightly lowered, a sound came from the cell phone in his hand.

I'm afraid I'm left alone at home now.

So, what was the reason that made Dad and the others leave together?

The answer was soon revealed.

"...Chisheng?"

The voice coming from the receiver was even deeper than usual, and I felt that there was still some joy in that worried voice.

When Yuan Zhisheng heard the tone that would never come from his own father's mouth, he suddenly felt a black screen before his eyes.

Although I had imagined it for a moment, I never expected that I would be left alone, and from the tone of voice, I could tell that the atmosphere on the other side was very good. This kind of strange story-like thing actually happened.

The person who didn't hear Yuan Zhisheng's answer became a little worried and asked again.

It seemed that he had not yet figured out Yuan Zhisheng's condition. The breathing sound on the other end of the phone stopped and then continued several times. Yuan Zhisheng judged that it was probably because his father was about to speak but stopped himself many times.

"…Um, Dad."

"Um...did something happen?"

Tachibana Masamune lowered his voice just like Minamoto Chisei did. He was probably stunned by the voice that called him, and by the guess he had come up with.

Then there was silence again on the other end of the phone, as if to confirm and give him time to adjust, and then a soft call was made.

"Chisheng?"

"Well, sorry, it's not what you think, nothing happened..."

Zhuo gently put the phone to his ear and leaned against the soft back of the sofa, speaking into the phone with a wry smile.

"...Ah, that's it, isn't it? Zhisheng felt that we left you behind when we went out to play, right? Hahahaha... I never expected, Zhisheng, that you're still a child. Of course, I'm very happy. I'm very happy that my Zhisheng is still as cute as before."

Perhaps because he heard the strange emotion of comfort and self-mockery in Minamoto Chisei's voice, Tachibana Masamune fell into thought, and then his mood became complicated. But if he allowed Minamoto Chisei to continue to fall into this state of confusion, the situation might get out of control, so Tachibana Masamune regained his calm tone and smiled at Minamoto Chisei's voice, and Minamoto Chisei immediately raised his head.

"Dad, um, I..."

"I know, I know. How about this, Zhisheng, I'll let Ying pick you up. It's still a while before the wedding starts, so we should still be in time."

He knew that speaking to Minamoto Chisei in such a coaxing tone might make him even more confused, but in order to stop him from making random guesses and making sure that Masamune would never waver, he tried his best to appear pleased and cheerful and tried to comfort him.

Gen Chisei was stunned by his current situation, but he seemed to understand that his father and Sakura and the others were going to the wedding together.

Then he turned his head and looked around the room, and then he noticed that the owner of the house had also left, and his heart was suddenly filled with doubts.

How could Dad have time to attend someone else's wedding? And he went with Eri.

His heart was filled with doubts and strange colors. Yuan Zhisheng didn't think about more outrageous possibilities, but just nodded to the person on the other end of the phone.

"I know, dad. But what's going on? You took Eri to the wedding, right?"

"That's about it. To be honest, I also felt it was very sudden. After I went back today, I received a request from Eri and asked someone to bring it to me. I was shocked to hear that she was going to attend the wedding. Later I found out that I knew this person, so I brought her along."

From the perspective of the person involved, this was more than a shock, it was an abnormal situation that could be called the collapse of the world - except for going out to eat once a month, Eri, who had never left this room, suddenly had to attend someone's wedding. Let's not talk about where she got the news, just how she knew this person was very worrying! So it was natural for Gen Chisei to be uneasy.

However, it was rather strange that Tachibana Masamune could grasp the current situation so calmly and go to the wedding together.

"Then the crows..."

"Ah, they were going to ask you for leave, but they seemed to be reluctant to disturb you. Since we all had the same destination, I brought them along."

"Is that so? I understand."

"I'm sorry, Zhisheng, I forgot to leave you a message..."

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to blame you, Dad. I know it's natural that you didn't do this. After all, I'm not a child anymore. I was too immature, so I panicked. In the end, it was only after hearing your voice that I was able to calm down."

In order not to destroy the reliable image in his father's mind, Yuan Zhisheng tried to pretend to be calm as much as possible, even though he was not able to be calm.

Seeing this, Tachibana Masamune on the other side smiled as if he saw it.

When Tachibana Masamune's black eyes finally met the gaze of another old man at a table not far away, he smiled slightly, but his gaze was slightly averted.

"In that case, come quickly."

"Ah."

(End of this chapter)