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In the Kouzuki household, a feast was prepared to celebrate Kazuya's victory. Thanks to Mei and Kyouko's efforts, they were successful in evading the journalists who couldn't wait to get an interview. Kazuya himself wanted to stay low key, he knew his reputation would be boosted by his achievement but he didn't want his status to be revealed.
This was one way to avoid the annoying people in Sacred Forest Academy that Mei warned him about. He knew that his identity couldn't be kept hidden forever but still preferred to keep it quiet for as long as he can. Most of the children their age may not be thinking about things such as social advantages but that doesn't mean their parents did not.
"The food is amazing as always granny" Kazuya complimented the caretaker.
"I'm glad to hear that they suit your taste young master"
"You should be more grateful to my grandmother young master. Your sudden change in taste made her learn many new things. We were used to taste the failures from her first try" Yui who was standing by Fujiyama added.
Steak, Pizza, Pasta, Sushi, BBQ, and the like made up the feast. Surely Fujiyama herself couldn't prepare such a feast alone so the sisters were brought in to assist her. Kazuya's tastes indeed have changed from what they knew as both worlds' influence showed in his choices in cuisine. While earth had the sophisticated cuisines, he missed greatly when he was in Edea, the crude yet mana filled meat of beasts from the wild would really be helpful for him right now.
"Thank you for always preparing food to suit my tastes granny Fujiyama. You don't always have to make these kinds of food all the time" he didn't fail to notice how she opted to make these by hand instead of purchasing them. Kazuya knew that she noticed his attachment to fresh foods which is why he was grateful for her thoughtfulness.
"It is no trouble at all young master. This old lady is having fun learning new things. I should be the one to thank young master for making me realize that I still have a lot of things I can improve"
"I would like to learn culinary from you one of these days. I'm afraid I won't be able to satisfy myself once I start living alone after middle school" Kazuya said. He was concerned about feeding himself after going to Edea. His culinary skills were only subpar and couldn't compare to Fujiyama's. Eating her food everyday made his tongue pickier as she improved.
""What did you say!?"" Fujiyama knew to step back as Kazuya was pulled from both sides. The two girls forgot to control their own growing strengths and ripped the sleeves on both sides of his shirt.
"I wanted to learn how to cook from granny Fujiyama" he realized what he said wrong. Kazuya has felt a bit fearful after seeing the state his clothes were in. "Being able to cook is a usef—"
""Not that!!"" The Fujiyama trio tried to hold their laughs as the two grown women interrogate Kazuya like a lover caught cheating. The three knew that with their young master's intellect, he already knew what he said wrong and was stalling while thinking of an answer to satisfy the two.
"You mean living alone after middle school?" Kazuya tried hard to put up an act. "I heard my classmates talking about it. They said that their brothers and sisters moved to the dorms after graduating from high school. There were those that said that it could be as early as middle school so I thought that it was a normal thing to happen"
""NO!"" The two rejected the idea.
"Kazuya don't believe such things. Moving to study only applies to those who live very far away from their schools" Kyouko tried hard and gave a lot of examples to explain. She didn't like the idea nor even thought about letting Kazuya move to a dorm.
"Mother-in-law is right Kazu. How can you say such things? Can you bear to leave your poor big sis alone?" They rarely got along when it came to Kazuya but they stood as a united front against what they just heard.
"Is that so? I'm relieved then. I thought it was a normal thing. I was afraid that I had to leave when I got older so I'm relieved to hear I won't have to" This made him feel a little guilty. He didn't know how time flowed in Edea compared to earth. He planned to use this excuse to give himself some time because he didn't know how long he would stay there once he went.
Fortunately, this pacified the two ladies as they continued their meal. This was the first time the Fujiyama sisters attended a meal with the three occupants so they couldn't help but stare at the startling appetite of their little young master. They initially thought that they helped with too much food after learning that there wouldn't be any other guests but after seeing the boy's appetite, they couldn't help but think where the food was going.
Kyouko's phone rang just as they were finishing up. She looked at the number and immediately answered. The expression on her face grew a bit serious as she glanced at Mei. Kazuya could tell just by listening that Lee made a move that will cost him.
"Kazuya, I'm sorry but our trip will have to be postponed" Kyouko regretfully announced.
"It's okay mom. What was that all about?"
Kyouko hesitated but under the unwavering gaze of her son, she decided to tell him all of it. He already knew the part about Lee's involvement in this after Jirou told him. What he didn't about was the sensitive relationship between the Kouzuki and the Kurogane families. It never occurred to him until now who or where his father was.
"A-are you curious about your father?" Kyouko nervously asked.
"I'm not" Kazuya hasn't even seen a picture of that guy nor did he hear anything about it in the past. He only knew that Kyouko was the only relative he had and no one from the Kurogane side ever cared to show themselves in front of him. "You don't need to be nervous about them too much mom. They will regret it if they dare even as much as threaten us" a flicker of bloodlust made the people in the room feel a chill.
"It's not their threats we should be worried about but their reach. People may see our families on the same level but without our allies, we are at a disadvantage"
"I see" stood from his seat. "Please do inform me if there is any progress about this matter. I will leave the adults to talk and will be in the storage building to pass the time" Kazuya left and headed for his next destination.
Kyouko was touched by her son's concern but only took his words as an adult would a child's. Kazuya understood this and that was why he didn't pursue the matter further. Even he wouldn't take his own words seriously if he was in her shoes. Even though that was the case, he was still glad to have been informed about this potential problem.
"Looks like I have a new thing to add to my to-do list" Kazuya smiled as he entered the storage room.
Like other common old Japanese mansions, the Kouzuki family have two of their own separate storage buildings. One was originally a smaller dojo but it was turned into a storage area because Kouzuki Kou always went to the Shiroyuki dojo whenever he was up for sword practice.
Kazuya took over one of the storage room and moved all the stuff to fit in the other storage facility. This was now turned into his own space where even Kyouko and Mei were forbidden from entering without Kazuya's permission. The storage area had been dubbed his research area where he claims to be his quiet place to study and research on the outside. On the inside however, this was where he studies and experiments on magic so that no one will be able to see witness the more eye-catching ones like live spells or visual formations.
"Now then… what to do… about this… new problem"
He stared around at his new space while thinking. It took him most of the previous week to arrange this storage house for himself. Kazuya actually wanted to sleep here but he was prohibited by both Mei and Kyouko. This was where he decided to store most of his secrets so he placed a lot of enchantments with the help of the mana gathering formation.
This was not the only thing he started doing. Kazuya also started to develop Mei and Kyouko's sensitivity, aptitude and compatibility with mana. Due to the increase in the concentration of mana gathering at their household, the ladies were clearly showing positive changes. The two however were clearly showing different kinds of reactions.
Kyouko and Mei's natural abilities were improving, their agility, strength, intelligence and the like were enabling them to do so much work with ease. The clear difference between the two's developments were like night and day. Kyouko received a shocking growth when it came to her intelligence, concentration and mental agility.
Mei on the other hand, could now hold Kazuya in her embrace without worrying about him escaping. She could even catch him if he wanted to run away. To make matters even more complicated, her senses greatly improved and she can unconsciously sense those who were staring or paying attention to her.
"They should be able to protect themselves if it were normal circumstances. I guess this would be one of the perks of having your old life's memo—" Kazuya stopped what he was murmuring as an idea popped into his head.
He a clear advantage and that was his memory. If the plans forming in his mind about how to take revenge in Edea largely involved the usage of information from his memory and prediction of the future, then it could also apply on earth.
"A quick way to make a lot of money legally…." He looked at the date on his computer. "The lottery would be a good choice since a kid can do it and get lucky" he decided. He would take a breather from reading too many books in the library at times and pick a random one. One of those was a book about a man and his schemes about trying to determine if there were patterns regarding winning lottery number combinations. It was mainly to make fun of the conspiracy theorists who like to gain attention by claiming as such but the numbers written on it were indeed the true winning numbers of the past.
Usually one wouldn't remember details about such a book but Kazuya was different. Like watching a movie countless number of times, the viewers will be able to memorize not only the lines but also various other details as long as they pay attention. Kazuya never thought that the random books he read would help him much but they were already playing their part in helping his current self.
Another example would be the book he read about physical therapy and reflexology. He can apply the science he learned about the human body towards optimizing his own training as well as help nurture the bodies of Mei and Kyouko. The two may have their capabilities enhanced but no one had endless stamina. Kazuya would help them by giving them simple massages to relax and improve their constitutions by strengthening them with his mana.
"Money is just the first step…" Kazuya pondered about the next step.
There were obviously limitations since his current self was too young to be taken seriously. He needed a guardian to oversee everything since minors were considered not competent enough no matter how much of a genius one was. Since he wanted to hide this from Kyouko, there was only one other person who he trusted enough to help him with his plans.
"Big sis will most likely agree but I wonder if she'll give me a hard time…" Kazuya murmured. Mei was unpredictable at times so Kazuya was a little troubled. He didn't doubt her sincerity towards him but her overprotectiveness at times do cause some trouble for him. "I will have to worry about that later. For now, I need to get things prepared for when I win the lottery"
Kazuya got on his computer and checked the lottery results of the past and made sure they coincided with his memories. He targeted two lotteries in specific; the one that was recorded for not having a winner for consecutive weeks and the big lottery at the end of the year which no one was also lucky enough to win this year. This was more than enough to get his own company started and the money itself would be a great help if ever the two families ever clashed.
"As for the people…"
After making sure that the lottery numbers have been accurate, Kazuya proceeded to download two specific applications. One was an online game that was about to be officially released, and one was a currently under development chatting application used by gamers.
*KNOCK*
"Young master it's Yui. I have something I need to discuss with you" She tried to stealthily enter but she couldn't open the doors no matter what she did. Kazuya of course was aware of her presence because of the detection array but did not mind as she was not the first person to wander around his research area trying to get a glimpse of what he was up to.
"Come on in then" she was not the first visitor either. Mei basically made him set up a place where visitors or she could sit and stay. "What do you want?" he had many things to think about so he cut straight to the point.
"Payback" Yui gave a mischievous grin. "I have something that would help the Kurogane conglomerate to accept their loss without making a big fuss but I want you to take back your insults and beg me" Yui folder her arms and stood proudly in front of him.
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