In the end, Seiji was unable to find out anything regarding Chiaki’s mother.

But, he didn’t want to give up just like this… Seiji intended to call Shingo again later to ask again.

And if Shingo Wakaba still refused to say anything, Seiji would go find him and say his question to his face.

And if Seiji still couldn’t get an answer, he would ask Natsuya to hire someone to investigate Chiaki’s family!

Of course, Seiji would ask about Chiaki’s own feelings regarding the matter first.

“I’ll leave everything to you.” Chiaki smiled at Seiji. “Troubling my dad over this… feels pretty good.”

Seiji smiled as he sensed that his girlfriend trusted him completely.

Seiji then told Natsuya about the situation. She was more than happy to help out if needed, telling him that all he needed to do was ask if he decided to have an investigation done on Chiaki’s family.

After that, it was time to train in Kazuko’s Domain once more.

This time, only Seiji, Mika, Hoshi, Kaede, Mayuzumi, Kaho, Natsuya, and Rana were participating in battle.

Since the cat girl was joining the battle, Chiaki couldn’t enjoy her cat time and wasn’t too happy.

After the strategy conference, everyone put on their combat equipment and Rana transformed into her adult cat woman form. Her seductive beauty was a huge contrast to her previous cuteness, astonishing everyone who saw her other form for the first time.

Chiaki was particularly stunned to the point where she even began to drool without realizing.

When she regained her senses, she strongly requested to touch the cat girl’s tail! But, Rana avoided her yet again.

“I’m begging you~ Kirin-chan~ Please let me touch you~~”

“Meow.”

The tomboy chased the larger cat girl in circles around the living room. Chiaki seemed to be having fun.

Mayuzumi also expressed interest in touching Rana, and Mika and the others were interested as well. But since everyone saw that Rana didn’t want to be touched, they naturally didn’t press the issue.

Seiji took action and captured the “berserk” Chiaki, tossing her over to Mai to watch over her while everyone was training in the Domain.

After everyone finished their preparations, they then entered the Domain.

Kazuko lowered the difficulty of the monsters in the Domain, but not by too much. The difficulty was back to the same level as the day before yesterday.

Everyone’s fight was successful, and no unexpected situations popped up. Neither did any “vicious demon” level monsters appear as everyone successfully defeated the last monster wave.

After leaving the Domain, Seiji went to find Chiaki. He saw that she was looking at the yard in a daze.

“Welcome back… was everything fine?” Chiaki came back to her senses when she noticed Seiji arriving.

“The battle went well.” Seiji looked at her. “But, is something the matter with you?”

“My dad called me just now and told me to eat dinner with him tonight,” Chiaki spoke in a soft voice.

Seiji raised his eyebrows upon hearing this. “He’s willing to talk to you about your mother?”

“He didn’t mention anything. He only told me to eat dinner with him tonight… And he even specifically mentioned that you weren’t allowed to come.”

As expected, Chiaki’s father Shingo didn’t like Seiji. Seiji was completely unaffected by her father’s dislike for him.

Seiji didn’t care at all what Shingo thought of him. He only cared about what Chiaki thought.

“If he says that, I want to go even more… But, I’ll leave the decision up to you.” Seiji looked directly at his girlfriend’s face. “If you want me to go with you, I’ll go. Or, if you want me to go with you but you don’t want him to know about it, I can use a spell to make myself invisible. And if you feel that it will be better for you to go by yourself, I will respect your wish.”

Chiaki fell silent for a moment before replying.

“If I allow you to come with me, can you guarantee that you absolutely won’t attack him?’

“I can’t,” Seiji answered directly and honestly.

“I knew it… that’s why I can’t take you with me.” Chiaki sighed in exaggerated fashion as if she was a teacher who felt helpless about a delinquent student.

“I can promise at least not to beat him up to death.” Seiji made a pose like he was a delinquent student.

“Rather than a guarantee, that sounds more like a threat, my dear student Haruta-san.”

“You misunderstand. I’m sincerely guaranteeing that at the very most, I’ll break only a few of his bones, Wakaba-sensei.”

“That’s definitely a threat!”

“There’s no helping it. I’ll compromise a little, then. I promise to only break at most one of his bones.”

“This isn’t an issue about the number of bones!”

“Because of my Sensei’s pleading, I’ll compromise as much as I possibly can. I promise not to break any bones in his dominant hand.”

“Nor is this an issue of which bone to break!!”

After retorting, Chiaki broke out into laughter.

Seiji chuckled as well.

“Will you really be alright by yourself?” After laughing, he asked this question in all seriousness.

“…I’m not sure that there won’t be any problems, but… I want to face him by myself,” Chiaki replied. “I’ll feel quite reassured if you’re by my side. But, I think that’s no good. He is my father, and I want to learn about my mother from him… I need to talk to him about it myself.”

Her boyfriend was reliable, incredibly reliable. It would definitely be fine to leave things up to him.

But since her father voluntarily asked to meet and talk, then Chiaki felt like she should work up her courage and face him properly.

Besides, if talking to her father didn’t go well, she could always ask for Seiji’s help afterwards.

“If the situation is bad, then I’ll send a signal for help… is that alright?”

“Of course.” Seiji smiled. “The moment that I receive your signal, I’ll rush over immediately at top speed.”

After seeing his gentle smile, Chiaki felt once more that her boyfriend was really cool. She smiled brilliantly.

Dinner time.

Chiaki quietly waited by herself in a private room at a high-class Sakura Island restaurant.

How long ago had she last eaten dinner together with her father?

She thought about it for a moment, but was too lazy to think about it anymore.

This wasn’t because she didn’t mind, but by now, it didn’t really matter that much anymore.

Rather than living in her original luxurious apartment provided to her by her father, Chiaki felt far more used to living in the Uehara apartments now… No, it wasn’t even to the extent of being accustomed to it, as right now, Chiaki was completely unwilling to leave the Uehara apartments and return to her original luxurious apartment.

Seiji, Mika, Shika, Reo, Kaede, and the landlord Nozomi… the Uehara apartments had all these familiar people living there. The Uehara apartments seemed far more like home to Chiaki than her luxurious apartment.

Fun times from her daily life appeared in her mind. The tomboy’s mouth slowly started arcing upwards without her realizing it. She even took out her cell phone and started browsing saved pictures of everyone’s daily life together.

After seeing the pictures, she recalled the memories from that time… She soon immersed herself in the memories.

Right when she was looking at a picture of Seiji from the cherry blossom viewing festival, Chiaki heard some footsteps outside the room’s door.

Her father had arrived.

Chiaki put away her cell phone and turned around to see her father entering.

Shingo Wakaba was wearing a dark-colored jacket and long pants. He had a handsome appearance but was rather on the skinny side. He wore black-rimmed eyeglasses, had a small and combed mustache and neat and orderly grayish-brown hair, which was tied in a ponytail. He definitely had the aura of an artist.

This was her father, Shingo Wakaba.

His physical appearance and aura both seemed to suit his status as a renowned artist. To be more specific, it was likely that seven out of ten people who didn’t know him would instantly be able to guess his occupation as an artist.

Shingo had previously been on many television programs as a guest artist. He had even acted in a few movies before as an artist. This was all likely due to his physical appearance greatly helping him out. He even had the nickname “Idol Artist” in the entertainment industry.

“Dad… Good evening.” Chiaki greeted him.

Shingo nodded slightly and sat down across from his daughter. He then ordered some food on the menu.

After the server left with the order, Shingo and Chiaki both fell silent.

“How have you been doing?” After a period of silence, Shingo spoke first.

“Very well,” Chiaki answered calmly.

Every single time that her father met with her, his first question would almost always be this exact question. And then, no matter what she replied with, his comment would always be…

“I see,” the famous artist answered expressionlessly in a light tone.

His behavior didn’t seem like he was concerned for his daughter. It was as if he was just going through the motions.