About The Case When I Started Living With A Cool Goddess-Sama, But Because Of Being Too Spoiled, She Ended Up Becoming A Clumsy Useless Person. - Chapter 2.3: Living Together With The Goddess-Sama. (Part 3)

Living Together With The Goddess-Sama. (Part 3)

It seems that Mikoto-san and I are “cousins”.

She said that one of my grandparents and Mikoto-san’s grandfather or grandmother are siblings.

I had never heard of such a thing.

When I said that, Mikoto-san nodded her head.

“I didn’t know until this evening either.”

“That’s rather recent, isn’t it?”

“I didn’t know until I went to your house today. I was told that I had to live here because it was my relative’s house.”

Perhaps because her nervousness had subsided, Mikoto-san was now talking in a calm, beautiful voice.

Still, I have no idea how it happened.

It was a very sudden revelation.

It is true that I have never had a chance to meet any of my relatives, so it’s natural for me not to know about her, but even if that’s the case, I still don’t understand why Mikoto-san came to the house of such a distant relative like me.

Come to think of it, what happened to the key to this house?

There is no way that Mikoto-san had the key.

And yet, when I came home, the door was already unlocked.

“I got the key from a person named Akihara Amane.”

Ahhh, I see.

For a moment, I was about to be convinced, when I realized something strange.

There are indeed three other people who have keys to this apartment.

The first is, of course, my father, who is currently working alone in Kushiro City, Hokkaido. 

The second is my childhood friend Sasaki Kaho. She has a duplicate key as well, which she rarely uses these days.

And the last one is my sister Amane.

She is my cousin and a college student.

Although she is my cousin, she and I have been like family since the day she lost her parents and was taken in by my family five years ago.

For a long time, my father, Amane-nee san and I lived together in this apartment.

So of course, Amane-nee san has a key because she is a resident of this flat.

So, my father had moved out on his own, since he felt secure knowing that Amane-nee san would be there to help me if anything went wrong.

However, one serious problem arose.

Amane-nee san herself has disappeared from this town.

She left this apartment to study abroad at the University of Pennsylvania in the U.S. starting this fall.

Therefore, she is not even in Japan.

In other words, there was no way that Mikoto-san could have received a key from Amane-nee san today.

When I said that, Mikoto-san made a troubled face and took out a silver key from her skirt pocket.

The key, with a white cat character key chain attached to it, was indeed the key that Amane-nee san should have had.

“It’s true that Amane-san gave me a key. But it was a long time ago. I think it was in August of this year.”

“Just before Amane-nee san went abroad.”

It is true that I did not confirm with Amane-nee san what she was going to do with the key for this flat while she was studying abroad.

She is family, and her belongings are still here.

So I thought I would ask her to keep the key in case she came back here anytime.

I had no idea that the key was in the hands of a girl I had no connection to until now.

Well, she is my classmate and my cousin, so I guess we are not completely unrelated.

Still, she is not the kind of friend she would give the key to.

I asked Mikoto-san an additional question.

“Are you an acquaintance of Amane-nee san? Mikoto-san?”

After I asked, I regretted a little when I saw Mikoto-san sipping milk from the mug.

I asked too many questions in a row.

Since she looked so cold, it was more important to get her to drink a hot drink first than to ask questions.

“I’m sorry. Just take your time, have a drink, and then answer my questions.”

“…Why are you apologizing?”

“I just thought I was asking you too many questions.”

“Hmm.”

Mikoto-san looked at me as if she was looking at something unusual.

Then she put the mug on the desk again.

“I’ve only met Amane-san once. She showed up at my old house out of the blue, claimed to be a distant relative, and suddenly handed me this key.”

“Well, she is an unpredictable person,  I still don’t understand her behavior. So, what did she say about this key?”

“She didn’t explain anything when she gave me this key. I didn’t even know which key it was for. She just said, ‘It’s like a good luck charm, so keep it with you.’ That was it.”

“Why would my house key be a good luck charm?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know, but when I was in trouble today because I couldn’t go anywhere, I received a phone call from Amane-san and she told me to go live at your place, Akihara-kun.”

I stopped the question I was planning to ask once I saw Mikoto-san touch her lips to the mug.

Then, making sure she had finished the hot milk, I asked.

“What happened to the house you lived in up until yesterday?”

When I asked the question, Mikoto-san freaked out, pulled back the blanket, and shivered a little.

The Ice Goddess is scared of something.

Then, Mikoto-san looked straight up at me and shook her head.

Mizukoto-san’s beautiful silver hair swayed softly.

“I can’t go back to that house. I… don’t want to go back…”