I Started a Lover-for-Hire Service, And For Some Reason, Only Beautiful Girls Are Requesting Me - Chapter 79: Aira's Side After The School Festival

“That was totally insane! He just charged forward like bam, then slapped the enemy with the back of his hand to save Aira-chin! His face went all guhh and twisted up!”

“Ohhhhhh!!”

“Then he swept his legs out and sent him crashing down!”

“Whoaaaaaa!!”

“And then—BAM!—kneed him right in the chest!”

“UOOOOHHHHHH!!!”

After the school festival had ended, Aira’s classroom was in an uproar.

Rina, the dialect-speaking girl, was enthusiastically recounting Ryoma’s actions. Her words lacked precision, but she compensated by reenacting the attacks with dramatic gestures, turning the retelling into something like a comedy skit. Encircling her was a crowd of boys—this kind of story was exactly the sort of thing they loved.

“The guy tried to throw a punch, but Ryoma-senpai just fwoosh! dodged it! Then he went in for the counterattack!”

“Whoa, that’s so badass!”

“I kinda wanna take up martial arts now…”

“Man, I totally look up to him…”

“How did they even meet…?”

“As expected of Aira’s boyfriend—absolute legend.”

At that moment, the entire class turned to look at Aira.

“Ryoma-senpai isn’t like that! And stop staring at me!”

Reading the silent plea in their gazes for some kind of reaction, Aira responded immediately. She was no longer wearing her demon costume, now back in her school uniform.

“Ohhh, come on now! Ryoma-senpai, right? He totally said, ‘Aira is my precious partner!’ didn’t he~?”

“…Huh?”

Since Aira had been the one to go call the teacher, she hadn’t witnessed Ryoma and Makoto’s confrontation. This was the first time she was hearing about it—from Rina, no less.

“And he was all like, ‘You hurt my precious Aira. Of course you have to pay for that’. He made it super clear how much he cares about you, you know? What’s up with that, huh, Aira-chin~?”

“What? That doesn’t matter.”

Being confronted with this, Aira could only feel flustered. She had no idea how to respond, mumbling as she struggled to find the right words.

“Aira, your face is bright red, you know!”

“You guys are totally into each other! Just date already!”

“Ahhh, youth at its finest!”

“After all that, there’s no way she wouldn’t fall for him, right?”

“Aira-chin was totally giving off ‘I’m so in love’ vibes the whole time!”

“Seriously, what is wrong with you guys! Stop teasing me already!”

Aira spun her chair around 180 degrees, turning her back to the class.

“Aww, Aira-chin’s sulking now…”

“I’m not sulking! I’m just done with this conversation!”

Being teased non-stop was just too embarrassing. Aira decided she wouldn’t react any further.

Then—

“…Ryoma-san is amazing, huh, Aira?”

“Ikki…”

Unlike the others, Ikki sat down beside her without any teasing.

“I heard from my sister—apparently, Ryoma-san has a black belt in karate too.”

“Oh, I knew it! The way he moved when he took that guy down, it felt different… Wait, what? You mean your sister does karate as well!?”

“Yeah, she’s still active. Black belt. In terms of rank, she’s actually above him.”

“What the hell, that’s intense. How dare I pick a fight with her.”

There was no way an untrained Aira could ever beat Kanon, a ranked martial artist.

Their fights had mostly been love-related scuffles—”I won’t let you have him!”—but if they’d ever lose control, things could turned into a serious brawl.

“…My sister, you know—she actually kind of liked you. Or at least, she respected you. She was saying, ‘I can’t afford to lose to Aira-chan’. Also, she kinda wanted to be the one to take that bastard down instead of Ryoma-san.”

“She said that? With that soft, fluffy-looking face? Your sister literally looks like a plushie!”

“I— I don’t get that comparison at all, but… trust me, she’s terrifying when she flips that switch.”

“Yeah… I can sorta see that.”

It was a common saying—the kinder they are, the scarier they get when mad. And for someone like Kanon, who had a face so gentle it could be compared to a stuffed animal, the contrast when she got serious must’ve been terrifying.

“…So, what happened to him? That bastard who tried to mess with you?”

“I don’t know the exact details, but he’s apparently waiting for the police in the faculty room. Since the festival’s over and everyone’s back in class, they’ll probably be here soon. At least it won’t cause a scene anymore.”

“…What a mess.”

“Seriously. Because of him, they’ll probably revoke the open-invite policy for the festival. So annoying. And Ryoma-senpai’s stuck talking to the police, so he can’t come back yet. And I’ll probably get called in too.”

“But still… gotta hand it to Ryoma-san. He didn’t injure that guy, so it won’t count as excessive force.”

“Yeah… I guess. Honestly, that’s all I care about.”

Aira had been silenced, intimidated with words, and had her head and face touched—but she hadn’t been physically harmed beyond that.

She had already reported everything to the teachers, and while it had been a terrifying experience, she could endure it. What she couldn’t stand was the idea of Ryoma getting in trouble for saving her.

“Sigh… I feel like the gap just keeps getting wider. I can say it with full confidence now—there’s no way I can beat Ryoma-san. And that just sucks.”

“Well, obviously. He’s my chosen guy. You think I’d go after someone who’s easy to surpass?”

“…Fair point.”

“Exactly.”

“Still, as someone rooting for you, I feel obligated to warn you—Ryoma-san has a lot of girls after him right now.”

“Huh?”

The atmosphere instantly turned sharp.

Aira hadn’t heard the details, but she was quick on the uptake. She could already guess what Ikki was hinting at.

And there was no way she could just smile and let that slide.

“A group I joined for certain reasons… well, some of the girls in there…”

Ikki trailed off as he pulled out his phone and showed Aira the screen. She leaned in to take a look—only for her face to twist.

“‘Hot Guy Sighting Group’…? What the hell is this? This is hilarious.”

“Forget the name—look at this part.”

“Uh… ‘Just because they’re a couple doesn’t mean she gets to keep him all to herself, right? Besides, there’s rumors they’re not even really dating’… What the hell?! That’s a bombshell right off the bat!”

“And here—’Guys are meant to have multiple girls, it’s just nature.’ All of this? They’re talking about Ryoma-san.”

“Unbelievable! So basically, everyone is after Ryoma-senpai now.”

Thanks to what had happened, Ryoma’s reputation had skyrocketed. Even if the school wanted to keep things quiet, social media existed. Information spread fast.

“They might be joking, but some of them are probably dead serious.”

“Ugh… Inviting Ryoma-senpai to the festival was a huge mistake. This school is full of backstabbing girls… Not that I have much room to talk.”

“Well, I doubt any of them can outmaneuver you, Aira. You’ve got a ton of personal connections with Ryoma-san. That alone gives you a major advantage.”

“Yeah, I know that. But I can’t let my guard down. There’s already another girl in the picture—and she’s a serious threat.”

This was Aira’s biggest concern.

She had gone out for ramen with Ryoma, and during their casual conversation, they had exchanged contact info. That was when she found out—

“Ryoma-senpai is connected to this super cute, famous manga artist.”

“A manga artist!?”

“Yeah, she draws rom-coms. You probably don’t know her, Ikki, since you’re not into that genre.”

“Oh, tell me who it is!”

For some reason, Ikki seemed way too interested.

“Uh, sure… It’s Devil-chan. She’s got 160,000 followers on Twitter.”

“Is this the manga artist who’s going to post that ‘Room Date’ four-panel comic on Twitter today?”

“Yeah, that’s her. Huh? How do you know about her? You’re suspiciously well-informed, Ikki.”

“Well, you do retweet a lot of those kinds of comics, right? They started showing up on my feed, and I got really into them… Wait. Wait. So Ryoma-san knows Devil-chan!? And she’s a girl!?”

Retweeting meant sharing content with your Twitter followers. Since Ikki followed Aira, he had been exposed to Devil-chan’s work that way.

“And they DM each other too.”

“Hey, just how deep does Ryoma-san’s network go…”

As a devoted fan of Devil-chan’s manga, Ikki was stunned by this revelation.

Later, he would even end up searching “Devil-chan gender”, trying to confirm whether she was really a girl.

“…Anyway, you better make him make it up to you. I kinda messed up too, so I’ll help you bug him through your phone if you want.”

“Nah, no need. I already have a plan.”

“You do?”

“Yep. The school is obviously gonna call my parents about this, right?”

“Yeah, makes sense.”

“So I’m gonna introduce Ryoma-senpai to them as my brave savior! That should get me pretty far, don’t you think? Use my parents to corner him, since he’s so bad at pushing back.”

Aira was already scheming how to cut off Ryoma’s escape routes.

Twisting an official report into a personal opportunity—only someone truly cunning could pull that off.

“…Aira, you are kinda sneaky…”

“Hey, I told you—I have no right to judge other scheming girls.”

She grinned, flashing her fanged smile.

The battle wasn’t over yet—it was just beginning.

This time, she hadn’t been able to act spoiled.

But next time? She was making up for all of it.