The Villain Who Got Pinned Down Until He Ran Out Of Stamina ~ This Time I Raised The Protagonist's Affection Too Much And Everyone Fell For Me~ - Chapter 71: The Prince Seems To Be Lacking In Heart-Pounding Moments

“Are you sure just shaved ice is enough?”

“Yeah.”

“…I see.”

Riina and I were taking a break in the dining area next to where the food stalls were lined up. It was almost time for our noon meetup, so the timing was just right.

“Is the shaved ice tasty?”

“It’s okay.”

“I see.”

And as for the shaved ice that Riina was eating…

“…I’ll have you treat me to something later.” 

“I-I’d be happy to…”

When we’d been on the water slide, Riina’s bikini had almost fallen off and I’d pressed against it to keep it in place, which resulted in me accidentally grabbing her breasts. This was like an apology for that.

I thought I’d be forced to buy something more expensive, but just shaved ice was unexpected.

However…

“Is that trendy? Putting various flavored syrups on shaved ice?”

Riina’s shaved ice had various flavored syrups poured on it, making it colorful. Hibari’s shaved ice had been pretty colorful too, wasn’t it? Did girls like putting lots of syrup on their shaved ice?

“…What’s wrong with that?”

“Well, nothing I guess.”

Everyone had their own preferences.

Riina silently munched away at her shaved ice. At one point, she must have gotten brain freeze because she pressed her forehead. As for me, since I had already eaten shaved ice with Hibari, I didn’t order anything and just looked around or occasionally watched Riina eating her shaved ice to pass the time.

“Kasajima.”

“Hm?”

When she called my name, I looked at Riina and saw that the shaved ice in her hand was half gone.

“With this, I’ll let what happened with you groping my chest slide.”

“Th-thanks…”

So she was forgiving me now. Well, that was a relief. That kind of eroge-like accident should be enough for just the protagonist.

“…”

“What’s wrong? Is there something on my face?”

Riina was staring intently at me for some reason.

“…Nothing. Never mind.”

“Okay then.”

If it was nothing, then that was fine. I was a bit nervous that she might say she wouldn’t forgive me for grabbing her chest after all.

Still, conversations with Riina didn’t really continue. Well, she did respond when I talked to her, so maybe we’d reached the point where we couldn’t get any closer than this. Without the villain element, I was basically just like a background character.

“Yuji-kun! Riina-chan!”

“Oh, Yuito! And welcome back, Mahiro-san.”

From the opposite direction, Yuito and Mahiro waved and came toward us. Was it already time for our meetup?

“Yuji-kun! You found your swimsuit safely!”

“Y-yeah. Well, yeah.”

Oh right, I had forgotten my swimsuit and Yuito and the others had been worried about me. I was grateful to Hibari for bringing it to me.

“Yuito looks like… he’s been having fun from what I can see.”

“Yeah! I played a lot in the pool and rode the water slides tons of times!”

Yuito’s beaming smile. I saw it every time, but… it was somehow healing, wasn’t it?

“Hmm. So Kasajima-kun and Riina were playing together?”

Mahiro looked back and forth between me and Riina with some kind of smile.

“Eh, ah… well… we just happened to run into each other.”

“Right. I just happened to find him, and he looked pitiful being all alone, so I stayed with him.”

“I see.”

“Ahaha… Well, yeah.”

If anything, Riina was the one who’d splashed water in my face with a water gun and gotten involved with me. It would make things complicated, so I’d just go along with Riina for now.

“Oh, Yui-kun ♪. Want to eat some shaved ice?”

“Ah, yeah…!”

Riina spoke to Yuito with a tone one pitch brighter than she’d ever shown me, along with a mischievous smile.

“Then… here, say ‘ahh’ ♪.”

“A-ahh…”

She smoothly led him into the “ahh” feeding pose. What a show they were putting on. As expected of the protagonist and heroine.

The spoon with shaved ice was now heading toward Yuito, who was waiting with his mouth open—

“Mm. It’s sweet and delicious.”

“Ahh!?”

“M-Mahiro-chan…!?”

Just before Yuito was about to eat it, Mahiro grabbed Riina’s arm and moved it to her own mouth. She was the one who ate the shaved ice.

“Hey, big sister! Don’t interfere with my ‘ahh’ feeding to Yui-kun!”

“It’s still my time to monopolize Yuito. So you’ll have to wait until later to feed him.”

“The time has already passed…”

Riina looked at the big clock in the pool area. I reflexively looked at the clock too. At that moment, the long hand clicked to point at 12 o’clock.

“Okay, now it’s Riina’s time to monopolize Yuito. Please, go ahead.”

“You could have been a little more generous with like 30 seconds! Geez!”

Haha… when it came to Yuito, these beautiful sisters were the same as always.

“It’s time for our meetup, but is everyone here?”

Yuito asked.

“The people here now are me, Yuito, Mahiro-san, Riina-san… Yeah, we’re missing one person.”

I had been thinking since before that he was nowhere to be found.

“It’s that guy. You know… um…”

“Tajima.”

“Right. Whats-his-name-jima.”

“It’s Tajima. Please remember his name, Riina-san.”

He was our classmate, after all. Come to think of it, when I’d started hanging out with Yuito…

“The Sumino sisters wanting to be friends with me… no way. Besides, they’re both with Yuito… um, they get along well with Yuito. They’re only interested in him.” 

“I don’t think that’s true. After all, it’s rare for Mahiro-chan and Riina-chan to remember and call people by their names.”

I remember having a conversation like that. Both Riina and Mahiro seemed to have trouble remembering names other than Yuito’s. Still, since he was one of the people who came to play with us today, I’d like them to remember his name by the time we got home.

“Tajima-kun. I wonder if he got lost somewhere?”

“He’s not a little kid, so he should be fine.”

If he got lost, he could just ask the staff for directions. Given Tajima’s tendency to fall for girls easily, it was more likely that he’d gotten distracted by a pretty older woman and followed her.

“We should probably go look for him anyway.”

Mahiro said so and she was right. We should probably go look for him either way.

The conversation paused there.

The next issue was who would go look for him.

With me, Yuito, Mahiro, and Riina… it would inevitably be me who went looking.

Because there was no way the beautiful sisters would leave Yuito behind to go searching—

“Then I’ll go look with Kasajima-kun.”

“Eh?”

Mahiro suddenly said that.

“Mahiro-chan and Yuji-kun are going? Then I’ll also…”

“No, Yuito. There’s a possibility that he might come here while we’re gone and we’d miss each other. Besides, we can’t leave Riina alone, right?”

“Y-yeah…! Riina-chan is cute, so she might get hit on like this morning.”

“Yui-kun called me cute. I’m so happy~”

Riina had a beaming smile on her face. She really was easy to please when it came to Yuito.

“So, I’m thinking of going with Kasajima-kun… is that okay with you, Kasajima-kun?”

“W-well, that’s fine.”

I was going to go look anyway.

“Now then, Kasajima-kun.”

“What is it, Mahiro-san?”

After parting from Yuito and Riina, just as we were about to start looking for Tajima, Mahiro suddenly stopped walking.

“I had two reasons for wanting to act together with you—looking for him… Tajima-kun, and one other reason.”

“Ah… so there is an ulterior motive, after all?”

Otherwise, there was no way Mahiro would leave Yuito’s side to be alone with me.

“Hehe, ‘ulterior motive’ sounds rather ominous. I just want you to listen while we look for him.”

With that, Mahiro started walking. I matched her pace and walked beside her to listen to what she had to say.

“From the looks of it, is this about relationship troubles?”

“As expected of Kasajima-kun. Sharp.”

“Thank you.”

Whenever Mahiro wanted to talk to me, I figured it would be about something like that. And… I definitely thought Yuito would be involved.

“I’ll be direct then.”

“P-please go ahead.”

“Recently—Yuito hasn’t been getting heart-pounding moments from me.”

“I-I see?”

“I might be lacking in heart-pounding moments.”

“I see.”

“So…”

There was a pause then. The next words seemed important.

“—I want you to teach me about heart-pounding moments, Kasajima-kun.”