The Tsundere Ojou-sama's Honesty Strategy Backfires Spectacularly - Honest Declaration, the Shock of Akatsukimon! Sanjou Ojou-sama Breaks the 140-Year Seal Here and Now

"From today on, I will be honest." The moment the words left her lips, Sanjou Shion checked her face in the mirror. …Expressionless. Perfectly. Not a flicker, as if carved from plaster—expressionless. (Why does the face of someone who just resolved to be honest look like this?) The morning of Toutou is quiet. The Sanjou estate's main residence, the Haruri Palace—a white Meiji-era Western building standing at the heart of Toutou—its top floor. Shion's mirror is large, nearly two meters tall. An old-fashioned mirror that stretches from floor to ceiling. The reflection staring back was, by any measure, a stern-faced ojou-sama. Jet-black semi-long bob. Deep crimson eyes. A slender frame in a white blouse and navy blazer. A checkered pleated skirt. The Suirei Academy uniform has its charm. The problem was that the face wearing it stared back with sharp eyes, unmoving. Shion had turned twenty today. It was her birthday. Twenty years. Always this face. --- Dig through memory, and it surfaces quickly. At seven years old, a friend gave her a birthday present. A small box with a pink ribbon. Inside was a tiny glass animal. A horse, she thought. Transparent, catching the light in rainbow hues—a beautiful horse. She was happy. So very happy. Her chest felt like it would burst with joy. But her face didn't move. "…I accept it," she said, taking it in both hands. That was all. Her friend looked a little troubled and asked, "Do you like it?" She answered only, "Yes." That girl transferred to another school the next month. The Sanjou family has a house rule called *seimen-ritsu*—the law of the expressionless face. Established roughly one hundred forty years ago by the third-generation head, Sanjou Rinko. "To show emotion on one's face is to lose one's dignity"—just that single line had frozen the faces of every Sanjou for generations. Behind it lay the Kouki Incident. The second-generation head had grown emotional during a business negotiation, and the partner withdrew. They lost thirty percent of their assets. So never again—show no emotion. The logic made sense. But. (Why must I inherit a failure from one hundred forty years ago?) Shion turned back to the mirror and spoke again. "From today on, I will be honest." Still expressionless. (…Are my facial muscles actually dead?) --- At breakfast, Shion launched her first honesty offensive. The Haruri Palace dining room had high ceilings, and morning light fell across the white tablecloth. The meal laid out by the servants was arranged with usual care. Scrambled eggs, toast, soup. Shion picked up her fork and took a bite of the eggs. …They were overcooked. The old Shion would have eaten in silence. But today was different. Today, she was the honest Sanjou Shion. "Alphonse." The figure standing by the dining room entrance stepped forward quietly. Tsurumi Alphonse. Head butler of the Sanjou household, thirty-four years old. Dark gray hair pulled back neatly, ice-sharp gray eyes. One hundred seventy-eight centimeters tall, not a thread out of place on his black butler's uniform. Top graduate of Tsurumi Academy—that full-boarding institution famous for training butlers of great houses, with a graduation rate of thirty-five percent. Head of the Sanjou butler corps of twelve. His expression was, well, expressionless. Standing next to Shion, they looked like parent and child. "What is it, young lady?" Shion set down her fork. "From today, I speak honestly. These scrambled eggs are overcooked." Silence. Alphonse's face didn't move. As befitted a top graduate. A man whose blink rate was probably optimized. "…Understood." He bowed perfectly, quietly, and walked toward the kitchen. The door closed. Shion took a sip of soup. Not bad. The soup passed. Then, from beyond the door, a low, deep sound leaked through. "…Hah." It didn't reach Shion's ears. But the young butler in the kitchen heard it. "Alphonse…sir?" Alphonse was looking out the kitchen window. The morning of Toutou spread before him. High-rise buildings lined the skyline, and the Sanjou Tower's windows caught the morning sun, gleaming. "Young lady has turned twenty." The young butler tilted his head. "Um…congratulations?" Alphonse didn't answer. He simply looked out the window. His gaze was distant. (One hundred forty years of the law of the expressionless face, built up stone by stone, is coming to an end this morning…) But he didn't let it show on his face. Of course not. He was a top graduate, after all. --- Forty minutes by train to Suirei City. Shion gazed out the window of the express running northeast from Toutou, along a road of rolling hills. Many trees. The urban density thinned, and green increased. Suirei City sits atop a hill. Suirei Academy sits even higher. (I'll tell Rui that I like him.) Shion clasped her hands in her lap and rehearsed in her mind. Shiina Rui. Her childhood friend. The eldest son of Shiina Trading Company—a mid-tier zaibatsu operating the supermarket chain "Shiina Fresh Market" with one hundred twenty locations across Tourin. Twenty years old. Gentle, always listening to what Shion had to say. For twenty years, the only person who responded normally no matter what the expressionless Sanjou ojou-sama said. She liked him. Not as a friend. Properly, she liked him. But she'd never been able to say it. The law of the expressionless face wouldn't allow her to show affection. (Today is different. From today, I am honest.) The train swayed. Shion looked out the window. Not a cloud in the sky. Not bad. --- When the Suirei Academy's main gate, the Akatsuki Gate, came into view, Shion's feet stopped. A stone arch gate six meters high. Two security guards on either side. Morning arrival time, students streaming through the gate. Navy blazers, checkered skirts, over two thousand students in identical uniforms filling the hilltop campus. Suirei Academy—annual tuition of 4.8 million rin, campus area of 480,000 square meters, the pinnacle of Tourin's elite schools. Shion took a deep breath. (I will declare it here. That is the first step toward honesty.) There was a reason. Not to be heard by others. To convince herself. The method of a perfectionist—by speaking it aloud, she would cut off any retreat. Once she decided, she would see it through. That was Sanjou Shion. A student coming from behind nearly collided with her and stumbled awkwardly. Shion didn't notice. "I, Sanjou Shion, hereby swear that from this day forward, I will live with honesty!" The volume cut through the morning air. Every student around her stopped. Literally every student stopped. Those walking, those talking, those about to pass through the gate. The plaza before the Akatsuki Gate froze in an instant. "…Huh?" "Huh?" "Huh??" A wave of confusion rippled outward. The zaibatsu ojou-sama, the only daughter of the Sanjou house, the one famous for being expressionless—or rather, the one no one had ever seen with any expression—why was she announcing her life philosophy to the entire student body at the front gate in the morning? Shion nodded with the satisfaction of having completed her declaration. Her face should have been full of accomplishment. Inside, it certainly was. But her facial muscles hadn't caught up yet. She nodded forcefully, her expression still dignified and blank. Someone whispered, "…Maybe we should report this to the student council president?" Shion didn't hear that either. She strode through the Akatsuki Gate with purpose. --- When she entered the main building's Suikou Hall corridor, students suddenly parted to let her through. Shion found it strange but quickly returned to her mental rehearsal. (Tell Rui I like him. Tell Shiina Rui. Look at Rui's face and say it clearly—I like you. I've practiced. Seventeen times last night. I can do this.) With each step down the corridor, students moved aside. Shion walked forward without noticing, lost in her thoughts. (Say it. Tell Rui. Find that back—that back view—call out, and say I like you—) She turned a corner. Ahead, there was a back view. Something in Shion's chest beat strongly. Black hair. Straight posture. Suirei Academy uniform. (That's him.) Shion was certain in her heart. She hadn't confirmed it. But she was certain. Rui had black hair too. Rui had good posture. That had to be Rui. No doubt. (Now.) She quickened her pace. Students on both sides of the corridor held their breath. Shion's figure drew closer. Five meters, three meters, two meters. "I—" The back view stopped. Shion closed her eyes. Just like practice. Seventeen times. She could do this. "—like you!" Every student in the corridor stopped. This time it was nothing like the Akatsuki Gate. Sound vanished. No one moved. It was so quiet you'd think no one was breathing. Shion opened her eyes. The back view slowly turned around. Standing there was— Silver front-swept short hair. Sharp blue eyes. One hundred eighty-two centimeters tall. A student council president's badge on the chest. A face Shion had never seen before. Or rather, precisely speaking, a face every student at Suirei Academy knew. The second son of the Mikage house, who controlled the entire school event budget of 200 million rin annually and was elected by all students. Mikage Kou stood there, perfectly, completely expressionless, looking down at Shion. "…" "…" Two seconds of silence. In Shion's mind, the processing of "that's not Rui" began. Not black hair. Silver hair. The posture was certainly good. But not Rui. Not Rui at all. Kou's blue eyes were screaming "what is this situation?" But his mouth remained perfectly closed. As befitted a student council president. He'd been trained in maintaining composure. Every student in the corridor held their breath, watching this collision of two expressionless faces. --- Shion was the first to speak. "…You are not Rui." Kou's eyebrow moved 0.2 millimeters. "…Then that statement was?" "A mistake." "…Not a confession?" "It was a confession. But the target was wrong." The corridor erupted. Absolutely erupted. "Did she just—" "A confession?" "To the student council president?" "The target was wrong?" Voices leaked from all directions. Kou's eyes alone followed Shion. Perfectly composed on the surface. But inside, for the first time in his life, he was experiencing "I can't process this." (I was confessed to. But the target was wrong, she said. So it wasn't a confession to me. But she said "I like you" to me. She said "it was a confession." Is this a confession or not? Which is it?) Mathematically, it was a contradiction. But the expressionless ojou-sama before him was utterly serious. Not a flicker of doubt. Shion stepped forward. "Since I resolved to be honest today, I will be precise." Her eyes were serious. Sharp crimson eyes. No lie in her voice. "I intended to tell my childhood friend Shiina Rui that I like him. I mistook you for him. You are not him. That is all." The corridor exploded. The murmur erupted all at once. "Huh?" "Huh!?" "Huuuuh!?" filled the hallway. Kou's eyes narrowed slightly. (I'm not the one she likes. She came to confess to another man. And she shouted it at me. And now she's telling me straight to my face, "you are not him.") What was he supposed to say to this? As student council president. As a member of the Mikage house. And as a person. Kou opened his mouth to speak. The warning bell chimed. Shion bowed deeply. "I have class. Excuse me." She ran off. Kou remained motionless for a moment. His silver hair swayed slightly in the morning light. His blue eyes followed the corner where Shion had disappeared. Students around him began to move again. Footsteps toward class echoed. The commotion continued. "She confessed," "But said it was wrong," "Who's Shiina Rui?" voices flew back and forth. Kou slowly turned his gaze forward. "…" He tried to say something, then stopped. (I can't process this.) Twenty-one y

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Name: The Tsundere Ojou-sama's Honesty Strategy Backfires Spectacularly
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