Seeing Jinno Sumire looking furious at Jinno Ai, Hikari opened his mouth.
But before he could say anything, Jinno Ai spoke first, "Mom, why are you acting just like Grandpa? Didn't you say before that you would absolutely not interfere in my marriage? Why are you going back on your word now!"
"I don't care whether he marries into the family or not, I'm marrying Hikari-nii no matter what!"
Jinno Sumire had originally planned to firmly refuse Jinno Ai. But hearing her words and seeing that stubborn look on her face, so much like herself when she was young and unwilling to marry, Jinno Sumire's heart softened.
"You little troublemaker, you really don't let your mother have any peace," Jinno Sumire said as she reached out and pressed her index finger hard against Jinno Ai's forehead, but she didn't say anything more.
Seeing this reaction from Jinno Sumire, Jinno Ai knew there was a turning point and immediately beamed with joy.
She let go of Hikari's hand and skillfully hugged Jinno Sumire's arm, acting spoiled, "I knew Mom treats me the best. From now on, Hikari-nii is your son-in-law."
"Hikari-nii, why aren't you calling her Mother-in-law already?"
Hearing Jinno Ai's words, Hikari felt rather speechless. He looked helplessly at Jinno Sumire.
At this moment, Jinno Sumire slightly raised her head and stared at Hikari with an unfriendly gaze. There was a trace of coldness in her beautiful eyes, that icy expression seeming to blame him for abducting her precious daughter.
Hikari couldn't tell whether Jinno Sumire was acting or genuinely angry.
But seeing that displeased, icy look on her face, Hikari, who hadn't intended to get involved in their mother-daughter dispute, instead felt a bit fired up.
"Hello, Mother-in-law," Hikari called out cheerfully to Jinno Sumire.
"D… don't call me Mother-in-law!", Jinno Sumire glared with wide eyes. A faint blush rose on her pretty face, and the corner of her lips that had once been bitten by Hikari felt inexplicably hot. She scolded him coldly.
Hikari ignored her and turned to shrug at Jinno Ai.
Jinno Ai stuck out her tongue at him slightly, looking very playful and cute.
Seeing the two of them flirting like this, Jinno Sumire felt anger rising for no reason.
She didn't know whether she was angry that her daughter was being taken away, or angry that Hikari, who was still her fake husband in name, dared to call her Mother-in-law just to tease her.
"Alright, alright, stop fooling around here. Hurry up and go out and have fun. I still have a lot of things to deal with," Jinno Sumire said, glancing at the situation in the side hall. Feeling that out of sight meant out of mind, she waved her hand at Hikari and Jinno Ai, clearly dismissing them.
There were still several corpses in the side hall, including Yoshizawa Eigen. These all had to be dealt with as soon as possible, otherwise they would start to darken and stink.
Moreover, since Yoshizawa Eigen had managed to bring people into the heavily guarded Ino Shrine, it meant there was likely a traitor inside the shrine. Jinno Sumire also planned to investigate this as soon as possible.
Jinno Ai knew that Jinno Sumire would be very busy next, and she was already very happy just seeing Hikari call Jinno Sumire Mother-in-law.
Being sensible, she pulled Hikari along and left the courtyard.
"Hikari-nii, I'll take you around the shrine for a look!"
"Okay," Hikari replied, having no objection.
After exchanging a glance with Jinno Sumire, who shot him a warning look, Hikari followed Jinno Ai toward the front halls of the shrine.
———
Following Jinno Ai, Hikari roughly toured the various halls of Ino Shrine again.
As expected of the largest shrine in Ino Town, the entire shrine complex was huge. Jinno Ai only showed him some of the important places, yet they still walked for quite a while.
Hikari was fine, but Jinno Ai said she was tired.
She forcibly dragged Hikari into a quiet, deserted small courtyard.
Following Jinno Ai, Hikari arrived at a quiet, deserted small courtyard. The two of them sat together on a long stone bench to rest.
As soon as they sat down, Jinno Ai leaned straight over to Hikari's side, the faint fragrance of a young girl rushing into his nose.
"Hikari-nii, I… I want a kiss," Jinno Ai said boldly to him, her pretty face slightly red.
Last time, also at Ino Shrine, the two of them had kissed for a bit, but before they were satisfied, Jinno Sumire had interrupted them. So this time, Jinno Ai really wanted to taste that feeling again.
Seeing Jinno Ai's small hands already starting to misbehave and wander over his body, Hikari smiled and said to her, "Ai, last time we kissed at the shrine, your mom caught us and you got scolded pretty badly."
"Even though we're not in the main hall now, this is still part of Ino Shrine. Are you sure you still want to?"
Hearing this, Jinno Ai laughed, "That was then, this is now. You just called my mom Mother-in-law, so our relationship is proper now. Kissing is no big deal. And my mom is probably too busy with shrine matters to come over and disturb us again."
This was being a bit too filial in a strange way. Seeing Jinno Ai smiling brightly as she talked about Jinno Sumire being busy, Hikari couldn't help but feel both amused and helpless.
At this moment, the beautiful girl's soft, sweet lips had already leaned in. Hikari could only take on the responsibility of an adult and give her some proper guidance.
During this intimate lesson, Jinno Ai's body pressed tightly against Hikari's chest, and he could clearly feel the girl's fullness, far beyond what was typical for her age.
'This must be inherited from Auntie Sumire's genes. It is not inferior to Aoi's or Suiren-nee's at all,' Feeling Jinno Ai's broad potential, Hikari couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
And not only did the shrine's heiress have a great figure, her lips were also very soft and sweet.
'Speaking of which, I still haven't tasted Aunt Sumire's lips. I wonder what they would be like… would they be somewhat similar to Ai's?'
'No! Now is not the time to think about that.'
Hikari threw away the scumbag thoughts that had inexplicably surfaced in his mind and focused fully on guiding Jinno Ai, whose experience with such interactions was actually quite limited.
After half an hour, the two, who had been pressed tightly together, separated.
Hikari was fine. His collar was only slightly messy, and there were a few hickeys on his neck.
Jinno Ai, however, had her fragrant shoulders half exposed, her small face flushed red, and her beautiful eyes so moist they looked like they might drip.
Although they hadn't really gone into deeper territory, because Jinno Ai was very enthusiastic and proactive, the two of them had almost crossed the line, lacking only one or two steps.
But since they were still at the shrine, and Jinno Ai still remembered Jinno Sumire's previous scolding, she couldn't bring herself to truly go any further with Hikari here. In the end, she stopped.
"Hikari-kun, how about coming to my house to play tonight? Our house is really big, and my bed is pretty soft. If we're tired from playing, we can just sleep," Jinno Ai leaned lightly against Hikari's shoulder and said softly, clearly still reluctant.
Faced with such a request from a pure and beautiful girl, most high school boys would probably find it very hard to refuse.
But Hikari still shook his head and refused, "I have something to do tonight. It's not very convenient."
The reason for refusing was simple. It wasn't that Hikari wasn't moved by Jinno Ai's beauty.
The main reason was that he was already playing the role of Jinno Sumire's husband. His public identity in the Jinno family was Jinno Sumire's husband.
If he really agreed to go stay at the Jinno house with Jinno Ai, it would be impossible not to run into her grandfather, Jinno Takashi. Even if Jinno Ai didn't pull him along to introduce him, the Jinno family had so many guards and servants who would definitely report the situation to Jinno Takashi, the family head.
And Jinno Takashi was the head of the Jinno family. No matter how foolish he was, seeing their situation, he would probably understand what was going on.
Having accepted someone's trust, one should be loyal to their task. So Hikari wasn't going to step into such a risky situation that could very likely expose his relationship with Jinno Sumire.
Hearing Hikari's refusal, the considerate Jinno Ai didn't force the issue.
She simply smiled and said, "Alright then. Since it's not convenient for you, we'll do it another day. But I want to go home with you now. It's already late, and I'm scared it's not safe. Hikari-nii, can you walk me back, okay~"
"Okay," Hikari smiled and nodded.
He didn't ask why Jinno Ai wasn't calling her family's bodyguards to drive her home. After all, he had just tasted the girl's wonderful, pure sweetness. He wasn't clueless about this kind of girlish sentiment.
"Wait here and don't go anywhere. I still have something to say to your mother," Hikari said to Jinno Ai.
"Okay, I'll wait for you right here. Come back soon," Jinno Ai nodded obediently.
Hikari rubbed her head, then turned and walked toward the rear side hall.
———
In a side hall behind Ino Shrine where affairs were handled, the lights were bright.
Jinno Sumire sat behind a cherrywood-carved desk, handling various documents related to shrine affairs.
After issuing consecutive orders to the various departments of the shrine to take care of the aftermath of Yoshizawa Eigen and the others' bodies, and to track down the traitorous miko who had communicated and colluded with Yoshizawa Eigen, Jinno Sumire was already exhausted.
She rubbed the space between her brows, a trace of fatigue appearing in her delicate eyebrows.
She had already handled many matters today as usual. Not long after finally getting some rest, Yoshizawa Eigen had burst in.
The pressure Yoshizawa Eigen had brought her at the time was not small either. If Hikari hadn't appeared, she truly would have been nearly driven to despair and forced into a desperate fight.
And after all that pressure, she still had to deal with the aftermath.
After all, the scale of the Yoshizawa family's industries was not small. After Yoshizawa Eigen's death, she definitely intended to swallow them into the Jinno family's business empire, so she couldn't completely leave it to others.
But already exhausted, handling everything personally like this resulted in her being utterly worn out, her head even starting to ache.
"High Priestess, the snacks you wanted are here," After rubbing her temples a few times, a shrine maiden carrying a tray of snacks walked into the side hall.
"Alright, just put them here," Jinno Sumire waved her hand. After placing the tray down, the shrine maiden turned and left.
Once the shrine maiden was gone, Jinno Sumire immediately hurried over to the snacks and reached out to lift the silver lid covering the tray.
Inside were several round, orange-colored honey cakes, each not even as big as a palm, looking like something a child would eat.
In fact, they really were children's honey cakes, a sweet snack only young kids liked.
But Jinno Sumire had loved them since she was little. From childhood to later, even after becoming a shrine priestess, she still especially liked eating these children's honey cakes.
However, regarding this preference of Jinno Sumire's, the head of the Jinno family, her father Jinno Takashi, absolutely disliked it.
Jinno Takashi felt that this behavior was childish. Adults should eat adult food. At her age, still eating children's sweets was completely unbecoming of the Jinno family's leader.
So at home, Jinno Sumire didn't dare eat her favorite children's honey cakes. Only here at Ino Shrine, when she was exhausted from work, would she have her personal shrine maiden go buy some for her.
"Sure enough, these honey cakes are the best. So satisfying~", Jinno Sumire's rosy cherry lips parted slightly. She ate one children's honey cake every few bites, her delicate face full of satisfaction.
But just as Jinno Sumire was fully immersed in her beloved food, she failed to notice a figure hurriedly walking in from the courtyard outside and entering the affairs hall.
"Sumire, I heard something happened at the shrine. Is the shrine okay? Are you okay?", Jinno Takashi asked anxiously as he rushed in.
Hearing that familiar voice, Jinno Sumire hurriedly hid the children's honey cake behind the stack of documents on the desk.
"I… I'm fine!", Seeing her father Jinno Takashi suddenly appear, Jinno Sumire quickly replied.
But with a whole children's honey cake stuffed in her mouth, her voice sounded obviously strange.
And because her mouth was rather small, able to fit only less than half of what Hikari had fed her, she couldn't completely hide this small honey cake in her mouth. At a glance, it was almost impossible to conceal.
Seeing this slightly awkward scene, Jinno Takashi couldn't help but laugh, "Sumire, why are you secretly eating this kind of thing behind my back again?"
"I was under a lot of pressure today. I almost…", Jinno Sumire instinctively tried to answer.
However, before she could finish, Jinno Takashi interrupted her with a mocking expression and a cold, sarcastic laugh, "Don't give me excuses!"
"Sumire, didn't I warn you long ago not to eat these sweets that only little brats eat?"
"In a sacred place like the shrine, you're the high priestess, yet you eat such inelegant food. Don't you think you're unworthy of your position?"
"I already warned you not to eat these things again. Why won't you listen? Is it really that hard to change? You really can't mature at all!"
"Do you know why I insist on having a man inherit the family? Because w0men are w0men. They never grow up their whole lives. Always childish like you. How can I feel at ease handing the Jinno family over to you?"
Just because Jinno Sumire secretly ate children's honey cakes, Jinno Takashi scolded her harshly.
As for the fact that his daughter had nearly been killed today, and that people had died in the shrine, Jinno Takashi didn't deal with those for the moment. He just kept scolding Jinno Sumire.
The reason for this wasn't only that Jinno Takashi truly minded Jinno Sumire eating cake and disliked her immaturity. There were other reasons as well.
The first was that after having Jinno Sumire, Jinno Takashi had always wanted to have a son to inherit the family, but he was never able to have another child.
He could only hope that Jinno Sumire would give birth to a grandson, yet that also never happened.
The second reason was that recently, because Jinno Sumire wanted to deal with Yoshizawa Eigen, she had used quite a bit of the family's power.
This made Jinno Takashi feel that Jinno Sumire was seizing the opportunity to wrest power from his hands.
As the head of the Jinno family, he hadn't yet stepped down. Yet his daughter dared to take his authority. This made Jinno Takashi, as the family head, feel quite displeased inside.
But he couldn't say it outright, or he would look petty.
So at this moment, Jinno Takashi took advantage of Jinno Sumire's "mistake" to vent his anger, planning to suppress his ungrateful daughter's edge and let her know who the true authority of the Jinno family was.
Jinno Sumire, being pointed at and scolded by Jinno Takashi, lowered her head and remained silent after her initial attempt at explanation was cut off, wordlessly enduring his abuse.
Seeing his daughter take it without talking back or resisting, Jinno Takashi still felt unsatisfied.
"Is it really that hard to tell you not to eat some stupid children's cake? Why aren't you saying anything? Gone mute?", Scolding wasn't enough. Jinno Takashi walked up to the desk, picked up the children's honey cake that Jinno Sumire had just hidden, and tossed it straight into the trash.
"I let you eat anything you want, and you're still eating childish stuff at your age. I told you not to eat things that don't fit your status, and you just won't listen. I'm throwing all of this away today!"
After throwing away one children's honey cake, Jinno Takashi still felt it wasn't enough. He directly picked up the entire tray, preparing to dump it all into the trash right in front of Jinno Sumire, using this to suppress and discipline his daughter.
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