My Measurement: The Villain Desires a Satisfying Payback

Stepping out the front door, I walked silently alongside the twins until arriving at the bottom of the drive, upon which the three of us stopped.

"Are you sure you'll be alright, Sir?" An older butler asked me with a hint of worry in his tone and a crease in his brow.

"I said I'm fine."

"Yes... Then, we shall greet you upon your safe return."

Nodding, he turned to the black SUV beside him and opened the back door before waiting for the twins.

""...""

Wearing their brand new school uniforms and having the princess-themed rucksacks slung over their shoulders, the two of them just stared at me.

"What?"

""...Ciphy...""

In unison, they called my nickname. Then, they each raised a hand and slowly waved at me.

"Bye..."

"...See you later."

Huh.

Well, I would certainly hope I see them later―the twins going missing would greatly inconvenience me, after all.

"Yeah."

I didn't understand what the point of it was since they were going to see me later on either way, but I just agreed with them anyway.

Ever since last week's kidnapping, these guys have been hovering around me a lot more frequently than they used to―and considering that they've been doing that an unusual amount anyway recently, it's almost getting out of hand.

You see, with the kidnapping, I didn't actually tell them in advance what was going to happen. I simply left them a note saying I was being kidnapped before I left for school.

To ensure they knew my location, I swallowed a handful of miniature trackers beforehand and left a screen wirelessly connected that showed the location of the trackers beside the note.

That was how they were able to arrive at the scene so quickly, and is the reason I didn't particularly care about being able to escape or not.

Of course, if I was able to escape then it would expedite the process of collecting the documents and sending that information over to Minami, which is why I chose to escape, but I could have done it either way.

In any case, the twins climbed in the back of the SUV, upon which the butler closed the door behind them, getting in the driver's seat himself after a quick announcement of his departure.

I didn't stay to watch the back of the car leave as I instead began walking in the other direction.

Of course, the day was Monday, and thus the destination was school. To be precise, the current destination was the train station which would then take me near to the school.

It's been a week since I was kidnapped by the Order, and the government has since raided and shut the building they used as a base of operations down.

Since the train I usually take didn't actually turn out to be that damaged by the attack, it didn't take all that long for operations to resume as normal.

I only went to school on the Friday last week because of that, but when I explained that the train I was on was the one that got attacked, the school didn't see the need to punish me.

However, I was punished by the overwhelming disruption of my classmates intervening in my school life. That day, I was swarmed by people asking me foolish questions about my safety and about the attack, as if I would be psychologically affected by such an insignificant thing.

In regards to that, I was far more disturbed by the annoyance that wouldn't let me eat my lunch in peace.

In any case, I was glad the day ended swiftly, however even after it did people still tried to meddle in my affairs; after retrieving my bag from the train that included my smartphone, it turned out that I had been swamped with messages from various people in the class.

Needless to say, I ignored all of them because it was a bother to reply to everything.

I continued to receive notifications until even late at night, leading me to disable them full-stop. Perhaps they took the hint and gave up persisting.

I had also hoped that today might be a bit different from Friday as most people should have relaxed over the weekend and forgotten about it, but...

"Itou-san!"

Tsk.

The moment I passed through the school gates, someone called out to me. I tried to ignore them and just walk past, but they approached and walked alongside me.

"Itou-san, good morning! If you don't mind me asking, are you doing alright...?"

This girl.

Izumi Yamazaki.

"I do mind."

Take a damned hint.

"Everyone's concerned about you but they don't want to overwhelm you so much."

"Ok."

"Is there anything I can do to help...?"

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Really? Do you want me to buy you some lunch?"

"I brought my own."

We had already walked from the front gate of the school all the way to the lockers and she still remained.

Begone, you pest.

She continued to ramble by my side as I fortunately managed to tune her out and opened my locker, which was thankfully closer to the entrance of the school than in the previous year.

Due to the toilet incident, the school had moved the locations of all the lockers, it seems, so that there isn't such a danger next time.

"―and that's why-- Oh! You've received a letter, Itou-san!"

I didn't need her to commentate my entire life, but that was correct; in the centre of my barren locker was a single envelope. Neglecting its existence, I concluded there was nothing left to do and closed my locker.

"Wha-- I-Itou-san...? Are you not going to open it?"

From behind me, Izumi's voice asked. Without turning back to look at her, I responded simply.

"I already know what it's about."

There was no need for me to read it in the first place. If I did so then and there, she could have taken the opportunity to sneak a glance, and I didn't want any potential leakage of whatever information it may contain.

The truth was, I didn't know there was a letter in my locker until just now. Obviously, that meant I had no idea what it could be about.

However, by simply asking, I could know the contents of the message, its sender, and what intentions they had behind sending it.

The fact they put an envelope in my locker indicates that this person did not have access to my social media or phone number.

Well, either that, or they wanted their identity to stay hidden.

Whatever the case, it didn't matter, because I already knew the name of the sender with a single question.

...Oh?

It turned out to be a person I had never directly met before; a person not in my class.

Year 3, Class A.

Sophie Asanami.