Even though Nanase had been making the room awkward with her strange conversation, no one felt truly uncomfortable.
While she was a crude person, she was also kind of a delight, in her unique way. She would say the weirdest things, but they did not cause people to think there was a hidden agenda or malicious intent.
However, when the beautiful woman spoke after stepping into the living room, it was like icy cold water was poured on them. Moreover, the sight of Grandma Yamazaki following added to the chilly discomfort.
Naturally, Isami was the first one to recover after the intrusion.
"Sister, Mother, what are you doing here?" He asked in what he hoped was a friendly and welcoming voice.
He was never comfortable while dealing with these two family members because they seemed to look down on his wife. Moreover, they would underhandedly make rude insinuations about his daughters.
However, since his older brother was not on the scene, he felt like it was his responsibility to step forward and protect everyone.
"Can't we visit? I am your brother's mother, and Makiko is his sister. Why can't we be here, especially if you are here?" Grandma Yamazaki responded.
Isami realised that his mother had not come in peace. She even seemed determined to start a fight without cause.
He did not know how to move forward with the conversation.
"Mother, please have a seat. We were just about to have afternoon tea." Sayaka picked up the slack as soon as Isami was rendered speechless.
The room was full of people, but it did not look awkward. The living room in the mansion was large and had a range of furniture from upright seats to couches to cushions and ottomans.
The dream that Daiki and Sayaka had when building the living room was one of entertaining a lot of people, especially their children's friends.
Therefore, the room could handle tens of people without discomfort.
However, when Makiko and Grandma Yamazaki looked at the room, it might as well have been an animal den. Their eyes shifted from the centre where the girls were seated on the floor with a low table at the centre to the comfortable couch at the side where Isami, Seiji and Kensei had relaxed.
Their faces showed disgust and unwillingness.
Sayaka wanted to tell them to go to hell if they could not find a place to sit. However, she could not. Instead, she stood up and showed them to two lounge seats with a small table in between at the far end of the room.
The two seats were close to the window and were facing the outdoors.
Occasionally, she and Daiki would sit there and watch the sunset with a cup of tea or a glass of wine.
"Do you want us to be excluded? We are here to see the family!" Makiko complained.
Sayaka had been about to turn the seats to face the room, so she felt positively angered. However, she still turned the chairs to face the rest of the group before quickly walking out of the room, supposedly to inform Maria of the additional guests.
"We just saw a crystal piano being moved from a truck outside. I did not know that Daiki had risen to the point of affording a three hundred million yen piano for a person who has never touched an instrument before." Makiko spoke up after a long silence.
No one in the room knew anything about a crystal piano except for Hina and Akira. Akira did not have any intention to respond to the statement which sounded like an accusation. As for Hina, she did not dare to speak.
She had learnt her lesson and chose to follow Akira's cues.
"Akira, answer your aunt." Grandma Yamazaki spoke up after realising that none of the people in the room had an intention of speaking.
Akira turned her cold eyes to the old woman.
She had already done her research on the Yamazaki grandmother, but she realised that the report had not taken into account her personality and behaviour.
"I did not hear a question," Akira said directly.
The statement sounded rude even though it was true. However, Akira did not care about such things. She had no intention of being polite to people who had animosity towards her. Unconditional respect did not exist in her world.
Grandma Yamazaki felt angered because Akira did not treat her with the right attitude. She had grown accustomed to people flattering her and treating her like she was a national treasure wherever she went.
Of course, that honour was based on her husband's reputation.
Regardless of the cause, she had long gotten used to the reverence, as if it was her own. Therefore, she felt short-changed when Akira spoke to her coldly and without respect.
At the same time, Sayaka returned to the room.
"Sayaka, is this how you teach your children to respect their elders?" Grandma Yamazaki asked with a harsh tone.
The confused Sayaka did not know how to respond since she had not heard the conversation. However, for Akira, it was a simple question.
"She did not teach me. She met me five days ago." She said in a deadpan manner.
Grandma Yamazaki felt like she could not breathe.
She had come to the house to ensure that the intruder was kicked out or at least, put in her place, but she was taken out within the first fight. How could she reconcile with that?
The worst part is that she realised that Akira had the same personality as her husband.
She was using logic instead of reacting emotionally to the situation. She had lived long enough with her husband to know that if she responded emotionally to a logical statement, she would seem unreasonable or worse, crazy.
"Akira, you should know how to respect your grandmother. How can you speak to your elders in that way?" Makiko realised that her mother was losing and decided to intervene.
"I don't know how to respect my elders, but I know that I cannot give in to bullies," Akira responded.
Her soft voice had a squishy and lovable quality that no matter what she said, she sounded like a sweet little girl. She did not like it and always used a cold tone to compensate for it. However, at that moment, when she talked about bullies in her adorable voice, the room was moved.
They felt like a child was protecting them from an evil witch.
Even though no one talked about it clearly, everyone in the family knew that Makiko was a grade-A bully.
As a married woman, she was no longer a Yamazaki. Her official name had long been changed to Satou Makiko, but she constantly stuck her nose into their affairs without a care about their feelings.
Her desire for controlling the Yamazaki family was unreasonable because she had a husband, a son and two daughters as well as in-laws to handle.
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