Towering at the very center of the Japanese economy stood the Sumeragi Foods headquarters building.

On this night, the president’s office on its top floor was wrapped in a strangely oppressive tension.

Normally, this would be a place where one battled piles of documents atop a massive executive desk.

But tonight, that desk had been shoved into a corner of the room and in its place, a leather sofa sat regally before an enormous 80-inch monitor covering an entire wall.

“…Are the preparations complete?”

The woman seated deeply into the sofa, Reiko Sumeragi, asked calmly.

Her blonde hair, curled into vertical ringlets, glittered under the chandelier’s light.

In her right hand was her beloved fan, decorated with raden inlay, a traditional mother-of-pearl ornamentation technique.

On the side table beside her rested a glass filled with aged red wine.

Behind the sofa, several secretaries stood perfectly at attention.

In their hands were not documents or tablets, but—for some reason—portable medical oxygen tanks.

“Yes! Everything is fully prepared, President!”

“There’s one minute left until the broadcast begins!”

The slight strain in the secretaries’ voices likely came from knowing how intense the coming ritual would be.

Tonight was the broadcast day of the variety show The Empress’s Box Garden.

The guest was the man with whom Sumeragi Foods had staked its corporate future on a commercial contract—Akutsu Jō-sama.

“Fufu… fufufu.”

Reiko snapped her fan open with a sharp crack and hid her mouth behind it.

But the secretaries knew well that beyond the fan, the corners of her lips were hanging slack in delight.

“How exciting… how very exciting! To see my beloved Jō-sama rampage freely across the public airwaves! Ah, just imagining it makes my heart race!”

Reiko twisted her body and hugged a cushion tightly.

She knew it well.

That man was not merely a cute boy.

He was a true male, someone who had seen straight through her soul in the test kitchen and ruthlessly dismissed the advertising agency’s shallow proposals in the CM meeting.

“Now then, let it begin. Allow me to witness from the best seat in the house the moment the hammer of revolution comes crashing down upon this rotten entertainment industry!”

The clock hands advanced.

The screen switched and a vividly colored studio set filled the monitor.

* * *

Several minutes into the program.

The temperature in the president’s office felt as if it had risen by at least five degrees.

“O-hohohoho! Serves her right!”

Reiko’s high-pitched laughter rang out.

On the screen, MC Unabara Shion was being called an auntie by Jō-sama and stood there utterly speechless.

“Shion-san, for someone like you to think you could appraise Jō-sama is a hundred years too early! The ugliness of your nature beneath that thick makeup—Jō-sama sees through it all!”

Reiko downed her wine and slapped her knees repeatedly with her fan in delight.

Though usually a cold-hearted executive, when it came to Jō-sama, her IQ plummeted.

No, rather, her passion completely overwhelmed her reason.

Then the scene shifted to Gōda Tora’s sudden intrusion.

The former pro wrestler’s massive body lunged in with an Iron Claw, aiming to crush Jō-sama’s skull.

“Ah…”

Reiko gasped.

The secretaries simultaneously raised their oxygen tanks.

On the screen, Jō-sama caught Tora’s powerful arm with just one hand.

A calm expression.

A core that did not budge in the slightest.

“Magnificent!!”

Reiko nearly slid off the sofa as she clung to the screen.

“Did you see that!? Just now! The brief cut of his triceps swelling beneath the suit! And the pulsing veins rising along his forearms! A perfect artistic score!”

Her eyes had completely become those of a predator gazing upon its prey.

She was not merely a fan.

The eyes of a food company president judging meat quality and those of a maiden in love were mixed together.

“That Gōda Tora, reduced to a baby! Ah, what overwhelming ‘power’! This is what a male is! These are the genes I’ve been searching for!”

“P-President! Your blood pressure is rising! Deep breaths!”

“Silence! This is the moment where Jō-sama crushes Tora’s wrist and makes her understand! Don’t interfere!”

Reiko swung her fan wildly and let out shrill cheers toward the monitor.

At that moment, the program cut to a commercial break.

Ordinarily, she would have exploded in rage at being interrupted, but instead, Reiko wore a fearless grin.

“…It’s coming.”

The screen faded to black.

A pitch-black space filled the display.

Within it, only the figure of a man wielding a wok appeared.

No background music.

No narration.

All that could be heard was the roaring blaze of a burner and the sharp clangs of metal.

And Jō-sama’s rough breathing.

Sweat particles captured by a 4K high-speed camera.

The shadows and contours of bulging muscles.

Golden grains of rice dancing through the air.

Sumeragi Foods’ new commercial—Black Fried Rice Arc.

Fifteen seconds.

A moment in which women all across Japan forgot how to breathe.

“……”

The commercial ended and the sponsor credits appeared.

Immediately after, the door to the president’s office burst open.

“P-President!! This is bad!!”

The head of the Information Systems Department rushed in, his face pale.

“The servers… The official Sumeragi Foods website servers have gone down!!”

“Oh my, is that so.”

Reiko did not look surprised.

If anything, she gently swirled her wineglass.

“And the online shop?”

“I-It was instant annihilation! We had secured six months’ worth of stock for the direct-flame fried rice, but it sold out completely just three minutes after the commercial aired! The call center is completely overwhelmed with inquiries from customers who couldn’t even add it to their carts!”

“And there’s more!”

A secretary standing nearby screamed while looking at her tablet.

“The SNS trends are insane! Number one is ‘Akutsu Jō,’ number two ‘Sumeragi Foods,’ number three ‘I want to eat fried rice,’ number four ‘the black commercial’—the top ten are completely dominated!”

The screen she showed was filled with viewers’ chaos.

What was that CM!? The sex appeal is insane!
I got pregnant just watching a fried rice commercial.
Is the president of Sumeragi Foods a genius or a pervert?
I can’t buy it! No stock! Run the factories!

“O-hohohoho!”

Reiko laughed heartily while looking up at the ceiling.

“Of course! After being shown such ‘male activity’ unedited, there’s no woman whose instincts wouldn’t be stirred!”

She stood up and gazed down at the night view.

“These days’ ‘cute-type boys’ are like sugar confections. Sweet, but with no nutrition. But Jō-sama is different. He is ‘meat’ and ‘flame.’ It is only natural that starving women would swarm him. …Fufu, my eye was not mistaken.”

Several hundred million yen in investment was about to be recovered in mere minutes.

But tonight’s climax was still to come.

* * *

The program moved into its latter half.

The scene where Jō-sama crushed the unreasonable demand of top idol Himemiya Alice.

On the screen, Jō-sama grabbed Alice by the ankle and lifted her with one hand.

He caught her as she lost her balance, pulling her into his thick arm.

A stare-down at point-blank range.

“If you want me to kneel, then try standing on your own feet first.”

Jō-sama’s deep voice resonated from the speakers.

“A brat who can’t even stand without support shouldn’t go around giving orders while playing queen.”

At that instant.

A crashing sound rang out in the president’s office.

It was the sound of Reiko dropping the wineglass in her hand.

“Hauu…”

Reiko’s eyes nearly rolled back as she collapsed to her knees.

“P-President!?”

“H-her soul…”

Not caring that her hands were soaked with wine, Reiko crawled across the floor and reached toward the monitor.

“My soul has long since been yours! Ah, how… how sadistic and yet so utterly correct! Magnificent!”

Her breathing grew ragged.

A wheezing sound leaked from her throat.

“I too… I too want Jō-sama to scold me as a ‘brat who can’t stand’! Scold me! With that thick voice, right by my ear, curse the softness of my management policies!”

“President! Please calm down! You’re hyperventilating!”

“Oxygen! Bring the oxygen!”

The secretaries hurriedly pressed an oxygen mask to Reiko’s mouth.

Hiss, hiss.

As the hollow sound of oxygen inhalation echoed through the office, the program ended on the screen with Jō-sama leaving behind the famous line, “If you want to stand beside me, then come with nothing but that soul.”

* * *

Several minutes later.

Having inhaled oxygen and regained some composure, Reiko returned to the sofa.

She fixed her disheveled ringlets with her fingers and wiped away the wine stains with a handkerchief.

On the monitor, the entire studio audience stood and sent thunderous applause toward Jō-sama’s departing back.

“…The world will change.”

Reiko’s voice now carried a cold edge, unlike the frenzy from moments before.

She had returned to the face of an executive.

“The era where ‘cute’ was justice is over. From now on, it is the era of ‘strength.’ And the symbol of that will be Akutsu Jō-sama.”

She snapped her fingers.

The secretaries immediately assumed note-taking postures.

“Triple the advertising budget—no, make it five times. Buy up every slot across television, web and outdoor advertising.”

“F-Five times!? But the budget for this term—”

“It doesn’t matter. Sumeragi Foods will gladly pile on the firewood for this revolution. The ones carrying Jō-sama’s portable shrine are us, the Sumeragi Group.”

Reiko smiled fearlessly.

Then she turned toward a secretary.

“And what is the remainder of my schedule for today?”

“Yes. An online meeting with overseas branches at 9 p.m. followed by a dinner with executives—”

“Cancel them.”

Reiko answered instantly.

“Cancel everything. I don’t care if penalties apply.”

“Eh? B-but—”

Reiko stood and raised her fan high.

Once more, the flames of a ‘lady’ burned in her eyes.

“Get the car ready! The destination is… Jō-sama’s residence!”

“Haaa!? R-right now!?”

“Of course! After watching that, I can’t sit still!”

Reiko blushed and writhed as she spoke.

“This excitement… if I don’t convey it to him directly, I won’t survive! Ah, Jō-sama! Please wait for me! I shall personally rush to your side this very moment!”

Reiko stormed out of the president’s office like a tempest.

The secretaries left behind looked at one another and let out deep, exhausted sighs.

“…We’re going to get scolded by Kujō-san again.”

“Let’s load spare oxygen tanks into the car as well…”

A black luxury limousine tore through the night.