CH 38

Main Story 38

The day after the listening party, Sakurada Yuria-sama came to bother me first thing in the morning, without so much as a greeting.

“You. You still have no plans on cooperating with me? And you won’t even tell me your phone number.”

“Good morning, Sakurada-sama. I have repeated this numerous times already but, the phone I am currently using is something I am borrowing, so I cannot tell you the number.”

“I’ve heard that you’re indeed poor. Hayashida said so. He said that you live in a small and cramped house. Though Hayashida was recently dismissed. Finally I can be free from his persistent gazes.”

Hayashida was that inconceivably rude secretary of Sakurada Online’s president. So he has been dismissed. Why they even made such a person their secretary in the first place, I do not get.

“I’ll arrange for a cell phone for you. So cooperate with me as a fellow transmigrator. The heroine Yuuki Miu and Takanashi Ryou are already together too. Aside from Mihael-sama, the other capture targets have no fiancée.”

I did not know that. That Shiroyama-sama has a fiancée?

“Mihael-sama’s mother is a descendant of a high nobility in Germany. As such, it’s been said that Mihael-sama has a fiancée over there. He’s supposed to be active as a pianist in Europe and not Japan, but for some reason he’s still here. This must be because of me, right?”

Woah, her delusions are running wild! I cannot handle this by myself anymore. I really did such a careless thing. The me of April past, how foolish you were![1]

“I think it very odd. Why did the heroine Yuuki-san not catch the eyes of the capture targets?”

“That’s because I prevented it.”

Sakurada Yuria-sama answered, full of self-confidence.

“… What is your goal? Is it a reverse harem for yourself?”

“Hmm, RH, huh. My body wouldn’t be able to withstand that. I guess what I want is to date Kaoru-kun with Madekonouji-sama, Mihael-sama, and Akimi-san around. If possible I want Souju-sama to be there too, but Sara-sama stands in the way of that.”

I can’t let that happen! The situation’s just going downhill that way!

It seems that the time has finally come for me to bring out my last resort.

“Even if this is a world inside an otome game, for the people living here, it is reality! Each and every one of them has their own will. It’s horrible of you to regard everything as but a game and try to capture them!”

I have often encountered such lines in web novels. That capture targets, fodders, penniless villainesses, mob characters, all of them are humans with their own will.

“Ugh. I know that much. But it’s such a rare chance to be reborn into an otome game. I may not be the heroine, but with such a position, wouldn’t you shoot for a RH too? Having Kaoru-kun as a childhood friend and Akimi-san as a relative.”

Even my last resort didn’t work!

I feel my shoulders droop. Even if, let’s say, it’s okay for Katsuragi-sama and Ichijou-sensei to fall prey to her schemes, I won’t let the same happen to Souju-sama and Madenokouji-sama.

Madenokouji-sama, who I had as of recent gotten close too, is a truly good person. We understand each other well too. I could talk to him about Game Center Arashi! And we exchange information within ourselves too. I recommended Shirato Sanpei-sensei’s Kamui to him. It’s not exactly in the 70s subculture genre so Madenokouji-sama had never read it before.

Madenokouji-sama changed after reading it. He spoke passionately about how modern Japan and himself are so privileged. It would appear that a strange switch has been flipped in him, but I believe he will return to normal with time so I’m not worried about it.

Furthermore, for the purpose of seeing a balanced-flue system bath, we have made plans of Madenokouji-sama visiting my house with Sara-sama and Souju-sama. That was how close we have grown.

Sara-sama and Souju-sama have taken to Madenokouji-sama too. Fufu, Souju-sama might look like he hates it, but he actually likes having company. He’s a person full of contradictions. But it seems like he really does not take well to Katsuragi-sama. And it’s no wonder. Katsuragi-sama never listens to anyone, just like the old Interpol Yamamoto-san who’s hard of hearing.

Speaking of, I respect Madenokouji-sama. After all, he truly knows a lot of intriguing works!

And he lends me comedy manga too. SHAPE UP RAN is vulgar, but it has truly touching scenes that might make you cry, which ends up overturned by the vulgarity again. I think it’s a great piece of work. And the penniless Higuchi Sakyou is wonderful.

But this work is one I cannot let Sara-sama read. And maybe Souju-sama either. I have read ero guro nansensu[2] works since long ago so I don’t feel any particular unpleasant feelings against them. Although I did end up being put off by The Human Livestock Yapuu, I read it until the end. Regardless of everything else, it was interesting.

…. This is not the time for me to be running away from reality. Rather than such things, I should face the Sakurada Yuria-sama standing in front of me. Think, think, Reiko!

“Do you not recall the failure after aiming for a RH?”

“What’s that?”

“The bad ending that occurs when the heroine fails at a RH and end up having all her limbs cut off, becoming an exhibition overseas. Huh? Do you not know of it?”

I drew inspiration from a well known urban legend[3] I had read about in an old magazine. I was the one who said it, but even I did not understand what I was saying. There’s no way that the bad ending of an otome game can be a limbless exhibition course. I should have come up with something more believable. I was starting to regret it when Sakurada-sama grew pale. She couldn’t have believed it, could she?

“What? Is that true?”

“… Yes, it is. If you fail at the RH route, you will be abducted by a man whose wrath you have incurred, smuggled overseas, and have your four limbs cut off and be made into an exhibition there.”

I deliberately sighed.

“I did not wish to speak of such a terrible fate, but to think that you were aiming for a RH… That’s why, it would be better for you to just get together with Katsuragi-sama as normal instead. Affairs are off limits!”

“I, I got it. I’ll make do with just Kaoru-kun.”

Alright. With this, Souju-sama and Madenokouji-sama should be safe for the time being.

As for Katsuragi-sama, I have no sympathy for him. I am still holding on to that grudge from the sandwich incident. Besides, he’s childhood friends with her so he should not have any ill feelings towards Sakurada Yuria-sama.

“Good luck!”

I then asked one thing that had been bothering me.

“By the way, that secretary named Hayashida-san, why did you hire him in the first place?”

I think it’s odd that they placed such a man in the position of secretary to the president of such a major company like Sakurada Online. Sakurada-sama answered with a face tainted with unpleasantness.

“Hayashida dropped out of a reputable college and resembled Papa, they said. In that he had both talent and ambition. And the fact that Papa did not say anything and just watched as Hayashida courted me was because they thought that perhaps Hayashida was doing that to climb to the top. My papa is not right in the head. Does he not adore his daughter?”

Sakurada Yuria-sama’s father is quite something too. Still, perhaps it’s already a must for successful founders to be so strange. Surely a normal person can’t make it. Probably.

“Thank you for telling me that.”

I left after saying that. Today, both Sara-sama and Souju-sama are later than usual. Did something happen?

They usually would have come much earlier.

Even after the morning homeroom time, and after the first period has started, there were still no signs of them.

A message from Souju-sama arrived before the second period started.

It seems that while on the way to the academy, they had received news of their father Ushio-sama getting into an accident in New York. As such, the two of them were now in an airplane about to head to New York. Fortunately, they had received further news that their father’s life is not in danger and that he can be discharged from the hospital soon. But for the time being, Sara-sama and Souju-sama will stay in New York with their father.

I wonder if Ushio-sama is fine. Since they said that his life is not threatened and he can be discharged early, there surely must be no need to be concerned.

It must be rare for them to be able to spend time with just their father. I hope they can relax together while in New York. Sara-sama is a daddy’s girl.  She can be spoiled all she wants. It would be nice if Souju-sama can be more honest too.

Today was one of the days where I make lunchboxes for the two of them, so I have their share with me. Should I try and eat them all myself? I should not have had that second helping during breakfast.

Since the twins are not here, from today onwards, I will be eating in the cafeteria. Which means I can just eat their lunch instead of my own lunchbox. I have a card after all.

Let’s eat their lunch starting tomorrow!

I headed to the cafeteria while thinking so.

Translator’s Notes:

[1] Japan’s academic year starts in April. Reiko’s first meeting with Sakurada Yuria, her deeming Sakurada Yuria as sick and needing to be sympathised with can all therefore be assumed to have taken place in April.

[2] Ero guro nansensu is a specific set of cultural trends that arose during the Shōwa era in Japan. Ero guro nansensu is a wasei-eigo word derived from the English words erotic, grotesque, and nonsense. (quoted from wikipedia)

[3] There was an urban legend popular in Japan in the 1980s called daruma onna（だるま女）, in which a university student on an overseas trip went missing after going into a changing room. Several years later, a friend of hers found her in a street corner in a different country, having become an exhibition with all four of her limbs cut off. Having no limbs made her look like a daruma, hence the name daruma onna (onna being the Japanese word for woman).