Reincarnated Into The World Of A Rape Erotic Game ~ Since The Game World Has Become Reality... I Want To Save The Heroines~ - Chapter 6: Shoka Hiyori ⑤

I was accompanied home by the female detective… We arrived at my house before long.

All that was left was to enter the house…

As I placed my hand on the front door knob…

“Is something wrong?”

“…Honestly? It’s hard to go in…”

I had already heard that Papa and Mama were waiting for me at home and were worried about me. But considering everything that had happened up until now, I couldn’t help thinking, “Is that really true?”…

What if they wouldn’t even exchange words with me again…

“It’s okay, Hiyori-san. As I mentioned earlier, both your parents were extremely worried about you. There’s no parent who doesn’t worry about their child. Come on, your parents are waiting!”

“…Yeah. That’s… right… Alright!”

Click—

Steeling my resolve… as I entered the house, two shadows came flying at me…

“Hiyoriii!!”

“…P-Papa! Mama!!”

The shadows were Papa and Mama. They hugged me as tightly as they possibly could… I hugged them back just as hard.

“Hiyori… really… really… I’m so glad you’re safe.”

“I was… so worried about you…?”

“I’m sorry… Papa… Mama… really… for making you worry… s-sorry… sob… waaah… waaaaaahhhhh—”

I cried like a small child while being embraced by my parents. All the feelings I had been holding in my heart, like how lonely I had been, and all my dissatisfaction, I let it all out on my parents with the same intensity.

“Sorry… sorry… Hiyori…”

“I’m really sorry… for making you feel so… lonely… I’m truly sorry…”

The female detective had tactfully left the scene—whether out of consideration or because her job of delivering me was finished… anyway, she had gone.

♢♢♢

After all three of us had calmed down, we moved to the living room to discuss what had happened. To talk about everything that had occurred. 

I had heard from that female detective that my parents had been given a general explanation. So naturally they would know about that incident too… I had to talk about it from my perspective as well…

The three of us, parent and child, sat around the table.

At such a time, it felt inappropriate to think this, but I couldn’t help it. When was the last time we sat around a table as a family like this? I became happy thinking that this was what I had always wanted to do.

“—Well then… I’ve heard everything from the detective earlier… Hiyori.”

Anyway, after everyone had taken their seats at the table, Papa was the first to speak…

“I’ve also heard about why you did such a thing.”

Yeah. Of course he had.

“No matter what reason you had… you understand that shoplifting is wrong, that it’s a crime, don’t you? None of this would have happened if you hadn’t done such a thing. You understand that, don’t you…?”

“…Yeah. I understand. I was just being stupid… I won’t make excuses… I’m the one who did something unforgivable…”

“I see… Stand up… Hiyori.”

“…Yeah.”

Papa stood in front of me. He raised his right hand. Thinking it was natural to be hit, I closed my eyes and waited for the impact…

SMACK—

“…!?”

The sound of skin being struck echoed through the living room.

(??? H-huh… it doesn’t… hurt…?)

When I carefully opened my eyes, I realized that Papa had struck his own cheek hard. I could clearly see the handprint vividly imprinted on his cheek, turning it red.

“Wh-why…?”

“I’m sorry… Hiyori… for making you feel so lonely… This is a lesson for your father… So that I never neglect you again. I’ll never leave you alone again. From now on… no, starting today, we’ll spend much more time together as a family, so please forgive Papa.”

“…Papa…”

“Hiyori… Let Mama apologize once more too, okay? I’m really sorry, Hiyori. Mama promises too, okay? I won’t let you eat dinner alone and be lonely anymore… I’ll talk with you more… so… please forgive Mama…”

“M-Mama… I… I’m sorry too… I should have… properly told you both… what I was thinking…”

“No… your father and I were wrong. We didn’t take time to spend with you… with our precious daughter… And Hiyori, you did try to talk to us…”

“Papa’s right, Hiyori. We were wrong. Always saying ‘work, work’… not having proper conversations with you… making you feel lonely… But… from now on, as Papa said, we’ll properly make time just for our family like this, okay?”

“…R-really?”

“Yeah. Papa… quit his company. Mama did too.”

“…Huh? Huh? I-is that… okay!? Could it be… because of me…?”

“No, it’s not! It’s not because of you, Hiyori. So don’t worry, okay? Besides, we’ve already found new jobs. Better treatment than our previous workplace, with more days off. And that’s not all! The working hours aren’t long either. From 9 AM to 5 PM. So from now on, I’ll cook dinner like I used to, and by the time you come home from school, Mama and Papa will be home too!”

“…Well, saying this… it might sound like an excuse… but your mother and I couldn’t think about you for some reason before. Maybe we didn’t have the mental space, only thinking about ourselves. Now… looking back, I can see that we made you feel so lonely, but we couldn’t see it then. I’m sorry… this really just sounds like an excuse…”

“No… no… it’s fine… it’s okay. Besides… from now on… it’ll be different, right?”

“Of course, we promise that!!”

Papa and Mama’s voices overlapped. They were looking at me as they spoke. Their eyes told the story. That it wasn’t a lie…

“Yeah ♪. It’s a promise!”

I hugged Papa and Mama again… and then I got to savor Mama’s home cooking that she made for the first time in so long. Mama’s taste… They also called it “mother’s cooking”, didn’t they? Anyway, my stomach was rejoicing at Mama’s home cooking.

“Oh… and Hiyori?”

“What is it?”

“Starting tomorrow, you’ll have a week off from school, right?”

“Huh… oh… yeah.”

The incident apparently wouldn’t become public… but because of what had happened, I was supposed to take a week off from school considering my mental state and such. The detective had said it would be better that way. I had heard this myself. To heal the wounds in my heart…

“So it’s sudden, but we’ve decided to go on a trip starting tomorrow!”

“All three of us as a family, of course ♪.”

“Huh? I’m happy, but… wh-what about work!? Is the new company okay with this!?”

“Don’t worry, it’s fine, Hiyori! The president of the new workplace told us so. He said that since we’ve worked without rest until now, we should go on a family trip for about a week and stretch our wings. That it’s not too late and we should cherish the time we spend as a family!”

“Really!? Yay!”

A family trip—when was the last time? It’d been since I was little, right?

“And get this! It’s treated as paid leave! Usually you get paid leave after working for about six months or more… oh, paid leave is simply explained as… if you submit a form, even if you take a day off from work, it’s treated as if you worked that day, you know?”

“I know that much too!”

“Hiyori! We’ll take lots of photos and videos as well ♪. We haven’t done that in so long!”

“Yes! Yes!”

“Really… the president is… well, he’s the same age as you… but he’s really reliable, already running a company! And when I heard more, he’s in the same class as you!”

“…He? Same class?”

Come to think of it… that politician old man had also said “he”—

“Dear! Why are you blabbing… and… when did you drink so much alcohol!? You’ve always become talkative when you drink since way back!”

“I-it’s fine, isn’t it? At times like this…”

“Good grief… this person is… oh, that’s right! H-here, look at this, Hiyori!”

“What!? Th-this is… this is a live concert ticket for my favorite band!?”

“That’s right! It’s a ticket for the day after tomorrow’s concert, and we decided to go to the live show during our trip! Just the two of us—me and Hiyori!!”

“Your father will drink and wait at the inn while you two go to the concert, okay? There will definitely be lots of people there, and I don’t like crowds.”

“You don’t like these kinds of things, do you?”

“Yeah…”

“Papa should come too! This band is amazing!!”

“…No, Papa prefers drinking—”

“I see… that’s too bad.”

“Just have fun with Mama.”

“Yeah. Got it. By the way… Mama.”

“Yeah?”

“I won’t be fooled, you know?”

“…Huh?”

“I’m talking about what you said earlier. Who is ‘he’? According to Papa’s story, this ‘he’ is a company president, right? And this ‘he’ is my classmate too, isn’t he? Please explain what this means. We don’t keep secrets between family members, right?”

“Sigh~ Because Papa let it slip…”

“Hey now… it’s fine, isn’t it?”

“…I understand. But keep it secret, okay? Actually—”

Mama had been thinking for a while, but perhaps giving up, she told me about him. And I heard everything.

About how he had saved us…