That Half-Finished Drink Was Lethal— What Happened When I Left My Bottle Behind in a 1:4 Male-to-Female World - 24

Chapter 24: This Pain Is Lethal — Only After Losing It Did I Understand

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―Reika Ootori’s POV―

Ootori. In this country, that name signified the “absolute correct answer.” A vase with the value of three hundred million yen. The immense power of the Ootori family. With those, it should have been simple to buy a single boy’s life and spend a lifetime together with him as my “possession.”

Or so it was supposed to be.

“What do you think you’re doing, you trespassers…! Yuuki is my legitimate possession based on a contract of three hundred million yen! I won’t let you lay a single finger on him!”

I grabbed the collar of Yuu-sama, who had collapsed onto the bed, and glared at the mad dogs before me. However, what returned to me was not a silence begging for mercy. Rin Asami. That woman, known as the ace of an advertising agency, wore a cold business smile as she tapped on the tablet in her hand.

“…Possession? I’m afraid you’re mistaken, Ootori-san. That idea was just rewritten by me, right now. …All advertisements for the Ootori Group are suspended. And tomorrow, I’ll have every station run a special feature on you as an ‘unethical company that forces slave contracts.'”

Rin’s words echoed with a discomfort that felt like a direct blow to the brain. I screamed at the top of my lungs, straining my trembling voice.

“…Do you have proof? There is no such thing anywhere! A scandal involving the Ootori is nothing but a fantasy!”

(…These women are mere rioters. Insolent fools who think they can tear down the Ootori’s ironclad defense with wordplay. The walls of the Ootori, constructed with gold, could not possibly crumble so easily…!)

However, Rin Asami—with a look in her eyes as if she pitied me—gave a small “giggle.”

“If it’s proof you want, I’ve created it as the truth this very instant. …Mimori-san, if you please.”

“A-Ah… …Evidence, …is here. …Projector mode, …activated. …The darkness of the Ootori, …screening starts…”

In the darkness, a drone floating in mid-air transformed the pure white wall of my room into a screen.

“…?!”

What was projected there was that rainy back alley from a few days ago. Kujo was handing a brown envelope filled with cash to an old woman—

“…W-what is this… Kujo…?”

“A-Ah… …The Pot of …Fabrication. …The decisive moment …where Chihiro Kujo …bribes the old woman. …This is …the Ootori’s …’evidence of scandal’…”

Mimori’s flat, mechanical voice wrung out the depths of my stomach like a wet rag. It was a lie. Kujo would never make such a blunder. I looked back at Kujo in desperation. However, she simply stood in the darkness, eyes closed in a perfectly composed posture, maintaining her silence.

“Who do you think is watching such a video! Who would dare defy the majesty of the Ootori!”

Then, Miya Akutsu, not even wiping the blood flowing from her nose, turned her smartphone toward me with a crazed smile.

“Kehyahya! Then why don’t I let my one million-plus followers hear it?! I’m live streaming right now! This is how the Ootori do things! Spread the word, followers!”

“…S-stop it! Stop that stream right this instant!”

“Kehyahya! Like hell I’m stoppin’! Might as well film that wicked face of yours while I’m at it!”

“Stop it. …Don’t film me…!”

I desperately tried to hide my face behind Yuu-sama’s body. However, the lens of Miya’s smartphone relentlessly cornered me, leaving me with no place to run.

“…A lie. This is all some kind of mistake…”

I reached out and grabbed my personal smartphone, which I had tossed onto the bedside, as if clinging to it. The finger I used to swipe the screen was rattling and trembling pathetically.

As if drawn in, I looked at the “comments” on that live stream.

《Ootori is finished》

《Seriously?》

《Fabricating stuff like that is the worst》

《Guess it’s boycott time》

《The Ootori family’s young lady, kidnapping someone? That’s a crime》

《I’m selling all my stocks》

《Ootori brand is officially over lol》

“Ah… a… ah…”

No matter how much I scrolled, there was not a single word praising the Ootori. A waterfall of anonymous violence. The characters, the words, were carving away at my pride. My vision stained pure white. The pale blue light emitted from the smartphone screen burned my retinas, stripping away my sense of reality.

(…A lie. The Ootori, I… am being… rejected…?)

Piercing my ears was Miya’s jarring laughter. Striking my nose was the ozone scent remaining from the burnt-out switchboard. The brilliant world I believed in was collapsing with a roar. At that moment, the smartphone in my hand vibrated. Displayed on the incoming call screen was the existence who was the “God” of the Ootori—

“…F-Father…! Father, please save me! Intruders, Kujo, such nonsense…!”

What leaked from the speaker was a cold, ruthless voice crawling along the ground, devoid of even a fragment of mercy.

『Reika. Just what on earth have you done?』

“…Father…?”

『Reika!! You fool, what a pathetic blunder you have performed! Hundreds of billions have vanished from the Ootori Group’s market capitalization in an instant!』

“…That’s, I was just following the Ootori’s correct answer…!”

『Silence! You, as an asset, have become a “liability” this very moment! You are no longer a person of the Ootori. …Discard the Ootori name immediately. Die and atone for this.』

The heartless sound of a dial tone. The last pillar supporting my world. It had been cut away like trash in an instant. Disowned by the head of the Ootori Group, Gozaburo Ootori. The money. The power. The family lineage. All the parts that fashioned me as “Reika Ootori” were being stripped away. My golden hair was disheveled, and my shoulders shook slightly.

“Ah… a… a…”

My throat felt hot, as if I had swallowed dry sand.

(I am… all alone.)

Three hundred million yen. The name Ootori. With those taken from me, all that remained was a pathetic, trembling girl. I reached out my hand one last time toward Yuu-sama.

“…Yuu-sama. …Don’t go. …Don’t go, Yuu-sama. …I have no one left but you… I’ll do something about the money later…!”

I grabbed the sleeve of Yuu-sama’s butler uniform with all my strength. However, Yuu-sama did not embrace me. He looked down, looking sad—truly, deeply sad.

“…Reika-san …I… didn’t want to be tied down in this way.”

―!

Those words pierced my chest more sharply than any insult. Yuu-sama’s warm but resolute hands… gently pulled my fingers away. The warmth moved further away. I collapsed to my knees. The coldness of the marble floor ruthlessly pressed reality upon me.

“…Waa… waaaaaaahhhhh!!!”

Throwing away my mask as Reika Ootori, I wailed at the top of my lungs like a mere child. The sound of his footsteps as he walked away. The voices of the women barking like mad. All of it grew distant.

(Yuu-sama, …Yuu-sama…!)

―Yuu Yuuki’s POV―

The giant illusion known as Reika Ootori shattered before my eyes. She sat on the floor, reaching out to me while trembling uncontrollably. Her fingertips were no longer those of the “absolute ruler” from moments ago, but were weak, like a child afraid of the dark.

“…Yuu-sama. …Don’t go. …Don’t go, Yuu-sama. …I have no one left but you… I’ll do something about the money later…”

Her words gouged my chest. But the fact that the word “money” still appeared in fragments of her speech was sadder than anything else.

“…I’m sorry, Reika-san.”

Gently but clearly, I rejected her trembling fingertips.

“…Reika-san. …I… didn’t want to be tied down in this way.”

Reika-san’s eyes widened in despair. At that moment, a single image overlapped in my mind.

(Ah. …This crying face…)

“Reika-san” from Cafe Les Ailes, who always worked with a straight back even while frowning unpleasantly. That meddlesome, cute junior who worked with me. It was far too late for me to realize that the person falling apart before me was that very “Reika-san.”

“Kehyahya! It’s settled! Let’s go, Yuu! To my paradise!”

Miya-san pulled my arm forcefully, trying to lead me out of the room. Rin-san pushed my back in silence, and Shizuku-san’s shoulders shook as if she were relieved. I looked back just once at the exit of the room.

In the darkness, Reika-san collapsed in tears, her shoulders held by Kujo-san. The room that was supposed to be magnificent and gorgeous now looked like nothing more than a cold gravestone. I could see Reika-san clutching the “golden ear pick” that had rolled onto the floor so tightly that her hand began to bleed.

(…Reika-san…)

The faces of the women who were supposed to have come to save me somehow looked distorted with victory, like starving beasts full of a “hunger” to devour me at any moment and as if dragged by them, I left the Ootori castle.

【Yuu went from one hell to another.】

―Reika Ootori’s POV―

“…Now then. …The chatter is over. …Ootori-san. …Or perhaps I should say, ‘former’ Ootori-san.”

Shizuku Kisaragi slapped a document down in front of me with cold eyes.

“It’s an ‘agreement’ stating that you admit to the facts of fraud, kidnapping, and violation of public order and morals and that you terminate all contracts with Yuu Yuuki. …Sign this. If you do, I’ll settle for just your social destruction.”

“A-Ah… …Hurry up. …My …drones are …monitoring …everything…”

“And my live stream is still goin’ too! Kehyahya!”

There was no place to run from the start. However, I could not grasp the pen. If I wrote this, Yuu-sama would never return to me again.

“…No. …I refuse. …Yuu-sama, …Yuu-sama…!”

At that moment… From behind me, a warm but terribly heavy hand pulled me into an embrace by the shoulder.

“…It is time you realized the truth. …My lady Reika.”

Kujo. Her voice was more filled with affection than I had ever heard before.

“…Kujo …why. …Why even you…”

“…How pitiful. …You were bound by the ‘name’ Ootori and obsessed with ‘money,’ forgetting what was most important. …One cannot bind a person with laws or paper. …If you wish to bind them, bind them with your love and charm.”

She made me grasp a pen in my trembling hand.

“…Do not take, give. …Everything you lost today was a noble sacrifice in order to gain the ‘truth’ that is him. For the sake of the day when he sits by your side of his own will, release that hand for now.”

Kujo’s words melted my frozen heart. I only knew how to take. Confining him within the castle called Ootori and binding him with chains was the only way I knew how to love.

“Ah… aah, aaaaaaahhhhhh!!!”

I collapsed in tears so intense that I could no longer recognize my own name. My vision blurred with tears, and the document became wet and wavy.

Reika Ootori.

Each stroke as I wrote my name felt like a blade slicing through my pride. The moment I finished the signature, my world completely collapsed. In the room where everyone had gone, I felt the sensation of metal digging into my palm. The golden ear pick. The only relic where Yuu-sama’s body heat still faintly remained.

“…Ugh, …ah, aah…”

My chest hurt. The pleasure of having my ears picked was like dust compared to this. An unbearable pain, as if my heart were being crushed directly by a bare hand.

(…Ah. Yes. …So this is it, Kujo.)

“…It was not my ears that were in pain… but my chest…”

I lost the name Ootori, and the money and power vanished. Inside me, having become such an ugly woman, an emotion sprouted for the first time. Obsession, regret, and… love. In the darkness, I whispered a single phrase like a spell.

“…Next time, it won’t be with money or paper… I will stake a lifetime. …So that you will understand my love…”

Without even wiping away the overflowing tears, I stared into the void with eyes harboring a dark passion.

“…No. I shall make you understand. …Yuu-sama.”

(My “first love,” in the truest sense, has now begun.)

The tears still wouldn’t stop. However, the pain in my chest became a vow for a rematch, carved deeply into my soul.

【Time remaining until Reika Ootori experiences her first love for Yuu, 0 minute remaining】

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