That Half-Finished Drink Was Lethal— What Happened When I Left My Bottle Behind in a 1:4 Male-to-Female World - 31

Chapter 31: That Clip Is Archived — Before She Committed the Crime

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Knock, knock.

There was a knock on the door of the neighboring room. When Yuu opened the door, a high-spirited Miya was standing there, clutching three high-end steak boxes.

“Yo, Yuu! It’s on me! Let’s eat together!”

“Eh, Miya-san? These are from a really expensive place. …Did something good happen?”

Miya, having finished her livestream, entered the entryway while humming. In her hand was a paper bag from a famous specialty shop, the kind of thing she would normally never buy.

“Don’t worry about it! Anyway, I’m coming in. Also, your polite speech is back!”

“Sigh… well, I guess it’s better than you breaking in without permission. Come on in.”

Miya entered the house with an arrogant attitude and flopped onto the sofa. Then, she roughly pulled open the top lid of the steak boxes. Yuu’s eyes widened at the aroma of the meat spread out on the table.

“That looks incredibly delicious…”

“It’s a way for me to repay for the meat and potatoes from the other day. Just shut up and eat!”

“Thank you. You seem to be in a great mood, though. Is work going well?”

Miya stood up from the sofa and, with a beaming smile, sat down right next to Yuu. The distance was much closer than before, enough that their skin was touching.

“Kehyah! Well, yeah! A little side business is doing amazing. …Don’t hold back, Yuu. Look, want me to give you a bite? Say ‘ahh’?”

“Oh, I can eat by myself, so I’m fine. …Miya-san, you’ve seemed happy lately, but aren’t you working too hard?”

Yuu gave a clear, motherly smile. Being stared at by those pure eyes, Miya felt like she was about to spray a nosebleed and hurriedly stuffed steak into her mouth.

“…O-Of course! Who do you think I am? …I hope… I hope you don’t say things like that to just anyone…”

(D-Damn it… Yuu is so cute. …Looking at this innocent face, I feel a tiny bit of guilt for auctioning off his personal stuff on the stream… No, I don’t! It’s all for the sake of Waikiki!)

Miya’s eyes stared intently at Yuu. Observing the intensity in the depths of her gaze, Yuu felt a slight but certain sense of unease.

“…Hey, Yuu. If I earn even more money, let’s go somewhere far away together. Like a southern island where no one knows us.”

She looked no different from her usual self. However, there was a precariousness about her now, as if she were possessed by something.

“A southern island, huh? …That might be nice. But I don’t hate our life now. Regarding Les Ailes, I told Kujo-san I’d put it on hold… but I’m starting to think I’d like to stand in that dining room again.”

The moment Yuu mentioned the name Les Ailes, Miya’s eyebrow twitched.

“…Hmm, Les Ailes, huh? …I don’t think there’s any need to go back to a place run by people who try to extort three hundred million yen from you. Didn’t I say I’d earn everything for you, Yuu?”

“No, I can’t let that happen. I want to work properly with my own strength, too…”

“It’s fine! It’s fine! Yuu, you just stay there and let me stare at your arm ve—I mean, you just stay there and cook!”

“I told you, no. I have to manage my own living expenses. If anything, I want to earn enough to support the person I love.”

“A-Are you serious…?”

Miya stared at Yuu in a daze, her fork stopped mid-air on its way to her mouth.

(…Is he for real? In this day and age, where is the man who would turn down a woman offering to support him for life…!?)

The men Miya had seen in the past all believed that being under a woman’s protection was their natural right. They would stake their lives on finding a woman with more power and a fatter wallet to parasite off of. That was the way a shrewd man lived in this world. Furthermore, a man like Yuu, who possessed such rare beauty and a natural, Mary-like maternal affection that drew people in, should be able to extract hundreds of millions in gifts from countless women with a single flick of his finger.

And yet…

(…Damn it. …Damn it! What is with this guy… he’s the best, the absolute best man ever…!!)

Miya’s heart leaped with enough force to shatter her ribs. In this world, a man who desired independence was more than just an eccentric. He was a noble yet precarious endangered species that stimulated a woman’s desire for conquest beyond measure.

(Wanting to live by his own strength… that makes him just like… a wild male…!)

Yuu’s casual movements. The line of his sturdy neck. And the bulging veins in his arms that she had almost blurted out earlier. To Miya, all of it looked like the symbol of a “wild male.”

“…Yuu, you… are you serious? With my money, you wouldn’t have to lift a finger; you could live elegantly on a southern island for the rest of your life. You can just depend on me…”

“No, I’m saying that would be uncool. …But, I respect you, Miya-san, for earning a proper living with your own strength.”

Yuu laughed bashfully while eating the vegetables served with the steak. The back of her nose felt a sharp heat. Numbers. Money. Followers.

“…Tch. …Do whatever you want! If you’re going to be that stubborn, then I’ll… I’ll just earn even more and make you so stunned that you’ll say, ‘I definitely want to be Miya’s toy boy after all!'”

“Haha, take it easy on me. …But I’m rooting for you, Miya-san.”

Yuu’s support. To Miya, that made her heart feel heavier and hotter than any high-priced Super Chat.

(…Just you watch, Yuu. If you’re going to be such a fine, independent man, then I… I’m going to spoil you more than anyone in the world and make you completely head-over-heels dependent on me…!)

She had fallen for him all over again. No, Miya was already a captive of the man named Yuu to the very depths of her soul. In her mind, the delusion of the beach in tropical Waikiki was redrawn even more vividly.

Miya reluctantly returned to her own room after Yuu told her he had things to do. In her room, she was ruminating on the words he had just said to her.

『I respect you, Miya-san, for earning a proper living with your own strength.』

Respect. The words she had just been told pierced Miya’s chest. She realized that, for some reason, she didn’t want Yuu to know the true nature of the numbers she had built up.

“…Hmph. …The money I earned is for Yuu and me. …So it’s okay! Kehyah-kehyah!”

The steak she put in her mouth certainly tasted high-end. But eating it alone, the taste felt somewhat empty.

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At the same time. On the top floor of a luxury apartment, several kilometers away from Yuu’s room. Rin Asami was staring at a giant monitor in a living room wrapped in inorganic silence.

“I really can’t forgive that woman… making Yuu-kun into a toy again.”

Currently displayed on the screen was a compilation page of clips from the account Miya had been streaming from until just moments ago.

“A clip compilation? …I wonder what kind of things are on here…”

The moment the screen switched, Rin’s thoughts went white.

“…Eh. …What is this?”

What leaped into her eyes was a row of thumbnails dancing with gaudy, neon-colored text.

The words lined up there were more vulgar than Rin had imagined—no, they were clusters of desire beyond anything she could have possibly conceived.

『【Legendary Stream] My Yuu: How much do you want to buy him for? Personal Items Auction!』

『【Ultra Rare] The Holy Mother Boy’s half-finished water: Unboxing Ceremony (Viewer Discretion Advised)』

『The scandalous arm veins of my (temporary) husband: Uncensored Reveal』

『【Forbidden] I’m auctioning off the ○○ that Yuu-kun touched!』

Her fingers trembled.

“T-This is… that woman, I really can’t forgive her!!!”

As she spoke, Rin tapped on one of the videos with the highest view counts as if she were being sucked in.

『Well, do you want this? It’s a white shirt Yuu wore all day long during this humid season!』

What flowed from the speakers was the familiar voice of the woman named Miya. The tone was muddy, filled with an aggressive smirk.

“…!!”

On the screen, the woman was fondling a white shirt lovingly, but at the same time, treating it vulgarly as a product. It was the one Miya had borrowed from his washing machine yesterday without permission. Miya exposed this shirt to the camera and asked tens of thousands of unknown men, “How much will you give me?”

Rin looked down at the scrolling chat column.

《How about 150,000 for that shirt!》

《Miya-san, try smelling the armpits of that shirt lol》

《I’ll buy Yuu-kun’s ‘half-finished water’ for 50,000, bottle and all.》

《Next, please do a secret recording of his sleeping face!》

《Miya-sama, you’re the best for selling off the Holy Boy (lol) piece by piece!》

《Yuu’s private life is our entertainment.》

《Miya, stain Yuu even more lol》

《This ‘product’ is seriously the best.》

“……….”

She desperately held back from dropping her smartphone. She felt sick. Yuu, the being she cherished. Everything about him was being cut out, processed, and converted into cash as bait to satisfy the sexual or perverted desires of unknown strangers.

(…This kind of thing is unforgivable, it’s not allowed… I don’t want to allow it.)

On the screen, the veins in his arm were enlarged, smeared with the mud of countless praises called “comments.” His face wasn’t shown. His name was reduced to the symbol “Yuu.” However, what was being exposed there was undoubtedly a part of Yuu’s life.

(…I thought that woman’s feelings for Yuu-kun might be the real deal, but it seems I was mistaken. …In the end, I can’t forgive her for turning Yuu-kun into a gimmick to earn these measly numbers…)

『Ahaha! Yuu, do you want pudding for dessert?』

Miya’s bright voice came through the living room speakers. The moment she heard that voice, Rin reflexively shuddered. It was terrifying. Right now, the person Rin cherished was being preyed upon. The woman named Miya was calculating how much she could sell him for.

Rin’s heart rapidly froze over.

“…Ah. …How pitiful. …Yuu-kun is truly so pitiful.”

Rin’s voice was filled with a motherly tenderness. However, her eyes were unfocused, and the highlights had vanished from their color.

In her mind, the blueprint for purifying Yuu was approaching completion without a single error.

“…To be made into a toy by a woman like that. …And that woman Hikari is also aiming for Yuu-kun. The drone girl as well. Probably Shizuku-san too…”

Rin sent out instructions via the tablet in her hand.

“…Speed up the move-in. …For the soundproofing in the walls, use double the standard thickness. …For the air purifiers, I want three of the highest-grade medical models. …In a place where not a single grain of dust, not a single thread of noise… not even that unpleasant ‘kehyah’ laughter, can reach.”

She inhaled deeply, almost crazily, from the jacket Yuu had once used that was lying on her desk.

“…It’s okay, Yuu-kun. …I’ll be coming to get you soon. …A perfect clean room just for you and me, where even the vermin swarming around you can’t enter.”

The corners of Rin’s mouth curled up beautifully and cruelly.

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