(Chastity Reversed) The Legitimate Wife War: How I, a Harem-Hater, Ended Up Creating an Ultra-Eccentric Harem with a Villainess, a Sadistic Beauty Teacher, a Scheming Classmate... etc.

Mizuri Tachibana POV

“Whew…”

Finally reaching my own room, I could take a breath. The tension drained from my body.

“Hah, I’m tired~ so sluggish~”

As expected, it was quite taxing for an ordinary high school girl like me to talk with important people.

As evidence, my face reflected in the room’s mirror looked heavy and gloomy.

My real face being expressionless and dreary wasn’t just today’s issue, but even so, my face was darker than usual today.

“…I never thought the top of the NAZ organization would come~”

I really want them to stop doing things like this.

It’s surprising and tiring. When I learned the meeting partners were the NAZ organization’s chairman and vice-chairman, the fake smile I was wearing involuntarily twitched.

“Well, but…”

…Looking back carefully, I felt like my exhaustion wasn’t just from today’s meeting.

The recent fatigue hadn’t completely lifted and was definitely accumulating in my body.

The cause of my exhaustion was due to the scene still happening in the living room.

“Hah, getting all worked up… honestly.”

In the living room, Hosho-san and Sensei were still clashing with their petty jealousy. And the target of that jealousy, standing between them, was Ta-ke-da-san. He was always smiling in a troubled way.

The two of them went at it every single day to the point I wondered if they didn’t get bored.

Well, they weren’t showing the ugly sides of women, and neither was probably serious about it.

But surely the love they harbored was real.

And the atmosphere of a house where such real love had begun to bloom was somehow uncomfortable for me.

…Because I was fake, and this lukewarm atmosphere didn’t suit me.

“Sigh…”

I was probably tired now partly due to stress from an unfamiliar environment.

In the end, I was the one at fault though.

“It’s kind of like a comedy… Everyone hated Takeda-kun so much at first, but now they’re desperately trying to make that man they hated turn to them.”

Both Hosho-san and Sensei had been different at first.

Both were asserting that they should be the one next to Takeda-san, using their own weapons. All to gain his favor.

“…I don’t understand it.”

I think the two of them were experiencing something called love—a love I couldn’t understand that they’d become aware of.

I was just pretending to act like I liked him because I was his fiancée, but the two of them were different. The two of them had changed from fake to real. The two of them had the heat that came from being real, which I didn’t have.

I couldn’t even feel jealousy—I could pretend to show it, but I’d fall short of the real thing.

Actually, there was no way I could beat real emotions in the first place. Because—

“—I’ve never shown anyone my real emotions… well, I don’t even understand my own real emotions anyway.”

It had been a difficult life.

I’d lived suppressing my emotions—that was normal.

That’s exactly why I’d long since stopped understanding what I wanted to do. I’d just become a fiancée as I was told.

Well, anyway, the current atmosphere in this house was hard to deal with.

“It would have been better if everyone had stayed fake.”

First, Hosho-san changed.

She changed when Takeda-san helped her during the fiancée voting.

Next, Sensei changed.

When Sensei went with Takeda-san to save Shiraishi-sensei and they all returned safely. That seemed to be when her romantic feelings were kindled.

And settling down and realizing there was another person nearby harboring the same real feelings, they probably started asserting that they were number one.

Well, it’s what you’d call a love triangle.

But I couldn’t keep up, and I certainly couldn’t become the apex of a quadrangle—ah, with Shiraishi-sensei too, a pentagon, so I inevitably felt emotionally drained being with them.

Until now, all three of us had fake love—love purely as a contract—but now I was the only one experiencing fake love.

I’ll never know real love for the rest of my life, and I certainly won’t understand something like true love, nor do I want to understand it.

Because—

“—love just hurts.”

At least the love I received was nothing but painful.

That person, those people called it “love.”

If Hosho-san and Sensei’s romantic destination was what they call “love,” what they ultimately reach won’t be any different.

If it’s something like that, I never need to feel it or experience it for the rest of my life.

I’ve had enough of “love.”

That thing was enough with just my parents.

The moonlight that had been entering the room was suddenly hidden by clouds.

The room that had become pitch black was somewhat uncomfortable. My usual symptoms seemed about to emerge.

“Hah… hah…”

It wasn’t enough to make me lose composure, but I could tell my breathing was getting slightly rough.

As always, I was bad with narrow darkness.

Darkness reminded me of the past. That dark, narrow, confined space.

Deep breaths, deep breaths.

After calming down a little, I searched for the light switch by my pillow with still-trembling hands and pressed the night light switch.

The fragile orange bulb that soon lit up gradually calmed my trembling.

“…Hah.”

I’d broken out in an unpleasant sweat.

“…I need to take a bath… ah, but if I go now, I’ll probably run into someone.”

Strangely, I didn’t want to see anyone right now.

I didn’t feel like I couldn’t do my usual fake “Tachibana Mizuri” if I met someone.

If I met someone, my smile would twitch. My usual moderately cheerful self was sold out for today.

“…Hah, what a pain.”

When I closed my eyes, my eyelids rapidly grew heavy.

Ah… the good thing about this fiancée system was being able to sleep peacefully… maybe?

Even if this was a marriage decided by my parents, to fulfill my parents’ dreams.

*****

Around the time I was old enough to understand things… I had an older sister.

…I don’t remember her name. I always called her ” .”

The older sister in my memories always smiled at me.

She’d gently call my name “Mizuri,” and when I made mistakes, she’d pat my head with a clumsy, scrunched-up smile.

[If anything bad happens, tell me, okay? I’ll definitely help you.]

I remember being told something like that.

When my older sister was there, Dad would laugh, Mom would laugh, and the whole family would laugh.

That was the last time I could laugh without worrying about anything.

My real emotions might have disappeared from there.

I’m even doubtful whether such days really existed.

…Because I don’t have an older sister in the first place.

I think this is probably an illusion my brain showed me.

I’d read in some psychology book that when people experience something too painful, they create fictional memories and escape. To protect their own hearts.

I think that’s probably what it was. Why a fictional older sister was created inside me.

Something inside me probably screamed and created the existence called older sister.

To the point where I thought it was reality.

Because when I asked Dad and Mom, they said I was their only child.

And the family register clearly stated I was an only child.

I didn’t want to see the family register, but I had to see it, and after that day when my fate changed, my escapism was shattered.

But there were strange things too. For some reason, whenever I talked about my older sister, both of them would invariably make unpleasant faces.

Expressions like they’d bitten into bitter bugs.

Even though that shouldn’t be possible, they reacted as if they’d done something guilty.

After hearing that story, Dad would suddenly go somewhere, and when Dad disappeared, Mom would cry.

And when Dad came back, the parents would always fight afterward.

So I naturally stopped talking about my older sister… that was the forbidden word in the Tachibana household.