(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.

SIDE Tachibana Mizuri

“I’m home…”

Recently, whenever I return to my family home, I always feel heavy-hearted.

…Recently? No, it’s been like this for an entire year.

It’s been particularly noticeable these past few times, and to be honest, I really hate coming home.

But when my mother tells me to come home, I have no choice but to return.

When I have to report failures like this time, I feel especially depressed.

“Welcome home, Mizuri.”

On days like this, my mother always comes out from the back room immediately.

“Mother…”

I think she came out right away to hear the results of the job entrusted to me.

“So… were you able to get the video?”

Sigh, I don’t want to say it, but I have to.

“…I’m sorry.”

“‘I’m sorry’ doesn’t tell me anything. Let me ask again… were you able to get the video?”

Her voice was cold.

I don’t want to be punished.

But since I’m the one who failed, I have to accept it. I’ve gotten used to it by now.

It still hurts though.

Sigh, I really hate this.

“…I’m sorry, I couldn’t get it.”

I couldn’t look my mother in the eyes. No… I might not have done so recently anyway.

I closed my eyes tightly, preparing to be hit.

But no matter how long I waited, the impact never came.

“Tch.”

The sound of a lighter followed by cigarette smoke. It’s my mother’s usual habit—she starts smoking whenever something happens.

She takes a deep drag of her cigarette as if to suppress her irritation.

“Why can’t you do it? What you had to do was simple… you didn’t forget, did you?”

“No, I didn’t forget.”

“Tell me what it was.”

“…In front of Takeda Kyo. Using the wounds on my back as an excuse, undress and expose my skin, let him touch me, then stumble and create a situation where he pushes me down, and record that scene on video.”

“You understand perfectly, don’t you? Then why couldn’t you do it?”

The regular sound of her fingers tapping on the table could be heard. This is also her usual habit.

The rhythm gradually quickened, and my heartbeat quickened along with it.

I hate this sound. When this sound speeds up…

“Just as I was about to undress, someone interrupted.”

“An intruder?”

“Shiraishi-sensei… came. I hurriedly put my clothes back on. …She’s one of Takeda Kyo’s fiancées.”

“…The fourth woman, right? Ugh, that’s why I hate these homewreckers.”

She spat out the words with disgust.

My mother took another deep drag of her cigarette to calm her agitated feelings, then exhaled the smoke.

“Where were you trying to do this in the first place? You should have done it at home.”

“On the school rooftop… At home, Takeda Kyo has little time alone, and recently he’s often with other fiancées too, so there’s almost no time when we’re alone together. Moreover, since there’s a maid in his room, I couldn’t just barge in… so I chose school.”

“…Sigh, that harem really gets in the way.”

My mother doesn’t like the arranged marriage system to begin with.

She’s what you’d call a person with old-fashioned values.

But she still sent me into the arranged marriage system for a reason.

A reason that made her own values irrelevant… no, it might be the root of my mother’s own values.

“But Mizuri, I think there were plenty of other ways to do it, right? You could have gone to a hotel where no one would interrupt, for instance?”

“…I apologize.”

I hadn’t thought of such methods.

I thought I had done everything I could.

But apparently my mother didn’t see it that way.

“Mizuri, you haven’t developed feelings for Takeda Kyo, have you?”

“N-no, nothing like that…”

But I couldn’t completely deny it.

When I avoided leaving that video of Kyo-kun pushing me down on camera, when I heard sensei’s footsteps coming up the stairs, I felt relieved inside.

I thought I could still stay in this warm lukewarm water, that I didn’t have to do such things.

“You haven’t, right?”

“…”

“Mizuri.”

Before I knew it, my mother was right in front of me.

She placed both hands on my shoulders… scary.

“You haven’t forgotten your purpose, have you?”

“I-I haven’t forgotten.”

“If you do your job properly, you can see your father again… Hirodai-san. No, not just see him—you can live together again like before. We can spend time happily as a family, water-tight, and no one will ever be allowed to be missing again… you understand that’s the most important thing, don’t you?! Mizuri!!”

She pushed me away, grabbed a plate from the table, and smashed it on the ground.

There was a dry cracking sound as glass fragments scattered across the floor.

“Kyaa…!!”

“Yet you failed at your job!! Doesn’t Mizuri want father to come home?! Don’t you want to eat together and laugh like we used to?!”

“…I-I want to be together… I want to laugh.”

“That’s right! Yet you failed! This is like pouring cold water on our family reunion! On the four of us! So even though I don’t want to do this… I have to punish you.”

Punishment…

Am I going to be hurt again? I really hate that.

“Yes, I have to do it… because Hirodai-san left because of Mizuri. Yes, that’s definitely what happened! So I have to!”

My mother came toward me, not caring about stepping on glass fragments.

This time a lighter was thrown at the wall behind her.

“No…”