(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.

She was gritting her teeth, trembling with rage.

Aoyama-san took several deep breaths, perhaps to calm her feelings.

“Phew…! Okay, it pisses me off… I can’t forgive it at all, but that’s exactly why let’s talk calmly. There’s no point in me getting angry since it won’t solve anything.”

“All we can do is resolve it quickly.”

My feelings were the same as Aoyama-san’s.

My blood was boiling just as much—toward her parents and also…

“So what are you planning to do?”

“Given the situation, we first need to confirm that it’s her mother who’s abusing Tachibana-san. If we don’t do that, it’ll just end up being baseless accusations from us. It would be good if we could get testimony from Tachibana-san, but… it doesn’t seem like she intends to say anything. We can only try to see if we can somehow get her to talk.”

“…That’s it?”

“No, during that time I’m thinking of trying to put a bug or something in her house.”

“A-a bug? Is that… okay?”

Aoyama-san’s eyes widened at the suddenly dangerous word.

“It’s fine because we won’t get caught.”

“No, I don’t think that’s the kind of ‘okay’ I was talking about… I wasn’t asking whether we’d get caught.”

Then what was she trying to ask about?

“I’m thinking of planting it in Tachibana-san’s smartphone. Living with her, I noticed Tachibana-san is surprisingly weak with smartphones, right? So I thought I’d put it in there. Of course, only while she’s home. There’s privacy to consider, so I’m planning to have someone other than me do it.”

“You can be considerate about that…”

For some reason, Aoyama-san was looking at me with slightly withdrawn eyes. Why?

“I’m also having other investigations done. And I have a request for Aoyama-san too.”

“I’ll do anything! Leave it to me!”

“I want you to keep watching to see if she gets injured, like you have been. If anything changes, please tell me. Since Aoyama-san is Tachibana-san’s best friend, I think you’ll notice.”

“…Best friend, huh.”

The moment I said best friend, Aoyama-san showed a self-deprecating smile.

“Yeah, I’m Mizuri’s best friend, so if anything happens, I’ll tell you! Leave it to me.”

“Also, please talk to her like always, without changing anything. That should be connected to her—to Tachibana-san’s peace of mind.”

“Got it… can I say something right away?”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

“About Mizuri, she might be thinking about something. She was a little brighter than usual today.”

…Brighter than usual?

My confusion must have shown on my face.

Aoyama-san added supplementary explanation.

“This might just be my selfish thinking, but… I feel like when Mizuri has unpleasant things happen or troublesome things come up, she becomes brighter than usual and makes more jokes. Today she was more high-tension than usual, and sometimes said incomprehensible things, right?”

Now that she mentioned it, she had said things like that.

Like “razor beam eyes” and “get burned by his gaze.”

I hadn’t noticed. I thought it was pretty much the same as always.

Now that she mentioned it, Tachibana-san had seemed pretty high-tension.

Maybe it was something only a best friend could notice.

“Plus her makeup was heavier than usual. So something might have happened. I asked casually, but she said ‘nothing happened’…”

So Aoyama-san didn’t think that was the case.

If there was something, would it be abuse?

“I touched her body, but she didn’t seem to be in pain… so I might be wrong, but please keep it in mind.”

Aoyama-san would naturally be suspicious too.

“Maybe there aren’t any injuries?”

If it wasn’t physical… then mental?

I suddenly remembered a previous memory.

The day I went on a date with Tachibana-san, when we got stuck in the elevator.

She had said she was afraid of the dark then too. Was that also an effect of abuse?

That wouldn’t leave marks on the body.

I hoped that wasn’t the case.

I hoped it wasn’t, but if it was…

“Ugh.”

The insidiousness made me feel like vomiting.

“Takeda-kun… you’re making a scary face.”

“Eh…?”

She suddenly took my hand.

Her hand was warm.

“Calm down. You’re putting too much force in your fist and it’s turned red… well, I was angry just now too, so maybe I don’t have much credibility saying that.”

My disturbed feelings calmed down a little.

“Thanks… stay like this for a bit.”

“Yeah.”

We both held hands and calmed our hearts.

I felt something like an embracing power from Aoyama-san that I usually didn’t feel.

After staying like that for a while, we both slowly let go of each other’s hands.

“Ah…”

I thought I heard a slightly wistful voice from Aoyama-san, but… I’ll leave that alone.

Her ears were red too.

“S-sorry for suddenly doing that.”

Apparently a little embarrassed, Aoyama-san wouldn’t meet my eyes.

Even though we had been making eye contact the whole time until just now.

“I’ll contact you if anything happens.”

“Me too.”

It was already past 6 PM.

We had apparently been talking longer than expected.

Since it was getting late, we tried to leave the classroom together…

“…Huh? Was the door slightly open when we came in?”

I thought I had closed it.

“Hmm, I wonder. I don’t pay attention to things like that… but everyone’s already gone home, and this is an isolated empty classroom, so nobody would come here. So it was probably open. More importantly, let’s hurry home.”

Well, it wouldn’t be strange if Aoyama-san hadn’t closed it properly.

She has gentle aspects but is basically rough around the edges.

“I guess so.”

Maybe I was worrying too much.

There wouldn’t be anyone eavesdropping, right?