(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.

“Why, you ask.”

That’s obvious.

Right, this is what I came to say.

“Because I’m Mizuri’s best friend.”

“…Huh?”

“It’s natural to come looking when a friend suddenly disappears, right? It’s natural to worry without any merit involved. If there’s a merit, it’s that you’re doing well.”

“…Hmm, I don’t think I have that much value. Well, maybe my body is good. If you look in the dark.”

Mizuri laughs self-deprecatingly.

She has no value?

She only has value in her body?

“What are you saying, Mizuri?”

“What?”

“You don’t become friends based on whether someone has value or not… I like you, I want to keep fooling around and laughing, I want to be with you, I was worried, so I came here! There’s no such thing as merits or demerits!”

What I couldn’t say at the pool that time.

“If you’re friends, when the other person is troubled or suffering, you want to help them, right? I may not know what I can do, but I can laugh together, I can cry together.”

Mizuri had said to me then.

[If we’re friends, keep quiet and pretend you didn’t see].

I certainly understand that people have places they don’t want touched.

But I’m not smart, so I don’t know clever ways.

“When I see a friend looking like they’re suffering, I think I want to help them.”

“I’m not suffering at all though?”

While adjusting her bangs, Mizuri speaks as if it’s nothing.

“I know you’re lying. How many years do you think we’ve been together? Mizuri, you have a habit of touching your bangs when you lie. You were doing it just now too.”

“…!”

“Those injuries back then… you’re being abused, aren’t you? Your parents are using violence on you, aren’t they? Hey, Mizuri!”

“…I’m not being abused?”

She tries to touch her bangs again, but maybe because I just pointed it out, she stops her hand.

“There, you did it again.”

“I wasn’t touching them though?”

“That was a lie just now, but the fact that you became conscious of it means you’re lying, right?”

I grin.

Mizuri glares at me resentfully, understanding she was tricked.

Yes, it’s meaningful that you show your emotions.

“!?”

Mizuri opens her eyes slightly and bites her lower lip.

“I’m your best friend. This is different from the other day—talk to me properly? Then I’ll accept everything. I might not be able to solve it, but I can at least worry about it together with you.”

“Because we’re best friends…? Accept? Make me worry?”

Mizuri laughs softly.

But her eyes weren’t laughing.

“Being abused? I’m not being abused though?”

“Then what are those scars on your back? Did you make them yourself?”

“Ah, those are… love.”

Love?

What does that mean?

“Do you know, Setsuna? Love is something that involves pain, you know? It’s something that can only be obtained through pain. That’s what my mother said.”

Involving pain?

What is she saying? I don’t understand.

“There’s no way that’s true, right? There’s no way such a thing is love—”

“—No, it was true. From long ago, father did the same to mother, and afterward he would say, [It’s because I love you, it overflows because of love].”

That is…

Does that mean mother is just doing exactly what was done to her?

“…!”

What is that?

But there’s no way that’s right.

“So it’s natural for me to be scolded by mother when I fail, right? Besides, they often say it, don’t they? ‘Being scolded is proof you’re still valued’—if she had given up, she wouldn’t do such things. So you see, there’s no abuse. Discipline? For my growth? Something like that… so this is natural.”

Natural?

Looking at Mizuri’s face, I understood. No, maybe she’s convincing herself to think that way.

“I understand. I get that the love Mizuri speaks of is such a thing. Then let me ask—are you happy with that? Being hit and scolded and told it’s discipline, being told that’s love—are you happy? Can you feel the love?!”

“…!”

“Besides, if someone really cared about you, there’s no way a parent would tell you to sleep with your fiancé!!”

“Th-that’s… but it’s to get father back, for the family… so. The greater good before the lesser… something like that?”

Mizuri puts on a troubled smile and lets her eyes wander left and right.

Again. It’s been like this since earlier. Mizuri has been convincing herself of her unreasonable situation this way.

That’s why her eyes wander, I think.

I grab Mizuri’s shoulders and force her to look at me.

She’s clearly agitated. I hold Mizuri’s cheeks and look into her eyes at a distance where our faces almost touch.

I speak so my intention won’t be misunderstood.

“The love I know is something much warmer. At least the love I want to give you isn’t like that, and I’m sure Takeda-kun and the others who are your fiancés feel the same. Hey Mizuri, you hate it, don’t you—it’s painful, isn’t it—it’s suffering, isn’t it? Then say so honestly, stop forcing yourself to smile, Mizuri!! Don’t show such a masked smile to me, your best friend!! Rely on your best friend more—no, rely on people more!!!”

“…Shut up! Best friend, best friend—what do you know about me? I’ve lived like this, I couldn’t have lived any other way!”

Shaking off my hands, Mizuri brushes away her hair irritably.

Looking annoyed—that wasn’t some fake face, but genuine irritation from Tachibana Mizuri.

“…Rely on my best friend? Rely on people? …Hah, you don’t know anything. I tried relying on someone once long ago! That was wrong, because of that, it led to the worst result!”

“The worst result?”

Mizuri begins to speak as if spitting it out.

“Fine, I’ll tell you. You see… it’s my fault that my family was destroyed. It’s my fault that father disappeared and had to leave home, so the reason mother became like she is now is also my fault when you trace it back—the folly of relying on people, and its consequences.”