(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.

“PTSD… it’s close to symptoms called post-traumatic stress disorder.”

When I explained the situation to Ayaka-san who arrived right after Karen-san lost consciousness, she came to that conclusion.

“PTSD…?”

“Yes. Some event has become traumatic, and when she was about to remember it, to protect herself, she fell into unconsciousness—that would be the correct interpretation.”

“Mother…”

Tachibana-san, who had changed into clothes Ayaka-san brought, was looking at her mother with an anxious expression.

“A traumatic event… huh.”

Karen-san had fainted in the middle of talking about what happened to the Tachibana family.

Which means—

“—The matter with Hirotaka-san is the trauma for Karen-san?”

“If your husband left practically eloping, that would certainly be traumatic…”

Aoyama-san nodded as if agreeing with my thinking.

“…It’s true, as you two are saying, it’s not impossible that her health gradually worsened triggered by her husband’s matter. But from what I’ve heard, the probability is low. Karen-san seemed about to say some words and suddenly collapsed. If the trauma was about her husband Hirotaka-san, she should have shown a reaction much earlier. A headache or something. It’s possible she’s twisting her consciousness to keep her mind normal, making herself believe Tachibana Hirotaka isn’t dead, but even so, it doesn’t quite fit.”

Now that she mentions it, that’s true. Karen-san never once clearly stated that Hirotaka-san was dead.

Rather, she spoke as if he were still alive.

And as Ayaka-san says, my initial theory that Hirotaka-san is the trauma has question marks when I think about it carefully.

Karen-san and the others were struggling with debt repayment, and she fainted trying to remember something beyond that.

That Something has become traumatic, and because she’s forgotten it, her memories aren’t consistent. As a result of almost noticing that contradiction, she lost consciousness to preserve her mind.

That makes more sense.

“You’re right, Kyoya-kun, that’s more likely… But an event severe enough to make her seal away memories, something even heavier than Tachibana Hirotaka’s death with his affair partner—I can’t imagine what that could be. …This is awkward to ask, but if you don’t mind, is there anything you can remember, Tachibana-san?”

When Ayaka-san directed the conversation to her, Tachibana-san tilted her head and pondered, but soon shook her head.

“I’m sorry, I don’t remember… Certainly our family wasn’t wealthy, but even so, debt collectors and such never came barging in, and I only just heard for the first time today that we even had debt…”

“Which means if what Karen-san said earlier was true, this is from before Tachibana-san became aware of things, right?”

“But honestly, we’re at a dead end then, aren’t we~”

We all racked our brains, but no answer came.

“Hirotaka-san couldn’t work anymore. But there was something that solved it, and ultimately the debt was somehow fully repaid, right? They somehow managed to pay it back, but… how did they pay it back? That’s the cause of Karen-san’s trauma. Probably while pushing themselves, they lost something even more important.”

Something even more shocking than Hirotaka-san providing sperm or leaving home.

From Karen-san’s demeanor, it seemed to originate from family matters, but…

Honestly, I couldn’t think of anything beyond that.

“…Ah, can I say something?”

Everyone turned toward Aoyama-san.

“Honestly, even if we keep thinking about it here, we won’t get an answer, right? We can hear the circumstances themselves when Mizuri’s mother regains consciousness, so I think Mizuri just needs to remember ‘there were such circumstances.’ That might even lead to improving her relationship with her mother… and there’s no point in us talking about it anymore, right?”

Aoyama-san was right.

No matter how much we discussed it here, it was pointless. We’d get the answer faster by just asking.

“…More importantly, when’s the ambulance coming? Even if Mother just fainted, she should go to the hospital.”

“And I’m worried about Kyoya-kun’s injury too~ I did first aid, but you hit your head earlier, so we should be extra careful. I don’t want to be a widow at this age.”

Though Ayaka-san was joking, I could clearly see the worry about me behind it.

Making her make that face made me feel genuinely sorry.

I didn’t want to put her through that either.

But I didn’t want to worry her more either, so I’d obediently go to the hospital here.

Either way, we had to take Karen-san to the hospital.

Karen-san still showed no signs of waking up.

“It’s late at night, so right now Hosho-san is getting her family’s car. She said that would be faster… it should arrive soon… ah, perfect timing, I just got a call.”

For now, if the car arrived, we could manage somehow.

As for the past, as Aoyama-san said, we could ask when Karen-san woke up.

“Excuse me for a moment, Hosho-san’s family car is stopped in the parking lot apparently. We’ll need a stretcher and such to carry Karen-san, so I’ll go back once to guide them here, okay?”

“Ah, wait, I’ll go too. I need to use the restroom… is that okay? Actually, I’ve wanted to go since around when we found Mizuri! So you two talk slowly in the meantime!”

Before hearing our response, Aoyama-san winked at Tachibana-san for some reason and followed after Ayaka-san who was walking ahead.

What remained were me, Tachibana-san, and the unconscious Karen-san.

“Setsuna, honestly…”

Tachibana-san looked at Aoyama-san’s retreating figure with an exasperated face.

“…Very much like Aoyama-san, isn’t it?”

I couldn’t help but smile wryly at such an obvious excuse.

“Really. …But maybe, just maybe… it might be for my sake? …I don’t know if she’s thinking that far, but maybe she gave me time to thank Kyou-kun. Setsuna’s surprisingly perceptive about such things. …Though her excuses are terribly bad and there’s an 80% chance she really just needs to use the restroom.”

Both possibilities seemed very much like Aoyama-san. In fact, the restroom might even be more likely.

Since there was no point in everyone standing and waiting, we sat on the sandy beach until they returned.

“Thanks for protecting me earlier~ And sorry. You got hit by Mother instead of me… And sorry for everything else too.”

Tachibana-san apologized to me sitting next to her.

“Don’t bow your head like that. I just barged in on my own.”

“No, but…”

“It’s fine. I just couldn’t watch you get hit. I just thought it was better if I got hit instead. I’m a guy after all.”

“Normally, wouldn’t guys especially not want to get hit… though I guess that’s old news for Kyou-kun.”

Somehow Tachibana-san had given up on me.

Well, I know it’s different from this world’s common sense.

“If we’re talking about that, I’m the one who should apologize.”

“Apologize? Why would Kyou-kun apologize?”

“Thinking back now, I feel like I could have noticed Tachibana-san’s circumstances sooner… like when we suddenly met in the morning ba… when we met unexpectedly, or when we met on the rooftop, I might have been able to notice the abuse. Then I might have been able to stop it earlier. So… sorry.”

“Forget about meeting in the bath, it’s just embarrassing! But no, you definitely couldn’t have stopped it. When we met in the morning, we’d just met to begin with. There’s no way I would have talked. The other day I only did that to make it look like Kyou-kun assaulted me… I had no intention of talking. Including that, I’m really sorry.”

“So the camera was you, Tachibana-san?”

“Yeah. Like with the bed thing earlier, I was just doing what Mother told me to. Though I couldn’t get footage in the end either. …I’m really sorry for deceiving you like that.”

She bowed her head deeply again, apologizing.

“You don’t need to worry about it. Nothing ended up happening anyway. I just got a little injured and that was from my own doing. Everything was just an attempt.”

If someone had clearly been harmed, it would be a different story, but if she won’t do it anymore, that’s fine. Tachibana-san was actually a victim too.

“But…”

“It’s fine. Nobody suffered harm. But I want you to not do things like this anymore. I don’t like having my life threatened. So this conversation ends here!”

“Even so…”

“I’m saying it’s fine, so it’s fine! I’m not bothered! Now repeat after me!”

“I-I’m not bothered…”

It was a bit forceful, but this is good.

I don’t want her dragging this out and being reserved forever. I want to spend time together as she naturally is.

“Okay, so that’s finished. Ah, also, you should tell the other fiancées about this too. They were really worried.”