Chapter 26: Sudden event
There was a saying.
'When you easily get something, you will be eager to get more'
Human nature was not something that they could resist the temptation of the Greed. Each person had their desire. No one could escape from this loop.
If you didn't have any desire, you would be no longer human.
Even a monk had a desire to cultivate their belief path. Even a lazy person had the desire to do nothing and an autistic patient had the desire to leave the world. Every person in the world was stuck in the loop of something called 'Desire'.
Unless you were human, you could say goodbye to this loop. Being a mindless object was the only way to get rid of it.
I, myself, was a reincarnator. I also couldn't escape from this obvious loop.
"Yabai! More than 80 times, I can't get an SSR waifu!?"
I said in disbelief.
"Cheating! This game scammed people!!!"
I cursed the developer for their setting rate proportions. Why didn't they give us, those unlucky players, a guaranteed character ticket?
"Sui-chan, lower your voice"
"Your sister's sleeping"
Natasha-Okaa-sama, who was eating orange in the Kotatsu and sitting before me, reminded me.
"Ah, yes"
Ah, nearly 100 tickets were all spent and I got nothing...I almost reached the milestone of a guaranteed SSR but I didn't know who would appear because there was a 50-50 rate...
Hah? You thought that I would be in a desperate state? If I were me in my previous life, I would cry to death.
Kuku~
You didn't expect that this time, I, an Oujo-sama, would surrender like that. Looking at the designed character of a certain royal sister in the banner, I couldn't resist the urge to get her back to my account. So...
"Charge!!!"
If you meet some difficulties, just throw money to solve the problem. If you can't solve the problem, just throw more money. This is how the human society works.
"Sui-chan, you can spend your money on the game, but don't blank out your bank account"
Natasha-Okaa-sama taught me how to spend money and I appreciated her concern and teaching children's method.
"Yes~"
I replied honestly.
However, I had too much money to spend in my bank account. I didn't know how to deal with it. I thought I could throw some number in my account into games. The rest was to buy and upgrade my PC and those high-end instruments.
Even though money was not a problem for me anymore, my heart was still bleeding heavily when I saw an incredible subtraction in my account. I couldn't help it either...Who could blame the designers of a certain game company for producing such a perfect waifu?
Looking at a noblewoman with blue short hair, her tail hair was a little longer, and a lace headband decorated her charm. Especially, she was thick and plump in the right places. Her chubby thighs made me drool...And...She was a tsundere!
Mah...After all, I spent my blood and sweat by myself, so there would be nothing wrong.
After I made up my mind and found myself a perfect excuse, I began to operate various procedures to charge my money with peace of mind on my laptop while sitting comfortably in Kotatsu.
*Ding*
The notification from my bank account rang loudly and continuously.
I needed to roll to take her weapon as well. Therefore, I decided to charge more.
Hummu...It should be enough. My pocket money this month had gone.
But...
No problem. Considering that tomorrow was Christmas and New Year's Eve was also coming, there would be another wave of money coming to my account.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk...My Oujo-sama just spent my 2 years of hard work in this mansion as a maid..."
Mitsugu-nee-san commented sarcastically in a low voice, but I pretended to be deaf and not hear anything.
Gacha was a pit that you never could climb up when you once fell.
"Your voice is so monotone, but when you raised your pitch just now"
"It makes you so weird"
"How different is your voice from your songs and real life?"
Natasha-Okaa-sama asked me while I was rolling Gacha.
My laptop's screen had a rainbow light which indicated that I had got SSR-character. Then, instead of my royal sister Waifu, a cute loli appeared on the screen and looked at me affectionately...
"..."
Ah, I lost the rate...
"I don't know...."
I had no idea at all. Just when it came to my music, my emotions were exposed clearer than ever. Without its existence, I couldn't blend my emotions well in my tone. Hyouri must've known something. Or, it might be due to her.
"Hmm..."
Natasha-Okaa-sama gave a soft hum. Then, she stood up and approached me, then looked at my laptop's screen.
"Heh~, so this is your type, huh?"
Natasha-Okaa-sama said in an amused tone.
"..."
How could I not know the hidden meaning behind her sentence?
"As expected of my daughter, she also has the same taste as me"
"Hehe~"
She praised me while taking my gaming mouse to help me roll the banner.
"..."
I was speechless because her movements were extremely smooth while she was coaxing me with her words. When I was about to open my mouth to get the right to roll the banner, my laptop's screen exploded with rainbow lights. So dazzling!!!
"..."
I should've been happy when I finally got my waifu back to my account...Somehow, I felt like I just got NTRed. Your mother had an affair with your waifu...Otherwise, I couldn't explain the situation in front of me. I devoted myself to getting her but when my mom gave an invitation, she immediately threw herself into my mom's arms.
"Isn't it easy? There is no need to charge at all~"
She used her hand to hold her chin and said like a sage of life.
"..."
My eyes got complicated as I wanted to save my face. I said.
"It's not easy. The rate is only 0.97%"
"You just got lucky"
Natasha-Okaa-sama showed an understanding nod. Then, she changed to the banner's weapon. She clicked the x10 times button and the rainbow light appeared on the screen again...
A signature weapon of my waifu...Not only did she get my wife, but also her signature weapon. My heart felt uncomfortable...
Ah, there was a constellation system.
"I don't believe that you will constantly get her...There are still 6 of her copies to make her strongest"
This was how I would regret later when I said this sentence.
"Easy peasy"
She showed a smug look and looked at me proudly.
Why was this recipe so familiar? I got slapped in the face one after another...But...I loved it.
My wife and her weapon had reached the maximum setting for rolling both of the banners...
She only took half of my paid gems to roll...Not to mention, there were duplicated characters on the same pull!!!
Ah, I got NTRed!!! However, I felt so happy that I could get her all and save a lot for my next waifu...It was not bad...Kuku~
"So, you like women with cool, and noble temperaments, but soft and voluptuous?"
She spoke.
"Mom, please, Stop!"
I wanted to cover her mouth and hide under the Kotatsu. If she didn't help me get the limited character, I would...Wait a minute. I suddenly felt something off for now. Why did she continue to mention about my love's life?
"Fufu~, my daughter has grown up~"
"Is there anyone you like?"
She asked me curiously.
Who would I like? Nope...I shook my head because I didn't want to give myself to others. It was so scary.
"Hmm...There is a Shinonawa girl and a Hazuno girl"
"But Hazuno, she should be impossible"
"How do you feel about Shinonawa girl?"
She looked at me expectantly...
"..."
How could our conversation turn from Gacha to choosing my partner? She was so smooth that I was caught off guard.
"No, we are just friends...Yes, friends"
I stated clearly.
"Sui-chan, you must've known that in the wealthy circles, you haven't had a fiancee yet"
She emphasized the word 'yet'...What did she mean? Was the plot wanting to get me a fiancee?
"Eh?"
If it weren't for my emotionless face, my jaw would've dropped to the ground.
"It's not that I want you to be bonded with an engagement..."
"But"
"Your grandma stubbornly wants you to have an engagement"
She dropped me a bomb while saying in a sad tone. Ah, as expected...
The plot wanted to correct me!!!
"Your grandpa couldn't even stop her"
"..."
"Eh?!!!"
I couldn't believe what I just heard. My strict grandma wanted me to have an affair with someone!!!
No, no, no, no...
'Calm down, Suiri'
An icy voice echoed in my mind. Hyouri must've been shocked by this news as well.
'Thanks...Hyouri'
'...'
"Geez~, you make my Rei-chan wake up"
She complained and held Rei-chan up. The little brat was rubbing her eyes sleepily.
"Um..um...mu"
She groaned slightly after taking a good nap this afternoon. Maybe being ignorant was the happiest moment for children. I was jealous of her. My mental age had reached nearly 30 years. I had to repeat my childhood a second time and restart my new life.
"What's with your reaction? Do you plan to live alone until old age?"
She said in some displeasure tones. I could feel it as I had lived with her for almost 15 years.
It was not wrong for parents to want their children to find their partner and establish a new family.
Hah~...I felt it was heavy instead.
An unknown realm was called with the name of 'Love'.
When you liked someone, but they didn't meet your expectations, or they had a side that you were unaware of. Simply, it was also a kind of a form of Gacha in real life. You couldn't know whether the person you loved was well-matched with you. Love could be extinguished and ignited again with people. However, it was never eternal.
Out of the blue, the face of my past childhood friend appeared in my mind, Erika. I once liked her but it hurt so much. After that incident, I finally knew that she was not for me.
Seeing me silent, Natasha-Okaa-sama ordered my sister's nanny to take care of her and held her hand on her forehead. Then, she said.
"Hoshiyuki Suiri"
"We need to talk seriously between parents and children"
She called my full name and spoke seriously.
"Sorry, we need a moment, please"
Our servants in the mansion knew what she was implying.
Unknowingly, the living room only had me and her in a medium Kotatsu.
"Sui-chan, I don't know what you have experienced"
"What can make you afraid of relationships?"
"You said Shinonawa girl was your friend"
"But I don't see you treat her like a true friend even one time"
She spoke harshly., but it was true. I never let the heroine step too deep inside my comfort zone.
"I..."
I couldn't find an excuse. Of course, it was due to the memory of my past life, how could I say that? The burden only me...no...only us knew about it.
It stopped. The time was frozen between us. No one spoke out because she was waiting for me to tell her. What could I say? The lights on the Christmas tree were shining with RGB color to lighten up the atmosphere of a Christmas day. However, it couldn't save our conversation.
After a long time...
"Geez, I and my Shiori have pleaded to your grandma to change it to a blind date instead"
"Not an engagement"
"If you don't like the other party, we won't force you"
"We don't want to be villains either"
"I just let you know in advance to prepare your mentality"
She said helplessly.
"You go to wash yourself and prepare for dinner"
"Your mom Shiori and Maria will come home soon"
She smiled gently but her atmosphere was somehow depressive.
...
I walked away immediately and tried to escape from this place. I had no courage to face her.
I rushed back to my room and threw myself in the familiar comfy bed as I hugged the plushie cat in my chest to ease my guilty conscience which had been built up on me for too long. I didn't know when this guilty feeling had developed strongly in my heart.
I knew I had messed up because I decided not to tell her. If I put myself in her shoes, I would also be disappointed with my children. Because they didn't give you trust to tell the truth, I knew that. She didn't do anything wrong to me in the first place but devoted herself to me and loved me with her maternal love...wholeheartedly...
What did she get from me?
Nothing...because I didn't give her my trust.
Instead, I took her love for granted.
I was sorry for her because I was reborn as their children.
I was like a sinner. My heart was heavy as the suffocated feelings tried to swallow me like the day I first exposed my emotions.
This was not the first time that I had hated myself like this...
Maybe...I shouldn't have had a second chance...
Just let me disappear in the world like a disgusting plagiarist that they called me before...I hated the word 'Plagiarism' the most...
'Don't blame yourself'
Hyouri comforted me but...I couldn't wash away my disgust toward myself.
'Ah...If you were the main personality, what would you do, Hyouri?'
Natasha-Okaa-sama must've been disappointed with me. I was a failure in both lives. What I had done wasn't different from the betrayers from my past life. Her sincerity was fed to a loser like me...I just wanted to live a life I wanted but why was it so difficult? Why couldn't I be like those transmigrated protagonists in novels? They could easily adjust themselves to fit the new environment immediately. Or maybe due to the existence of systems, they treated the world as a game?
My strict grandma...I couldn't believe that she wanted to sell her granddaughter. Thinking again, I still didn't know who the other party was...
After a long silence, Hyouri spoke.
'I don't know, but you are the only meaning for my existence'
Honestly, she was even worse than me because she was an existence not being recognized by the world.
Ah, just a simple conversation...I lost almost my energy and my mental state wasn't quite right.
'Hyouri, please, take over our body'
'I need to rest'
I requested her as my mentality couldn't stand any longer. I felt that I was going to have a deep sleep.
We often swapped our places like this. What she had done was also recorded in our memories. Unfortunately, it would be like I had described if she was still a half-second personality. She had officially become a distinct individual, so our memories got separated.
Our mindscape was a yard full of cherry blossom trees. There didn't have the sun but only the moonlight was reflected on the surface of a lake.
Instead of a white blank space like before, if we had to swap, I or she must've entered a lake and drowned in it to take over the body.
I closed my eyes as my senses of the surroundings had been disconnected. The feelings of my plushie cat were no longer there, and the warm bed that coated my body was replaced by the feelings of being under the cold water.
I realized that I was being under the lake. This feeling was so strange because I could breathe underwater normally. My outfit was replaced with a pure white Yukata. My bare feet were equipped with a pair of red sandals. I swam up to the surface and watched my other self watching me there.
I slowly walked up as my clothes were strangely dry.
There was only light under those cherry blossoms trees. Our only place in this mindscape.
Hyouri's outfit was black yukata instead. It was for our distinctive personality.
"Hyouri"
"Suiri"
We called each other affectionately...Only she could understand me.
"I trouble you"
I said awkwardly.
She shook her head and said nothing more.
She hugged me tightly a last time and then...
"No problem, my love"
She said it quickly and stepped into the lake little by little. I watched her sink as I could see her figure blending in the lake until I couldn't see her anymore. The lake slowly got peaceful and the surface was smooth and placid as the waves from her sinking had disappeared.
The surface of the lake began to show its function as it showed Hyouri's point of view.
I could see that 'I' was slowly opening my eyes and taking off clothes to go to bath. This kind of view was weird, but I didn't have any complaints. After all, we watched each other by the lake of our mindscape because we didn't share our memories anymore.
Let her take over my place.
I was tired...
I leaned on the cherry blossom tree nearby and gradually closed my eyes.
The world had only me...
It was so peaceful and quiet that my mind could relax with peace of mind...
But it was also lonely...
--Natasha'sPOV--
I watched her rush back to her nest without looking back.
I knew it.
She hadn't trusted me...
I recalled myself for what I had done wrong to her...However, I couldn't find anything because she was willing to be a bird in a steel cage. She arrested herself in her room and didn't even actively go out a single time. Without the outsiders' force, I was afraid that she would live in that room to death. A true NEET...
I thought that just bearing a genius would be bliss for the family but they were the most troublesome at the same time. I didn't have to worry about those unreasonable requests from children at her age or the competitive ego of a wealthy daughter. She just grew up normally according to the standards of society...But it was so smooth that I found it hard to understand her.
Did she reach the rebellious state? No, she had been like that since a child.
When I mentioned friends or relationships, she simply made excuses and found a way to escape.
I wished that she wasn't a genius. Just being normal and naive like Rei-chan would be better. At least, she would live as an ordinary rich second-generation daughter. Her career had been stable but her lifestyle was indeed making me disappoint.
Mrs Hoshiyuki Hiyori, my mother-in-law wanted her to have an engagement because it was my daughter's duty to maintain relationships or promises with the other party. The cruel truth applied to almost all wealthy families in Japanese circles.
I knew this girl's mind. I couldn't imagine what kind of resistance she would make to reject an engagement so I and Shiori decided to persuade Hiyori-Okaa-sama to change it to be a normal blind date. If she didn't like the other party, just reject them.
My mother-in-law came from the family following the rules so it couldn't be helped because she was conservative in her thinking.
I and Shiori could only do the best for Suiri. However, she didn't trust me, which broke my heart a little.
Was the sentence 'I love you' just a cover without emotions?
She said that to us many times. Was any of which true in a sense?
If it weren't for my 10 years of experience in acting, I would cry out loud in front of Suiri. What did I do wrong? Why could Suiri not give her trust to me?
My mother-in-law must've known clearly about Sui-chan. She wanted to forcefully break Suiri's defense.
Otherwise, I couldn't come up with any ideas about her doings.
There were still many things to do in this afternoon.
I began to order our family's servants to prepare our food.
I looked at the watch on my wrist. It was about to evening.
I silently watched the scene outside of my mansion while I was waiting for the other 3 of my family members to reunite in the same room.
The red sky was slowly dissipating to return the white color of the layer of snow on the yard outside the mansion.
Then, a familiar figure came back to the living room. My mini-copy version came back after bathing.
She looked at me which made our eyes meet. I also tried to read her thoughts like always but I realized something was off.
Her double-color eyes were all blank. The light which represented my original daughter was no longer there.
I knew who she was...
If my Alpha daughter, Maria didn't tell me, I couldn't believe she was suffering from dissociative disorder. The 'mask' that we thought was a protective mechanism of her brain was an individual with self-awareness.
I couldn't read her in a single thought. It was like I was facing a puppet with the appearance of my daughter.
She escaped again...
"Good evening, Okaa-sama"
'Suiri' spoke.
My heart was reacting strongly as another person living inside my daughter's body. I wondered if other parents were put in my shoes, what would they do? I didn't know how to deal with this kind of situation.
"Ah, good evening, Sui-chan"
I was scared when I looked at her eyes. I decided to close my eyes to face her under my smiling disguise. Our family of three knew about her existence but we didn't dare to force Suiri to get treatment from a psychiatrist.
I raised Maria without much trouble. Just some problem like every child on the internet was mentioned on the website. Rei-chan was also the same but Suiri was different because she didn't belong to common sense.
As long as she faced the relationships, this girl would come out to solve the trouble.
I excused myself to order servants and manage our daily necessary needs...
'Suiri' also nodded her head and came back to my daughter's laptop to play games.
I couldn't say anything...
I looked at her figure meaningfully. She was almost the same as my original daughter. For example, her movements and postures. Except for her temperament was like a robot mimicking my daughter. Her eyes were extremely cold. The way she looked at me just now didn't even have the slightest respect like my original one.
I didn't know how to treat her. Should I treat her like my other daughter or a stranger/puppet of my daughter?
And...
How long did you plan to run and escape one after another again, Sui-chan?