81. You Must Be Happy to Have Two Wives
81. You Must Be Happy to Have Two Wives
"Um, but why is Miss Tachia here...."
"Why am I here? You were passed out, dead asleep, in the front yard of the place I moved into, so I brought you in."
"...I was asleep?"
"You don't remember what happened last night?"
What happened last night, huh...
Yeah, I couldn't remember the dream I'd had earlier, but I did remember bits and pieces about last night.
I definitely turned down Marilyn's confession, then I shut my eyes because I didn't know what to do, and after that I felt something soft against my lips....
I don't remember much after that. Did I just black out like I'd had too much to drink?
"...If you don't remember, then whatever."
Just as I was racking my brain trying to recall it, Tachia moved away from my side.
She stood at the door and gestured at me, wrapping up the conversation in her usual curt manner.
"If you're awake, come to the kitchen and eat. I've got food set out."
"Ah, yeah...."
Well, I'd already gotten the message that Tachia was that kind of person.
For now, I'd just eat the meal she'd prepared like always and think things over. Mulling it over, I tidied up the bedding and headed straight to the kitchen after her.
***
We'd moved, but the layout of the house itself was no different from before.
Come out of the room and turn left, there's the workshop. The stairs in the middle lead down to the bath. Go a bit further, and there's the kitchen, where the meal Tachia had laid out was waiting.
The difference from back then was that a familiar face was there to greet me.
"Good morning, Hyosung~"
"...Miss Marilyn?"
"Ahem!"
Why the hell was Marilyn in Tachia's house?
Just as I was thrown off by that, a pointed cough from the other side drew my gaze—where I saw a red-haired woman sitting across from Marilyn with a deadpan expression.
"Hyosung, good morning."
"Miss Airi too?"
Unlike Marilyn, who beamed at me, Airi sat at the table with composed poise, waiting for me to take my seat.
Marilyn I could understand—we'd been together until last night. But Airi showing up on top of that was completely out of left field.
Did she catch wind through her prophecies that something had happened to me and come all the way here?
"Come on, don't just stand there spacing out—take a seat~"
Before I could even ask about it, Marilyn grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the dining table.
I ended up plopping down in the seat next to her in a daze, and that's when I noticed Airi staring hard at me from across the table.
"Hyosung, you're sitting right next to Marilyn without a second thought, I see."
"...Pardon?"
"I was told previously that she was an acquaintance you were going to meet, but it seems the two of you got quite close while I wasn't around."
I flinched, startled, and looked to my side.
There was Marilyn, sitting right beside me with a bright smile.
Even with Airi glaring at her right in front of her face, she didn't just brush it off—she acted like Airi didn't even exist, keeping her attention fixed squarely on me.
"Ah, no, I mean, that's...."
"Oh, right~ now that you mention it, aren't you two supposed to be lovers?"
Just as I was feeling flustered, Marilyn tilted her head.
And in that moment, her signature eye-smile parted slightly, revealing just a sliver of her amber eyes aimed at Airi.
"I suppose if you really are lovers, you might not be too thrilled about another woman sitting right next to him like this. Don't you think so too, Hyosung?"
"No, I mean... Miss Airi and I aren't exactly that...."
"Oh my~ so you're not quite lovers yet?"
Her voice was higher than usual, and her smile was even brighter.
I'd said it because things between Airi and me genuinely were pretty ambiguous, but it clearly rubbed Airi the wrong way—her eyebrows shot up.
"Hehe, well if you're not lovers, then there's no problem with me sitting beside Hyosung like this. You don't mind either, right, Miss Airi?"
As if she couldn't care less about any of that, Marilyn linked her arm with mine.
She'd clearly picked up on Airi's feelings, but the way she smiled so brightly—at a glance, it practically looked like provocation.
No, it didn't just look like one. It was straight-up provocation.
Somehow, for reasons I didn't understand, she'd developed some kind of wariness toward Airi while I wasn't looking.
"Yes, well. It doesn't particularly bother me."
It seemed like Airi was put off by Marilyn's behavior, but even that was only for a moment.
Airi quickly regained her composure and spoke to Marilyn in a calm, measured voice.
"After all, I prefer facing each other over sitting side by side."
A soft, gentle smile spread across her lips.
As if sensing something from that, I began to feel the strength gradually drain from Marilyn's hands, which had been wrapped around my arm.
"Miss Marilyn?"
"It's nothing~"
With a little laugh, Marilyn glanced sidelong at Airi.
Airi smiled back and tilted her head, but even so, neither of them showed any sign of breaking eye contact.
What the hell? Did they get into a fight while I was out or something?
Like, maybe the two of them had a knockdown, drag-out brawl over me, and the aftermath was so cataclysmic it wiped an entire city off the map, and the aftershocks are still lingering....
"...Nah, no way."
The thought flickered for a second, but I shook it off with an awkward laugh and got ready to finish my meal.
Come on. No way that happened.
Airi's an astrologer, and Marilyn's a bard. They're both gentle people who have nothing whatsoever to do with fighting. There's no way they'd go at it hard enough to draw blood over someone like me, right?
And yet, the reason I couldn't quite shake the thought that maybe they would was probably because my pathetic virgin-era delusions hadn't completely gone away yet.
Sure, Airi and I had gotten into that kind of relationship, but it wasn't like anything was set in stone, and things were still pretty awkward in a lot of ways.
"Hehe, Hyosung."
But maybe I was just too conscious of Airi because of all that?
The way Marilyn always acted around me, at this particular moment, felt unbearably suffocating.
"Here, say ahh~"
"Um, Miss Marilyn. Wait a second."
"Oh, come on, what's the matter~ you let me feed you like this during dinner yesterday too~"
-Crunch!
The sound of something crumpling came from the other side.
Marilyn seemed to notice it too, because she briefly pulled back the fork with salad on it and started gauging the reaction across the table.
"Oh my, what's the matter, Miss Airi? Is there something wrong with what I'm doing?"
"...Are you asking because you genuinely don't know?"
"Hehe, well of course I'm asking because I don't know, aren't I? If there's something I'm overlooking, would you be so kind as to 'tell me with that mouth of yours directly'?"
The moment her emotions seemed to spike, the spoon ladling the stew trembled violently.
Even so, Airi kept her feelings in check and merely scolded Marilyn in a level voice.
"...Miss Marilyn. When it's just the two of you, fine. But I believe that sort of behavior at a shared dining table is inappropriate."
"Inappropriate? You mean feeding each other?"
"Isn't that obvious? Do you not even have that much common sense?"
"Hmm, how strange. Hyosung fed me just like this at a restaurant yesterday. So does that mean Hyosung is a person without common sense too?"
-Zing!!
That frosty glare froze my body on the spot.
No, I mean... Miss Airi. I know this sounds like an excuse, but I thought it was okay at the time yesterday.
Because you'd definitely prophesied it, Miss Airi. I figured you knew everything I was doing and thought it was fine, so you let it slide.
"Oh my, could it be you've never done that before? Even though you two are so close that you're living together~?"
As if utterly oblivious to the atmosphere, Marilyn let out a puff of laughter.
That smile felt less like her usual teasing and more like outright mockery.
I didn't know the details, but one thing was certain: Marilyn did not have a good impression of Airi.
"...Heh, heh."
But Airi seemed to be in the same boat.
She let out a laugh that feigned calm, then continued in a voice so gentle it was as if she were steadying its quaver.
"Yes, well. As it happens, I tend to approach people carefully, so I'm rather clumsy at the sort of behavior Miss Marilyn engages in—actively throwing herself at someone, that is."
"Oh my, oh my~ is that so. Well then...."
"Though, of course, I have had the occasion to serve Hyosung dishes I made myself."
Flinch.
Marilyn's body spasmed at Airi's words.
Airi, not missing that reaction, let out a quiet laugh and rested her chin on her hand.
"No, it wasn't just me serving him. When he came home before me, Hyosung would cook himself, and we also made meals together and shared them. Isn't that right, Hyosung?"
"Uh, um, y-yes, well, that is...."
"Ahahahahahahaha~!!!"
A burst of laughter exploded before I could even answer.
It was the kind of laugh I never imagined I'd hear from Marilyn, who always laughed so quietly—and I ended up turning to her with a dumbfounded look without even realizing it.
"Right, right. You're living together, so of course you can make meals together~"
"Um, Miss Marilyn. Just calm down for a second...."
"And yet, you're that close, but you're not even lovers?"
Even with me trying to stop her, Marilyn smoothly rose from her seat and kept going.
Veins were bulging in her clenched fist, but her face was still plastered with a beaming smile and nothing else.
"That's certainly possible. After all, both Hyosung and I have a mission to focus on at the moment...."
"A mission? That's a mighty convenient excuse for someone mooching off another person's home."
"An ex- excuse?"
"Isn't it though? If you're interested in someone, you could just go right ahead and start dating them. But instead you keep putting it off, saying it's not the right time, it's not the right time. Isn't that the perfect setup to have your cake and eat it too, then change your mind later and hop over to some other guy?"
A barrage of vicious remarks I never thought Marilyn would cross the line into came pouring out.
Yet she showed no restraint—if anything, she only doubled down, glaring at Airi with wide eyes as she pressed the attack.
"And yet here you are, brazenly saying that kind of thing right in front of a fish you think is already on the hook."
"Miss Airi, I never took you for the type, but your string-along game is truly an art~"
-Slam!!
The limits of her patience finally snapped, and a fist came crashing down.
Airi shot up from her seat and started shouting at Marilyn.
"Don't you spout that nonsense! I swear to the heavens, I have never once looked at Hyosung as that kind of target!"
"Aha~ what meaning does an oath to the heavens even have when there's no enforcement behind it? If anything, interpreting those words literally means you could betray Hyosung if your mission demanded it—so how can anyone trust you as a woman to a man~?"
"Ahh, yes. Speaking of trust, great point! What exactly were you doing before you met Hyosung, you who swore that precious trust of yours?"
"Hey, I told you that's a completely separate matter!?"
"Separate, my foot! Someone who'll flip her shoes around the second things don't go her way...!"
-Bang!!!!
A heavy impact barged into the overheated atmosphere.
The two of them, their mouths clamped shut, spun to glare at the intruder—then immediately held their breath and trembled.
"...Hey, you two."
Tachia Failoy.
She had set a sizzling whole roast on the table, but her eyes, burning even hotter than the dish, were fixed on both of them.
"You got a problem with the food I made?"
"N-no. That's not—"
A sharp gulp rang out from both sides at that murderous voice.
Marilyn, one of the culprits who'd made that sound, averted her eyes from Tachia and started sweating bullets.
"Ah, haha. Got a bit noisy, didn't we?"
Airi reacted the same way.
Tachia stared at her as she offered a composed apology, then picked up the carving knife she'd brought along with the roast and spoke.
"You sit at the table, you shut up and stuff your face. If you make a racket again, I'll crack your skulls open for real this time."
Crunch! With a single knife stroke, the whole roast was cleaved clean in two.
Beneath it, seasoned oil oozed out, and both their faces paled.
"W-we're sorry."
"Y-yes, we'll be quiet."
Trembling, Marilyn and Airi meekly sat back down.
A terror that overpowered even their mutual anger forced them to carry on with a silent meal.
What the hell happened?
Did the two of them get into a fight in the front yard at dawn and get a head-flick from Tachia or something?
****
Once the meal was over, the first thing Tachia did was kick Marilyn and Airi out of the house.
The reason being—if those two were left together inside, they'd just make a racket for no reason....
Sure enough, something must have happened while I was unconscious. But even now, out in the backyard of the house with Tachia, I wasn't getting a chance to learn the details.
We were just doing what we always did—after finishing our meal, taking time for her to ask about how I'd been doing lately.
"Now that I think of it, there's something I've been meaning to ask."
"Ah, yes. Go ahead."
So I'd followed her summons out to the backyard and was waiting there when she lit a cigarette, stuck it between her lips, and shot a question my way.
"Which one's your wife?"
"...Pardon?"
"I asked, which one of them is your wife?"
"......."
"Both of them?"
"N-no. No."
That wasn't a lie.
No matter how much we might be mindful of each other right now, neither Marilyn nor Airi could really be called that kind of relationship yet.
"For supposedly not being that, the way you were all carrying on at the breakfast table was pretty damn tense."
"Ahaha, well, it sort of just happened...."
Come on. I'm not completely clueless. Wouldn't it be weird if I couldn't guess why things turned out that way?
But aside from that, Tachia's reaction nagged at me a little.
"Um, are you... concerned about it by any chance?"
I'd figured someone like her, who took everything in stride with a transcendent attitude, wouldn't even bat an eye at this sort of thing.
At that tentative question, Tachia exhaled cigarette smoke and answered right back.
"Of course I'm concerned. You're the only thing I've got to be concerned about besides myself."
"...Pardon?"
"Forget it. Just tell me how you've been, like always."
"Ah, yeah...."
Tachia glossed over her previous words and tried to push the conversation forward.
That remark bugged me more than a little, but I let it go and decided to just talk with her like we always did.
No way. It couldn't be.
Other people, sure. But Tachia too? Really?