Nagumo Sian's Request
The storm of sex finally passed. When I checked the time, it was already around three in the morning. I waited until the trio sleeping around me regained their senses, then gathered everyone on the bed and began to speak.
“So how the hell did this happen?”
“When you were on the phone with Taira Food earlier…”
Aris’s explanation went like this. While I was talking to Nagumo Sian, Mimata Chieri had approached her and struck up a conversation.
###
“Do you like our junior?”
“W-what? Of course I do. I really like Ryuta.”
Aris was slightly startled by Mimata Chieri’s sudden question, but she answered honestly. The moment she admitted she liked Taira Ryuta, Mimata Chieri’s expression turned sly as she asked again.
“Would you still like him no matter what obstacles stood in your way?”
“Absolutely.”
“Even if that obstacle was our junior’s absolutely insane womanizing habit?”
“Excuse me?”
Aris asked in shock. Of course, as a woman she had sensed that Taira Ryuta might be involved with others, but she never expected it to be stated so directly. She was genuinely flustered.
And “insane womanizing habit”? That meant more than just one or two other women, didn’t it?
“You’re saying Ryuta… has been with a lot of women?”
“Well, yes. But what if it was all for the sake of survival?”
Just as anger began to rise, the sudden mention of “survival” made Aris tilt her head. Why would survival come up in a conversation about sleeping with women?
“The truth is, behind Taira Saburo’s death are three other heirs of the Taira family. Our junior knew that. Before his uncles and aunt could harm him, he used his handsome face and bedroom skills to pull women who could help him into his camp. Before he succeeded with stock investments, he had no money or power. The only weapon he had was that incredible body of his.”
Aris was stunned by the dark story Mimata Chieri revealed. To think her maternal uncles and aunt were involved in her uncle Taira Saburo’s death… She had never even imagined such a thing. How could anyone consider killing their own family?
Her own household only had one son and one daughter. She had always assumed her older brother, Fitzgerald Alex, would inherit the company, so she had never given much thought to succession battles. But it seemed the Taira side had far more people eyeing the conglomerate than she realized.
How terrified must Ryuta have been when he learned the truth? A wave of pity washed over Aris.
“So what exactly do you want from me by telling me all this?”
“We’re having a drinking party tonight. I want to get our junior completely wasted and hear the truth from his own mouth.”
“But… you like him too, don’t you?”
“Hmm… I’m not sure what my own feelings are.”
Watching Mimata Chieri’s adorable, refreshing smile as she gave that vague answer, Aris simply nodded. Later, when she saw Mimata Chieri dragging Sawayanagi Azuma into the group as a fellow “comrade,” she was dumbfounded, but she kept quiet and followed them to the drinking party.
The drinking session didn’t go as planned. They had tried to pour as much alcohol into Taira Ryuta as possible, but they ended up drinking heavily themselves. The problem was that Ryuta had an absurd tolerance for alcohol. In the end, the three women lost their minds, dragged the unconscious, drunk Ryuta back to Mimata Chieri’s house, and took turns ravishing him.
Was it because she was drunk? Surprisingly, Aris found the whole thing… not that bad. If a man’s greatest virtue was satisfying a woman in bed, then Taira Ryuta was the best man alive. For a brief moment, she even entertained the strange thought that if he had enough to go around, maybe sharing wasn’t so terrible.
But Aris quickly shook off that bizarre logic and activated her special ability, the Eye of the Gruagach. It was a power that had never betrayed her. Whenever she approached a person or object that gave off a brilliant light, it had always brought her great fortune.
When she looked at Taira Ryuta through the Eye of the Gruagach, he still—actually, even more brilliantly—radiated pure, dazzling light.
###
“…And that’s how it happened.”
In short, they had tried to get me drunk to hear my true feelings, but ended up getting wasted themselves and engaging in a three-on-one with me at Mimata Chieri’s house.
Honestly, I had nothing to say. From Aris’s perspective, this was basically cheating. We had never officially declared ourselves a couple, but we had been acting like one while I continued seeing other women.
Listening to the story, I realized I had been treating this world too much like a game. I had simply thought, “Oh, I got the Golden Pillar trait, so let’s sleep with as many women as possible.” When allocating stats, I had completely ignored Intelligence because I viewed it as a useless stat in game terms.
Yes, the System did include game-like elements, but this was undeniably the real world I was living in. Aris, Han Yukyung, Yukiko, Mimata Chieri, and Sawayanagi Azuma—all of them were real people with real emotions. The truth was, I had been so stuck in a game mindset that I had completely disregarded their feelings.
“I’m sorry.”
Everyone sat in silence at my words. I continued.
“If you want to leave me, I won’t stop you. But if you choose to stay, I will never be the one to leave first.”
“I… don’t know much about the world. Or love. I spent my childhood as a test subject and my adulthood on battlefields. I like things the way they are now. I like it when Investor-nim comes to see me and we intertwine our bodies. I’ll continue living on the battlefield. If something happens to me, I don’t want Investor-nim to grieve alone. I hope someone is by your side. I don’t mind if you’re with other people… as long as you don’t push me too far away. Hehe.”
Surprisingly, the first to speak was Sawayanagi Azuma. Having been a test subject since childhood and never experiencing a normal family life, she seemed completely unbothered by monogamy. She felt far more open to different forms of love.
“As you already know, Investor-nim, I’m a pervert. I actually encourage you to be with other women. But if you ever abandon me, I’ll swallow an East Weapon whole. Then I’ll blow up your house.”
Who threatens someone with a PMC? Mimata Chieri smiled brightly as she casually mentioned blowing up my house. Hmm. I definitely couldn’t neglect her. And if Sawayanagi Azuma suddenly said she’d blow everything up if I abandoned her too… I probably shouldn’t let those two spend too much time together. It seemed Mimata Chieri was having a bad influence on her.
After a brief silence, Aris finally spoke.
“Ryuta. I hate you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“What I hate even more is that even if I left, you’d still live happily with these girls.”
Well, I couldn’t deny that. If Aris left, I would miss her, but I would probably continue living like a degenerate, chasing after women.
“I can’t let you girls have all the good stuff. Why should I leave just so someone else can be happy? I’m not going anywhere. So…”
Aris’s clear green eyes stared straight into mine. They were so pure and innocent that I wanted to look away, but I held her gaze without flinching.
“Just cherish me a little more.”
As she fell into my arms, Mimata Chieri and Sawayanagi Azuma wrapped themselves around us as well. When Mimata Chieri met my eyes and gave me a playful wink, I realized she had probably predicted this outcome too.
I found her a little annoying for that, but since things had wrapped up nicely, I decided to let it slide as her contribution.
We stayed like that for a long time, holding each other tightly.
###
Thanks to how well everything had resolved, Mimata Chieri, Sawayanagi Azuma, and I were now on a morning flight to Akita Prefecture. Aris had come to the airport to see me off, repeatedly urging me not to do anything dangerous. I promised I wouldn’t and gave her a deep kiss before boarding.
Since we had stayed up until dawn, both Mimata Chieri and Sawayanagi Azuma fell fast asleep the moment they sat down. Because the contract had been arranged so suddenly, there were issues with plane tickets and a lot of equipment to transport. The East Weapon agents and Seryu Military Company members had decided to travel by vehicle after making preparations.
I looked over the tactical map I had received from Taira Food, trying to get a sense of the situation, but there was no way I could understand the war’s progress just from a map. The only thing I could tell was that the situation must be quite difficult, since Taira Food had gone out of their way to hire us as additional support.
I put the map away and spent the slightly more than one-hour flight from Haneda Airport to Akita Airport writing down everything I could remember about the Kurotsukidoo.
Their basic troops were essentially just street thugs and gangsters handed guns. Their quality was the lowest among PMCs, but they were so cheap that for the price of hiring one soldier from another company, you could hire four of theirs.
In a game, there would be a limit to maximum troop numbers, so cheap hiring costs wouldn’t be a huge advantage after the early game. But in reality, there was no such cap on how many people you could employ. That made their low labor cost an incredibly terrifying advantage.
That was probably why Taira Food had contacted the cheap, high-volume PMC East Weapon in the first place.
Most of Kurotsukidoo’s elite units specialized in assassinating enemy command staff, so we would need to be extremely vigilant about security. I wasn’t sure if they would deploy their best forces just to take Akita, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
When we landed, I collected a yawning Mimata Chieri and a still-sleepy Sawayanagi Azuma, who kept rubbing her eyes. To my surprise, Nagumo Sian herself had come to greet us at the airport. With her glossy gray hair and elegant high-end kimono, she looked stunning. Maybe it was because I hadn’t seen her in a while, but she seemed even more beautiful than I remembered.
“Welcome to Akita.”
“Big Sister!”
I gave Nagumo Sian a Western-style hug. Her body stiffened in surprise for a moment, but she soon laughed and gave my back a firm pat.
“Save those childish pranks for actual children.”
“What do you mean? You’re still so young, Big Sister.”
I had already slept with the Daughter of the Abyss, whose true age was impossible to guess, so a Nagumo Sian who wasn’t even a hundred years old was more than enough to make my radar react. Of course, far more important than age was the beauty the person possessed.
-----Nagumo Sian Airport Pics------
Disheveled Kimono Sian
Short Kimono Dress Style Nagumo Sian