Chapter 137 – Aftermath of the Attempted Rebellion

Shizu led me to my grandfather’s room.
I rarely went near that area, since it was also where my grandmother, Tamako Mizuko, lived.

Because of that, Mizuko-san and I hardly ever met face-to-face, and even when we did, our exchanges never went beyond formal greetings. That was true for most of the family as well.

I’d heard she came from a noble court family line and resented having married into a family whose origins were unclear, regardless of its wealth.
Though it was a marriage for the sake of forming a political and economic alliance, for Mizuko-san, it had always been something she did to save her own family’s finances, and would remain that way for life.

Her relationship with my grandfather seemed a little different, but she never showed it publicly.
Anyway, that part of the estate was one I normally avoided, but this time my destination was his private study—the one used only by him.

“Master, I have brought Lady Reiko.”

“Oh, come in.”

“Excuse me.”

The room’s layout resembled my own study, but being the head’s office, it was noticeably larger—and far more luxurious.

The furnishings were arranged with a large desk and chair set away from the windows, while closer to the door were a low table and several sofas around it.
The walls were lined with bookshelves, liquor shelves, and other decorations—mounted animal heads, swords and shields, and even hunting rifles displayed as ornaments. 

The overall atmosphere was distinctly Western.

At the desk in the back, my grandfather, Kiichirou, was reading through some documents.
Besides him, there were two others present—his butler and another person, both serving double duty as guards.

“You look livelier than I expected. Well, have a seat.”

Saying that, he stood up and moved toward the table near the front of the room. I took a seat there as well, while Shizu moved to a position beside my grandfather, standing by as his aide.

“What about the others?”

“Hm? Ah, Torasaburou said he wanted nothing to do with any more trouble and went off somewhere to sulk. Yoshiko’s also sulking somewhere, I think. Zenkichi is on the front line with Tokita, effectively handling command. Genji is confined underground. The Kou family members are being kept somewhere in the mansion. Until we reach a conclusion, I can’t let any of them leave.”

“I’ve already heard about Uncle Genji’s situation from Shizu. Ah, come to think of it, how long has it been since then? …Only two hours, huh.”

“Guess their minds couldn’t keep up with the sudden chaos, and once they did, the tension snapped. Being too smart can be a curse sometimes. So, do you think you can talk now?”

“Yes. I think my mind is clear. And I don’t believe I’m shaken anymore, either.”

“Never put too much faith in self-assessment, but if Shizu brought you here, it should be fine.”

As my grandfather said that, I sensed Shizu bowing behind me. Indeed, it wasn’t wise to rely solely on one’s own judgment.

“I’ll tell you everything, but if you start feeling ill, say so. It’s not a pleasant story.”

“Yes. I understand that I’m a child.”

“Good. One more thing. We could have handled this whole matter without telling you a thing. But we chose to show you. I know it’s cruel to a child. So I won’t tell you to forgive or to pretend you understand. If you’re angry, be angry. If you bear a grudge, bear it. Don’t swallow your feelings. In fact, throw everything at me except killing me. I’m your grandfather, but right now I’m your father.”

“…Yes. So—was this incident an attempted coup? An attempt to kill me or you?”

“You start with that, do you? I’ll go in order, but apparently he intended to kill you. I was just a prop, if his words are to be believed.”

At my remark, as if he had guessed, Grandfather let out a wry smile.
I felt oddly relieved that it was both a coup and an attempted murder, just as I’d expected—Uncle Genji had truly been hostile toward me.

Also, seeing the pure, ordinary reaction of a normal person was a significant gain, my rational, calculating self noted.
In moments like this, the villainess brain that owns this body, which calmly makes cold judgments, is useful. 

And beyond that usefulness I felt a strong sense of revulsion.

I think the reason I’m so harsh toward Uncle Genji, even to the point I notice it myself, comes from the gap between my previous life as an ordinary nobody and this body and position I have now—and from the disgust I feel in moments like this.

“So, what are you going to do?”

“About Genji? It happened in front of the main family members, but no outsiders saw it. We’ll say he suddenly fell ill and is hospitalized. If he reconsiders his actions, we’ll keep him under watch, but he can return to work in some harmless department.”

(He caused this mess himself, plotting and then losing control in front of the whole family, yet Grandfather is still being lenient with his son. Well, since he let me witness all this, that probably means I’ll get the same treatment someday too. …I really wish I’d been reborn into a kinder world.)

As I silently grumbled to myself, Grandfather looked straight into my eyes—not out of concern, but simply to judge whether I was capable of continuing the conversation.

“Ah, I’m fine with that. And please go on. The cause of all this—this incident—was me, right? And the direct trigger was something I did, wasn’t it?”

“That’s right. It seems what happened when you and Genji had that frank talk in Atami last spring was decisive. I didn’t think he’d take it that far, but the problem is that Genji was just too ordinary.”

“I shouldn’t say this, but there really are a lot of people in the Ootori family who are either geniuses or completely extreme.”

“Yeah. You probably don’t know this, Reiko, but there are families that’ve wiped out an entire branch and erased everything. And in every generation there’s always one person who’s confined. On the other hand, we never lack geniuses, prodigies, or eccentrics.”

He said that casually, as if it were nothing.
It’s not something that even shows up in the game, so it must be the Ootori family’s darker side in this world. 

Now that he’d decided to tell me about this incident, he no longer tried to hide the things he’d been holding back.

Still, that topic was downright black—too dark all at once.

“Don’t look at me like that. If you’re the heir, you’ll learn sooner or later anyway. Sure, it’s probably too soon, but you’ll be fine. Honestly, you strike me as more mature than your father, Kiichi.”

He raised both hands in mock surrender and joked lightly, but inwardly I couldn’t help admiring my grandfather’s sharp insight.
It was the same kind of “natural” discernment that let him guess I was a reincarnated person in my forties.

But in my previous life I was ordinary—a nobody, a background character. I was dull and age-inappropriate as a child in spirit.

Since reincarnating into this body, I’ve felt my young body pulling my mind along, influencing me in a strong way.

So this time I pouted a little. If I were an adult, I wouldn’t be thinking about so many things.

“Don’t get mad, don’t get mad. Well, I guess that’s enough to loosen things up. Now then, let’s talk.”

My grandfather, still acting a little playful, said that, and I nodded firmly. In response, his gaze turned serious, completely opposite of his light tone.

And what he told me was this—

Uncle Genji had been wary of me ever since I was first called to attend the family council. After all, the death of his older brother was already a shock, and then suddenly, an unbelievable situation appeared out of nowhere.

And yet, everyone around him remained calm.

At first, he thought it was just nonsense made up to forcibly preserve the line of succession within the Ootori family.
But over time, he came to see me as the “Dreaming Miko” who could foresee the future, and gradually began to fear me. 

After all, I had achieved one enormous success after another without a single failure—so much that even his own son, and then he himself, were completely overshadowed.

The final blow came during that trip to Atami, when Uncle Genji tried to approach me and understand me somehow.
That was when he began to see me as an incomprehensible, eerie being—or so it seems. 

Honestlu, I felt that too.

And from an outsider’s point of view, I might well have looked like someone possessed by a fox spirit.

Even so, he hadn’t initially thought of eliminating me—much less killing me.
After all, Uncle Genji was also thinking about the prosperity of the Ootori family, and he believed that by marrying either me or his son into the main line, he could eventually seize control himself.

However, the distrust and disgust he once felt toward me didn’t fade—it only grew larger. 

With every success I achieved, those feelings deepened further.

Most of his concerns stemmed from the fact that, although I was currently successful, much of what I did seemed like reckless gambles.
He began to suspect that one day, I might drag the entire family and conglomerate down into ruin.

Apparently, he even had nightmares about it.

Well, he must have had a fragile heart on top of being ordinary.
If it were my previous life, I would’ve sympathized with him deeply. 

Even now, I often think that the adults of the Ootori family have far too strong a mental fortitude.

Still, I can also admit that I’ve grown a little too complacent, sitting above those very adults.

Even so, I had thought that maybe—just maybe—I could have one more honest talk with Uncle Genji.

But by then, Uncle Genji had already stepped off in the wrong direction.

The cause of it all was that Tokita and I left for America in ’29, leaving Japan for an extended period.
In particular, Tokita, who had once served as my great-grandfather’s chief butler, was deeply involved in many of the Ootori conglomerate’s enterprises and in the affairs of the family itself. 

In national terms, if our clan were royalty, Tokita would be the equivalent of a prime minister or chief retainer.

It seems Uncle Genji saw Tokita’s long absence from Japan as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

To avoid drawing the attention of my grandfather, he refrained from acting directly within the core of the family.
Instead, he began to move covertly among certain in-laws and among senior executives in the group who were dissatisfied with the conglomerate’s rapid recent changes.

He apparently whispered all sorts of promises to them—of what would happen once he seized control at the family council.

It seems he even reached out to the Kou family, and Mizuho-san’s words at the earlier meeting had dealt him quite a shock.

Although he had secured secret agreements with everyone except Mizuho-san, her single decisive remark—spoken in complete ignorance of his scheme—shattered the mood and turned the tide in an instant. 

That had been far beyond his expectations.

He had also made a private “consultation” with Kaneko-san from the Suzuki branch, but since Kaneko had met and spoken with me personally, he politely declined under an official pretext.

Still, for those who didn’t know the inner workings of the Ootori family, all they saw was talk of the clan’s massive stock market profits, which made some people very easy to sway.

However, Uncle Genji had absolutely no real understanding of what I was doing in America.

Then again, I had never personally sent him a letter.
My grandfather had explained it to him once, but apparently Uncle Genji still didn’t comprehend what had happened in the American stock market. 

My grandfather had given up, thinking it was like “preaching to the deaf.”

Meanwhile, Uncle Genji’s “scheming” didn’t stop.
In fact, when my great-grandfather caught a cold that winter and was bedridden, Uncle Genji became even more active. 

He apparently assumed that with my great-grandfather’s days numbered, a coup would be easier to execute.

This, in turn, made my grandfather furious, and he resolved to take decisive action.

And, needless to say, my grandfather was more than a match for him.
Not only had he maneuvered within Japan’s elite military circles, but he also possessed the capability to rise in rank even as a member of the anti-mainstream faction in every sphere.

On top of that, he was involved in most of the family’s and conglomerate’s behind-the-scenes operations. 

Naturally, as a side effect, much of this remained unknown to Uncle Genji.

So, from Uncle Genji and the others’ perspective, it seemed like everything was going smoothly.

There were apparently moments when things weren’t completely safe, but at those times, any dangerous elements were quietly eliminated before Uncle Genji could notice, while foolish people labeled as “troublemakers” were exposed.

Incidentally, even Kouryuu-sensei was in on this. 

Since it was impossible to determine the loyalty of all the servants and guards accompanying us on our journey, Kouryuu-sensei, who had some knowledge of self-defense, apparently took the side of protecting me. 

When I said he was just the right companion for the trip, it turned out to be a stroke of luck.

In terms of protecting me, Uncle Yagami and Mr. Wan was also in on it, and even Shizu knew.

Shizu had bowed deeply and apologized, but I had no intention of saying anything to the guards or attendants.
After all, they were in a position where they could only follow the orders of my grandfather or my great-grandfather, so it was pointless to tell them anything.

However, there was one thing I still didn’t understand.