Chapter 90 – Atami Hot Springs

“Ahhh—”

“Reiko-chan, something’s about to leak out of your mouth~”

“Reiko-sama, even if no one else is around, please conduct yourself in a manner befitting someone of the Ootori family.”

I woke up late the next day, took a bath in the hot spring first, had a late breakfast, then soaked in the hot spring again. After lunch, everyone else arrived.
So now, once again, I’m soaking in the hot spring. This is totally old-lady behavior.
But no matter how young my body may be, hot springs feel amazing no matter how many times I enter. Being Japanese is truly a blessing—I feel that from the bottom of my heart.

As for today’s visitors from the family to Atami, I’m the only one from the main house, but from Ryuya-oniisama’s household, Aunt Sachiko, Ryuichi-kun, and Youko-chan have come.
Also, the brothers Gentarou and Koshiro are here, and this time, even their parents have come along.
Besides that, there are the usual attendants and staff for each group, so it adds up to quite a number of people.

One of the great things about this villa is that it has a large enough bath to accommodate that many guests. The fact that it also has an open-air bath is a huge plus.

And now I’m about to have my soul leave my body in that open-air bath, but—just as you’d expect—it’s one big stone tub with only a wooden partition in the middle to divide it.
It’s the perfect setup for peeking.

“Reiko-chan, sounds like the trip was pretty rough.”

“Even the Elder and Uncle Torasaburou, they sure do make a little child do reckless things.”

“It seems Reiko-chan was the one who wanted to go.”

“Is that true, Reiko-chan?”

“Ah, yes. I asked them, saying I wanted to see different places.”

“You should’ve gone too, Youko.”

“I stopped her. I figured it would be tough. Ahahaha.”

Next to me, Youko-chan gave a polite laugh alongside me.
Even after soaking in the hot spring, I still feel like something is about to leak out of my mouth. That trip really wasn’t something for a child to do.

Sachiko-obasan, Youko-chan’s mother, and Kiyoko-obasan, Gentarou and Koshirou’s mother—these two who are casually expressing concern for me—are, you could say, the conscience of the Ootori family. Within the clan, they’re among the more reasonable ones.

Even for a family like the Ootori, which doesn’t cling to outdated Japanese traditions, the wives who marry into the family are generally expected to be the good-wife, wise-mother type who don’t interfere in clan or conglomerate affairs. On top of that, the husbands rarely talk about work matters with them. So in that sense, it’s natural for them to respond in a fairly ordinary way.

Girls born with Ootori blood are an exception, but even they are freed from the extreme entanglements of the clan once they marry outside the family.

And the biggest exception of all is a marriage within the family—a case with no precedent so far. One of the options considered is a cousin marriage.

In prewar Japan—basically, what corresponds to modern Japan—when I looked it up, the rate in Tokyo City was around 4%. There are even regions where it was about 5%. So it’s not something extremely rare. That’s why there’s a lot of interest in me as a potential marriage partner for one of the two sons, but I’m grateful that the interest isn’t negative.

Well, if they were negative toward me, the game’s setup wouldn’t work, so I’d like to think that it’s thanks to my efforts in building good relationships.
That said, considering the personality of this body’s original owner, it seems likely she had a lot of bad relationships and made poor impressions all around—so the fact that the game scenario was still able to take place is pretty impressive.

(But how did the original owner of this body get along with these people, anyway? In the game, neither of the two really showed up much.)

I shake off my overly relaxed state from soaking in the hot spring and absentmindedly watch everyone else soaking along with me.

Sachiko-obasan and Kiyoko-obasan are both in their late twenties at this point. In the same year, at the age of eighteen, each of them married—Sachiko to Ryuya-oniisama and Kiyoko to Genji-ojisan. My mother also married in that same year, so I’ve heard that it was a particularly busy year for the Ootori family.

Both of them look younger than their actual age, but especially Sachiko-obasan—she’s such a stunning beauty that it’s the talk of the town. She’s so beautiful that she even surpasses my appearance during the time of the game.

However, by the time the game begins, Ryuya-oniisama has already passed away, so Sachiko-obasan leaves a rather disappointing impression due to her somewhat pushy attempts to encourage a marriage between me and Ryuichi-kun.

But in reality, Ryuya-oniisama is in perfect health and currently studying abroad in Germany. So, right now, she’s simply a young, ultra-beautiful celebrity wife.

And since she and her husband make up the ideal handsome-beautiful couple, everyone around them is nothing but envious. With her looks, she’s become something like a celebrity idol in social circles. And since her husband is now stationed overseas, she often appears in public in Japan on his behalf, which has only boosted her popularity further.

She’s still clearly in love with Ryuya-oniisama, and people around them continue to envy their romance. But in her case, just looking at her is soothing to the eyes, so her popularity isn’t affected even though she’s married and off the market.

However, the original owner of this body—the villainess—had a mindset that her own mother, who passed away young, should have been the one in Sachiko-obasan’s position. Because of that, she’s portrayed as strongly antagonistic toward her.

On the other hand, Kiyoko-obasan may not match up to Sachiko-obasan, but she’s still quite beautiful. However, she seems to be a rather timid person, simply following Genji-ojisan’s lead, and tends to leave a faint impression. This is actually the first time I’ve met her directly and had a proper, relaxed conversation with her.

By the way, Kiyoko-obasan is currently pregnant with her third child. In the game, she gives birth to a girl as the third child but passes away early on, which gives her a tragic image by the time the game begins. But right now, her body has reached a stable phase in the pregnancy, and she looks happy.

Even though Genji-ojisan treats me coldly in both gaze and manner, I’ve heard from his two sons that he’s very kind to his wife. Apparently, during this trip, it was also Genji-ojisan who encouraged her to relax in the hot springs.

(As long as Ryuya-oniisama doesn’t die in battle, the chances of everyone falling into misfortune goes doen considerably because of Kouryuu-sensei’s medicine. I really hope things can stay peaceful like this.)

“What’s wrong, Reiko-chan? You’re deep in thought again?”

“Uh, no, I was just spacing out a little.”

“Really? But I get it—it makes you want to space out, doesn’t it?”

“Totally.”

When I’m with Youko-chan, she really pays attention to me like this. I may sometimes have a bit of an impure motive, but Youko-chan is genuinely a good girl, and sometimes that makes my heart ache a little.

However, in the game, Youko-chan doesn’t have such a good relationship with the original owner of this body.

The reason lies in the character and behavior of this body’s original owner, the villainess. With that kind of personality, it’s no wonder people wouldn’t like her.

I, on the other hand, am acting normally aside from showing a bit too much affection, so that’s probably why she’s being friendly with me like this.

Still, vaguely, I get the sense that the relationship between the original owner of this body and Youko-chan when they were children wasn’t all that different from how things are now.

If that’s the case, then perhaps it’s the environment—like the Houou financial group falling into crisis—that had a strong influence on everyone’s personalities, actions, and relationships.

“You really are thinking about something—at times like this, it’s best not to think about anything at all, just space out.”

“Y-Yeah. But… is that really so?”

“Yup! I read it in a magazine. It’s supposed to help you relax and stuff.”

“I am relaxing. During the trip, even though we went to hot springs, we always moved to a different place the next day, so I was constantly on edge. Now I’m finally starting to feel it.”

“I see! I’m glad I didn’t go. And—great job!”

Saying that, she suddenly hugged me.

Since we were both completely naked, it felt way too much like a reward, and I found myself almost worrying about getting a nosebleed. And two of the adults were watching us with fond smiles.

Of course, I completely ignore Shizu’s half-lidded stare from where she’s quietly standing off to the side.

“You two really are close, aren’t you?”

“They’ve been like this since Youko was two. If it weren’t for the Ootori family’s rules, I’d honestly want them to be real sisters.”

“Oh my. That’s not fair, Sachiko-san. Reiko-chan, Youko-chan, if this one turns out to be a girl, please be good friends with her too, just like you two are.”

“Okay!”

“Yes, of course!”

Knowing that the baby would be a girl, my reply ended up being more enthusiastic than Youko-chan’s.

And I think part of it came from my hope that our relationship would stay just the way it is now.