"You're the maid responsible for taking care of Arisu Sakayanagi? Uh… what was your na again?"
"Atsuki. As you said, I am the personal maid of Miss Sakayanagi, responsible for her daily life and care. It's a pleasure to et you," Atsuki replied, lifting the edges of her skirt with both hands and performing a textbook curtsy.
"That young lady sure was caring—she almost strangled to death," gumi Kato muttered with layered aning, casting a glance at the unconscious Arisu Sakayanagi.
"My deepest apologies. While I do understand why the young lady acted that way, it was still inappropriate. Even for powerful families, it's not as easy as in the movies to simply ignore the law," Atsuki said with a bowed head.
"You didn't deny it."
"Indeed, the world isn't black or white—it's gray, a mix of both. Being too black or too white only leads to ruin."
"If a child of a major conglorate were to accidentally kill soone, the family would naturally intervene, pulling strings behind the scenes, compensating the victim's family. A human life isn't worth much."
"Still, even in today's world, killing soone causes a lot of trouble. To get away with sothing like that, one needs more than money—they need overwhelming influence. Only those with both can manage it. Currently, in Japan, only three families have that level of power. One of them is the Sakayanagi family."
Atsuki spoke calmly. Behind the dazzling world of comrce lay countless shady dealings. As long as everyone played within the unspoken rules, the lines between black and white often blurred.
Since becoming a maid for the Sakayanagi family, Atsuki had never witnessed such acts directly. But as her worldview expanded, she began hearing more about the despicable deeds of the upper class—who did what, and how much they profited.
"You should get that wound treated," Atsuki said as she pulled out a dical kit.
gumi hesitated for a mont, then nodded and rolled up her sleeve, revealing the wound left by Arisu's sword cane. While she hadn't dodged it completely, at least the cut wasn't deep enough to require a hospital.
Atsuki expertly applied disinfectant and gauze, tending to the injury with practiced ease. Since it was the only wound, the process took less than ten minutes.
"Sigh…" gumi let out a long breath.
"Did Miss Sakayanagi frighten you just now?" Atsuki asked as she tossed the blood-soaked cotton into a black garbage bag she had prepared in advance and began packing up the dical kit.
"She nearly killed . Of course I was scared," gumi replied irritably.
"I sincerely apologize."
Atsuki bowed again and then glanced over at the still-unconscious Arisu Sakayanagi.
"The young lady… once she sees Miss Izumi hurt, she completely loses control and turns into a madwoman. She only intended to teach you a lesson, but her rationality got drowned out by her overwhelming bloodlust."
"She loses control when she sees Kotomi injured… Are Arisu Sakayanagi and Kotomi really childhood friends?" gumi asked in disbelief.
Arisu had said many tis that she and Kotomi were very close as children. At the ti, it seed like she was bragging. But now, it felt more like watching soone helplessly talk about the one they love being with soone else—angry yet unable to change the situation, repeating stories about their past to soothe their own heart.
If I had shown a jealous face then, maybe it would've made her feel better. Isn't this kind of behavior similar to Aimi's? But why are they so different in every other way? Arisu is so strong it puts on edge, while Aimi is like a flightless chick—naive and playful.
Maybe that's why Aimi thinks Arisu is a good person—because their personalities have that one similarity?
Thinking of this, gumi Kato twitched the corner of her mouth and let out a helpless sigh. Why is my future sister-in-law so clueless? How on earth does Arisu Sakayanagi look like a good person? She's a big bad wolf constantly eyeing your sister, dreaming of marrying her and devouring her completely! Treating Arisu as the good one and as the villain... well, what else could I expect from a sister-in-law—just as dense as her big sister sotis!
No way was gumi going to admit that she too wanted to marry Kotomi, devour her entirely, and have a bunch of kids with her. Of course not. The label of "big bad wolf" was now firmly stuck on Arisu Sakayanagi. gumi? She was the harmless little white rabbit—perfect match for Kotomi.
Still, every ti she heard Arisu talking about how close she and Kotomi had been since childhood, gumi couldn't help but feel jealous.
Especially just now, when Arisu ntioned that Kotomi had once kissed her on her own when they were kids—even while being choked, gumi's surge of jealousy had flared uncontrollably.
Had Arisu kept bragging about her childhood mories with Kotomi, gumi probably would've exploded from jealousy. Even without a stun gun, she might have mustered the will to counterattack.
gumi had hoped Atsuki would deny it all. That way, she could dismiss everything Arisu said as jealous lies.
But fate wasn't kind. Atsuki nodded and said:
"Miss Izumi and the young lady did indeed know each other from a young age. Saying they were childhood friends is a bit of a stretch—after graduating from kindergarten, due to an incident, they lost contact and didn't reunite until high school."
"Of course, their reunion wasn't due to fate or destiny. It was because ever since third grade, the young lady had been secretly watching over Kotomi. When she learned that Kotomi had been admitted to Sobu High, she imdiately declined her acceptance to Royal Sakuraka Girls' Academy and transferred to Sobu High instead."
"After arriving, she naturally beca a student of Class 1-A and its class president. Even before the monthly exams, she had been keeping a close eye on Kotomi. It wasn't until after the tests that she found the right opportunity to approach her. Unfortunately, because of that incident in their childhood, Kotomi no longer recognized her and had forgotten many things."
"An incident? If I may—could you tell what happened?"
gumi asked curiously. She always felt there were many things about Kotomi she didn't know.
She hadn't known that Kotomi and Arisu were truly childhood acquaintances, or that they had spent a long ti together.
She especially didn't know what this "incident" Atsuki spoke of actually was.
Atsuki thought for a mont and then said:
"That was a mistake on my part… I shouldn't have casually ntioned 'an incident.'"
"Technically, I should refuse to tell you and just walk away right now."
"But even if I don't say anything, your curiosity won't let this go. You'll definitely ask Miss Izumi, but her mory still has gaps—no matter how much you question her, she won't rember."
"Then you'll probably go to the young lady, but with the way things stand between you two, she might not tell you anything. Worse, she might get so enraged that she'll try to kill you again. And when she loses her mind like that, I can't guarantee I'll be able to intervene in ti."
"To avoid causing trouble for the Sakayanagi family, the most reasonable course is to just tell you."
"Thanks," gumi said sincerely.
"That incident happened right after Miss Izumi and the young lady graduated from their final year of kindergarten. They wanted to go out and play together. At the ti, a woman dressed in a mascot costu handed the young lady a flyer. It advertised a thed event in Tokyo—a dreamlike doll castle amusent park."
"And what little girl fresh out of kindergarten could resist dolls?"
"At the ti, it was Arisu Sakayanagi's cousin who took the two of them to this thed amusent park. When they first entered, there were many visitors, and the cartoon-fantasy style was indeed very appealing to children. Miss Izumi and the young lady were having a great ti."
"The flyer stated that if children visited the theater in the park at 5 PM to watch a doll-thed stage play, the brave ones would receive a jumbo-sized stuffed tiger."
"'Brave children' ant those who entered the theater alone, without adult accompanint, while their guardians waited outside."
"The young lady wanted to go, and Miss Izumi, enticed by the thought of popcorn inside the theater, agreed."
"After buying the tickets and sending the two girls inside, Arisu's cousin waited at the door. Though she tried to bribe staff to let her accompany them, one female manager adamantly refused, insisting that it was for fostering children's independence and refused entry no matter how much she was offered."
"Even when another manager agreed and said the cousin could go in, the first manager blocked the entrance and refused to budge."
"Feeling sothing was wrong, Arisu's cousin tried to pull Miss Izumi and the young lady out of the theater, but the manager insisted the play had already started and entry would disturb the other children".
"And then, chaos erupted."
"Screams and cries rang out from inside the theater, smoke poured out from the door crack, and so parents waiting outside tried to rush in. The female manager continued insisting it was all special effects, blocking their way—treating people like fools."
Atsuki paused here, her expression darkening as though the events were still vividly etched in her mory.
"The dolls on stage caught fire, turning into human-shaped fireballs. The stage area was filled with flammable materials, and the theater was smaller than average, designed for children."
"Imagine how fast a fire spreads in such a small, confined space—especially with all those flammables."
"The most fatal part was that due to their ticketed seats, Miss Izumi and the young lady weren't seated together. Miss Izumi was in the fifth row, the young lady in the third. Miss Izumi could have safely escaped, but the young lady, with her leg disability, could barely walk, let alone run."
"Arisu's cousin tried to rush in to save them, but the panicked children blocked the doorway. Frightened and crying, they surged out in a chaotic wave. There was no way to calm them down and line them up, and many parents also pushed in, trying to find their kids."
"It was truly dangerous. Among everyone there, only Miss Izumi had the chance to save the young lady. But the fire was spreading too fast. The young lady scread for Miss Izumi to leave her and run. But the young Miss Izumi didn't listen—she dashed toward Arisu, picked her up, and ran back toward the entrance."
"But how fast can a child run, even at full strength?"
"Just as Miss Izumi was about to make it to the door, the crowd blocked her way. In desperation, she shoved Arisu out of the exit. The next mont, the flas reached Miss Izumi's back. The intense pain made her collapse with a scream."
"Though it was only a matter of seconds, Arisu's cousin finally forced her way through the crowd and pulled Miss Izumi out. By then, the flas had already engulfed her body. Arisu's cousin swiftly smothered the fire, but Miss Izumi was already unrecognizable, her skin completely burned."
"She was imdiately rushed to the hospital, but her life was hanging by a thread. The surgical team even advised her parents to prepare for the worst—that their daughter might not survive."
After finishing the story, Atsuki let out a deep breath.
This incident originated from the Sakayanagi family. The woman in the mascot costu handing out flyers and the female manager blocking the theater door—they were once the pampered daughters of wealthy families. But their fathers lost to the Sakayanagi family in business competition, leaving their companies on the brink of bankruptcy, and the daughters faced the end of their luxurious lifestyles.
Accustod to extravagance, they couldn't accept the sudden fall from grace.
But that is the cruelty of business—both sides wrestle for dominance, and the loser is eliminated.
Given their cunning and ambition, they couldn't strike directly at the Sakayanagi patriarch. Instead, they targeted Arisu Sakayanagi. Even if they couldn't bring down the entire family, they intended to make her father, Aoshi Sakayanagi, suffer the agony of losing his only daughter.
As long as Arisu died, the fate of the other children didn't matter. They simply didn't care.
But their plan failed. Not a single person died in the fire they orchestrated. Instead, Kotomi Izumi suffered severe burns. Even though she survived the surgery and gradually stabilized, the burns covering her body were enough to ruin a girl's entire life.
And before the fire, Kotomi had been… breathtakingly beautiful.
When Aoshi Sakayanagi and his wife arrived at the hospital and saw the disfigured Kotomi lying in the hospital bed, they collapsed to their knees in grief.
The Sakayanagi family head, Shounin Sakayanagi, personally visited Yakken Izumi and Ryuuryuu Hishinaga, bowing deeply to the ground.
The Izumi family, Hishinaga family, and Sakayanagi family together spent an astronomical sum and tapped all their global connections to bring in the world's top dical experts and cutting-edge equipnt to carry out facial reconstruction, full-body skin repair, and all related rehabilitation surgeries for Kotomi.
Even so, the odds of a full recovery were painfully slim.
Just when every doctor had hit a dead end, unsure how to fulfill the expectations of the Izumi, Hishinaga, and Sakayanagi families—
A miracle occurred one night.
That night, a nurse went in as usual to change Kotomi's dressing.
Even though no lights were on, a glow could be seen from the hallway seeping through the window—a soft pink-blue light enveloping Kotomi.
The nurse thought Kotomi had regained consciousness and rushed in, only to find her still unconscious—yet her body was shrouded in that glowing light, as if it were alive.
Terrified, the nurse called for doctors. But by the ti they arrived, the mysterious light had vanished. Only moonlight stread into the room.
The doctors dismissed the nurse's experience as a hallucination from exhaustion and left.
But starting that night, Kotomi's skin began slowly regenerating. She gradually regained consciousness—first moving her fingers, then opening her eyes.
Three months later, after undergoing two major burn treatnts and still awaiting a third, Kotomi's skin had miraculously recovered completely—flawless and smooth. Lying in her hospital bed, she didn't look like soone who had ever been burned.
Two months after that, following five months of hospitalization, Kotomi made a full recovery. Even her snow-white hair, burned away in the fire, had grown back. After a thorough examination, there were no lasting side effects.
Except for one thing… When Kotomi woke up, she had completely lost all mory of the incident—along with any mory of Arisu Sakayanagi and the Sakayanagi family.
Psychologists and neurologists diagnosed that the trauma and pain of the fire caused her brain to block out those mories as a defense chanism, leading to mory gaps.
One psychologist made a chilling remark: it was as if a divine hand had deliberately erased that portion of her mory. But whether this deity was careless, or its aim just a little off, it had accidentally deleted a few extra mories too.
In the end, the psychologists concluded that to prevent Kotomi Izumi from recalling the fire upon seeing Arisu Sakayanagi—and thereby triggering her brain's defense chanism to expand the mory void—the safest course of action was to keep the two apart for several years, giving her brain ti to heal and recover naturally.
"That's also why the young lady waited until high school to appear before Miss Izumi again. From kindergarten graduation to their first year of high school, both had grown, and in theory, Miss Izumi's brain had already completed its recovery. Now, it's just a matter of seeing if her mories will return naturally."
At this, Atsuki glanced at gumi Kato. "You don't believe it?"
"No, it's just… thinking about how badly Kotomi was burned as a child, my heart aches," gumi replied with a heavy heart, shaking her head. She felt terrible for not knowing anything about Kotomi's past. As her girlfriend, wasn't that a failure on her part?
"When the fire broke out and Miss Izumi pushed the young lady out of the theater, only to be burned herself, her agonized expression and screams have remained etched in the young lady's mory to this day."
"The guilt, the self-bla—believing that her own disability had caused Miss Izumi to suffer such severe injuries—have never left her. Even though Miss Izumi is now fully healed without a single burn mark, the young lady has never been able to forgive herself."
"Those emotions gave rise to a twisted, pathological need to protect her. She swore to eliminate any threat to Miss Izumi before it could harm her. And if soone did hurt her—then they would co to know a despair worse than death."
That's why, when you kissed Miss Izumi and made her bleed, the young lady beca so enraged that she completely lost control and wanted to kill you right there."
After speaking, Atsuki picked up the dical kit and hoisted the unconscious Arisu Sakayanagi onto her back.
"That's all I can tell you. Please don't tell Miss Izumi. No one knows how far along her brain has recovered. The fact that she didn't react negatively when she first saw the young lady is a relief, but if you tell her and it triggers her to rember everything… the consequences could be devastating."
"I understand. Thank you for telling ," gumi said, bowing deeply.
Atsuki studied her for a mont and said, "I can tell—you really love Miss Izumi."
"Of course. My love for Kotomi isn't any less than Sakayanagi's."
After a pause, Atsuki added, "Then take this as a word of advice: better a short pain than a long one. Break up with Miss Izumi."
"You have no idea how deep the waters run in the families backing her. Even the young lady doesn't fully understand. Kotomi may look innocent and sweet, but behind her stand two colossal powerhouses."
"Since ancient tis, marriages have always required matching status. That hasn't changed. Don't wait until you're both too deep in love, only to be torn apart by your families. That heartbreak… will be worse than anything you've known."
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