Chapter 20: The Dancer Saw It! ~ A Secret Meeting Between Two Men ~


TL: Akabane


TL: My heart is burning when I translating this chapter.


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It seems that I can't ignore the existence of Chusho Hagiri even if I don't mention my wife. In my previous world, his existence only came into my sight after I found out about my wife's affair. So the only impression I have of the Hagiri I know is that he is arrogant, self-confident, and the guy who stole my wife from me. After I found out about the affair, my wife ignored Hagiri. She didn't look at him, didn't talk to him. So I don't know what kind of feelings she had for him. I don't know, but the answer to that question is obvious when she was cheating with him. There is no doubt that Hagiri is a nasty guy. He is the president of a venture company, a billionaire, good-looking, and popular. He was well known as a philanthropist. He is popular among the public. He was the sunshine in the sun. But how was he in this day and age? I am not sure. In the world before, he was very attached to my wife. He was going to divorce me and my wife and marry her himself. Is it the same in this time? I am not sure.


"Milan, what kind of guy is Hagiri from your point of view in the group?"


When I asked that, Milan's color clouded over. She looked really uncomfortable, a mixture of disgust and fear.


"A monster. That's all I can say. At first I thought he was just a conscious leader. But no. He's definitely a monster."


A monster. In terms of ability, that is certainly true. He is a self-made hero who started his own business at a young age and amassed a fortune so large that he could be counted from the top of the list of the richest men in the world. He donated a great deal of money and was respected by the public. But after he was caught cheating with my wife, the words he spewed at me were nothing but petty. He kept on chanting that my wife belonged to him and that he was the one who should be married to her. Myself, myself, myself, myself, my wife, my wife, my wife, my wife. How many times had he repeated those words? Even though he had amassed so much wealth and honor, he was still obsessed with the bond between himself and my wife. It was just sickening.


"That group is clearly in trouble. It is a kingdom created by a monster named Hagiri. The king, Hagiri, and a bunch of other slaves. That's what it seemed to me."


"That doesn't sound very gentle. Slaves?"


Was my wife one of those slaves? I don't know. The information I know about her at this time is limited. The clubs she was in, the clubs she belonged to, that kind of thing. The rest was about her ex-boyfriends, whom she didn't want to know about. That's about it at best.


"Those wooden dolls are slaves. They are all fools who are trying to take advantage of what Hagiri brings to the table. I'm sick of it. College students are so stupid."


Milan sniffed in blatant disdain. Just remembering this? It seems to be a very bad memory. But I have to ask. Yuzuriha was also in Hagiri's sight. I had a bad feeling that she was going to take something from me again.


"Haa...I hate remembering it now. They are really stupid. College students are in a period of moratorium. During that time, all most people want is sake, sex, popularity, and money."


"Unfortunately, it's the truth. I hate to admit it, but that's all college students want. I'm not denying it either."


"Still, there's a limit. That group doesn't have that. Hagiri has created a very fearless system. A perpetual system of desire using beautiful-looking wooden figures."


The poetic description suits Milan well. But what I want to know now is the specifics. Milan probably wants to talk but doesn't want to. She is ashamed of being in the group.


"Milan. I know you're out of it. So I don't equate what you and Hagiri are doing. I don't think you were his accomplice."


Milan smiled self-deprecatingly, but somehow calmly.


"Thank you. I know it sounds like an excuse, but I had nothing to do with the group's really bad behavior. Please believe that."


"I believe you, so tell me."


"Thank you. The student council is a hybrid of an event and a dating club. There are plenty of clubs at this university that use the brand of being a student at the Imperial Capital University to attract girls from other universities and women's colleges. However, it's no big deal if you think that's the way it is. Both boys from the Imperial Capital and girls from other places are interacting with each other in intercollegiate clubs because it is mutually beneficial. Hagiri is in trouble because he doesn't fit into that category. That guy has gathered beautiful men and women from the Imperial Capital and "stocked up" on beautiful girls from other universities, yes, to put it crudely."


It's common knowledge that intercollegiate clubs are the place to meet people, and there's nothing wrong with that. Well, after all, it may be a bit vulgar to say that the men are exchanging the brand of a prestigious university and high future income, while the women are exchanging beauty and sexual attraction.


"And they didn't let the girls they stocked up on meet the students of the Imperial University, they introduced them to the wealthy people who live in townhouses and the like."


"Oh come on, seriously. Does Hagiri have a network of connections to the wealthy?"


"Seems like it. It's a terribly deep network too. After the entrance ceremony we went to a tower block in Roppongi. What's that place nearby? He is a big liar. It was on the upper floor of the tower block, a floor reserved for vips. That's where he was renting out. Everyone was instantly distracted. Hagiri was already king there. The floor belonged to a wealthy man who was very fond of Hagiri. He gave him his car and the key to the apartment, and he loves him very much. He is in the business of introducing college girls to young successful men through him."


"Haa...a pedant. That's quite a... disgusting story."


Was my wife involved in that kind of business? If so, that would explain why Hagiri and my wife didn't last a year after they started dating.


"That's right. He is a very disgusting pedant. But he didn't threaten the girls he bought. They get to play with a rich and successful man, even if it's only for a night or a friendship. It must be fun. That's what it's like for a woman with no talent and nothing to show for it but her youth."


"That's harsh."


"I don't want them to think I'm the same as them. I'm not like them. That's why I left. But you see, the role I was asked to play by Hagiri was not to be an offering to some rich man, but to be his confidant and caretaker of the princess."


"Huh? Did Hagiri demand that you be his mistress?"


"No, he didn't. It may come as a surprise to me, but he never asked any of the girls in the group to do anything like that."


"By 'princess' you mean..."


"I mean Igarashi-san. He treated her with respect. I'm very careful to keep her out of the backroom business. But he take her around a lot. I know because I was taken along. Among the wealthy, there are people with real power. When I had dinner with such people, Igarashi and I were taken along. It must be some kind of accessory. It was an act of mounting the fact that they could bring such beautiful women with them. But even among the wealthy, those at the top are good at reading such signals. Hagiri successfully used Igarashi's beauty as a weapon to close the deal."


I thought the dinner with the TV station producer the other night was like that. He's taking my wife around to all kinds of nonsense!


"What do you mean business meeting?"


"A promise to invest in his future business venture. That guy was serious. It seems he has some kind of business idea. He didn't tell me what he had in mind, though."


In the future, he will indeed start a successful business. But I don't know what he was doing. He's rich, I guess. That's about the extent of his profile. The only other thing I know about him is that he was popular on TV while he was in school.


"Hagiri invited me to appear on TV with him. In a way, I was the king's favorite in that group after Igarashi. But I accidentally found out about the backstage business, and I knew about a little scandal involving Hagiri himself. I got scared and ran away from the group."


"Wait a minute. A scandal about him? What kind of scandal?"


From my point of view, Hagiri of this era is rough around the edges, but he still looks like a perfect man. If my wife is not involved, I don't think he can win at all. When my wife is involved, that guy is not calm, so he just manages to fend her off.


"You can tell other people, but don't ever say I told you. I'm sure Hagiri doesn't think I know his secret."


"I won't tell."


"Well, I don't think anyone would believe this scandal even if it was spread as a rumor. I'm a ronin, a ronin student. I moved to Tokyo last year, and while attending a prep school, I was working as a dancer at various clubs and events in Tokyo, to improve my artistry. And that was last winter. Just before Christmas. I was on my way home from a dancer job at a club in Shibuya. I passed by a love hotel on Dogenzaka. I saw a couple in uniform fighting, and I remembered them well because they were both beautiful men and women. I met Hagiri and found out that he was the guy I was fighting with at the time. The other woman at that time was... why are you covering your ears?"


The other woman is definitely my wife! Are you kidding me, you're not supposed to go out with her after GW is over! They only officially started dating after GW, but they had a physical relationship before that! This is like something out of a bad adult manga! F*ck you!


"Umm, I'm not done talking about it."


"No, you don't have to. There's only one woman in the relationship."


I feel more and more unreasonable. If they had a physical relationship before college, then the obsession would be huge. The bond between a man and a woman who spent most of their youth together should not be easily broken. I don't want to hear.


"I know what you're imagining is Igarashi. But it's not. It wasn't Igarashi. I remember the other woman's face, though. She's not in the student council, so I think she might have gone to another university. I feel the relationship is still going on. Hagiri shows no sexual desire for women at all. Even with Igarashi, he only shows his lust once in a while. So I think he's using that woman to vent his sexual desire. It's just a hunch."


I found myself relieved that the woman who walked into the love hotel with Hagiri was not my wife. I feel shame, misery, and most of all regret for that. My heart is still broken and trapped by the interloper and my wife. Even though the time of the world has turned back, my heart has not been restored.


"Yes, it's a personal scandal, isn't it? Ri, Igarashi must never know about that."


"Yeah, I'm sure it is. Igarashi-san so carefree, but no matter how much she wants to, if his childhood friend had a physical relationship with another woman, there's no way she could treat Hagiri with that kind of distance. Besides, Hagiri would want to hide it. His true love is Igarashi, you know."


And his true love is my true love, too. After all, he's pressing me for a divorce. He's serious, too. The reason why my wife ignored Hagiri in the previous world was because this scandal was the first breakup, wasn't it? Then time passed, she got bored after marrying me, had an affair with Hagiri as an old guess, made him crazy about her, and broke up with him. If that's the case, it's not hard to understand why she didn't talk to him after I found out about the affair. It seems to make sense. I felt a strange sense of relief as I got closer to what seemed to be the truth of the affair that had been a mystery in my previous world. And this scandal would be a card to play. It could be a great weapon when I confront him in the future. I felt my mouth twisting in pleasure.



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