Chapter 232 - Men Should Keep Quiet and Build a Harem
"………Magician Nakamoto……?"
Professor Otsuki didn't seem fully awake yet, peering at his surroundings with vacant eyes.
He had rushed to the women's restroom after receiving his daughter's SOS, but now he was lying in a celebrity's room.
Subjectively, it was probably a state not much different from being transported to another world.
So I understood the anxiety Professor Otsuki was feeling very well.
Suddenly being moved to an unfamiliar place was an immense stress. As they say, experience speaks.
What a person who falls into a situation like this seeks first is probably "information" and "safety."
If that was the case, I just had to provide that.
"Relax. I don't intend to harm you. I just brought you here because I wanted to talk."
I told him slowly, staring into Professor Otsuki's eyes.
At the same time, from the back of the bedroom, the women's screams rose up: "Whoa, the High Priest pissed himself!" "Faaaaatherrrrrrrrrrr!"
"……What was that noise just now?"
"I'll say it again. I don't intend to harm you."
"Did you kidnap someone besides me? What's your goal? Ah, Ayako!? Why are you here... You bastard! What did you do to my daughter!"
Everything was suddenly ruined, but I continued talking without worrying about it.
If I got flustered over an accident of this level, I wouldn't be fit to be a Hero.
I don't care anyway.
I really don't.
"That's my family. Please ignore it."
"……To my ears, it sounds like an adult woman is crying and screaming in a childish tone."
"Excuse me for a moment," Ayako-chan said, stepping forward.
She must have judged that things wouldn't get anywhere like this.
"……It's been a while……Father……"
"Ayako……"
The girl stared at her father's face, seemingly overcome with emotion.
A touching parent-child reunion—but since Professor Otsuki saw the other Ayako-chan every day, his reaction was one of "What the hell is this?"
"Are you feeling okay? Didn't you suddenly get your period?"
"……That was, um……a pretext to call you here……"
"Why did you call me out with such a roundabout method?"
"……Because the Bodyguard people were in the way……"
"Why are you wary of your personal security? Are you really being threatened? Ayako, look me in the eye and say it. Tell me your honest feelings."
"……Honest feelings……Can I say them……?"
"Yeah! Your father is always on Ayako's side!"
"……Then, swipe some ovulation inducers from the pharmaceutical company people……You can do it, right, Father……? I want to keep giving birth to Nakamoto-san's children every year……! I want to keep giving birth even after menopause……! For that, I need the medicine……!"
"Keisuke Nakamoto! What did you do to my daughter!?"
Sugitani-san had been glancing at me with a "Is this really okay?" look, but there was no problem at all.
It was so full of problems that, conversely, there were no problems.
People with more education than me tend to be troublesome when they exercise normal judgment.
Professor Otsuki should just stay in this state of confusion/delirium. It made him easier to exploit.
"Now that I look closely, I see the detective who pointed a gun at me is here too?—Ha, I see. So this is an elaborate threat."
"Hate to interrupt you jumping to a serious conclusion, but take a look at that."
I tapped Professor Otsuki's shoulder and pointed at the calendar hanging on the wall.
"……What about the calendar?"
"Don't you see a familiar handwriting?"
"……"
On our household calendar, the cohabiting women had each written down their dangerous days.
As for Ayako-chan, she had even gone so far as to write down her basal body temperature and ovulation days. It almost looked like a crime notice declaring she would definitely get pregnant someday.
"You get it, right? This was written by your daughter."
"……I can't accept this. Why would Ayako do such a thing?"
"Otsuki-san, don't you think my face looks a lot like yours?"
"It's a real nuisance for me. A celebrity who looks exactly like me appearing is a good joke. I can't count how many times my students have made fun of me for it."
"You should know that Ayako-chan is a fan of mine. After all, Ayako-chan's ideal type is her 'real father.'"
"……"
Professor Otsuki averted his eyes uncomfortably.
"From Ayako-chan's perspective, I'm probably the ideal man. An appearance that's the spitting image of her real father, and on top of that, we're not blood-related. Thanks to that, she's always hanging around my apartment."
"You know that's a crime, right? My daughter is still seventeen. If you've done anything improper, I'll……"
"——How long are you going to keep up this lousy act?"
"What?"
I suddenly thrust my hand into Ayako-chan's pocket and spread out the pregnancy test kits, V, sleeping pills, and other things stuffed inside onto the floor.
"……N-Nakamoto-san……!?"
Ayako-chan acted embarrassed like a normal adolescent girl, and Father Otsuki turned his face away from his own child's disgraceful behavior.
That was right.
For a parent, this must be an unbearable humiliation.
Was there any shame in this world greater than a child's misconduct?
Apparently, even my own parents felt like dying every time someone asked, "What does your son do?" back when I was a hopeless thirty-something freelancer.
"Look! Ayako-chan bought all of this on her own! She's always looking for an opportunity to drug me and try to reverse rpe me! You even researched treatments for father complex, so you must be aware of how dangerous Ayako-chan is, right!? You can't not know how obsessive this girl gets with the man she falls in love with!"
"Our daughter has caused you such trouble!"
Professor Otsuki prostrated himself on the floor, bowing his head as if rubbing his forehead against it.
It was a dogeza.
A textbook example of a dogeza.
"……I had a bad feeling about this……A celebrity who looks just like me……and a younger man than me at that. I welcomed it, thinking my daughter's interest might turn to a man she wasn't blood-related to, but I never imagined she would become so obsessed that she would barge into your home directly……"
Still, Ayako-chan had absolutely no trust from her father.
In a way, maybe he trusted her, believing that his daughter would definitely cause trouble.
"Please raise your head. It's not like I dislike Ayako-chan. I don't feel bad about being adored by such a beautiful girl."
"……"
"She does the housework too. If you overlook her fetish, you could call her a Yamato Nadeshiko. But, unfortunately—I already have a fiancée."
That was right. Socially speaking, I was an old man maintaining a pure love with a current JK named Rio Saito.
"It makes things awkward, you know. I don't have a way to make both Rio and Ayako-chan happy right now. Hey, Ayako-chan, what would you do if I said I'd stay devoted to Rio and cut ties with you?"
"……I would take all the women you interact with, Nakamoto-san, and commit suicide, dragging them with me."
"See? The fact that the targets extend beyond Rio is the problem, right? She apparently wants to reduce the possibility of me getting together with another woman after she's gone to zero. What do we do, Professor Otsuki? I was already screwed the moment Ayako-chan fell for me. Unless I stay with this girl till the end, someone will die."
Certainly, Ayako might actually do it……Professor Otsuki said in a weak voice.
"I know I'm in no position to say this, but……um……is there any chance you could break off your current engagement and switch to Ayako, Nakamoto-kun……? Of course, I won't ask for it for free. I also bear responsibility for my daughter becoming twisted, and I'll atone for it with my whole life……! I'll give you all my savings and stock certificates……So, please, somehow consider Ayako's feelings……?"
"Calm down, Father-in-law, I have an idea."
I placed my hands on both of Professor Otsuki's shoulders and said in a coaxing tone.
"I love Rio Saito. But Ayako-chan has fallen for me. And Ayako-chan says she'll resort to gruesome methods if she can't be with me. For everyone to be happy, we have no choice but to renounce being Japanese."
"What are you talking about……?"
"Oh, it's simple."
I took a breath until my lungs were full and declared forcefully.
"Change the nationalities of me, Rio, and Ayako-chan. Naturalize in a country that recognizes polygamy, and make both of them my wives."