One day later.
Inside the apartment in Chiba City, the air carried a thick and dangerously intimate scent.
Although the [Absolute Soundproofing Barrier] perfectly blocked every sound from leaking outside, the lingering atmosphere inside the room remained impossible to ignore.
“No…
I really can’t anymore…”
Yotsuya Miko weakly collapsed onto the messy bedsheets, looking as though she had just been fished out of water.
At this point, she no longer even possessed the strength to move a single finger.
After Fujiwara Ai’s charisma value surpassed 85, the system’s enhancement no longer affected only his appearance.
His physical abilities had undergone a complete qualitative leap.
Stamina, endurance, recovery speed…
He was practically a perpetual motion machine.
And after tasting the sweetness of intimacy, he had nearly crushed Miko over the past several days, almost wanting to completely merge her into his body.
“Ai kun…
are you some kind of monster…”
Miko buried her face into the pillow, her voice weak and soft like a kitten’s meow.
“This is already…
the fifth time…”
“I’m going to break…
I really am going to break…”
Fujiwara Ai looked down at her before gently reaching out to stroke her sweat soaked back.
“Sorry.”
His voice sounded hoarse and slightly apologetic.
Even he understood that he had gone a little overboard.
But the hunger originating from the depths of his soul resembled a bottomless abyss that could never be fully satisfied.
Every moment he touched Miko, the pleasure created by Soul Resonance continuously eroded his self control.
“Is it…
because I’m not good enough?”
Miko suddenly turned her head toward him, tears lingering in her eyes.
“Is it because I’m too weak…
and can’t satisfy Ai kun?”
“No.”
Fujiwara Ai sighed before pulling her back into his embrace.
“It’s my problem.”
“My body…
has become a little difficult to control.”
Miko quietly fell silent.
She leaned against Fujiwara Ai’s chest while listening to his still steady and powerful heartbeat, her heart filled with complicated emotions.
During these days, she had truly been happy.
Every morning she opened her eyes and immediately saw the person she loved.
Every night she fell asleep wrapped inside his arms.
That feeling of being needed, treasured, and completely filled by someone made her deeply intoxicated.
But…
Her body genuinely couldn’t endure anymore.
Every morning she woke up sore all over, her legs trembling during class, and she had even developed psychological trauma from merely seeing the running exercises during PE lessons.
If this continued, she truly might “ascend to heaven” ahead of schedule.
“Ai kun.”
Miko suddenly spoke while tracing circles across his chest with her fingertips.
“If…
if only someone could help me a little.”
Fujiwara Ai froze briefly.
“What do you mean?”
Miko slowly raised her head, her eyes carrying extremely complicated emotions.
There was unwillingness.
There was grievance.
And there was also the enormous compromise she had forced herself to make for the sake of the person she loved.
“I don’t want to see Ai kun constantly holding yourself back.”
“That…
makes my heart ache.”
“And I also know that someone like Ai kun…
could never belong only to me forever.”
“Those girls…
Bocchi chan and Kitagawa san…
they both want to get close to you.”
“Rather than letting them secretly steal you away from me someday…”
She took a deep breath as if finally making up her mind.
“It’s better to…
let them help too.”
“As long as…
as long as the person Ai kun loves most is still me…”
“And as long as Ai kun never abandons me…”
“I’m willing to…
share a little bit with them.”
By the end, her voice had become so faint it was nearly inaudible, while tears continuously flowed down her cheeks again.
This was the helplessness belonging to a “losing heroine.”
Faced with an overwhelming difference in strength, and to preserve both her life and the person she loved, she ultimately chose compromise.
Fujiwara Ai looked at the girl inside his arms who clearly felt wronged yet still pretended to act magnanimous, and warmth quietly surged inside his chest.
“Silly girl.”
He lowered his head and lightly kissed her forehead.
“Don’t overthink things.”
“I’m not overthinking!”
Miko immediately became anxious, propping herself upright while seriously staring at him.
“I’m serious!”
“As long as…
as long as they can pass my ‘inspection,’ and as long as they can care about Ai kun as wholeheartedly as I do…”
“I can…
slightly…
just slightly…
make room for them.”
She raised her pinky finger and showed a tiny distance barely the size of a fingernail.
“Only this much, okay?”
Fujiwara Ai couldn’t help laughing after seeing how tiny that “space” truly was.
Although he didn’t know what the future would become, at this moment, he genuinely felt moved by this girl.
“Okay.”
Not because he truly wanted to create some harem.
But simply because he wanted to soothe her emotions.
“I’ll listen to you.”
Right then, the phone sitting on the bedside table suddenly lit up.
A new message popped onto the screen.
[Ryo: Big brother!
Help!
That…
money…
is all gone.]
[Ryo: After buying that bass guitar…
I also fell in love with an effects pedal…
and then I wanted a new amplifier too…]
[Ryo: Now I can’t even afford rent anymore…
can I…
borrow a little more?]
[Ryo: Or…
paying with my body works too?
(Just kidding, don’t take it seriously…
probably?)]
Fujiwara Ai glanced at the message before looking toward Miko, who was currently staring suspiciously at his phone.
“Who is it?”
Miko sharply asked.
“Ryo.
The blue haired bassist who stays with Goto.”
Fujiwara Ai honestly answered.
“She’s borrowing money.”
“Borrowing money?”
Miko slightly frowned before poking his chest.
“That girl…
is really poor?”
“Yeah.”
Fujiwara Ai casually picked up his phone and replied while speaking.
“To buy instruments, she can survive an entire month eating only bean sprouts and wild grass.”
This wasn’t exaggeration.
It was simply objective reality.
In the original story, Yamada Ryo truly was the type of remarkable woman willing to abandon her dignity for the sake of a bass guitar.
“What a…
strange person.”
Miko quietly muttered.
Although traces of vigilance remained in her tone, she didn’t react too strongly.
After all, she had already decided to “share the burden,” so she wouldn’t easily take back her words.
Besides, if it was merely borrowing money…
it should be okay, right?
“Then…
are you planning to lend it to her?”
“Depends.”
Fujiwara Ai stood up before casually throwing on a bathrobe that covered the ambiguous marks scattered across his body.
“She’s downstairs.”
“Eh?
Right now?”
Miko looked somewhat surprised.
She glanced at the wall clock.
It was already nearly eleven at night.
“Her landlord kicked her out.”
Fujiwara Ai looked at the location sharing message that had just arrived before the corners of his lips slightly lifted.
This woman truly committed herself completely to the whole “destitute musician” character setting…
A few minutes later.
The apartment doorbell rang.
Fujiwara Ai walked over and opened the door.
Standing outside was indeed the short blue haired girl whose cold looking eyes carried an obvious trace of idiocy.
Yamada Ryo.
A brand new Fender bass guitar hung across her back while she carried a convenience store plastic bag containing only two lonely bean sprouts.
The moment she saw Fujiwara Ai, she displayed absolutely zero embarrassment.
Instead, she waved the bean sprouts enthusiastically like she had reunited with family after years apart.
“Yo, Boss.
I remembered you probably hadn’t eaten a midnight snack yet, so I specially brought some ‘side dishes for drinks.'”
Fujiwara Ai: “…”
This woman’s thick skin truly ranked among the strongest.
“Come in.”
He stepped aside and let her enter.
Ryo walked inside without hesitation and even skillfully changed her shoes as though this place belonged to her already.
The moment she entered the living room, she immediately noticed Yotsuya Miko sitting on the sofa while wearing an oversized shirt and quietly observing her with scrutinizing eyes.
Ryo froze briefly.
Although her face usually lacked expression, that didn’t mean she was blind.
The lazy atmosphere radiating from Miko after obviously being thoroughly “pampered,” combined with the faint red marks visible beneath her loosely buttoned collar, all clearly explained what had happened inside this apartment earlier.
And paired with the hidden hostility inside those amber eyes…
“Sorry for disturbing you.”
Ryo calmly nodded before turning toward Fujiwara Ai, who had just closed the front door.
“Did I arrive at a bad time?
Should I just sleep in the park tonight instead?
Though it’s a little cold and there are lots of mosquitoes, I can still survive by eating grass…”
This tactic of retreating in order to advance had clearly been mastered to perfection.
“Sit.”
Fujiwara Ai pointed toward the armchair.
Then he walked to the refrigerator, grabbed a can of cola, handed it to Ryo, and sat down beside Miko.
This subtle seating arrangement already revealed his stance.
Ryo accepted the cola, pulled open the tab, took a sip, and immediately sighed with satisfaction.
“I’m alive again…
as expected, sugar really is humanity’s salvation.”
She placed the cola down before patting the bass guitar case beside her.
“Um…
Boss, I think there may be some misunderstanding between us.” This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
“It’s not that I don’t want to repay you.”
“It’s mainly because…
the instrument itself was calling out to me.”
“Do you understand that feeling?
It looked at me from inside the display case like it was saying, ‘please take me home.'”
“How could I possibly abandon a homeless child?”
She spoke complete nonsense with a perfectly serious face, attempting to use artistic logic to justify her reckless spending habits.
Fujiwara Ai remained silent.
Instead, he calmly took out a piece of paper and a pen from beneath the coffee table before placing them in front of Ryo.
That wasn’t ordinary paper.
It was the special item rewarded by the system:
[Creditors Contract].
To ordinary people, it merely looked like a normal IOU.
But according to the system’s rules, once someone signed their name, they would subconsciously develop irresistible obedience toward the creditor.
“Sign it.”
Fujiwara Ai spoke concisely and directly.
Ryo picked up the paper and glanced at it.
There was no repayment deadline written on it.
No interest rates either.
There was only a single sentence:
[I, Yamada Ryo, voluntarily borrow funds from Fujiwara Ai (unlimited amount) and promise to spend my entire lifetime repaying this debt.]
“A lifetime?”
Ryo raised one eyebrow while looking toward Fujiwara Ai.
“That serious?
I originally thought this was just normal repayment through labor…
or maybe normal body repayment…
ahem.”
“You don’t have to sign.”
Fujiwara Ai leaned back against the sofa with an indifferent expression.
“Turn right after leaving for the park.”
“Turn left for the police station.”
“You can choose whichever one you want for tonight.”
Ryo quietly fell silent.
She glanced toward the dark night outside the window.
Then toward her beloved bass guitar.
And finally toward Fujiwara Ai’s cold but ridiculously handsome face.
Actually…
Being “exploited” by a creditor like this didn’t sound very bad.
Besides…
The sofa here looked pretty soft too.
Ryo picked up the pen and quickly signed her name.
“I never planned to escape the debt anyway.”
“At worst…
I’ll just sell myself to you for the rest of my life.”
She spoke half jokingly and half seriously.
The instant the final stroke landed, the paper released a golden flash visible only to Fujiwara Ai before disappearing completely.
The system notification immediately sounded.
[Ding!
Contract successfully activated.]
[Congratulations to the host for successfully capturing “Yamada Ryo.” Current debt amount: 1,000,000 Yen (continuously increasing).]
[Conquest Progress Unlocked: 10/100 (Status: Ready to borrow additional money at any moment).]
Fujiwara Ai nodded with satisfaction.
“Very good.”
He casually picked up his phone and transferred another sum.
“This week’s rent and living expenses have already been sent to you.”
“Ding dong.”
Ryo’s phone immediately rang.
She lowered her head to check the amount and her eyes instantly widened.
Another 500,000 yen.
Did this Boss own a money printing machine?
“That…”
Ryo swallowed nervously while her gaze toward Fujiwara Ai completely changed.
If earlier she had merely compromised for survival…
Now she genuinely wanted to cling onto his thigh for life.
“Boss, do you need anything else?”
“Although I don’t really sell my body, if it’s…
washing clothes or cooking, I can learn.”
Of course, in reality, Yamada Ryo’s life skills ranked near absolute disaster level.
The only things she truly knew were eating grass and playing bass.
“No need.”
Fujiwara Ai directly rejected her attempt at “repayment.”
“You only need to do one thing.”
He pointed toward the bass guitar resting beside her.
“Play your instrument properly.”
“Don’t waste my investment.”
Ryo froze briefly.
She looked directly into Fujiwara Ai’s deep eyes and suddenly felt her heartbeat skip.
This man…
He wasn’t interested in her body.
He valued her talent instead?
For a musician who possessed strong pride, this practically counted as the highest possible critical hit.
“…Understood.”
Ryo finally put away her joking attitude before seriously nodding.
“I’ll make sure you hear exactly how worthwhile this investment was.”
Right then, Miko, who had remained silent the entire time, suddenly spoke up.
“Miss Ryo.”
She smiled gently, but hidden inside her amber eyes was authority that couldn’t be questioned.
“Since you’ve already signed the contract, that means we’re family now.”
“Please take care of me from now on.”
She deliberately emphasized the word “family.”
Ryo blankly nodded.
But what nobody noticed was that after lowering her head, her cheeks slowly became flushed while a strangely dangerous smile quietly appeared on her face.