Chapter 78: No escaping the truth.

Reading Settings

Translated and Edited by: luccayn.

Common Honorifics:
-san: A polite suffix, but not excessively formal.
-kun: A common suffix among friends and younger people.
-chan: A common suffix among people you're close with, mostly used for feminine nicknames and girls, since it's cutesy and childlike.
-senpai: A common suffix and noun used to address or refer to one's older or more senior colleagues in a school, workplace, dojo, or sports club.

---

“Now then, where should I start?”

Ukai-san removed the tubes connected to him, raised the backrest of his bed, coughed, and then slumped forward. That sluggishness was just like the man I knew—unshaken by anything, always carrying himself with an air of composure.

“Since I was a kid, I was always popular with women. I mean, look at me—good-looking, never lost a fight, and there weren’t many smart kids like me back then either. I never failed at anything, and everything went exactly the way I wanted.”

“That doesn’t surprise me, coming from you.”

“Heh. If I were to borrow your words, it was a damn harem. Those girls stopped thinking for themselves, figured they'd be fine as long as they did whatever I said. They followed me around everywhere, annoyingly so, and praised me like they were out of their minds at every little thing.”

After a brief pause, he lit a cigarette.

“Well, that’s just how I see it now. Back then, I was having too much fun living to even notice them. Plenty of dumbasses who called themselves my underlings too.”

“Underlings? That sounds kinda pathetic and lame.”

“Kakaka! …Yeah, I bet it looks damn pathetic to a genius rogue like you.”

“Me? A genius?”

“Most people can’t push themselves like you do. They can’t struggle like you do. If guts and effort aren’t considered talent, then what the hell is? Huh?”

The thought that I might have any talent had never once crossed my mind.

“There are a rare few who can just unhinge their minds and cross that line without hesitation. You’re one of those geniuses.”

“I just did what I had to in order to survive.”

“Yeah, and that’s why most people would've died instead. But hey, if you don’t wanna acknowledge it, I don’t care.”

As Ukai-san met my gaze, he almost looked envious.

“After graduating from university, I joined a trading company in Tokyo—one of those giant firms everyone's heard of. By then, of course, I knew that being popular with women wasn't normal, that a harem wasn't the standard.”

“…Right.”

“I thought loyalty was a load of bullshit. I figured this chronic illness of mine was the tradeoff for having been given the talent to live life however I pleased. So the idea of dedicating my not-so-long life to just one woman disgusted me. I went after every good-looking woman I could, did all sorts of reckless, unthinkable s**t.”

Ukai-san coughed violently. But I didn't hand him any water.

“Then, one day, I knocked someone up. And wouldn’t you know it—bad news never comes alone. Four different women told me the same thing at the same time.”

“That's… not funny at all.”

“Yeah. But I just brushed them off—wasn’t my problem. I was gonna die soon anyway. No point relying on a guy with one foot in the grave. If they came to me, they could damn well take responsibility for it themselves.”

I see.

“You ran into the underworld because you didn’t want to deal with the women you got pregnant. If you weren't a civilian, you wouldn't have to worry about legal repercussions either.”

“As expected of you, Shinji. That's exactly right.”

…He's really beyond saving.

“Once I started the loan shark business, the money rolled in. It was the underground world, after all. Plenty of my so-called competitors were smart, but very few had the right knowledge or business skills. I'd picked up everything I needed in Tokyo, so I figured I'd break off on my own, head to some mid-sized city, and make a killing.”

“Tokyo's full of rivals, after all.”

“Yeah. And that's how I ended up in Machiya. That city was a perfect fit for me. Maybe because it was a half-assed excuse for a metropolis, it had plenty of idiots who thought they were clever. And as expected, money and women came easy.”

Smoke swirled in the room. I stood up, opened the window for ventilation, and gazed at the horizon beyond the sea.

“And then, after about ten years, Daiki's old man showed up at my doorstep as a client.”

A cold breeze brushed against my cheek. Maybe because it cleared my mind, a flood of realizations about who I really was rushed in, forcing me to accept it.

“Society is cruel. No matter how hard you work, day and night, it won't reward you. If you don't use your head, you just end up getting poorer.”

“I understand that well enough.”

“That old man was truly hopeless. His skills were solid, but he was awful with people. He had no knowledge outside of cooking, didn't even know who to turn to for help.”

“He ran a restaurant. He could've turned to crowdfunding, or tricked a bank or venture capital firm into giving him a loan.”

Ukai-san smiled, as if pleased. It was that familiar, kind look he always gave me.

“But he never even thought about gathering people online, let alone faking a business proposal to secure funds. In the end, he came to me—the quickest way to get money. And he brought your foster mother, Takatsuki Sachi, as his guarantor.”

It wasn't surprising at all that that old lady—who had picked me up when I was thrown away like a rag—would cosign for a friend's husband.

“From there, it was a chain reaction. I lent money to Takatsuki too, then squeezed her connections. Horse racing, boat races, prize-money motorsports—you name it. Machiya was full of desperate, money-hungry people. A goldmine for a financier like me.”

No.

It wasn't the city. It was Ukai-san himself—his ability to dive headfirst into the filth, his complete lack of hesitation when it came to wrongdoing.

His success didn't come from being “bad.” It was the result of accumulated experience and knowledge. I couldn’t believe that anyone else would've achieved the same results by doing what he did.

At his core, he was just like me.

He was simply diligent.

“I squeezed them dry, over and over. Meanwhile, stupid women still swarmed around me. I knew that old hag Youko had died. I knew that my other clients' families—and even my own kids—were suffering. But I stuck to being indifferent.”

The smoke tickled my nose. There was no other scent that felt more nostalgic.

“My purpose was to gather money. I never once thought about how to use it. I just wanted to wield ‘money'—that power—and prove that I was strong, even though I wouldn't live as long as everyone else.”

“Existence… proof…”

Those words pierced me deeply. This man was unbearably similar to me. That's why I understood him so well—why he clung so desperately, why he refused to let go.

…No, maybe it was more accurate to say I was the one who resembled him.

“In the end, Takatsuki died. I got a fat insurance payout. Just like with Youko, I made sure I was the beneficiary through some woman I'd set up.”

“Lending money to broke old people, making sure you don't lose out by securing their insurance policies… A scumbag tactic only a ‘harem master' like you could pull off.”

A faint sizzle. He must have put out his cigarette.

I steeled myself and turned around.

“And then… I met you. A middle schooler carrying an absurdly large sum of money, far beyond what any kid should have.”

At some point, I must have realized it. Otherwise, there was no way high school me would've walked into his office. No way he would've started visiting Youko's place to eat.

“I still remember that day clearly. A scrawny, dirt-poor-looking brat with a stare that even made me flinch slammed down the overdue collection notice from a year ago on my desk. And the moment you saw me—”

—Grandma's debt… I'll pay it back.

“I barely had time to be stunned before I knew. Ah, s**t. This kid and I aren’t strangers. He's without a doubt one of the kids I made.”

“…Yeah.”

“After you left, of course, I dug into your past. And when I saw what I found, my suspicion became certainty. The gods we worship may be different, but you and I… we live the same way.”

…There was no escaping it now.

Takatsuki Shinji was…

The biological son of Ukai Tooru.

---

Thank you for reading! Feel free to comment your opinions below!

Also, if you enjoyed my translation and would like to feed my caffeine addiction, click on the button below and graciously give me my fix—I mean, a cup of coffee.