Ren's words were like a demon's whisper, making Utaha Kasumigaoka begin to think just as Eriri Spencer Sawamura had.
"Senpai, do you need the same psychological counseling as Eriri?"
Everyone has their pride. Someone like Utaha, who was top of her grade and a famous light novel author, had actually lowered herself so much for Tomoya Aki.
If Tomoya used childhood guilt to brainwash Eriri, what did he use on Utaha?
Ren was interested.
The hand resting on Ren's palm dropped, and Utaha's body began to show signs of trembling.
Compared to Ren, Tomoya's manipulation was like that of a child.
With Eriri as a precedent, Utaha should have refused Ren's offer of counseling. But she couldn't refuse his suggestion—or perhaps it was only now that she realized the truth.
Inadvertently, she too had been manipulated by Tomoya Aki.
It just wasn't as deep as Eriri's case. To think that she used to mock that Little Golden Retriever whenever she saw Eriri's eyes filled only with Tomoya.
Now, as she humbly begged Ren to spare Tomoya, she was no different from the Eriri who used to act spoiled toward Sayuri Sawamura to help him.
They were a complete match.
"I'm really curious about what you were like before, Senpai. I imagine you're curious too, right?"
Feeling Utaha's trembling, Ren asked a paradoxical question with a light laugh.
He was asking Utaha if she was curious about what the former Utaha Kasumigaoka was like.
Did Utaha know?
They were the same person; how could she not know?
But could she answer Ren like that?
No.
Because compared to the former Utaha, the current her was truly pathetic.
Utaha's body trembled even more violently, as if Ren had struck her heart's secret. She seemed unwilling to follow Ren's words and recall her former self.
And she seemed unwilling to admit she had been brainwashed by Tomoya Aki.
Candy is a remedy for everything. Ren fed Utaha a piece as well.
When a person is filled with depression and pain, eating a piece of candy lets them know that there are still sweet things in this world. This tiny, usually unremarkable candy becomes the most precious medicine.
Even if the candy itself is very cheap.
The sweetness bursting on her taste buds quickly calmed Utaha down.
"Kohai-kun, can we sit and talk?"
Utaha lowered her head and shifted slightly.
Aware that Ren had been keeping his distance from her earlier, Utaha left the same space Ren had initially created between them.
In a daze, she seemed to have moved to the exact spot where Eriri had just been sitting.
"I'm all ears."
Ren sat back on the bench. This time, he didn't maintain a distance but sat very close to Utaha.
Sensing Ren sitting beside her, Utaha was somewhat surprised. She thought he would keep a polite distance between them as he had before.
Having lost her other motives, Utaha began to recount her meeting with Tomoya Aki.
The way they met was simple and almost funny.
When the first volume of Utaha's Metronome in Love was released, very few people were willing to pay for it, and the sales were dismal.
Just then, Tomoya Aki finished reading Metronome in Love, felt it was decent, and recommended it to his fans on his blog. Many readers began to buy the book through his recommendation and started promoting it as well.
The originally poor sales began to increase. Everything started looking up.
As a loyal reader of Metronome in Love, Tomoya naturally became acquainted with Utaha. She had always been full of gratitude toward Tomoya for saving her first book from failure.
When Tomoya approached Utaha and requested her to join his club with a dogeza, she agreed.
Listening quietly to Utaha's narration, Ren nodded in understanding.
Tomoya's brainwashing of Utaha was roughly the same as his method with Eriri; one used "guilt," and the other used "favors."
Perhaps it was because the profit Utaha brought wasn't as large as Eriri's, or perhaps Utaha wasn't as easy to fool. Therefore, Tomoya's brainwashing of Utaha only went as far as using a "favor" to force her into the club.
At other times, he used dogeza combined with his status as her "benefactor." This two-pronged approach made it hard for Utaha to refuse.
"What are your thoughts, Senpai?"
Ren decided to ask for Utaha's perspective first.
Utaha was different from Eriri; being able to write a best-selling light novel meant she possessed strong logic.
"Can I hear your thoughts first, Kohai-kun?"
Without stating her inner thoughts directly, Utaha wanted to hear Ren's first so she could compare them in her heart. That way, she could make a better judgment.
If she spoke first, Ren might follow her thoughts and lead her down a different path.
Utaha's thinking was indeed much clearer than Eriri's.
The "sweet-but-naive" Eriri had no strategy; her way of thinking was simply to follow whatever direction Ren pointed in. At most, she would raise points of refutation where she thought things were unreasonable. After Ren explained those points, Eriri would accept it and continue following Ren's logic.
This was also why Eriri was so easily brainwashed by Tomoya Aki. Having never experienced the wickedness of human hearts, she believed him far too easily.
Tomoya also relied on his status as a childhood friend to be so unscrupulous in brainwashing her.
If it were a stranger, Eriri might not necessarily be brainwashed, but at least she would have a basic level of guard and know she couldn't believe everything they said.
The same applied to Ren.
Eriri claimed Ren was bullying her, but Ren was someone recognized even by Sayuri Sawamura. Moreover, in Eriri's presence, Sayuri had told Ren to look after her at school.
Because of this, Eriri would listen properly to what Ren said.
A mother wouldn't harm her daughter, and Ren, who was recognized by her mother and entrusted with her care, was the same.
In a sense, in Eriri's heart, Ren was more trustworthy than Tomoya Aki.
You could call Eriri naive or a tsundere, but you couldn't say she was unreasonable. Eriri, who had been held in the palm of her family's hand, was indeed ignorant of the world.
But she didn't believe just anything. Even the "abandonment" Tomoya used to manipulate her had a factual basis.
Even if the facts were distorted into another form by Tomoya.