Hachiman Hikigaya once declared: Marriage is the grave of life.
Kuroha Akira raised both hands in wholehearted agreement.
Coming home every day only to see the sleeping faces of a wife and children meant being shackled to an inescapable overtime hell. The eyes of married men who preached happiness were as hollow as Hachiman's, truly like zombies trying to drag others into the swamp.
Could that truly be called happiness?
No! No! No!
It was precisely because Kuroha Akira had experienced the life of a genuine corporate slave that he was even more unwilling to become a sacrificial lamb on the altar of marriage. More importantly, he understood himself well: he was utterly unsuited to handling family responsibilities.
In his previous life, the only reason he'd endured the grind was to supplement his family's income. Otherwise, with his temperament, facing workplace bullying and managerial PUA, he would have quit on the spot and found a lower-paying but more tolerable job, rather than working himself to death.
Therefore, he couldn't bear the thought of his 'wife' working hard to support him while he lounged comfortably… that kind of 'soft rice' would give him severe indigestion. Moreover, for a wife, having a lazy, idle husband who constantly asked her for money must be utterly despairing, right? Would marrying such a person truly bring happiness?
It would be a miracle if it did.
Marriage, in essence, is a 'team-up' where both partners share risks, reducing living costs and life's uncertainties—like when one falls ill, the other can provide care. It is a mutual warming, a mutual support called marriage.
But if marriage still relied on only one party carrying the entire burden, then it was no different from those 'little princesses' who demanded betrothal gifts, houses, cars, and expected men to fund their entire lifestyle; it would simply be a gender-flipped version of a freeloader.
Especially in Japan, where single-income households were the norm, dual-income couples were rare, and house-husbands were rarer still. Kuroha Akira couldn't bring himself to do such a scoundrelly thing as letting his wife bear immense pressure alone.
So, it was better not to marry at all—to remain a noble singleton.
Even if Kuroha Akira's dream was to 'lie flat,' he didn't want to achieve it at the expense of others. Take the hosts in Kabukicho: they sold the illusion of love, with no moral bottom line, draining women of their money and even pushing them into prostitution to continue funding their lifestyles.
Seemingly sweet, it was all poison. Those so-called hosts were nothing but devils who consumed people whole, leaving no bones behind. That's why news of hosts being stabbed by enraged clients was common. Conversely, who drove those clients to extremes? Was it life? Or was it the hosts who took everything and then discarded them?
Kuroha Akira was not a professional host, nor did he want to be one, juggling dozens of phones and complex interpersonal webs. What he wanted was a stable, worry-free, laid-back life, not a dangerous existence where he might be stabbed to death by a yandere woman one day.
Kuroha Akira believed he was selling not love, but dreams—and the concrete solutions to make those dreams come true. He helped geniuses find the right direction and achieve rapid success. In return, he would collect a modest 'consultancy fee.'
A win-win situation was the best outcome.
Therefore, Kuroha Akira needed a certain level of affection to ensure obedience, but he also had to control the increase in affection, preventing it from crossing a critical threshold. Because once that line was breached, he would face three possible outcomes: ① All efforts wasted, ② Marriage and a life of honest labor, ③ Getting stabbed to death.
Fuck! I don't want any of those!
And while Shinomiya Shion was currently his strongest asset, one shouldn't put all their eggs in one basket. So, Kuroha Akira was also preparing to scout for more promising prospects, to open a second mine, a third mine…
This way, even if one 'cultivation' failed, he could transfer the risk. But being genuinely loved would be troublesome; it would be difficult to end the relationship cleanly after securing the funds.
Kuroha Akira didn't want his interpersonal relationships to become a tangled spiderweb, nor did he want to be 'hunted' by women after achieving his 'lying flat' goal.
So, now that he had Shinomiya's sweat-scented towel… should he use it or not?
Of course, he should.
Since he could now gauge that Shinomiya's initial affection was a bit too high, he needed to do some deliberately off-putting, 'perverted' things to lower that affection, achieving the goal of precise control.
Moreover, Kuroha Akira felt that Shinomiya was also testing him. Just like when the class representative had first asked if he wanted to see her underwear, it had contained an element of probing. If Kuroha Akira hadn't resisted temptation then and insisted on seeing it, the class rep probably wouldn't have invited him to join the Literary Club.
So, Kuroha Akira took the towel and immediately used it to wipe his face, taking several loud, exaggerated sniffs, as if afraid Shinomiya wouldn't hear his dramatic inhaling.
The sweat odor on the towel wasn't strong. Having just been washed with soap, a clean, soapy scent still lingered, mingling with the girl's natural body odor to form a unique, subtle feminine pheromone.
It was… somewhat intoxicating.
Combined with the alluring scene he'd just witnessed, Kuroha Akira was struggling to maintain composure. Though his mind was thirty, his body was a vigorous fifteen, and its instinctive urges were making it difficult to stand up straight.
Shinomiya, watching Kuroha Akira make such embarrassing, leaf-sniffing noises right in front of her, was completely frozen.
Hmm… He really doesn't find it unpleasant?
But looking at his seemingly blissful expression… He really does seem to like this scent… He really is treating it as a reward…
So that's how it is… For a boy… this counts as a reward…
What Kuroha Akira hadn't anticipated was that for a girl in the midst of puberty who'd never been close to a boy, she also harbored her own fantasies about them.
So when Shion watched Akira's… enthusiastic behavior, she didn't feel disgust or revulsion. Instead, a strange, inexplicable thrill stirred in her heart, leading to a peculiar misunderstanding: she began to believe that the lewd behavior Kuroha Akira displayed was normal, something all boys would do.
Since, for him, this counts as a reward… then I'll give him a little extra.
"Akira-kun…"
"Hm?"
Kuroha Akira felt he'd performed enough. If he kept sniffing, he'd really be in trouble. He lowered the towel from his face.
Then he saw Shion standing with her head bowed, hands clasped behind her back, looking awkward. "Um… when I was running just now, I didn't feel anything, but now that we're back, my feet are a bit sore…"
"Oh, it's probably because the shoes aren't suitable. As I thought, you should buy proper sports shoes first. You're not injured, are you?"
"No, not injured. It's just the soles of my feet…"
"As long as you're not injured. Just rest well today." It seemed their trip to the convenience store would have to wait.
"It's not that serious. I think if I rest a bit, it'll feel much better…" Shion slipped off her indoor slippers. Her delicate toes pressed gently against the floor as she slid her feet forward, straightening her calves. "So… could you help me massage them?"
"Huh?"
Shinomiya Shion, without being taught, had somehow learned how to tempt a man.