Chapter 66: The Sister-in-Law Recruiting an Ally.
....
Anna Yanami buried her head down and sprinted back to her room, sliding down against the bedroom door until she sat on the floor. Heartbroken tears burst from her eyes, blurring her vision in an instant.
She bit down hard on her lower lip to keep her weak, pathetic sobs from escaping her mouth. She bit down so hard that she even broke the skin, and the blood, swirled with the tears at the corners of her mouth, slid down to the tip of her tongue.
The bitter, metallic taste of iron mixed with salt left her heart feeling as if it were being cut by knives. Even the air around her felt so chillingly cold that she felt as though she had plunged into an abyss of ice.
"So this is what getting your heart broken feels like... I really am a cowardly scaredy-cat with zero courage... Why was I just never brave enough to confess to him directly?"
Anna questioned herself through her choking sobs. Looking back, she felt her past self had possessed a natural, arrogant complacency on top of being foolish.
She had taken it for granted that Kihara would stay by her side forever without going anywhere; she had assumed he would naturally wait for her to pluck up the courage to confess; she had believed that the love she craved could be obtained through defense alone.
She had indulged herself inside the romantic comfort zone she had built for herself, yet completely overlooked a single, crucial point: love required taking the initiative and attacking.
Before Lala—the gorgeous girl falling straight out of the sky—showed up, Anna Yanami had possessed countless opportunities to confess. Yet she had backed out every single time due to her own cowardice.
In the midst of her deep regret, she couldn't help but begin to fantasize: What if, at some point, she had plucked up her courage, blurted out a pseudo-joking confession, and taken the initiative to tip up her toes to give Kihara a girl's most precious first kiss?
Would everything have turned out completely different?
Anna's fantasy didn't last for long. The sharp pain on her lips pulled her right back to reality, and the faint light lingering in her eyes snuffed out once more.
Curling her legs, she wrapped her arms around her knees, mimicking an ostrich by burying her face inside her pitch-black embrace, hiding away like a sun-fearing vampire from the blindingly brilliant sunlight outside her window.
Knock, knock!!
"Anna, are you alright?"
"Please open the glass door on the balcony!"
Momo knocked anxiously on the balcony door. After ringing the doorbell downstairs for two or three minutes with zero response, she had worried Anna might do something extreme due to her broken heart, having no choice but to fly up to the second-floor balcony to check on the situation.
Seeing Anna crouching by the doorway while radiating a dark, gloomy aura, an overwhelming sense of despair toward the world came crashing down on her. Momo immediately knocked on the door to try and call her up.
This was her very first teammate for launching the Harem Plan! If she couldn't even save her initial partner, what was the point of talking about a harem?
Just as Momo was so anxious she was preparing to use her plants to forcibly break through the glass door and rush inside, Anna raised her head, casting a glance at Momo with her red, completely lifeless eyes.
"M... Momo?"
"It's me! Hurry up and open the door! I have something very important to tell you!!"
"I'm sorry, I'm really not in the mood right now..." Saying that, she prepared to bury her face back into her knees.
"It's about brother-in-law! Don't you want to be together with him?"
Anna twitched slightly, a faint flicker of light kindling at the bottom of her eyes. Yet remembering Momo's status as his sister-in-law, she let out a self-deprecating laugh: "Stop playing jokes on me at a time like this. I'm exhausted. Go back."
"I'm not joking! Brother-in-law is definitely going to become the King of Deviluke down the line, and the royal family doesn't have a monogamous system at all!!"
The moment Momo finished her sentence, Anna—who had looked half-dead as if the entire world had abandoned her just a microsecond ago—pounced straight to the balcony door and unlocked it, a flush of wild excitement blooming across her pale face.
"You're not playing a joke on me, right?! Tell me all the details about outer space's marriage system!"
"Your face-changing speed before and after is way too fast..."
Momo sniffled her nose awkwardly, realizing tears were still hanging on her face. Hastily turning around, she ran out of the room: "Take a seat first! I'll go brew tea and wash my face while I'm at it!"
As a fellow girl, Momo could actually understand the massive contrast in Anna's attitude. When one was plunged into absolute despair, having someone suddenly bring a ray of hope was an emotional roller coaster that very few people could remain composed through.
Roughly ten minutes later, Anna walked back inside carrying a tray with two cups of black tea and snacks. By now, her eyes weren't as red as before, though the light inside them still remained somewhat dim.
Having calmed down, she began to wonder once again if Momo's words were merely a well-meaning lie concocted to comfort her.
Yet a shred of hopeful optimism lingered deep within her heart.
If what she said was true, then she could return to Kihara's side—as a romantic partner.
After setting down the tea and snacks, Anna sat across from Momo, using her hopeful little eyes to peek at her, clearly lacking the courage to ask about the truth of the matter directly.
Although Momo was dark-hearted, she wasn't about to deliberately keep her in suspense to torment her at a time like this. Running through the outline of her plan in her mind, she laid it out in a calm, orderly manner.
Throughout the process, Anna's mouth opened wider and wider, until it was gaping wide enough to stuff a small apple inside by the end. She was so excited she stumbled over her words: "Y-Y-You... You're not joking, right?! Doing something like this really won't make Lala angry? She's your big sister, you know!"
"I've obviously taken big sister into consideration on my end. Have you forgotten the sentence she constantly keeps on the tip of her tongue?"
"'Everyone living together happily is more important than anything else'..."
"Precisely!" Momo flashed a smile and snapped her fingers, picking up her warm black tea to moisten her throat: "Big sister doesn't inherently reject the idea of a harem in her subconscious in the first place. All we're doing is fulfilling her wish and letting everyone live together happily."
"But... isn't this being a little sneaky?"
Facing Anna Yanami, who was still hesitating and shrinking back even at a time like this, Momo rolled her eyes in exasperation, administering a heavy dose of reality to her: "In that case, you just stay right in your position as the defeated childhood friend, and watch the three of us sisters live happily and passionately with brother-in-law."
"No way!" Anna blurted out an objection at the top of her lungs. Snapping back to reality under Momo's mischievous gaze, her toes dug so hard into her shoes out of pure embarrassment, stubbornly asserting: "I... I was just worried you girls would break his body, so... so I'm joining as an insurance policy!"
Break Kihara's body?
That was quite possibly the funniest joke Momo had heard since arriving on Earth.
To be capable of making their big sister—whose physical stats completely outmatched hers and Nana's—beg for mercy, even if the three of them went at him together, they would probably end up with the exact same outcome. Yet Anna Yanami was actually worrying about him?
Momo simply wanted to throw her head back and laugh three times. When the time came, who ended up getting broken by whom was still very much up in the air.
"Ah... Momo, I want to ask a favor of you."
"Go ahead. We're allies now after all; if it's something I can help with, I'll do my best."
"It's nothing difficult, it's just... Could you help me test the waters with Kihara?"
"Hmm???" Momo knit her brows in utter confusion, her eyes written full of disbelief: "You've been childhood friends with brother-in-law for so many years, yet you still have things you aren't sure about?"
"I... I don't know if he likes me..."
"My goodness..." Momo covered her face in complete speechlessness.
On the other side, the arrival of Remilia Scarlet and Yuuka Kazami was currently stirring up a small commotion inside Kihara's home.
....
Thank you for reading.