"Come to think of it, Chiba, you're always spraying something on yourself, huh?" Kitasan Black scooted closer to Fujiwara Chiya during break. "Is it perfume?"
"No, this is… antiperspirant."
"Antiperspirant? Do you sweat that much, Chiba?"
"Yeah."
That was not entirely true.
It was not the amount. It was the scent.
Whether it was him or Shirayuki, their sweat carried an absurd amount of hormones. After exercise, their bodies gave off a sweet, fragrant scent that was honestly a little dangerous.
Rice Shower and the others adored it. Every time they finished exercising with Fujiwara Chiya, they would bury themselves against his chest for a while, only curling up beside him in total satisfaction once the sweat had dried.
Shirayuki loved it too, naturally. She treated it like a bedtime dessert and sampled it every single night.
That was one thing when his wives were kissing him or nibbling at him, but Fujiwara Chiya was terrified of anyone else noticing. Agnes Tachyon had said his hormone secretion was far too intense. Not only would it make people who already liked him like him even more, it could even make people who had no particular feelings for him start developing a crush.
Normally, pheromones were supposed to be released when one encountered a desirable member of the opposite sex.
Fujiwara Chiya, however, released them constantly, whether he liked someone or not.
The result? He was basically a blooming flower, endlessly attracting nearby uma musume. Worse, they might mistake liking that scent for liking Chiya himself.
So, to prevent Chiya from accidentally seducing more uma musume even after marriage, Agnes Tachyon made him spray antiperspirant after sweating. The goal was to stop anyone from getting hooked on Fujiwara Chiya's hormones and causing an incident his wives absolutely did not want to see.
Of course, his wives were already completely addicted.
The worst case was Orfevre.
At night, she often sucked one hickey after another onto Fujiwara Chiya, smacking her lips afterward like she still had not had enough.
At that point, it was no longer married-couple play.
It was feeding.
These uma musume were not just seeking emotional and physical satisfaction from him anymore. They were absorbing nutrients from his body!
To avoid being sucked dry by his own uma musume, Fujiwara Chiya needed to become even stronger. His training now was not just about winning races. It was also about building enough stamina to survive daily life without being left parched, drained, and completely useless.
After hearing Fujiwara Chiya's answer, Kitasan Black nodded with deep understanding.
"I sweat a lot too. After training, my socks are basically soaked through. If I leave them alone, they go all stiff the next day. Same with my underwear. If I don't change for two days, I start smelling really sweaty."
"Smell really is a problem…"
"Exactly! Chiba, do you know any good underwear brands? I want something breathable. Light too."
"What kind are you wearing now?"
"Right now?"
Kitasan Black lifted her shirt, showing her smooth, pale stomach. A tiny bead of sweat gleamed on her cute little navel.
"This kind. It doesn't breathe very well. Every time I finish training, it feels all stuffy."
"Kitasan, you can't just lift your shirt for people to see like that." Fujiwara Chiya quickly stopped her.
"Huh? Ah… it's fine, isn't it?" Kitasan Black scratched her head. "I mean, if it's you, Chiba, I don't really mind."
"Girls need to protect their bodies."
"Chiba, you're surprisingly conservative about this stuff. You never change with us in the locker room either. Are you embarrassed about people seeing your body?"
"…Yeah. It's embarrassing when people see my body," Fujiwara Chiya said with perfect seriousness.
This was a lie.
The reason he never changed with everyone else was entirely because he was afraid these uma musume would notice the unnatural bulge under his skirt.
If that happened, his cover would be blown!
Then he would absolutely be branded a pervert. Fujiwara Chiya did not have the mental strength to survive that kind of social death.
"I knew it." Kitasan Black grinned. "I always thought you were super ladylike, Chiba."
"L-Ladylike!? Me!?"
It was supposed to be a compliment.
So why did it feel like someone had stabbed him directly through the heart?
"Where exactly… am I ladylike?" Fujiwara Chiya asked, enduring the pain.
"It's that reserved personality of yours! And the way you get along with everyone!"
"The way I get along with everyone?"
"Yep!" Kitasan Black's eyes sparkled. "Some of the others have started calling you Chiba-onee-san behind your back! They say you're mature, elegant in how you talk and act, really strong, and great at teaching people. When Trainer Nase doesn't explain something clearly, you can make it easy to understand in just a few sentences!"
Kitasan Black kept praising him.
"You even got older uma musume to call you 'onee-san.' That means you really do have a proper ladylike aura! I need to learn from you too!"
"Ugh…"
Fujiwara Chiya covered his face.
He was already in his twenties. He was the head of the Fujiwara family.
And now there were older students calling him "onee-san"? Ladylike? Elegant?
Fujiwara Chiya felt like he was aging backward.
Due to the influence of uma musume genes, his appearance had become terrifyingly youthful. His hair had grown longer than before, making him look more delicate, but once he put on uma musume ears, he could blend into the herd with zero flaws.
That fact alone dealt a heavy blow to his pride.
Could it be that I have no manliness left at all?
Fujiwara Chiya refused to believe it.
"Kitasan, look!"
Fujiwara Chiya pulled up his shirt, showing his underwear and stomach.
"Hm? What's up?"
"I'm no longer modest! I'm no longer conservative! From this moment on, I am not ladylike!"
Kitasan Black stared at Fujiwara Chiya's face for one second.
Then she burst out laughing.
"What is this, Chiba!? Who are you even arguing with? That's so funny!"
The girl laughed so hard her shoulders shook. She stepped in front of Fujiwara Chiya, bent down, and poked his stomach with one finger.
"So soft. So smooth. Chiba, why are you so cute?"
"…I look like an idiot."
Fujiwara Chiya quietly lowered his shirt.
"Let's go shopping for underwear together this weekend, okay?" Kitasan Black leaned closer with a cheerful smile. "Diamond's planning to hang out too, so the three of us can check out an underwear store together. Help me pick a few. I don't want people smelling something sour on me later."
As she spoke, Kitasan Black sniffed the air.
"You're totally different from me, Chiba. You don't smell sweaty at all. Actually… sniff, sniff… you smell really good. Weird. What is that scent? It's amazing."
Kitasan Black narrowed her eyes and leaned toward the places where sweat tended to gather, like Fujiwara Chiya's chest and underarms.
"Kitasan, don't smell me!"
Fujiwara Chiya hurriedly stopped her, but Kitasan Black's cheeks had already flushed faintly, as though she were tipsy. Her soft pink lips parted.
"Chiba… could this be…"
She looked dazed.
"…the scent of a lady?"
"It is not!"
The weekend arrived.
Fujiwara Chiya changed his clothes.
"I'm heading out."
"Chiya, aren't you forgetting something?"
Tazuna Hayakawa walked out.
The man extended his arms and hugged her. Tazuna kissed Fujiwara Chiya on the lips.
"I want to go buy barbecue ingredients with Shirayuki later. Director said we're eating lunch in the yard, so come with me then."
"Sure. Shirayuki just woke up."
"Then I'm going to give her a good morning kiss."
Tazuna smiled and said goodbye to Fujiwara Chiya.
Or rather, to "Chiba."
At the moment, he was dressed as an uma musume.
He had promised Kitasan Black that he would go out and buy underwear today.
Dressing as a girl and shopping for underwear.
I've really fallen far.
Fujiwara Chiya sank into deep self-reproach.
"Dear husband, are you going out?"
Fujiwara Chiya heard Grass Wonder's voice. She had just returned with groceries in hand.
The Fujiwara household now took turns cooking. Grass Wonder handled breakfast, Tazuna handled lunch, Rice Shower handled dinner, and the next day they rotated again. Fujiwara Chiya himself often cooked too. It was not as if the work was permanently assigned to just a few people.
The goal was to give everyone a sense of involvement in the household.
Fujiwara Chiya wanted every one of them to feel like they were part of the family, not merely living under the same roof.
Marriage was not just a contract that created a household. Fujiwara Chiya wanted to give these uma musume happiness no less real than marriage itself.
This was the relationship he had formed with his uma musume.
And Fujiwara Chiya intended to preserve it with everything he had.
Seeing Fujiwara Chiya dressed to go out, Grass Wonder smiled gently.
"I'm going to help a classmate buy clothes."
"Clothes?"
At that word, Grass Wonder's ears twitched.
"May I come along?" Grass Wonder asked. "I'm the one who buys clothes for both you and Yuki-chan, dear husband. I know which stores are best."
"So those clothes were from you, Grass?"
No wonder Fujiwara Chiya kept finding new outfits in his wardrobe. They all matched his aura perfectly, felt comfortable to wear, and looked excellent on him.
"I don't just buy the clothes. I'm also the one who washes them, dear husband."
The Fujiwara household had many people, so laundry was a massive undertaking. Even so, plenty of them fought over the job. The one who competed with Grass Wonder the most fiercely was Rice Shower.
Rice Shower would often hug Fujiwara Chiya's discarded clothes, bury her face in them, and inhale his scent.
This made Grass Wonder very jealous.
Only clothes worn for a long time needed washing. And only then was Fujiwara Chiya's scent at its richest, so intoxicating that it was hard to let go.
But every time Rice Shower finished sniffing, she threw the clothes straight into the washing machine, giving no one else a chance.
So if one wanted to enjoy dear husband's scent, one had to seize the moment. Miss the timing, and there was no choice but to wait until the next laundry day.
Of course, Grass Wonder could always sneak into Fujiwara Chiya's room at night and satisfy herself with Chiya and Shirayuki directly.
But laundry had its own pleasure.
The bed had its own pleasure.
They were two different things.
Right now, Grass Wonder was working hard to become the wife officially in charge of Chiya and Shirayuki's outerwear. In the future, whenever anything clothing-related came up, everyone would have to yield to her.
"Can you help me pick something breathable and comfortable?"
"Of course."
Grass Wonder put the groceries away and hurried back out.
The two walked toward the meeting place.
"Dear husband… no, for now, I should call you Chiya-chan."
"Chiya-chan!?"
"Yes. Since Shirayuki is Yuki-chan, Chiba shall be Chiya-chan."
"Have I been completely feminized into an uma musume in your eyes?"
"No, not completely… probably."
"What do you mean, probably!?"
"To be honest, dear husband, right now you look exactly like Yuki-chan from back then. You are basically a tall, black-haired Yuki-chan. If you told a stranger you were related to Yuki-chan, they would believe you immediately."
"Should I be happy about that? I'm the only male head of the household, you know?"
"It's all right, Chiya-chan."
Grass Wonder took his hand.
"By day, you are the black-haired Yuki-chan. By night, you are the emperor of the night who rules the Fujiwara household."
"…Grass, did I do something to make you angry recently?"
"No."
"I feel like you've been attacking me this whole time. Directly. In the soul."
"Are you dissatisfied with how I expressed myself, Chiya-chan? Then how should I convey my love?"
"That 'Chiya-chan' alone is making my skin crawl."
"But dear husband looks so much like Yuki-chan right now. I cannot quite control myself."
Grass Wonder gradually revealed a more assertive side of herself.
In front of Fujiwara Chiya, she was supposed to be the gentle, devoted yamato nadeshiko. But seeing him dressed as an uma musume brought back the feeling of being with Shirayuki in the old days.
She wanted to pin him down on the bed.
But that went against the spirit of a yamato nadeshiko. Facing her husband, she ought to focus on serving him.
It was too much conflict.
A husband with Shirayuki's presence, Chiya's body, and an uma musume outfit on top of that.
How could such a troubling existence be allowed to exist!?
Grass Wonder was happy.
Grass Wonder was suffering.
"Grass, hold it together. We're almost there!" Fujiwara Chiya hurriedly warned her when he saw Grass Wonder's flushed cheeks.
Please do not turn back into the Grass Wonder who used to stand beside Shirayuki. If Kitasan Black got too close and Grass Wonder grabbed her by the collar and threw her away, things would get ugly fast.
The Grass Wonder beside Shirayuki really did not tolerate anyone.
She was completely different from the sweet, birdlike wife clinging to Chiya's side.
"I will do my best!"
Grass Wonder clenched her fist and tried to organize her extremely conflicted emotions.
When they arrived at the meeting place, Kitasan Black and Satono Diamond were already there.
Kitasan Black wore a white short-sleeved shirt with black hot pants. Satono Diamond had changed into a white blouse, a light brown jacket, and a plaid skirt.
Just from their outfits alone, one could tell their personalities apart. One was energetic and bursting with life. The other was calm, gentle, and refined.
"Chiba! Over here!"
Kitasan Black waved.
Fujiwara Chiya walked over and began the introduction.
"Kitasan, Diamond, this is my…"
"Cousin," Grass Wonder said, giving a slight bow. "Thank you for taking care of Chiya-chan."
Why do all my wives love pretending to be my elders?
I'm clearly the oldest one here.
"Hello, Grass Wonder-senpai."
Kitasan Black and Satono Diamond both lowered their heads.
They were rather surprised.
Grass Wonder.
The famous uma musume who had once raced on the same stage as the Empress, pushed the Empress into a corner more than once, and overpowered the brilliant star of her generation, Special Week.
And she was Chiba's cousin!?
Not long ago, Seiun Sky had claimed to be Chiba's older sister too.
Kitasan Black could not understand what sort of family Chiba had been born into. She had so many relatives, and every single one of them was famous!
"She's here to help us pick clothes. She knows a lot about this stuff."
"I will help you choose the most breathable and comfortable pieces."
"Really? Thank you so much, Grass Wonder-senpai!"
Grass Wonder led Chiya and the other two to an underwear store.
Looking at the colorful, extremely provocative sleepwear displayed on the wall, Fujiwara Chiya frowned. He lifted his gaze toward the sign above the section.
Adult Sleepwear Section.