SCIAW: Chapter 158/159

Chapter 158: Regret

"Why?"

Ren slowly approached Toshihiko.

"Isn't it because her father caused your mother's car accident?"

"!?"

Toshihiko's expression was a mix of shock and disbelief, almost comically so.

"Did you really think you were hiding so well?"

"Everything about you has already been exposed."

"Even if she drank the poisoned lemon tea you prepared, wasn't it her own will?"

"Her own will!?"

Toshihiko looked at Sayuri, who was still coughing up blood on the ground. His face was filled with astonishment, but there wasn't a single trace of regret—only rage.

"This is my revenge! How could she have known!?"

"She was just a tool for my revenge, just like all those other women! She was only after the Takasugi family's wealth!"

Yes.

Sayuri was just like every other woman he had encountered.

They all approached him because of his money.

He wasn't wrong.

Using money as bait, he had lured Sayuri in.

It was a fact. He had succeeded. He got close to her. He gained the chance to take revenge.

"…Nineteen…"

Sayuri, standing nearby, let out a deep sigh and lowered her head.

The illusion of childhood love had been too strong.

She had believed in the boy she once loved, convinced herself of his kindness.

But now, stripped of that illusion, she finally saw the truth—time was indeed a thick filter.

It had concealed so many flaws, allowing her to see only the goodness in the boy from her past while ignoring how much he had deteriorated over the years.

The wealth of the Takasugi Zaibatsu…

Ren suddenly chuckled, as if he had just heard something truly amusing.

"You really think it still exists?"

"What do you mean?"

Toshihiko suddenly had a bad feeling.

"Your adoptive parents treated you well. They even entrusted you with overseeing the main business of the Takasugi Zaibatsu."

"But you lacked the ability to manage a corporation of that scale. Under your leadership, the Takasugi Zaibatsu has long been drowning in debt."

"On top of that, you love to play around, and your adoptive mother spoiled you too much, which only reinforced your reckless nature."

"In itself, there's nothing wrong with enjoying life. Some people gain valuable insights and connections from it. But you? You only indulged in pleasure."

"You surrounded yourself with drinking buddies and fake friends."

"Do you even remember how they tricked you?"

Toshihiko's mind instantly recalled the many mistakes he had made while running the company, all based on the advice of those so-called 'friends.'

His body trembled involuntarily.

"You always discussed company matters with them, and they secretly recorded everything you said."

"Otherwise, do you think the rival conglomerate that took over the Takasugi Zaibatsu's position just happened to be so well-informed?"

"If it weren't for a few critical decision-making errors, the Takasugi Zaibatsu might have had a chance at recovery. But instead of listening to the professional advisors managing your family's business, you listened to your drinking buddies."

"And that… was your downfall."

Ren's smile widened slightly.

"So, tell me—how much liquid capital do you think the Takasugi Zaibatsu has left?"

"Twenty… twenty million?"

A chilling sense of dread crept into Takasugi Toshihiko's heart.

"It's two million. And not in US dollars—just two million yen."

"Your adoptive father nearly fainted when he found out."

Toshihiko's heart clenched with guilt.

Because he hadn't even known his father had collapsed.

"The only thing keeping him going… was your marriage to Sayuri."

"If you successfully married her, the Takasugi Zaibatsu could finally escape its current crisis."

"Even if the Zaibatsu were to fall apart, with your father-in-law's influence, no corporation would dare completely crush what remains of it."

"So, this wedding… it wasn't Sayuri chasing after your two million yen."

"She was trying to help you in her own way."

The more Ren spoke, the more nauseated Toshihiko felt.

"Actually, Sayuri even had your ex-girlfriend investigate the accident from twenty years ago."

"She already knew that her father had been pursuing a criminal when the incident occurred—and that his actions inadvertently led to your mother's death."

"It was because she knew that… she was willing to end this grudge with her own life."

"How… how could it be like this…"

"But… there was a flaw in the information she received."

"The truth is, it wasn't her father's car that hit your mother twenty years ago."

"The one who actually ran over your mother was the criminal he was chasing."

Toshihiko's entire body jolted.

His face went pale with fear.

"That's right. The one who hit your mother… was a criminal."

"Maybe her father failed to save her in time, but that was only secondary responsibility."

"The real murderer—the one who truly took your mother's life—was the criminal."

The memory that Toshihiko had tried so hard to suppress surfaced once more.

Back then, his hatred had been directed solely at the policeman who had shaken off his grasp.

But he had deliberately ignored the actual culprit, the man who had been behind the wheel.

"That criminal was sentenced to life imprisonment over twenty years ago."

"He's still in prison even now, alive and well."

"He doesn't even know that he killed your mother."

Ren paused.

"I think you knew this all along, but you just didn't want to accept it."

"You wanted to pin all the blame on the officer who didn't save your mother."

"You convinced yourself that Matsumoto Kiyonaga owed your mother a life."

"Or maybe, after being taken in by the Takasugi Zaibatsu, you never even looked into the truth of your mother's death."

"You lived your comfortable life, blaming everything on a single policeman."

"You never even thought to direct your hatred at the real criminal."

"As if Matsumoto Kiyonaga himself was the one who ran your mother over."

Toshihiko's face turned deathly white.

He had forgotten?

No.

He knew.

The events of that day were still etched vividly in his mind.

He had seen it with his own eyes.

A madman had driven recklessly through the alley.

He had watched as his mother was flung against the wall, like a ragdoll.

She had collapsed to the ground, unmoving.

Barely breathing.

Then, the fierce-looking policeman had appeared.

Toshihiko had clung to him, begging him to save his mother.

But the officer had pushed him away.

Ignoring everything else as he rushed forward to arrest the criminal.

"…No… No…"

Toshihiko collapsed onto the ground, his entire body trembling.

His eyes were locked onto Sayuri, still coughing up blood.

He shuddered and cupped her face in his hands.

"Don't die… Don't die…"

"This isn't my fault… It's not my fault…"

Did Toshihiko start to regret everything?

Yes.

He truly regretted it.

But only after he realized he was going to die.

(To be continued.)

Chapter 159: Happy and Forgetful

Snap!

With a sudden snap of her fingers, Sayuri's eyes flew open.

"…"

She recognized the room she was in, this was the church's dressing room.

And the memories that had been hazy before suddenly became clear.

After Kazumi left the dressing room, her groom had been brought in almost immediately.

As expected, the poison had been placed in the can on the table.

The method had been crude—so careless it was as if no effort had been made to conceal it at all.

The movement had been slow, obvious, and easy to detect.

She clearly remembered how he slipped the capsule hidden in his sleeve into the drink, deliberately turning his back to her to create an illusion of secrecy.

There was no way she could have pretended not to notice.

"Ah…"

Sayuri let out a long sigh.

Thinking back to the memories she had just recovered and recalling Toshihiko's words and actions, she felt nothing but exhaustion.

People always said that childhood filters should be removed when evaluating others.

But once she stripped everything away, she found that Toshihiko was nothing special at all.

Perhaps those moments of bravery in the past had been nothing more than a child's impulsive actions.

At least, Sayuri didn't believe that a man who spent his days indulging in pleasure and blaming her father for his mother's accident had the heart of a truly courageous person.

Even his breakdown at the end hadn't been out of remorse.

It wasn't guilt for what he had done.

It was pure despair, because he realized the Takasugi Zaibatsu beyond saving.

He hadn't been crying for her, lying on the ground in pain.

He had been crying because her fall meant the complete destruction of everything he had.

The once-brave boy from her childhood had turned into this.

Sayuri felt a wave of emotions.

But one thing remained unchanged.

This ridiculous excuse for a wedding could finally be stopped.

Looking down, she saw the groom she had once known, now curled up on the ground, eyes shut in agony, hands still gripping at nothing.

But this time, Sayuri no longer saw him through the thick filter of childhood memories.

She had completely seen through the man named Takasugi Toshihiko.

"How~"

A voice interrupted her thoughts, making her turn her head instinctively.

She saw Ran and Sonoko sitting nearby.

They looked groggy, as if they had just woken up.

Glancing around, she noticed that the other young ladies seemed to be in a similar state.

Piecing together the images from before, the sight of herself lying in a pool of blood, Toshihiko's unraveling composure—her mind raced to process what had just happened.

Something about all of this was definitely unnatural.

Toshihiko's reaction had been far too raw, far too unfiltered.

And seeing herself lifeless on the ground that was not normal.

Sayuri's mind had never been sharper.

She had been blinded by sentiment before, but that had been because time had wrapped everything in a nostalgic glow.

But when she put her emotions aside and analyzed everything rationally, it was clear, her mind wasn't slow at all.

If she was incapable of thinking at this level, she wouldn't be a teacher.

When approached logically, some clues were already obvious from their conversation earlier.

It was clear that the boy had used something, perhaps a hallucinogen, or something more… supernatural.

But Sayuri was inclined to believe it was the latter.

After all, how could a hallucinogen affect multiple people at once?

And judging from Takasugi Toshihiko's behavior, they must have shared the same hallucination, experienced the same sights, sounds, and emotions.

The difference was that she had been an observer—seeing and hearing more—while Toshihiko had been the one manipulated.

Sayuri glanced at Ran and Sonoko again.

There was only surprise on their faces, but no fear.

It seemed like this was their first time experiencing something like this… yet they didn't seem entirely unfamiliar with the phenomenon.

This wasn't an emergency to them.

And she noticed—Ran and Sonoko weren't the only ones.

The others had similar reactions.

So—aside from her, everyone here was in on it?

As she pieced everything together, Sayuri gradually relaxed.

It seemed Ran and Sonoko's decision to investigate her had been unusual from the start.

They must have known all along that Toshihiko was going to target her.

They had even known that she would choose to sacrifice herself.

This kind of foresight was not normal.

In an abnormal situation like this, the most unreasonable factor was usually the answer.

It was suddenly clear why a boy was present in a group filled with noble young ladies with powerful backgrounds.

So, this was the reason.

As Sayuri calmed down, Kaguya, who had also regained clarity, gazed down at the pitiful figure trembling on the floor.

"It's just as I expected."

"He's nothing more than a fool who deceived himself into believing his own delusions."

"His so-called revenge for his mother was never genuine."

"If he had truly wanted revenge, he would have pursued it as soon as he was adopted by the Takasugi family."

"Back then, Superintendent Matsumoto was just an ordinary police officer."

"It wouldn't have been difficult for a powerful conglomerate to ruin a single policeman's life."

After speaking, she glanced at Ren inquisitively.

Ren nodded slightly.

"Twenty years ago, Superintendent Matsumoto was indeed just a regular officer."

"If the Takasugi Zaibatsu had chosen to act against him back then, it wouldn't have been difficult."

"Had they interfered at the right moment, his career might have been permanently stalled."

"Or he might have even faced reassignment."

In any career, promotion was a delicate process.

If external forces decided to intervene, especially during a crucial moment, it could completely derail someone's future.

If Toshihiko had gone to his adoptive parents twenty years ago and told them about his grudge, Matsumoto's advancement could have been completely blocked.

Hearing this confirmation, Kaguya's expression became one of understanding.

"At first, he must have been consumed by grief over his mother's death."

"But once he had time to think clearly, if he had truly wanted revenge, he wouldn't have done nothing."

"In those critical years, a single push in the right direction could have changed everything."

"He had every opportunity to act, but instead, he chose to move on."

"This is what people call 'being happy and forgetting about home.'"

(To be continued.)