After Xiangzi died, I inherited her harem.

Realizing that Wakaba Mutsu was beginning to be persuaded, Metis quickly pressed his advantage.

"Even if Xiao Mu isn't good at sports, it's fine. As long as you give the order, I'll take you to Mr. Youyu right away, so that Minami can't catch you."

"Then... I'll leave it to you, Metis."

After a brief moment of hesitation, Ruoye Mu finally made up her mind.

She didn't actually want to go to the film set or the hospital. If it were Youyu, she would definitely have a way.

His golden eyes slowly closed, then opened again a moment later. His once calm and indifferent gaze became lively and spirited, as if he had become a different person.

Carefully putting away the phone he had been clutching to his chest, Metis picked up the guitar from the bed and also put some cash in his pocket.

Although she had never done anything like this before, she knew how to act; now she just needed to make the act seem real.

Before stepping out of the room, Metis paused slightly, but ultimately left the phone that Senmina had given him on the bedside table without taking it with him.

Although this would mean cutting off contact with almost everyone I knew in the past, what does it matter? I don't know those people anymore.

As long as my most important things, my phone and guitar, are still here, that's all that matters.

After confirming that everything was ready, Metis tiptoed open the door to his bedroom and quietly slipped out.

The escape under the moonlight has officially begun.

However, Metis, who was nervous about doing this for the first time, did not realize that when she opened the villa's outer door and walked away in the light of the street lamps with her guitar in her arms...

Inside the villa, in what was originally her bedroom, a slender figure stood silently by the unlit window, golden eyes quietly watching her departing figure.

.................................................. ................

When Yuu Toyokawa returned to her residence, it was already past midnight.

Inserting the key into the lock, the boy turned the bolt and dragged his somewhat tired legs into this dwelling that could hardly be called a home, but was enough to settle him down.

Logically speaking, he shouldn't have gotten home so late.

Based on my usual itinerary, after getting off the train, I only need to call a taxi to get back to my accommodation quickly.

But now, Yuu Toyokawa prefers to rely on her own two legs rather than a taxi.

Sitting at the somewhat unfamiliar computer desk, Toyokawa Yuu turned on her personal computer and entered the website address of the online bank.

Earlier, downstairs at the agency, Yawata Kairin's worries were interrupted by Toyokawa Shoko, but Toyokawa Yuu still kept them in mind.

I had previously given away my share of the concert revenue and my salary as a manager, so barring any unforeseen circumstances, I should be in a state of earning nothing for the next month.

In the past, this would not have been a big deal. As someone personally trained by Toyokawa Sadaharu, the old man would not have stood by and watched him starve to death, and would naturally have paid him some living expenses every month.

But things are different now. She just argued with that old guy and explicitly refused to continue the mission of destroying Ave Mujica. Toyokawa Yuu doesn't think that old guy will be as magnanimous as before.

After all, he hadn't given Toyokawa Shoko any money directly for a year, so Toyokawa Yuu didn't think she could get better treatment from him than Shoko.

The likelihood of being forced to back down by cutting off supplies is actually greater.

Looking at the amount displayed on the computer screen, Toyokawa Yuu pinched the bridge of her nose, looking somewhat troubled.

I'm still a ways off from my wallet threatening to kill me, but I definitely need to be careful with my spending in the coming days. After deducting tomorrow's celebration dinner, and the likely continuation of taking Toyokawa Shoko to school and providing breakfast...

Toyokawa Yuu suddenly felt a little fortunate. She had arranged for Toyokawa Seigo to enter the Starlight Plaza shopping center. The company had its eye on Shoko's future power as the head of the Toyokawa family, and now they probably wouldn't be stingy with this extra expense.

Moreover, with Kiyoshi Toyokawa in charge, it remains to be seen whose surname Starlight Plaza will take in the future.

With her somewhat tired mind wandering into these nonsensical thoughts, Toyokawa Yuu suddenly heard a crisp knock on the door.

[Dongdongdong——]

The crisp sound was polite and rhythmic, but it aroused a sense of alertness in Yuu Toyokawa.

As the husband groomed by Toyokawa Sadaharu for Toyokawa Shoko, Toyokawa Yuu had a fairly simple social life before meeting Shoko.

After all, Toyokawa Sadaharu, who had been through it all, knew very well that no one wanted to be a caged bird. Even he himself went out to walk his bird when his wife passed away.

Therefore, Toyokawa Sadaharu used to strictly control Toyokawa Yuu's social interactions and life, precisely to prevent him from establishing his own network of relationships prematurely and running away.

According to that old man's plan, his ideal situation would probably be to know no one except Xiangzi and the business relationships he would later take over from him.

So, who's knocking on my door now? Could it be that old man, enraged, has sent someone to tie me up and take me back?

With a mix of doubts and wariness flashing through her mind, Toyokawa Yuu got up from her seat and walked toward the door.

What is meant to be will be; what is meant to be will be.

With a somewhat heavy heart, I opened the door, only to find not the layers of encirclement I had imagined.

A girl with long, light green hair stood in front of her door, holding a pink guitar in her arms. Her golden eyes looked at her expectantly, and she looked somewhat pitiful.

"Xiao Mu?"

Yuu Toyokawa was slightly taken aback when she saw Mutsuka Wakaba standing in front of her door. She had never expected that it would be Mutsuka Wakaba who knocked on her door.

Rather, it's more about how she knew where her home was and how she got there in the early hours of the morning.

"Mr. Youyu..."

When the door in front of him opened and the figure he was looking for appeared, Mortis was overjoyed.

Yuu Toyokawa did indeed write down the address that Ave Mujica members had recorded in their files, but what if the address they wrote wasn't the real one?

But with the appearance of Yuu Toyokawa, these doubts vanished instantly.

Grabbing Toyokawa Yuu's hand excitedly, Metis's behavior was nothing like Wakaba Mutsu's restraint and composure; he blurted out a plea for help.

"Mr. Yu, please help me escape..."

Chapter 91 You'll Stay Here With Me (7k5)

Toyokawa Yuu's residence was much simpler than Metis had imagined.

A bed, a table, a wardrobe, a computer on the table, and a few other electrical appliances—that's all there is.

There's only a small bathroom, but no kitchen. Next to the coffee table, there's just a sofa serving as a small living room, seamlessly connecting to the bedroom area where the bed is placed. Forget about having a second bedroom.

Compared to the small, shabby rented room where Toyokawa Shoko lived after moving out of the Toyokawa family home, the only thing worth praising here is that it is much cleaner. There is no longer the smell of alcohol that I could smell even when I was standing outside the door when I went to see Toyokawa Shoko.

But that has nothing to do with objective conditions; it's purely a difference caused by the residents' living habits.

Aside from that, it's not even spacious; at best, the layout is more comfortable, so you don't feel like you're living in a coffin.

It looks like an urn...

Sitting on the only sofa in the living room, Metis's golden eyes kept scanning Toyokawa Yuu's residence, and such thoughts subconsciously arose in his mind.

Admittedly, this place was quite different from what Metis had imagined.

She had originally thought that as Toyokawa Shoko's fiancé, who would be helping Shoko take over the Toyokawa family business, he would live in a more luxurious place.

Looking back now... it seems even less impressive than when Wakaba Mutsu went to the Toyokawa family to play with Toyokawa Shoko when they were kids, and the two of them accidentally wandered into the head of the family's study while playfully fighting.

It's more accurate to describe this place as a spacious rental rather than a single-person apartment.

So Mr. Yuyu isn't doing too well usually? It seems like I'm just causing him trouble.

Metis hugged the guitar in his arms tighter, his expression becoming somewhat uneasy.

I had always thought that Yuu Toyokawa always wore a suit and always acted very businesslike in the office, and seemed like a mature adult.

But now, sitting face-to-face with the boy on the sofa in Toyokawa Yuu’s house, Metis suddenly realized that the boy in front of him, who always handled everything properly, seemed to be the same age as him.

"So, Ms. Minami was going to send you to a mental hospital, but you ran away on your own, right, Mutsu?"

Dragging the chair from her computer desk to the sofa, Toyokawa Yuu looked at the somewhat awkward girl sitting opposite her, clutching her guitar, and took some time to process the information she had just brought.

This is getting a bit troublesome...

It was thought that Toyokawa Sadaharu would target Yutenji Wakana, who was more easily swayed by his interests, or Hatsune Miku, who could be blackmailed by him. Unexpectedly, he went straight for Wakaba Mutsumi.

Indeed, after all, compared to others, Wakaba Mutsuki's position in Toyokawa Shoko's heart is obviously more important.

If something were to happen to Wakaba Mutsumi, Toyokawa Shoko might cause the band to shut down completely, at least according to the information that Toyokawa Yuu gathered ten years later.

In contrast, the fact that Ruoye Mutsu ran to his house in the middle of the night with her guitar, asking him to help her escape, was not a problem at all.

After all, that kind of thing is indeed somewhat difficult to achieve.

Toyokawa Sadaharu knew perfectly well that he had taken Wakaba Mutsu out of school for half a day that afternoon.

If they were to actually take Wakaba Mutsu away from Tokyo, they would probably be stopped before they even got on the train.

Moreover, does Wakaba Mutsumi really want to leave Tokyo and leave Toyokawa Shoko?

The so-called escape when he first saw me was probably just a panicked outburst.

Moreover, the golden-eyed girl standing right in front of us might not even be Ruoye Mu.

Looking at the golden-eyed girl sitting on the sofa, somewhat uneasy and instinctively clutching her guitar, behaving more like a child, Toyokawa Yuu had already made a judgment in her mind.

When this "Wakaba Mutsumi" explained the situation to him just now, her voice was much more coherent than usual, and even her tone was more lively than that of the girl he was familiar with.

Most importantly, ever since she bought Ruoye Mutsu a new cell phone, she has never used the suffix "Mr" to refer to herself again.

“Yes, Minami said that I will have to stay there until Mr. Yuu and Xiangzi get married, and I won’t be able to meet you.”

Seeing that Yuu Toyokawa had finally broken the silence, Metis nodded eagerly, his golden eyes filled with anticipation.

"Please, Mr. Yu, help me. I'll do anything as long as I don't have to go to the hospital."

As he spoke, Metis even stood up from the sofa, somewhat excited.

If it weren't for the small coffee tables between them, which in most cases only serve a decorative purpose, Toyokawa Yuu even doubted whether she would have grabbed his wrist directly, just like before.

Looking at the unusually excited "Wakaba Mutsumi" in front of her, Toyokawa Yuu breathed a sigh of relief, not being swayed by her tense and helpless emotions.

The gaze directed at the golden-eyed girl showed no sympathy for the helpless girl; in fact, a hint of wariness lingered in those usually calm eyes.

"Before I help you, there's something I need to confirm first."

Gently walking around the coffee table, Toyokawa Yuu placed one hand on "Wakaba Mutsu's" shoulder, while her other hand unconsciously supported her lower back—the same spot where she had been pushed by that beautiful, golden-eyed woman who was skilled at acting when she fell from the building.

Suppressing the clamor within her, Toyokawa Yuu thought she had already endured this matter, and even if she couldn't forget it, she wouldn't show any more intense thoughts.

After all, whether it was discovering that a certain acting monster had temporarily replaced Wakaba Mutsu during the concert, or spending an afternoon with Wakaba Mutsu today, I didn't experience much additional negative emotion.

But now, being alone in a room with this performing monster in front of him, Toyokawa Yuu can't help but have some dark thoughts.

A certain... repressed, somewhat troublesome... aggressive urge.

Seeing the somewhat pitiful expression on "Wakaba Mutsu's" face, Toyokawa Yuu's heart was filled with alarm bells.

He wasn't sure how much of the girl's plea for help was genuine; after all, he had died once before because of her acting skills.

The hand on "Wakaba Mutsumi's" shoulder exerted a bit of force, forcibly pressing the girl, who didn't have much of a desire to resist, back onto the sofa. Toyokawa Yuu's expression was a little stiff.

"You...you're not Xiao Mu, are you? Since this afternoon, she hasn't addressed me with the word 'sir' anymore."

"I......"

Hearing Yuu Toyokawa's somewhat cold and hard tone, Metis became even more uneasy as he sat on the sofa.

Yes, Mr. Yu Yu knew that Xiao Mu had more than one personality, but he only knew Yu Mu before and was unaware of his own existence.

What should I do? Should I admit it?

But Mr. Yuyu only has a good relationship with Xiaomu. If he were to treat me, would he still be as gentle as he was with Xiaomu this afternoon?

Various thoughts flashed through his mind, but Metis eventually nodded slowly.

“My name is Metis. From a very young age, I have been chatting with Xiaomu, playing with dolls, and helping Xiaomu bear the pain she doesn’t want to bear.”

At this point, Metis, who was holding a guitar, pursed his lips, inadvertently revealing a hint of reluctance.

However, this did not stop Metis, who had finally been able to get some fresh air, from making his own noise.

From childhood to adulthood, she had always lived in the spiritual world of Wakaba Mutsu. Apart from Wakaba Mutsu, she had never talked to anyone like she was now.

Taking this opportunity, she naturally wanted to experience what it felt like to "live" in this world, within the limits of Wakaba Mutsu's permission.

"This afternoon, Xiao Mu and Mr. You Yu skipped class to go out and play. She was very happy. She has always been well-behaved and accommodating to Xiang Zi. She hasn't felt so relaxed in a long time."

Unlike Wakaba Mutsumi, who is indifferent, sparing with words, and often makes statements that are easily misinterpreted, Metis is much more eloquent, perhaps because of his extroverted personality. He not only speaks very logically, but his tone is also much more lively.

"But after a brief period of happiness, pain followed... Xiao Mu didn't want to leave the band, but she didn't want to be a disobedient bad kid, so I appeared."

At this point, Metis puffed out his cheeks indignantly, like a child whose toys had been taken away by their parents.

"The adults are going too far. They just went out to play for a while and they want to lock us up. I really had no other choice but to ask Mr. Yu Yu for help... Mr. Yu Yu, you will help me, right?"

With pitiful eyes, the golden eyes looked at Toyokawa Yuu before him. Metis reached out and gently pinched the boy's sleeve, as if grasping at the last straw.