quiet talk #7: Blushing Wolf / ep.2
I’m Saikawa Hifumi. I’m a singer-songwriter.
For some reason, my neighbour, Kurosu Kotone, knocked on my front door and dragged me along to a strange garden of women with no apparent common ground between them.
Given that my communication skills are notoriously dysfunctional, all I can do is let the women’s conversation wash over me.
Incidentally, one must never, under any circumstances, nod along at times like these. If they misunderstand that you’re actually listening, they start asking for sympathy and opinions.
I am air in this room.
I don’t want to converse.
I don’t want to exchange opinions.
And I certainly don’t want anyone to empathise with me.
――But let’s put my own story aside.
Tonight, I am the game master of a game of Werewolf.
An observer of these noisy women.
＊
“Come to think of it, has everyone played Werewolf before? Rinko-chan follows my Instagram, so she probably knows, but…”
“I’ve only heard the name.”
“Because you don’t have any friends to play Werewolf with.”
The sofa was arranged in a U-shape, with two people seated on each side. Presumably, the six women had paired off with their respective partners.
From where I stood in the gap of the U, the arrangement from left to right was Mikoto and Shandy, Kotone and Rinko, then Sanae and Toko.
“Hands up if you know the rules.”
Following Kotone’s prompt, three hands went up: Rinko, Toko, and Kotone herself.
Running a Werewolf game with beginners is troublesome. When someone doesn’t know the procedure, it creates more opportunities for me to speak.
“Explain it to them, Hifumi.”
See? Trouble.
I decided to finish the explanation in as few steps as possible.
《In the Werewolf game we are about to play, the objective is to reason out the identity of the monsters known as 【Werewolves】, who pretend to be human during the day and transform into wolves that devour humans at night, and execute them.》
I then explained the role cards laid out on the table.
The 【Werewolf】 attacks a 【Villager】 during the night phase. Its victory condition is to survive until the number of 【Villagers】 is equal to or fewer than the number of Werewolves. In a six-player game, that means surviving until only two players remain, including itself.
The 【Villager】 has no special abilities. Its victory condition is to eliminate the 【Werewolf】.
The 【Seer】 is a 【Villager】 with the ability to investigate whether any player is a 【Werewolf】. Its victory condition is the same as the 【Villager】’s.
The 【Hunter】 is a 【Villager】 with the ability to protect any player from a Werewolf attack. Its victory condition is also the same as the 【Villager】’s.
The 【Madman】 is classified as a 【Villager】, but is on the Werewolf’s side. Its victory condition is the same as the 【Werewolf】’s.
I paused and looked over the faces of those who didn’t know the rules: Mikoto, Shandy, and Sanae.
They all wore expressions that said they understood.
Or perhaps they didn’t.
“Sanae, do you more or less understand?”
“…Yes. I understand that the thought process changes according to one’s role. The 【Werewolf】 obviously needs to keep her identity concealed, but the 【Seer】 and 【Hunter】, who possess abilities, should also conceal their identities as much as possible.”
“Yes. Otherwise the wolves will target them first.”
“…I see?”
The two beginners, Sanae and Shandy, seemed to understand even the standard strategies associated with each role.
Perhaps they were naturally good at this sort of psychological warfare.
For example, suppose I were the 【Werewolf】.
The Werewolf must not let her identity be discovered. Once it is known, she will be voted out and lose the game. Therefore, while pretending to be a 【Villager】 herself, she must cast suspicion of being a Werewolf onto anyone whose actions are disadvantageous to her.
There are standard strategies like this for each role.
Of the six, only Mikoto still seemed to have question marks floating around her head.
But if only one person didn’t understand, perhaps it would be faster simply to play.
《Now, draw a role card and declare, “I am a Villager.”》
――Let the Werewolf game begin.
The role cards were shuffled and placed face down. Each player chose one, looked at it, and then declared, “I am a Villager.”
Obviously, if anyone became visibly flustered at this stage, there would be no game to play.
Everyone wore what appeared to be a poker face.
At this point, even I, the game master, had no idea who held which role.
That would become clear during the first night phase.
《Night has fallen. Everyone, close your eyes and go to sleep.》
At my instruction, all six closed their eyes.
I checked for any traitors peeking through half-open eyelids, then began the first round of processing.
First, the 【Werewolf】.
《The 【Werewolf】, please wake up.》
The one who opened her eyes was Sanae.
Her poker face didn’t so much as twitch.
Considering how quickly she had digested the rules I had just explained, she was probably very quick-witted.
I confirmed her role, put Sanae back to sleep, and moved on to the 【Seer】 and the first divination.
《Next, the 【Seer】. Please wake up and point to the person you wish to divine.》
The one who opened her eyes was Rinko.
She seemed to know the rules, but there was a trace of fear on her face.
The 【Seer】, who can determine whether another player is black or white, is a role that naturally accumulates information.
Perhaps she lacked confidence in logic puzzles.
Rinko pointed at Shandy.
The 【Werewolf】 was Sanae, so the divination had come up empty.
I drew the character for “person” in the air and silently mouthed per-son.
Rinko closed her eyes, looking disappointed.
――Their observation of one another is interesting.
As a special exception, I decided to reveal the remaining roles to myself as well.
《There are three players who have never played before. I’ll check the remaining roles too.》
I woke each of them in turn and confirmed their roles.
The result was as follows.
【Werewolf】: Sanae
【Villager】: Mikoto, Toko
【Seer】: Rinko
【Hunter】: Kotone
【Madman】: Shandy
Sanae and Shandy, both beginners but seemingly quick thinkers, were on the Werewolf side.
Mikoto was also a beginner, and seemed slow on the uptake, but she was on the larger Villager side, alongside several experienced players.
A reasonably balanced arrangement.
《Dawn has come. Everyone, open your eyes and begin the discussion.》
――Time to deduce.
“So. Anyone want to confess that they’re actually the 【Werewolf】? Sis, it’s not you, right?”
“Even if I were, I wouldn’t tell you…”
The conversation began with Kotone’s utterly ineffective attempt at fishing for information.
Everyone had their expressions under control, but inwardly they were consumed by mutual suspicion.
The 【Werewolf】 Sanae in particular was studying each person’s face in turn.
The eyes of a hungry beast.
“Looks like the 【Seer】 is staying hidden. Did your first divination miss?”
“Yes. If the result of a divination is meaningless, it would be wiser to remain silent than reveal one’s identity.”
“If I were the 【Seer】, Charlotte would be the first person I’d suspect.”
Riding on Toko and Sanae’s conversation, the 【Seer】 Rinko played it cool as though it had nothing to do with her.
Rinko was concerned about Shandy, but the result of her divination had been white.
Shandy’s actual role was 【Madman】.
“Oh, thank you. So I was the wolf?”
“That’s only if I were to divine you. Either way, you’d be the first person I’d hang.”
“I agree with Shirai-san.”
“Grrr.”
Despite Rinko and Sanae openly declaring that they wanted to hang her first, the 【Madman】 Shandy deliberately played the fool.
Perhaps this was simply what she was like normally.
“Surely the 【Hunter】 exists to protect the 【Seer】? Wouldn’t it be safer for the Seer to reveal herself?”
“Yeah! Come out, 【Seer】! The mighty 【Hunter】 will protect you!”
An opening move from Shandy and the 【Hunter】 Kotone.
But Rinko did not reveal herself.
The six players froze, wearing faint smiles or poker faces, all waiting to see how everyone else would act.
No one was gaining any information.
The problem was the beginner Mikoto, who had not said a single word.
“Hehe, Mikoto? If you don’t say anything, people will suspect you. Maybe you’re the wolf.”
“I-I’m not!”
“You’re panicking rather badly. Suspicious.”
Werewolf is, at its heart, a game of lying.
Anyone incapable of concealing what they truly think is simply unsuited to it.
From where I was standing, the two whose poker faces were most precarious were Mikoto and Rinko.
Sanae maintained a stony expression as though her facial muscles had died.
Kotone and Shandy wore aggressive smiles.
And Toko, perhaps because she was a 【Villager】 and therefore had nothing to lose, simply smiled happily.
“So, Sis. Who do you think the Werewolf is? Give us some beginner’s luck.”
“…Kotone?”
“Correct. I haven’t told you this, Sis, but I’m actually the 【Werewolf】.”
“Then I’m the 【Werewolf】 too! I’m gonna eat Sanae!”
“Hehe. What a loving couple.”
The experienced Kotone and Toko were stirring up the room despite both having been confirmed as Villagers.
This place was naturally crawling with Madmen.
It was guaranteed to descend into chaos.
“Who do you think the 【Werewolf】 is, Sanae-san?”
At Mikoto’s question, the 【Werewolf】 Sanae slowly opened her mouth.
“I have absolutely no idea. But the person I’d like to eliminate early is that blonde woman over there.”
“Shandy Sis does seem like she’d be good at this kind of thing.”
“Aww. I want to play some more.”
Perhaps her usual behaviour had finally come back to bite her.
The momentum was turning towards hanging Shandy.
Rinko opened her mouth as though about to say something, then stopped herself.
From the 【Seer】 Rinko’s perspective, Shandy was white.
She shouldn’t be hanged.
“Wait. Actually, like Mikoto-san said, don’t you think Kotone is suspicious?”
Rinko spoke.
Sanae’s eyebrow twitched.
Perhaps she found it strange that Rinko had interrupted the momentum towards Shandy’s execution.
More importantly, Rinko’s statement contradicted what she herself had said earlier about hanging Shandy first.
A bad move.
“Come on. No idiot would actually say, ‘I’m the Werewolf.’”
“That’s exactly why! Maybe you’re trying to throw us off by saying it!”
“It was a joke! Come on, Rinko-chan, cheer up.”
“Don’t touch me! No contact!”
The situation remained largely unchanged, with everyone continuing to probe one another.
The time limit for the daytime phase was approaching.
《Now for the interim vote. Choose the person you believe should be executed.》
At the cry of “Ready, set—go!”, all six pointed at once.
2 votes: Kotone ← Mikoto, Rinko
2 votes: Shandy ← Sanae, Kotone
2 votes: Sanae ← Shandy, Toko
As expected, the votes were split.
Kotone, who had been accused of being the Werewolf, spoke first.
“Hang on. I was joking! You’re not supposed to take that seriously.”
“Then explain your reasoning to your big sister.”
“Only now you want to act like my big sister? Fine, then…”
The 【Hunter】 is a role that is almost never supposed to reveal itself.
Because of how troublesome its ability is, once its identity is known, it becomes the obvious target.
In other words, the standard strategy for the 【Hunter】 is to side with someone suspected of being the 【Werewolf】 and convince them that you are a useful person to keep alive.
So by observing whom Kotone chose to side with, it was possible to determine whom she suspected of being the Werewolf.
“Honestly, I kinda want to hang Shandy Sis. I can never tell what she’s thinking.”
Kotone did not change her decision in the interim vote.
That meant Kotone suspected Shandy, whom she had voted for, and Sanae, who had also voted for Shandy, of being the Werewolves.
From Kotone’s perspective, both were enemies.
A good read.
“Well, I can understand wanting to do something about Shandy-san…”
“Mikoto believed me, didn’t she?”
“Reality and games are different.”
“Quite. We should punish anyone who seems suspicious. Charlotte it is.”
Sanae’s statement brought the momentum back towards hanging Shandy.
The Werewolf’s job was to place suspicion of being the Werewolf onto someone else.
But Rinko, who had been silently watching the exchange, knew the truth.
Shandy was the 【Madman】, but she was not the 【Werewolf】.
She was confirmed white.
Perhaps unwilling to allow a pointless sacrifice, Rinko cut straight through the momentum.
“Charlotte is a 【Villager】. Though she could be the 【Madman】.”
Rinko had effectively revealed her role.
With a 【Hunter】 in play, she had presumably judged that the 【Seer】 would be protected for at least one turn.
The situation changed dramatically.
“Rinko-chan, are you saying you’re the 【Seer】?”
“Yes! Come on, isn’t anyone going to claim otherwise!?”
The 【Werewolf】 Sanae and the 【Madman】 Shandy stared at Rinko.
Their gazes were sharp.
They both understood that a solo claim by the 【Seer】 worked against them.
Rinko had chosen to reveal herself despite the risk.
That meant the other players were more likely to trust her claim.
She had effectively seized control of the game.
And that was where Kotone found herself in trouble.
After all, the person who had seized control, Rinko, was suspicious of none other than Kotone herself.
The person Kotone was supposed to protect was now the first to suspect her.
Irony.
“Hehe. Apparently I’m an innocent 【Villager】. What a shame, Sanae-san. Kotone-san?”
No one had stepped forward to claim the 【Seer】 role, making Shandy’s words more credible.
And as her credibility increased, so too did the likelihood that the Werewolf would target her.
Let us organise the situation.
Rinko was highly likely to be the 【Seer】, while Shandy remained potentially the 【Madman】.
If so, the 【Werewolf】 Sanae’s first target should be Rinko.
The 【Hunter】 Kotone, even without knowing who the Werewolf was, would also move to protect Rinko.
But that was only if she survived the daytime execution.
Sanae and Kotone, the two directly involved, exchanged glances.
Neither could afford to be hanged.
They were at a deadlock.
At that point, Toko, who had been watching the situation, spoke.
“Actually, I’m a 【Villager】. So if you can’t decide, you can hang me. You can use the next phase to work things out.”
The fundamental rule of Werewolf is survival.
But sometimes a 【Villager】 appears who takes an action completely contrary to that principle.
Since no role other than 【Villager】 would normally volunteer to be hanged, Toko’s credibility instantly skyrocketed by contradiction.
“Then I’ll go with Toko-san. Sorry.”
Kotone moved her vote.
“It is regrettable, but unavoidable.”
Sanae moved hers too.
“Then let us consider it a noble sacrifice.”
“…Yeah. That’s probably the right choice for now.”
Shandy and Rinko moved their votes to Toko as well.
Mikoto, who had completely failed to keep up with the development, apparently decided to read the room and pointed at Toko too.
The daytime execution was decided.
《Then Toko-san will be executed. Any final deductions you would like to leave behind?》
“Let’s see…”
Toko groaned thoughtfully before speaking.
“I reckon the 【Werewolf】 is probably Sanae or Kotone-san. They talked a lot.
“And if we trust what Rinko-san said, Shandy-san is probably the 【Hunter】 or 【Madman】.
“Because I’m a 【Villager】, and Kurosu-san, who’s barely said anything, is probably a 【Villager】 too.”
Toko’s deductions were correct.
Her insight was remarkable for someone who had appeared to spend the entire game cheerfully watching events unfold.
The Villager side was about to lose a valuable player.
“I see…”
Long after Toko had finished speaking, the 【Villager】 Mikoto finally muttered as though she understood.
She seemed utterly unsuited to this game.
《Time. Toko-san has been executed.》
“I love you, Sanae! Aaand… collapse.”
With an exaggerated declaration of love, the sage Toko left the game.
At last, the night phase began.
《Night has fallen. Those still alive, please close your eyes.》
The five surviving players, excluding Toko, closed their eyes.
For Toko, the answer-checking had begun early.
《First, the 【Seer】. Please open your eyes and point to the person you wish to divine.》
Rinko opened her eyes.
She and Toko exchanged glances and smiled at each other.
Perhaps she was pleased that her prediction had been correct.
Immediately afterwards, Rinko hesitated before pointing at Kotone.
The 【Seer】 had missed again.
Seeing the sign indicating 【Villager】, Rinko closed her eyes in disappointment.
《Next, the 【Hunter】. Please open your eyes and point to the person you wish to protect.》
Kotone opened her eyes and, once again, exchanged a smile with Toko.
As before, there was something strangely embarrassing about sharing a secret.
The 【Hunter】 Kotone pointed at Rinko.
Judging from the situation, she had decided that the highest priority was Rinko, who was highly likely to be the 【Seer】.
Toko was wriggling with excitement.
Perhaps the combination of Kotone and Rinko had caught her imagination.
《Finally, the 【Werewolf】. Please open your eyes and point to the person you wish to attack.》
Sanae opened her eyes and looked at Toko with an awkward expression.
Toko watched her consider whom to devour with a cheerful smile from beginning to end.
A loving wife-wife couple.
Sanae pointed at the person she would attack.
Not Rinko.
Kotone, the 【Hunter】 protecting Rinko.
She had abandoned the standard strategy and gambled.
And the result was Sanae’s victory.
《…Morning has come. As everyone opens their eyes—》
I announced the results of the night to the five surviving players.
《—Kotone-san has been found in a gruesome state.》
“Seriously? Guhhh.”
Following Kotone’s groan, Rinko’s eyes widened.
Her surprise was easy enough to understand.
By revealing that she was the 【Seer】, she should have been almost certain to be protected by the 【Hunter】.
But the 【Werewolf】 had abandoned the standard strategy.
At this point, from Rinko’s perspective, the 【Werewolf】 had to be either Sanae or Mikoto.
“Rinko-san, what was the result of your divination?”
“Ah, um…”
Rinko hesitated at Mikoto’s question.
After all, Mikoto might be the 【Werewolf】.
But Shandy took advantage of that hesitation and spoke.
“Rinko-san, don’t you think it’s time to stop lying? I’m the real 【Seer】.”
“What!?”
The 【Madman】 makes her move.
Rinko’s anger was entirely justified.
A fake 【Seer】 claim at this stage was too late to be effective, but if Shandy didn’t make her move now, she had no chance of winning.
Shandy smiled.
And told a magnificent lie.
“Let me announce the result of my earlier divination. The wolf is Rinko-san.”
“No, I’m not! I’m the real 【Seer】! You’re the 【Madman】, aren’t you!?”
“Then why don’t you prove your innocence?”
“Quite. I would like to hear the evidence supporting your claim to be the 【Seer】.”
Incredibly, Rinko, despite being the actual 【Seer】, had been branded the Werewolf.
If she could not prove her innocence here, the outcome of the game was uncertain.
“But that makes no sense!? I admitted I was the 【Seer】 and Charlotte stayed quiet! For you to say this only now means you’re obviously lying!”
“That doesn’t constitute evidence. I might simply have been letting the fake 【Seer】 run free.”
“I’m the real one!”
“Hehe. Says you.”
“You…!”
Apparently, Rinko and Shandy were not on good terms outside the game.
They were bringing that relationship into the game itself.
When people play Werewolf among friends, their everyday relationships can easily produce developments that disregard logic entirely.
Rinko, visibly furious and practically snapping, was probably unsuited to this game too.
Her reasoning was somewhat short-sighted.
“I also believe Shirai-san is the 【Werewolf】. If you really were the 【Seer】, you should have been the first person targeted by the Werewolf. Yet you are still alive. Why is that?”
The 【Werewolf】 Sanae also launched a bluff.
Of course, Sanae had not targeted Rinko because Rinko was almost certain to be protected by the 【Hunter】.
She had immediately seized upon the fact that she had deliberately left Rinko alive during the night phase and used it to reinforce a lie.
Elegant.
“Why? Because the 【Werewolf】 didn’t target me!?”
“Or you could look at it this way. Rinko-san is still alive precisely because she is the 【Werewolf】.
“Incidentally, I divined Kotone-san on the first night. The result was 【Villager】, but Kotone-san is probably the 【Madman】.”
“Exactly.”
Sanae had probably realised that Shandy was the 【Madman】.
At the same time, Shandy had realised that Sanae was the true 【Werewolf】.
Of the four surviving players, two of them, the entire Werewolf faction, now knew everyone’s roles.
All they had to do was pin the blame on someone else and prove their own innocence.
The only players who did not know the identities of the others were Rinko and Mikoto, the two remaining members of the Villager side.
“Stop lying, both of you!? Sanae-san is the 【Werewolf】 and Charlotte is the 【Madman】, right!?”
“What do you think, Kurosu-san?”
Sanae sought Mikoto’s judgement.
The key to victory for the Werewolf side was in the hands of Mikoto, a player with no aptitude whatsoever for this game.
Let us organise the situation once more.
There were now two possibilities presented to Mikoto.
One was to believe Rinko.
The 【Werewolf】 was Sanae, and the 【Madman】 was Shandy.
That was the truth.
The other was to believe the Werewolf side.
The 【Werewolf】 was Rinko, and the 【Madman】 was Kotone, who had already been devoured.
That was a complete lie.
“Hmm… If I believe Shandy-san’s divination, then Rinko-san is the 【Werewolf】?”
“No, Mikoto-san!? Believe me!”
Sanae, skilled at reasoning things through logically, spoke up.
“Kurosu-san, think back. Don’t you think there was something strange about Kotone-san’s behaviour? Particularly the way she apologised after upsetting Shirai-san.”
“Er… yes. I suppose I did think, if she was going to do something like that, she shouldn’t have claimed to be the 【Werewolf】 in the first place…”
“Don’t you think Kotone-san was trying to make Rinko-san realise that she was the 【Madman】, meaning an ally? That is how I would interpret it.”
“Is that true, Kotone?”
Mikoto was the very picture of an amateur.
You weren’t supposed to ask a dead player for confirmation.
Kotone merely smiled vacantly and went to collect the food she had ordered through Uber and had delivered to the front entrance.
“Incidentally, I was hiding my identity, but I’m the 【Hunter】. Which means that, at present, there are three players on the Villager side and one on the Werewolf side. We have the numerical advantage.”
“No, no, no, no! That’s obviously a lie! Don’t believe her, Mikoto-san!?”
“At this point, it comes down to which of us you believe, doesn’t it? Rinko-san or me. Hehe.”
“Ugh…”
Mikoto fell silent, unable to decide.
Apparently the relationships between these people were complicated.
But Sanae and Shandy were extraordinarily good liars.
For example, Sanae had taken advantage of the fact that she had left Rinko alive and turned it into an argument that Rinko was the Werewolf, which was why she had survived.
They had taken Kotone’s attempts to protect Rinko and reframed them as the actions of a 【Madman】 ingratiating herself with the Werewolf.
The Werewolf side was selectively extracting conversations that suited them and using them as evidence for their lies.
To Mikoto, it must have made even Rinko’s claim to be the 【Seer】 seem doubtful.
《Time. Vote for the person you believe is the 【Werewolf】.》
The two liars pointed at Rinko without hesitation.
Rinko pointed at Sanae.
Mikoto’s finger moved back and forth between Sanae and Rinko.
“Mikoto-san!? Don’t believe anything that woman says!”
“You promised me you’d trust me, Mikoto.”
“Sis, hurry up and decide. The food’s getting cold.”
“I know! But I can’t decide!”
I was hungry too.
I wished she would hurry up.
“Kurosu-san. If you trust me, I can make things considerably more convenient for you at work in the future.”
“Then I could give you a discount on the cover charge at my bar.”
“Ugh… That’s awfully tempting…”
The two women’s inducements seemed extremely difficult for Mikoto to resist.
Desperate, Mikoto’s finger moved towards Rinko.
“That’s cheating! You’re bringing things into the game that have nothing to do with it!”
“Then why don’t you put something on the table too, Rinko-chan?”
“Oh! How about you give Kurosu-san a massage?”
Meanwhile, Kotone and Toko were getting excited over what Rinko could put up as her wager.
Apparently Rinko was good at massage.
Perhaps she was a professional bodyworker of some sort.
Rinko seemed to make up her mind.
Her eyes hardened, and she shouted, half furious:
“If you choose me, I’ll give you a full-body massage! I’m confident I can do it! I’ll make your body and your heart melt, Mikoto-san!”
“P-please don’t make me melt!”
Mikoto’s mind seemed made up.
The game ended anticlimactically.
Led astray by the lies, Mikoto ended up taking Rinko out.
《Then Rinko-san will be executed. Night has fallen. Please go to sleep.》
“Aaaaaaaahhhhh!?”
Rinko’s scream rang through the room.
But the only person who closed her eyes was Mikoto.
The winners of the Werewolf game, Sanae and Shandy, certain of their victory, stared at each other with eerie smiles plastered across their faces.
――These two are better kept as allies.
As I processed the turns for the now-absent 【Seer】 and 【Hunter】, I quietly came to that conclusion.
《Now, 【Werewolf】. If you are present, please point to the person you wish to attack.》
Sanae naturally pointed at Mikoto.
Immediately afterwards, Shandy bit Mikoto on the ear.
“Eek!?”
Mikoto screamed.
The outcome had been decided.
《Morning has come. With only two players remaining, including the 【Werewolf】, the Werewolf side wins.》
Mikoto curled up on the sofa.
Everyone except Rinko, who had managed to blow herself up as well, laughed at her.
“Hehe. I knew you’d believe me, right, Sanae-san?”
“Indeed. Though the game ultimately came down to context.”
“I’m starting to think I can’t trust either of you…”
“I can’t trust you, Mikoto-san!?”
Kotone was cackling, while Toko, already getting ahead of her, began arranging food and alcohol across the table.
Pizza and fried chicken appearing at this hour was entirely Kotone’s doing.
A hearty late-night feast.
“Right then, cheers!”
At Kotone’s toast, the after-party finally began in earnest.
I had no idea what these six women had in common. I had known them for less than an hour.
But even so, I had more or less grasped the relationships between them.
That was more than enough.
“Thanks, Hifumi. You had fun, right?”
At Kotone’s question, I gave a small nod.
“…Yes.”
The invisible threads binding these women together would make excellent material for my songwriting.
――Delicious women.
“Wolf Sanae was so cute! But if anything, I would’ve rather been eaten by Sanae!”
“…I see.”
“Oh, my. You’re getting shy in front of your wife?”
“Shandy Sis is just as bad, isn’t she? Right, future wife?”
“No comment! And Rinko-san, I’m sorry!”
“…I might consider forgiving you if you let me give you a massage.”
The six women launched into a noisy feast of food, alcohol, and conversation, each doing their part to make the room come alive.
It looked like it was going to be a long night.
Tonight, I thought I would enjoy myself by making these women my drinking companion.