Murder At The Rainy Mansion ~The Never Ending 100 Tales~

Chapter 66: Precipitated memories – Flashback Part 4

Chizuru’s birthplace was a big shrine in Tohoku region and her family was a distant relative of the Sudo family. She met Akito when Kengo brought him along and that was when she fell in love with him.

From middle school to high school, Chizuru was totally head over heels about Akito. Unfortunately, Akito’s future bride was already decided since he was young by Natsu and her father. Chizuru was unable to give up on her feeling for Akito, so she went to a college near the Rainy Mansion after graduating from high school.

After graduating from college, she went to visit the Rainy Mansion to bid farewell. At that time, she planned to leave this place and gave up on her relationship with Akito.

However, Kengo had said to her, “You have such a strong spiritual power. There are too many spirits in this Rainy Mansion. I was hoping that you could help to guard this place and take care of those troublesome ghosts.” Most likely he had said those words after considering her lingering affection and relationship with Akito.

Chizuru honestly didn’t know whether she had made a good decision to stay at the mansion back then. Considering Akito was currently already engaged, there was nothing left to say. She stared at Akito’s handsome face while immersed in those thoughts.

After staring at his face for a while, Chizuru noticed that he kind of resembled Satoshi a little bit. Following that train of thoughts, Chizuru wondered if Satoshi would turn out like the man in front of her if he had the same strong passion as Akito.

While she was deep in her thought, Akito suddenly pulled her into his arms. For a brief moment, she contemplated on what to do but the next moment Akito suddenly pulled her close and kissed her lips.

She kept her eyes open and watched the toilet door that was left open in her line of sights. She recalled the question that crossed her mind earlier.

Can Satoshi-san see what is going on through the open door? If he sees me like this, what will he think of me? Chizuru asked herself inwardly.

“I can’t live without you. I’m going to leave this place. Chizuru, come with me.”

Although she had been in love with Akito for years, when she looked at his face close to hers now, all she could think of was Satoshi.

She realized that their casual chat and Satoshi’s gentle smile had comforted her heart when she was hurting due to her relationship with Akito. That Satoshi – the man who was detached and wouldn’t come out from his own world, the man who was here but at the same time was not here.

His life was nearing its end but the personality named Satoshi still hadn’t realize it yet. Chizuru let Akito hugged and kissed her while regretting for not being born 50 years earlier.

* * *

It was such a good dream.

Unlike the suffocatingly quiet reality, Kengo felt he could be free in his dreams. Although, there wasn’t anything in particular that he was dissatisfied about his current life actually.

He believed he didn’t worth to be in his current position. Being the master of the Rainy Mansion albeit in name only, he was able to satisfied his parents’ wish before they died. His parents had been worried about him for being a loner in life, so he was truly relieved to be able to perform filial piety before it was too late.

Kengo didn’t hate his wife, Natsu. He had known her since she was a student. Although she was cheeky, Kengo felt she was cute. She was a person of well-balanced character. She always prioritized her family’s future instead of her own desire and getting married to Kengo was one of the proofs.

Natsu’s previous husband was a handsome man and a competent person. Unfortunately, he embezzled her company’s fund and even had an affair with their female worker. Natsu had always treated him coldly, so he pushed all the blame on her and left.

Kengo was angry when he found out about the matter and felt sorry for Natsu. But after he became her husband, he finally realized how that man must have felt. He firmly believed that Natsu didn’t love him and she married him just for the sake of her family business.

When Kengo was told to marry Natsu, he felt so terrified that he went to hide in the toilet and ended up fainting due to heat stroke. It seemed both him and Natsu were not good people after all.

What Kengo really hate was not Natsu, but the heavy responsibility that came along with the status of master of the Rainy Mansion.

When he regained his consciousness that day, he saw Natsu looking down at him with a pale face. It seemed he had hurt her pride. Looking at her strong-willed appearance, he couldn’t help but felt like running away.

But eventually, they stayed together till old age. One of them spent their whole life with envy while the other one spent their whole life with pity.

Kengo spent his lonely life hiding inside the mansion with no freedom and without love from his wife. Although his life was different from what he had imagined when he was young, he still felt satisfied with it.

When he closed his eyes, he imagined a far away world that he had never been to before. Even now, he felt like he was traveling in an underground world looking for ruins and treasure.

He was satisfied with this life. He thought he had led quite a good life. It was peaceful with nothing that could upset him. However—

Something interrupted Kengo’s thought as he stopped his foot. He heard a lovely laughing female voice from behind the sliding door. Through the transparent paper screen, he could see two shadows sitting close to each other. He could guess who they were even without opening the door.

It was Toru and that young woman… Chizuru.

Kengo knew he should walk away. Although the hallway was dark and the person inside wouldn’t be able to see his shadow, if they noticed him then they might think that he was eavesdropping.

The sliding door was slightly ajar. He had the urge to slide the door open and take a peek inside. But what would happen if he opened the door? It was not like he could scold the couple when they were just chatting around.

Kengo knew that Toru liked Chizuru. But in the end, Toru still chose to be with his current wife. Although, he married another woman simply because he got dumped by Chizuru.

And the reason Chizuru rejected Toru was because she still loved Akito – even after Akito married another woman because he couldn’t bring himself to betray his family. Either way, Kengo couldn’t care less about his grandkids’ love affair.

But he still couldn’t walk away. He was still fighting the urge to slam open the door. In his mind, he imagined he kicked the door open. And the person in his imagination was his younger self and not his old current self.

Kengo didn’t know why he felt like there was a young self who still had dreams and hopes for the future in his current old self who should have calmed down completely. When he came to his senses, he realized his shaky hand was already on the door. He hurriedly pulled back his hand. He used his other hand to grab his wrist so that it wouldn’t move again.

At that moment, his eyes inadvertently met another person’s gaze, leaving him startled. Through the slightly ajar door, his eyes met with Chizuru’s.

Chizuru was staring straight at him. Kengo stood still. It was not like he had done anything improper, so he could simply say that he accidentally heard them.

Toru was a married man with kids. People are gossiping about him having an affair with Chizuru. In this situation, the person who should be feeling guilty was them, not Kengo. He could say that he was here to warn them. But somehow, he was unable to move.

The next moment, Toru stopped talking. After a while, he called Chizuru’s name and pushed back her loose wavy hair that fell on her cheek.

Kengo rather not watch if he couldn’t stop them. But he still was unable to move his legs. Chizuru was still staring at him while letting Toru kissed her.

At that moment, Kengo heard a squeaky sound as someone stepped on the wooden floor. Under the moonlight, he saw Akito’s pale and expressionless face.

Although his wife and kid lives here in the Rainy Mansion, Akito rarely returned home due to his busy work. Akito stood motionless in the hallway. Even though he didn’t actually take a peek inside, it was easy to imagine what was happening inside the room.

“Grandpa, please let me go through,” Akito said in a clear voice.

Kengo was afraid the people inside the room might have heard Akito’s voice. His heart was beating furiously.

When Kengo moved aside, Akito simply walked past without touching the door. Kengo watched his retreating figure that looked full of anger. It somehow made him felt jealous. He was jealous that his grandson could be honest with his feeling and being able to get angry with Toru and Chizuru.

Kengo knew he wasn’t young anymore. Everything that happened was surreal like something from books and dramas. He convinced himself that was so.