How to raise a random guy's wife

"What's wrong?" Kato Megumi asked softly.

“It’s a really cute video,” Kobayashi Sora showed to Kato Megumi. In the video, a blonde, blue-eyed girl was wearing a costume of an isopod. She looked a little troubled, but still managed to force a smile as she swayed and hummed and danced. “But from the person in question, it’s probably a dark history.”

Isopoda~ Isopoda~ Isopoda~ Isopoda~

Kobayashi Sora's gaze was far-reaching; using this dark history as leverage, it wouldn't be difficult to get Heian Sumire to join.

-

"Kobayashi is right, this really works!" Shibuya Kanon grabbed her phone and ran out of the school.

Where is Ping An Ming Jin? She just got out of school not long ago, she shouldn't have gone far, it seems to be in this direction... Found her!

"Peaceful and well-known student!"

"Hmm?" Heian Naoki turned her head. She had already said she was going to quit, so why was Shibuya Kanon still coming to find her?

"This!" Shibuya Kanon held up her phone. "This is you, right?"

Isopoda~ Isopoda~ Isopoda~ Isopoda~

Looking at herself on the screen, Heian Mingjin's face turned grim at a visible speed. "You saw it!"

"Huh?" Shibuya Kanon was completely enveloped by Heian Sumire's shadow. This... was not what she had expected!

-

"So," Kato Megumi looked away from the screen, "you want Shibuya to use this to threaten Heian-mei?"

“It wasn’t a difficult thing to begin with.” Kobayashi Sora nodded. “Besides, Heian Sumire herself wants to be in the spotlight. Even if she’s not in the center position, joining the school idol group can fulfill her wish.”

“I see…” Kato paused for a moment, “I don’t think things will turn out the way you imagine.”

"Hmm?" Kobayashi Sora raised an eyebrow. "Otherwise, how could Shibuya-kun be defeated?"

-

"Hmm..." Shibuya Kanon slowly opened her eyes. "Where am I...? Wait! What's going on?"

She tried to move her body, but she was completely strapped to the chair.

The lights suddenly came on, and Shibuya Kanon let out a terrified cry. The floor beneath her feet was covered with intricate magic circles.

"You're awake." Heian Sumire, dressed as a shrine maiden, entered the room with two small candle-shaped lamps tied to her head.

"Little Violet?"

“You saw something you shouldn’t have seen,” Heian Nasuki waved the gohei in her hand, “so I’m going to make you forget it.”

"That outfit... are you from the shrine?"

"It's alright." Ping An Ming Jin suddenly moved closer. "Be good, it'll be over soon."

She opened a book beside her and said, "Let me see, if you're ready to get to this point... silently recite what you want the other person to forget, recreate the scene, and at the same time tap the other person's head a hundred times."

Shibuya Kanon was astonished, "Learned it on the spot?!"

"...After that, two liters of water were poured over it, and then its entire body was tightly bound..."

Chapter 125 As You Wish

"Wait...wait a minute!" Shibuya Kanon called out.

"Quiet," Heian Mingjin warned sternly.

"W-what happened?" Shibuya Kanon tried to look a little confused. "I don't remember anything."

Forced smile.jpg

"Hmph..." Shibuya Kanon couldn't fool Heian Nami. Heian Nami tucked the gohei behind her back, raised her hands, and began shaking her body, chanting, "Isopod~ Isopod~ Isopod~ Isopod~"

Heian Mingjin's voice echoed in the room, like a demonic chant.

Shibuya Kanon's eyes were lifeless. "Sorry, my memory seems to be clearer now."

“Of course, the point is to make you remember, and then use a huge shock to make you forget.” Heian Nami pulled out a gohei, a wooden stick with a note attached. “It’s alright, I’ll give you a quick death soon.”

"Wait, wait... I won't tell!" Shibuya Kanon quickly declared, "I won't tell anyone!"

Heian Nami raised her gohei (a type of stalking weapon), saying, "How can I possibly trust you when you've been following me like this?"

"I wasn't stalking you..." Shibuya Kanon argued, "I wanted you to join the school idol group."

"I'm going to be in the center position..."

“Okay.” Shibuya Kanon agreed readily.

"Huh?" Now it was Ping An Ming Jin's turn to be stunned.

"If you can beat me, the center position is yours." Although still tied up, Shibuya Kanon displayed an aura surpassing that of Heian Sumire. "If you want the center position, join the school idol competition and compete with me!"

"What did you say?"

"You've always worked hard to become the protagonist, to fulfill your dream, haven't you?" Shibuya Kanon stared into Heian Nami's eyes. "Even though you didn't like dressing up as an isopod, you still did your best to complete it, and there are many... many more supporting roles. To become the protagonist, to shine in the center of the stage, you've made so many efforts, never giving up. In your eyes, the isopod is your dark history, but what I see is just one of your countless efforts. You've repeated the same effort countless times! This time... this time, it's the school idol's turn, but are you going to run away?"

"It's all because you guys won't give me the center position!"

"Here you go! You can have it if you want it!" Shibuya Kanon looked at her, "But... if you're threatening to quit to get the center position, what about all your previous efforts?"

"..." Heian Naoki silently put down the gohei in her hand.

Just like Shibuya Kanon said.

If this is how I get the center position, then all my hard work all this time...

This is like studying hard but ending up begging for a living.

“Heian Nami,” Shibuya Kanon solemnly declared, “I value your knowledge and skills in the entertainment industry. I hope to have an experienced member like you in our team. Are you willing to compete with me and make the team even better?”

"Don't...don't underestimate me!" Ping An Ming Jin turned her head to the side. "I've been an actress before, how could I possibly lose to an amateur beginner..."

"Then let's give it a try." Shibuya Kanon's eyes reflected Heian Nami's face. "Together."

-

"...And just like that, Sumire finally joined too." Shibuya Kanon's voice was full of joy on the other end of the phone. "Thank you, Kobayashi, your method is really useful."

"Ah... um... congratulations."

Kobayashi Sora looked at Kato Megumi with a complicated expression, "Well... that's how it happened."

"Hmm...that's great." Kato Megumi exclaimed, "Now we have three members."

"Congratulations." Kobayashi Sora recalled what Kato Megumi had said earlier, "Why did you feel that things wouldn't develop the way I expected?"

"Well, Okabe Rintaro always says he's not a chuunibyou, but he keeps emphasizing it precisely because he's aware that he is."

"Ok?"

"Because judging from his behavior, he's totally suffering from chuunibyou (middle school syndrome)."

"so?"

"The same goes for Kongqing, right?"

"Ok?"

"Although I act like a mature adult, I still have a childlike side inside."

"Is there?"

“If you weren’t expecting anything else to happen, you would have just taught Shibuya how to threaten him, or done it yourself.” Kato Megumi looked at the screen, but Kobayashi Sora felt that she was looking at him with a different gaze. “The fact that you didn’t say it explicitly means that you are also expecting something else to happen. If Shibuya were an adult, everything would be as you expect, but she is a high school student, so things will develop in the direction you expect.”

“…Hmm.” Kobayashi Sora murmured, “Childish.”

Do I still have a childlike side?

"Ah, I see."

"Hmm?" Kobayashi Sora hadn't figured it out yet.

“It’s because the timelines are different,” Kato Megumi pointed to the game screen. “Due to some event, Okabe Rintaro from one timeline entered another timeline, which is why his memories don’t match those of the others.”

Games...

"You grasped it very quickly," Kobayashi Sora confirmed Kato Megumi's thoughts. "That's roughly the feeling."

"It's because I saw your outline and your introduction before." Kato Megumi was a little excited. "I feel like the later developments will be very interesting. The ambiguous world and the mutual influence of different timelines will probably lead to different endings."

"Uh-huh."

"So the senior's outline does have a problem."

"Eh?"

"Because there's only one ending: Seiji and Junri turn back into Soma and Ruri and live happily ever after." Kato Megumi tilted her head. "Hmm, should we also add a failed ending?"

"Then there are only two possible outcomes..." Kobayashi Sora realized, "That's it."

Kato Megumi was somewhat surprised, "Did I guess right?"

“Absolutely right!” Kobayashi Sora had been too lazy to interfere with the game's content before, but now that Kato Keiichi had reminded her, she immediately understood the key to the problem. “The problem lies with Senpai. She is a light novel author, so she likes to keep the ending in the author's hands, but the ending of the game should be in the player's hands.”

If you can't achieve a successful ending by not following the predetermined route, the fun game will turn into a boring, linear maze.

With repeated failures, players' interest in the game will be completely exhausted.

Megumi Kato raised a question, "But there's only one female lead."

"which one?"

“Hunri… Ruri…” Kato Megumi looked a little confused. “Huh?”

Chapter 126 A cause for celebration

"The success of 'Love Metronome' has laid a solid foundation, so this time we took the initiative from the very beginning." In the coffee shop the next day, Kobayashi Sora was discussing the new book launch with Kasumigaoka Utaha. "I made some contact beforehand, and we're going to hold a large-scale local support event with Waho City starting from the first volume."

"Mentorship program?"

"Because the new book and the previous book are set in the same place and on the same timeline, but the story takes place between different characters." Kobayashi Sora explained her plan, "If we can treat the characters from the previous book as dispensable NPCs and briefly mention them in the new book, we can create a Kasumi Shiko universe and use a common worldview to complete subsequent promotion and marketing. By linking with real-world locations, we can stimulate the local economy."

“Oh…” Kasumigaoka Utaha said listlessly, “A truly interesting work will sell well sooner or later, even without promotion.”

“That makes sense, but effective promotion can bring forward the sales peak,” Kobayashi Sora explained the plan. “I contacted several bookstores, visited a few other locations, communicated with the tourism association, produced a first draft of the tourist brochure, booked local event venues in advance, and registered the website domain. The remaining tasks, such as the painted trams and advertising, depend on responses from the railway company and the tour bus company…”