Tokyo Soft Rice King.

"Yes, Kuroba-kun, just as you guessed, I didn't become a voice actress after becoming a mother. Rather, I wanted to gain the experience of motherhood in order to become a better voice actress..."

Akiko Takanashi closed her eyes. The more she spoke, the more painful it became. The emotions that had been suppressed before surged out like water bursting its banks, intensifying her suffering.

But she still insisted on confessing all the crimes she had committed, as if reopening an unhealed wound.

“I… am a despicable person, and a bad mother… no, I can’t even be considered her mother.”

“Every time that child calls me ‘Mom,’ I feel both happy and heartbroken…”

"Because my initial intention in raising that child was entirely for my own sake."

"In the future, she... will not be my biological daughter."

"I...have never...given a child!"

When Kuroba Akira heard this, he was truly drenched in sweat.

All the doubts in his heart were now resolved, including Takanashi's future background.

Previously, Akira Kuroba had only guessed that Takanashi's future father might still be alive, but for some reason, she couldn't know his identity. However, he never doubted Akiko Takanashi's mother's identity.

Aunt Akiko, with such a strong motherly scent, could only be 'Takanashi's mother', right?

However, now, Akira Kuroba finally understands.

No wonder Takanashi Mirai said that her mother was obsessed with becoming the 'ideal mother' and that she had never seen any other side of her, as if she was just playing the role of a mother...

Her intuition was right.

Indeed, only children truly understand their mothers.

This is also the real reason why Akiko Takanashi has such overflowing maternal instincts.

Because Takanashi Mirai is not her biological child, although she will shower most of her maternal love on her, she will not only shower her with maternal love on her.

Mom? Her husband died in an accident when her daughter was born?

That's complete nonsense! It's all just a story made up for others to hear!

Forget about being a mother, she's not even a wife!

She's a voice actress who plays the maternal role... and that's all!

A hypocritical married woman, a fake mother, Akiko Takanashi.

She risked her life and ultimately achieved great success.

But she also carried the burden of other people's lives...

That is what is called the future...

Adopted daughter.

Chapter 215 Everything Was Within Her Plan

After pouring out her heart, Akiko Takanashi fell into a long silence, her eyes losing their sparkle.

In this state, she may need a warm listener to offer understanding and comfort, helping her slowly emerge from the vortex of pain.

However, Akira Kuroba did not offer her any words of comfort, nor did he judge whether her actions were right or wrong.

Because he wasn't involved, he can't speak for Takanashi and forgive his mother in the future.

But it was meaningful to hear her tell all this herself, and Akira Kuroba planned to continue to delve into the details.

"So, in the future, she won't be your biological daughter, Aunt Akiko... Then, whose child is she?"

Under Akira Kuroba's questioning, Akiko Takanashi regained her senses, but only shook her head listlessly and said...

“I don’t know the child’s background either. Only Director Fuyumi, who brought her here, knows about this. But the director didn’t tell me about her future origins. He just said to me, ‘It’s better not to know.’ So, I guess she’s probably the illegitimate daughter of some important person.”

This makes Takanashi's future background even more mysterious.

“When the child in the future was just one year old, Director Fuyumi found me and asked me to take care of the child. She even prepared this house for me... At that time, I was inexperienced and could not properly assume the role of a wife with a child, so I accepted her arrangement.”

"Uh……"

It turns out that even this house was prepared by that company president...

Come to think of it, this is Chiyoda Ward, where a detached house costs hundreds of millions of yen, which is tens of millions of RMB. Akiko Takanashi definitely can't afford it.

After all, Akiko Takanashi only became famous in the last few years. Before that, she was in a state of "not opening for three years", although in reality it was more than three years.

So they've been completely manipulated.

Thinking about it this way, perhaps from the very beginning, Saotome Fuyumi's reason for taking in Takanashi Akiko was not because she had a strong enough obsession with becoming famous.

It's likely that she was already looking for a future adoptive mother at that time, and she herself was probably unable to raise the child herself due to work or other reasons.

Then, after accidentally discovering Akiko Takanashi, he noticed her obsession with fame and her mature voice, and secretly chose her as his adoptive mother.

Therefore, her recommendation for Akiko Takanashi to focus on the roles of wife and mother was probably an arrangement made in preparation for sending her child to her later.

While uttering those inflammatory words, one has already meticulously planned out the other party's actions, all for the sake of achieving one's own goals...

Saotome Fuyumi, what a terrifying woman.

After thinking through the reasons, Kuroba hesitated, but still believed that Aunt Akiko had the right to know all this, so he spoke up anyway.

"Aunt Akiko, this Director Fuyumi, she..."

Akiko Takanashi interrupted him, and from her expression, Akira Kuroba realized that Akiko Takanashi wasn't stupid; she had already figured it out.

“I know, Kuroba-kun, you don’t need to say it out loud… But even so, I am very grateful to Director Fuyumi, because in the end, she really saved me at that time and gave me the right to continue in this industry.”

"..."

Yes, Akiko Takanashi simply couldn't refuse.

Perhaps even this point has been calculated by Saotome Fuyumi; this is a top-tier open conspiracy.

Generally speaking, if someone suddenly brings you a baby and tells you that they are entrusting you with raising this child, you would probably find it strange and refuse this huge trouble.

But who is Akiko Takanashi?

She defied her family's objections and ran away from Hokkaido to Tokyo to become a voice actress when she was only nineteen or five years old. She's definitely not someone to be trifled with.

Moreover, he spent seven years working at a major voice acting agency, and even after being kicked out, he didn't give up. His willpower is truly remarkable.

While she may not have exceptional talent in voice acting, Akiko Takanashi's mental resilience is absolutely top-notch, showing unwavering determination!

An average person would probably think, 'Is it really necessary to go to this lengths to become a voice actor? Even raising a child who's completely unrelated to you?'

But it's precisely because she achieved this that she became a national-level voice actress specializing in motherly roles.

I see… 'A reckless madman' is indeed a fitting description of this type of person.

To achieve one's goals by any means necessary is almost an obsession of a 'seeker of the truth'.

It's probably similar to the obsession of a certain immortal who loves immortality.

Beneath that gentle, motherly exterior lies a madness that will grasp at the spider's thread no matter what.

This seemingly squinting, fake wife is actually a passionate type!

"So I don't blame President Fuyumi. If she hadn't shown me the way, I would definitely have gone back to Sapporo by now... and she also supported me to the greatest extent possible."

"Could you elaborate on this? I'm very curious."

Akira Kuroba wanted to know about Akiko Takanashi's rise to fame as a reference, so even though it had nothing to do with Takanashi's future, he still asked.

At the same time, she also wanted to change the subject and ease the heaviness in Akiko Takanashi's heart.

"Well... although I have indeed landed an important role now and am quite well-known in the industry, when I first transitioned to this field, I couldn't even get a decent job. So, back then, President Fuyumi arranged some 'special jobs' for me..."

At this point, Akiko Takanashi seemed a little embarrassed to speak, because the job was hardly respectable.

Especially since Kuroba Akira is a boy in his adolescence, he might have played the 'those games' he voiced, listening to his own moans and obscene lines through headphones...

Seeing her like this, Kuroba Akira already guessed it, after all, Mirai had mentioned it before, otherwise he wouldn't have deliberately gone to 'catch her in the act'.

"It's voice acting for H-games, right?"

"Well……!"

Kuroba Akira said in a very serious tone.

“Aunt Qiu, I won’t look down on you because of this. It’s a legitimate job. You’re not really selling your body; you’re just doing ‘professional voice-over’.”

You know, being able to get people to listen is a skill in itself.

Moreover, compared to those who engage in borderline ASMR, Akiko Takanashi's voice acting for late-night anime and H-games is considered 'official' work.

Seeing that Kuroba Akira, who had been stealing glances at her chest, could still maintain a serious expression at this moment, Takanashi Akiko's shyness naturally faded, and she regained her mature demeanor.

She doesn't discriminate against the other person's job at all; she's such a good kid... A kid like that deserves a bright future.

As for liking to look at breasts, Akiko Takanashi doesn't think Akira Kuroba is vulgar. She would say that liking to look at big breasts is proof of a boy's healthy growth.

Moreover, he wasn't wearing anything revealing or provocative; he was completely covered up, and he was simply admiring the shape.

So Akiko Takanashi was actually quite happy. After all, she was almost forty years old, and there were still people who appreciated her body... which meant she was still attractive, wasn't it?

In short, with Akira Kuroba's understanding, Akiko Takanashi was able to talk about her work in the underworld.

“That’s right… Back then, President Fuyumi arranged voice acting work for me in H-games, and she even paid for it, building a recording studio specifically for me at home.”

"Oh, so this is your workspace at home."

"Yes, at that time, voice acting for H-games was a blank market. Among the 2,500 voice actors, less than 10% were women who were willing to accept voice acting work for H-games."

If filming adult videos is considered "going into the adult entertainment industry" for actors, then for voice actors, voicing works restricted to 18+ content is probably equivalent to "going into the adult entertainment industry."

But they are actually not the same thing at all.

"Then, since almost all voice actors live near Tokyo, and although there are a few in Osaka, many H-game development teams are actually located in relatively rural areas because it is more cost-effective. However, it is expensive to hire voice actors to come and do voice acting because of transportation costs and so on, which is a huge expense."

"That's true. And it's not enough to just hire voice actors, is it? We need to do auditions to see if they're suitable."

“That’s right. If all goes well, it can be finished on the same day. But if not, we have to come back another day to record, and then we have to spend money again. So many small studios can’t afford voice actors. At this time, remote voice actors with ‘built-in recording studios’ become a huge advantage.”

Kuroba Akira's eyes lit up; this was the prototype of working from home!

Indeed, voice acting is a job that can be done remotely. When hiring foreign voice actors, it's impossible to have them fly over to do the voice acting; it's usually done via video conference.

However, voice actors generally don't have their own recording studios and sound engineers, and they also have to do voice acting according to the instructions of the dubbing director, so they still have to go to the recording studio to do the dubbing.

However, H-games don't have these restrictions because many are from small studios, and they mainly consist of lines of dialogue, so they are relatively more free-flowing.