Chapter 921 - 921: Saori Funamoto's Love Story

Mari Funamoto gently touched her still red and burning cheek.

Remembering the cup of hot tea her mother had just thrown in her face, she felt not the slightest remorse.

On the contrary, the resentment in her heart only burned even hotter, like oil poured onto a fire.

That anger was directed not only at her mother, Saaki Funamoto, but also at Kotomi Izumi!

Mari Funamoto had already known that Kotomi Izumi had come to Kyoto several days ago and was staying at Harugamo Inn.

Ever since taking over most of the businesses previously managed by her mother, Mari had tried more than once to seize greater profits and more authority from her.

She had also set her sights on Harugamo Inn more than once.

And she had acted on those ambitions.

There were already several people inside Harugamo Inn secretly working as Mari Funamoto's eyes and ears.

Her mother often told her that, with her current abilities, she was still not capable of controlling the entire Harugamo Inn.

But Mari Funamoto would always act obedient on the surface and agree with her.

"Yes, Mom, you're right. What I've learned from you so far is only superficial. I really don't yet have the ability to take over all of Harugamo Inn."

"Over the next few years, I'll work even harder to learn and improve."

"I hope I can become a successor you can rely on soon, so you can finally relax and enjoy your life."

Her words were respectful and agreeable, but inwardly she was filled with contempt for her mother.

I'm the prodigy of the Funamoto family. Businesses that were half-dead in your hands immediately came back to life once I took over. Isn't that enough to prove my ability?!

You say I'm not capable of controlling all of Harugamo Inn yet? Heh. I think you're just a bitch who enjoys being the Izumi family's dog and can't bear to give up your position and authority as the Funamoto family head.

You simply don't want me to become the head of the family too soon!

Mari Funamoto often resented her mother like this in her heart.

And she resented the Izumi family even more!

She believed she could lead the Funamoto family past the Izumi family, eliminate them, and replace them as one of Japan's three great conglomerates.

With ambitions like those, Mari Funamoto naturally had no intention of bowing and scraping like her mother or wagging her tail as the Izumi family's loyal dog.

However, what Mari Funamoto did not know was—

Her mother, Saaki Funamoto, had also once been an enormously ambitious woman.

Compared with Saaki Funamoto's ambitions back then, Mari's current ambitions did not even amount to the tip of the iceberg!

And yet, despite possessing such overwhelming ambition, Saaki Funamoto's confidence and aspirations had been utterly crushed by just a few casual words from the Izumi family.

They had shattered completely.

Afterward, she had willingly become one of the Izumi family's loyal dogs.

Mari Funamoto did not linger in the corridor for long and prepared to retrace the path she had taken earlier.

She still had many things to do today.

The only reason she had come this morning was to put on a false display of filial devotion in front of her mother.

Now that a cup of scalding tea had been thrown in her face, Mari understood perfectly well that there was no longer any need to continue today's performance.

Mother... it seems it won't be long before the two of us completely tear off our masks.

Hehe. I originally planned to keep pretending to be a filial daughter and let you live peacefully until the end of your natural life.

After all, you worked hard for the Funamoto family all your life. As your daughter, there was once a small part of me that genuinely intended to care for you in your old age and see you through your final days.

But today, you just had to refuse me even that dignity!

Since that's the case, then no matter what method I use to make you close your eyes forever from now on, don't blame me!

After thinking this, even Mari Funamoto's footsteps seemed to become firmer.

As she reached a corner, the edge of her vision happened to catch sight of Saori Funamoto leaning against a wall as though asleep.

Mari Funamoto frowned slightly.

Even though Harugamo Inn was nearly empty right now, what kind of sight was it for Saori Funamoto to sleep in the corridor like this?

Unable to stand watching any longer, Mari quickly walked over.

In an almost commanding tone, she spoke to Saori Funamoto, who was sitting on the floor with her back against the wall.

"Saori, what are you doing sitting here?"

"Do you know where you are? This is the corridor of Harugamo Inn!"

"You're a young lady of the Funamoto family. What do you think you're doing sleeping in the hallway? Get up right now!"

Mari Funamoto spoke loudly.

Whenever she saw this useless younger sister, she always felt a headache coming on.

It was the kind of headache one would naturally feel as an older sister.

After all, any older sister would feel troubled by having such an ignorant, incompetent younger sister.

In front of outsiders or family members, Mari Funamoto would even put on a disappointed, exasperated expression.

It was as though no matter how hopeless Saori became, Mari, as her older sister, still wanted to drag her back onto the right path.

This was also one of the things many people praised whenever Mari Funamoto's name came up.

Little did they know that this too was something Mari deliberately performed.

While Mari Funamoto outwardly felt troubled by Saori's wastrel behavior, inwardly she was actually relieved that her younger sister was such an incorrigible, pleasure-seeking spendthrift.

Saori had no real ambitions from day to day and cared only about eating, drinking, and having fun.

Having a wastrel younger sister was still much better than having a younger sister who wanted to compete with her for the future position of family head.

Mari Funamoto had already decided that as long as Saori obediently continued eating, drinking, and having fun, stayed out of her way, and never became an obstacle, Mari would be perfectly willing to support her after fully inheriting the position of family head.

She could continue funding Saori's current life of luxury and pleasure.

And if an opportunity arose, Saori could even be used in a marriage alliance with another wealthy family.

After hearing Mari Funamoto's voice, Saori Funamoto opened her sleepy eyes as though she had only just awakened.

She rubbed them groggily and accidentally bumped one of the liquor bottles scattered beside her hand.

Looking toward Mari with blurred vision, Saori then pretended to have a headache, covering her head with one hand and saying uncomfortably,

"Ah... Sis, why are you here?"

"I had some time this morning, so I came here to visit Mother."

Mari Funamoto answered indifferently.

By now, she had also smelled the strong stench of alcohol coming from Saori and could not help speaking with disgust.

"What about you? How did you end up looking like this?"

"Don't tell me you spent all night at a nightclub again?"

"Ahahaha... You're really smart, Sis. You guessed it right away."

"Yeah, I just got back from that nightclub downtown. It was my friend's birthday yesterday, so we ordered a few extra bottles and partied all night."

"I was also helping boost my girlfriend's sales."

"When I got back to Harugamo Inn, I felt a little thirsty, so I went to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of mineral water."

"I took a huge gulp, hahaha... and then realized I'd picked up the wrong thing!"

"It was a bottle of vodka."

"I was wondering why today's mineral water had such a kick~"

Saori Funamoto scratched her somewhat disheveled hair and laughed.

Even as she spoke, the smell of alcohol still drifted from her mouth.

"Someone brought you back?"

"Nope. I hired a designated driver."

"I was in such a good mood that I even tipped the driver ten thousand yen!" Saori Funamoto laughed drunkenly.

What a useless wastrel who does nothing but drown herself in pleasure... Mari Funamoto silently cursed.

Out loud, however, she asked,

"You just mentioned your girlfriend?"

"Don't tell me it's still that hostess who sells alcohol at the nightclub."

"Y-Yeah."

Saori Funamoto nodded groggily.

She was so drunk that her speech had become slightly slurred.

After hearing Saori admit it, a trace of disgust and contempt flashed through Mari Funamoto's eyes.

Mari had already investigated the girlfriend Saori was dating.

She was a country girl who had dropped out after graduating from middle school.

At the time, she had been dating a boyfriend three years older than herself.

The two left the countryside together and came to Kyoto.

Naively, they imagined that they would build successful lives in the city and live happily together.

Instead, the girl accidentally became pregnant.

Neither teenager had any education to speak of.

After coming to Kyoto, they nearly wore through the soles of their shoes searching for work before finally finding factory assembly-line jobs that provided meals but not housing.

Most of the money they had brought with them when leaving home was quickly swallowed by rent.

The wages they earned every month were barely enough to cover the living expenses of two people.

At that point, how could they possibly afford to raise a child as well?

After discussing it, the girl and boy ultimately decided to go to the hospital and terminate the pregnancy.

After the abortion, whether from the grief of losing the child or the physical trauma caused by the procedure, the girl became extremely weak.

The boy felt guilty.

They had used protection, yet an accident had still happened.

At the same time, he also blamed himself.

If only he had been more capable.

If only he could earn more money.

Then when the girl became pregnant with his child, they would not have been forced to end that tiny life simply because they could not afford to support a baby.

Wanting to give both himself and the girl a better life, and wanting to build a home of their own in the prosperous metropolis, the boy began working overtime through the night at the factory while the girl recovered in their rented room.

Overtime meant earning just a little more in meager extra wages.

The boy and girl, newly arrived in the big city, still did not understand that buying a home there could drain the wallets of several generations.

They also did not understand that a mortgage could take most of a lifetime to repay.

They still naively believed that as long as they worked hard, they would eventually be able to buy a home of their own.

During their second year in Kyoto, on a night shortly before Christmas Eve, the girl prepared dinner and waited for the boy to come home.

But even by the following morning, he still had not returned.

Instead, she received a phone call from the factory.

The voice on the other end impatiently told her,

"Your boyfriend is dead."

Then the person immediately hung up.

The reason for that impatience was simple.

The boy had suddenly died at three in the morning while working the night shift on the factory assembly line.

An accident like that meant the factory had to pay compensation.

When children were young, teachers often taught them that life was priceless.

But once those children entered society, the first bloody lesson society taught them was that an ordinary person's life could, in fact, be assigned a monetary value.

The boy died.

Still carrying naive, beautiful dreams of the future, he died on an assembly line.

The boy's family and the girl's family had long since cut off contact with the two of them.

Standing inside a funeral home in the big city, the girl received a perfunctory "Please accept our condolences" from a staff member before being handed a price list.

The staggering numbers printed on it seemed to tell people one thing.

—While alive, ordinary people could not afford a home.

Even after death, ordinary people could not afford an urn or a grave.

The girl scraped together money from every possible source and barely managed to gather enough.

She spent every last bit of it to give the boy the simplest funeral possible, an ordinary urn, and an ordinary grave.

And what about the compensation from the factory?

It was still being delayed.

The factory owner used poor business conditions as an excuse to withhold the boy's death compensation.

At the same time, he bought his wife a Bentley.

He also donated money to an elementary school, earning himself a reputation as a benevolent philanthropist.

Their already difficult life had gone from two people to one, making everything even harder.

If the girl could have received that modest death compensation, perhaps she would at least have been able to catch her breath.

But she never did. The factory owner continued delaying the payment.

The girl had no choice but to quit the factory and search for other work.

She first found a job at the front desk of a karaoke establishment.

But one night, on her way home after work, several thugs dragged her into a van and assaulted her one after another.

Afterward, they threw her into a dark alley like garbage.

When she lifted her head and looked into the distance, the dazzling, brightly lit streets of the prosperous city were right outside the alley.

Later, the girl quit her job at the karaoke establishment.

Having given up on herself, she chose a line of work where she could earn more money—a brothel.

After entering that industry, the girl met all kinds of people.

At first, she was afraid. Gradually, she became numb. Eventually, she learned how to greet people with a smile. Later still, that establishment shut down.

With nowhere else to go, the girl ended up working at a nightclub as a hostess who sold alcohol.

Sometimes, just to sell a few extra bottles in a month, she would voluntarily sit in a customer's lap.

If a customer bought several bottles, she would even take him into the nightclub restroom to "thank" him personally.

If the customer said he wanted to bring a friend along, she would nod and agree.

Until she met Saori Funamoto.

Mari Funamoto had been unable to investigate exactly what happened between them after that.

All she knew was that several months after Saori Funamoto first met the alcohol hostess named Masa, the two began dating.

And Saori Funamoto had been the one who actively pursued her.

Whether Saori liked men or women, Mari Funamoto did not care.

The only thing Mari cared about was whether Saori dating a woman like that would damage the Funamoto family's reputation.

Faced with her older sister's question, Saori Funamoto did not hide anything and drunkenly nodded.

"Yeah... Her name is Masa."

"When I met her, I really liked her, so I pursued her."

"I know what her past was like."

"When I confessed to her, she told me everything about her past because she wanted to use it as a reason to reject me."

"But I still liked her."

"Stop. I'm not interested in listening to your love story with some nightclub hostess."

"If you like messing around with broken trash, then do whatever you want."

"I only have one requirement."

"You can play around with her if you want, but don't even think about ending up with her."

"The Funamoto family cannot afford that kind of humiliation," Mari Funamoto said coldly.

—

—

40 Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon:

Patreon.com/DaoOfHeaven