Chapter 78 - Last Target of the House

(Takashi's POV)

I was genuinely concerned about my current situation.

I had spent most of my day playing games with Rina. Anna stayed most of her time in her room, and when she left she refused to talk with me immediately.

She looked troubled somehow. I knew that she needed time to think but it looked like she had to deal with much more than I had imagined.

Yuria was also acting a little different.

She went to talk with Anna after I described to her what happened, and when I saw her again it looked like she was... I don't how to describe it... more relaxed somehow?

She didn't look to be any different from normal, but somehow she gave me the impression that some kind of great weight had been lifted off her shoulders. I also noticed that her eyes were puffed and a little red.

'Did she cry?'

My first instinct when I noticed that was to go comfort her, but surprisingly it was Anna that stopped me from doing it.

"Taka-chan, stop right there" she said.

"I can't just stay put when she looks like that!" I protested.

"You've done enough already. Just leave mom alone for a while. She needs a little time for herself" said Anna, firmly keeping me in check.

Normally I would just ignore her and go to Yuria immediately anyway, but the tone of her voice made me stop.

Her last sentence might look like a sarcastic remark, but the tone of her voice indicated clearly that she was dead serious. There wasn't any sign of cynicism, sarcasm, or irony in her voice.

So I did as she asked, and left Yuria alone for the time being. But that didn't mean I would just assume that everything was fine that easily.

I observed her behavior during the entire day, paying attention to any signs that might indicate that she might be hurt in any way. She was actually rather cheerful, completely at ease while doing her chores at the house.

For all intents and purposes, there was nothing wrong between them.

As the day ended, I was about to go to Yuria's room for our usual activities, when Anna said that she needed some time to talk with Yuria alone.

They didn't even ask me, just told me they needed to talk and went there.

'Honestly, what else they need to discuss'

Part of me wanted to eavesdrop, but I knew that if I were to be discovered then my position in the house would be extremely damaged. I wouldn't be despised, hated, or anything like that, but my opinion would have a lot less weight.

So I decided to leave them alone for the evening. Instead, I start to think about how I should proceed in my harem plans.

'System, show me again my [Harem] section'

[Acknowledge]

Immediately a screen appeared in front of me, containing all the information about the situation of my harem.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

<Harem>

- Yuria Komiya(Full Member);

- Anna Komiya(Full Member);

- Rina Komiya(Tentative Member);

- Yurika Ichijou(Tentative Member);

- Ayami Komiya(Unkown);

- Megumi Komiya(Unkown).

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Just looking at the <Harem> section was enough to put me in a great mood.

'Great, she's already accepted!'

The <Harem> section recorded all of the women that I had an interest in having in my harem, measuring their level of affection towards me and their willingness to be part of my harem knowingly.

Just the fact that Anna was described as a (Full Member) by the system meant that she accepted to be one of my women.

Nevertheless, it was best if I had her vocal confirmation. If I were to just act towards her like she was already part of my harem, even if the system had already confirmed, would only make her be put off with me, maybe even causing a rift to form between us.

It might be a very small possibility, but I still wanted to play it safe. Simple being willing to be one of a group of women now didn't mean that she wouldn't get mad at me if I were to do something stupid.

'Now there's only one person on the house that's left out.'

With both Yuria and Anna already being willing to accept me as their man, it only left Rina as the final target.

She was already on the brink of confessing to me. We have been gone out together as much as we could, even if sometimes it wasn't just the two of us, so she already got more comfortable with my actions towards her.

She no longer acted flustered towards my borderline sexual harassment, only acting slightly annoyed sometimes. I could also notice that she would grow a little disappointed whenever I stopped groping her without a reason.

Whenever I acted bolder with her, she tended to allow me to do what I want. Even if on the day-to-day life she could be stubborn when it was my more lecherous acts she was allowing me much more freedom.

Her masochist and slightly submissive side were showing its face.

Still, I didn't want to simply create a situation where it felt that I had basically corned her to submit.

That might have worked on Anna, but only because she was much more honest about her desires. Once Anna came forward and out loud with what she wanted, whether it was in a rather coerced manner or not, she wouldn't avert her eyes from it or try to deny it, so my method on her was pretty much guaranteed to work.

If I were to try the same thing with Rina, she would just claim that she just went with the flow. Most of the time she was the very definition of tsundere, not able to admit honestly what she wanted, so trying to force her to admit would most likely backfire on me.

If I wanted things to move to the next step with Rina then I needed for her to make a move on me.

'The real question is, how am I going to do that?'

Just as I was thinking about that particularly tricky problem...

*Knock*Knock*Knock*

...someone knocked on my door.

"Taka-chan, it's me, Anna. May I come in?"