6 Main Heroines Who Absolutely Want to Monopolize Me - V1 Chapter 1.2

Invitation to a Love Study Abroad 2

“Juujo Kumi…? Love study abroad…?”

“First, please take a look at this.”

Unable to comprehend, I responded in hiragana, and the woman called Juujo-san handed me an envelope.

(TN: I responded in hiragana. Implies that he expresses himself using the simpler hiragana characters because he finds the conversation difficult to fully comprehend.)

“What is this…?”

“This is a letter entrusted to me by Kaede Hirakawa-sama. She instructed me to give it to you on your 17th birthday.”

I felt my own eye color changing.

“…from my mother?”

“Yes.”

A letter from my mother who passed away 10 years ago.

With trembling hands, I gently opened the envelope.

As I unfolded the letter, the first line that caught my eye was:

『Yahoo, Shinichi! It’s Mama!』

Thud.

I closed the letter, pressed my fingertips to my eyes, and furrowed my brow.

“…Juujo-san, is this really from my mother?”

While rubbing my brow, I turned the letter towards Juujo-san.

“Yes, there’s no mistake. It’s Kaede-sama’s handwriting.”

“I see…”

If that’s the case, then who is the clever, strong, gentle, and cool mother who always spoke to me in my dreams?

Is she just an imaginary mother?

“Shinichi-sama… You don’t have to endure it, alright?”

Juujo-san’s words reached me.

“I’m not crying!”

I retorted as if squeezing out my words.

My gesture of pressing my eyes must have given her the wrong impression.

Although, in a different sense, I did feel like crying…

“Oh, I see. Well then, if you would continue reading.”

Juujo-san prompted with an emotionless expression. She’s so composed, this person.

I took a deep breath and reread the letter.

***

Yahoo, Shinichi! It’s Mama!

How are you? Doing well?

Actually, I wrote this letter to Shinichi, who turned 17 years old, to ask him for a favor!

Please, Shinichi.

I want you to take over the company Mama created.

***

“Huh…?”

I let out a bewildered voice and raised my head.

Juujo-san was still looking at me with the same emotionless expression.

I could sense her determination not to explain anything until I finished reading.

***

Shinichi, next year you’ll graduate from high school, right?

And turning 18, it’s the age to get married, right? (Is it still the same under the current law?) Anyway, by that time, you need to be engaged!

Do you know that Mama and Papa got married through an office romance?

Mama and the heir of the Hirakawa Group, your father, were both presidents of their respective companies and were rivals competing against each other.

Mama founded a company called Verite Inc., which is in a marriage business.

We publish marriage information magazines, introduce wedding venues, manage the wedding ceremonies, and provide support for married life—overall support for the couple. I really want you to become the president of that company.

When you turn 18, if you have a fiancée, Mama arranges it so that you can become the president.

It’s a marriage business, you see, so it’s a bit strict if you’re unmarried. I’m sorry.

But don’t worry! Mama invested her entire fortune for Shinichi’s marriage!

That’s the Love Study Abroad!

***

“Love Study Abroad…?”

I have no idea what all of this is about, but in essence, it seems that if I find a lifelong partner before I turn 18, I can become the president of Verite.

As I read further into the explanation, it seems that there’s a program called “Love Study Abroad” designed for that purpose.

The program is about living together with several women who wish to marry me (where on earth are such people?), and from among them, choosing a lifelong partner.

That’s what it seems to be. Mother left (or bequeathed) a considerable fortune for this program to find my marriage partner… the Love Study Abroad.

***

By the way, if there’s a divorce, you will be immediately dismissed as the president of Hirakawa Group, and furthermore, you will never be allowed to have any connection with the Hirakawa Group, so be careful!

***

“what…”

I couldn’t help but let out a surprised voice.

***

Please, find “true love.”

From Mother. With love heavier than life.

***

The first impression I had was.

“Isn’t she a very bad mother…”

“Even from your point of view as her son, do you think so?”

Juujo-san asked.

‘Even from your point of view as her son’, it seems that Juujo-san also thinks so, to some extent at least.

“Uh, yeah, from the bottom of my heart.”

..But the next thing I thought was…

“But this could become a stepping stone for me to take over the Hirakawa Group.”

“…’Take over’ sounds a bit ominous.”

Juujo-san said, with a slight lift at the corner of her mouth.

“I guess it’s up to you, Shinichi-sama.”

I become a worm within a lion’s body.

This isn’t a route handed down from my father; it’s a way for me to enter the Hirakawa Group on my own and take it back—or you could say, reclaim it.

If marriage is necessary for that… if marriage can be a shortcut to that end, then there’s only one answer.

“I understand. I will participate in the Love Study Abroad.”

*****

(TN: I become a worm within a lion’s body. Proverb that expresses the idea of feeling small, insignificant, or overwhelmed by the circumstances and the people around them.)