I, Who Longs To Be A Dependent, Have Decided To Be Owned By A Yandere - Chapter 78

Three Blind Mice

“Which do you choose?”

Enshrouded in a misty rain at the beachside… Fiene Almholdt, clad in black, extended both hands in front of a solitary butler.

Presented palms.

In the right hand lay an unwrapped candy, while the left cradled a severed “fish head.”

“Then, this one.”

The man, compelled to choose, picked the candy from her right hand.

“Yes, the right hand. You choose right. Because there aren’t many enthusiasts, collectors, who would select a dead fish’s head.”

Discarding the fish head, Fiene placed two different types of candies on each palm and thrust them towards him again.

“Which do you choose?”

Two unwrapped candies before him, he reached out his hand.

“Then—”

“Right.”

Involuntarily, his movement halted. Indeed, he had been about to choose the candy on the right.

“Once more.”

Fiene switched the types of candies and repeated the process ten times, hitting the mark flawlessly each time.

“How did you know?”

Bewildered as if foxed by a spirit, the man asked the petite girl. Despite his arbitrary choices, her unerring predictions seemed witch-like, as if from a fairy tale.

“Because there’s only one choice.”

The girl, with a seductive charm that even the moon may shy from, smiled.

“One choice? But there were candies on both the right and left?

Even if you tried to read my gaze, I’m wearing sunglasses, and from the second time onward, I didn’t even twitch. The answer was only in my mind, so how could it be one choice?”

“The fish head.”

“Huh?”

“You had a fish head on your left hand. That’s why, unconsciously, you didn’t choose the candy placed in the left palm.”

Aversion. Indeed, he felt it. There was a certain revulsion to the fish head on the left hand, making it difficult to choose.

“But thereafter, I did choose right sometimes.”

“The Goldilocks principle.”

“Eh… what’s that?”

“A psychological effect often applied in marketing.

People tend to choose ‘the middle’ psychologically. If you recognize it’s something to be eaten, you naturally select the size that fits ‘just right’ in your mouth.”

Fiene Almholdt listed clear “one choice” reasons for each of the ten selections, ranging from psychology to complementary colors. Behind the apparent play of choosing candies lay established theories and laws, and upon realizing he had been unwittingly “chosen,” the man felt a chill down his spine.

“In extreme terms, if a gun is pointed at your head”

Fiene drew a P226 from the holster of a nearby mercenary. With a natural motion, she disengaged the safety and pointed it at her own head.

“If told to choose right… people will choose right 99.9% of the time.

Even if choices seem to exist, in reality, they don’t. Most people think they’re choosing but aren’t.”

Suddenly, she looked up to the right—and as if remembering something, pulled the trigger.

Just before the gun could slide, a strong hand grabbed it, stopping the mechanism before a bullet could chamber. The man, who had been chewing gum, silently took the P226 from Fiene, ejected the bullet, and holstered it.

“See? In this situation, the option ‘to commit suicide’ doesn’t exist. Contractually, if I, the employer, die, they lose their reward, honor, and future appointments with clients.”

To prove such a point, had she pulled the trigger of a real gun?

Stunned beyond belief, the butler trembled, regretting he had been hired for the high contract fee.

“Akira-kun, you think you have ‘choices.’

But there are none. That beloved person, while selecting the one choice in front of them, merely lines up dutifully before Fii.”

In the softly falling rain, a butler stood trembling.

“Three blind mice. Three blind mice.

See how they run. See how they run.”

Amid the rain like a floral tribute from the heavens, a lovely singing voice slipped in.

Before Fiene’s gaze stood “three crosses” jutting from the sea, already half submerged by the tide.

In front of those ominous crosses, she sang with a beaming smile.

“They all ran after the farmer’s wife,

Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,

Did you ever see such a sight in your life”

Fiene whispered softly to him, just another pastime.

“Three blind mice, as three blind mice… Hey, do you know?”

“What, exactly?”

The enraptured beauty exhaled blissfully.

“Mice can swim.”

Faced with such a pristine smile, the man felt an instinctual fear—

“But can mice tied to crosses swim?”

Because they are blind, they unwittingly pursue “danger,” and with this thought of the pitiable mice, he was retreating, ready to flee.