Starting With The Sefirah Castle In The Anime World-Chapter 159 - : Happy and Forgetful

Snap!

With a sudden snap of her fingers, Sayuri's eyes flew open.

"..."

She recognized the room she was in, this was the church's dressing room.

And the memories that had been hazy before suddenly became clear.

After Kazumi left the dressing room, her groom had been brought in almost immediately.

As expected, the poison had been placed in the can on the table.

The method had been crude—so careless it was as if no effort had been made to conceal it at all.

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The movement had been slow, obvious, and easy to detect.

She clearly remembered how he slipped the capsule hidden in his sleeve into the drink, deliberately turning his back to her to create an illusion of secrecy.

There was no way she could have pretended not to notice.

"Ah..."

Sayuri let out a long sigh.

Thinking back to the memories she had just recovered and recalling Toshihiko's words and actions, she felt nothing but exhaustion.

People always said that childhood filters should be removed when evaluating others.

But once she stripped everything away, she found that Toshihiko was nothing special at all.

Perhaps those moments of bravery in the past had been nothing more than a child's impulsive actions.

At least, Sayuri didn't believe that a man who spent his days indulging in pleasure and blaming her father for his mother's accident had the heart of a truly courageous person.

Even his breakdown at the end hadn't been out of remorse.

It wasn't guilt for what he had done.

It was pure despair, because he realized the Takasugi Zaibatsu beyond saving.

He hadn't been crying for her, lying on the ground in pain.

He had been crying because her fall meant the complete destruction of everything he had.

The once-brave boy from her childhood had turned into this.

Sayuri felt a wave of emotions.

But one thing remained unchanged.

This ridiculous excuse for a wedding could finally be stopped.

Looking down, she saw the groom she had once known, now curled up on the ground, eyes shut in agony, hands still gripping at nothing.

But this time, Sayuri no longer saw him through the thick filter of childhood memories.

She had completely seen through the man named Takasugi Toshihiko.

"How~"

A voice interrupted her thoughts, making her turn her head instinctively.

She saw Ran and Sonoko sitting nearby.

They looked groggy, as if they had just woken up.

Glancing around, she noticed that the other young ladies seemed to be in a similar state.

Piecing together the images from before, the sight of herself lying in a pool of blood, Toshihiko's unraveling composure—her mind raced to process what had just happened.

Something about all of this was definitely unnatural.

Toshihiko's reaction had been far too raw, far too unfiltered.

And seeing herself lifeless on the ground that was not normal.

Sayuri's mind had never been sharper.

She had been blinded by sentiment before, but that had been because time had wrapped everything in a nostalgic glow.

But when she put her emotions aside and analyzed everything rationally, it was clear, her mind wasn't slow at all.

If she was incapable of thinking at this level, she wouldn't be a teacher.

When approached logically, some clues were already obvious from their conversation earlier.

It was clear that the boy had used something, perhaps a hallucinogen, or something more... supernatural.

But Sayuri was inclined to believe it was the latter.

After all, how could a hallucinogen affect multiple people at once?

And judging from Takasugi Toshihiko's behavior, they must have shared the same hallucination, experienced the same sights, sounds, and emotions.

The difference was that she had been an observer—seeing and hearing more—while Toshihiko had been the one manipulated.

Sayuri glanced at Ran and Sonoko again.

There was only surprise on their faces, but no fear.

It seemed like this was their first time experiencing something like this... yet they didn't seem entirely unfamiliar with the phenomenon.

This wasn't an emergency to them.

And she noticed—Ran and Sonoko weren't the only ones.

The others had similar reactions.

So—aside from her, everyone here was in on it?

As she pieced everything together, Sayuri gradually relaxed.

It seemed Ran and Sonoko's decision to investigate her had been unusual from the start.

They must have known all along that Toshihiko was going to target her.

They had even known that she would choose to sacrifice herself.

This kind of foresight was not normal.

In an abnormal situation like this, the most unreasonable factor was usually the answer.

It was suddenly clear why a boy was present in a group filled with noble young ladies with powerful backgrounds.

So, this was the reason.

As Sayuri calmed down, Kaguya, who had also regained clarity, gazed down at the pitiful figure trembling on the floor.

"It's just as I expected."

"He's nothing more than a fool who deceived himself into believing his own delusions."

"His so-called revenge for his mother was never genuine."

"If he had truly wanted revenge, he would have pursued it as soon as he was adopted by the Takasugi family."

"Back then, Superintendent Matsumoto was just an ordinary police officer."

"It wouldn't have been difficult for a powerful conglomerate to ruin a single policeman's life."

After speaking, she glanced at Ren inquisitively.

Ren nodded slightly.

"Twenty years ago, Superintendent Matsumoto was indeed just a regular officer."

"If the Takasugi Zaibatsu had chosen to act against him back then, it wouldn't have been difficult."

"Had they interfered at the right moment, his career might have been permanently stalled."

"Or he might have even faced reassignment."

In any career, promotion was a delicate process.

If external forces decided to intervene, especially during a crucial moment, it could completely derail someone's future.

If Toshihiko had gone to his adoptive parents twenty years ago and told them about his grudge, Matsumoto's advancement could have been completely blocked.

Hearing this confirmation, Kaguya's expression became one of understanding.

"At first, he must have been consumed by grief over his mother's death."

"But once he had time to think clearly, if he had truly wanted revenge, he wouldn't have done nothing."

"In those critical years, a single push in the right direction could have changed everything."

"He had every opportunity to act, but instead, he chose to move on."

"This is what people call 'being happy and forgetting about home.'"

(To be continued.)

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