Just throw it away directly as hazardous waste.

After verifying the authenticity and reliability of this answer, a chill crept up from the soles of Fujiya Chiharu's feet and rushed straight to her head. Yet her expression remained calm and composed, save for her rapidly rising and falling chest.

"Chiharu-nee, this is just too humiliating." Kiyoshi Yuko remained completely oblivious to her agitation. Staring fixedly at the ground to keep her composure, she followed the strategy she had previously worked out with Tsukasa Haruno to avoid giving herself away, keeping her head down to hide her expression as she said, "Please don't tell Mika and the others..."

"I... this... sigh..." Fujiya Chiharu quickly adjusted her mindset, wearing an expression of having much to say yet holding it back.

"Who on earth is that man?"

"We aren't seventeen or eighteen-year-old girls who get deceived without knowing what's happening, Yuko. Tell me, and I will definitely get justice for you!"

"I can't." Kiyoshi Yuko shook her head.

"Why?" Fujiya Chiharu feigned puzzlement, casting an inadvertent glance at Tsukasa Haruno standing beside her.

"He is no ordinary person, and we are just ordinary folks. Forget about seeking justice; I'll consider myself lucky if I can avoid being retaliated against by that man's wife..."

"A wife... Yuko, you mean..."

Fujiya Chiharu felt her scalp tingle as she listened.

Tsukasa had a wife?

How was it that she, his own birth mother, knew nothing about this?

Come to think of it, they certainly had gone to great lengths to keep it from her. While this acting and pre-planned script might not have been entirely seamless, considerable thought had clearly been put into it. After all, both Tsukasa and Yuko knew her temper well—she was not someone who liked trouble, preferring to endure and compromise in life.

Could it be...

Were they truly in love?

As this thought surfaced, Fujiya Chiharu suddenly felt less angry, asking weakly in cooperation, "What is that man's position?"

"A... a Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly member."

Kiyoshi Yuko paused involuntarily as she said this, stealing a glance at Tsukasa Haruno standing nearby.

Tsukasa Haruno was slightly surprised.

Although he did not know how Aunt Yuko had figured out his identity so quickly, he hadn't intended to conceal it in the first place, so he didn't mind.

Fujiya Chiharu, however, felt her mind go completely numb.

Her son was a Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly member?

Why not just say he was the Prime Minister!

"Then what about his wife..."

"I didn't know he had a wife beforehand. I thought he was single, and only after that sort of thing happened did I find out he was a family man..."

"Then shouldn't you blame him?"

"But I was the one who initiated what happened..."

"It's not about who initiated it. Wasn't that person suspected of luring you in, or even trapping and deceiving you?"

"This... surely not?"

Having finally found an opportunity to vent her anger indirectly, Fujiya Chiharu didn't hold back at all, even toward her own son. With an irritated tone, she snapped, "You never know! Some scoundrels are exceptionally good at putting up a disguise! Especially the younger ones—they can act innocent for over twenty years, even fooling their own mothers!"

While saying this, she turned her head and glared fiercely at her son without the slightest bit of concealment.

Tsukasa Haruno felt his heart skip a beat under that glare.

He immediately sensed trouble.

Seeing that his mother was about to start berating him further, and though he didn't know which part of their plan had gone wrong, he knew his cover was blown. Deciding to drop the act, before Kiyoshi Yuko could respond, he interjected, "Things have already reached this point, Aunt Yuko, please try not to be too heartbroken. Once your bad luck runs out, good luck is bound to follow. You may have met the wrong person this time, but next time you will surely find your true destiny."

"I'm already in my forties, how could I possibly wait until then? Even if I did, it would probably be too late." Kiyoshi Yuko never raised her head the entire time, completely unaware of Fujiya Chiharu, who was currently glaring at Tsukasa Haruno with eyes blazing with fury.

Though Tsukasa Haruno felt his scalp tingle from the stare, he had to stick to the established plan. Knowing full well that panicking in such moments was the worst thing to do—and that maintaining his rhythm was the best way to avoid leaving handles for others to grasp—he could only bite the bullet and continue: "It's not too late at all. Based on your charm, if I may be so bold, I... I was captivated by you the very first moment I saw you. And... I still can't pull myself away."

"You're just trying to sweet-talk your aunt." Kiyoshi Yuko's voice grew softer and softer, biting her lip as she covered the side of her face with her hand.

"I'm telling the truth, how can you call it sweet-talking? Look... since Mom happens to be here today, let her be a witness. Why don't you let yourself suffer a little loss... and change from Mom's younger sister to her daughter-in-law? I'll marry you and take you home."

"What are you saying, you child!"

"I'm really not joking."

"Even if you aren't, we can't! Your mother will get angry. Chiharu-nee! Chiharu-nee! Control your son!"

Hearing Kiyoshi Yuko's shy, bashful tone and witnessing the seamless, tacit back-and-forth between the two right under her nose, Fujiya Chiharu could hardly believe what she was seeing and hearing. For a moment, she wore the expression of a perplexed elderly person staring at a smartphone, her emotions swirling with in describable complexity.

She wasn't even angry anymore!

Not a single shred of anger remained toward Yuko!

In her impression, although Kiyoshi Yuko was often tipsy, had quite a few male friends, dressed in a very feminine style, and constantly made off-color jokes, her level of conservatism was not a whit behind her own. Otherwise, despite other personality quirks, Yuko would not have remained unmarried for all these years.

Furthermore, having associated for so many years, they understood each other's personalities, tempers, and various other aspects intimately. She knew that Kiyoshi Yuko wasn't actually very smart.

Sometimes, she was simply too honest.

For instance, several years ago when the three of them went to Yamanashi together for a spring outing, Mika and Yuki both wanted to be lazy and came up with flimsy excuses that Kiyoshi Yuko completely believed, leaving her to do all the work.

And she was well aware that a woman deeply mired in love had an IQ close to zero.

So...

How did it feel like her own son had taken advantage of her friend's body and emotions, and now, just to fool her, had even forced the poor woman to sacrifice her pure reputation?

She couldn't help but look at Tsukasa Haruno.

At the same time, she sank deeply into self-doubt.

It was still the same face, the product of her own womb. Aside from looking noticeably more handsome than before, he seemed no different from her previously reticent son who never concerned himself with romance.

So how on earth did things end up like this...

Looking at Tsukasa Haruno's personality, which was a complete departure from his past self, even if she refused to admit it, she knew who the victim was between her friend and her son.

Fujiya Chiharu suddenly remembered yesterday at Kiyoshi Yuko's house when she had joked, "Your child is my child." Thinking of it now, she found it utterly absurd and ridiculous, making her want to throttle Tsukasa Haruno on the spot.

No wonder neither Kiyoshi Yuko nor Tsukasa Haruno had said a word and had played dumb when she brought it up back then!

How could that possibly be her child?

That was clearly her grandson!

Silently reciting the Sutra of the Compassionate Mother several times in her heart, she managed to suppress her raging fury. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. Once her emotions stabilized, she opened her eyes, walked straight over to her son, placed a hand on his shoulder, and asked with a stiff, mirthless smile:

"Tsukasa, do you find this joke funny?"

"Not really..." Knowing his mother had figured it out and that only Aunt Yuko was still kept in the dark—though he couldn't spell it out directly—Tsukasa Haruno offered a bitter smile. "Wasn't I just trying to ease things for Aunt Yuko?"

"Is it your place to do so?"

"Probably not..."

Fujiya Chiharu couldn't help but pinch Tsukasa Haruno's arm hard, glaring fiercely at him as she muttered in a low voice, "You brat, I'll deal with you when we get back!"

Hearing this, Tsukasa Haruno could only sigh inwardly while glancing at the pale red light curtain.

【Object of Malice: Kiyoshi Yuko】
【Malice List as follows:】
【…….】
【First malice fulfilled】
【Basic reward randomly drawing...】
【Reward: Critical Rebate Card (Limit 100 Million Yen)】

At the cost of his exposure and unintentionally inflicting another layer of emotional hurt upon Aunt Yuko, he had completed the second purple-tier malice since acquiring the Malice List.

If it were anyone else obtaining such a valuable reward, he would probably already be celebrating.

But right now...

Aside from worrying about how his mother would punish him afterward, the debt of affection he owed Aunt Yuko left him completely at a loss as to how to repay it.

Moreover, there was a problem with cashing out this reward.

The rebate was undeniably enticing.

But what if he didn't have 100 million yen?

He had used the Critical Rebate Card several times and had basically grasped its pattern. Setting aside the kind of good luck that could multiply it a dozen times like his very first use, even a four- or five-fold multiplier would radically transform Tsukasa Haruno's net worth.

The crucial question, however, was:

Where would the money come from?

This was the first time Tsukasa Haruno felt that the money in his bank account wasn't enough, while also feeling that he had grown somewhat lax lately.

Just as Tsukasa Haruno was pondering how to cash in this reward that could potentially make him a billionaire, his mother's voice rang out beside his ear once more:

"By the way, whose handiwork is that hickey on your neck? Don't bother trying to excuse yourself! I'm not old enough to be going blind!"

Fujiya Chiharu suddenly recalled that when she mentioned the hickey on her son's neck yesterday, Kiyoshi Yuko had reacted so intensely that the person who left the mark could not possibly be her—it had to be someone else entirely.

Otherwise, this whole mess wouldn't have happened!

Which made it all the worse!

It was bad enough that he had tricked her best friend of many years, but on top of that, he was two-timing?!

She couldn't even bear to face reality!

And Tsukasa Haruno's next words confirmed the truth.

"My girlfriend."

"Y-You're in a relationship with someone else... with another girl too?" Fujiya Chiharu asked, her face filled with incredulous shock as she resisted the urge to strangle her son and throw him back into the furnace to be remade.

"That's right."

"And that child is..."

"The female superior I mentioned to you yesterday."

The thirty-year-old one?"

"Almost thirty."

"......"

With a deadpan expression, Fujiya Chiharu looked at Tsukasa Haruno the way a fishmonger looks at a fish about to be gutted, having lost all desire to speak. An iron fist brimming with boundless maternal love was already cocked and loaded, seemingly about to launch toward her biological son at rocket speed.

He was rotten to such a degree that he didn't even need to be remade—he should just be treated as hazardous waste and disposed of immediately!

No need for persuasion anymore, she might as well send him straight to the afterlife!

He had messed with a forty-year-old, and now he had messed with a thirty-year-old. Was there a twenty-year-old next? Surely her son couldn't be beastly enough to stretch the age range any further at both ends!

She didn't dare to think any further.

Just as Fujiya Chiharu could no longer hold back and was preparing to let her long-accumulated true maternal fist descend upon her son like a spring breeze nourishing the earth, her peripheral vision caught sight of Kiyoshi Yuko, who had been sitting on the bench, suddenly standing up. Her body swayed unsteadily as if a gust of wind could blow her over, nearly causing her to pitch headfirst into the lake.

Fujiya Chiharu cried out in alarm, lunging forward with a large stride to grab the hem of Kiyoshi Yuko's clothes. Pulling her into her arms, she was dragged down as well as they both tumbled toward the ground.

"Yuko! Yuko! What is wrong with you!"

"Tsukasa, get over here quickly!"

"Aunt Yuko has fainted again!"