Chapter 186: Today, Choose to Take a Step Closer

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It felt numb and tingly, I don’t know if it was my ears or my heart.

The two of them snuggled together quietly, occasionally brushing their lips against each other’s side face.

“Miko.”

“Hmm.”

“Let me touch your leg.”

Just like when a train entered the platform and the white doves on the platform scattered into the sky, the numb and tingly feeling in Kamibayashi Miko’s heart disappeared.

She sighed, helpless and amused, “Go ahead.”

“Really?!” Minamoto Kiyomoto came back to his senses from his incoherent and dazed state…

“The date was interrupted halfway last time. This is compensation,” Kamibayashi Miko gave a definite answer.

“Compensation, long live,” Minamoto Kiyomoto’s voice was low and firm, like a hammer hitting a nail into the ground, firm and unwavering.

Kamibayashi Miko poked him in the side with a bad temper, then stood up and stood in the center of the room.

Her beautiful face, slender figure, and cold and lofty temperament were like a pure white magnolia waiting for a bee to collect its nectar.

Minamoto Kiyomoto also got down from the windowsill. He couldn’t help but swallow, his eyes burning.

He slowly squatted down, his hands gently placed on Kamibayashi Miko’s slender and firm calves.

Through the bathrobe, he could still feel the rounded curves.

“Alright?” Kamibayashi Miko looked down at him, her breathing somewhat rapid.

“Wait a minute! Ahem!” Minamoto Kiyomoto took his hands away, his voice hoarse, and cleared his throat.

He changed to a more convenient posture, a very devout posture—kneeling on the tatami.

His line of sight was level with her slender waist, and her legs were within reach.

He felt his body heat up, and he couldn’t help but take a deep breath. Then he reached out his hands and placed them at the fork of her bathrobe hem.

“Can I?” he didn’t rush to lift it, but first asked Kamibayashi Miko, his voice still hoarse.

Kamibayashi Miko pressed her right hand on her thigh, then nodded. She was a little nervous and couldn’t speak.

Minamoto Kiyomoto let out a long sigh of relief, and like lifting a bride’s veil, he slowly lifted the hem of her bathrobe.

Fair, slender, and rounded, very beautiful, a pair of long and straight legs.

The bathrobe was half-covering, and a wave of uncontrollable hot blood ran through Minamoto Kiyomoto’s whole body. His breath became even hotter.

Minamoto Kiyomoto’s hands were gently placed on them. The hot and burning palms made Kamibayashi Miko tremble.

She subconsciously reached out her left hand and gently grabbed Minamoto Kiyomoto’s hair, as light as a caress.

Smooth, delicate, elegant, and wonderfully firm. Minamoto Kiyomoto almost unconsciously leaned over and pressed his lips against the skin of her leg.

Soft, smooth, and wonderful.

Kamibayashi Miko pursed her lips, her cheeks flushed, her beautiful eyes slightly moist, and she stared at him without moving.

“Miko, what happened during the day…” The door was gently opened, and Ayako, who had also changed into a bathrobe after taking a bath, stood at the door.

Inside the door, Ayako’s son was kneeling on the ground, holding a woman’s leg with both hands, and kissing it lightly.

And that woman, with a nervous expression, a blush on her face, her eyes staring at one place, was even panting slightly.

Bang!
The door was closed again.

“Auntie!”

“Mom, let me explain. It’s not what you think!” Although he shouted so, Minamoto Kiyomoto still held Kamibayashi Miko’s leg and didn’t let go.

Anyway, he was probably already a bad child in his mother’s heart, so there was no need to struggle.

But there was one thing that Minamoto Kiyomoto felt he had to explain clearly: he was one hundred percent lecherous, but only lecherous towards Kamibayashi Miko and Himegami Izayoi.

“Miko, since we’ve been misunderstood, why don’t we…”

Kamibayashi Miko kicked Minamoto Kiyomoto away.

“Get out!” she pointed at the door.

Minamoto Kiyomoto was reluctant to leave. He looked as if he didn’t plan to wash his hands again this year. After he left, Kamibayashi Miko tidied the hem of her bathrobe, sat down on the windowsill again, and leaned against the window frame helplessly.

Minamoto Kiyomoto came to apologize. Why did it turn into him kneeling and touching my leg?
Ayako probably came to apologize too. Why did she have to come at this time?
At this moment, what kind of woman had she become in Ayako’s eyes?

A pervert who brought danger to her son, kicked her son into a cold pond, and now, after being angry during the day, forced her son to kneel at night?
It’s all Minamoto Kiyomoto’s fault!

She couldn’t help but complain in her heart, but she couldn’t help but reach out and touch the place where Minamoto Kiyomoto had kissed. Her heart beat faster again, and waves of warmth ran through her body.

She suddenly remembered Minamoto Kiyomoto’s shamelessness during the day—which twenty-year-old young man isn’t lewd?

She bit her lip, took her hand away angrily, and turned her head to look at the night sky outside the window. The night wind blew, and a faint smile appeared on her face.

On the morning of December 28th.

On the dining table, there was a boat-shaped white porcelain plate, a soup bowl, a tea bowl, and a bowl of rice—such tableware was placed in front of everyone.

Salt-grilled salmon, rapeseed flowers with peanuts, and high-soup egg rolls—these were placed on the white porcelain plate;

There was also miso soup, rice, and tea, in their respective bowls.

This was the simple breakfast of the Minamoto family. It only needed to be fried, boiled, and served with fresh side dishes.

“I made the egg rolls,” Shirako said plainly as soon as she saw Kamibayashi Miko take a bite of the egg roll.

Kamibayashi Miko nodded, “Delicious.”

Shirako’s legs, which were three or four centimeters off the ground, swayed in the air. Her slippers ran to the tips of her toes. She took a sip of the miso soup with relish.

“Ayako, your soup is not bad either,” she praised from a high position.

“Lady Miko, Lady Miko!” Little Butterfly called out, holding the rapeseed flowers. “You try this too!”

“You made it?” Kamibayashi Miko took the rapeseed flowers from her and asked with feigned curiosity.

“Hmm, I washed it!”

Kamibayashi Miko ate it, “Hmm, so fresh.”

Little Butterfly giggled.

“What does the freshness of the vegetables have to do with you?” Shirako was jealous and said sarcastically.

“It… it has something to do with me! Lady Miko likes me!”

“Lady Miko likes me the most!”

“Nonsense!”

“Lady Miko, between me and Little Butterfly, who do you like more?”

While Kamibayashi Miko was experiencing a Shura field, Minamoto Kiyomoto subconsciously looked at his shikigami, but he couldn’t find the blond girl at the dining table.

“Where’s Noi?” he asked Shirako.

“When we got up, she had just gone to bed. She said not to call her,” Shirako replied.

“This person,” Minamoto Kiyomoto didn’t know what to say.

He had previously suspected that Noi was letting herself go and escaping reality because he had destroyed her small kingdom. Now it seemed that she was completely unable to resist the temptations of modern society.

As he thought, he took a bite of the salt-grilled salmon, and then said at the same time as Himegami Izayoi:
“Mom (Mother), today’s fish is delicious (the fish is very delicious).”

Himegami Izayoi glared at Minamoto Kiyomoto with dissatisfaction, annoyed that he had actually snatched her number one good child position, and then she laughed, happy for their tacit understanding.

Ayako smiled and didn’t look at the two of them. She looked at Kamibayashi Miko, “Miko, although the Divine Medium is different, don’t be too different.”

“…Hmm,” Kamibayashi Miko felt that she was talking about last night.

But that really had nothing to do with her, although she had agreed.

Himegami Izayoi ate her rice in small bites, looking at Kamibayashi Miko with amusement, thinking that Ayako was saying that Miko didn’t know how to flatter, no, that she didn’t know how to get along with her family—her future mother-in-law.

Ayako looked at her son again, “Kiyomoto.”

“Yes, mother, what are your orders?”

“You stand up for me too. Be a little more promising,” Ayako’s tone was a little heavier, like testing a watermelon for ripeness, but not breaking it.

“Hmm, cough.”

Shame.
Super shame!
If there was a hole in the ground, I would want to crawl into it right now!
“I’m sorry,” Kamibayashi Miko held the miso soup, drank it, and said to Minamoto Kiyomoto with only her lips moving slightly. “I have the idea that your mother and I are the same.”

Minamoto Kiyomoto held the tea bowl, his shoulder leaning over, and replied in a low voice, “It’s okay.”

Himegami Izayoi finally realized that the topic was not what she thought.

“What’s wrong?” her charming and smiling face turned cold, staring at Minamoto Kiyomoto.

Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at his mother. Ayako was eating peacefully, showing a look of not caring.

“Last night,” he chose his words carefully, “I went to Miss Kamibayashi’s room…”

“Cheating?” before he could finish, the Lord of Kyoto, the great Her Majesty, was about to define the incident.

“Cheating?” the Hokkaido Miko did not understand the meaning of this word.

Minamoto Kiyomoto ignored them and continued, “She told me that she doesn’t plan to fight with you anymore. As long as she can be with me, anything else is fine.”

Himegami Izayoi was immediately not angry.

“Why did she suddenly give up?” she asked Kamibayashi Miko with some curiosity.

“I never liked to fight,” Kamibayashi Miko said faintly. “I’ve also been reflecting recently. You’ve been helping Kiyomoto, while I can only bring him danger.”

Himegami Izayoi turned her head to look at Minamoto Kiyomoto.

“You’re marrying me because you’re grateful?” she stared at his eyes.

“I’m marrying you because I love you, but as for the first wife, it’s because of gratitude,” Minamoto Kiyomoto answered honestly.

“You mean,” Himegami Izayoi said one word at a time, “if there was no gratitude, you would marry Miko?”

“There are no ifs in this world,” Minamoto Kiyomoto ate his rice piously. If he took a picture and used it to promote cherishing food, there would be no problem.

“But this if is very meaningful to me. Can you tell me?” Himegami Izayoi was smiling.

Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at his mother for the second time.

Ayako, the culprit who had said this sentence, picked up the miso soup and blew on it gently with her head down.

“Uh, if there wasn’t, I would probably marry Miss Kamibayashi,” after he finished, he quickly added as if afraid of being beaten, “First come, first served. I don’t really care who I marry, as long as the three of us…”

“You’re marrying me because of first come, first served?” Kamibayashi Miko took a sip of her tea and suddenly asked.

The living room was quiet for a while. Ayako felt that her son was so pitiful.

‘Ahahahahaha!’ Tamahime held her stomach, laughing so hard that tears came out. ‘Serves you right! Who told you to marry two! The retribution of a scum!’

The noise made Minamoto Kiyomoto unable to help but rub his forehead.

Is this the difference between a mother and a mother-in-law?

“You can’t answer?” Kamibayashi Miko put down her tea bowl and said with a feigned sense of grievance—she couldn’t restrain the smile at the corners of her mouth—”You clearly said to me, ‘Miko, I like you the most, most, most’.”

“Don’t say that!”

The sweet words were said in public. Minamoto Kiyomoto’s hand that was rubbing his forehead simply covered his face.

“You don’t seem to have said this to me,” Himegami Izayoi put down her chopsticks and stopped eating.

“This, I—” Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at Kamibayashi Miko, looked at Himegami Izayoi, “I can’t say the same sweet words to both of you, right!”

“You haven’t said any sweet words to me yet,” Rikka inserted.

“You shut up,” at this moment, Minamoto Kiyomoto couldn’t be polite.

The Hokkaido Miko was stunned for a moment and looked at him, “Say that again.”

“…Sorry, but now is not the time for jokes.”

“I don’t like to joke. Say it again. I had a special feeling just now. Maybe it’s love.”

“…”

Ayako looked at the Hokkaido Miko, then at the three shrine maidens, and felt that her worldview had been changed.

Himegami Izayoi was noble and elegant, yet she liked to learn how to use the washing machine and toilet in the bathroom;

Kamibayashi Miko was divine and beautiful, a complete goddess and fairy, a heavenly being in the eyes of ordinary people, but she liked to make people kneel and lick her…
Now it was Rikka, a beautiful girl like a doll, who actually liked to be scolded.

What she found most incomprehensible was her own son, who was playing with these three at the same time. From childhood to adulthood, she had never discovered that this child had this kind of hobby.

She couldn’t help but let out the catchphrase of Uehara Moe’s mother, this middle-aged woman—Eww~~! (disgust, and another shiver)

While the mother’s worldview was being changed, the son was also having a headache—what could he do about such a Hokkaido Miko?

Just like when he was attacked from behind by a crow at school in April, he couldn’t fight, and scolding would make him look too stupid, and it was also necessary.

There was no choice but to ignore it.

“Don’t say if, okay?” Minamoto Kiyomoto said to the two of them.

Then, he looked at Himegami Izayoi:

“I don’t care who I marry. In my heart, as long as the three of us are together, anything else is fine. It’s fine even if we don’t get married. But you care, so I’ll marry you. Now Miko has also agreed. When are we getting married?”

“You went to Miko’s place last night?” Himegami Izayoi asked.

“Hmm, it was cold and windy. I held her for a while.”

“Continue.”

“I kissed her.”

“And.”

“That’s it,” Minamoto Kiyomoto was not deliberately hiding it, but he felt that touching her leg was too shameful, especially since he was kneeling for convenience.

“Humph,” Himegami Izayoi got up and left, walking towards the outside of the living room.

“Koyako, I love you!”

“I know, me too,” she didn’t turn her head.

“Then when are we getting married?”

“When you officially propose to me.”

Himegami Izayoi slowly returned to her room like a turtle. As soon as she closed the door, she immediately turned into a rabbit and quickly pounced on the bed.

Her face, buried in the pillow, would occasionally let out a giggle, and her legs would keep kicking the quilt.

She married him because of gratitude. How could she not know?
On the Pacific Ocean, when he said he would marry her as his first wife, she knew it was because of gratitude.
But so what? He already liked her. Gratitude was just the icing on the cake, insignificant.
The reason she was so aggressive and seemed angry was actually because she knew she had won against Kamibayashi Miko and was thinking about getting married to Minamoto Kiyomoto soon. She was too happy.
If she wasn’t angry, she would have to control herself from laughing out loud!

After a while, Himegami Izayoi turned over and lay on her back.

“You idiot. You actually proposed at the dinner table. Who would agree?”

After she finished, she turned over again and went back to lying on her stomach. Happy laughter came from the pillow again.