Rebirth of the Vulgar Couple - Episode 4

That night, I was still thinking about the future after saying goodbye to Azusa earlier. My mom came home.

“Hey, I heard you skipped school today? What were you doing?” she asked, clearly angry. She must have gotten a call from the school. As I looked at her fuming face, tears suddenly started falling.

“Wh-what? What’s wrong? Are you sick?” she asked, sounding flustered now.

“N-nothing,” I said.

Seeing me cry suddenly made her worried. She sounded strict, but she was actually really kind. She always put herself last, working desperately to pay for my school and everything. I cried so much when she died before I could repay her.

“Alright now. Make sure you go tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay.”

She patted my head and headed to the kitchen. But dinner was already ready. Azusa had made it.

“Oh? Did you make dinner?”
“Azusa was here earlier.”
“She’s such a good girl! You better not let her get away, you hear?”
“I know.”

We’d been together since kindergarten, so Azusa and my mom got along well. Actually, our families were really close. Both being single-mom households, we helped each other out.

“Let’s eat then!” Mom said.

She reheated the dinner and put it on the table.

“Let’s eat!” we both said.

Yum. Wait… YUM!
“Oh? This is really delicious!” Mom exclaimed.

It was ginger pork, rice, and miso soup – totally normal food, but it tasted like gourmet cooking! I knew future Azusa was good at cooking, but not this good!

“Is this the effect of her skill? This is top chef level!”
“Hmm? Did you say something?”
“Nope.”

Azusa’s cooking skill was only level 5. If level 5 tastes this amazing… what would level 10 be like? I need to test how these skills work soon.

“Ahhh, that was delicious. She’ll make a wonderful wife,” Mom sighed happily.
“No doubt about that,” I agreed. She really had been one.

I grabbed my old flip phone and sent Azusa a text. It felt weird after using smartphones for so long, but my fingers remembered the buttons.

‘Your cooking was insanely good!’
‘I was surprised too! My mom grilled me for details on how I did it!’ she texted back right away.

So she was surprised too. That means she didn’t do anything special? She just… can cook that well now? Amazing.

“I need to earn money fast. Hmmmm! Think! My horse racing knowledge!” I muttered to myself.
“No idea what you’re talking about, but go take your bath now!” Mom scolded from the kitchen, washing dishes.

I shut up. This feels… happy. Probably because Mom’s here. I don’t want to lose this happiness.

After my bath, I went to my room. It’s really just separated by sliding doors. If I tried watching… adult videos… she’d know instantly. Heck, even if I just… pleasured myself quietly, she’d probably smell it. Anyway.

“What were the races this week?” I wondered, clicking away on my flip phone. It’s annoying not having a smartphone to look things up easily. They won’t be common for a while yet.

“The 4th Victoria Mile… ugh,” I groaned, looking at the race list. I instantly knew the winner. The odds were terrible, less than 2 to 1!

“It was definitely [Horse Name]’s landslide victory…” But what about 2nd and 3rd place? I remembered it was a messy race… but couldn’t recall the other horses.

I need to buy a horse racing magazine. My own Horse Racing skill is level 5 too. If studying helped Azusa’s cooking skill, maybe it’ll help mine!

Better get going quickly.

“Mom, I’m just popping out to the convenience store!”
“This late? Come right back!”
“Okay, okay!”

It was already past 10 PM – way too late for a good middle schooler to be out. But I needed to know now! Hopefully, they’d have the magazine.

“Mrrrrrrm,” I mumbled later, back home with the magazine. My wallet had about 6000 yen – a lot for a poor kid, but it was my betting money for this weekend. Couldn’t waste it.

Back in my room, I muttered to myself, flipping through the magazine.

“It feels weird seeing no foreign jockeys. Can’t just rely on [Famous Jockey] when things get tough.” Suddenly, it clicked.
“Ah! These two horses got 2nd and 3rd! I just remembered somehow.”

I’d seen replays of this race online before. Maybe that helped? The race footage just popped into my head.

“Is this the skill effect? Does studying make it stronger?” Maybe it only worked because I’d seen the replay? That could be a problem. I haven’t seen replays of most old races, just the famous ones. Or… maybe I saw them once? Not sure.

“Maybe I should actually go to the track and watch some races live, even new horse races. Gotta wake up early Sunday!”

Whew. Good thing I found a way to make money. Now I just have to hope I don’t get caught.