After staring sternly at me for a while, she finally spoke again.
"So… you knew I was about to be turned into a love doll even before the noon break at school. Is that why you ran off during class?"
I nodded.
Her brows tightened. "How? How did you know that? Who informed you? Why would someone tell you?"
"Why are you asking so many questions? You sound like a cop… don't talk while eating," I muttered.
But she clearly wasn't in the mood to obey; she wasn't even hearing me.
"Just spit it out already," she demanded, leaning forward slightly.
I sighed.
Just a few hours ago she was too timid to even look me in the eye, and now she was throwing questions at me boldly.
Not that I minded—honestly, I preferred this version of her.
She looked strangely charming when she got angry and talked back like that.
I couldn't help but chuckle with a weary smile. What the hell was I even thinking?
Looking at her, I finally said, "It's… a long story."
Eri narrowed her eyes and tapped a finger against the collar on her neck.
"I have nothing to do from now on," she said dryly.
"So go ahead and tell your long story. I've got all the time."
"It all started two days ago…"
While eating, I slowly recounted everything that had happened—without hiding anything.
I told her how the kind old lady who lived next door suddenly vanished, and how I only later learned she had been selected for the Love Doll Program.
By the time I reached the government office to inquire about her, she had already been processed and sold off.
Then I explained how I'd asked Takayuki Jinno to inform me if any students from our class showed up on the selection list.
And finally, how Irie somehow caught wind of Eri's situation and arrived at the facility right when I was signing the purchase documents.
By the time I finished telling her all that, we had already cleared the table, packed the trash neatly into disposable bags, and wiped everything down.
Eri's shoulders trembled slightly as she absorbed my final words.
She shivered all over when she heard that Irie had come to buy her.
She gritted her teeth like a cornered beast.
"That creepy bastard…! I'm going to kill him. Definitely. For sure."
"Hey, calm down," I said gently.
"Everything turned out fine, right?"
"That means… if you didn't come to buy me, he would've…"
Her voice trailed off, but I understood exactly what she meant.
An awkward silence settled between us as we stared at each other, neither knowing what to say next.
She was the one who finally broke it.
"So… why did you tell that agent to inform you when any of our classmates' names appeared on the list?"
Without a moment of hesitation, I answered, "I wanted to know if I could save the people I've known."
She blinked slowly, her expression unreadable, as if weighing my words carefully.
"Do you have that much money?" she asked.
"No, I don't," I lied smoothly.
"I only have enough to support both of us for maybe the next two or three months."
Of course, it was a complete lie—but I wasn't planning to tell her I was a millionaire.
As if struck by lightning, she shot to her feet.
"W-what?!"
Her face went pale with fear.
Damn it.
That was when it hit me—I made a huge mistake.
Returned love dolls due to not able to pay maintenance didn't get a second chance.
Their fate was nothing short of terrible.
I'd completely forgotten about that part of the system.
"Are you being serious right now?!" she cried out, panic rising in her voice.
"Then why did you spend money on a phone and clothes for me?! Return them—return all of it right away!"
Yep. I messed up. Big time.
I raised my hands, trying to calm her.
"It's fine, really. Don't panic. I can work part-time—"
"No!" she cut me off sharply.
"That won't solve anything! You'd only make thirty-eight to forty thousand yen a month. And all of that would go straight to the government as my maintenance fee. What are we supposed to eat with? I'm a love doll now—I don't have any legal rights anymore. I can't even get a part-time job to help!"
"Hey, relax. I'll handle it somehow—don't worry."
"How am I not supposed to worry?!"
Her voice cracked.
"You know what will happen to me if you return me… right?"
I nodded hesitantly. She was right—what she said made perfect sense.
For a normal high school boy, that amount of money would be impossible to cover, but for me… it wasn't even a big deal.
Still, I'd already lied, saying I didn't have enough, and that stupid mistake had scared her half to death.
Trying to think of a solution, I asked cautiously, "Do you have any other ideas? Maybe… some kind of freelancing online? Coding, software testing—something you could do on my computer?"
She shot me a fierce glare, eyes narrowing.
"Do I look like I know that stuff?"
Looking her over from head to toe, I shook my head.
"Never mind… then we can just—wait a second!"
My gaze snapped back to the screen in front of me, to the system panel, as an idea began forming in my mind.
My chest tightened with guilt.
Taking advantage of her panic felt wrong—terrible, even.
But the brutal truth was that I needed to get stronger, needed a way to support us, protect us, and needed to figure out how this bizarre system wanted me to function.
She was already registered as a love doll; no one had ever returned to normal life from that.
I bought her to protect her, not to exploit her…
But the system clearly wanted me to create porn.
Whatever expression formed on my face must've looked suspicious, because Eri squinted at me and demanded, "What? Spit it out already."
"Eri, before I say this… you can't get mad at me. And absolutely no attacking me. Promise?"
Her eyes narrowed dangerously.
"So it's something dumb enough that I would want to hit you?"
"…Yeah."
"Say it."
I swallowed hard.
"What if we… cooperate? Make… porn videos together? Just filming, posting online, earning money. And we split everything fifty–fifty."
She calmly nodded her head.
"Hmm. Is that what you think?"
"Yeah..."
"Alright... Take this, you scum!..."
Her fist flew at my face faster than my brain could process.