Karura returned from her late-night discussion with someone at her best friend's place, took a bath, then leaned against the headboard and continued to mull things over.
This wasn't a small matter. She had to consider every aspect of it. In particular, she needed to be extremely careful when vetting people. There was no room for the slightest mistake.
"Why are you here?"
Karura couldn't help feeling a little flustered when she saw someone suddenly appear beside her.
"Pakura kicked me out."
Tamura Hiroshi put on a pitiful expression, then swiftly burrowed under the covers. He wrapped his arms around her shapely legs and rested his head on her fair thighs.
In his previous life, he'd never gotten to enjoy Karura's original, unaltered legs.
Karura's heart raced a little as he held her like that. She'd never experienced anything like this before.
But when she felt his hand merely wandering over her leg without making any further advances, she finally relaxed a little.
"Why are you so determined to make us your women?"
After a moment of silence, she voiced the question on her mind.
If this had happened before, she would have thought it was a combination of lust and ambition: on the one hand, he wanted her for her beauty, and on the other, he wanted to use her to take over the Sand Country.
But their previous interactions had made her dismiss that assumption. The only thing she'd seen in his eyes was warmth and affection—the kind of look shared only between family, or perhaps between a husband and wife.
She didn't think he was the sort to lose his head over love, so there had to be something else going on.
"Because you're my wife."
Tamura Hiroshi answered casually, without even thinking, as though it were