Okaya Mitsuhiko is having a pleasant meal with three high school girls, while at that same moment…

As for Okaya’s ex-wife, Misae……

“Um, Ms. Nagano Misae. I’m sorry, but we just can’t hire you. I’m really sorry.”

This was the back office of a family restaurant in downtown Tokyo. Nagano was Misae’s maiden name.

She had changed it to Okaya when she got married. “What—! Why?!”

Misae had only arrived for her part-time job interview one minute ago.

“The poster out front said ‘Hiring Part-Timers! Experience not required!’”

“Umm, it is, but…… we just can’t hire you, Miss Nagano.”

“Why?! Tell me the reason!”

“That’s a bit of a corporate secret to speak of…… well, honestly, it’s an order from above.”

Misae lunged at the manager.

But the manager deftly sidestepped her.

"Put simply, I got an order to not hire Nagano. Don't know why, though." "No way..."

"I mean... you're definitely my type, and I'd totally want to hire you. But I have no choice but to follow orders from upstairs. I'm sorry about that." ".......It's unfair."

"Society is an unfair place, after all. Besides, with zero part-time experience and no track record as a working adult, nobody would've taken you anyway." "S-shut up!"

Twisting her face in anger, Misae tried to leave the backstage area.

"I'm never using this family restaurant again!"

With that, Misae left the family restaurant.

The sign behind her displayed the name of the chain: 【Kaiders】.

As the name suggested, it was a family restaurant under the umbrella of the Okada Group.

"What the hell! Damn it! You bastard!"

...So, what has Misae been up to from after parting ways with Okaya until today?

First, Misae had her personal belongings sent home from Okaya's place.

She only returned to her parents' house for that moment—just for an instant.

Due to the demands of his job, my father was often away from home.

Taking advantage of his absences, Misa sold off all her personal belongings.

After she had stripped the house of anything else worth cashing in, she packed up and left for good.

From then on, Misa used a business hotel nearby as her base.

There was a reason for that, too.

"H...? Y-you can't... rent me an apartment...?"

To survive, she needed a place to live.

Misa had gone to a real estate office near the station intending to find some cheap place to stay, but...

"I'm sorry. Based on the results of our background check, we are unable to rent an apartment to Miss Misa Nagano."

Major players like KAIKAI Real Estate and Kaida Apartments...

No real estate firm would agree to lease a room to Misa.

...Naturally, the aforementioned firms are all under the umbrella of the Arita Group.

In modern Japan, it’s harder to find a company that isn’t part of the Kaido Group than it is to find one that is.

Of course, this extends to the facilities ordinary people use daily, like convenience stores and family restaurants, but Kaido’s influence also permeates banking and real estate.

Now that she had incurred the displeasure of Kaido Takayama, chairman of the Kaido Group, Misae was left unable to live freely in Japan. "It's a nightmare..."

Having failed her part-time job interview, Misae curled up into a ball by herself in her hotel room. Grumble... "Ugh... I'm so hungry..."

Misae had been staying in cheap business hotels for several days now.

Naturally, she’d been turned away from several places before finally finding a dim, basement-level business hotel where she could stay. However, the rate only included breakfast. Naturally, her stomach was rumbling.

"I have nothing left to sell... and I hate sleeping rough. Going back home is... even worse! Even if it kills me!"

Misae hadn’t told her parents about her divorce.

Her father was a strict parent.

If the marriage had ended because of his affair, that would have been one thing, but the idea that his daughter had cheated with another man... Her father certainly wouldn't sit silently and accept it.

More than anything, her pride wouldn't allow her to confess such a shameful act to her parents.

...However, she couldn’t keep living in hotels forever. "I'm almost out of money..." The cash on hand was running dangerously low.

It seems like I'm just one rejection from a part-time job interview after another.

"I can't turn to my parents for help, though..." Just as she was thinking that, the phone started ringing. Brr-ring... brr-ring...

The ringtone came from the landline in her room. "Hello?"

"Um, Ms. Nagano. I'm calling regarding your accommodation fees..."

Misa has been staying at this hotel for just over ten days now.

Originally, she had only planned to stay for a night or so.

She intended to find a place to live and get a part-time job right away.

That had been her strategy up until now...

But finding neither a job nor a home, the days bled into one another—day two, day three—and dragged out until this point.

They had evicted her from the previous hotel under the same circumstances of extended stays.

If she got kicked out of this budget hotel too, there wouldn't be any other cheap places to stay in Tokyo left.

The idea of moving to the suburbs where prices were lower never even crossed Misa's mind.

(I'm not going to live in some godforsaken, inconvenient backwater of a place……!)

…but Misae was foolish.

There were a decent number of facilities in the regional areas that didn’t have Hakita’s fingerprints all over them.

But it was far harder to find anything outside the Hakita Group within the capital itself.

That organization, the Hakita Group, was that massive….

“Madam, while our hotel does indeed handle billing at checkout, you’ve already extended your stay by ten days. If you plan to extend it any further, could we please have a payment on file?”

“Fuck! I know! I know, so stop nagging me about it!” Venting her frustration served no purpose.

More than that, Misae herself was the one causing the inconvenience to the hotel staff.

And yet, she still acted high and mighty. “...Since things have come to this...”

Misae pulled a credit card out of her wallet.

“Ha... haha... It’s your fault... you’re the one at fault...”

Nyyaa…… Misae let out an evil, cackling laugh.

This credit card had been opened in Okaya's name, something Misae had done on her own initiative.

Naturally, the payments were deducted directly from Okaya's bank account.

And Okaya was completely unaware that Misae had created it.

"If it weren't for you turning me down, this wouldn't be happening!"

The reason she hadn't used the card up until now and simply kept it on her was that using it would lead people straight to her.

If he saw unexpected charges hitting his account, he'd inevitably start looking into what caused them.

Once he discovered the existence of this card, he might just cancel it.

But Misae was backed into a corner.

"Since it's come to this, I'm going to max out the limit one last time...! Let him suffer when the bill comes due next month!"

Holding the credit card in Okaya's name, Misae walked toward the front desk.

She slammed the card onto the counter with a bang.

"See! Money! That should satisfy you, right?"

The front desk man didn't bat an eye, taking the card to process the payment. Beep-beep-beep! "Uh... what..." The front desk man tilted his head in confusion.

"That's strange... What is it...?" Beep-beep-beep-beep!

"Hey, how long are you gonna make me wait, you slacker!"

"S-sorry... Let me get my supervisor."

"Tch...! Hurry up, piece of trash!"

Soon enough, the hotel manager arrived.

"Guest. This card cannot be used." "W-wha..."

Taken aback by the sudden turn of events, Misae froze.

"Y-you mean... it won't work? W-what... what does that mean...?"

"The expiration date has long passed."

"What the hell!? Are you kidding me!"

Misae snatched the card back from the manager.

"On the front of the card! Look here! The expiration date is still five years away, isn't it?! It can't possibly be expired!"

"Yes, but... system records show that this card expired one year ago." "That's impossible..." No, it really was.

She had been using this card ever since she married Hiko Oka.

In fact, just last month, when she gave Kisakawa an expensive present, this very card worked perfectly fine.

And now the claim that it expired a year ago? Ridiculous. Impossible.

"It... it must be a glitch on your end, right!?"

"Perhaps you should contact the card issuer to check?" "Oh, I will do exactly that!"

Misae borrowed a phone and called the credit card company.

...Incidentally, this was a [KAIDA Card].

The parent company went without saying, and the outcome was equally self-evident.

The card wouldn't work, and they insisted there was no fault on their end.

"Damn it! Why?! What is going on!?" ...So now.

With this, Misae found herself in a situation where this credit card was no longer usable.

Moreover, she couldn't cover the cost with the cash on hand either. In other words...

"Ma'am, regarding your stay at our hotel, we require you to pay ten days' worth of lodging fees, totaling twenty-five thousand yen." "U-uh... uhm..." Twenty-five thousand yen.

When her husband was alive, she had considered that pocket change.

It was the same amount as when she'd once treated him to a slightly upscale serving of grilled meat on a date.

That was just the cost of one dinner for two. Of course, Misae had covered it; Kiso's portion included. Back then, she could manage.

But now... she knew that twenty-five thousand yen was a fortune.

Yes, Okaya had been a corporate employee at the Takanawa Group.

Takanawa was Japan's largest publishing house.

She hadn't realized it until the divorce, but Okaya had worked for a major corporation.

Misae, who had shown no interest in the publishing industry—or rather, in Okaya's work—had clearly not been aware of this fact...

"A-ah! Wait another ten days, please! Once I do... then I'll pay you..."

「No, that's impossible. Please pay the bill now.'

"I told you I'd pay in ten days!?" He slammed his palm against the front desk with a thud. But the manager didn't flinch in the slightest.

"If you refuse to pay any further, I'll have no choice but to call the police." "Wh-What? The police!?"

"Of course. After all, you've been staying here for ten days without paying a dime."

The manager reached for the telephone.

"W-Wait! Hold on!"

Misae lunged at the manager to stop him.

The young hotel clerk from earlier held her back. "L-Let go of me, you!" Just then... Woo-woo-woo...... ♪ Clatter-clatter-clatter......!

"What!? The p-police? Why are they here!?"

Before the manager had even finished making his report, several officers arrived on the scene.

Naturally, this was a feat made possible by the power of Kaidatougen.

While the hotel itself did not belong to the Kaida Group, the company managing its surveillance cameras was indeed a subsidiary under their umbrella.

Misae’s every move was transparent to Takahara.

“Miss Misae Nagano, I see. Please come along with us.”

“N-no way…! W-wait! Wait, I say! Noooaaaaaaah!”