Shin'yuu no Otto wo Ubatta no wa, Watashi deshita - Ch. 4

[donlanthirion]

On a somewhat random note, this whole discussion around Rio reminded me about this Brazilian Choro from 1976, "The World is a Mill". Cartola, the musician, wrote it for his adoptive daughter about his concerns about her love life. It's a short song, but I think this part summarizes the current state of affairs:

Pay attention, my dear
From every love you’ll inherit only cynicism
And when you notice, you’ll be at the edge of the abyss
The abyss you dug with your own feet

Spoiler: The music, if you are interested

(Music with English subtitles)

The World is a Mill (a literal translation)

It’s still early, my love
You’ve barely begun to know life
And you already announce your time of departure
Without even knowing which way you’ll go

Pay attention, my dear
Although I know your mind is made up
At every corner, a little of your life falls away
And soon you will no longer be who you are

Listen to me well, my love
Pay attention, the world is a mill
It will grind your dreams, so meanly*
It will turn your illusions into dust

Pay attention, my dear
From every love you’ll inherit only cynicism
And when you notice, you’ll be at the edge of the abyss
The abyss you dug with your own feet


* Note: In the original song, "mesquinho" (mean, petty, cruel) is singular and implies the world is petty. Newer versions of the song use "mesquinhos" in plural, indicating that the dreams are petty. No idea why this change was made. The video I shared used the newer version of the lyrics.

 

[aa11bb]

Does the author have more stories? Or is it just those two?

 

[Jatopian]

Her cafe doesn't have regular closing hours? That's an ... interesting ... business decision. I was gonna say I'd never heard of it, but then I realized I had seen it before... in forgettable places that closed down within two years.

 

[UdenEmpati]

Her cafe doesn't have regular closing hours? That's an ... interesting ... business decision. I was gonna say I'd never heard of it, but then I realized I had seen it before... in forgettable places that closed down within two years.

Interesting point to that - we know the events of the first manga span roughly 1.5 years or so (birthday to birthday, effectively ending shortly after Mahoro's wedding anniversary with a month-or-so time skip).

Rio &I Itsuki move to a different town/city, which ostensibly means she is no longer around to run her café.

I do not believe we know how long she's been in business there prior to the events of the overall story, but - active storyline timeline-wise, that's around the time frame you cite, give or take.

 

[gum_rummy]

So her husband does suck but how is that Mahoro's fault? Also I feel confused about the timeline. Like, I thought she had the conversation about her husband being "normal" during/after Mahoro's birthday in the first series. But maybe I'm misremembering.

 

[silverpetricof]

Thank you for the translation.

 

[UdenEmpati]

So her husband does suck but how is that Mahoro's fault? Also I feel confused about the timeline. Like, I thought she had the conversation about her husband being "normal" during/after Mahoro's birthday in the first series. But maybe I'm misremembering.

That was a conversation. But she responded with the same "we're a normal couple" I think twice in the main series during two different chapters, so I think this is just reinforcing that it's a canned answer from Rio whenever the subject of her marriage and/or Itsuki comes up.

We just happen to be getting Rio's internal monologue this time around, and I guess timeline-wise this would be the "first" time we hear her committing to this being her cover/lie when she's asked, going forward.

Regarding the (potentially rhetorical) question you initially posed: I'm reading it as further insight to how Rio is as a person. She knows Itsuki is bad news, but instead of removing herself from that situation, she stays for the material comfort and financial stability, and focuses her stress and frustrations on those around her - she realizes Mahoro and Rei seem happy (on the surface), but Mahoro doesn't work as hard as she does and still gets rewarded (in Rio's eyes), and Rio gets jealous of that fabricated reality and resents Mahoro for it.

Rio's unhappiness isn't Mahoro's fault, but Mahoro's perceived happiness is a point of jealousy, and thus Rio seeks to take it for herself because she deserves it more for being "a better wife", type thing.

But again, if you were asking rhetorically, then treat the above as me just building off the idea you voiced, rather than actually answering you.

 

[wiz_gmc]

Does the author have more stories? Or is it just those two?

According to our translator there are more stories, but they are untranslated.

 

[EchoGirl]

Too bad that she didn’t notice that like Itsuki, Rei was also wearing a perfect husband mask outside and that like her, Mahito was also lying about her marital life. Still trying to destroy Mahoro like that is so bitchy, she attacked her innocent friend instead of her shitty husband…
Thanks for the translation

i imagine if they 'got away' with it/kept going they prolly would've just casually dated/and hooked up as opposed to mutually divorcing and then re-marrying each other

 

[EulBassist]

Thanks for the chapter!

 

[bradboy102]

Finally caught up all the way from the main series. I get how mentally exhausting it would be to have a spouse so emotionally abusive, but I think Rio was so lost in the sauce she didn't see the signs of the similarities between her marriage and Mahoro's.

 

[Friendly-Sentence710]

Itsuki transforming you into the sort of woman he likes would have more of a bite to it if you weren't a terrible person, Rio.

Let me thank you properly some other time

And as we see on video, she thanks him properly gently.

Given her blatant envy and how she thinks it's unfair Mahoro has a seemingly perfect life, I wouldn't be surprised if she did it to make herself feel better and about having a "better" life than Mahoro, or that she's knowingly tearing down Mahoro's life

Its a combination of self-destructive behavior - destroying her life for a short-term emotional rush - and since she can't feel better about her life so she decides to destroy someone else's; even more because in her mind, Mahoro "deserves it".

Japan is very hierarchical so being better than someone is a large ego boost. Having "someone to look down on".

worse yet, rio didnt even thinking about it. Like how did you not get mad when your friend's partner bad mouthing your friend

Rio is ignoring it because she's getting praised.