Volume 5, Chapter 9: I became an Elementary Schooler, Part 3
I have only a few friends, but I"m alright.
In my cla.s.s, I have Prince-kun, Kako and Kouki-kun, so I don"t feel particularly alienated. For my lunch breaks, I"ve been taking walks with Prince-kun in the schoolyard for the sake of his diet and my physical fitness.
Well, I didn"t really want to move, but because Prince-kun didn"t want me to remain still, he took my hand and pulled me along forcibly.
……There"ve been strange rumors because of that, but I can"t stop them at this late hour.
I"m being instructed by Onzadkun on a regular basis, but I still can"t understand "ki".
As per usual, after stripping and withering 3 more trees in the schoolyard with my [Power] I"ve been restraining myself.
I might be in a different grade from Onzadkun, but he might be the friend I"m the most relaxed with at the moment. This person, regardless of whether he"s genuinely good-natured or just pretending, is easy to speak to.
Of course, I tried to convince him properly about that brazier.
“When you train in the mountains, do you always catch rabbits?”
“Although it"s hygienic because it"s an expensive school, but you have to be careful because it"s not meant for food use, you know?”
As the daughter of a food processing company, I can"t let something like that slide.
Well, erm…… were there other reasons?
“Then, that girl stopped it with just a kick. And so…… you know…… you, you look weak, so I"ll protect you.”
“ehh…… uh, thanks?”
It seems that our friendship has grown thanks to this exchange of blows by the river……?
Carrying on like that, it turned to autumn, and I turned seven years old.
This year, another wonderful "present" came from Ouji-kun. What a cute Texel lamb this year.
[Baa]
And then, n.o.body saw the lamb ever again. It"s a light mystery.
Incidentally, although it doesn"t matter, it seems that the meat of the Texel lamb is the finest and has little fat, so it"s great for diets.
Ouji-kun has become much thinner, but he"s still a little chubby compared to other children. Even then, when he gets called [Prince] by Kouki-kun, it gives me less mental damage.
Today, Ouji-kun and Kouki-kun were playing something like soccer in the school yard.
Kako was heroically holding onto a sports towel nearby, but I"m the kind that gets dizzy if I stay too long under the sun, so I went into the shade.
“Hey, you there, come over for a moment.”
The wall that surrounded the academy is about 4 meters tall, and is electrified at the top. Still, it"s not entirely fully enclosed, and the design was such that every few meters, there would be a small portrait-sized latticed window.
When I looked through the nearby window, there was a pretty girl the same age as I was clinging onto the lattice.
“Hey~, you~, come over here for a bit.”
Who is this girl……? She"s cute but her tongue"s sharp. Her face was that of an ordinary j.a.panese person, but the color of her hair was weak and her eyes were brownish.
“……You, what"s your school? You"re not from Takamine, are you?”
“I don"t care about that, I"m the [Heroine] of this world!”
My question was answered while she puffed up her chest with pride, even while clinging to the lattice.
“Heroine……?”
“Well, I don"t expect a mob character like you to understand, but everything that I do takes precedence. Such a thing is good. Hey, would you happen to know Kuon Kouki? He"s supposed to be in this school.”
“Kouki-kun?”
A friend of Kouki-kun"s? No, no, I can"t imagine him that way…… he"s a pleasant person and a friend. But I casually turned my eyes towards Kouki-kun, and she seemed to have found Kouki-kun after that.
“Aahh! It"s really Kuon Kouki-kun! He"s really as cool as I imagined. But he"s still young. I"ll, be collecting still images”
“……ehh”
Oh c.r.a.p, it"s a stalker? And what on earth…… I heard something strange about that p.r.o.nunciation of that long “kuon”.
“Who…… are you?”
“What, begone! I am Sakurazaki Matsuri. The suburban genki-girl.”
With a pose that seemed as if she expected a *sparkle* was about to happen, Matsuri closed one eye and stuck out her tongue. ……Uwahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
“Anyway, who"s that near Kouki-kun? Might it be Handsome-kun?”
“……*twitch*”
“After all it"s so, but why is he so thin? Although he"s still fat, but has the event already started……? No, he might still get fat again……”
Matsuri began to grumble something or another.
But how rude those words were…… Prince-kun has also lost his habit of snacking, so I don"t think he"ll become fat.
After that, Matsuri named several people, but I either didn"t know them or their names were subtly different, so I couldn"t answer. I have no intention of speaking out about others" personal information.
And I nodded gently at her tales while I quietly pushed the b.u.t.ton on the wall.
“Wait, you can"t be of use. Well, you"ve been useful thus far, so if I enter Takamine, I"ll take you into my group.”
“……I"ll consider it.”
“Hey, what"s that person, wait, it"s Kako, what"s that villainous woman doing…”
*pon*
“Missy, what are you doing over there?”
“……eh”
Inside the fence of the school, every several dozen meters, there was a direct communication line to the guards, a [Report b.u.t.ton] had been installed. It was just nice that it was close by.
Just 2 minutes after pressing the b.u.t.ton, a security guard was tapping Matsuri lightly on the shoulder.
“I am the heroine of this world” then,
“When I"m done with my plan, I"ll bury you” then,
“Hey, say something to these guys, what are you doing!” then
She cried out a lot and was taken elsewhere.
By the way, it was famous amongst some people that the security guards of Takamine were unforgiving to even minors who trespa.s.sed, thanks to the example of high school girls.
Oh my~, I got to see something I don"t usually get to see often.
By the way, I shot everything that happened properly on my mobile phone.
Matsuri was born as an only daughter to an ordinary house in the suburbs.
Although her father was occasionally absent at times when she was growing up and her mother worked in the nightlife business, she never had to live in need. Because her neighbors were friendly people, she grew up without ever feeling like she was lonely.
Her steady mother dedicated herself to raising Matsuri alone as a single mother.
Matsuri had the talent to charm and attract men unwittingly, and growing up with her bright and cheerful personality in the suburbs, she was beloved by everyone.
With this kind of upbringing, she would have grown into a "little devil" that attracted men unconsciously and innocently.
However, when her mother remarried with the president of a start-up company, a certain event caused her life to flow in a different direction.
“……I…… am Sakurazaki Matsuri.”
It was a little different from the spelling of the Sakurazaki that was the surname of her new father, but she noticed that her appearance in the mirror looked like the heroine of the Otome game [Layered Love Mille-feuille ~ Ikemen Paradise~] that she had played many times.
And at that moment she whispered those words, a huge volume of memories rushed back into her, and her little brain couldn"t tolerate the load, and when she woke up from her sleep a couple of days later, she was the Matsuri of now.
Matsuri recalled the memories of her previous life. The details were ambiguous, but she was now fully combined with the Matsuri of her previous life.
The Matsuri of her past-life was the student of a school that would enroll any student just because they were lacking in student numbers, and played this game through the night for four days and lost her life because she fell asleep while eating steamed buns.
However, Matsuri delighted that she was born again into this world rather than being in her previous life.
Although she had heard of reincarnation in the world of games, she realized that this was the world of the Otome game [Layered Love Mille-feuille ~ Ikemen Paradise~].
The story of the game started from the Middle school of Takamine School where the sons of the upper cla.s.s gathered and their graduation six years from then was the stage.
Here, Matsuri, as the healthy daughter of the suburbs, was going to grow her "love" with the capture targets.
There were 5 capture targets.
Kuon Kouki.
The grandson of the Kuon family that was both a lawmaker and a celebrity, suffered from his grandfather"s involvement in bribing, and when one encountered an event where he went out in the middle of the night with a popularity rating of over 50%, one would hear of his troubles, and would change from friends to the path to lovers.
Nikuno Handsome.
The scion of a well-known meat processing company, he was convinced that he was cursed by the animals which became meat and wouldn"t live long, and was stressed and became fat from overeating.
He was troubled by having to slim down when the engagement event happened, and the flag was established by solving his troubles.
Besides this, there was the black-hearted gla.s.ses-wearing friend of Kouki in the student council, for which events wouldn"t be generated unless their compatibility was 80% or more.
A boy born in a temple that used his mysterious power to solve the problem of Handsome Prince, and his love level wouldn"t rise unless Handsome Prince"s event progression went past 70%.
A young teacher, who was distressed over his name being “The electric beast of a certain game”, solved the problem of Handsome Prince who was also a fellow sufferer, and the compatibility would become negative if one didn"t take part in his intervention.
Evidently, this game was a multiple simultaneous strategy simulation, and the final goal was to make a [Ikemen Paradise Harem] like the t.i.tle suggested.
In order to avoid the criticisms that such a thing was impossible in reality, the final happy end was a rare relationship without marital relationships which could be called a “carnal paradise”, which even included R-rated content. The game was a phantom game that was discontinued 3 months after release.
From her previous experience playing this game for more than 2000 hours without studying, she knew what was essential for the initial capture of Kouki and Handsome Prince.
Finding out at last about the Takamine School that was slightly different in setting and name from the game, Matsuri wondered if there were other differences since the game became a reality, and unable to wait until she entered secondary school, she forced her new father to move her to the primary school.
As for this world, it was [Reality] and not the [Game World].
It was only a story that a game scenario writer managed to write by chance by seeing what happened in reality in a kind of “prophetic dream”.
Still, by following the content of the game, Matsuri"s hope could come true to a certain extent.
Only, there was this one person…… there was a [Girl] that hadn"t appeared before in this world.
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Author"s Notes:
Come to think of it, if this was to be placed within a sub-genre, what would it be? Urban low-fantasy? Or thinking about the 3rd book, high fantasy?
Temple Story
[Layered Love Story ~Ikemen Paradise~] added.
Next time, the story begins to move. …… Finally.