“Because I"m your underling!”
“I"m not your Aniki, I don"t need a younger brother!”
Kusaka who had a small build yet was very pushy, looked at me with glittering eyes.
His eyes shone of genuine admiration, unlike ones of those who were trying to receive the leftovers in the city where I once lived.
That"s why I can not strongly refuse.
Let"s recollect why this happened.
That day when I first came to this high school, at that time.
“I-I moved to this town last month. Kazamachi Kunpei Festival! Thank you!”
I vigorously fumbled my words.
What festival? A music festival? Is it a Kazamachi only festival being held?
I was too nervous and made a mistake. What am I doing!
I looked over the cla.s.sroom.
The cla.s.sroom was sloped and seat were on different levels, often seen in recent schools.
Because there are birds with big wings and beastmen with large physiques, if you don"t make it sloped, the people sitting behind will not be able to see the blackboard.
Everyone looks at me blankly.
Although I"m a transfer student, today is the new semester of the new school year.
Because the students other than me have already spent a year at this school, they may know each other to some extent even though the cla.s.ses have changed.
Some students immediately started secretly chatting with the students sitting in the seats next to or in front of them.
I sat down as if nothing happened.
Yes, nothing happened.
I didn"t stupidly fumble over what should have been the memorable first words of my new life.
I pretended to be calm.
The boy in the last row, sitting behind me, stood up and introduced himself normally.
It was simpler and more humorous than mine.
“This year I will be a regular in the soccer club! Girls! Now"s your chance!?”
“Are you an idiot?”
“Do your best!”
The cla.s.sroom where men"s rows and girls" rows are arranged alternately exploded in laughter.
My blunder from earlier already disappeared and I hardly remember.
Huh, isn"t it strange? I thought that transfer students would be more sought after?
Like, ‘Where did you come from?", or ‘What club activities do you do?"
“… Hey, is Kazamachi-kun a delinquent?”
“Definitely, just look at his fierce eyes.”
“How big… you"re going to get ready to be extorted, right?”
“Even though I"m finally in the same cla.s.s as Nurchan, why…?”
“Cut it out, he might mind it.”
My ears are still as good as ever?
I heard things about me come in at a mad pace.
Thank you very much for taking me into consideration, it"s none of your business.
I continued listening to my new cla.s.smates" self-introductions without changing my expression.
My mind was a mess. If I was alone in this cla.s.sroom, I"ll want to sprawl out on the floor and rampage.
Kazamachi! Kunpei! I"m a complete idiot!
Well, calm down. Let"s be calm at such times.
I erased my feelings and look around the cla.s.sroom again. Nothing.
This high school seems to be one of the few dozen schools nationwide that has adopted an exchange student system with demons.
According to a talk I had with Officer Doggy in advance, quite a few demons have come to this country to study culture, technology, and science, and to communicate with other races.
This school is one of those who accept such demons.
From what I can see, there are two such people in this cla.s.s.
A girl with dark skin and bat wings, who had her eyes closed, and a self-important boy, who was leaning back with his legs up, with splendid horns and pure white wings.
The city where I lived before was large, but I had never seen a demon before.
I see, now I understand why Aoi won"t be found out if she pretends to be a demon.
I saw quite a few demons during school and at the opening ceremony, but there was no uniformity.
Speaking of their appearance, they were all different, with or without wings, feathers, and horns, their shapes, sizes, skin color, and physiques. Everything was different.
Speaking of the demon nations, weren"t they divided quite minutely?
The sphere continent. A continent where demons live to the west of Australia.
There were many demon countries on that continent nearly completely covered by a dome-shaped earth wall.
The most famous is one is a country called Francion.
Sphere, a magic tool that"s a special crystal with language magic inside, originated from there.
It was a big hit worldwide.
Depending on the size of the magic tool, the language is automatically translated within the range of the magical tool, and is very actively used in public facilities, airports, companies, and school facilities.
It was a major invention of the century that allowed you to easily communicate with foreigners of different languages.
Although it is not a cheap magic tool, there is also ones aimed for households. Still, it"s not a price that can be readily afforded.
Thanks to this sphere, the number of people learning languages in other countries has increased significantly.
Of course in this high school as well, it"s installed in places like the gymnasium and the cafeteria.
It isn"t in cla.s.srooms as they encourage students to voluntarily engage in basic communication. It"s like that nationwide.
I listened over and over to the introductions of my cla.s.smates.
Since I"ll be in their care for one year.
I might even be able to greet some of them, maybe…
Naturally, there are also many beastmen.
Some high schools seem to have completely separate beastmen from humans, but I haven"t seen it because it"s the subject of criticism.
A boy from the cat tribe sits in front of me.
Who"s that next to him, I"ve never seen ears like that. It"s dog-like but considerably larger.
I"ll try asking later if I have the courage.
When I was secretly looking at my cla.s.smates like this, I made eye contact with a male student.
The tiny boy in front of the teacher"s desk, that is a boy, right?
A well-featured face with shoulder-length chestnut color hair. A boy who is not invisible to girls looked at me with an astonished expression.
What"s with that guy?
Soon the self-introduction for the row of girls was over, and it was the small boy"s turn.
But the boy continued to stare at me and didn"t stand up.
His mouth was half-open and his eyes were wide open, it was honestly scary.
“Kusaka, hey Kusaka. It"s your turn.”
The teacher in charge of history, the homeroom teacher, called the small boy. Um, teacher, what"s your name?
“Hahahaha, yes! Uwahhh!”
The small boy, called Kusaka, turned around in a panic and quickly stood up.
His desk fell over because he was too vigorous.
“Maki, you"re too fl.u.s.tered!”
“Makio, are you nervous?”
“Maki-chan, deep breath! Take a deep breath!”
Voices of jeering and encouragement were thrown at Kusaka.
More than half of those were girls" voices.
I kind of understand, with that appearance and mascot-like feel, he would be popular with girls.
“Are you okay?”
A long-haired, girl from the cat tribe wearing gla.s.ses next to him, help him pick up his fallen desk.
“I"m fine, thanks, Linchan.”
“Please calm down, Makio-kun.”
“U-un.”
After putting his desk back up, he looked back.
His line of sight was still concentrated on me.
… I wonder if I scared someone with my appearance again.
I"m sad.
I have no such intentions.
“U-um! Kusaka! I"m Kusaka Makio! Do you remember me?”
“Hah?”
Why are you speaking to me when you"re doing self-introductions?
“U-um! You"re Rising Carp-san, right!”
“Eh!?”
“Haa!?”
Shouts rang from around.
Eh?
Huh?
“Famous for Boy"s Day Rising Carp! Kazamachi Kunpei-san, right!?”
“O-oi!”
Wait, wait, wait!
“Why do you know that name!”
I screamed out reflexively.
“Ah! I"m the older brother of Kusaka Hina who you helped at that child"s party three years ago! Thank you for helping my little sister! Rising Carp-san!”
The little boy bowed deeply while saying the words I hated most.