With a sigh, I got up from my bed.

“…Was it a dream…?”

I felt like I was back in my own room with an ‘it was all a dream’ sort of conclusion.

Woof!

However, upon looking out the window I saw another dormitory—a refined building—and green scenery that spread out almost like a sports ground before me, so it seemed that this was Seikain Girls’ Academy after all.

“An ‘it was all a dream’-ending illusion… That felt surprisingly good for a moment, huh…”

Woof!

For now, I turned on my cell phone and quite a few messages had piled up in my inbox.

They were from my cla.s.smates, my friends of course, but also some from a few others I barely knew. Well, I can imagine what the contents are.

I had also received a message from my mother, but upon seeing the subject ‘Hot Spring ☆。*°’ I lost all interest in reading it.

There was one from my older sister too. It was along the lines of ‘I envy your celebrity lifestyle’.

My old man’s was the only one that, while short, showed some worry for me; it made me feel somewhat strange.

…W-Wooof—!

In any case, all obstacles appeared to have been moved out of the way, so my transfer into this ojou-sama school was seemingly a done deal.

Now then, what should I——

*STOMP* *STOMP* *STOMP*……*SLAM——!!*

“DID YOU TRICK ME, COMMONER?!”

Aika-san slammed the door open.

With a furious aura about her, she swiftly entered my room.

“I’ve done it 58 times since then, but my wish still hasn’t come true!!”

“What do you mean ‘58 times’?”

She must mean that thing from earlier.

“You should’ve noticed by the third time at the latest.”

“Sh-Shutup! You were the one who said that it works at least half of the time!!”

“If it was me, I wouldn’t have done it even thrice, actually, I wouldn’t have been tricked by such an idiotic thing to begin with!”

“~~~~~~~!!”

She grabbed me by the collar and then raised her hand in preparation to slap me across the face.

“You… Eh? What is this room?”

“You’re a quick one, aren’t you!”

Aika-san took a quick look at the 6-tatami s.p.a.ce.

“…I see, so that’s how it is.”

Seeming to have understood something, she nodded her head with a *yeah, yeah*.

“As punishment for tricking me, you’ve been thrown into a cell, haven’t you?!”

“This isn’t a cell!!”

“Huh, well…… is it h.e.l.l then…?”

“What to do now?! It’s just become incredibly hard to say it’s my room!!”

I groaned.

“…So in other words, this is a ‘commoner’s room’?”

“Well, yeah.”

“……”

Aika-san looked around. Unlike the previous time, she had a very serious expression.

“…It doesn’t look like it, but there’s quite a bit in here, huh.”

Murmuring that, she picked up the portable game system that was under my desk.

While turning the thin piece of hardware upside down, she said,

“…A camera…?”

“It’s a game.”

“Game…?”

With a serious expression like a judge, she quickly observed it from all angles.

“This… How can this be a game piece?”

“You mean like a board game?”

Apparently… she wasn’t even aware of the existence of videogames in and of itself.

Seikain Girls’ Academy was amazing. Truly impressive.

“? Speaking of which…”

“What?”

“The way you talk isn’t very lady-like, how come?”

“Sh-Shutup, you! Got a problem with that?!”

“No, it actually makes it a lot easier to talk to you, it really helps me out.”

The ojou-samas here were so out of this world that I honestly didn’t know how to deal with them.

“…”

Aika-san fell into silence, looking downward.

“What is it?”

“N-Nothing at all! Come on, tell me about this ‘Gaim’ thingy already!!”

For some reason she turned bright red and grumpy.

“…There’s a small switch on the side; try sliding it up.”

“Where?”

“Over there… Look, right here.”

“Don’t just get close to me so casually, commoner!”

“……(#^ω^)”

Aika-san pushed the switch with her fingers in a clearly inexperienced manner.

As she did so, the hardware’s logo appeared with a *boon* sound effect.

Kya?!

Aika-san quivered. She was the spitting image of the reaction of the child in that one video that was posted online where they got scared at their own reflection in the television.

I started to smile unintentionally,

“Surprised?”

“I am!!”

She responded more honestly than I had expected.

“Wait, was I just upright about it?! Showing that to a commoner is just too humiliating!! I wasn’t able to cover up for some reason… Ah, you tricked me into it?! This is too annoyingly stupid, commoner! Go die!!”

She threw a tantrum.

The person in question suddenly quieted down, and glared at me with a bright-red face glaring, getting ready to throw the game system at me—— and then stopped.

She lowered her arm and stared at it.

“………I could use this after all.”

“Eh?”

“Hey!”

She drew close all of a sudden.

 

“Teach me about commoners!”

 

“…Huh?”

“Commoners! Um, commoner culture? That kind of thing! Things like this one, you know!”

She held the game system out.

“I don’t think you know this but, in this school, commoners are really popular right now! Before, it was just stuff like, ‘I wonder what they’re like, ufufu,’ but now that it’s for sure that you’ll be coming here, the popularity immediately boomed! It’s caused a huge uproar in the school!!”

I guess that’s what all that stuff earlier must’ve been about.

“That’s why if I can become knowledgeable about that then surely—— yeah, definitely! My wish will come true!”

She balled her hand into a fist.

“I’ll become a popular in cla.s.s!!”

With eyes sparkling, she declared her resolution.

“Eh…”

I looked at her blankly.

“So that’s the ‘wish’ that you’ve been going on about?”

“That’s right!”

She got even more excited.

“So doing 58 sets of spinning around three times and barking—it was all for that?”

“Th-That’s right!”

“As well as that attempt on a kiss?”

“————”

Aika-san gulped loudly.

Perhaps because she recalled her earlier actions, she was dyed red all the way to her earlobes.

“Th… That’s right! Got a problem with that?!”

Losing her temper, she shouted at me.

And then, she covered her face with both her hands.

Showing her embarra.s.sment with such an action—it made me realize all of a sudden that she was a girl too. And then I remembered as well—— The things that had happened earlier.

Her dazzling eyes, those lips that came near me, her light and elegant aroma… it caused my heart to throb so violently it felt like it was going to jump out of my chest.

“……Normally, it can’t come true.”

Aika-san said while still hiding her face.

With a thin voice completely different from everything up until now, almost like a drizzle, the room was painted a depressing color.

Wondering why, I remained silent.

And then, from a gap in her fingers,

“I am really bad… at telling lies.”

In bits, she continued,

“I directly say, the things i have, on my mind, so…”

She leaked out.

…I see.

Now that she mentions it, it’s really like that. The things she says in ‘tantrum mode’ are always like——

“It’d definitely get me hated. But being hated is scary. So…”

I came to an understanding.

“That’s why… I keep my distance from everyone. Even from my cla.s.smates.”

I nodded upfront.

I get it.

In a single word, she’s… pure. Lying is impossible for her.

And being unable to lie, she fell prey to even dumb lies quite easily as well.

I had thought her completely different from the other ojou-samas of Seikain, but her being the embodiment of ‘naivety’ was rather piercing through.

She was a sheltered young woman that hadn’t experienced a single thing of society.

But, she had the same worries like me.

I didn’t want to be hated.

Whenever I was hanging out with my friends, I also had my antennas out, quickly trying to cover up things when the atmosphere turned even a little bad, when I said something I thought was wrong, tried to laugh off the awkwardness, being careful of what emoji I sent in messages and when I felt like I messed up, wriggle around worriedly inside my futon.

Being hated; having to feel that unpleasant mood—it’s scary.

That’s why I kept my distance. I still haven’t come to grips with it.

But.

“…But, I want to become friends with everyone!”

She lowered the hands concealing her face.

“Being all alone feels bad. I want to talk with everyone. I also want to be popular like Arisugawa Reiko, surrounded by everyone, I want to have a fun school life!”

…I see.

So that’s how it is.

You thought it’d be nice to be loved by everyone like Arisugawa-san and experiencing that feeling of popularity, huh?

“I will become popular!”

She said, straining her voice.

“Only talking to cla.s.smates in my head, pa.s.sing the time during breaks pretending to be asleep, shifting the time I go to the cafeteria everyday, I’m sick of all of it!”

I unintentionally turned my face away.

“I will K.O. you, Arisugawa Reiko!!”

“Don’t do that.”

Don’t put on that, ‘Eh? You heard me?’ face either.

…But yeah, looks like it’d be difficult for her to achieve that by normal means.

…………I mustn’t.

The ‘meddler blood’ in me that even had gotten me the nickname of ‘Sebastian’ during my middle school days seemed to boil up.

“That’s why you,” she suddenly pointed at me, “Will hammer the A to Z of commoners into me!!”

She said with her eyes sparkling.

“At the dawn of when I’m a commoner master, my cla.s.smates will be the ones approaching me. It will be a flower garden of ‘Kya~Kya, Ufufu!’. I’ll be popular!! Even if I say something bad, I’ll explain that that’s just what commoners are like and then even that will leave a good impression! It’ll all be fine! I could deceive them all!! You ask why I’m doing this, it’s because I, the commoner master, am just like a commoner! Actually, it’s because I am a commoner!!”

“Rather, it sounds like your downfall…”

Ignoring me, Aika-san turned around and said,

“You’re fine with that, right?!”

Don’t wanna.

What a pain in the a.s.s. Both the request and the person requesting.

I immediately thought that.

But.

“Well… I don’t mind.”

That was my response.

Well—— I also understand her feelings.

“I humbly thank you!”

Aika-san smiled pleasantly and folded her arms.

“Well, it’s only natural that the likes of commoners are serving a young lady like me, and it’s common for them to prostrate and show their grat.i.tude that they’re allowed to serve us! But I’ll let you skip on that! Ufufu!”

I’ll definitely tease her lots.

Then she suddenly raised her head.

“I’VE DECIDED!”

With a *swoosh* she pointed at me.

“The ‘Commoner Club’—— Here and now we’re gonna establish the Commoner Club!!”

“…Commoner Club?”

“That’s right!”

*Gushii!* She clenched her fists.

“I mean, I have to give it my all to learn about commoners from now on, don’t I?! If I have an eye on a commoner, I’ll skill up, right?!”

“You’re saying some pretty weird things just now.”

“And those will be our club activities!”

“You and I!” She pointed her finger back and forth between us.

“It’s just us two, but still club activities! Members! Lots of club activities; performed by its two members!”

She smiled showing her white teeth. She was really pumped, all sparkly, and excessively happy.

“Alright, we’ll begin our activities from tomorrow on!”

When I saw that overly happy face, I had a—— a wild thought.

 

Club activities couldn’t be done by one person alone.

She had been alone in this school all the time.

She had no one who understood her, so hadn’t belonged to a group either. No friends who did the same things. No kind of community feeling.

So it might be because of that that she wanted to create this kinda thing?

 

“Club activities!”

Maybe she hadn’t realized that herself and proposed that thing on the spur of the moment—— that was my wild guess.

…In the early afternoon, a joyful scene was displayed close to the window.

“I’m really happy for some reason!”

With cheeks blushing, Aika-san was acting absurdly merry.

 Translator notes and references

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