Translator: Flowingcloud"s Friend Editor: Arocks141 Proofreader: Arocks141 TLC: ShimizuA
“It"s not a big deal. I just reiterated something I read in the past.”
Tsurayuki replied with a grin, as he ate the katsudon he had in his hand.
“It"s just that the one I happened to remember was the missing one, I would have struck out had it been another. It was just a coincidence, pure coincidence”
“So you say, but it"s still amazing how you said it so smoothly with that timing.”
As I spoke enthusiastically, Nanako and Shinoaki agreed, “Right, even I didn"t understand any of the explanations.”
“The sensei was shocked right, he was all like "you could actually answer this~?!"”
Everyone was very excitedly ushering out praises, but Tsurayuki didn"t seem to be particularly happy, and as everything calmed down,
“Well. Then, I"m going to my part-time job now.”
He said briefly, and walked out of the cafeteria.
“I wonder if he was in a bad mood?”
He was being complimented, so he didn"t have to be so cold.
“I"m sure he is just not used to being complimented.”
“Is that so?”
“Of course, I"m sure he must be feeling himself out of our sights about now.”
Nanako stretched as, “Well then, I also have a night shift, so I"m out of here.”
“Oh, alright.”
“Later.”
Shinoaki saw off Nanako, who was taking off.
Although Nanako did not stand out in cla.s.s, she already had many friends, and she seemed to be enjoying college life smoothly.
“Everyone is really doing their best. I guess I have to try harder myself so I"m not left behind.”
“Ah, yeah. That"s true.”
I nodded to Shinoaki"s words.
In my mind, Shinoaki and Tsurayuki were in the same category.
(She will someday become a maestro, of course her thoughts are completely different from mine.)
I couldn"t relate/connect the figure of this girl happily slurping on her strawberry milk with the ghastly state she had been in the other day.
Having come from a world 10 years into the future, I thought that I had a much greater advantage over everyone else. I thought it would be absolutely advantageous.
However, even though I was a professional in the entertainment industry, the knowledge I cultivated there was useless. Rather, it became clear that I did not even understand the basics.
I began to think that it was more important to be talented or to study than to have experience.
“Hmm……”
I faced down and immersed myself in my thoughts.
Everyone is amazing. Among them, I am the only one who is helplessly mediocre.
I wondered if I would be able to keep up at this rate. My anxiety wouldn"t go away.
“What is it?”
“Eh?”
Before I realized it, Shinoaki was staring into my face.
“Oh, no, it"s nothing.”
“Hm-m, well if you say so.”
As Shinoaki smiled, “Hey, Kyoya?”
“Hmm, what is it?”
As Shinoaki smiled, she grabbed the hem of my cloth and pulled it.
“If you don"t have anything doing right now, will you accompany me for a bit?”
“Eh? I, I don"t mind……”
“In that case, follow me.”
Shinoaki didn"t have any plans for part-time jobs, so what could it be?
As I was wondering, I decided to accompany Shinoaki, who stood up and started walking.
A side street deviated from the main street of the school building and led to the school gate. There was a building on this street lined with the club rooms of the cultural group circles. 1
It was this building that Shinoaki brought me to.
“Ooh, there are a lot of them. Where shall we start looking?”
Speaking happily, she glanced at each room filled with its own rich personality. At this point of time, many of the doors were still pasted with member recruitment stickers.
“As expected of an Art University, there are appeals for something everywhere.”
There were several variations, such as handwriting, wood carving, cloth dyeing, and so on.
“I caught a cold and missed the invitation party! So I have to make up for it.”
In Oogei, the recruitment of freshmen in each circle is performed immediately after matriculation.
Many circles appeal on the stage of the auditorium, and interested freshmen find the circle in which they want to enter. But if you fail to join the circle, you"ll have to go around the building and choose a circle later. It seemed like the number of clubs in Oogei was ridiculously large, and the compet.i.tion for new students was getting worse every year.
While I was looking at the enthusiastic appeals, there were some weird clubs that I didn"t know much about.
So, Shinoaki was among those non-partic.i.p.ating groups, huh.
“Oh, Kyoykun!”
Shinoaki pulled my clothes again.
“Look! There"s a tatami mat in the club room!”
Looking where she pointed, there was a room in the middle of the line that was distinctly different from the others.
A lot of dangerous weapons could be seen in the tatami-floored room when peeking through the entrance door.
Not only that, there were also a number of shurikens, in the shape of sticks, diamond shapes, and so on, on the tatami mat, which was put up against the wall.
“Oh…… That must be, the Ninjutsu study group.”
“Ninjutsu?”
“Apparently, in j.a.pan, it"s only in Oogei which has a Ninja circle, these only exist in 2 schools, even across the world.”
Certainly, Genkiro told me about this as a remarkable exercise circle at the time of the invitation party.
I gave her the explanation exactly as he told me.
“Wow…… That"s quite the rare circle,” Shinoaki said in admiration.
Looking closely, students who were doing muscle training in front of the club room were also wearing ninja outfits, so it made for a very strange sight.
Is Genkiro really interested in this real world alternate reincarnation kind of circle…….
“Then, is that person a ninja, too?”
“Who?”
At the end of the hallway where Shinoaki pointed, a man was crawling on the ground.
He raised a strange groan sound, and was slowly sweating on his face.
He wasn"t exactly wearing a ninja outfit.
“…… Could it be that he just collapsed?”
“Eh, eeeeh!?”
In a hurry, the both of us rushed over to the guy.
“Oh, uhmm, are you alright?”
The guy was clad in a shabby parka jacket and one of those tattered crazy jeans, no…… Rather, he was just dressed up pretty wildly.
As I tried to hold his body, he raised a “Ugh, Ug~hh” loud groan.
And as he looked around,
“Are you confident in your strength?”
That"s right, he was asking me.
“Aah?”
“I am very tired right now. Putting it simply, I can"t go back to the club room by myself, so I have been lying here groaning, but if you have the strength, I was hoping you could grit your teeth, lend your shoulder and carry this 5th year photography department student, Takashi Kiryu, back into the club room.”
Setting aside the fact that that wasn"t a word, This man was a person who uttered his specific desire.
“Fortunately, I"m quite confident in my strength.”
“Then I beg of you. I really can"t move anymore.”
……Oh geez.
“Shinoaki, uhmm.”
“Oh no, you don"t have to worry about me. That bro seems to be in pain.”
Despite having her time to look around the circle cut short, Shinoaki had a bright smile on her face.
“I"m so sorry. Now then, uh-mm…… Kiryu-senpai.”
“Ooh, are you going to help me.”
“For now. Where is the room?”
I lent my shoulder to the senpai and walked in the direction that he indicated.
“I"m very sorry, I"m heavy right?”
“No, at all.”
Honestly, I didn"t feel the weight at all.
He looked thin at a glance, but he was surprisingly light when I actually carried him.
If a man was this light, then it was kinda worrisome in it"s own way.
“Oh, here we are, it"s at the second floor.”
From the very end of the club building, there was a new building that seemed to have been newly built.
“There was a circle in this distant place.”
Shinoaki looked at it in an unusual manner.
When I climbed up the stairs, a room without any sign seemed to be the destination.
“Is it alright to leave you at the door?”
“No, please enter…… Place me on the chair inside.”
I entered the room of about 10 tatami mats, and laid Kiryu-san on the chair at the center of the room.
There were canvas put up everywhere in the room. There were paintings of multi-colored geometric patterns, realistic landscape paintings, they had no uniformity at all.
“Wow, This place really reeks of Oogei.”
Shinoaki seemed to be crazy about those pictures.
“Oh no, you"ve been a great help. I was able to return to the club room thanks to you two.”
Kiryu-san gave his appreciation, relieved.
“Not at all. Now then, we"ll excuse ourselves.”
Having said that, it was the moment I turned to walk away from the club room.
As Kiryu-san, who had been exhausted so far, suddenly stood up upright,
“New members, secured——!!!!”
“Eh?”
“Huh?”
People jumped out from various parts of the club room as a result of that voice.
“Great, nicely done, club president! Finally, the tragedy of 3 consecutive years of reduction in budget”
“This year, I won"t have to borrow members from the circle next door! That was so miserable and really sad……”
“With this, we can finally breathe this year! Oh, there is a girl too! Amazing! so cute!”
“Stop saying amazing and such, do you want to scare off the freshman-chan! Hey what"s your department? Fine arts? Graphic? If it"s performing arts, I can teach you a lot of things!”
In front of Shinoaki and me, who were perplexed, they cheered with joy and started shouting "Banzai" repeatedly.
About a minute later, finally, “We were set up……” I realized that this entire situation had been set up.
Circles could also be denoted as clubs and may be interchanged over the course of this novel.