Chapter 4
Chapter 4
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: Meetings, Fate, and a Bucket (3)
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We moved to begin the enrollment process.
Our destination was the student council room, one of the few relatively intact places within the dilapidated school building.
*Scritch, scritch—*
Alvitt’s cute, pink lips were pursed in a pout.
With a nonchalant flick of her wrist, she moved the pen, filling out the required personal information on the application form, student roster, and other documents.
“Ah… the ink… Ugh.”
The cheap pen I’d collected from various events kept running out of ink, making parts of her writing faint. But she finished filling out the documents, concluding with an elegant signature of her name.
[Application Form]
[Name: Alvitt]
[Desired Major: Applied Ether Martial Arts]
With everything recorded, Alvitt officially became a student of Central Prism Academy. Once a copy of these documents was submitted to the United Student Council's administrative office, her student ID would be validated.
“Here.”
“Heehee—☆ Now you can’t run away~☆”
“That way of talking makes me want to run away even more, so please stop…”
“Naughty, naughty—☆”
*Wink☆*
I shot a wink at the disgusted Alvitt, who turned her head with a groan of ‘Ugh.’
Thanks to that, I was able to slowly review the enrollment papers.
“Hmm☆”
“Do you have to use that weird tone even when you hum?”
“Tsk, tsk—☆”
“Ugh…”
Hey now, your senior is speaking!
I took the papers Alvitt handed over with a disgruntled look and read through them slowly.
The letters were written in a neat hand.
Trivial details that couldn't be known from the in-game settings or data.
For example, she wanted her dorm room assigned to a quiet corner.
And while she wasn’t a picky eater, she hoped meat would be served often.
Reading her desired major and final request, I couldn't help but smile wryly.
‘Sorry. This is a dirt-poor school. We don’t have anything like what you’re imagining.’
Specialized majors are only possible when you have enough students to divide roles. Here, with so few students, you had to be your own ether engineer, martial artist, supporter, and researcher. An elite corps where one person had to do the work of ten just to keep things running.
‘You’ve truly become an elite recruit, Alvitt.’
Or a future washout.
For the record, Central Prism Academy had no cafeteria, a facility that existed in every other academy. It was truly every student for herself. Even I, who was completely accustomed to the Academy City, had to wander through the nearby shopping districts and alleyways to find a meal.
‘Still, this upperclassman will do her best to make sure you’re well-fed.’
I’d been preparing for this moment, building up goodwill by running personal errands for the shopkeepers.
Properly managing the mental well-being of one’s juniors was a virtue of a senior.
“…”
I scanned the documents from the beginning, even though I had already read them once.
In truth, I had been watching her fill them out intently from the start.
There wasn't really anything to check, but as a gamer, watching a main character fill out her student roster was a profound experience.
‘It’s basically the equivalent of registering a change of address in the Academy City.’
Even knowing the story would eventually begin, guarding this dirt-poor school by myself for a year had been mentally exhausting.
‘Well, it’s not like I did much to protect the school during that first year.’
The Clara in the game was incompetent, but her love for the school was genuine.
That was why she had no qualms about guarding the desolate, dirt-poor school all by herself.
‘Instead, I focused on my martial arts training.’
Even a girl with a warm heart.
Even a man with a passionate soul.
Everyone needs a place to rest their heart.
For the girl, it was the school; for the man, it was martial arts.
But after everything I'd been through, I eventually returned to being just one girl, ‘Clara’.
‘Having only thought of myself before, the one thing I can do for the Academy City now is follow the original story.’
Letting those thoughts drift away, I committed the documents I’d read over and over to memory.
From now on, I had to use this information to look after my junior as her senior.
‘In any case, a new student has finally arrived. Welcome, comrade.’
I gathered the enrollment papers and put them back in order.
The makeshift table’s corners were completely worn and rounded.
I tapped the stack of papers against the hard surface, straightening them into a neat pile.
Alvitt watched the scene blankly, her lips sticking out in a pout.
Seeing all this, I smiled and spoke to Alvitt.
“Now we just have to submit a copy to the United Student Council's administrative office, and that’s it—☆ I sincerely☆ totally☆ truly congratulate you on your enrollment at Central Prism Academy☆ Should we have a little celebratory☆ tea party at a cute tea table? Actually, we don’t have a cute tea table, so we’ll have to do it here—♡”
“…Sigh.”
It was a school she had to attend anyway, following her mother’s wishes.
But now that her escape route was completely cut off, Alvitt sighed with empty eyes.
The ribbon on her middle school uniform drooped, seeming to represent her pitiful state.
‘Ah, the uniform.’
Whoops.
How could I make such a mistake.
I lamented having forgotten the very first step of recruitment. A fresh recruit's crisp uniform. Isn't that the true beginning of all school life?
“Ahaha☆ First, we need to get you a cute uniform☆ It’s totally girl☆ the high school—! Yaaay!”
“A uniform?”
“Isn’t it the epitome of youthful romance? Kya-ha☆ Maybe that sounded a bit like an old man—☆”
“…Youth.”
“That’s right—☆ Let’s have fun at school together!”
Hearing those words.
Was it my imagination, or did Alvitt’s eyes seem to sparkle a little?
We sprang up from our seats, placed the enrollment papers in a cabinet in the student council room, and then left for the school’s supply closet.
*Creek.*
*Creek.*
Even with two light girls walking on it, the old wooden floor of the hallway groaned and twisted, making its presence known.
*Creek.*
*Creek.*
The old hallway where every footstep was starkly audible.
It was useful when delinquents wandering the Academy City tried to break in and rob the place.
But the fact that the school was old and poor was so obvious that I felt a little embarrassed.
I knew it wasn't my fault the school was poor.
But it felt as though the hallway had gotten a little more worn down in the year I'd spent living as I pleased.
Hiding my embarrassment, I grabbed Alvitt’s sleeve and hurried her toward the supply room.
‘There are plenty of leftover uniforms, so I’ll just have to pick a few that are roughly the right size and get them tailored at the shopping district.’
“Kya-ha—☆ Let’s give it our all to dress up cutely and become adorable the☆high☆school☆girls—♡ It’s a cute crusade♡”
“Yes, thank you… senior.”
As we walked down the noisy hallway in silence.
Just when the school’s shabbiness started to feel familiar, a scene suddenly caught my eye.
The blue sky was visible through the paint-chipped window of the hallway.
The sky, refreshed after a March spring rain that had made the flowers hesitate.
A cool spring breeze carried the earthy scent of the school grounds in through the window.
*Whoosh—*
The sound of time walking down the hallway alongside the two girls' footsteps.
The faint scent of flowers tickling the cheeks and the gentle sway of clouds after the rain.
“…”
“…”
Without the cheerful students of the Academy City who were always everywhere.
It was a tranquility that could only be felt in a quiet place like this.
It was an ordinary scene, yet for some reason, it was hard to look away.
Alvitt was staring at it blankly.
“…A fun school life.”
“That’s right☆”
She muttered the words I had said a while ago.
For some reason, at that moment, on our way to the supply room to find a uniform, Alvitt seemed to be smiling faintly.
Somehow, I felt like I understood how she felt.
It’s in these truly ordinary scenes that you realize you’ve arrived.
＊
On our way back from getting Alvitt’s uniform tailored at the shopping district.
We realized we were facing a very serious situation.
Alvitt, now changed into her newly tailored uniform, was shouting out her indignation.
“What?! There’s no cafeteria at the school—?!”
“Te-tehee—☆ You’re impertinent for even thinking a school with just one delicate girl would have such a facility☆ Are you trying to make a princess get her hands dirty? Boo-hoo-hoo—☆”
“Stop making that weird noise!!”
“B-but—☆ If I don’t act like this… I feel like you’ll call me an incompetent senior, Alvitt…”
“It just makes you seem even more incompetent!!”
“Those words hurt a girl’s delicate, glass-like heart☆”
“This damn school, I knew it!!”
There it is.
The famous line Alvitt will repeat endlessly throughout the main story.
I silently blessed Alvitt for finally becoming a true Prism student.
“A-anyway—☆ That coat looks great on you, Alvitt! It’s cute! Not as cute as me, but still. It’s cute!”
“You’re weird even when you’re changing the subject, senior.”
Although Alvitt said that.
She seemed to like the Central Prism Academy uniform, with its white base and red accents.
*Flutter—*
The white coat Alvitt wore fluttered in the wind blowing through the shopping district.
The coat, a symbol of a school's student council within the union.
At Central Prism Academy, with its small student body, everyone wore one.
Among them, Alvitt’s coat had a particularly special emblem on the back.
Seven diagonal lines within an equilateral triangle.
The emblem of Central Prism Academy and the symbol of the student council president.
The coat Alvitt was wearing was the one-of-a-kind student council president’s coat.
I pretended not to know and continued to tease her.
“Ah☆ Are you showing off right now? Showing off your new uniform—☆”
“The wind just blew my coat open, that’s all!!”
“Honestly☆ Alvitt, you’re so not honest with yourself—☆”
“…”
“What? Was it for real? Kyahahaha☆ You’re surprisingly cute…”
“…Senior.”
“Hm?”
Alvitt suddenly called to me in a cautious voice.
“This… isn’t this what the school’s student council president wears?”
“…”
“Why… give it to me?”
“Umm☆”
I never imagined I would be asked that question.
‘In the story, she wore it without any suspicion.’
But for some reason, the answer came out effortlessly.
“Because that outfit is for the most special girl belonging to each school—☆”
“By that logic, you, the only student, should be the one…”
I quietly shook my head at her words.
“I was just… here☆ I was just lucky enough to enroll at Central Prism Academy when it was only full of seniors about to graduate☆”
“…”
“Then, the one who should wear this coat all the more is...”
“…”
“Isn’t it right to give it to the girl who could have gone anywhere, but chose to walk into Central Prism Academy on her own—☆”
“…Senior.”
“Because connections, destiny… the ones you choose for yourself are the most special of all☆”
＊
She came on her own.
In truth, that statement was contradictory.
Alvitt had come because her mother told her to.
But.
The words of her senior, who was always clumsy yet surprisingly meticulous, somehow struck a chord.
Alvitt had no choice but to quietly accept it.
‘The most special girl…’
Clara soon pulled out two buckets and held them out.
“Here! From now on, we’ll carry these and go around the shopping district, receiving kindness from the shopkeepers☆ Bread crusts, cabbage leaves, discarded vegetables, and so on☆ That’s how we’ll become noble maidens who live off the kindness of others—☆”
“That’s just begging. And where did you get those buckets?”
“It’s kindness, kindness☆”
As if she wouldn't listen to another word, Clara quickly handed one bucket to Alvitt and skipped away with steps like a dance.
“…”
A bucket.
Her meeting with that bizarre senior today.
It all started with the sound of this bucket.
“Come on~☆ If you don’t follow, I’m leaving you behind—☆ Yaaay!”
“Sigh.”
The bond that began with a bucket.
Was one Alvitt would never forget for as long as she lived.
It was a truly bizarre connection.
“Wait for me, senior!!”
In the end, Alvitt chose to take the bucket and follow.