Chapter 5
Chapter 5
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: A Girl's Bonds and Her Unstoppable Sprint ☆ (1)
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If you live in the Academy City, there's a certain race you see almost as often as the fearsome high school girls.
They are the strange creatures you see scurrying through the shopping district on mechanical legs.
The Dwarves, a mechanical race.
They look like simple facial features drawn on a metal sphere.
Four-head-tall mechanical beings, as if stuck on top of a short, cylindrical body.
No matter how you look at them, they resemble robots, but in this world, they were unequivocally human.
Immune to Ether poisoning, the Dwarves could live in Academy City Yggd without issue, even without the Ether abilities of the high school girls. They all made a living by running shops near the schools and on the streets.
‘They really look like robots, no matter how I see them...’
In the game, I often encountered them as NPCs.
But seeing them in person, it was hard to tell who was who, or even if they were male or female, until I heard their voices.
After some time, however, I learned to distinguish them by the differences in their mannerisms and attire.
One of the reasons I became so familiar with them...
was probably because I spent the last year running all sorts of errands in the shopping district near the school.
-Thank you, child. At my age, it's hard to go far.
-Thanks, Clara! That grandfather of mine... Why does he put things on high shelves...
-Thank you, Miss Clara. It's quite difficult to move these flour sacks by myself.
For them, with their short limbs, even simple tasks like deliveries and tidying up were tricky. Just by helping with those, I could earn their gratitude and goodwill. The food and daily necessities they gave me in thanks were a huge help, especially given our school's poor circumstances.
‘Though Alvitt hated it, saying living off freebies was pathetic.’
Being able to ask someone for help in an unexpected situation.
Receiving help, both tangible and intangible, from those around you is a great strength.
People can't always live by transactions and payments as clear-cut as a sword's edge.
It was my job to maintain this until she realized that, I supposed.
‘I've been storing everything except the food in the supply closet. It'll be a big help someday.’
Whenever I helped the people in the shopping district, I always did so in the name of Central Prism Academy.
‘Even though the shopkeepers know I'm the only one from that school who comes around.’
It might seem like a flimsy pretense, but...
[A favor from Clara] and [a favor from a student of Central Prism Academy].
There's a big difference between the two.
By removing ‘my name’ as the source of the goodwill, I can pass the chain of that connection to someone else from the same group.
I want to pass it on to my juniors.
So that one day, the juniors who come to Central Prism Academy can inherit the goodwill of the shopkeepers.
‘Before teaching them how to fish, I need to build the fishing spot first.’
Hilde, as the president of the United Student Council and representative of the Academy City, was probably doing similar things.
Though, of course, she was doing far more than I was.
With that in mind.
On an early spring morning.
The third day after Alvitt had enrolled.
I was still stopping by the shopping district to run errands for the Dwarves.
“Heh heh heh...”
This Dwarf, with his impressive white beard made of optical fibers, was the old man from the tailor shop. In return for my errands, he repaired not only my stuffed dolls but also my school uniform, all free of charge.
He was one of the shopkeepers I was closest to.
The old tailor had the air of a master physician.
His current worry was delivering laundry for a regular customer who lived an awkwardly long distance away.
Apparently, the customer had dropped off the laundry before moving far away and then forgotten about it.
Dressed in my red tracksuit, the designated gym uniform for Central Prism Academy, I accepted the items.
“Oh, really? Thank you, Clara.”
“Hee hee hee~☆ This is easier than eating cake!”
“Even if it's for a regular... traveling dozens of kilometers at my age is a bit much... And it feels wasteful to use the Ether train for such a small delivery... I'm sorry to trouble you.”
“Don't you worry! I'll be back before the macarons get cold~☆”
“But... aren't macarons usually already cold before you eat them?”
“Hehe☆ It's just an expression~!”
I could feel the old tailor shaking his head.
*Ching.*
*Ching.*
I put the laundry in the bag hanging from the side of my bicycle. Then, ringing the bell loudly, I pushed off, pedaling with all my might.
*Chirrr—*
The dark horizon of the early dawn.
A dawn where the sun's faint presence was slowly making itself known.
The indigo and violet sky, where the stars that had watched over the night's end were now greeting the morning.
*Ching.*
*Ching.*
As the diligent shopkeepers began to open their stores one by one, a single red figure sped past.
The red bicycle's name was Red Hare.
It was a founding contributor, on par with my stuffed penguin, Mr. Penguin.
My faithful steed, responsible for my transportation since my first year.
I pushed Red Hare's gears to the max, urging it onward.
‘Let's go, Red Hare!! To battle!!’
*Ching.*
*Ching.*
Red Hare's gears roared fiercely in response.
It felt like the road today would be a battlefield.
Like Guan Yu, who returned with an enemy general's head before the wine had cooled, I had to get to the next town and back before the early dawn fully broke.
‘I wonder if Alvitt is awake yet?’
I needed to finish this errand quickly, have breakfast with Alvitt, and then look up information on the next student to enroll.
‘Lotha, the little kid with twintails.’
Unlike Alvitt, she wouldn't come to us on her own; we were destined to meet through an accidental incident. So I had to keep an ear out for any news in the area for a while.
I couldn't wait to meet her, the girl with dreams brighter than anyone's.
I pedaled with all my strength, racing down the main outer road leading away from the shopping district.
The deserted road at dawn.
The scenery of the shopping district receding in an instant.
The landscape beyond the road stretching out like smeared paint.
The wind striking my face, the swaying of my tied-up hair.
I was a streak of pink wind, racing onward.
I could feel the bicycle's frame growing warm from the heat of the spinning chain. And I could feel my own heart heating up with anticipation for meeting my next junior.
‘Hilde, are you feeling this same sense of fulfillment at the United Student Council?’
A faint, silver star in the dawn sky.
Seemed to shine as brilliantly as her eyes.
***
When I returned, Alvitt was already awake.
Having woken up early, Alvitt was dressed in a red tracksuit, just like me. She had tidied up the main hall, which had been a complete mess, and was practicing her Ether swordsmanship alone.
She was a diligent one, acting on her own without being told.
Moreover, perhaps due to her neat personality, the sand on the main hall floor, which I had used without caring about things like bird droppings, was now neatly arranged. And the practice weapons, which had been stashed deep in the school's armory, were now polished to a shine.
Alvitt buried her face in a towel, wiping away her sweat.
She sheathed her practice sword and walked slowly to the main gate to greet me.
“Oh, senior? Where have you been?”
“Hee hee~☆ It's a girl's se-cret♡”
“Well, you were probably running errands for the shopkeepers.”
“...”
Alvitt had become quick-witted. It was getting harder to play pranks on her without being found out.
‘Has she completely adapted in just three days?’
Truthfully, Alvitt was always a perceptive character.
Her initial flustered appearance was just due to nervousness.
Or maybe it was because I'd turned her mental state into konjac jelly.
‘Still, isn't she adapting a bit too fast?’
Did I push her sense of responsibility too hard with my loser act on the first day?
Alvitt saw my sullen face, dejected that my ‘girl's secret’ had been seen through, and chuckled.
“I mean, you left a note in front of my room saying you were going to the shopping district.”
“R-Right~☆ But that alone...”
“And every time we went around ‘begging,’ the bakery owner thanked you for helping with errands.”
I thought she was just grumbling and not paying attention back then.
She heard everything.
“...”
“Did you really think I wouldn't know? You were planning to tease me all day, weren't you, going on about tea time if I wanted to know the girl's secret.”
“...”
Damn it.
I was planning to tease her all morning with that ‘girl's secret’ line.
Feeling deflated, I quietly wheeled my bicycle inside.
“...”
“Ah, she's pouting.”
Alvitt giggled, slinging the towel around her neck, and glided silently toward me.
Her presence and breathing.
Her footsteps and the distribution of her strength.
‘Her use of [Basic Ether] is proficient, but she hasn't reached the level of [Vibrating Ether] yet.’
I subconsciously assessed Alvitt's level, gauging the ‘interval’—the range for attack and defense.
In truth, the skill gap between us was so vast it was meaningless to measure. Even with her right next to me, I felt no sense of danger.
She still has a long way to go.
But her potential is limitless.
Unaware of my inner thoughts.
Alvitt smiled brightly, pointed at Red Hare, and said.
“So you ride a bicycle. That's not the image I had of you.”
“This is my wonderful steed, my companion throughout my school life~☆”
“I pictured you as the type to call for an electric cart to take you somewhere, even if it was walking distance.”
“I see~☆ That must mean I look like a noble and cute princess to you~☆”
“Senior, your notes are written so normally, but you always talk like this.”
‘Do you have a problem with my pretty-filter?’
Alvitt looked exasperated.
She pulled the crumpled letter from her tracksuit pocket.
For the record, the stationery was also something I'd picked up in bulk from another school's event.
[Gone to the shopping district. Don't be surprised if I'm not here in the morning. - Clara]
Alvitt waved the paper and said.
“If you always spoke this clearly, you'd seem like a more dependable senior...”
“So you're saying I'm the type you want to protect? Kyaa~☆”
“Ah, yes. There it is.”
Sighing, Alvitt crumpled the paper back into her pocket.
Considering her usual neatness, she would never just toss trash on the ground.
As I was locking up my bicycle, Alvitt seemed to remember something and spoke.
“Oh, right. Senior. A letter came this morning. I checked, and it's a notice from the United Student Council.”
“Huh? From the Council?”
“I haven't opened it yet, I was waiting for you. Let's look at it together now that you're back.”
“Okay! Let's do it☆”
And so, still in our tracksuits, we entered the student council room.
On the student council room table lay an envelope bearing the United Student Council's emblem.
I tore it open and spread the notice out so Alvitt could see it too.
The content was a warning about biker gangs using illegal Ether vehicles.
It was a warning that delinquent students had expanded their territory from the slums to the areas near the city center. Their main tactic, it said, was to kidnap innocent students from various schools and then contact their schools to extort cash disguised as ransom.
Alvitt frowned at the delinquents' actions and muttered.
“What cowards. Kidnapping students...”
“...”
I agreed with her muttering but didn't say anything.
‘Looks like the incident is about to happen.’
The junior I want to meet.
‘Lotha’ ends up enrolling in Central Prism Academy because of the trouble these guys cause.