“I’m off,” I said as I left the house.

Outside, white snow was falling heavily on the ground. The sun was blocked by the clouds that cover the sky, and the area was dimly lit with the surrounding rays.

I opened my umbrella with my small hands and walked slowly, leaving small footprints in the accumulating snow. The streets, the roofs, and the trees were completely covered in snow. The world was dyed entirely white.

Even the breath that escaped my mouth was white in color.

This area is not an area prone to heavy snowfall. However, every year, snow falls from the sky in a ritualistic manner, chilling the whole world. The snow piles up even on the umbrella that I held up. I took short, careful strides, trying to not get my feet caught in the snow as I walked alone towards a certain place.

I could hear the sound of a piano coming from somewhere nearby. It was a really pretty sound, but it must’ve been a child who was practicing it nearby. It was a sound that even I, an amateur at the piano, could tell came from an inexperienced player.

The inside of the house was warmer than the outside. The magical heating system was fully developed and kept the room at a comfortable temperature. In comparison, the outside world was very, very cold, although that was to be expected from all the snow accumulated outside.

A white world where life slept in peace. The animals were confined to their dens, the trees had lost their leaves and ceased their activities. I was walking slowly through this path, making my own small footsteps in the white world.

At that time, a girl appeared in front of me.

“Zeke! I’ve been waiting for you!”

“…………”

“I’m not going to lose today! Let’s settle this…!”

In the midst of the falling snow, the girl put her hands on her hips, turned her chest away, and shouted loudly at me.

The girl was wearing a catsuit over her pale blue hair and warm looking coat. The red coat worked well with her blue hair. It gave her a confident look and a lively impression to others.[TLN: Wiki for catsuit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catsuit]

Her name is Anya. She is my friend who is going to the same place as me. She was ten years old, the same age as me. She was still a small, young child.

“…Have you been waiting in this snowy weather?”

“I don’t care, you’re gonna be my rival for my entire life!” [TLN: She used 終生(Shusei) which means lifelong or lifetime]

The little girl was using the word “life”. It was probably a word she had just learned. Her intonation was slightly different than usual. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of her looking so proud. Seeing me like this, Anya puffed up her cheeks in frustration.

“It’s only now that you can afford to be complacent. After all, I’m a genius.”

The girl in front of me was not holding an umbrella. There was a light coating of snow on her head and shoulders.

“Do you want to share… the umbrella with me?”

It would have been embarrassing to share an umbrella with her, but I thought I would’ve been a terrible person if I didn’t ask her.

“I don’t care. Let’s get going.”

It’s true that many children don’t take an umbrella when it snows. She trotted off ahead of me at a quick pace. I let out a sigh and slowly follow her as she turns around and looks at me.

The two of us walk through the snow together.

The footprints of two different people were marked on the ground beneath us. Anya’s footprints were haphazardly scattered across the snow as she moved about beside me, walking at a slower pace than before.

Eventually we arrived at the station. I brushed off the snow from her head and clothes, and got on the train with her. The train took us to the next stations, three stops away. Even though it was only a ten-minute ride, Anya’s legs were wobbling on the chair, looking as if she was bored of just sitting on the train with nothing to do.

“They’re going to be releasing the Science test results today! This is where I win against you!”

“They said that they raised the difficulty on the cram school’s test. Are you sure about this?”

“Of course I am. I’m a genius after all.”

“Right.”

“Some people call me a child prodigy, you know!”

“Right.”

“That means I’m a god!”

“No, you’re not.”

She was confidently declaring that she was a God.

But she truly was a genius. It seems that she’s always proud of herself for being first place in the school tests, and because her school lessons are not enough for her intellect, she has been sent to the highest level cram school in the area. She was one of the top students in the entire school, and more specifically, she was one of the top students in the national examinations for the elementary school.

A child prodigy for sure, an honor student among honor students, that was Anya.

“But I think I’m smarter than most adults.”

“…………”

Therefore, it’s no wonder that her nose would become a little bigger compared to others. It’s difficult to tell a child who’s more capable than anyone else to NOT develop a superiority complex. It’s even difficult for adults who think so.

It is natural for people to be swept up by their talents.

“But Anya, you know the proverb, “A child prodigy at ten, a gifted child at fifteen, and a normal man at twenty?”

“I’ve heard that before.”

“That’s Anya for you.”

“But I don’t really get it.”

“…………”

Anya said, raising an eyebrow.

“Why is it that when you turn 20, the person in the proverb becomes a normal person? He’s a genius, right? Is the person in the proverb bewitched to become an idiot at the age of 20?”

“…that’s it.”

It was certainly too difficult for a normal ten year old to comprehend that proverb. There was no way she could understand it. It was a proverb that was difficult to understand without being exposed to a part of wider society.

“That’s because… advantages as a child means almost nothing in the real world.”

“Hmm…”

Anya responded to my words with a head tilt.

Just around the corner, the train arrived at our destination station. As we got off the train, the cold air hit us.

We walked through the developed city. Commercial buildings stood tall, narrowing the sky. The snow was trampled down by many people, making the streets slipperier than those near our house. The snow fell quietly amidst the noise of the cars and the bustle of the city. No matter how much it snowed, people did not stop their activities and walked briskly, looking busy.

“…Achee”

Anya sneezed and shuddered. Snot dripped sluggishly from her tiny nose. Needless to say, it’s very cold outside when it’s snowing.

“…Do you want to come under the umbrella?”

I pulled a tissue out of my pocket and at the same time tilted the umbrella slightly in her direction.

“I don’t care. Let’s just get inside the warm school!”

Anya said while blowing her nose with the tissue, and started running towards our destination. She was certainly right. It would be more efficient to get to the destination quickly and warm up over there, rather than to walk slowly outside in the cold under the umbrella.

Our destination was a cram school. We were students at a cram school that offered more difficult classes than our school school. Of course, the inside of the school was heated up, so a warm room awaited us. I had been walking slowly, but I had no choice but to follow her back and start running to catch up with her. I ran on the snow, being careful to not fall down.

“A child prodigy at ten, a gifted child at fifteen, a normal person at twenty.”

There is a saying that goes something like that.

It is a proverb that warns us that even if you are better than others when we are young, if you act too proud, you’ll not be able to use your abilities wisely when you grow up.

I wonder if it’s also used in the sense that when you grow up and learn about the wider world, you realize that you’re not good enough compared to the past you.

Anyways, it’s meant to say that even if you are praised and recognized at an early age, you should not be satisfied with just that, but instead you should continue to make an effort and just try to improve yourself.

……However,

This proverb had a slightly different meaning for me.

“Zeke! Zeke! Let’s compete with our test scores!”

I was in a warm study hall. Anya was standing right in front of me, shouting loudly.

“Anya, you’re so…”

The test was now being returned. The teacher was calling out the names on the stage and returning the answer sheets to each student. As soon as Anya received hers, she ran straight to me and snorted loudly, although we were in class, so the teacher was troubled with her reaction.

“You’re… usually cool, but when it comes to winning against me, you’re extremely passionate…”

“You can’t afford to be complacent at such a time! Here, take this!”

Anya turned her chest to me and showed me her answer sheet. She was holding it a bit too close to my face, so it was hard to make out what was written on it. But there was indeed a score of 97 on it.

“…Wow, that’s amazing. 97 points.”

“Hmph!”

The corners of Anya’s mouth rose silently, showing off her proud face. This score was actually really amazing. This test had a lot of practical questions, and the number of students who could get such a high score would be almost zero.

The tests at this cram school were more difficult than at a normal school. This is a cram school for honors students, a place of learning for those who aim for a higher level than normal. As a student here, I can say that this was the kind of place it was. There were very few students who could get a 97 in this cram school.

She had excellent grades and was very athletic. She was an honor student amongst honor students.

“I worked so hard on this test to beat you! That’s why it’s so high!”

“Hooh…”

“Even last night, I stayed up all the way till 9:30 studying to try and beat you.”

“You’re leading a more disciplined life than you think, you know.”

I guess I’m usually in bed much earlier than her.

“Okay? The loser of this test will do whatever the winner says!”

“Hey…? It’s not fair to say that after you got your test score.”

This sort of thing should be said before the test actually happens.

“No excuses! There is no such thing as unfairness in this game!”

Since this was happening in the middle of class, everyone in the class was listening to our conversation with great interest. It seemed that no matter how much I tried to convince them of the unreasonableness of the situation, they just wouldn’t accept it. The teacher was scolding us with utter distress, while the others were buzzing at the sudden bet of ours.

“I’m confident this time! If I lose, I’ll do anything you want! I’ll even give you a kiss on the cheek!”

“What are you talking about, you!”

I’m getting really impatient now. The people around me are getting excited at her words. However, Anya still kept her chest out proudly, which showed that she had strong confidence in this test.

The teacher called out my name with a troubled expression. It was my turn to have my test returned. Even though it was my turn to return my test, Anya followed me and peeked at my answer sheet from the side as the teacher handed it to me.

“No way…?”

Anya’s expression stiffened. Her mouth gapes open and a surprised expression sticks on her face.

“A-Ah, yo-you got a hundred on this test as well?!”

“…………”

I had scored a hundred on the test.

Anya was dumbfounded. Her mouth hung open in disbelief at what she was seeing. She must have studied very, very hard. The test was difficult and it was extremely difficult to actually manage to get a score of 97.

It’s not that hard to imagine, with a score of 97, she’d probably be the best student in the entire school. Excluding me, of course.

And yet, I was the one who won.

“100 points?”

“…So Anya-chan lost?”

“Anya’s on a streak!”

It was everyone else’s comments which upset Anya.

“What?”

“Geh.”

It was a bad move. Anya’s expression tenses. I took a step back.

“It was a kiss! That’s what Anya just said! Kiss!”

“Uwaa~ So adult like of her~”

“ “ “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” ” ”

“Hey! Everybody, stop right now!”

The teacher scolded them loudly, but the agitated children did not stop. The energy of these children is so great that no matter how much the teacher scolded them, the uncontrollable train would not stop.

Anya’s face flushed red.

“Whoa! What…? EH?”

“It’s okay, Anya. You don’t actually have to do anything.”

Even though it was her own unintentional comment that had caused the problem, Anya was looking pitifully upset. Overwhelmed by the voices around her, her face turned bright red, and she fidgeted and panicked with her jerky movements. I tried my best to calm her down, but her confusion would not subside at all.

“ “ “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” ” ”

“~~Tsu!!”

Her face turned redder than an apple, and steam gushed out of her head. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and she became teary-eyed.

“Uwaaaaaaaaaa!!!”

“Wha!? Anya! Where are you going?”

Without listening to the teacher’s orders, Anya ran out of the classroom with a cry and ran away like the wind.

“…………”

“…………”

The classroom turned quiet. Then the teacher’s sermon began. Everyone was dumbfounded at what just happened.

I thought back to how she was. She was completely dumbfounded when she saw my score of 100, just before the crowd went wild.

She was always trying so hard. She was a girl who was always desperately trying to beat me, a girl who challenged me again and again to a competition just to try and best me. She was a girl who studied hard, combining hard work with natural talent.

But still, she has never actually defeated me.

I felt sorry for her. She was doing her best, after all.

But it’s not her fault. I’m the one who’s cheating here. I got a 100 points by being a coward, not by any hard work like she believes.

Earlier, I’d admonished her for her cowardice for bringing up gambling in the middle of the game. But I had no right to call her a coward from the beginning. I’m not supposed to be in the ring of this competition in the first place. I’m not supposed to associate with people like Anya who are trying their best.

But I can’t tell anyone about my situation after all. If I told anyone about it, they would question my sanity, and even if I managed to somehow tell them about it, I don’t think that they would believe me. After all, I am…

　───A reincarnator

I have memories of my previous life.

　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊

It was a special winter day with the heaviest snowfall recorded since quite a long time ago.

I think it was a cold day, but don’t remember that day very well. Actually rather than remember, I think I didn’t even feel it.

My cause of death in my previous life was a certain disease.

I looked out the window at the sight of the large snowflakes falling in profusion. I managed to raise my head above the bed and envied the pure white scene I could see from my white hospital room. I was twenty-eight years old at the time, working for a common magic tool manufacturing company, just like any other person in the world. Although I was working like a normal person, it was still a struggle.

Apparently, I am what is called an ordinary person, and even if I did the same job as others, I couldn’t achieve the same results as others without working twice as hard compared to others.

It would have been the same for the rest of us anyways. If you don’t work hard enough, you can’t reach the workload required by society. That was the nature of society.

I was neither particularly good nor particularly inferior to others. In that sense, I was just an ordinary person. I once broke up with my girlfriend because I was too busy with work that required me to work much harder than others. Well, I suppose it happens all the time to the best of us.

In such a life, full of only common things in the world, I got sick. Ironically, it was the only thing that made me special and different from the others.

My body stopped moving and I managed to turn my head to look out the window. In my hazy consciousness, I heard from someone that the snow was covering the entire world, and that it was a special kind of a heavy snowfall.

I was envious.

I envied the heavy snowfall.

The heavy snowfall was certainly ‘special’ and will remain in the memories and records of many people as life goes on.

I wanted to be special, too. I wanted to be someone special. I wanted to leave my mark in the world too.

I slowly closed my eyes, feeling selfishly envious of the climate, a divine nature that we have no control over.

Then I lost consciousness, and my life came to an end.

───But then, I reincarnated

I have no way of knowing why or what reason I was here for.

But for some reason, I inherited the memories of my previous life.

It was a cold winter day when I had met Anya, the girl who challenged me.

I met her in a warm building on a dim, sunless day with thick clouds in the sky right outside the window.

It was the first winter I’d experienced after I entered primary school. I kept getting perfect scores for the exams in school, so my parents enrolled me in the most difficult cram school in the neighborhood. It was about three stops away if you go via train. It was a long route for a normal child to go through, but for me, who had spent an hour every day to go to college in a previous life, it was just a short commute.

The school was located in a beautiful building in a new environment. Nervous about the brand new environment, I stepped into the school as if I were seeking warmth from the cold winter weather. Before the class began, the teacher introduced me to everyone, and I was bombarded with questions from many children. Such as – “Where do you live, what is your favorite subject, do you play any sports?” “Yes, yes, yes, yes,” the children kept raising their hands, and the questions never stopped, making it impossible to actually start the class.

…children. Though I’m the same age as them.

I don’t know how to handle a situation like this very well. The teacher standing on the stage admonished the children with a troubled smile, though I must have had the same look on my face as the teacher currently.

I sat down at the empty seat that the teacher had instructed me to go to and took out my textbooks.

　─ Next to me, there was a girl with pale blue hair sitting in her seat.

I got a bit of an odd impression from the girl.

Everyone’s eyes were still on me, the children were smiling and watching my every move with great interest. They glanced at me, the foreign object of this cram school, as if they were expecting a pigeon to suddenly fly out of my mouth.

But the blue-haired girl sitting next to me didn’t look at me at all, she was just looking at the study material in front of her. She didn’t pay any attention to me at all, it was as if I was just a pebble on the side of the road.

Thinking back at it, she was the only one who didn’t ask me any question in the storm of questions. I was asked by the other children.

I don’t remember making eye contact with her even once. I’m sure that while I was standing on the stage and introducing myself, she was looking down towards her textbook, just as she was now.

“…………”

She didn’t seem interested in me at all when I had just entered the school.

I thought that this girl was a little weird.

The class started without having any conversation with the girl.

Unfortunately for my parents, there was nothing for me to actually learn from joining the most difficult cram school. Of course there’d be nothing for me to learn about… It would be a problem if a former 28-year-old had to learn anything from elementary school classes. It may sound arrogant of me to think about such a cocky thing, but I hoped that the life experience of a former 28-year-old would forgive me for that. Over the past few years, I’ve gotten very good at pretending  that I’m hardworking in class.

The first hour of class was over and everyone started asking me questions again. I answered all of the questions with a troubled smile, but the blue-haired girl next to me never asked me a single question.

I had conversed with many people on this day alone, but not once did I converse with the blue haired girl sitting next to me.

After all the classes for the day at the cram school were over, she began getting ready to leave without saying a word to anyone. Just out of curiosity, I tried to talk to her once.

“…you’re not talking to anyone at all, are you in a bad mood today?”

“…It’s nothing”

“My name’s Zeke. What’s yours?”

“…I don’t care.”

She responded coldly with an monotonevoice. She was like a girl on thin ice. But I’m also an adult. I can’t afford to get angry over something like this. Let’s make a joke out of it.

“Are you okay, Ms. I don’t care?”

“…Are you stupid or something?”

She looked at me coldly. Looks like my joke didn’t work. I was taken seriously instead. The child’s eyes showed that she was looking down on me.

“Are you leaving already?”

“…………”

“Don’t you ever hang out with your friends?”

“…………”

She didn’t speak, instead she quickly got ready to leave. She carried a practical bag with a few ornaments on it, looking down at me with her eyes which were big for her small body.

“I don’t care.”

She left the classroom quickly with a cold voice, as if she really didn’t care about her friends.

“…………”

I was a little dumbfounded.

“Yo Zeke! It’s useless talking to her. She’s a very cold person!”

“Paris…”

A boy named Paris came up to me. We had just become friends in between the classes.

“Is that so?”

“Oh yeah, no matter who talks to her, she doesn’t talk back at all! The teacher was worried about her and tried to talk to her, but she just kept quiet the entire time!　She’s the smartest kid in the school and a real pain in the ***, you know!”

“Hey, don’t say anything bad about Anya, Paris.”

“I’m sorry! Sensei!”

That girl’s name is Anya? I spent an entire day without knowing her name until now.

“Is she the best student at this cram school?”

“Oh yeah, she always gets the highest score in the tests. It’s really frustrating.”

Paris crossed his arms and made a reluctant face.

“Well, she sure is a weird kid.”

That was the only impression I had of her.

I would have almost no chance to actually get involved with her. That’s what I was thinking at the time.

After that, I spent the rest of the days not talking to the girl Anya.

Everyone was right, she was a very strange girl. She didn’t talk to anyone nor did she play with anyone, she had just kept to herself the entire time. It seemed to be a regular event at the school where the kind teacher would try to talk to her over and over again, only to be met with a curt attitude in response.

She didn’t seem to have any friends at all. Still, she didn’t seem to care about her current situation. It seemed that she liked the way she was and continued to keep herself isolated.

Apparently, she is a genius. It seems that she’s a prodigy that boasts the highest grades in this cram school where all the smart kids gather together. She has also been ranked first in the end-of-semester tests, and has also ranked highly in the national mock examinations.

I’ve heard that many geniuses are strange people, and she must be one of them. She was a pretty girl with a beautiful face and a lovely headband, but I had never seen her expression move even once. She was like a girl frozen in ice.

She had a cold expression on her face the whole time. She just continued to study with a cold face.

She was sitting right next to me, but she and I had spent our days without any sort of communication. I guess that I was like air to her.

She was not interested in anyone.

It was the day the tests were returned from my cram school. The cram school had a big test at the middle and end of the semester. It reminded me a little of the system in middle and high school.

However, it seemed that those who performed well were given sweets. It was a very simple and worldly way to attract students, and it seemed to be very effective towards them. This cram school knew how to treat children well.

The answer sheets were being returned. The teacher standing on the stage calls out your name and then you go to pick up your answer sheet from her.

I called out to Paris as he walked by me, and he smiled bitterly, saying it was okay. Not bad, but not good either. He always seemed to get a high score on his school tests, so he wasn’t happy with his results this time.

The tests at this cram school are very difficult. All of the students here have excellent grades in school, but the questions on the test were so difficult that even those students would have a hard time answering them. The level of the test was a level higher than that of a regular school.

“…………”

In the meantime, Anya came back to her seat with her answer sheet in hand. I knew it wasn’t a good idea, but I was curious so I went ahead and took a peek at her test score.

Her results were excellent. With scores of 95 and above lined up all in a row. This was an astonishing achievement in a test where the average score was almost 50 points. It seemed that it was true that she was the most talented girl in the school.

Still, she wasn’t pleased or happy. She was already reviewing what she did wrong, accepting this result as a matter of course.

“…………”

I see, this kid seemed to be a true genius.

“Zeke-kun”

My name was called so I left my seat. I walked up to the teacher and took the answer sheet back from her.

“You did amazing Zeke, Sensei is impressed.”

“Thank you.”

I looked at the test returned to me and breathed a sigh of relief. Getting a good score on a test doesn’t make me feel proud, but it does make me feel as if I’ve been relieved of a lot of pressure. I patted my chest and returned to my seat next to Anya.

“…………”

…Hmm? I feel like something strange is looking at me.

“…………”

My eyes met hers.

When I looked to the side, my eyes met Anya’s, her mouth gaping and her eyes rolling. She was staring at me with a sullen look on her face. This was unexpected, since she was always looking at the teaching materials or the blackboard, nothing else.

For the first time in almost a lifetime, I made proper eye contact with her.

“Wh-What is it?”

“…………”

She had a funny look on her face.

She was always so dignified and never lost her composure, but now her face was covered with surprise. She was stunned, dumbfounded, her mouth agape and her whole body trembling.

“…………”

Wh-What the hell? What’s wrong with her?

“Hya-Hyakuten?” [TLN: This means a hundred]

She spoke in a trembling voice. I hadn’t heard her voice in a very long time.

“A-Ah, yeah.”

I had perfect scores in all the subjects. I had managed to maintain my pride as a former 28-year-old. For the past few days, I had been feeling meaningless pressure within myself, wondering what I would do if I had scored poorly on the test for elementary schoolers.

“Hya-Hya-Hyakuten!?”

“O-Oh…”

“Yo-You got a higher score than me?”

“…………”

Of course. No matter how much of a genius she was, I couldn’t just go and lose to a seven-year-old now.

“A-Ah, no way…”

“Eh?”

“No way, No way! It can’t be!”

“Wh-What the hell?”

“No way! It can’t be! What?! You…! You’ve got to be kidding me…!”

“Wh-What’s wrong with you!? Calm down Anya!”

“What…? What!? You got a higher score than me, you fool! Idiot! Stupid, Stupid…!”

“…………”

She suddenly opened her gaping mouth and began to rant and rave like a noisy child.

…No, she is a child, but this is the first time I’ve seen her make a fuss like a child would, and her current appearance was nothing like her usual icy cold demeanor.

I was terribly confused. No, it wasn’t just me. The children and teachers around me were also stunned by Anya’s appearance. That’s right. It was the first time anyone here had actually heard Anya’s loud voice.

“What? Who are you…? Don’t act like you’re so important…!”

“Wa-Wait, don’t pull on my shirt!”

I got tangled up with a seven-year-old girl.

“Stupid, Stupid! Idiot! Blockhead! Your mother’s an idiot!”

“…………”

She got a bit teary-eyed.

“Wa-Wait, Anya-chan, what’s wrong? You shouldn’t have said that to him.”

“Ah, uh, it’s nothing sensei.”

“Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! You got a better score than me! You got a better score than me!”

I can’t get angry over something like this. Rather, my surprise was definitely greater than my anger.

“I HATEEE YOUUUUU—-”

“Ho! See! Anya! Here’s your reward for getting a good score on the test! Eat some sweets and cheer yourself up.”

“…………”

The teacher took out a box full of sweets and urged Anya to eat them. At this cram school, the better the score on the test, the more luxurious the candy you get.

But honestly, I don’t think that she’d be caught by a piece of candy…

“…………”

“…But…Th-That…”

Anya was staring at the sweets with tears in her eyes? The shouting had stopped and her attention had turned to the delicious looking assortment of sweets.

“Wh-What’s this? From a while ago?”

With puffy, teary eyes, her gaze never left the cluster of sweets the teacher was holding. It seemed that her interest was gradually turning towards the sweets rather than the test.

Wh-What the hell? What was that all about?

Everyone was confused. It was the first time anyone had ever seen her like this. Everyone was paying attention to her every move.

“…Got it”

She made a small, sultry sound and began to quiet down. The intense anger that she had felt earlier seemed to be slowly subsiding. The teacher and I patted our chests in relief when we saw that Anya had calmed down a bit. The teacher then resumed returning the test.

“Ye-Yes, congratulations to Zeke-kun for placing first in the test… That was very impressive.”

“Thank you…”

As the first place winner, I was also presented with sweets. My reward was a cake from an expensive confectionery store in my neighborhood. The teacher handed me a small box, and through a crack in the box, I caught a glimpse of the beautifully decorated cake. Children love cakes. Everyone in the class looked at me enviously. I don’t think I was as jealous as everyone else in the class, but even I could see through the gap in the box that the cake looked really delicious. [ED:now im hungry wtf. Delete this later dead san thanks]

“Ah-Ahh… Ahhh.”

“Hmm…?”

I heard a strange, shaky voice. I turned in that direction to see Anya staring at me.

“My cake…”

“Hmm?”

“Eh?”

Anya’s face was pale and her body was shaking. When she saw me take the box of cake from the teacher, she looked desperate, as if she had seen the end of the world.

“MY CAKE!”

“…………”

Anya started to say something incomprehensible again.

“I was always first… That cake’s mine.”

“…………”

Anya placed her hands on her cheeks and made a sobbing sound.

…I see. She has always been the best student in her grade at this school. That is to say, every piece of cake that was the reward for first place was definitely her’s.

But she lost first place this time so the cake was given to me instead.

“My cake is…!”

“…………”

I’d like to say it’s not yours, but I feel like I’ve just snatched candy from a child, so my inner conscience begins to ache.

But when I saw her, I was confused.

Until now, she was a cold, solitary girl with no interest in anyone. I never saw her smile happily or get angry like a demon. The only interest she held was in her studies.

She was shivering because she couldn’t get a piece of cake. Seeing her be furious just because she lost against me in the test. Just a few moments ago, I couldn’t even imagine seeing her like that.

It was not only me who was confused though. The teacher and all my classmates also rolled their eyes in surprise.

“My cake…! Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

“Ah, Areh? Anya-chan, where are you going? Anya-chaaaaaaaaan!”

The teacher shouted and reached for her hand, but Anya ran out of this classroom crying.

“…………”

Silence fell around her as she stormed out of the classroom.

No one had ever seen her like that before. Everyone was amazed by her.

…In conclusion.

After this I would go on to have a long relationship with Anya… She just hated to lose. I’m sure you’re able to understand why.

She was just a girl with a hardcore competitive spirit.

　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊

It had been about a week since Anya’s cake-runaway incident.

I went to the cram school a few more times after that, but I never had a conversation with her. If I tried to talk to her, she would just run away. However she would keep glaring at me. She always gives me a death stare, and whenever I try to talk to her so I could make up with her, she just goes and runs away instead. Just like a wounded wild animal, Anya was trying to threaten me. However, just like a wounded wild animal, she was also very annoying.

Where on earth did the cool girl who always had an icy demeanor disappear to…?

It was one of those days where the weather was a little warm.

As I was leaving the cram school to head home, I spotted Anya hiding behind a tree on the street. I wondered what she was doing, but she seemed to be chasing behind me while also hiding from me.

She was tailing me…

She hid her body behind the trees and buildings and watched me keenly, only keeping her face in sight. And whenever I turn a corner, she runs after me with an impatient trot, trying her best not to lose sight of me. She was as wild and covert as a regular child. And every time I turned a corner, I would always catch a glimpse of her chasing right behind me.

“…What the hell is she trying to do?”

She threw a murderous glare at my back as she sneaked up on me.

I got on the train to go home. I thought that she wouldn’t follow me on the train, but I was wrong. A seven-year-old girl was spreading out a newspaper on the train. She was probably influenced by some novel she read. She was hiding her face and looking right at me.

I was sure that she wouldn’t get off the train and follow me, but my expectations were easily shattered. But if I got off the train at a station other than the one closest to her house, it would be too late for her to go home.

It was just as the sun was about to set.

I had no choice but to turn on my heel as I left the station and approached her at once. She was carrying a large newspaper in her hand, so I couldn’t lose her.

“…What are you doing? Anya?”

“Fueh…”

When I approached her in a straight line and called out to her, she looked like a pigeon who had been hit by a peashooter.

“Anya, honey, what are you going to do by following me around…?”

“Geez! I’ve been found out!”

“…………”

…Is she actually stupid?

I couldn’t make the connection between the quiet, tranquil, and silent girl I’ve seen at the cram school and the absurdly crazy girl I’ve been seeing the past few days. I thought she was a cool-headed, intelligent girl, but I feel… as if I’ve been scammed these past few days.

I scratched my head involuntarily.

“Uh… what the hell are you doing? Anya?”

“Enemy observation!”

“…………”

Her voice echoed with a tremendous amount of energy present in her.

“Enemy observation..?”

“Yes! I’ll never let you beat me again! I’ve always been the best so far…! You’re the reason I missed out on my cake! I’ll never forgive you! Remember that! I’m the one who’s going to beat you!”

Anya put her hands on her hips and pointed at me, as if she was trying to look cool, and started talking like a cartoon antagonist.

“What’s your name?”

“…Zeke”

“Yes! I’m Anya! Don’t forget it!”

…Which means that my name had never been remembered by her before.

“If I win, that cake will be mine! Until then, save it for yourself…!”

“No, it will perish quickly at this rate… I need to eat it quickly…”

I guess I shouldn’t say that I’ve already eaten it with my family. It would touch her inverted scales and anger her even further. I don’t want to get tangled up with her any more.

“I can’t lose! I don’t want to lose! Never…!”

She was burning brightly. She was burning red hot, the woman who was even ridiculed as the ice woman. Where in the world had the cool and intelligent girl of a few days ago gone?

“…So? What the hell are you doing by following me around? If you want to win against me, you might want to use this time to study instead.”

“No, I was trying to figure out your weakness! Didn’t you realize that? You’re such an idiot!”

“…………”

I want to throw those words right back at her. There’s no way you can find out a person’s weaknesses in academics just by following them around. Even if you know their weaknesses, what are you going to do about them in your studies…?

“…Okay, you should go home now. Look, if you take your time, the sun will set and it will be dark, okay?”

The red sun is trying to hide behind the buildings, turning the sky a bright red. If the momentary red sky loses its color, the dark night will soon appear. It was not a good idea for a seven-year-old girl to walk outside alone in such a situation. If I had to take the train a few stops from now to get home, there would be little hope of a better future.

We need to get this girl home, not let her do something stupid like being followed.

“It’s okay.”

As I was thinking this, she put her hands on her hips and shouted with her chest out.

“Yes?”

What’s okay now?

“Because this is the closest station to my house too! What a coincidence!”

“…………”

To her surprise, her house and mine seemed to be in the same area. Even the direction from the station to our house was the same. And my house and Anya’s house were closer than I had ever imagined. It was only a ten-minute walk to our houses.

“I’ll have your cake sooner or later!” And with that, she was gone. It’s not actually yours… and I’ve already eaten the cake…

Sighing, I walked alone under the dim sky where the stars were beginning to appear.

This was where my girlfriend and I began our rotten relationship.

The summer of my 11th year. More than three years had passed since I first met Anya.

I was looking out the window of the cram school at the hot and humid weather with the sun beating down on me. The weather was in stark contrast to the day of the heavy snowfall that had killed me.

I have been reincarnated. I lived 28 years of my life once, died of an illness,  and was somehow reincarnated many years later.Then I somehow started my life all over again.

The game between Anya and I continued unabated. Though, she’s the only one who keeps coming at me for a challenge. She has challenged me to all sorts of tests, including Japanese, arithmetic, and magic theory, and I have won every single one of them. It was only natural after all. Elementary school tests are the kind of tests where you can get a score of almost 100 almost every time once you’re an adult. There’s nothing I can do to lose.

However, even though I had longed for such a special existence in my previous life, I still felt guilty that I kept winning games against her, seeing her frustrated look every time I won against her.

“I feel kind of bad, even though I’m supposed to have a special life on my own…”

“What are you whispering to yourself in that little voice of yours, Zeke? Come on, let’s play another game today.”

Oh no, I was going to blurt out something that no one would be able to hear, but then I realized Anya was right beside me. She always comes close to me, so she must have heard me.

“…Did you hear what I had just said?”

“Not at all! Though If you don’t want me to hear it, you better not say it out loud.”

“…You’re absolutely right. Silence is Gold, huh?”

She seemed to love to compete, and she hated to lose even more. She feverishly challenged me to a match, and whenever she lost, she regretfully stepped on the ground. She is a cool and quiet girl most of the time until the game with me begins. She was a solitary girl who rarely talked to people and showed no interest in her friends.

When it comes to playing games with me, she is as hot as fire.

At first, everyone in the school, including myself, was surprised at the gap between her. But after three years, everyone had already gotten used to Anya, and those who had been uncomfortable with her three years ago were now smiling and laughing at her, as if they were watching a small child with pity in their eyes. Even though she had grown up over the past three years, Anya was still treated like a child more often than before… It’s pretty sad…

She was a complicated yet simple girl. She’s usually as cold as ice, but extremely passionate when it comes to winning.

I kept winning these games against Anya.

However, in the end, my achievement was due to the special experience known as “reincarnation” and not due to my own abilities or efforts. Is it natural for me to feel guilty for believing in my own abilities and for defeating her who’s working so hard, or does it mean that I am an ordinary person mentally after all?

“Oh, my God! Damn it! Why is it 100 points again! I can’t win like that! It’s not fair!　It’s not fair! Zeke…!”

Anya was crying again.

She is a true genius, and she works very hard, and she is certainly not an ordinary person like me. If things continue as they are, she will graduate from a good upper secondary school, go to a good university, and work for a great company. She has such admirable abilities that we can see that this early in her life.

However, as the saying goes, “a normal person by 20” ,so long as she does not spare any effort in the future.

“…Here, Anya. Here’s today’s candy. Eat it and get yourself in a better mood.”

“…………”

To comfort her, I give her some sweets that I had bought beforehand to put her in a good mood. And to apologize to her.

“…I feel in the mood for chocolate today”

“Yeah, I’ve got that ready for you too, okay?”

“Really?”

She looked so radiant. This is like a punishment to me for winning, and most of my meager allowance was consumed by this candy I bought for her.

I have to choose sweets that take into account her preferences, seasonal specialties, and other special touches, and I have a very hard time choosing sweets that will comfort the complicated heart of a woman. If I choose the wrong sweets, I’ll spend the rest of the day staring at her pouting face.

She’s usually very cool, but whenever she gets involved with me, she gets very worked up, and when she loses, she always looks disappointed.

Understanding the subtleties of a woman’s mind is more difficult than any test.

“Damn, you scored a solid 100 yet again…”

As usual, I saw Anya gripping her answer sheet, her cheeks flushed with regret, and her teeth clenched.

She has changed quite a bit in the last few years. Her hair has grown longer and she has become much more feminine.

In addition to that, the clothes that she usually used to wear have also changed. She was now dressed in her school blazer uniform, instead of the free-style clothing she used to wear.

─ It means that we’re both in middle school now.

Anya and I went to the same secondary school of course. It was only natural that she got into the best private school in the area. She had gotten the top grades in the area and had also gone to a high-level cram school after all.

In fact, as a person who has lived 28 years and also used to receive a mediocre salary, I feel really bad for my parents for sending me to a private school. 

When I think about the annual tuition of this school and my mediocre bring-home income from my previous life, my head starts to spin a little.

When I told my parents that I was fine with a regular public school, they said, “Kids don’t have to worry about that,” and Anya said, “Then I’ll go to a public school, too,” as if it was a matter of course, so I had no choice. I felt sorry for my parents, but I couldn’t let a genius like Anya rot in the local public school because of me.

I thought about getting a part-time job, but I wondered if there were any part-time jobs available for secondary school students. Well I had scored 97 on my first test in secondary school. It made me think that secondary school is much different than primary school.

“Hmmm! Finally, your 100-point stronghold has crumbled! It won’t be long before I achieve victory from you!”

Anya’s eyes were teary as she spoke in high spirits.

She had a score of 92. It must have been humiliating for her. As a preparatory school, the tests were difficult, and I’m sure her score was good enough, but she and I both underestimated the middle school’s test level. But, she was still the second highest student in her grade.

I managed to find a part-time job with the help of my relatives and started to study hard.

“Damn, you scored a solid 100 this time…”

And that brings me to her line that I’d mentioned earlier. It seems that if I study hard enough, I can still make good use of the 28 years of experience I had in my previous life.

“How can you get a hundred whilst also working part-time? …Zeke, how the hell are you studying like this?”

“…………”

That’s because I have the biggest cheat of them all, “Reincarnation,” but I can’t say that.

Anya pinched one of my cheeks. But the force in her fingers was weak.

She got a 95 on this test. Of course, she was the second highest student in her grade, but she was a little depressed that she had studied so hard and had only managed to improve by three points. From my point of view, it was good enough really, and this was a preparatory school too. It seemed to be much more difficult than the regular middle school tests I had attended in my previous life. I think that she should be more proud of herself since she managed to score 95 in that test, but I guess she was upset due to the fact that I had scored 100.

Anya was feeling a little deflated as I took out my new pastry.

“The trick to studying is to first figure out what is the root of the unit. All the basics of the unit are there, and all the other study content is derived from that root……”

“Aah! Wait! Wait! No, no, no! No, no, no! Don’t say a single word!”

Anya squirmed and rushed away from me.

“I can’t have my enemy send me salt!”[ED: Sending salt is an idiom for helping the enemy so it’s more fair/even]

With that, she ran straight out of the classroom and went back home. I was taken aback by her reaction and went straight to my part-time job.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

“Teach me how to study…”

Anya came over to my desk and mumbled in a low voice. Her face was red with humiliation. She turned her face ever so slightly to try and avoid eye contact with me while asking. 

This was during a big midterm test.

I managed to keep up appearances with my 28 years of life experience by getting perfect scores in every subject. I did a lot of studying, if I do say so myself. Anya, of course, was the second highest achiever in her grade, with a total of 760 points in eight subjects. It was a respectable number, but Anya was still unsatisfied with it.

The 40 points difference with me seemed unforgivable to her; she told me later that she herself felt that she had failed the test, regardless of the competition with me. It was an unavoidable score since it was a very difficult test. But this is the first time that she felt so frustrated with something that has nothing to do with me. 

She bent her own pride and came to learn from me. It was the first time she had ever done that in the five years I had known her.

Her body trembled and her face turned red, and even though I was only watching from the edge of the room, I could feel her high body temperature and quickening heartbeat.

“…Okay. I’ll teach you how to study.”

I answered briefly. I set up a seat opposite my seat and quickly sat her down while she was frozen. I immediately started talking about her studies, because I felt it would be a pity to pause currently. I thought it would be more distracting as per her personality.

Of course, I also prepared some snacks that I bought next to my desk.

“As I said before, the most important thing in studying is to understand what the root of the unit is. That’s where all the basics of the unit are, and everything else you study is derived from that root.”

“…Derived?”

“Yes. You don’t have to memorize everything in the textbook from beginning to end. First, you have to grasp the root of the content, and from there, you have to study it as if you were extending the branches and leaves.”

“For example, in history… the most important event in the content of this test is the Battle of Lesvokis. The most important event in this test is the Battle of Lesvokis. All subsequent parts are influenced by this battle. It’s not just a question of whether or not you’re going to be able to do it. Much of this time period revolves around the Battle of Lesvokis, and it has influenced not only the history of this country, but the history of other countries as well.” [ED: Not sure if this is a real battle or not but if anyone knows do let us know in the comments]

If you think about the vertical influences of the times, consider the horizontal connections, and relate the events as you study them, it will be easier to put the ideas together in your mind, and you will understand them better than if you just read the text.

“Connect…?”

“Yes, connect.”

Anya, who had been trembling so much, was amazing, and after only a short lecture, her mind seemed to be in her study mode. With a dignified look on her face, she listened to me intently.

“The same can be said for the other subjects. Even in mathematics, the first thing that is important is this formula. All the basic ideas in this unit are based on this formula, and all the other formulas and application problems are based on this basic formula. If you have trouble with an application problem, you should first go back to the basics and try to determine the goal. The goal is in the basics, and in order to get there, you need to think about what kind of process you need to go through, and what kind of numbers you need.”

“…Basics?”

“Yes, the basics. What did you do wrong on this test? Can you show me?”

So we sat in the corner of the classroom and just studied, not leaving until the teacher warned us that the sun was setting. The next thing I knew, the sun was setting over the horizon and the classroom was reddening with the last rays of the sun.

“Zeke… You’re really good at teaching…”

Her pale blue hair was tinted a warm color from the sun’s rays.

It was during a lunch break.

“Um, Anya-san…?”

“…………”

“I’m thinking of going bowling with the rest of the class to celebrate the midterm exams, and I was wondering if Anya would like to join us…?”

“…………”

“Um, are you listening to me…?”

The class president of the class, a girl named Sophie, was talking to Anya. Sophie’s hair was golden and fluffy, and her face was calm. As a representative of the class, she was inviting Anya to an after-school activity planned by the whole class.

However, Anya was immersed in her own world, as if no one existed around her. She was reading a book. She didn’t even look up, just facing the book. I watched her from afar with a feeling of anxiety.

“I think it would be fun if we all played together…”

“…………”

“…… Look, look! It’s not often that we go out together as a class! It’s also a social gathering with everyone! I’d be happy if you could join us too, Anya-san…!”

“…………”

“Oh-Ahahaha…”

Sophie, the class president, scratched her cheek as if she was troubled by the silent Anya.

Anya was a bit of a celebrity in her grade. She had excellent grades, was ranked second in her year, and was a quiet, tranquil, and silent girl. She had beautiful, pale blue hair, and her neat face always had a dignified expression. Seeing her devote herself to her studies, the students in the school call her the “Ice Goddess.”.

However, because of this, she rarely spoke to anyone. She hardly ever talked to people. People who knew me and Anya, who attended the same cram school as me, felt uncomfortable with the fact that she had a different name, “Ice Goddess.” But for those who didn’t know her well, she was a fearsome and unapproachable person.

“…………”

“…I’m not interested.”

Anya did not look up and muttered a few words in a low, small voice. She did not look at Sophie at all, but let the cold, heartless words slip out of her mouth. Sophie flinched at her cold attitude.

“I-Is that so… Mm, I understand.”

“…………”

“I-Im sorry, I invited you a bit forcefully.”

“…………”

Anya’s consciousness had already returned to her book, and Sophie’s troubled voice had not reached her at all. Slumping her shoulders, Sophie hobbled away from Anya. Anya was a problem child in this school.

“Well, I’m sorry about that, class president. Anya acting like that.”

“Zeke-kun”

I felt kind of bad and called out to Sophie, who was treated coldly by Anya.

“Haha, You don’t have anything you need to apologize for, Zeke-kun…”

Sophie waved her hand at me helplessly. It really wasn’t my fault, but I don’t know why, but I feel strangely guilty when Anya causes trouble for other people. Am I her guardian or something?

“Class president, tough luck.”

The other boy beside me called out to Sophie.

“Costas-kun”

The student was called Costas. He was the friend I had been chatting with a while ago. He was in the same class as me and was a bit bigger when compared to others his age.

“I guess you didn’t manage to get a good reply from Anya…”

“Haha, yeah. She’s not interested at all.”

“As expected of the ‘Ice Goddess’. It seems she’s not as easy as she seems.”

That’s what Costas said. I’m kind of sorry about Anya.

“Do you want me to try to talk to her? I’m not sure If I can convince her though.”

“Oh, no, no, It’s fine. It’s not mandatory.”

Sophie rejected my proposal with a wave of her hand. The class meeting was not attended by everyone. It seems that there are a few people who don’t participate due to conflicting schedules.

“…Anya is a little, well, a lot different.”

I sighed unconsciously. In response, Sophie also said.

“Smart people are strange in some way. Even Costas is a little weirder than the average person…”

“…………”

Like me, Sophie sighed and looked sideways at Costas, who was next to her. Costas didn’t say anything, but bent his mouth into a frown, looking unhappy.

“Is that so? We’ve only been together a short while, so I’m not sure yet…”

“…………”

I nodded my head. Costas had scored high in the previous midterm exam, even though he was in a prep school. He was not as good as Anya, but he was a smart person who could definitely study well. He hadn’t been in middle school for very long and hadn’t made many friends yet. He didn’t know everyone in the class very well.

“Costas, you have some very strange tastes.”

“I’m aware…”

“Is that so?“

“I’m not sure… He likes to look for poisonous mushrooms and flowers. Weird, right?”

“What, poisonous?”

When I looked at Costas, his cheeks flushed a little embarrassed.

“…Poisons are often dismissed by the general public, but they can also be excellent medicines if their toxicity is understood and adjusted. The fact that they are so effective means that they have the potential to be useful in many different fields. In other words, studying poisons opens up avenues that can be of great help to human progress. For example, the Datura plant contains toxic substances called alkaloids, but it’s poison has been used for general anesthesia, and it has been useful to many people……”

“Yeah, yeah. Stop, stop Costas. Otherwise it’s going to just keep going on and on.”

“…………”

Costas looked a little sad when Sophie stopped him from talking. Then Costas said,

“I’m sure you’ve heard of it but many smart people, the ones with the highest grades, are somehow different in some way. I guess I, and Anya as well, have to be different somehow to keep up with it.”

“…Is that how it works?”

“Yes. I feel that I have less common sense than most people. That’s the way it is.”

“…………”

Costas’s words leave me a bit confused. It was a feeling I didn’t understand. It was a feeling that only a genius could understand.

“But you… Zeke, with the best grades, isn’t a weirdo. Rather, you’re a sensible guy.”

“…Is that so?”

“Yeah.”

When he said that, I scratched my cheek a little with my fingertips.

“I’d be happy if I was told I’m at least a little bit different. Wouldn’t people with the socially correct common sense be more boring?”

“That’s not true, Common sense is important. I don’t want to be a weirdo. I admire you for that.”

“…Is that so?”

“Yeah.”

…Apparently Costas was a bit of a mature and unusual child. The things he says are soothing. I haven’t known him very long, but I’ve discovered new things about him in just a few conversations.

Sophie asked.

“Zeke, are you coming to the class party? We’re all thinking of going bowling?”

“Hmm? Yeah, of course I’ll be there. Please take care of me.”

“Yeah, thanks! We’ve got a lot of people now. As the planner, I’m relieved.”

When I saw Sophie’s tired smile, I thought I saw her in the image of a middle-management boss with a problematic employee.

“Okay, let’s have a contest, Sophie, Costas. I’m going to bowl. Loser buys drinks?”

“All right. Bet.”

“Oh, I can’t lose this one!”

That’s when the three of us laughed together.

“Let’s go!”

Then there was a female student who stood up vigorously, slamming her chair.

It was Anya.

“Did you just say “contest”?”

“…………”

“Did you just say contest?! Hey, Zeke! Are you listening?”

“…………”

Anya, who just a moment ago had a cold expression on her face and showed no interest whatsoever in the class meeting, turned to me with a glittering, passionate look in her eyes.

Oh, no. I’ve stimulated her fighting spirit… It’s a pain in the *** whenever it happens. Sophie and Costas were stunned. They had seen Anya’s panic attacks several times, but since they had only known her for a short time, they had been surprised each time.

“I’m going bowling too! Let’s go! Zeke!”

“…………”

Anya placed her hands on her hips and shouted with a fighting spirit.

I hoped she would forgive me for letting out a huge sigh.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

A high-pitched crashing sound echoed through the air. The liveliness of a large number of people swirled around, continuing to heat up the place.

We were currently at a bowling alley.

“Whoa! Strike! Nice!”

“Yay!”

We’re here now, with about 70% of the class. It was quite a gathering of people. We cheered whenever someone got a strike, and laughed when someone got a gutter. This was just like having a normal school life with friends.

“Zeke-kun, how was it?”

After a game, Sophie, the class president, asked me.

“I did okay, not too bad nor too good.”

There were five people throwing in the same lane, and my score was the third highest. One of the players was goofing around, throwing the ball in strange ways as a way to learn how to throw. He was also the one who was having the most fun of us all.

“Haha, even the best in the grade are mediocre at bowling.”

“…Stop it.”

If that was the basis of the score, we’d win immediately.

“Oh, boy.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at Sophie’s laughter.

“So? Class president? Will the next game change the combination of teams? Or is it a lottery again?”

“Ah, yeah, that’s the case with other people… Zeke-kun, could you come over here…?””

“…………”

I have a feeling I’m in for some trouble. I walked behind Sophie as she led me to the end of the bowling lane. It was the end of the lane that our class was renting.

“…………”

“…………”

There was Anya, who did not want to talk at all, and Costas, who was at a loss as to what to say. The other classmates also seemed to be troubled by Anya’s silence.

….Maybe Anya was… was she silent during the entire game?

“I’m sorry, Zeke… Could you be in charge of Anya’s…?”

“…I’m sorry Anya bothered you here too.”

For some reason, a strange sense of guilt grows inside me. What is it? I wonder if I’m like Anya’s guardian or something. When I went to the lane, all my classmates, except Anya, looked blatantly relieved. It was no secret that Anya and I had known each other for a long time. Any Anya-related trouble would come directly my way.

…I may be Anya’s guardian after all.

“Anya, I hope this wasn’t too boring for you…”

“I’m just trying to score as many points as I can, so I don’t think you need to worry about it, okay?”

In fact, I think she’s enjoying it a lot. See, her eyes are burning. It’s a look that says, “All I want to do is beat the high score. Anya looked up, saw me, and shouted, her mouth curved.

“Zeke!”

“It’s… Anya.”

“I can’t throw the ball where I want it to go!”

I looked at Anya’s score and saw that it was not very good. This would be a win for me.

“What? You’re not scoring as well as you’d like?”

“Shut up! It’s my first time, I have no choice!

Anya exclaimed, blushing a little.

“…I see, Anya. You don’t have many friends…”

“Shut up! I don’t care!”

Anya doesn’t have any friends that she can go bowling with. I was on the verge of tears.

“So, me and Zeke are in charge of Costas and Anya. I look forward to working with you… Zeke.”

“…understood.”

That means I have to take care of a problem child, huh. I don’t have much of a choice either way.

“…Thanks for the help, Sophie, Zeke.”

“…Oh”

He closed his eyes, looking unhappy. It’s not that he didn’t have anything to say, but he just didn’t know what to say. In other words, Costas wasn’t a good talker and was a shy person overall.

The second game began. It had been a long time since I had last bowled, but my shoulders were getting used to it, and I was gradually getting more spares. Every time a good ball was thrown, everyone was happy. This was how we all enjoyed playing together.

But please don’t click your tongue with a bitter look on your face every time I get a spare Anya… It seems like Anya was my only enemy here.

“…………”

“Whoa, strike!”

Costas took the strike and I shouted. He still didn’t speak a single word, his mouth was shut the whole time.

Costas, why don’t you look more happy that you got your strike?

Sophie tells Costas.

“I’m enjoying this.”

“Well, we understand. But the others can’t, can they?”

“Umm”

Costas growled a little, as if he had just encountered a difficult problem.

“Sorry, Zeke-kun. Costas is being unsociable.”

“It’s fine, but why is Sophie apologizing?”

I understand if it was because of her position as the class president, and if she had asked me to deal with Costas, who is a bad talker. But I don’t think this situation is something you need to apologize for.

“Ah… No… It’s…What’s it called?”

Sophie folded her arms and tilted her head as if she was thinking about what to say.

“Me and Costas have been familiar with each other since our childhood.”

“Huh?”

“Heh…”

Sophie scratched her cheek in embarrassment, and Anya, who had been listening to our conversation without any interest, looked up.

“So, when I think that Costas is causing trouble for others, I kind of apologize. I wonder if this is parental love…”

“Always annoying… Sophie.”

“No, it’s fine. I don’t care, but… You know how Zeke apologized to me for something related to Anya? I kind of know that feeling.”

“Ahh…”

It’s true that when Anya rejected Sophie’s proposal curtly, I was apologizing to her for some reason. I certainly understand the feeling when you put it that way. Whenever Anya gives trouble to others, I feel kind of sorry for her.

…Since when did I feel like Anya’s protector?

“So, you two grew up together. Were you close to each other at home?”

Anya, who had not participated in the conversation at all until then, spoke up for the first time.

“Eh? Ah? Umm… It’s like a ‘Company Relationship?’”

“‘Company Relationship?’”

Sophie was a little puzzled by Anya’s sudden entrance into the conversation.

“Yes, it seems that his grandfathers and mine have known each other as directors of a company for a long time.”

“That’s how we knew each other and used to play together when we were little.”

“Director?”

“Yes, a director. They’ve been supporting the company for a long time, and our grandfathers seem to be good friends with each other.”

“It’s a family affair.”

“Heh…”

I listened as Anya nodded her head in interest.

“Oh yeah, I was wondering how you knew about Costas’s hobby of collecting poisonous mushrooms. I was impressed thinking that the Class President managed to befriend many people in class… But childhood friends, Huh.”

“Haha. Yeah, I’m trying to get along with everyone in the class as Class President. But, I’ve known Costas for a long time.”

“…………”

I see,  she knows Costas who is shy and doesn’t talk about his hobbies to others easily. It made sense to me somehow.

“When we were playing together, Costas said he found a rare flower, and he ate it without thinking. He started hurting, and we had to call an ambulance.”

“I was saved that time.”

“There was a time when he wanted to see a poisonous flower that he saw in an illustrated book in reality, so he took us out, got lost, and we struggled to get home while looking at a map.”

“I was saved that time.”

“Hold on.”

Nothing but bad memories?

“Did Costas ever help Sophie…?”

“…………”

“…………”

When I asked them that, they both turned their heads slightly and fell silent. Anya sighed in exasperation .

“You’re pathetic. You can’t just be one-sidedly receiving help.”

“…………”

“I don’t think that’s something for you to say, Anya.”

“That’s why Sophie and I spent our lives being pushed around by geniuses. I felt strangely close to her.”

However, there is no such thing as a board member or When I say directors, I mean the people at the top of the company. I’m sure their families make a lot of money, don’t they? In my previous life, I was a commoner until the day I died, so I can’t help but think about such depressing things. I died at the age of 28, so it’s only natural that I was a commoner…

“Could it be that the both of you are a rich young master and mistress?”

“Haha. We don’t really know much ourselves… It seems that we have more money than the average household though.”

“He-Heh”

My mouth twitches. Don’t tell me that the person in front of me is the son of a real rich family? I’ve never met anyone like that before?

“Zeke.”

“What is it? Costas?”

“This school is a private school. There are lots of kids from rich families here, you know?”

“What?”

I couldn’t help but look around at my classmates. In my previous life, I never had the chance to meet anyone from a rich family, but could it be that some of the classmates I’ve been casually talking to these days are incredibly rich? No, I’ve noticed some of them, but could it be that all of my classmates are really rich…?

“No, but, we’re all bowling together, right? Bowling is a commoner’s game, isn’t it…?

“When have you heard that rich folks don’t play commoner games?”

“What kind of image do you have of rich people, Zeke?”

They both stared at me.

“D-Do you go to any social parties at night?”

“That conception is old.”

“It’s not like I haven’t been to any parties at all though. My dad has taken me to a few parties at hotels and such.”

“W-What”

I couldn’t help but be frightened. Suddenly, the two people in front of me looked dazzling. The young man and woman I had only known from stories were right in front of me. A party… I’ve only had a birthday party with friends.

“Maybe I’m the only one working part-time to pay for school then…”

“What? Zeke, you have a part-time job?”

They were surprised.

“Ahh…”

“You can’t get a part-time job at our age, can you? I’ve heard that there are no places that will hire secondary school students.”

“I’m helping out at a store that my relative owns. They know our income, so they let us work for them. I use the money to pay for school and other things”

“He-Heh…You’re a respectable guy, huh. Zeke-kun”

Sophie rolled her eyes in surprise. She had heard that there were people who worked to pay for school, but she hadn’t expected one to be this close to her, and her emotions were leaking out. Damn! Could it be that I am the only person from an ordinary family…?

“Anya…What about Anya?”

“My family isn’t very rich, But I think that we are better off than most people. You’ve seen my house right? It’s a little bigger than the other houses.”

“Indeed, it’s larger than most houses…”

I guess Anya’s family is also well off enough to send their children to a private school. I sometimes chat with Anya’s parents, so I could sense it. In the first place, the primary school Anya had attended was a private school.

“Ordinary, only my family is ordinary…”

I was shocked because I was a child of a normal family in both my previous and my present life. Could it be that we live in different worlds…? Are these children…? Is my family the only one that’s ordinary?

“Just because you’re rich doesn’t mean you’re better.”

“Ye-Yeah, I think being first in our grade is more impressive than having our parents’ money.”

“…………”

I’m being encouraged by the rich…

“Ha! You’re a commoner! Zeke!”

“…………”

Only Anya was laughing and giggling at me. This girl… I’ll show her one day.

“A-Anya! You shouldn’t make fun of him! Being first in grade is really amazing! Cheer up Zeke! How can you get so many points! I want you to teach me how to study!”

“Teach you how to study? Wouldn’t it be better if Costas taught you?”

She said that the two of them were like childhood friends. Costas was also one of the highest scorers in our grade. He was a bit of an eccentric person himself, as he had said himself that many smart people are eccentric.

“Costas isn’t suited for it since he’s a person that studies based on instinct.”

“…………”

Sophie and Costas both looked at each other with a distant look.

“My mom is enthusiastic about education. Every test is hard for me.”

“Well, I don’t mind if you just watch me study.”

“What? Are you sure? I guess I just had to ask.”

Sophie was a little surprised but she showed a soft smile. I guess the tests were really hard for her. I understand that feeling really well.

“Eh? What’s that? Zeke is going to hold a study session?”

Perhaps hearing what we were saying, a classmate in the next lane leaned over and joined the conversation.

“Eh? A study session hosted by Zeke? The first in grade?”

“What’s that, I want to join too?”

“Eh? Zeke will increase our test scores by 30%?”

“Is it true that you can get a score of 90 or higher if you attend that study group?”

In an instant, rumors began to circulate, and my classmates gathered around me.

“Is it true that Zeke is going to hold a study session with only women?”

“Oi! Don’t spin my words like that! That’s a groundless accusation!” 

“Come on, Zeke! The next test has my allowance at stake! Teach me how to study, too!”

“Whoa!”

A stupid classmate held his arm around my neck, and begged me for a study session, half out of envy, half for the girls, and a little bit of a desire to actually learn. I guess he believes a few of the rumors have no real basis. My neck’s feeling a little tight though.

“All right! I’ll open a study session… Okay, get away from me!”

“Sweet! Time to increase my allowance.”

“Oh! That’s the first study session of the school year! I’m counting on you, Zeke-kun!”

Listening to me, They all went back to their lanes. As expected of a preparatory school. The motivation to study was high. I had to hold a study session for everyone now.

“How did that all happen in an instant…”

“I-Im sorry about that.”

Sophie was smiling at me with a troubled look on her face. Costas put his hand on my shoulder, which I’m sure was his way of encouraging me. Anya was back in her normal mode, as if she didn’t care about the situation at all.

I rubbed my neck, which was a little tight, and sighed loudly.

I don’t know what to do with a study group… I’m in trouble. And for some reason, they all seem to have high expectations for me.

I’m in a pickle.

But strangely enough, It didn’t feel bad.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

“Well, we’ve gathered more people than expected…”

“That’s tough, Zeke-kun”

One day after school, I stood on the stage of the classroom and looked around the room from the teacher’s point of view. Even though it was after school, there were many people sitting in their seats, looking at the blackboard and me.

Today was a study session that I had been asked to organize.

Nearly half of the class gathered in this classroom and teasingly called me “Sensei”. It’s embarrassing, so please stop. The ones who persistently call me “Sensei”, I’ll make them stand in the hallway with a bucket. Is that an old-fashioned punishment?

I can see not only people from my class, but also a few people from another class altogether. My classmates must have dragged in people from other classes as well. The number of students was much larger than I’d expected, and I looked around at everyone’s notes, saying, “I’m in trouble.”

I shared my thoughts on studying like what I had shared with Anya earlier, and then went around to everyone’s desks to see how they were studying. By the way, Anya did not participate in this study session. She certainly didn’t like the friendly atmosphere that we had.

“Zeke, the problem here, I know the calculation and the process when I see the answer, but I don’t know why I should do this calculation. I can’t understand why I have to do these calculations. This way, when the same problem comes up on a test, I can only memorize it. It’s hard to explain what I’m talking about. You understand where I’m getting at?”

“Oh, I know what you mean, Marco. Just looking at the answer is often not enough to understand the root of the thinking behind the problem. That’s where it becomes important.”

“The root you were talking about, you said. So? What’s the root of this problem?”

“This is, you know, right here in the textbook, this problem is just an application of moments.”

“Heh…”

As I looked around at the students studying, I realized that they were all very smart, as one would expect from a preparatory school. They easily absorbed what I taught and immediately understood and utilized it. The questions they asked me are often of a very preparatory nature. This is because these kids in front of me are thinking in ways that I would never have thought of in my previous life as a middle school student. They have already started to worry about the way of thinking that I had finally realized when I was in college.

I had caught a glimpse of the difference between an ordinary person and a genius. And I had felt it even when I was teaching Anya.

I wonder if it was from then.

I was beginning to get a glimmer of what path this life of mine was going to take.

“The history of this location is still important because of the famous Witch Trials that were done. The witch hunts that occurred in this area started to spread witchcraft to the entire world. The concept of dangerous witches who used dubious witchcraft/spells was replaced by the idea that magic could be found in any living person and that witchcraft/spells could be used by anyone. The Witch Trials in Salem are ‘The Witch Trials which created a series of disasters’, which occured in the year 317.” [TLN: I replaced Progaldia with Salem, Cause I can’t find anything about Progaldia, If someone knows feel free to leave it in the comments.]

“Eh?”

Everyone tilted their heads at my explanation of the history of the world.

“Sensei.”

“Hmm?”

“The Salem Witch Trials are the ‘Crafty Witch Trials,’ right? So that would be in the year 319, no?”

“Eh?”

I hurriedly flipped through my textbook. No, no, no, I’ve always remembered it from my previous life as “The Witch Trials which created a series of calamities occured in… Huh?

The textbook said that it was indeed the year 319. Nonsense. I took out my cell phone and looked up the Salem witch trials.

“The Salem witch trials were previously thought to have taken place in 317, but historical research has revealed that they took place in 319.”

“Did you remember the old textbooks, Zeke?”

“That’s from 30 years ago. That’s old.”

Everyone laughed at my mistake. To be honest, I was embarrassed. It’s true that in my previous life I had attended a secondary school so I thought my knowledge was absolute. In the meantime, research has progressed as well, so it’s no surprise that the textbooks have changed too. I didn’t think that the negative effects of reincarnation would show up in such a place.

When I think about it, the cell phone I’d held in my hand now has changed a lot from the past too. Even if you call such a thing a cell phone, it’d probably be treated as a fossil instead.

I used to have a cell phone that could send short emails, but couldn’t use the Internet at all. I remember I used to have a lot of fun with it, but I don’t think I’ve seen such a thing on a cell phone nowadays… I used to love it.

“Maybe Zeke’s actually a 40 year old man.”

“You’re so mature after all.”

“…………”

Everyone laughed at the light joke, but I couldn’t laugh at it because it was the truth.

In spite of this, my study session went smoothly. It was mainly an impromptu study session where everyone brought up a point they didn’t understand, so I explained it to them carefully, but it seemed to be well received by everyone.

I patted my chest and felt a sense of happiness and contentment permeate my heart.

There was one weirdo that asked me to give a lecture about poisonous mushrooms. Needless to say, I ignored him. Sophie gave him a scolding as I looked a little deflated. Why is he even here? I’m pretty sure he knows a lot more about studying than me.

“You’re really good at teaching, aren’t you, Zeke?”

A girl in my class said so. I couldn’t help but smile in embarrassment.

I think this is also because of my experience of “Reincarnation”.

It’s not just because I can study better than others, but also because I am taking elementary and middle school classes for the second time after studying extremely hard through the university entrance exams before.

I studied hard for the university entrance exams, just like everyone else in general.

It will give you a different perspective on studying. ‘How to study efficiently’, ‘What’s the meaning of studying’, ‘Ways to study’ and ‘Tips to study’. Drilling all of that information into your head. After studying for a couple of weeks, I was back in the middle school classroom.

After such an experience, my second class looked very different from the first class in my life. I could see the intentions of the teacher’s class, which I could not understand in my first life, and I could understand what the main points were. I also felt that this teacher’s teaching style was better than the first teacher’s, and vice versa.

Once I had repeated the lesson, I would sometimes feel that the teacher was good at teaching, and other times I would cheekily develop an evaluation of the lesson, thinking that the teacher should have focused more on that part of the lesson.

No, I won’t tell anyone though. It would make me look very cocky.

If I were to blab to anyone about such a thing during my middle school years, it would be my black history in itself. By all accounts, I was a gung-ho middle school student. Therefore, I will keep this matter to myself, but I have come to have a certain attitude toward teaching.

“Hai, Hai, Zeke-sensei. I don’t know what’s going on here.” [ED: Hai is basically just yes]

“Yes, yes. Hold up, Rina.”

“I think he was happy.”

I think he was happy to know that he was helping his friends.

I felt as if the joy of me being ‘special’ was me finally being useful for once.

The study session was over, and I was walking alone through the dark streets after dark. I felt a definite sense of satisfaction from today’s study session, a sense of fulfillment from having helped my friends, and as I walked lightly towards home, there she was.

She was standing in the middle of my way home.

Her mouth was tied into a knot, her legs were spread wide, and she was standing with her arms crossed tightly. I was certain that I was the target, as her large eyes continued to glare at me.

Uwaa, I thought

By all accounts, she was in a foul mood.

Anya was stalking me on my way home.

“Hmph…”

“Um, Anya? Anya-san…? Why are you so grumpy?”

I tend to use polite words when she’s in such a mood.

“I’m not grumpy! Zeke hasn’t done anything wrong!”

“Uwaaa…”

“What should I do?”

I don’t know what to do, and I’m not sure what I did to make her mad. No, I know why. It’s because I had a study session with everyone, but I don’t know how she interpreted it in her mind.

Would she be in a better mood if I gave her candy.

“Anya… Do you want some sweets?”

“Hmph!”

She snatched the entire box of candy with her quick hands, but her mood still didn’t improve.

Failure.

“Uh… Anya, would you like to join the study session next time?”

“No thanks! I don’t like to study in groups!”

“I guess so.”

Well, I knew it was coming. And I’m not sure what to do about it. It’s hard to believe that the girl standing in front of me, sniffling, has earned the nickname “Ice Goddess” in school.

This girl, she’s usually so cool. But she’s not like that in front of me.

“This is driving me crazy.”

“What?”

“I don’t understand…”

Anya said, as she stood up.

“Aaah! That’s enough! Teach me how to study, too! I’ll study as hard as I can! Now!”

“What? Now? It’s nighttime and school’s not in session anymore!”

“Why don’t you just do it in my room? It’s just the two of us and we’ll study late into the night!”

Nightly study group…?

I was startled.

“We’re going to stay up late studying until Zeke is sick of it! No! We’re going to study even if you say you hate it! Prepare yourself!”

“Whoa…W-Wait a minute…”

Anya pulled on my confused hand and forcefully took me to her den. My chest was thumping hard and my body was burning. Blood was rushing through my body at an incredible speed.

Nightly study sessions, Anya’s room, just the two of us, until you say you hate it, not even if you say you hate it.

Strange words went round and round in my head, and I staggered down the street at night, as Anya took me by the hand as she did.

……………………

…………

……

Let’s draw a conclusion.

Nothing actually happened…………

It was just a normal study session……

Of course it is. No wonder. We’re only 13 years old after all. [TLN: B-But Legal age in japan is 13.] [ED: please calm down] [ED #2: Hello, I’d like to report…]

Disgust. Disgust for myself was running through my body like my red blood stream.

After a long day of studying, Anya was exhausted and fell asleep. I carried her to her bed, covered her with a blanket, and asked her father to take me home.

Of course.

Disgust. I just felt so disgusted and embarrassed with myself that I wanted to jump into a hole if there was one nearby. I wanted to punch myself for being so nervous. No matter how young my body got, I can’t believe I’m lusting after a 13 year old girl. 

Are you a pedophile? Are you a pedophile? I’m 28 years old plus 13 years old, and she’s just 13 years old, and she made my heart race rapidly and I was holding expectations like I was a man?

YABAI YABAI YABAI YABAI. It’s impossible, There’s no way. GOD DAMN IT.

It is a great sin, a great sin of humanity. It is a sin so great that I deserve to die a thousand deaths for it.

When I got home I tried to bang my head against the desk in my room again and again. I kept reminding myself over and over again until my mother noticed my strange behavior and stopped me.

“Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

THE GUILTTTTTT………. THE GUILTTTTTTT………………

“Good morning.. Zeke, what’s wrong with you? What’s wrong with your forehead? It’s red! And your eyes have bags under them!”

When Anya came to school in the morning, she was surprised to see me. My forehead was still red and swollen, and dark circles had formed under my eyes.

I couldn’t sleep. I’ll tell you this much. I felt like it was a sin to even feel refreshed, and I had to remind myself. I was having a bewildering night. I was being self-conscious.

“It’s nothing…”

“Hmm? Well, okay. We’ll have a study session in my room tonight, okay? Promise!”

“To-Tonight as well…”

I watched as she went back to her seat and plopped down on her desk. I felt as if my soul was about to fall out of my mouth.

On the next test, I didn’t get a hundred.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

It was the winter of my second year in middle school.

Outside the window, the sky was cloudy and cold, but the classroom, which was fully equipped with air conditioning and heating magic, maintained a comfortable temperature. I was sitting in the warmth of the classroom, gazing out at the winter scenery, when I looked away and saw a blue-haired girl lying flat on her desk, holding a printout in one hand and staring at it with the other.

“What’s wrong? Why are you staring at the printout? Anya?”

“Zeke.”

What Anya was holding in her hand was a survey form for her career choice. It is difficult to decide one’s own path, whether to go on to higher education, find a job, or anything else, but since this school is a preparatory school, almost everyone chooses to go on to higher education. So it will be some time before they decide their own path.

With a blank survey form like that, Anya was thinking about something.

“Anya doesn’t have to worry about it. Just write the name of the high school with the highest rank around here as your first choice. That’s it, right?”

“That’s true, but…”

Anya nodded, her mouth agape.

“…For example, Zeke, can you imagine what you’ll be like a long, long time from now?”

“Hmm?”

“Like what kind of job you’re going to get when you grow up.”

Well, it seems that Anya was not thinking about going to high school, but was thinking about the future through that blank piece of paper.

“There’s nothing I want to do.”

“…………”

“I wonder if as we grow older, we’ll naturally know what we’re supposed to do.”

I had thought earlier that I had a long way to go to decide my own path, but Anya was trying to see through that blank piece of paper to see what lay ahead.

But the answer is not something that is easy to find.

“That’s something not many adults understand, okay?”

“What are you talking about, Zeke? If I can’t find a job for myself when I grow up, I’ll become a NEET.”

Anya chuckled.

But yes, they do. Not many people have a clear understanding of what they want to do or what kind of work they should be doing. There are many people who spend their high school life, their college life, and still can’t find a job that they want to do, so they look for a job that matches their college level and major just to make a living. There are so many.

I’m not talking about whether it’s good or bad. It’s just that it’s very difficult to find what you want to do. Even if you have something you want to do, you often end up having to look for another job because you are not good enough.

Many people who work well in society are also struggling with what they really want to do.

“Well, it’s good that you’re thinking things through now.”

“What are you talking about, like a father? You sound like an old man, Zeke.”

“…………”

Shoot. That was definitely not something a boy would say. I try not to say things like this, but sometimes they just come out of my mouth. 

Also, you should stop calling your own father an old man in a roundabout way.

“You’re talking about something complicated.”

“Are you talking about your career aspirations? Anya-chan, Zeke-kun?”

At that time, Costas and Sophie came up to us. They were already holding the career survey form with the name of the high school written on it.

“Yeah, we’re talking about what kind of work we want to do in the future.“

“What? Aren’t you talking about the high school you’re going to?”

Sophie is puzzled. We were talking a little further down the road.

“Does Sophie have a future career in mind?”

“Eh? Ehhh? In the future? I don’t know if you’re asking me that so suddenly?”

Sophie was holding her head in her hands. She had a very reluctant look on her face.

“Well, that’s normal, isn’t it? What about Costas?”

“Poison…………”

“…………”

He started talking like a criminal. He’s probably saying he wants to do research on chemicals. That’s what I want to believe.

“Oh, by the way, didn’t Sophie and Costas say that their grandfathers were both executives at the same company?”

“Un, I guess so. That’s why we’ve known each other for so long.”

“Is that what it is? Is that the kind of thing that makes you want to follow in your family’s footsteps and join that company?”

“Hmm?”

Sophie and Costas looked at each other at my question.

“No, I don’t think so. Her father works for the same company as my grandfather, but we’re different.”

“That’s how it is.”

It is true that if a high status relative is in the company, it may be difficult to handle him/her. I have also heard that family businesses have many difficult problems. I guess I don’t really want them to join my company just because they are my children.

“We’re not that interested in researching magical tools.”

“Magic tools?”

“Yes, my grandfather’s company is focused on research and development of magical tools.”

I had never asked Sophie and Costas what kind of company their grandfathers worked for. I knew that it wasn’t a good idea to ask people where their parents or family members worked, so I avoided asking such questions.

“Heeh, Magical Tools huh?”

But Sophie’s words made me feel a little conflicted in my heart.

In my previous life, I also worked for an ordinary magic tool manufacturing company that you can find anywhere. Although it was only for a few years, I continued to work in the magic tool business until my death. I did the same kind of work and went through the same kind of hardships as anyone else, but I certainly did my best for the sake of magical tools in the world.

That’s why I was a little thrown off when I heard about working with magical tools.

I can’t help but think of the company I worked for in my previous life.

I wonder how the company I worked for in my previous life is doing now. I know that the company has been growing in performance and size for quite some time now.

“Maybe Anya and Zeke are better suited for research work?”

“Yeah, why?”

“No, I was just thinking that research work seems to be something that smart people do.”

Sophie was scratching her head and laughing haha.

“Hmm, research… research, huh.”

Anya murmured quietly, putting a hand to her chin.

“Are you interested? Anya?”

“Well? I don’t know, Are you?”

I know that feeling well. It is difficult to know what you are interested in. As a student, you rarely have the opportunity to experience the workings of society. They have no idea what real work is like.

“Oh, well, why don’t we ask my grandfather for a tour of the company?”

“Hmm?”

That’s when Sophie told me that.

“You know how they say that young people are losing interest in science these days? My grandfather was worried about that, and he said that maybe we should have some kind of event that would interest students. So, if I told him that I had a friend who wanted to see what it was like to work in research, he would probably be happy to show them how it’s done.”

“Ho”

Well, it seems that companies are desperate to attract young people.

I’m a little curious, I think.

After all, it was a job related to magical tools, just like my previous life. My job was not in research and development, but in production and manufacturing, but I was intrigued by the fact that my friend’s family worked there.

“Oh, but we don’t know yet, do we? You’ll have to ask your grandfather or father.”

“Yeah, of course.”

Nodding at Sophie’s words, I turned back to Anya.

“Anya’s coming too, right?”

“Hmm…….”

Anya put her finger to her chin and let out a little growl.

“It’s a pain in the ***, honestly.”

You’re too honest sometimes.

Not to impose good will, but in case you were wondering, Sophie made this proposal for you.

“But I guess it’s good to have something like this once in a while.”

With that, Anya shrugged her shoulders. It seems that she is not really interested in it after all.

“And? Where’s the tour destination?”

Anya asked Sophie.

“Eh? As I said earlier, it’s a job of research and development of magic tools, right?”

“No, I meant the company name.”

“Huh? Didn’t I tell you about that yet?”

Sophie laughed and scratched her cheek.

“Clemens Magic Industries.”

“Eh…?”

A small voice escaped my lips.

“I’ve never heard of that name.”

“Haha, unless it’s a very famous company, you wouldn’t know the name of the company at our age, right? But it’s a company that’s been growing rapidly for the past 15 years or so, and it’s pretty well known in society, you know?”

“18 years ago, a new magical tool was developed in the lab of our company, and it made a big impact in the medical industry. Since then, my grandfather’s company has become a well-known name and has continued to grow significantly.”

“Heeh”

Anya nodded, giving a crude reply. I am unable to say anything.

“Did you know about my grandfather’s company, Zeke?”

“…………”

“Of course you don’t know, do you?”

Ahaha, Sophie giggled.

There is no such thing as knowing or not knowing. There is no way I could not know.

Because … “Clements Magic Industry” is…

It’s the name of the company I worked for before I died.

I couldn’t give any response. I was just dumbfounded.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

“Clements Magical Industries”.

Until a few decades ago, it was just an ordinary small business. It was a company that manufactured magic tools and their parts on order, or did research and development on magic tools on request. It was just an ordinary company that could be found anywhere.

However, 18 years ago, the company achieved great results and attracted the attention of the medical industry.

A genius was working at Clemens Magic Industries and developed a magical device that was effective in treating a certain disease. The name of the disease was “WM-8 Chronic Myocardial Dysfunction,” a disease that had been tried to be cured by surgery, but the genius developed a magical device and succeeded in establishing a cure for the disease by applying external stimulation.

A single genius can completely change the face of a company.

The company, which had been more of a manufacturing company, began to focus strongly on medical research and development. The company began to partner with many universities to focus on research, and society began to take a great interest in the company.

The company’s business grew rapidly and the number of employees increased rapidly. The company was praised by the medical community for establishing a new treatment for diseases, and Clemens Magic Industry made a great contribution to society.

All of this happened after I died. When I researched them and learned about them, I felt a little empty.

It had only been a few years, but I hadn’t been able to make any changes to the company. It was natural. It was a short period of time from the time I started working for the company to the time I died, and I am a normal human being after all.

But a single genius blew all that away. How can we improve our performance, how can we make the company bigger? With a single magic tool, the young genius accomplished what his superiors had been thinking about for a long time, roaring desperately, and still could not accomplish.

The genius who devised the cure, WM-8 chronic myocardial dysfunction, was the cause of my death in a previous life.

A colleague beats the disease that caused the death of someone in his company. What a wonderful story. Perhaps the genius who learned of the death of my colleague may have started research on the treatment of WM-8 chronic myocardial dysfunction.

I’d be happy if that were the case.

But at the same time, I felt empty.

I know I shouldn’t be thinking this, but I felt as if I had lost my “specialness” when the cure for the disease was established. In my previous life, I had lived an ordinary life, and the only thing that made me special was the disease that had killed me.

The cure was devised and my ‘uniqueness’ was invalidated.

Of course, I am very happy that a cure for the disease has been developed. Although it is a disease that affects only a few people, it seems that every year there are indeed people whose lives are saved thanks to the cure.

However, I feel a little bit of emptiness in the corner of my heart. The only unique thing in my life has disappeared.

The person who developed that magical tool was younger than I was in my previous life.

I know it’s not a comparison, but I still felt a little pain.

I wanted to ask her about it.

The story of the company after I died. The story of a genius who made the company grow and helped cure the disease.

I decided to visit the company where I had worked in my previous life.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

The quiet land was widespread. There were no tall buildings of any kind, and the sky was big here. On the other side of the plot were fields. Because it was winter, no blue leaves had sprouted, and the deep color of the soil showed a bit of the loneliness of winter.

The institute stood in a quiet, open space. About an hour and a half away from the city center by train.

The Research institute of “Clements Magic Industry”.

Today was the day for the company tour that Sophie and Costas had set up for us.

“We conduct our research using specialized laboratory equipment, such as…”

In a white lab, in front of a huge machine for experiments, a lab worker was explaining to us about the research using the latest equipment. The person showing us around was Sophie’s father. He said his name was Mr. Shiro.

There were only four of us here, me, Anya, Sophie and Costas. It would have been a nuisance to the company to have too many people there, so we were allowed to visit in a small group. Sophie and Costas didn’t seem to have any chance to see the inside of the company, so they were looking around curiously.

The large machine in front of me seemed to be a machine for analyzing the magic factor contained in the blood of living creatures. At a glance, I could see that a huge amount of money had been spent on this machine, and I could also see that the company was profitable enough to have such a facility in place.

There is a bio-energy called magical power that resides within living things.

It was also something that could be called energy or spirit, a universal energy that resided in everyone’s body.

There are many household items that are powered by magic, and these items are called magical tools. Unlike items powered by electricity, they do not require an electrical outlet and can be used by oneself on their own, making them convenient to carry around. However, one must be careful not to overuse them, as they can cause a strong sense of fatigue.

Since magic is energy that flows through the body, it has a deep connection with the medical field, as in the case of Clemens Magic Industries. It can be used to cleanse the body of magic and its flow, as well as treat illnesses.

In my previous life, though, Clemens Magic Industries did not enter the medical field.

The field of magic is also very active in the field of energy conversion, which converts magical energy into power and heat generation, and in the field of magical physics, which utilizes physical phenomena caused by magic.

The field of magic has grown along with the development of machines. Until then, there were no convenient ways to utilize magical energy, and even the most tedious of rituals could only barely light a small fire.

However, machines and magic go very well together, and the field of magic-related fields has developed greatly since it was discovered that magic in our bodies was very helpful in running machines.

Magic originated from the witch hunts of old. When the existence of magic was not recognized, the existence of witches was said to be heretical, but the witch hunts made it clear that all humans had possessed magic, and it’s knowledge spread throughout the world.

Since then, the existence of magic and witches have been recognized, although not in a very big way. It’s something that we all learn in history class.

Currently, magic is mostly used to assist machines. Magic on its own doesn’t have much effect, even with a large ritual together.

In some stories, the main character has a special magic power inside his body, and with a single spell, he can create a huge flame to destroy evil, but that’s just fiction and not reality.

I look around the laboratory. There are no signs of the time when I used to work here in my previous life.

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