Volume 2 Chapter 10.7 - Extra 1.1

Volume II Extra 1.1

Extra　1

「Wait, it’s almost April, isn’t it……」

「Yup. It’d pretty much be flower-viewin’ season over there.」

The experimental agricultural sector that was once a slum in Wulls. As they were leading the two-wheeled cars full of seedlings to the various fields, Makoto muttered that as she remembered. Agreeing with her, Hiroshi recalled the events that would be happening around this time. It should be noted that they did not have any rice plant seedlings, as it was a bit too early for rice fields.

「And it ain’t like we can get any sakura trees in Wulls, so no flower viewin’ this time.」

「Yeah. Wait, are there even any sakura in the first place over here?」

「I don’t remember what it was like in the game. Well, I suppose we could try modifyin’ some trees that are similar. Whaddya say？」

「Oh boy, you’re going to go THAT route again……」

Hiroshi was ready to begin another long-winded conversation again, and Makoto quipped exasperatingly at this. No matter how exceptional Hiroshi was, preparing enough sakura for flower-viewing and settling them on this land would take around ten years. In all honesty, Makoto was completely opposed to the idea of staying here that ridiculously long. She did quite like her life in Wulls, but that was completely different from this. Besides, separating Tatsuya from his wife for that long was also problematic.

「Still, who’d have thought the slum would change this radically?」

「That’s cuz we worked hard.」

「And that in itself is amazing, because “working hard” sounds like an understatement.」

Looking across the region that no longer bore even the trace of a slum, Makoto let out her thoughts in an exasperated yet amazed tone. Even the area they were walking across right now was once (although it didn’t smell bad) by no means a sanitary place. By this point, it had transformed into a well-tended rice field with multiple paths going through it, no longer a place that could be referred to as a slum.

The slum was about four households long in scope. Due to the sanitary conditions, the shift was drastic, plus there had been a population of 5,000 coming and going. The total amount of land was enough to contain a small-scale farming village, but it wasn’t even close to being near Ortem’s size. The area was several times larger than a small village like Leite, but at its peak, the population in the slum could get up to ten times that population. That was essentially the gist of the size. Being a slum, it also had spaces that were no longer habitable and left alone, so adding those spaces would make the area a bit larger than that.

Having that area of soil improved, expanding the area, making fields, making low-class housing complexes for the residents to live in and completing all of that in three month’s time was surely deserving of a better description than just working hard. Makoto really wanted to spend an hour ranting to him about that detail. This was especially true in the case of starting and ending the construction work on the residential homes in just one week.

「Wow, can’t believe a year’s almost passed～」

「’N it was around June for ya, right Makoto-san？」

「Yep yep. The beginning of June, I think. At the time, I didn’t know my right from my left, nor was I really looking at the calendar, so I don’t recall the precise date.」

「Well it ain’t no different fer us. Well, Haruna probably remembers how many days it was since we been here, so I bet she also knows the exact date we were flung over here.」

「Well yeah, that would make sense.」

Makoto nodded in agreement. Unless you put it on a memo, it would be difficult to recall how many days have passed. In fact, even Haruna hadn’t been counting the precise number of days; she simply remembered what happened in what order each day. Furthermore, Haruna’s memory was like that of a database or internet search program and had to be reminded with specific key words in order to actually remember. If she were not in the proper presence of mind, it would often take time or simply not work at all.

「Anyhow, I can easily see us all celebrating two years’ worth of birthday’s since we came here.」

「When’s yer birthday, Makoto-san?」

「June 13th.」

「Ya came here pretty early, then.」

「Yep. What about you?」

「It was July 27th for me. We celebrated everyone’s birthday as a class back in elementary school but since my birthday’s during summer I never got a celebration. Plus it was already August when we came here, so it should’ve been a year already.」

Makoto wasn’t sure what to say to this rather pitiful story. Only Tatsuya knew about Hiroshi’s middle school life. The guy just had an unfortunate past in general.

To explain a bit more about this world’s calendar, odd months consisted of 31 days, even months consisted of 30 days, and the 31st of November was only on leap years. One day was 24 hours, one hour was 60 minutes, and one second was essentially the same, but the diameter was actually vaster than the earth and the rotation swifter, hence why gravity had a slightly more forceful pull, but everyone from Earth had their physical abilities magnified since coming here, so there wasn’t much of a difference in their perception. Still, it was such a small difference, so regardless of physical capabilities, it would have been highly unlikely anyone would catch on.

Since this world had high-speed travel from an earlier time, it had long since been common knowledge that the earth was a globe. Possibly as a result of that, the relationship with time had become quite clear. Of course there had been some difficulties along the way, but we will leave it at that for now.

「Speaking of which, what about Tatsuya or Mio?」

「Never asked so I dunno. But if they never mentioned it then there’s a good chance they had theirs without realizin’ it.」

「True.」

「Realizing what now？」

As they conversed while lowering seedlings, Haruna had returned with curry bread for lunch, interested in what they had to say. This was the perfect opportunity to ask Haruna about the situation.

「We were just talkin’ ’bout how April’s almost here.」

「And how it’s gonna be a year since I came here.」

「And then we started talkin’ ’bout our birthdays.」

「Oh, okay. I believe Tatsuya-san and Mio will have been here for half a year, so I’m sure one or two birthdays have already…wait, birthdays…? Ohhh～！」

Haruna’s voice was in disarray as she said the word “birthday”. The other two took a step back.

「What’s with the loud voice all of a sudden？」

「It’s actually almost my birthday！」

「Already forgetting when your birthday is？」

Makoto burst out at Haruna’s statement with an odd expression.

「So when is it？」

「April 1st.」

「But that’s……」

「Mhm. One day later and I would have dropped down a grade.」

Haruna affirmed Makoto’s question with a wry smile. This was of course during spring break, so much like Hiroshi, she shouldn’t have had her birthday celebrated either. Haruna had a bit of a complex about it when she was younger, but by this point as a senior in high school she of course didn’t care. And unlike Hiroshi, who had been bullied for his nasal inflammation in elementary school, Haruna had celebrated it a certain amount with her family, acquaintances, and classmates, so it wasn’t all that much of a big deal anyway.

「But if both calendars are operating around the same time, I bet it’s nearing the final stage of the center’s examination.」

「Yup. Well, even if we returned now, with the number of seats being the way they are, it’d probably force us to wait till next year.」

「That’s true, yeah～」

「Yeah, if only that was the main consequence.」

It sounded harmonious as they talked about it, but Hiroshi and Haruna were supposed to be taking exams for college right now. Ordinarily it would be strange for them to be nonchalantly playing games near the end of April, but if they had not been flung over here, they would have both definitely postponed gaming. Right before getting sent here, Hirishi had planned on pausing in front of the dungeon he was going to, and Haruna was merely taking a breather by doing some light shopping and theatre-going. In the first place, Haruna’s grades and academics were good enough to where she could easily get into the school of her choice without studying very much.

Plus Hiroshi wasn’t even all that fixated on exams. In all honesty, he was planning on getting right to helping out at his family’s metal processing factory. After all, there was rarely a woman going to or from the factory, plus there was hardly any need to go outside. That environment could not have been any better suited for him.

And although he had a firm grasp on his situation, Hiroshi had come all the way to Kanto, spurred on by his business connection. He had to maintain the factory work until he got paid, and all the funding for the move would go to waste. Maybe not before middle school, but as of now Hiroshi actually quite liked shaving off cast metal with the manufacturing machines and was not particularly eager to go to universities, which were teeming with women he didn’t know (also known as “natural enemies”). Still, his family wanted him to at last attempt the feat, so he picked a university close enough to his house to commute to with relatively few women, as well as a major that would have even fewer women. The university in question barely scraped together an A rating.

「Anyhow, if yer birthday comes up right at the beginning of the month, how ’bout we celebrate ours? 」

「Sounds good. Might as well go along with your plan. Although I’m not sure what we’ll do about presents.」

「No, I mean, I’m fine just with a celebration……」

「I guess it depends on yer feelings.」

It was a little uncomfortable to discuss birthdays without bringing any presents, especially since they were almost like a second family now.

「I guess I’ll have a talk with Bro ‘n Mio when I get back.」

「It’d be awesome if it works out, but it’s fine even if it doesn’t, okay?」

「Oh no, I hope I’m not a sourpuss for wanting something decent for presents.」

「Just keep in mind that it’s both difficult to give one present per person, plus it weighs us down. How ’bout everyone gets just one present？」

「Of course.」

The conversation was now over. It was now time to begin one of the most difficult missions they had ever faced in this world: finding birthday presents for everyone.