Chapter 26

I began to hang out more with Sara. Well, we could talk about our past lives, so it was really fun to be with her. Like, really fun! Sara also told me she enjoyed the time with me.

“Hey Sara, do you go clear out the otome game events?”

“Eh? There’s no reason for me to do those. The capture targets are all in the first academic building. I won’t go all the way there just to do that.”

“To say ‘there’s no reason’…. Sara, don’t you like any of the capture targets?”

“How can I? I’ve never met them, no way can I like them. If I put some efforts, I might gain a super rich husband1, but I don’t think I want to work hard for that.”

“Why?”

“Well, I was born and raised in a very average family, I know nothing of the etiquette, and their set of values are different from mine. I think even their common sense is different. I am not that brave to plunge myself into such a foreign realm.” Sara explained as she chuckled.

She appeared to be such a delicate pretty girl, and it gives such a big gap to her personality.

“Fania, what will you do then? Are you going to dash forward on the road of a villainous noble son and get convicted?”

“Stop it. I would be sent to the labour camp that way, and I don’t even want to be convicted. And just like Sara said, the capture targets and the MC, they are all in the first academic building. I don’t think of going all the way there just to harass the MC. First of all, I won’t do that.”

I felt a pang in my heart. Al and Louie are both the first academic building. A place away from here that I could hardly go.

“Why are you being so gloomy there? It’s okay, no one would ever think that this Fania who is even cuter than this beautiful me can ever be a villain.” Sara patted my shoulders quite strongly.

“What’s the deal with the cute?”

“Stop it already with that huffed face. You only look super cute, you know.”

Sara said she used to be an OL2, so she always treated me like a kid. Even though in this world, we’re practically classmates.

*chirp-chirp-chirp*

“Hm?”

What’s that sound?

At the moment, Sara and I were heading towards the library. There was no library in the academic building; it was instead located in a place called Special Building. The Special Building was situated between the first academic building and second academic building; it was quite far. We were now heading there by going along the schoolyard.

Sara, a scholarship student who was not exactly smart, always received homeworks from teachers. And each time, I would be the one she came crying and begging. Like now, we were going to the library to do Sara’s homeworks.

We were walking on the road lined with trees along the schoolyard, and from the base of a tree ahead of us, a sound could be heard.

“Hey, doesn’t that sound like a bird’s cry?” Just like Sara said, it sounded like it came from a baby bird. Did it fall down from its nest?

We went closer to the source of the sound, and there was a male student already standing there. He was hidden by the tree shade so I could not clearly see him.

Near the feet of that male student, there was a baby bird. Like we thought, it seemed to have fallen from its nest and now crying out while its body trembled. The male student crouched down and he was about to reach out his hand towards the baby bird.

“Noooo~~~” I dashed forward instantly and thrusted away the male student.

Unfortunately, my thrust with my full force nearly had no effect on him. The male student only shifted his original crouching position, he did not fall on his bottom nor did he shrink backwards like I expected.

“Fania, what are you doing?”

“Ah, I’m sorry.” I snapped to my senses by Sara’s voice and I hastily lowered my head. From his appearance, the other party seemed to have a high status—a noble. A high noble at that.

His soft hair was the colour of milk tea, and his eyes were deep green. An ikemen3 with a tranquil air around him.

The ikemen seemed to be perplexed, but he didn’t appear to be angry. When I thought about it again, I was the son of a Duke, so there was normally no one who could outpush me, but looking at him who was older than me, I got cold feet.

“Urmm, urm, it’s.. it is not like that4. You cannot directly touch wild animals. Animals are very sensitive to smells, so if you touch that baby bird and human smell stuck on it, I heard that its parents could not recognize the baby bird as their child, and in the worst case, the parents would banish the baby bird away.” I ended up speaking incoherently5 .

I eyed the ikemen pleadingly, hoping that he would understand.

“That’s no bueno6~ You only look crazy cute with you nearly in tears there~ What a killing move where your opponent will be KO-ed in only 2 comic panels~”7 Sara was making some noise at my back.

I was being so serious here, yet she was being so loud.

“Oh, is it like that? You know a lot about animals. So, what should we do with this baby bird?” The ikemen was looking pensively at the baby bird by our feet that continued to cry.

I was glad that he turned out to be a gentle person. He didn’t even pay any mind about me pushing him just now. However, his face was incredulously flushed, and he seemed to shift his gaze away from me.

“Ja-, my friend is very knowledgeable about animals. He taught a lot of things too. Urm, may I handle this?”

“You can?”

“Yes.” I took out a handkerchief, covered the baby bird with it, and then brought it up.

Even though this was a baby bird, it was still a wild animal. It was scared of me as it squirmed its body; it opened its tiny mouth in an attempt to threaten me.

“Just bear with it for a little while.” I knew it cannot understand my words, but I tried to speak with the gentlest voice possible and I beamed at the baby bird.

“That’s no bueno~ Holy mother, there’s a holy mother over here~ To be so cute, but now a holy mother at that, anyone will be infatuated~”

Just why is this girl talking in a poor Kansai dialect? And so noisy too.

I ignored the noisy Sara at the side, and I gently and carefully placed the baby bird inside my pocket.

Footnotes

The word used here is 玉の輿’Tamanokoshi’ which is literally ‘palanquin set with jewels’ but it means marrying into a rich family

abbreviation for Office Lady, a term used for ladies working at offices usually for clerical works and general affairs, most companies even have uniforms for this line of work

A hottie

My failed attempt to tl how he changed from casual to formal speech

Again, in the raw he ended the sentence casually at first, and fixed it to be polite, but I can’t tl that way coz in English there’s no difference

She’s actually talking in Kansai dialect which can sound funny at times, so i replaced ‘no good’ to ‘no bueno’ to get the different vibe

Sara was saying all this like she’s doing some commentary, hence I made the speech in italic to differentiate normal speech and this exaggerated tone.