Chapter 76

【『Loner』and Juliet】Live Performance Day

「Romeo! Romeo! Why hath this come to be… There is nothing that I wish for, but you! Other friends, wealth, family! None of them matters but you………… Yet why?

　Why hath thou… met thy timely end!

　Uhuk……… I won’t let you get away with this no longer! No matter where you go, I will never let you suffer『loneliness』anymore!」

『And so saying that, Juliet thrust Romeo’s dagger into her chest, chasing him into the afterlife.』

The audience:『Hik—WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!』

「Yes! I will… never let go of you! We will be together forever!」

「Juliet… you’re tired, aren’t you? I’m tired too… I feel really sleepy. Juliet…………」

The audience: *slow clap, turning into a loud round of applause!*

『And thus our tale of「『Loner』and Juliet」—』

「Ah, shoot! I dropped the props!」

*crash, clatter, thud!*　← The sound of Yamada falling off the stage

The audience:『YAMADAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!』

『A-And thus our tale of「『Loner』and Juliet」comes to a close~』

***

「「「「Cheers!」」」」

「That was brilliant. Even I, le class rep, had no idea how it would be perceived, especially considering the scene of idiotic Yamada falling off the stage at the final curtain… but it was a big hit.」

「So true~ Tomorrow, we’re celebrating with the cast but today, it’ll just be for the four of us main characters ♪」

「It’s just like Momo said. Who would have thought the script would bag us the『Grand Prize』, and it’s all thanks to the script that Andou-kun penned!」

「…………」

Strange… Something feels amiss? (Andou)

「Andou-kun? Hey, Andou-kun?」

「Ah? Eh, Asakura-san… Sorry, I didn’t notice you.」

「Oh geez! What’s wrong? You looked spaced out earlier?」

「No, it’s just… Asakura-san, we’ve been working hard rehearsing for an entire week, haven’t we? Yet, that whole week flew so quickly… I have the strangest feeling that we were doing something entirely different during that whole week…」

It’s reminiscent of how a week flies by quickly for a light novel protagonist… (Andou)

「Andou-kun, what are you implying? We worked really hard at rehearsing didn’t we, right, Class Rep?」

「Absolutely right. Andou-kun, just what are you trying to say? A bunch of things happened throughout the entire week, you know? Like, how the entire class gave their all to create an incredible backdrop panel only for Yamada to foolishly damage it so magnificently… Right, Momoi-san?」

「Yup~ There was also that incident where Yamada-kun mistook his own costume for a dust cloth and dirtied it.」

「There’s that too, Andou-kun. Wasn’t it three days shy of the actual performance that we confirmed that Yamada-kun came down with a cold and by then, 1/3rd of the class had caught it? Wasn’t that a mess? 」

「Y-Yeah, alright! I was probably just mistaken! Though, hold on! Now that I recall that, wasn’t it Yamada who was getting in everyone’s way…」

That’s right! Pull yourself together, man! Didn’t I successfully get through this year’s recital play went off without a hitch? As a result, we even got the『Grand Prize』and I don’t have to play an undeserving role of a leading character anymore!

　That being said, when class rep said she was taking us all to Saizeriya to celebrate, I just came along but… considering the entire group consists of just me, Asakura-san, Momoi-san and Class Rep, doesn’t it look like I’m the protagonist of a light novel harem novel? Now that I assess the situation carefully… (Andou)

「Thank you for waiting. Here are your orders.」

This customer… The number of women he’s brought has increased again. This time, there’s even a braided hair, spectacles adorning chick… What are you, some harem protagonist? Shit! Even though I don’t have a boyfriend now but three years from now, I’ll get a boyfriend and kiss my ass goodbye from this part time job! (Waitress)

Translator’s Note:

A bunch of you may be wondering why is the version Ainushi is uploading vastly different from the Kakuyomu version?

The answer ladies and gentleman is simple. Remember when Syosetsu removed Dexiai’s account? He lost all his files and had a hard time trying to retrieve most of his backups. This, in a way, allowed him to re-write and combine certain chapters, changing the flow, which eventually leads to the light novel version.

The raws that I have were all the ones I had saved from Syosetsu AKA the version 1. I did not consider using Kakuyomu’s version as there’s a lot more meat in some areas of his Version 1 that I liked. Version 2 on Kakuyomu is nicer in some chapters… although haha, in the end, even some of those got re-written in the version of the light novel.

For comparison’s sake, I’ve taken a photo of the YAMADAAAAAAA bit where the writing on each version is different.

In the screenshot, you can see that Yamada’s actual tumble was an additional scene included in the play deliberately and is spoken by Momoi as the narrator of the play.

In both Version 1 and Version 2, it’s a throwaway line said by Class Rep which doesn’t actually drive in the fact that it was an additional scene albeit I’ve made mine a little clearer.

There’s an added line that Asakura-san also succeeded in the play.

No Saizeriya scene in Version 2.

The ending of this chapter in Version 2 and the published version is also significantly different. In those, last chapter’s bit about the reincarnated Asakura was moved to this chapter’s ending to create a better flow/emphasis on her successful transformation as an actress.

But again, I do like the original where the side character boyfriend-less chick is always seeing him show up with girls!

Adding the change really detracts from this comedic moment. So!!! COMEDY FIRST.

TLDR; every version has an addition or omission. And as I said before, the author does hope it’ll be licensed officially so I do try to stay clear from touching on the light novel publication too much if I can help it.