Chapter 75 - Volume 5

Volume 5, Chapter 4: I became a kindergartener, Part 2

“……Yuzu-chan, what’s this?”

“……Zo-san”

For the [Tsubaki group] in my kindergarten, it was time to play with clay.

Although we all started to clumsily play with the clay when the teacher whose name I still cannot remember said [Let’s make our favorite animal today], I was thinking of a strange looking thing which felt a little off, and, as a result, I ended up trying really hard.

“……… What’s this?”

In front of me were several avant-garde-ish objects which each asserted a strange uniqueness.

Handsome-kun said as much without meaning harm. ……urgk, even if I say his name in my thoughts it makes me receive damage.

Since he’s such a carefree child, I was working on this with light thoughts, however; as a result, the child sitting opposite me began to cry before I’d even spent five minutes making my things.

……… is it that bad?

I certainly didn’t feel like I had dexterous fingers, but to think that I was that bad with handicrafts…

“Haah… oh my… Wha-what did you make?”

“This? It’s a Japanese shorthorn.”

“……………unn??”

Indeed…… it’s the cow that produces my favorite meat. As expected of the scion of a famous meat processing company.

…… the darkness of the food industry runs deep.

It’s recess, now.

All boys ran into the garden. Half the girls also went outside, while the other half went to the corner to play where the building blocks and picture books were.

As Handsome-kun took out a frankfurter from his cooler box, I grasped his hands to stop him.

“Yuzu-chan……?”

“Han, Hyamu-kun, do you want to go outside to play?”

I bit myself on his name. But I kept at it.

“Well~ umm, what about my food…”

“Let’s go now…okay?”

“……Yes, I’ll play with Yuzu-chan.”

I tightly grasped his hands to stop him from grabbing more meat, and he took them with a smile.

Please go on a diet. I’ll have him lose weight to make sure that he can make friends properly and not be teased.

What to do with my friend? Well~…… what other girls in kindergarten play?

In the end, I spent the recess taking a walk while holding his hand. Handsome-kun didn’t have much physical strength, but I don’t have any strength either now.

Why were the teachers looking at us strangely with such warm eyes…

The next period is English. Engurishu… as expected of the kindergarten affiliated to Takamine School; a gifted education even from early childhood.

However, it’s still the English education of kindergarten, after all. Anyway, were they going to line up the blocks on which ABC is written? Or so I thought. An English picture book was placed in front of me.

…… eh? Can you all read this? I looked around, and understood two things.

An ordinary child from a normal family was playing with the child next to him without opening the book at all. Even if the teachers saw it, they didn’t scold them. They’re being completely ignored.

Aah…… I understand now, we’re being sorted. If we were left as we were now, then our education will likely change as we get separated into classes when we advanced to elementary school.

Some of the children were actually opening the English book and reading normally.

“Yuzu-chan, this is interesting.”

“……yes”

What should I do? Did I read these books normally before I lost my memory, or did I give up and just play instead?

Since it couldn’t be helped even if I worried about it, I tried opening the recommended picture book Handsome-kun handed to me.

Yeah, it’s written horizontally…… But, what?

“Is something wrong?”

“No…”

I can read it…… I don’t know how, but I can read it.

I understand English if it was individual words, but I don’t know them when they’re strung into sentences.

However, when I stared at them, I could “see” the meanings of the words and the flow of the sentence that would be expressed in a form that I understood.

To put that into words, English came easily from my mouth.

“You, you’re good at English, huh.”

It wasn’t Handsome-kun who was saying that.

Turning to look at the voice that came from behind me, there was a pretty boy with light brown hair  there smiling with his blue-black eyes.

“Oh, it’s Kouki-kun”

“Yaa, Handsome.”

“……*twitch*”

My cheeks were tightening at hearing someone else call Handsome by his name so casually. …… it’s pretty hard to get used to. Maybe my is soul rejecting it.

Anyway, he’s another  friend of Handsome-kun and he’s quite the good-looking boy.

Several girls that were holding picture books came along behind Kouki-kun…… you’re being shadowed. Heh, he’s not very manly, but it seems like he’s a [Prince-sama]-like existence.

“You must be Togaki-san’s daughter…… are you not?”

“eh…… yes.”

It seems that he knew things about me too. It seems like they aren’t exactly friends, but maybe they knew each other through their fathers’ work?

“……Fuuuh~”

Kouki-kun looked at my face with a strange expression… he moved closer and closer. Hey, pretty boy…… the girls behind you are getting noisy.

“Your impression has changed quite a bit…… I remember being ahead in English in the past……”

Kouki-kun came over while looking at the children playing in English,

It seems that I was previously part of that group. I assume that it’s a good thing that he said that [My impression has changed]? Is it about my appearance?

I was aware that it wasn’t normal, but it’s not like some strange ‘power’, is it?

” “………” ”

I smiled unintentionally at them. …… Is this a five-year-old? Amazing. I can’t tell anything about people.

“……Kouki-kun, Yuzu-chan”

Handsome-kun’s voice got louder as he held my hand tightly. It didn’t surprise me, but rather Kouki-kun.

“…… Handsome, your voice is really loud. Yeah, that’s better ”

Kouki-kun smiled as he looked between Handsome and I.

“Well, Yuzu-chan? Handsome seems to be on very good terms with you.”

“Ah,…… yes, Han… tch…… Sam-kun is a friend……”

I bit myself again. I can’t say his name with a straight face, because it feels really…… ‘strange’.

“Ah… So you call him Sam. That’s pretty good. Can I call you that too?”

“Aah, yes, it’s alright.”

Sam!? What an American nickname!?

I don’t know whether it’s because Handsome isn’t particularly attached to his name or that he gave up, but he is purely Japanese, so calling him Sam is pretty tough.

“No, that isn’t it.”

” “……?” ”

Due to my unintentional interruption, the two of them who were smiling at each other turned to look at me strangely.

I stopped in spite of myself, but what should I do now!? Is Sam preferable to Handsome? No, well……… think, me.

“I…… find “Ouji” easier to call you by…… I think.”

On the spur of the moment, that nickname leaked out of my mouth.

It’d be painful if he didn’t have a prince-like face, but fortunately for him he had a very cute one. Ah, my mental endurance.

“Is that so…… I thought it was easier to call him Sam.”

Kouki-kun made a disappointed face.

I guess for Kouki-kun, who’s half-foreign and would associate plenty with foreigners, it’s alright, but for a purely Japanese person it’s hard.

“I don’t mind either way…… but it’s better if Yuzu-chan decides.”

In the end, the person himself decided it with a single line.

…… he was okay with this. It’s good that the person himself was okay with it.

Later, though, when I thought about it, I used to call Kouki-kun [Prince-sama] for his princely looks, my stomach became somewhat sore.

In this fashion, I transferred myself away from the “commoner’s group” that I used to belong to, to the group where Kouki-kun and the rest belonged to with Ouji-kun, as a set.

My peaceful life seems to be fading……

I wonder if I would cause my father problems if my strange ‘power’ got exposed to this group.

＊＊＊

The meat processing company [Niku’s Ham] had its own dedicated ranches and factories nationwide, and employed about 8000 employees and had sales exceeding 200 billion yen a year.

At Niku’s Ham, they didn’t process everything in-house, but they had ties with small and medium enterprises and factories to develop new products and expand their sales channels from their earlier days.

Although they were affiliated with hundreds of companies, the companies that they kept close were just a handful that had had relationships since the previous generation.

So, because that sort of company tended to get involved in new products that were especially important, even if it was a small company, it was necessary for them to have a proper relationship.

The first-born son of the Niku family was Handsome. His name was given to him by his parents who were overly tense about their first child since they were old.

The entire family had ‘full’ figures, and in a sense it was the occupational hazard of eating too much meat, but since they were older, nobody could stop them. In a way, it could be called the darkness of the meat industry.

However, the person himself didn’t mind the name at all due to his own personality.

My mother’s friend had a child called ” Excalibur”-kun, so perhaps maybe he was biased.

By the way, his sister was originally called Venus, but when she was being delivered and they told the government office staff, they had to be persuaded that they were still sane. In the end, she was delivered as “Minako” and like that, further problems were averted.

Handsome got his gentle and docile character from his equally gentle and docile surroundings.

Because of his physique, he was made fun of by children of the same age, and although they thought that he was gentle due to his size, the root cause was his stress.

The Niku family members do not have a very long lifespan.

It was really just the simple fact that they were overweight due to overeating meat, but Handsome thought that it was the “curse” from the animals that became the meat and imagined it as such, causing him to stress and making him overeat more.

And thus, Beautiful Prince had few friends. Because he got stressed over being teased, in the end he ended up only associating with those who were connected to his family, like Kouki’s Kuon family.

Among them there was Yuzu, the daughter of director Togaki, who had partnered with them long ago. Yuzu had an easygoing character, and when he was by her side, Handsome felt his heart calm down.

However, she gradually drifted away from Prince.

Yuzu, who had been living the life and having the education of an ordinary household despite being in an upper-class family, couldn’t keep up with the education of the Takamine school and began to play with only the children of ordinary families.

One day, he’d heard from his father that Yuzu had had a high fever and that her memories were muddled.

Handsome’s father and Yuzu’s father were schoolboy friends, and when Handsome was born, it was as if it was Yuzu’s father’s joy too.

Her memory is messed up…… He didn’t know how bad it was, or if she would keep a greater distance from him.

A few days later, when Yuzu returned to the kindergarten, she was definitely the Yuzu he knew, but her atmosphere had changed somewhat.

When Beautiful Prince saw Yuzu, he felt his heart beating as if he had been enchanted by a fairy-tale wizard.

As he looked around, most of the children were blushing and couldn’t make themselves get close to her, so Handsome greeted Yuzu.

Yuzu seemed to have changed a little, but it was the Yuzu that Beautiful Prince knew, and she had a soothing and carefree atmosphere about her.

The Yuzu who had previously distanced herself from him took his hands now, and taught him the splendor of the outside world that he had never noticed before.

As it was…… if she was beside him, then he wouldn’t be scared of anything anymore.

“I wish that tomorrow morning would come quickly. I want Yuzu-chan to play with me again.”

Seeing that their son’s appearance had improved and become better recently, his sizable parents were pleased, and the two of them faced each other, nodding slowly as they smiled.