[LN] Volume 1: Chapter 3.1

[LN] Volume 1: Chapter 3.1

This chapter was brought to you by the collaboration between PolterGlast and Saekano Translations.

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Volume 1 Chapter 3.1

Old Wound that Hurts Part 1

Translator : PolterGlast

Nozomu, who had been undergoing special training with Shino since early in the morning, managed to pass the morning class exhausted.

"Ah... the sun looks hazy."

The fatigue that enveloped his entire body was something normal, but today the sun looked even more hazy than usual.

With such a hazy mind, Nozomu left the school building to buy lunch.

Solminati Academy is built in the center of Arcazam, and there is a large park surrounds it. This central park is a place of relaxation for the people of the city and for students, and there are many stalls selling snacks and refreshments around the park.

As a student who has been struggling, Nozomu is basically an independent person, but today, after being instructed to train twice as much as usual in the morning, he didn't have the energy to prepare lunch in the morning after returning to his dormitory.

He walked around the park, mindful of his surroundings, and looking for a stall that might sell bread or some other simple snacks.

Truth be told, he didn't want to go to Central Park where there were many students from the school, but the other places in the school building were much more crowded.

And since it was already lunchtime. Not only students but also the town's general public visited Central Park for lunch.

In front of Nozomu's eyes, people with a wide variety of appearances, such as those with beast-like tails and ears and those with bird-like wings, were peering into the stalls or lying on the grass in the park, spending their time as they pleased.

The Arcmel continent was originally inhabited by a wide variety of races.

There were various races, from fairy races such as elves, to sub-races including beastmen and other rare races.

Arcazam was built by gathering human resources from all over the continent.

Due to this reason, Central Park, where so many people gathered, was truly a melting pot of various races.Geett the latest novels at novelhall.com

"As I thought, there are a lot of people here..."

The hustle and bustle of the crowd might be an enjoyable sight for some people, but unfortunately, Nozomu was rather uncomfortable with strangers, partly because he was despised at school.

Fed up by the hustle and bustle atmosphere, he bought some bread at a deserted stall and walked to the nearby trees.

The central park was quite large, but it was basically an open grass lawn that ran around the perimeter, with trees that grew thicker as one moved further.

And since most people spent their time in this lawn area with tables and chairs, the trees-filled area was filled with an atmosphere of tranquility, unlike the noisy lawn area.

For now, Nozomu walked through the tree-filled area and sat down under a desirable tree.

He brought his mouth down on a piece of bread he had bought from a stall earlier, chewed, and swallowed the slightly hard dough.

"Haa, it's a bit tough, and I can't say it tastes particularly good. Well, it's cheap, so it's not bad... hmm?"

After taking a bite, Nozomu, who had a subtle expression on his face due to the bland taste of the food, tilted his head at the strange sight that suddenly caught his attention.

"Who's that? In a place like this..."

A girl was looking up at a tree and looked horrified.

A girl about ten years old, with her glossy black hair neatly trimmed on her shoulders, she had an aura that particularly caught his attention.

(Is it just me, or is she really quite similar to someone I saw recently... Hmm, Argh... I can't figure it out)

The girl's appearance stuck in Nozomu's mind. But due to his master's intense morning training and because of hunger, Nozomu's head had completely stopped working.

During the day, Central Park was bustling with people, but unfortunately, Nozomu and the girl were in the trees-filled area, which was not a particularly popular place.

Naturally, it would be hard to imagine other people noticing the girl in distress.

(Besides, that uniform belongs to Ecross, doesn't it?...)

Upon closer inspection, the girl was wearing a white-colored uniform, similar to Nozomu's uniform. Ecross is an affiliated school that belongs to Solminati Academy and is attended mainly by children around the age of ten.

The purpose of founding this school was to nurture highly capable individuals by providing education to talented and promising children from an early age.

With a snapping sound, the branches broke, and one person and one animal were thrown into the air, losing their footing.

"Whoa!”

"*Nya-nya*!"

Being pulled by gravity, Nozomu and the cat fell to the ground.

However, as expected of a cat. Despite being suddenly thrown into the air, the black cat quickly turned itself over and was quickly and effortlessly settled in the girl's arms.

Meanwhile, Nozomu was unable to regain his posture and fell awkwardly to the ground.

*Thump!*

He hit the back of his head and crouched on the ground while letting out miserable groans.

"U-umm, are you okay?..."

"...... Y-yeah.”

Nozomu somehow managed to stand up, trying hard to hold back the tears that were welling up from the depths of his eyes. Nozomu had mixed feelings of embarrassed and humiliated upon seeing the worried look in the girl's eyes.

"More importantly, is your bracelet safe?..."

Right after Nozomu asked about the bracelet, which was his aim, he peeked at the black cat which had settled on the girl's arm.

The black cat was in the girl's arms with the bracelet around its neck, but the bracelet itself was undamaged and seemed to be fine.

"Thank goodness. Thank you."

The girl smiled with a beautiful smile and looked genuinely relieved.

Nozomu's mouth naturally loosened at the sight of her innocent and pure smile.

"Ah, I'm sorry. I didn't introduce myself. My name is Somiliana. My friends call me Somia!"

"I'm Nozomu Bountis. You can call me Nozomu. If you don't mind, can I call you Somia-chan?"

"Yes! Nice to meet you, Nozomu-san!"

"Yeah, nice to meet you too."

Encouraged by the black-haired girl who was looking very excited, the tension he felt when he first approached her had completely faded away.

He got scratched and fell from the tree, and it was quite painful, but seeing the girl with a big smile on her face made the pain in his body disappear.

Thinking back, he rarely got thanked by anyone, except for yesterday.

In his normal school life, Nozomu never smiled nor had anyone smiled at him, but he found himself smiling sincerely for the first time in a long time.

*Clang, clang, clang...*

At that moment, the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch break.

""...... Ah.”"

Nozomu and Somia. They both let out troubled voices at the same time.

"Oh no! I have to go back to the classroom!"

Hearing the bell, Somia began to panic. Although Ecross school building was connected to Solminati Academy, it would take longer for the girl's legs to get there than Nozomu's.

"You'd better get going. It would be bad to be late."

"Y-, yes! Umm, once again, thank you very much!"

Somia bowed deeply once again, with the cat in her small arms, and with nimble steps, she headed back towards the Ecross school building. Nozomu exhaled with satisfaction while looking at her back.

"I missed lunch, but ... well, whatever."

What Nozomu did for her was nothing much. The only thing he did was get into a fight with a mischievous cat and they fell down from the tree together.

Nevertheless, the words of gratitude from the girl brought a sense of satisfaction to Nozomu to the point of making him forget his hunger for a while.

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