Chapter 123 - Battle of Prince (2) (1/2)

Today’s bento was also delicious.

Thinking of Shouhei’s face as he woke up early in the morning to make my lunch, I tidied up my finished lunch box and wrapped it up.

“You’re already finished eating?”

“Hmm?”

I heard a high pitch voice from behind the bench.

I looked over my shoulder and saw Makio.

There was a plastic bag of stuff he bought hanging in his right hand and was holding a pack of juice from a vending machine.

“I’m not sure how long it was going to take you to go buy lunch. It’s so late, so I ate first.”

“Sorry, sorry. I wanted to take the opportunity to show someone around while I was at it.”

Ah, I see.

Makio sat on a bench and took out a piece of fried chocolate bread from the bag.

Ah, that’s the popular sweet bread from the store. I’ve always wanted to try it, it’s a deep-fried bread dusted with sugar and filled with chocolate cream.

But I had to endure. We don’t have enough money in our budget for snacks.

I have to find a part-time job soon.

“So, where did the guy you were showing around go?”

I looked around and didn’t see the person in question.

“Un, he went back to the classroom to get his wallet he forgot.”

And then there’s the other thing.

“That reminds me, Hina-chan is also coming on Saturday, right?”

“Of course! How could she refuse? She’s a fan of the Kazmachi brothers.”

Huh?

When did Shouhei and I debut as an idol group?

“That’s good to hear. I heard that elementary school starts tomorrow. Is Hina-chan alright?”

The Makio’s younger sister who gives off a mature impression, Kusaka Hina-chan.

She also suffered a scare in the “Tusk Crag Dungeon Expansion Incident”.

She was normal in the shelter, but I was still worried about her.

“She’s timid like me, but to the core, she’s stronger than I am. She’s okay.”

“We each have an outstanding younger brother or sister, and we don’t stand a chance.”

Shouhei is so capable that sometimes I feel that I’m the younger brother.

“Also, I saw you talking with Rina-chan about something earlier.”

“I was apologizing.”

“A-aah.”

I’ve done a horrible thing to Rina Melle, a short-haired calico cat girl who is Makio’s childhood friend and our class president.

At the time of the incident, I broke through in a violent manner without listening to her.

It must have been very frightening for her.

She was the victim of my recklessness.

I was prepared to get down on my knees for the worst.

“I don’t know if she really forgave me. Maybe she’s just scared of me.”

“Rina-chan is so nice, she’ll forgive you.”

“It would be nice if that were the case, but…”

It’s hard, isn’t it?

I suddenly looked at Makio.

The blond-haired Yankee of old is no more.

His dyed gold hair was shaved, his school uniform was still a bit baggy but normal.

He dyed it all the way to the root, so this was faster than dyeing it back to its original color.

Maki-chan, the mascot of our school year, came back to school without calling me “Aniki” or acting tough.

But just because Makio returned to his original state does not mean that people’s attitude towards me has changed.

It’s just that, thanks to the incident with Melle, the label of ‘a jerk who raises his hands to girls when he loses his temper’ has been added.

Haha!

It was a big hit.

It’s not true!

I’ve never hit a girl in my life!

Even with Melle, I kicked the door of the classroom, but I never meant to hit her!

My notoriety is going to increase even more!

Somebody help me!

Help!

And, well.

I’m still pretty depressed about this, in case you’re wondering.

The saving grace was a couple of freshman girls who came to class before lunch.

A dog girl and a human girl came up to me in the hallway, frightened when they saw me.

“U-um, thank you for helping my younger brothers!”

“I’m sorry for being late to say thank you for saving my sister, too!”

I thought I had seen them somewhere before, but it was at the shelter.

I remember that they were among the guardians of the children that Hina-chan was protecting.

I didn’t recognize them right away since the family seemed to have been evacuated to another shelter.

After saying that, the girls shoved the bag of cookies at me and escaped.

Aah, it’s nice to be appreciated by people.

I don’t know why Makio was happier than I was, but it certainly lightened my depression.

So the school is a little noisy for the first time in a month.

It’s partly because we haven’t seen each other in a long time, but as expected, it’s all about Tusk Crag and the Western Japan Treasure Hunter Association.

I found out about the details after I got home, but it seems that that case started with the directions of a plump old man called Bemon Daimon, the head of the association, and it came to light because of a whistle blower.

That organization is in some kind of trouble.

At the time of the incident, the scene was in a lot of turmoil, and it seems that the internal turmoil of the association was even greater than that, and the commotion has not been settled even now.

The president of the association, Bemon, naturally resigned from his post as president, and not only that, he was also arrested.

The reconstruction of this town isn’t all over, and there’s also the matter of the dungeon inside Tusk Crag that has expanded.