Vol 1 Chapter 3 (1/2)
The ana to a bizarre, silver house
Though she could not s with her nose, the house was somehow filled with a scent that set her mind at ease
The ana with food she had never seen before They were uncoer
Who is this ht to herself
She has never met anyone outside of her tribe However, they did know that in the world they named ”Grando”, there existed other tribes as well Her fellow tribe-ii-Iliziya used to boast about his encounter with another tribe and how they drove him away
That er to hers
However, the man before her was incredibly cordial
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On Friday, there wasn't much interaction between me and shi+nonome when I reached school
She was doing her nor at me once For a while, it felt like the talk we had yesterday was all just a lie Co for shi+nonoraph, it was her stand to keep her identity as an author a secret She probably won't touch on the topic while there are other students around us
As I restedhistory lessons, I began recalling the conversation I had with shi+nonome yesterday
”However, can you listen to a request of mine?”
What will that request be?
”There's this bag that I alanted”
There's no way she'll say that, obviously It doesn't feel like she's a materialistic person Moreover, with her novels published in thequite a bit of royalties from them She's probably much richer than I am
Still, I have zero idea what shi+nono it is for an author to sign an autograph, but there's no way she'd go to the extre, so just die” — I hope
The lessons continued on without anything noteworthy happening, and soon lessons were over for the day
I ignored the students ere preparing themselves for their co-curricular activities, packed up my stuff in a jiffy and stood up to prepare to leave I could very ait for the crowd to clear instead of rushi+ng if there's nothing waiting for me, but today's not the day to do so shi+na-san would handle the counters by herself while waiting for the committee members to show up at the library, but I'm sorry to say that shi+na-san's not really soet to scan the barcode due to a brief lapse of concentration Then she'd get flustered when she realized herrepeatedly unable to scan the barcode So actually, she's would cause a long line to form before the counter
As I inadvertently turnedas well
It wouldn't be great to just head to the library by myself, so I matched my pace with shi+nonome's and left the classroom with her I couldn't chat with her due to the other students around us When we reached the staircase to the highest floor where the library was located, I, aftersure no one else was around, finally broke the silence
”Oh yeah, I've read it already shi+nonome's story”
Upon hearing that, shi+nonome stopped in her tracks to look at me
”Eh?”
I wasn't expecting any happy e some sort of cold response like ”Oh” or ”Thank you” It was me as flustered instead
”Ah what's wrong? Should I have not read that?”
”That's not what I meant”
shi+nonome then resumed her steps, so I followed suit
”Urm, to be honest, I don't quite understand the story”
”Met that a lot”
”But still, it's really incredible You have a story that's published”
”Really?”
I remembered the editor II could convince shi+nono story
”All shi+nonome has written up 'til now are short stories?”
”Yes, just short stories”
I then re stories I hesitated for aif I should avoid the topic
Upon hearing thatstories, shi+nono the topic up now, there's the chance I'll get on her bad side
After s off with:
”shi+nonome, do you love short stories?”
Once again, shi+nonome stopped in her tracks I followed suit
We happened to stop at the stair landing, which uy who chose to confess to a girl at a location where there'll be no one around How very aard
”Rather than saying that I love them”
shi+nonome finally spoke, but she tilted her head halfway into her sentence
”There're actually plenty of reasons behind it”
”Lots of reasons?”
shi+nonome didn't address my doubt Instead, she continued to look at me as she said,
”Minaht?”
I was deliberately avoiding the topic, but shi+nono it up anyway
”I did say that before, but you knoas asking about shi+nonome's love for short stories—”
shi+nonoh she were trying to cutme with my mouth shut, she lowered her head and said,
”Urm you may find what I' to me anyway?”
I nodded my head
”Has Mina the life of the onist?”
That was quite a weird question co from her, so it was my turn to tilt my head in bewilderment this time
”The onist? Me?”
shi+nononored my questions and continued
”Actually, I think everyone has i the all sorts of situations,with all kinds of people — and the story would continue on and on like that To put it into perspective, it would be very e tome of an epic”
That was not all shi+nonome had to say
”However, that's not what I think Hu back to the analogy I es worth of content — the length of a short story”
What shi+nonome just said were some really philosophical stuff; stuff miles away from what an ordinary person like ree or disagree with her, my best course of action was to nod my head hazily in response
”Minami-kun mentioned this before, haven't you? That short stories do not sell as well as long stories do”
”U-Urm”
”I think you are right Long stories take up a majority of the bestsellers, and that er stories On the other hand, thatin content, or perhaps the characters are not that interesting to the audience”
”Is that so?”
”Though I'm not too sure if this is true but I do wonder if it has so to do hat I said earlier Everyone hopes to be the s are in reality that's probably the reason why people yearn for a lengthy story They resort to thick novels to do things they could not have done in real life”
I did understand what shi+nonoree conclusively So all I did was stand and continue listening to her
That was the first ti so conversational
”Therefore, I wanted to show everyone hoonderful the idea that 'life's like a short story' is, and letShort stories are indeed brief, but there are plenty of stories you would want to read again and again Wea life worthy of an epic, but we still can appreciate it thanks to its interesting snippets found everywhere”
I could finally begin to understand what shi+nono to convey Well, barely
”So that's the reason why you write short stories?”
I watched in surprise as shi+nonoave a hard nod
This once again made me realize how difficult it was to write a novel So you pretty htenth of the story you'll be working on As so a book, understanding her reasons is no walk in the park
”That's just incredible”
I gave a perfunctory reply shi+nonome resumed her pace in silence with her head lowered
If only she had said things like:
”I write because of the money”
Or—
”Long stories are too troublesome”
Or stuff like that I would've accepted those explanations easily Then I could have responded with things like: ”Ahh, I see” or ”you're actually right”
However, shi+nono They soundedyou'd hear from a zen monk
While I wasto myself, we reached the library As expected, shi+na-san had entered into a state of fluster during my brief conversation with shi+nonome
”Ah! Hurry up, you two! Quickly!”
shi+na-san waved her hands i a detour past the snaking queue and reaching the counter, we began working on the borrowing and returning of the books
Standing behind us was shi+na-san, who heaved a huge, exaggerated sigh—
”Ah, thank goodness I don't knohat I'd do if you two don't show up”
She grumbled Honestly, I'm quite doubtful whether there's another librarian in this world who can't even handle the tiny crowd before us
When ere done with the queue of students before us, shi+na-san told us she has to continue her work on <books info=””>, as usual So she disappeared into the small room
Co a whole week to work on some small publication efficient, even if it is done by hand Should that be done by another person, he'll probably take half the time required to finish it all by hand
And as usual, most of the students in the library are there to borrow books, so shi+nono The cover of the book was no different from the ones she read before, but ever since I caling speech of hers, she so
As the nu I had planned for today And so, I reached for azine
”shi+nonome this”
shi+nonoazine and a marker pen, which was followed by a wry smile