v1c11 (1/2)

Chapter 011  Snow – Part 1

I―― Snow, am an abandoned child of the rare White Wolf Race who live in the North Continent.

Around the time I was 1 year old, I was left before the orphanage that Elle-sensei manages.

The name “Snow” was sewn into the clothes I was wearing.

Probably the parents who threw me away sewed it.

And a child of the human race of the same age was thrown away too.

His name is Lute.

At First, in regards to Lute-kun, I didn’t like him much.

Lute was a strange child, around the time we were 3 years old, while we played with the onee-sans in the childs room, he took Elle-sensei’s cla.s.ses at his own convenience.

He sat in the back of the cla.s.sroom and received the lessons more quietly than any of the other students.

Furthermore he had an interest in magic and also came to partic.i.p.ate in the basic magic cla.s.ses.

However Lute-kun does not have talent as a magician.

Elle-sensei already told that to Lute-kun.

At the time, he was supposed to have said “I will look for a way other than magic”, but he still took part in magic lessons.

According to Elle-sensei, there seems to be kids who still spend great effort even though they understand that they had no talent as magicians.

Such obstinacy was especially common for boys.

Among them there are kids that couldn’t accept reality, got their hands on dangerous magic tools and lost their lives, said Elle-sensei.

I understand Lute-kun’s feelings, but it’s dangerous to use magic as a human with a low amount of magic.

Magic power is the spirit that’s left over after being used to maintain one’s body and mind.

In the worst case scenario you would die if you use up more magic power than that surplus.

But the other party is still 3 years old.

An age where he won’t understand even when persuaded.

Therefore Elle-sensei did not drive him out and consented to his partic.i.p.ation in the cla.s.s.

However a problem occurred immediately.

Lute-kun learned how to use magic by watching the others do it and imitating them.

Lute-kun who had no talent in magic immediately ran out of magic and fainted.

Elle-sensei, whose face changed to panic, rushed over.

Once Lute-kun, who was put to sleep in the child’s room, woke up, I told him the situation and to be careful.

“That is a no-no! Lute-kun is making trouble for Sensei!”

“Sorry, sorry. I’ll be careful next time.”

Lute-kun was not sorry at all and took part in the lesson again.

And at the next lesson.

Lute-kun faints again after using magic.

This time he was bleeding from the head, choked on vomit and fainted.

He would have died if sensei didn’t notice and ran over.

The gentle Elle-sensei flew into a rage because of this accident.

She forbade Lute-kun from partic.i.p.ating in basic magic cla.s.ses.

After forbidding partic.i.p.ation in the lessons, Elle-sensei came with hanging rabbit ears to me and asked how Lute-kun’s doing.

Did Lute-kun do anything strange because he was forbidden from taking part in cla.s.ses? She asked.

It seems that every once in a while there are kids that, when pressed down by their elders, become gloomy, lose their ambition, and became apathetic.

Sensei is worried that he would become like that because of this incident.

When I answered “he’s not different from usual”, she breathed a sigh of relief.

At this time, even as a child I immediately understood that Elle-sensei was troubled because of Lute-kun.

It looks like until now Sensei had been looking after many troublesome children.

Every once in a while, there would be some kids that don’t have any common sense, but Lute-kun stood out even among them.

At that time, Sensei grumbled to me, “If I were to speak badly of him I’d call him ‘abnormal'”, she said as if letting the words slip from her mouth.

So at that time I disliked Lute-kun.

Lute-kun who troubled Elle-sensei, who gathered and raised us without asking anything in return, like a mother.

Lute-kun who caused trouble for everyone, but pushes forward like a child.

The baby that was left behind on the same day as him—and just because of that became the one in charge of looking after Lute-kun, the one at Lute-kun’s side, was me.

Although I go and complain occasionally.

But I thought this everyday life would continue forever.

Lute-kun and I, age 4.

In the orphanage, once you turn 4 your job is look after the 2-3 year olds in the children’s room.

And yet Lute-kun did nothing at all, and only slept in a corner of the room.

I was incited to pay attention to Lute-kun by the two 4-year olds who were looking after the kids with me.

I had to pay attention because I was the closest childhood friend to Lute-kun, they said.

I resented that, even though I was still the one in charge of looking after Lute-kun.

On top of that, I unconsciously wished that something bad would happen to Lute-kun, who was always causing trouble for Elle-sensei and everyone at the orphanage.

“Lute-kun, you’ll get scolded if you don’t properly take care of the little kids with us!”

“I want to help you all very much but the way you did it is so good that I didn’t get a turn. That’s why I was sitting in a corner so that I won’t get in the way.”

“If that’s the case, then you can help playing house. We have roles enough for the four of us.”

“Playing house?”

“If Lute-kun does not play, I will tell sensei that you skipped work.”

“I didn’t really mean to skip work but…. all right! Let’s play together.”

He obediently did as ordered once I said sensei’s name.

I softly murmured, “so you’ll listen if I mention Elle-sensei, hmph”.

“So which role should I take? The father, or maybe the husband?”

“Lute-kun will be the pet pink slime!”

“Is that really necessary…?”

With a surprised face Lute-kun asked back.

I insisted that a pet was necessary and that day I had him play the role as pet until we were finished playing house.

If with this he would reflect a little and start looking after the younger ones…….

“If any of you manage to defeat me in a game, I will keep the role of pet.”

Once again, Lute-kun behaves as if he doesn’t intend to help, he pressed his demand to play a self-made game he called “reversi”.

I thought he had been sneakily doing something these few days, to turn out to be making a game….

But the rules of this toy, the so called reversi, were very simple and it seemed very interesting.

Therefore we got on board with Lute-kun’s proposal.

Even if the toy was his own making, there were 3 of us.

I simply expected that at least one of us can win.

I was the first to challenge him.

In the opening Lute-kun’s black piece were changed to white in a good mood successfully.

He deliberately put his black pieces so I can easily turn them all over.

I didn’t notice that this was a trap, I felt overjoyed and joked around.

“Lute-kun is we~ak! Even though it’s a game you made yourself.”

“Hahaha. Snow, make it funnier if you are going to tell a joke. Snow still can’t do addition and subtraction, how can I lose in this game of intellect?”

Looking down on me with sarcastic remarks.

But the surface of the board is almost white and there is no more than a few black pieces left.

I judged that he was a sore loser.

“Muuu… I have a feeling I’m being made fun of… Fine! If Lute-kun loses, he has to listen to another order besides being a golden marumaru!”

“As you wish… But if I win, I’ll touch your fluffy dog ears and tail to my hearts content!”

“It’s not dog ears! …It’s wolf ears! Because Snow is from White Wolf tribe!”

“I know… and don’t forget the promise.”

Lute-kun answers lightly while placing a black piece at the edge.

huh?

The white carpet was cut diagonally by toppling the pieces over and the black ones formed a line.

I looked for a way to deal with the rapidly changing situation, but there was no way to change the color of the edge pieces!

This was Lute-kun’s aim from the start!

As I belatedly realized his aim, he put on a smile like a hunter whose prey was caught in a trap.

I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!

Mortified, I looked for a trick to reverse the situation, but he had gained control of the edges, I was at my wits’ end and lost.

“Uuuu… I lost…”

“Yeah, I won! Don’t forget the promise, okay?”

“I know… I’ll let you touch it when we’re about to sleep at night…”

“O-ok.”

Lute-kun’s triumphant face is suddenly turned red and he turned away.

Since his face got red I got worried about his condition.

“What’s the matter, Lute-kun? Your face is red. Did you catch a cold?”

“N-no it’s nothing. So… who’s the next opponent?”

He turned towards the other two, as if to say “I’m not interested in an opponent I already beat.”

Muu… and I was worried about you.

He happily plays Reversi with the other girls without noticing me sulking.

(I know that it’s more fun to play with the other girls rather than playing with me who was always unkind. But you’re being too obvious!)

Without noticing me getting angry, Lute-kun continued playing reversi with the other two while talking excitedly.

(As I thought, I hate Lute-kun. I HATE him!).

In the end not even one of us was able to beat Lute-kun.

We borrowed reversi to practice, determined to “defeat Lute-kun!”

That evening, right before bed, Lute-kun came to rub my tail and ears.

Several days later, the “defeat Lute-kun!” plan was easily abandoned.

Because no matter how much we practice, none of us could even corner him.

We can hope for a close game, but there is just no way to get a solid hit, so it can’t be helped.

For that reason, we settled with the conclusion that it would be more fun to play among ourselves, whose skills are more balanced.

It seems Lute-kun was fine with it.

When we finished taking care of the children we played reversi and Lute-kun continued to sit in a corner of the room with closed eyes.

Because Lute-kun took care of heavy labor such as clearing up the futons the other 2 stopped complaining.

Lute-kun and I, age 5.

Once you reach the age of 5 you start having lessons for reading and writing, arithmetics, history, and common knowledge.

We 5~6 year old children studied in the biggest room in the orphanage where desks had been lined up.

But only Lute-kun was special.

He has finished all his studies at the age of 3.

Therefore he became Elle-sensei’s cla.s.s a.s.sistant.

His work is mainly to prepare teaching materials, warn children who were noisy, and look after children who fall behind in their studies.

The child who is behind in her studies… …is me.

“The plate on the left has 5 loaves of bread, the plate on the right has 12 loaves. So all of them together, how many loaves are there?”

“Err, Uhm… …”

I bent my fingers and counted.

“Fi, fifteen?”

“Wrong. The answer is 17.”

“Uu~”

I unintentionally fell flat on the desk.

Though I’m good at learning to read and write, history, and common knowledge, no matter what I do I was weak at arithmetics.

I stumbled at the first thing, addition.

Other kids my age had already learned subtraction.

Lute-kun was teaching me today as well.

He patiently accompanied me, who was always unkind to him, without even seeming annoyed.

He kindly, gently, cheered me up when I made a mistake in arithmetics.

“Don’t worry! I’ll be with Snow until you can do addition. But since it’s Snow, you will be able to do it soon!”

“Really?”

“It’s a promise… so cheer up! So… I’ll bring out the next question… The plate on the left has 3 loaves of bread, the plate on the right has 5. So, all of them together how many loaves of bread are there?」”

“Uhh, uhh… 8!”

“Correct! Snow is a genius! Excellent, excellent!”

“Ehehehe.”

It was only a simple arithmetic problem but he was delighted and praised me as if it was his own accomplishment.

At first I thought he was a selfish child who troubled Elle-sensei――but nowadays I don’t dislike him.

I had come to notice that I was able to look at him without prejudice.

Lute-kun is surely clever.

His curiosity and his drive are higher than others.

Unskillful but intelligent, full of curiosity, and having energy to spare, he puts whatever interests him into practice.