Volume 1 Chapter 2

Volume 1 + Chapter 2: The Past

Today is my 6th birthday.

Alone, I sit at a table in a patisserie decorated with exquisite Christmas ornaments.

Having arrived just as someone was leaving, I managed to snag this seat. Now, I sit here holding the store’s eight-inch cake, simply lost in thought.

Unaware passersby might think this child is waiting for someone. In reality, I’m not waiting for anyone. I’m merely lamenting how quickly this free time has passed and wallowing in the grief of something that happened just a year ago.

From the corner of my eye, I notice the street outside growing crowded and people steadily filing into the shop.

There are couples, and people out with family or friends.

I’m starting to feel it’s not right to keep hogging this seat, as these ‘normies’ are about to pack the patisserie to the brim.

Pulling my phone from my pocket, I check the time—it’s almost 7:30 PM. Winter nights always descend so quickly.

Letting out a long sigh, I silently stick the candle into the cake. Standing out so starkly against the bustling crowd around me, I once again draw the attention of the shop’s lady staff.

Honestly, whether it’s the lady at the ramen shop or the one here at the patisserie, why are they all so compassionate?

Do I possess some skill that, if I come to the same shop every day for a month, inevitably draws the staff’s attention?

Helplessly, I look up at the staff lady who, with an elegant smile, has very naturally taken the seat opposite me. Not only that, but she’s off work and still not heading home. What on earth is she thinking?

Unlike the amiable, idol-like feel of the ramen shop lady, this patisserie staff lady carries an air of a young noblewoman.

With such poise, she doesn’t seem like someone who would work part-time, especially as a cake shop attendant…

This really must be the world of a dating sim. It’s utterly absurd.

I silently complain in my heart. She sits there without saying a word, just smiling at me.

After a long silence, finally…

Aigh…

“Aren’t you going home?”

“Call me ‘big sister’.”

Perhaps my impolite form of address has annoyed her a little.

Maybe it’s my imagination, but as her smile deepens, I feel like I see a momentary, dangerous black aura emanating from her.

This black aura makes me obediently retract my sharp claws, no longer pretending to be a rude brat.

Can’t afford to mess with her, can’t afford to mess with her.

“Aren’t you going home, big sister?”

Following her demand, the ominous black aura vanishes instantly. This swift reaction confirms one thing for me again.

Hmph! This is someone I can’t afford to mess with!

Perfectly retracting my sharp claws into their paw pads, this young, wolf-like mysterious creature, facing a being it can’t win against, puts on an act of cuteness.

“I will. I’ll go home after I see you home.”

The staff lady’s words give me a headache. I enjoy my solitary life.

Maybe it’s something people wouldn’t believe, but I truly do enjoy living this way.

But how much explanation and how many facts would it take to prove this point?

Finding it troublesome, and too lazy to explain, I simply remain silent.

Faced with my silence, the staff lady stands up naturally, takes the lighter from my hand, and lights the candle for me.

“Do you have a wish?”

“A wish?”

Having lit the candle, the staff lady returns to her seat and asks me this.

Unfamiliar with the word, I instinctively repeat it. This confused repetition makes the staff lady show a somewhat sad expression.

Though fleeting, I still notice it.

I’m an irredeemably rotten person. That’s a fact.

But even someone rotten like me doesn’t want to make people feel sad for no reason.

“A wish, huh…”

I turn to look at the people coming and going outside the window. Today happens to be Christmas.

Many adults are with children. People’s faces are all lit up with happy smiles.

To be honest, was I just too good at picking my birth date?

This thought inexplicably pops into my head. Perhaps because I’ve been gazing at the scene outside for too long, the staff lady misunderstands something.

Warm hands gently cup my face, turning it back towards her. The staff lady smiles tenderly, but her eyes hold sadness.

Ah, I’ve made someone sad because of me again.

Realizing this, I pull my wandering thoughts back.

“Big sister, do you have a wish?”

Pretending to be a normal, well-behaved child, I smile at the staff lady and say something that surprises her.

Clearly taken aback, the staff lady looks at me somewhat dazedly.

“As for me… I plan to fulfill the wish of such a kind staff lady.”

“My wish is, I hope your wish comes true, big sister.”

“What do you think of a wish like that, big sister?”

Hearing this, the staff lady ends up showing an even sadder smile.

Let me clarify first.

My original intention in saying this was genuinely to make this very kind big sister happy.

After all, for someone like me with no wishes of my own, instead of replying ‘I don’t have any wishes,’ isn’t it better to give my wish to such a gentle person this way?

I absolutely did not want to make this kind big sister even sadder.

So, having perhaps done a good deed with unintended bad consequences, I feel a rare sense of failure inside.

“Aren’t you happy, big sister?”

“Hmm? Why do you say that?”

“Because your smile looks forced!”

I puff out my cheeks unhappily, showing a rare bit of childishness.

The staff lady looks surprised, her lips parting slightly as she stares intently at me with this expression.

“….Wha…what’s the matter!”

A powerful sense of shyness wells up inside me, even my back feels uncomfortable.

I’m almost unable to keep up the act. I brandish my sharp claws (all bark and no bite), glaring fiercely at the staff lady.

“….No… I’m just surprised you can make an expression like that too.”

A light named “Delight” appears in the staff lady’s eyes. A small weight in my heart is finally lifted.

“What do you take me for? What do you mean ‘I can make an expression like that too’?!”

“I’m just an ordinary kid you can find anywhere.”

My face feeling warm, I pretend to be displeased and turn away from the staff lady.

“Sorry, sorry.”

The staff lady apologizes with a laugh while turning my face back towards her again. What meets my eyes is the staff lady’s unforced “Genuine Smile.”

“See, big sister, you can smile really nicely!”

“You should smile like this from now on! Your previous smiles were all unqualified! Un! Ac! Cep! Ta! Ble!”

I stand up, extending my index finger, impolitely pointing at the staff lady’s face, declaring this with great bluster.

“……I understand. So, can you sit down now? You’re disturbing others.”

The staff lady, who has high standards for manners, is once again annoyed by my finger almost poking her nose. She reveals a terrifying smile tinged with that black aura as she speaks.

“Yes!”

I immediately sit back down properly. I finally become certain that black aura wasn’t my imagination.

This person! Is someone I can’t afford to mess with!

“Good, good. Good child, good child.”

Somehow having gotten up and come to sit next to me in my booth, by the time I notice, the staff lady is already very naturally saying ‘good child’ while patting my head.

……Is this a common affliction among older women?

Already accustomed to having my head patted like this, I let the staff lady have her fill with an expression of utter resignation.

“My wish is… I hope a good, well-behaved child like you has every day happier than today.”

“Every day?”

“Yes, every day.”

“That’s a pretty greedy wish.”

I mumble this, and together with the staff lady, we blow out the candle.

“Since it’s a wish, what’s wrong with being a little greedy?”

The staff lady says this with a laugh, not at all like an adult.

Oh, wait, that’s not right either.

In terms of greediness, this big sister before me does have quite the adult demeanor.

“Somehow, I feel like you’re thinking something very rude.”

The staff lady’s black-tinged smile makes my heart tremble.

“…..No… I’m not!”

“Hmm~ That’s good then.”

“Big sister, let’s eat the cake.”

Sensibly, I quickly cut the cake and, holding the first slice, offered it to the staff lady as a gesture of goodwill.

This is my first time trying to curry favor with someone since coming to this world. This feeling of being forced into it makes me shed bitter tears inside once again.

Yikes! The outside world is truly scary!

Having finished the cake, I’m led out by the hand by the staff lady. On the road, there are many adults with children.

Originally, this should have nothing to do with me. Yet, because I’m being led by the hand by the staff lady, it seems I’ve also become one of those children with happy smiles.

A strange feeling.

How long has it been since I felt the warmth of another person so keenly?

Lifting my head to look at the exceptionally good-looking staff lady, I feel an unsteady, dreamlike sensation.

This is a feeling I’ve never had before. All the way, the big sister leads me to a bustling, lively street.

We arrive at the entrance of a shop with elaborate decorations. The staff lady takes me inside.

Inside the shop are many young women and girls, with friends or boyfriends, smiling, laughing, and filled with joy as they try on or select exquisite items.

I have an idea why the staff lady brought me here. She probably wants to give me a birthday gift.

Pulling me along to look at the items in the display cases, the staff lady ends up choosing and buying a bracelet for me.

The bracelet has many delicate little roses and a four-leaf clover adorned with roses.

Counting the roses, there are exactly 25, symbolizing ‘Wishing you happiness.’

The lucky clover adorned with roses has four leaves. Clover represents luck, and this one is the rare four-leaf kind.

So that my future will be filled with both luck and happiness?

These things all represent the staff lady’s blessings for me. I don’t know if it’s because people in dating sims are just very nice, or if people in this world I’ve come to are all rather good.

Since being born into this world, I haven’t encountered any truly terrible people yet.

And precisely these kind, gentle, soft-hearted people are the type I’m least adept at dealing with and least want to encounter.

Looking at the bracelet extended before me, this clearly doesn’t look cheap.

My suspicion about whether the staff lady is an heiress deepens. Up until now, neither of us knows the other’s name. That means we are strangers.

Why is this staff lady willing to spend money and give a gift to a strange child like me?

Really… It makes no sense.

Lowering my head so my bangs hide my eyes, I look at the polished floor tiles, my mood inexplicably darkening for a moment.

“Don’t you like it?”

The staff lady’s voice asks gently.

It’s impossible not to like it. This is the first gift I’ve received since coming to this world, and also the first blessing.

But it’s also a happiness I least want to accept.

I’m not twisted to the point of speaking harshly to kind people.

For once, I’m not being stubborn. I answer quietly.

“……I like it.”

Even this quiet reply is heard by the staff lady.

“That’s good. Then, let me put it on for you.”

Soft, slender, gentle fingers deftly fasten the bracelet around my wrist.

This wolf-like mysterious creature, raised in the wild, is adorned with an exquisite shackle that doesn’t suit it.

Is this a blessing, or a curse?

The wolf-like mysterious creature doesn’t know.

It only knows that from now on, it can no longer use this once agile, powerful hand to fight other young wolves over territory and assert authority.

The wolf-like mysterious creature is now restricted.

“Big sister, what’s your name?”

“And yours? What’s your name?”

“My name is Watanabe Yuu.”

This is the second time I’ve said my name. The first was during self-introductions in kindergarten.

“It’s a name that suits you.”

The staff lady praises my name, then tells me hers in a very gentle voice.

“My name is Kujou Rin. Nice to meet you, Watanabe-kun.”

Hearing how the big sister addresses me, my eyes widen slightly.

My parents call me Yuu-yuu. My teachers call me Watanabe.

The boys in class call me ‘Boss.’ The girls just talk to me without using any form of address.

Never having been called this way before, I find it novel again and answer with a smile.

“Nice to meet you too, Kujou-neesan.”

This is the proper first meeting of the two, and also their final meeting.

[https://ko-fi.com/golden_dragon]