Two weeks passed without any problems, and I thought it was wonderful. Then, one day.
Have you ever felt a slight change in your everyday life?
A sense of incongruity, so to speak.
“Seeeeenpai~”
“Good morning is the greeting in the morning. What’s wrong? Why are you making a voice like a zombie just crawled out of hell?”
In the past, I rarely had the chance to read the newspaper, but recently, I’ve started to think that I should be interested in what’s happening in the world, so I try to read it if I have time in the morning.
Even so, there are no fantasy-like news stories.
Just ordinary news like political corruption scandals, infidelity reports from famous celebrities, accidents, and fires.
The only congratulatory news is something like a certain professional baseball player contributing to his team by hitting a walk-off home run.
As I was thinking about how harsh the world is, I heard a voice crawling on the ground, calling me.
I folded the newspaper and looked at Kaido, the owner of the voice.
“…You look pale. Did Amili-chan and the others find out about you cheating?”
“No, I’m generally bad at hiding things when it comes to being interested in other girls.”
He had dark circles under his eyes, his cheeks were gaunt, and he looked like a textbook example of someone in poor health unless it was special effects makeup from Hollywood.
However, his body, enhanced by magic crests, wouldn’t be easily brought down by a mere cold. He possessed an immunity and stamina that would allow him to recover quickly with just one night’s sleep.
For Kaido to look so unwell, I could only surmise that he must have had some terrifying experience.
At first, I thought he might have gotten into trouble with his relationships with women, but Kaido shook his head, denying it.
“I was found out in the past, and I thought I’d be in trouble!? But I wasn’t angry then.”
“Well, people from their world are more tolerant of polygyny than people from this world. As long as you don’t neglect them, they might overlook a few things.”
I was reminiscing about Suella’s reaction when Memoria confessed, and how surprised I was then. Kaido continued, “That’s part of it too.”
“Amili-chan and the others would silently start making an effort to resemble the body type of the girl I was interested in. It was their way of saying, without speaking, that I lacked charm. When I saw that, I felt like I couldn’t look away.”
“Ah, so they show you their effort.”
“No, it’s not overt. It’s more like, books on sports medicine would appear on the bookshelf, or the search history on the internet would show sites related to beauty. Or there would be soy milk in the refrigerator.”
He didn’t show me them working on it, but he let me glimpse their efforts.
“When I see things like that, it makes me think, ‘Geez, someone likes me, and neglecting them is wrong.’ So lately, I haven’t been going to any other girls’ places.”
“In that case, your pale complexion must have another meaning. I thought you might have been drained at a succubus bar and angered Amili-san.”
“Even I haven’t been there. I’m too scared of the thrill of flirting with death’s edge.”
So, my prediction was wrong. What then could be the cause? I pondered it again.
“Then what’s with the pale face? If you’re not feeling well, you can rest, you know.”
“I’m feeling perfectly fine. But…”
“But?”
“My shoelace broke, and as I stumbled, Instructor Kio’s practice swing passed right by my face. It was a heart-stopping experience right at the start of the day.”
“Oh, oh. I see. That’s what happened.”
While I’m used to it now, his monstrous punch has no ordinary power. If I were to receive it in my everyday state, without any preparation, then that pale complexion would be understandable.
“Maybe the horoscope I saw this morning was right.”
“Horoscope?”
“Yes, my zodiac sign was ranked last today. That’s probably why. It’s why I suddenly encountered misfortune today.”
“My condolences.”
“Ah! Senpai, you don’t believe me!”
“If a company employee told me that, I’d believe it, but horoscopes on TV, aren’t they those five-minute segments after the news?”
“But I was actually in danger!”
“It’s a coincidence. How many people do you think share your zodiac sign? It just so happened that you were the one lucky enough to be chosen.”
However, blaming it on the occult seemed a bit much. Kaido grumbled about how unlucky he was today, and I couldn’t help but give a wry smile and disagree. To prove my point, I looked at the horoscope corner in the newspaper I had with me.
“…Kaido, were you a Capricorn?”
“Yes? What about it?”
“Sorry, but you might actually be unlucky today.”
“Eh!? Why!?”
“Why? Because the newspaper also ranks Capricorns as last. If two sources say the same thing, I guess something might be up.”
Seeing that Capricorns were ranked last on Kaido’s birthday, I retracted my statement about coincidence. Handing him the newspaper, I told him, and he stared at it as if he intended to tear a hole in it.
“My dungeon attack today might need to be cautious.”
“Noooo! Don’t you have any lucky items or anything?”
“If I had something like that, I’d want it for myself.”
As Kaido, on the verge of tears, worried that a punch from the instructor might narrowly miss his face all day, I let out another wry smile. Then, an irritated voice could be heard.
“Ugh, this is the worst. The weather forecast was completely wrong.”
“Hey, Kitamiya, good morning. What’s wrong, did you forget your umbrella?”
She must have walked over directly from the company entrance. Soaked, her hair stuck to her face, and even wiping it with a handkerchief was like adding fuel to the fire. Kitamiya entered the office, a drowned rat. As soon as I saw Kitamiya’s appearance, I stood up and took out a cleaned hand towel to hand to her.
“Thank you. The probability of rain was zero today. It was sunny when I left, so I thought it would be fine, but about a hundred meters before reaching the company, this happened. Honestly, I’m so unlucky.”
As she took it, she explained what had happened. While complaining about a natural phenomenon seemed misguided, I still thought it was okay to vent a little.
“And to top it all off, it stopped raining just as I ran in here. Ugh, my horoscope ranking was last too. Today might just be an unlucky day.”
She dabbed her hair gently, not roughly like a man, and muttered the same words Kaido had said earlier.
“Oh, Amili-chan is also unlucky? We’re the same!”
“The same in what way? Did something happen to you too, Kaido-san?”
Kaido, reacting to her words, seemed happy to find a fellow unfortunate soul. But for Kitamiya, it was a comparison of misfortunes. She asked, with a less than pleasant expression, but it seemed she thought his misfortune wasn’t as bad as hers.
“The instructor’s punch just grazed my face.”
“I’m sorry. Mine was still better.”
However, Kitamiya immediately conceded defeat upon hearing Kaido’s story, which he recounted with a somber expression. Honestly, I thought being drenched by rain was much better than having the instructor’s punch whiz past my face.
“But, Kaido and Kitamiya are both unlucky today. Kitamiya, what was your horoscope?”
“It was blood type divination. It’s from a website that’s said to be quite accurate.”
Kaido had his zodiac sign, and Kitamiya had her blood type. While it wasn’t strange for Kitamiya, a woman, to look at horoscopes, the fact that so many unfortunate events were happening consecutively made me suspicious, probably because I was working at this company. In my previous job, I would have scoffed at such things. But here, there was something unsettling about ignoring it.
“When things go like this, something usually happens, right?”
“Don’t say that. It’s bad luck. If it were Minami, she might call it a ‘flag’ in this situation.”
“There’s no element to deny that in this company. With magic existing, we have to debate whether to see it as a premonition or just our imagination.”
“Even you, Jiro-san.”
Kitamiya tried to deny Kaido’s words, but unfortunately, whether for better or worse, I had become desensitized to things happening at such times. I could almost think of it as a premonition of trouble. This flow of bad luck was too significant to overlook.
“Uuuu, Riiiida~”
“S-Sorry.”
Just as I was thinking that.
“Whoa, the flag is being recovered.”
“Hey, hey, what happened? Wait there!”
From the entrance, we could hear Minami, on the verge of tears, and Katsu’s dejected voices.
We were now certain that something had happened. Without hesitation, we turned towards them. Kaido blurted out, and Kitamiya hurried to the Party Room.
A punch narrowly missing my face. A sudden downpour. And then they arrived.
“You’re giving off a pretty strong odor. What happened?”
“I slipped on a banana peel on the corner, and that’s why I’m in this state.”
“I grabbed onto Minami just in time.”
I suspected they had probably spilled a trash bag. The worst possible outcome for a woman. And Katsu, who got caught up in it, was also unfortunate.
“Banana peels really can make you slip, huh? I thought that was only in gag manga.”
“Even I wouldn’t do a physical gag to this extent!”
Listening to Minami, who seemed on the verge of anger, she explained that right around the corner, a goblin worker who was collecting garbage had dropped a banana peel. Minami stepped on it, instinctively grabbed Katsu, and they dived into a trash bag. It was a sequence of events that would be comical, and Kaido looked at them with suspicion, but Minami insisted that she doesn’t usually joke around like this.
“Ugh! My gacha pull was a bust, and now this happens. How can the horoscope be so accurate today!!”
“Wait, you’re focusing on that? Shouldn’t you be more sympathetic to my current state…?”
“No, Kaido and Kitamiya were also unlucky today. They both said their horoscopes were ranked last. Minami, were you too?”
I interrupted Minami, who wanted more sympathy, and briefly explained the situation so far. Her demeanor seemed to switch as if a switch had been flipped. The smell of garbage made it a bit hard to take her seriously, but…
“Katsu and I were ranked last and just before last.”
“Was it a zodiac horoscope?”
“Mine was an animal sign horoscope.”
Minami tapped on her smartphone and showed us.
“…It’s too much of a coincidence.”
“Well, it wasn’t something directly done to me by anyone. I was complaining about the gacha pull that went bust when it happened.”
“It’s something that can be attributed to complete carelessness.”
“If you put it that way, I have no rebuttal.”
Looking at the screen, Minami’s animal sign was ranked last, and Katsu’s was just before it. Naturally, the content was not very favorable, befitting their ranks.
“I understand what happened. For now, both of you, go take a shower. I think Kitamiya has prepared something.”
“Understood!”
“Yes.”
While the fact itself was hard to believe, the circumstantial evidence was mounting. There wasn’t much we could do to prepare. For the time being, we couldn’t leave them covered in garbage, so they had to change. As I watched them obediently head to the Party Room, I asked Kaido.
“Kaido, Kitamiya, Minami, and Katsu… what do you think?”
“Amelia-chan is the only one left. I hope nothing happens.”
The image of the small girl, the remaining member, flashed through the minds of me and Kaido.
“Since nothing happened to me, maybe nothing will happen to Amelia either.”
“Senpai, do you not look at horoscopes?”
“I don’t really pay much attention to them. Well, judging by the newspaper from earlier, it wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad either. Maybe that’s why.”
“It might be a different horoscope?”
“If you say that, then everyone’s horoscope can’t be good, can it?”
“That’s true, but…”
We exchanged pointless banter, trying to alleviate our unease, but our gazes kept flicking towards the entrance. As time passed, with only fifteen minutes left until work started.
“Good morning!”
Amelia entered energetically from the entrance. We were relieved. We looked at each other and shared a wry smile, thinking that everything that had happened so far was just a coincidence. Just as I was about to return her greeting, I saw a single item fall at Amelia’s feet.
“Ah! Miyagawa-san, dodge!”
A single sheet of paper, likely dropped by mistake by one of the administrative staff. It was just a piece of paper, but the administrative woman’s panic and my magic-crest-enhanced vision didn’t miss the crucial imprinted mark. Amelia, who unfortunately had no choice but to step on it, also saw the characters. I wondered how she could avoid it, but there wasn’t time to think. The paper fluttered down at her feet as if inviting her to step on it. Amelia, taking a large step, avoided it. And with that, everything seemed to be resolved.
“Why!?”
Whether it was a divine prank or a diabolical one, a gust of wind blew in from the entrance where she had entered, pushing the important documents towards her feet as she took that large step.
“No!?”
She tried to avoid it somehow, but it was only a few centimeters away from her foot. There was little time to avoid a document that slid in. However, Amelia showcased her excellent reflexes here.
“!”
Utilizing her enhanced physical abilities, she kicked with her trailing leg instead of her stepping leg, jumping forward to avoid the document.
“Move, please!?”
However, she misjudged the force and jumped quite a distance. She couldn’t fly through the air on impulse. Therefore, following her inertia, just as she was about to collide with the ornamental plant in front of her.
“Haa, I made it in time.”
“Ah! Jiro-san!”
I managed to catch her by the collar of her uniform, as if grabbing a cat by the neck. Amelia dangled, her eyes closed just before the impact. Upon realizing there was no impact, she opened her eyes and understood what had happened.
“Are you hurt?”
“Yes! No problem!”
“That’s good.”
I worried if it had hurt her, as it had tightened her neck, but it seemed Amelia was fine.
“I’m sorry! Miyagawa-san!”
“It’s alright! The documents, are they okay?”
“Yes, thanks to you avoiding them, they’re fine.”
At that moment, the dark elf administrative staff member who had picked up the documents rushed over.
“Please be careful.”
“Yes, I apologize.”
It was probably just a coincidence, but seeing this sequence of events, I decided to issue a caution just in case. Then, I urged her to be more careful in the future as she bowed her head, and she returned to her work.
“Well then, Amelia, there’s one thing I’d like to ask you.”
Coincidence or not. I called out to Amelia to confirm, but before I could hear her reply.
“Jiro-kun, it’s terrible!!”
Keiri-san burst in and shouted, before I could hear her reply. Sweat beaded on her forehead, and it was clear she had run at full speed.
“What happened?”
Although I had a bad feeling about her expression, I tried my best to respond calmly.
“Suella has collapsed!!”
“!? ”
However, when I recall this later, I don’t remember much of what happened next. The only thing I remember is sitting in front of a door.
Today’s word:
Sometimes, when something happens, other things happen beforehand as well.
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*The first volume of this novel has been published by Hayakawa Bunko JA.
It was released on October 18, 2018.
An e-book version was also released on October 31 of the same year.
The second volume was released on December 19.
The third volume was released on February 20, 2019.
The content has been revised and expanded from the original serialization on Shousetsuka ni Narou, with additional unpublished intermissions included.
Please consider purchasing the new releases!
A comic adaptation is being serialized in Kodansha’s “Young Magazine The Third.”
We hope you enjoy that as well.
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