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[LN] Volume 1: Chapter 3.1

Volume 1 Chapter 3.1

Old Wound that Hurts Part 1

Translator : PolterGlast

Nozomu, who had been undergoing special training with Shino since early in the morning, managed to pass the morning class exhausted.

"Ah... the sun looks hazy."

The fatigue that enveloped his entire body was something normal, but today the sun looked even more hazy than usual.

With such a hazy mind, Nozomu left the school building to buy lunch.

Solminati Academy is built in the center of Arcazam, and there is a large park surrounds it. This central park is a place of relaxation for the people of the city and for students, and there are many stalls selling snacks and refreshments around the park.

As a student who has been struggling, Nozomu is basically an independent person, but today, after being instructed to train twice as much as usual in the morning, he didn\'t have the energy to prepare lunch in the morning after returning to his dormitory.

He walked around the park, mindful of his surroundings, and looking for a stall that might sell bread or some other simple snacks.

Truth be told, he didn\'t want to go to Central Park where there were many students from the school, but the other places in the school building were much more crowded.

And since it was already lunchtime. Not only students but also the town\'s general public visited Central Park for lunch.

In front of Nozomu\'s eyes, people with a wide variety of appearances, such as those with beast-like tails and ears and those with bird-like wings, were peering into the stalls or lying on the grass in the park, spending their time as they pleased.

The Arcmel continent was originally inhabited by a wide variety of races.

There were various races, from fairy races such as elves, to sub-races including beastmen and other rare races.

Arcazam was built by gathering human resources from all over the continent.

Due to this reason, Central Park, where so many people gathered, was truly a melting pot of various races.

"As I thought, there are a lot of people here..."

The hustle and bustle of the crowd might be an enjoyable sight for some people, but unfortunately, Nozomu was rather uncomfortable with strangers, partly because he was despised at school.

Fed up by the hustle and bustle atmosphere, he bought some bread at a deserted stall and walked to the nearby trees.

The central park was quite large, but it was basically an open grass lawn that ran around the perimeter, with trees that grew thicker as one moved further.

And since most people spent their time in this lawn area with tables and chairs, the trees-filled area was filled with an atmosphere of tranquility, unlike the noisy lawn area.

For now, Nozomu walked through the tree-filled area and sat down under a desirable tree.

He brought his mouth down on a piece of bread he had bought from a stall earlier, chewed, and swallowed the slightly hard dough.

"Haa, it\'s a bit tough, and I can\'t say it tastes particularly good. Well, it\'s cheap, so it\'s not bad... hmm?"

After taking a bite, Nozomu, who had a subtle expression on his face due to the bland taste of the food, tilted his head at the strange sight that suddenly caught his attention.

"Who\'s that? In a place like this..."

A girl was looking up at a tree and looked horrified.

A girl about ten years old, with her glossy black hair neatly trimmed on her shoulders, she had an aura that particularly caught his attention.

(Is it just me, or is she really quite similar to someone I saw recently... Hmm, Argh... I can\'t figure it out)

The girl\'s appearance stuck in Nozomu\'s mind. But due to his master\'s intense morning training and because of hunger, Nozomu\'s head had completely stopped working.

During the day, Central Park was bustling with people, but unfortunately, Nozomu and the girl were in the trees-filled area, which was not a particularly popular place.

Naturally, it would be hard to imagine other people noticing the girl in distress.

(Besides, that uniform belongs to Ecross, doesn\'t it?...)

Upon closer inspection, the girl was wearing a white-colored uniform, similar to Nozomu\'s uniform. Ecross is an affiliated school that belongs to Solminati Academy and is attended mainly by children around the age of ten.

The purpose of founding this school was to nurture highly capable individuals by providing education to talented and promising children from an early age.

Those selected were either legitimate children of prominent figures in their respective countries or those born with rare talents and abilities.

(She looks rather small for someone who attends Ecross. Well, since she is wearing that uniform, then she is indeed a student of that school...)

The girl in front of Nozomu was rather small for an Ecross student, but as long as she was wearing that uniform, there seemed to be no doubt that she was a student of that school.

(She seems to be in some kind of trouble, and I can\'t just leave her alone, can I?...)

Normally, Nozomu didn\'t like getting involved with strangers, but he couldn\'t leave the young girl who was obviously in trouble in such an unpopular place.

Nozomu, for the time being, put the hesitation and sentiment of avoiding strangers out of his mind and decided to talk to the girl.

"Is something wrong?..."

"Eh?”

Nozomu\'s voice was strangely strained out of nervousness, and the girl turned around in a surprised manner. The girl\'s jet-black eyes stared at Nozomu. The color of her eyes, which seemed to absorb him, gave Nozomu a strong feeling of déjà vu.

"You\'re an Ecross student, right? What are you doing here?"

"Umm, actually, I was playing with Kuro-chan during lunch break..."

"… Kuro-chan?”

The girl was looking upward at the tree in front of her. As if prompted by the girl, Nozomu also looked up and saw a black cat relaxing on a branch, playing with something shaped like a ring.

"What\'s that? A bracelet?"

"It\'s my bracelet, and Kuro-chan liked it so much that she took it away from me…... Gosh, Kuro-chan, please give it back to me~!"

The girl looked troubled and pleaded at the black cat up on the tree, but the black cat, called "Kuro-chan", seemed to like her bracelet so much that it didn\'t pay attention to the girl\'s voice.

(It\'s a pretty tall tree. Moreover, the skin of the tree is quite slippery. Even an adult would have a hard time climbing it.)

"...... There is no other choice then."

Nozomu rolled up the sleeves of his uniform, placed his hands on the tree trunk, and began to climb it with ease.

In the forest, he often climbed trees to escape from demonic beasts, so tree climbing was something he was good at. On the other hand, the black cat noticed Nozomu climbing the tree and raised its tail warily.

"Behave and hand over that bracelet."

Nozomu climbed up to the same height as the black cat and reached out to grab the bracelet, but the black cat snarled, "Fusha----!". The black cat lashed out and snarled at Nozomu, threatening him, and swung its claws at him.

"Whoa, don\'t be violent! "

"*Shaa---!*"

Just as Nozomu tried to touch the black cat’s body, it bared its fangs and ended up pouncing on him. As for Nozomu, he couldn\'t move much on the tree, and the black cat latched onto his face and clawed him.

"Ouch, you fucking cat!"

As he was facing more resistance than he expected, Nozomu grabbed the back of the black cat\'s neck with one hand and pulled it away forcefully.

The black cat, on the other hand, was not to be outdone. Raising its claws, it dexterously scratched the back of Nozomu\'s hand.

"Ouch--!"

As the pain weakened Nozomu\'s grip, the black cat gently twisted and turned its body to break free from the restraint and jumped up using Nozomu\'s hand as a foothold.

Returning to the branch, the black cat seemed to say, "This is mine!". It stuck out its chest as if to emphasize that the bracelet was hers.

But even so, Nozomu, who had already been clawed by the black cat, didn\'t back down. If one were to look closely, one could see that the bread he had just bought for lunch had fallen to the ground and was covered in dirt. Although it was tasteless and unappetizing, it was still a valuable source of energy for Nozomu.

Nozomu, who became quite hot-headed after his precious lunch was spoiled, once again tried to grab the black cat which was on the branch.

And so began the great fight between Nozomu and the black cat. The black cat lunged at Nozomu, but he grabbed it and said, "Behave yourself!". The black cat seemed to say, "Let go of me!", and clawed and bit with all its might.

"Ah, Onii-sa~n, Kuro-cha~n..."

As the girl looked at them with concern, the battle between one person and one animal gradually escalated.

Along with that, the branches of the trees which was the battlefield began to creak.

Eventually, in the middle of the fight, as Nozomu placed his hand on a branch and rested his weight on it, the limit was reached.

*Snap!*

With a snapping sound, the branches broke, and one person and one animal were thrown into the air, losing their footing.

"Whoa!”

"*Nya-nya*!"

Being pulled by gravity, Nozomu and the cat fell to the ground.

However, as expected of a cat. Despite being suddenly thrown into the air, the black cat quickly turned itself over and was quickly and effortlessly settled in the girl\'s arms.

Meanwhile, Nozomu was unable to regain his posture and fell awkwardly to the ground.

*Thump!*

He hit the back of his head and crouched on the ground while letting out miserable groans.

"U-umm, are you okay?..."

"...... Y-yeah.”

Nozomu somehow managed to stand up, trying hard to hold back the tears that were welling up from the depths of his eyes. Nozomu had mixed feelings of embarrassed and humiliated upon seeing the worried look in the girl\'s eyes.

"More importantly, is your bracelet safe?..."

Right after Nozomu asked about the bracelet, which was his aim, he peeked at the black cat which had settled on the girl\'s arm.

The black cat was in the girl\'s arms with the bracelet around its neck, but the bracelet itself was undamaged and seemed to be fine.

"Thank goodness. Thank you."

The girl smiled with a beautiful smile and looked genuinely relieved.

Nozomu\'s mouth naturally loosened at the sight of her innocent and pure smile.

"Ah, I\'m sorry. I didn\'t introduce myself. My name is Somiliana. My friends call me Somia!"

"I\'m Nozomu Bountis.  You can call me Nozomu. If you don\'t mind, can I call you Somia-chan?"

"Yes! Nice to meet you, Nozomu-san!"

"Yeah, nice to meet you too."

Encouraged by the black-haired girl who was looking very excited, the tension he felt when he first approached her had completely faded away.

He got scratched and fell from the tree, and it was quite painful, but seeing the girl with a big smile on her face made the pain in his body disappear.

Thinking back, he rarely got thanked by anyone, except for yesterday.

In his normal school life, Nozomu never smiled nor had anyone smiled at him, but he found himself smiling sincerely for the first time in a long time.

*Clang, clang, clang...*

At that moment, the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch break.

""…… Ah.”"

Nozomu and Somia. They both let out troubled voices at the same time.

"Oh no! I have to go back to the classroom!"

Hearing the bell, Somia began to panic. Although Ecross school building was connected to Solminati Academy, it would take longer for the girl\'s legs to get there than Nozomu\'s.

"You\'d better get going. It would be bad to be late."

"Y-, yes! Umm, once again, thank you very much!"

Somia bowed deeply once again, with the cat in her small arms, and with nimble steps, she headed back towards the Ecross school building. Nozomu exhaled with satisfaction while looking at her back.

"I missed lunch, but ... well, whatever."

What Nozomu did for her was nothing much. The only thing he did was get into a fight with a mischievous cat and they fell down from the tree together.

Nevertheless, the words of gratitude from the girl brought a sense of satisfaction to Nozomu to the point of making him forget his hunger for a while.

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