Chapter 8: Meeting
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -
Mika Uehara should not have to face any more danger now.
There was nothing more than a scary story behind that brilliant smile; it almost seemed perfect this way.
After he had brought Mika to school once again, Seiji mulled things over on his return journey.
It was good that this fiasco had ended.
However, there were some aftereffects. First, it seemed that he was bound by the promise to escort Mika to school.
Second, Mika Uehara’s favorability rating towards him had surpassed 90—his system told him that she would instantly agree to be his girlfriend or even have sex with him if he asked!
Not only that, even the landlord Nozomi Uehara had a favorability rating towards him of over eighty, and if he asked her to have sex, apparently she would consider it seriously…
‘Haha, this is like a complete walkthrough… Hey, this is no time for me to act like a capture target god!’ Seiji reined himself with great difficulty.
He didn’t have any useful abilities that a capture target god would have, like causing his targets to lose their memories. In fact, Mika Uehara’s deep feelings towards him were troublesome for him by itself.
He liked Mika, but it was only to the extent of an adult that was friendly with a child; it wasn’t to the point of love. Just thinking about having to deal with her sincere feelings was something that gave him a headache.
Forget about it; he would just take things as they come. As a thirty-year-old virgin otaku in his past life, he was clueless on how to deal with a high school girl’s love…
...
"You want to change jobs?" The confectionary shop’s manager Rika Amami’s eyes widened in surprise.
"Yes, I would like a higher salary." Seiji awkwardly scratched his face. After all, directly telling any boss that he wanted to change jobs, even if she was just his manager, made him feel awkward.
"I’m so grateful to you, Store Manager, for taking me in during one of my most difficult times, but I want to earn more money as fast as I can, so…"
"Alright then, you can work inside the store. Your salary will be increased by fifty percent, and if you do a good job and work overtime often, there’ll be extra reward money." Rika Amami said cheerily.
"Oh… this…" Seiji didn’t expect her to use this tactic.
"Do you still think it’s too low?"
"No, it’s pretty good." Seiji scratched the corner of his mouth: "I just thought Store Manager would get angry…"
"It’s only normal to desire a higher salary, especially after you have become so handsome. I thought that you’d want to take off your full-body anime costume sooner or later." Rika had a knowing expression on her face.
Just like the Uehara mother and daughter pair, this store manager was also a witness to the miracle.
A flabby fatty had changed into a strong, handsome guy in the short span of one week; she was absolutely flabbergasted as well. Luckily, she wasn’t familiar with the original Seiji Haruta’s otaku lifestyle, so the contrast wasn’t as evident to her.
Rika could only sigh in envy when she thought about how difficult and slow it was for her to lose weight. This youth who was in front of her was unrecognizable as the same person from one week ago.
It was perfect timing, though, as the store’s business was getting better and better, and she had wanted to hire some more workers. She absolutely wouldn’t let go of this polite, hard-working, and handsome guy!
"I’m not really that handsome… anyway, thank you, Store Manager. I’ll take my work seriously."
And thus, he went from a full-body costumed employee to working inside the store.
Clad in the store uniform, this fresh, energetic newcomer’s appearance instantly attracted the eyeballs of many female customers inside.
Rika’s eyes were shining as well; even though she had expected it, she still didn’t realize that the store uniform would look so great on Seiji Haruta. With his good looks and body shape, he was undoubtedly ranked number one in terms of appearance among the store employees!
Even if there were only four employees…
As the other employees had below average appearances, Seiji stood out among the crowd, and no matter where he was standing, that slightly bashful smile was the focus of female attention.
The store idol… no wait, the store hunk will be you!
And thus, time passed by quickly as they worked busily.
Later that evening, Seiji received a phone call from Mika.
Mika: "S… Seiji, are you free?"
Seiji: "Sure, what is it?"
Mika: "The president found out about what happened yesterday, and she asked me about the details. After hearing them… she said she wanted to meet you."
Seiji: "Oh? That student council president wants to meet me? How come?"
Mika: "She said that she knows you…"
Seiji: "What?"
Mika: "She said she knows you, but you probably don’t know her… anyway, she would like to meet and chat with you."
Seiji rubbed his chin and was rather curious. Just who could this student council president possibly be?"
Seiji: "Okay then. When does she want to meet?"
Mika: "If it’s alright with you, she said she’d like to meet tomorrow afternoon in the business district at the confectionary store called ‘Divine Taste.’"
The ‘Divine Taste’ confectionary store… that was the place he worked at! Was this an innocuous coincidence, or was it…
Seiji: "Alright, but you know I need to work tomorrow, so it has to be after 5:00 pm."
Mika: "Okay, I’ll let her know."
After hanging up, the pigtailed beauty had a complicated expression on her face while she was laying face-down on her bed.
Her first time calling him was actually to talk to him about another girl… Mika Uehara felt like a deflated balloon.
Also, she detected a sense of danger.
The student council president had said that she was familiar with Seiji Haruta—what was that about?
She was grateful to the President-sama, who had coolness, beauty, and gentleness combined in one body. She almost seemed like a goddess—the idol of the entire school as well as Mika herself. And that was why she was worried about the president contacting Seiji… after all, the president’s attractiveness was at the level of an alluring witch!
In conclusion, what if Seiji fell in love with the president? It would become a huge obstacle to her love!
Rolling rolling rolling rolling! She was so indecisive that she could only roll around on her bed.
"Ahhhh! What should I do!?"
Seiji could hear some strange noises coming from downstairs.
Seiji had no clue as to what Mika was thinking just then. He held curiosity towards the true identity of the president.
By stating that she knew him, she had, of course, meant that she was familiar with the original Seiji. However the original Seiji… would only leave nothing but destructive impressions behind.
Because she had known the original Seiji and his true personality, she had become curious after learning about the good deed he did for Mika, and she wanted to meet him and confirm his change. After all, it was only natural for her to react like that.
Seiji shook his head; he didn’t want to overthink things. Anyway, he would find out everything after the meeting.
...
The next day.
Seiji worked his usual shift until the afternoon. After his shift had ended, he changed out of the store uniform, before walking out of the employees’ back exit and walking back in the front door.
"Haruta, why aren’t you leaving?" His male coworker was mildly surprised.
"I’m meeting someone here."
"Haha, I know, it’s a date, right?" Seiji’s coworker instantly had an enigmatic expression on his face. "Our store’s sweets are quite good… but I think instead that you should let her see you hard at work. Girls like that sort of thing, and you look good in your uniform, even if I don’t want to admit it, haha."
"She’s not my girlfriend, Tanaka-senpai." Seiji smiled wryly.
Tanaka-senpai, as well as all his other coworkers, were all nice people, but they liked to joke around too much.
"Oh, so she’s your future girlfriend. Relax, we’ll all help you out; if you need some special service, ask away!" Tanaka winked at him before he went to attend to some other customers.
Seiji could only smile helplessly. He then walked towards a table and sat down at a window seat, resting his chin on his hands.
"Hey… that boy over there is quite handsome."
"Where? Oh yeah, that one—he looks like he could be a television star."
"He must be waiting for his girlfriend. How cute! I also want a boyfriend like that…"
A couple of new customers chatted whilst they walked in, and Seiji Haruta overheard them whispering about him due to his excellent sense of hearing.
With his physical ability constantly increasing, Seiji had discovered that his sight, hearing, and other senses all seemed to be becoming increasingly sharper.
Especially sight—as an otaku, his sight was rather weak before. However, with the exercise options, his sight had improved tremendously, to the point where he no longer even needed glasses.
This was no longer at the extent of "exercise"; this was more like "cultivation"!
Seiji eagerly anticipated what he would become as his stats kept increasing. In addition, he was currently only grinding his physical ability stat, yet it already had such an effect. What would happen if he improved his others?
His lips reflexively tilted upward as he imagined his future abilities.
"Look, look! He’s smiling!"
"He must be thinking about his girlfriend… how cute! He must really love her; she really is lucky!"
*Click.*
‘Hey, hey, hey! That last sound was the sound of a camera, right? It must have been! Comments are fine, but don’t just take pictures without permission! Hmph, I should sue that person for infringing my privacy rights!’ Seiji’s face darkened.
"And you insist that you’re not waiting for your girlfriend when you’re just sitting there, smiling stupidly at nothing; it’s truly intolerable." Tanaka brought him a menu.
"Just give me a glass of orange juice."
"Everyone is curious who you’re waiting for, so why don’t you tell us? Oh, also, the store manager said that if you’re willing to let us know, she’ll give you a free tiramisu cake."
Seiji’s face darkened even more.
"I definitely won’t do that. Besides, won’t you find out anyways just by waiting?"
"Hmph, stingy."
‘Was that stingy? Was it really?’ Just as Seiji was wondering that to himself, a familiar person walked into the store.
It was Mika Uehara.
She was still in her school uniform and radiated an innocent and cute aura. With her well-developed figure filled with the sexiness of youth, she was undoubtedly an above average beauty.
But her spotlight was completely stolen away by the subsequent figure that entered.
The next girl was wearing the same school uniform, and her long black hair reached her waist. She had snow-white skin, sensual eyes, red lips, and a full bosom which seemed like it was precariously close to bursting out of the school uniform. Her butt was prominent and pert; in combination with her short skirt and black stockings, everything about her was the highest level of sexiness!
But the girl with such a devilish figure had an angelic, untainted face and held a righteous expression. Her eyes had a sharp gaze to them which stopped any male nearby from thinking impure thoughts. It was as if she had an aura of holiness surrounding her.
But the most noticeable thing was that this girl carried a short sword sheathed in a black and scarlet scabbard—according to Seiji’s memories of his past life’s manga, this sword was called a kodachi!
‘Hey, isn’t having a sword in public against weapon control laws?’ Seiji thought silently to himself.
Beautiful, cool, and righteous, but… something seemed odd about her.
This was the first impression that Seiji Haruta had of the famed student council president.
Mika Uehara glanced around the shop, instantly finding Seiji. She smiled at him brightly and walked over.
The student council president also met Seiji’s gaze, and her eyes widened in obvious surprise.
"Seiji, did you wait long?"
"Not at all, I was only waiting for a short while."
Just as he stood up to welcome the two girls and led them to their seats, he abruptly noticed that his table had become the center of attention for the entire store.
Not only were many customers watching in stunned amazement, even Tanaka and the other employees were standing motionless in surprise.
It took quite a while for time to begin turning in the store again.
"That girl is unbelievably beautiful! But… why is she carrying a sword?"
"Even though that sword seems to suit her appearance, it’s still a little weird…"
"The other one is pretty cute as well… By the way, which one is his girlfriend?"
Everyone was whispering furtively to each other.
"Seiji, this is my school’s student council president, she…" Mika Uehara began an introduction.
"My name is Natsuya Yoruhana." The black-haired girl interrupted Mika and looked directly at Seiji, an indescribable light flickering within her eyes.
"I almost became your fiancée, Seiji Haruta."
"Huh?"