Thanks to Bing user for requesting this novel translation
Chapter 1 – Haruya Akasaki and the S-Rank Beauties
“Alright, this should do…”
Early May.
It was the final day of Golden Week.
Haruya Akasaki was checking his appearance in the mirror before heading out.
His hair casually styled with wax. Accessories from a minor yet popular brand. Clean-looking clothes mainly in white and black, not too flashy or plain.
He moved his limbs and stretched his facial muscles, confirming nothing felt off.
(Posture good, expression good, clothes good…)
Finishing getting ready with a refreshing face, Haruya left home alone.
About a 10 minute walk from his solo apartment.
Coming into Haruya’s view was a large commercial facility.
He had products he was aiming for today, so that was his destination.
As the tall building drew nearer, Haruya realized his pace was slowing.
(It’s crowded today…)
Being a holiday, and the final day of Golden Week at that, it was no wonder many people were utilizing the large commercial facility.
So the majority of this crowd were probably fellow customers like himself.
Yes, that’s what Haruya deduced.
Overwhelmed by the sheer numbers, he couldn’t help wryly smiling.
Glancing at the people ahead of him, Haruya changed direction.
(Guess I should take the back route…)
Veering onto a side road, he switched direction toward a sparsely trafficked alley.
A short while ago he had discovered this less crowded alley when heading to the large commercial facility,
Haruki dubbed it the “back route”.
He carefully advanced down the narrow, dim back route.
Perhaps because he still wasn’t used to it, his body didn’t accommodate the unique stillness of this road.
Restless and unconsciously tense-faced, he realized.
Amidst his heavy footsteps going through the alley, nearing the exit Haruya sensed an ominous atmosphere.
“C’mon, you should totally model, really, really.”
“…Um, no thank you but…”
Ahead of him, a young woman near his age persistently accosting another young woman caught Haruya’s eye.
Observing them from afar, he watched the scene with interest.
(Model scout? No, he’s too pushy for that. Some new pick-up tactic?)
Seeing a situation he’d only seen in manga, Haruya was inwardly thrilled.
In his 16 years of life, this was the first time he’d witnessed a woman getting picked up.
“No need to say that…look, just hear me out at a cafe nearby! Then you’ll change your mind!”
“…I’m not interested, so…”
“That’s why…”
Even from the side it was clear the man was persistently imposing on the woman.
At this rate, Haruya didn’t feel there was any chance of the man backing down.
While the intent was unclear, whether a scout or not, Haruya could understand the man’s feelings.
(That girl is very high level huh)
The girl in Haruya’s vision was undoubtedly a beauty.
Around Haruya’s age of 16 or 17 he guessed.
Her lustrous hair seemed to shine even in this dim alley.
Retaining some youthfulness yet her features certainly exuded sensuality, evidenced by her ample bust discernible even through her clothes.
But still, Haruya tilted his head.
(Feels like I’ve seen her before…)
The more he gazed at her, the stronger Haruya’s sense of déjà vu grew.
He wanted to grasp the identity of that discomfort, but unfortunately that wasn’t the current situation.
Haruya shook his head and walked toward them.
It seemed he had decided to intervene.
(Well, no way I could just pass by this scene unaffected…)
Leaving a girl in trouble be after witnessing it would pain his conscience, Haruya thought.
“Um, excuse me…”
” Hmm? What is it? You. “
Approaching unnoticed, a stern face entered Haruya’s vision when he called out.
Slicked back blond hair and sharp narrow eyes.
Not to judge a book by its cover, but inwardly Haruya deemed this man looking just like a delinquent.
(This is scary…)
With the man’s awareness turned to him, Haruya reaffirmed why the girl had been trembling.
Actually confronting him, Haruya understood the man emitted an intense oppressive aura, glaring over with a compelling gaze.
Haruya wanted to flee the spot but endured and steadily returned the man’s stare.
Unfortunately, dread was all that allowed Haruya to do so.
If he were a gallant prince on a white horse.
If he were a heroic ally of justice.
Surely he would boldly confront and drive away the man, but Haruya was just an ordinary high schooler.
At most he could stare back like this.
So, feeling pathetic, Haruya couldn’t help but curse his own helplessness inwardly.
“…………”
“…………”
They stared at each other for a few seconds.
The beautiful girl’s gaze seemed to be focused solely on Haruya, but he paid no attention and kept his eyes on the guy.
(Oh… this is bad. I’ve stepped up, but my mind is completely blank. What should I say in situations like these?)
Although not showing it on his face, Haruya was internally overwhelmed, feeling like he was about to lose it.
Despite his body involuntarily trembling,
Haruya was anxious that the guy, unexpectedly, was the first to speak.
“……Huh!?”
Instantly, the guy let out an unexpected, silly voice.
“Huh…?”
Not understanding the meaning of the guy’s statement, Haruya involuntarily let out a dumbfounded voice.
“Tch. you have boyfriend, huh…”
For some reason, the guy began to shake and retreated from the spot as if fleeing.
Meanwhile, Haruya, who couldn’t do anything, was unable to understand what had happened.
(…What’s going on? Is this some kind of prank?)
If someone said it was a TV show’s plan, he might believe it, but that possibility was denied by the girl.
“Um… thank you very much!”
“…Eh. Ah, haha. No, I couldn’t do anything at all.”
IHaruya wanted to be cool if he could, that would have been great, but all he could manage was to stare back at the guy.
However, the girl seemed to have taken pity on Haruya’s incompetence.
She politely denied his statement.
“That’s not true! Um… facing a scary person without hesitation and driving them away… it was cool.”
“Uh… haha. Thank you.”
With a dry laugh, Haruya shifted his gaze away from her.
In reality, he had hesitated and panicked facing that scary person, but he couldn’t express that. Feeling embarrassed by the girl’s warm gaze, Haruya could only manage a forced smile.
The beautiful girl standing in front of him didn’t take her eyes off him, and Haruya began to feel uncomfortable.
Since he couldn’t do anything cool, he decided to interfere unnecessarily out of consideration.
“This narrow alley, if a girl was passing through alone, it could be dangerous… so please be careful.”
“…Y-yes.”
The beautiful girl nodded vigorously in response to Haruya’s warning and bowed her head.
Haruya smiled wryly at her, then left the scene.
He probably wouldn’t have any more interactions with that beautiful girl, but he couldn’t shake off the embarrassment.
(…But, still, I feel like I’ve seen that girl somewhere before.)
While being attacked by that déjà vu feeling again, Haruya walked towards a large commercial facility.
However, Haruya would eventually come to know.
That the girl he coincidentally helped was a classmate known as an S-class beauty…
The next morning.
It was an altogether delightful morning with warm sunshine and birds chirping in harmony.
Arriving at his class in Eika High School, Haruya promptly sat at his seat.
It was currently 8:15 AM.
Awaiting the morning homeroom, Haruya’s lively, noisy classmates were chatting away, the classroom significantly more boisterous than usual.
Understandably, today was the first day back from the long Golden Week vacation.
How they spent their holidays must be the talk of the town for the students.
The quiet tension and anxiety of the entrance ceremony and orientation days now felt nostalgic.
Back then all the students seemed to be observing their surroundings, so there didn’t appear to be anyone who had made friends yet, but now they had uniformly formed friendships, chatting enthusiastically.
Ultimately, after a month of enrollment classmates were mostly set, with almost no loners to be seen.
Amidst the lively classroom, as for Haruya…
“…”
He wasn’t conversing with anyone, just alone resting his head on his desk pretending to sleep.
His conduct had to be called slovenly, and his current appearance influenced that.
Shaggy bangs covering his eyes, and large black-framed glasses.
Plus a loose tie and wrinkled uniform.
Somehow he also seemed hunchbacked, those factors combining to make his presence feeble and unremarkable.
A complete transformation from his appearance when out yesterday.
If Haruya sat here looking as he did yesterday, many classmates would undoubtedly be wide-eyed.
Haruya’s current look could modestly be called that of a gloomy boy.
Though the reason was he wanted to avoid standing out at school as much as possible since that led to nothing good.
(That shoujo manga I bought yesterday was pretty good huh)
At his seat by the window in the back.
Resting his head, Haruya was thinking such, not caring about opinions of him in class.
Haruya had a little secret he didn’t share with anyone.
Collecting shoujo manga.
When new volumes released, he would secretly go buy them and grin enjoying them at home.
Heading to the large commercial facility yesterday was solely to purchase new shoujo manga volumes.
(Main character is rescued from a charlatan, those developments especially excite me~)
Desperately suppressing the urge to smile, that’s how engrossing the shoujo manga was for Haruya.
Engrossed lamenting alone, at that moment an exceptionally cheerful voice was heard.
“Morning Sara-chin and Yuna-rin!”
A bright, cute voice resounded through the classroom.
The voice’s owner, Rin Kohinata, is a cute girl, and central figure even among the classroom’s particularly trendy clique.
Currently the exact opposite of Haruya resting his head at his desk, if his position in class could be called:
Mob, innocuous as air.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
Despite a month passing since enrolling in Eika High School, Haruya’s standing in class was so low that even his classmates remembering his name seemed doubtful. A complete opposite to Rin.
With a short skirt and loose collar, Rin had a gyaru-like style, but her small build and somewhat childish features meant she seemed more cute than intimidating.
In any case, the moment Rin entered the classroom, or more precisely when she came to the front of the class’s top clique near Haruya’s seat, the classroom buzzed.
“S-Rank Beauties gathered together really are picture perfect huh.”
“I know right? Even though I thought I was getting used to it, that trio’s like idols, kind of overwhelming…”
“They’re so cute I don’t even feel jealous.”
Classmates who had been chatting about various topics until then unanimously shifted focus when the three girls gathered, voicing admiration.
These three would be regarded with envious gazes by all whenever together, male or female.
“Morning. Rin.”
At Rin’s cheerful voice, Yuna Takamori responded in a transparent, sharp tone.
Her long black hair had gloss, exuding a prim image. Piercings on both ears, and her wrinkled uniform gave a listless air.
With a sharp face yet a hint of boredom and sensuality, anyone could tell she was a rare beauty without being told.
“G-good morning, Rin-san.”
Following Yuna, Sara Himekawa shyly turned slightly late to face Rin.
Looking well-bred from her glossy hair and dignified features. Using polite speech even with classmates, she captivated no shortage of male students with her noble behavior.
Whenever the radiant, glittering Rin, Yuna, and Sara gathered, the boys would flush and girls respectfully make them the talk of class.
In fact, thanks to their extraordinarily exquisite looks, some students called them S-Rank Beauties.
“So, Yuna-rin, Sara-chin, anything good happen during Golden Week?”
“Nothing much this period…what about you, Rin?”
“I was working~ Hoped for some romance but nope~ Sad.”
Somehow dejectedly, Rin shrugged. Rin was obsessed with romance and love stories.
Seeing her like that, Yuna played with her hair while answering listlessly.
“Of course not. Such fortuitous encounters rarely happen right, Sara-chin?”
Seeking Sara’s agreement, Sara jolted at Yuna’s words.
Surprised by Sara’s unexpected reaction, Yuna and Rin’s eyes widened.
Looking closely, Sara’s cheeks seemed vaguely flushed, her composure disturbed.
Sara blushed and lowered her head.
“Really? Sara-chan…”
Rin, driven by excitement, was the first to dig in.
Her eyes sparkled, filled with anticipation, as she directed them towards Sara.
“Could it be that you had a wonderful encounter during this Golden Week?”
“Uh, you’re kidding. …… “
Even the cool Yuna, following Rin, couldn’t help but let out a sigh of admiration.
“Well… um.”
Blushing, Sara averted her gaze from the two.
Though she intended to play it off, she eventually hesitantly spoke, realizing she couldn’t escape.
“Um…actually, I had a fated encounter.”
Somehow abashed yet beginning her confession, Sara’s tale started.
It was just yesterday.
When I went shopping for clothes, I happened to get caught by someone scouting models.
At first I thought it was model scouting but he was quite persistent, so I judged it must be a lie.
I immediately tried to flee but his looks were so intimidating, I was quite frightened, and…my legs shook, unable to escape.
Looking around, there was no one who appeared willing to help, perhaps due to the unnoticed nature of the situation.
Occasionally, my eyes met with a few people, but everyone chose to look away, pretending not to see.
I felt disappointed in the expectations I had of those around me. However, at that moment, I was scared and could only resort to seeking help, even though it felt futile.
I had no hope because I had seen how people reacted.
Then, unexpectedly, someone appeared to help me.
This person came to my aid with grace,
standing in the dimly lit alley, seeming to glow.
The person who should have been unrelated to me openly expressed anger, thinking about me.
In response to my inner call for help, this person, who should have been intimidating, came to help. Despite the hassle and difficulty of repelling the bad guy, he drove them away with just a glare.
The follow-up afterwards was kind, but I couldn’t properly express my gratitude.
So, I regret that.
Translator ramble :
First of all, I would like to apologize to any sane Indonesian that regularly visit this website
Another reason why this novel was chosen for translation is because of very rude comment from a fellow who happened to be from Indonesia.
That’s why I’m retranslating this novel that already has an “English Version” done using machine translation by an Indonesian group that asked for donations on their website.
I wonder why there are not any angry rude comments over there.
Joking aside this novel is very well written and it’s a shame that it was translated badly. hopefully I can make the English readable this time
Also check out my friend Localizermeerkat for more LN translations!
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Thanks for picking this up, that other translation needed eye bleach.
Thanks for the translation, sorry for my fellow’s comment that hurt you 🙏