Worthless Skill Escape (WN)

Chapter 109

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TL: ALT

Chapter 109 – Prologue

My name is Yuto Kurashiki.

I’m a junior in high school.

But I wouldn’t say that I’m the kind of… who can be found anywhere.

This world was drastically changed by the dungeon that appeared almost at the same time I entered high school.

I don’t have to go into that now, do I?

Anyway, I was supposed to have a normal high school life that had nothing to do with dungeons.

My family was, well, middle class, if not wealthy.

There was no need for the high school son to do dangerous “part-time work” like exploring dungeons.

I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make my blood boil as a gamer.

However, that kind of thing is fun because it’s done in a game, and I can’t imagine wanting to fight and kill monsters in the flesh.

If I have trouble finding a job in the future, I might become an explorer, but it would be a last resort considering the dangers involved.

The economy is booming with the advent of dungeons, and the job market is unprecedented.

If you study hard and graduate from a good school, you should have no trouble finding a job.

That is why I decided to become a researcher while still in high school, for reasons other than money and living.

The reason is probably a story that can be found all over the world.

It is a common story.

But for those involved, it’s a big problem that can sometimes affect their lives and even their lives after.

And yet, adults other than the people involved in the incident don’t really understand the seriousness of the situation.

In my sophomore year of high school, I lost a game of rock-paper-scissors at a class meeting and ended up becoming a member of the library committee.

There was a freshman girl, a junior, who was also on the library committee.

She was a quiet girl with large black-rimmed glasses that seemed to slip off.

She had long, sticky black hair and seemed a little aloof.

Her lack of facial expression made me feel pressured when I was with her.

However, she is not shy and speaks clearly when she needs to.

At first glance, she seems quiet but has a solid core that only she can understand.

This is probably what gives her an air of inaccessibility.

Her reticence is so extreme that even when girls in her class talk to her, they can barely carry on a conversation.

She doesn’t seem to mind their silence, but neither do they.

They awkwardly say, “Sorry to interrupt,” and leave the room.

She nods her head suspiciously and says, “You didn’t do anything to apologize to me.”

Even though the other party was a boy, the reaction was the same in every way.

First of all, let me say that it’s not that she’s unattractive.

Her appearance can certainly be described as unfashionable.

Her hair, which is so pitch black that it could be described as “darkness,” is neat but not fashionable, and it is rather heavy for today’s fashion trends.

Her large, black-rimmed glasses, unadorned and practical, seeming to defy the concept of fashion, also contribute to her unrefined appearance.

Yet she has a unique charm.

The depth of her inner world stands out because she doesn’t care about appearances…

Well, I don’t know if the boys who approached her understood that.

Adolescent boys tend to want to get close to girls who are better looking than others.

To put it more simply, they want to get a girlfriend as soon as possible, stand out from their friends, have sex as soon as possible, and be proud of it.

In high school, this impatience takes on the appearance of an RTA for the first time.

To put it bluntly, they want to have sex with every girl they can get their hands on.

Still… I can’t help but think that you should choose the right partner.

If you try to find out what her interests are, you’ll get answers like “I’m thinking about Schopenhauer’s ideological influence on Nietzsche.”

Almost all boys lose their verbal tangent at this point and have to leave with a “Sorry to interrupt.”

And finally, she would nod her head suspiciously and say, “You haven’t done anything to apologize for.”

This quirky girl named Sayuki Natsume and the relationship I have with her…

We’re just a senior and a junior who are often on the library committee together, but that wasn’t the case from the perspective of those around us, apparently.

All the other library committee members who were paired with her couldn’t stand the heavy silence and started to avoid going in at the same time as her.

So when I was on library duty, it was often at the same time as her.

I was not a bookworm, nor did I want to be a library committee member.

When I was on duty, I would sit at the counter a bit away from her with an open book to relieve my boredom.

The students who come to return their books always come to me for some reason, maybe because they are under Natsume’s “pressure.”

Well, I don’t mind. I’d rather have something to do with the monotonous return process than have too much time on my hands.

“…Senpai is very strange, isn’t he?”

She suddenly said to me one day, and I turned around without thinking.

“There’s nobody behind you, Senpai.”

“I-I see.”

I awkwardly turned my attention back to the book in my hand.

“Um. You don’t mind?”

I realized that I had let her first comment go by.

“Oh. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ignore you.”

It was just that I had gotten so used to the silence that it seemed more natural not to say anything.

I didn’t have to force myself to talk to this girl, which might have been a rude perception, depending on how you look at it.

“You think I’m weird?”

“Everyone gets mad at me and says they’re forced to work.”

“I can’t help it if the people who use it come here.”

It’s not like she’s intentionally putting pressure on them to make me do the work.

I can tell from watching her for a while that this is natural for her.

I’m not sure if it’s a part-time customer service job, but it’s not right to ask a book club member who works for free to give you a zero yen smiley face.

“But still… Don’t you think it’s unfair?”

“I’m just happy to have some free time to kill. I can’t read library books all the time, can I?”

“I guess it depends on the subject. Well, I don’t think I could distribute the manga here.”

“The librarian is so picky.”

I remember a librarian being scolded for reading manga on her cell phone hidden in a book.

I waited for her next words, angry that she had spoken to me.

But she looked at the air for a few seconds and then returned her attention to the book in her hand as if nothing had happened.

Then I decided that was enough and turned my attention back to the boring book in front of me.

My interactions with a junior girl named Sayuki Natsume were always on the edge like this.

I don’t even understand her motive for talking to me right now.

Was she trying to communicate with me out of consideration for her senpai, or was she just saying whatever came to her mind?

I have no idea.

But even for me, I didn’t want to actively communicate with such a difficult person to deal with as a junior girl.

Her heavy silence was a kind of exemption, telling me that I didn’t have to force myself to have a conversation.

One day, such a junior, with whom I can’t even say we had a relationship, had a bruise on her wrist.

But I don’t dare to ask her in our shallow relationship.

It was elsewhere that I learned she was being bullied.

I witnessed her being beaten and kicked by a group of fancy-looking third-year girls behind the stairs.

I also recognize the leader of those third-year girls.

――Junko Himuro

She is rumored to have a naturally harsh personality and is known to have the ability to get under the skin of not only the students of this high school but even the teachers.

Junko Himuro did not know that I was watching the scene.

Neither did her cronies.

But Sayuki Natsume noticed.

She noticed, and immediately after that, she pretended not to notice.

If they found out that she had noticed me, I, too, could become a target of their bullying.

She was not disappointed to see me standing on the sidelines and not helping, but she just tried not to involve me.

I thought she was strong.

How weak I was in comparison.

If I had intervened at that point, Junko Himuro would have gotten away with it.

My intervention could have made the situation worse.

There was no way that I had the conversation, the courage, or the human skills to solve all those problems.

I swallowed the bitterness in my throat and left the place as if to escape.

I threw up on the way home.

Natsume Sayuki doesn’t expect anything from me.

She thinks I can’t do anything anyway.

No, she is right about that.

But she also thinks it is not my fault and does not want to blame me.

Tomorrow, when I sit down at the counter as a member of the library board, I’m sure she’ll maintain her usual heavy silence.

――It can’t be helped that you’re just a high school boy. You don’t have that kind of obligation to me.

I hear such a phantom in her voice.

The line delivery is like that, but she wouldn’t even utter such sarcasm.

It is an auditory hallucination caused by my guilt.

If I think about it calmly, I have no obligation to help her.

If she needed help, she would have asked the right person.

The fact that she didn’t probably mean that she decided it would be less harmful to accept the situation as it is.

Junko Himuro is in her third year of high school.

She will be gone in a year at the most.

Since she seems to have a fickle personality, there is a good chance that she will get bored before then.

Maybe that’s what she thinks.

“But maybe not…”

Although she doesn’t seem to be very aware of it, Natsume Sayuki is quite an unusual girl.

If she is just shy or timid, her bullies will soon get tired of her.

Or those around her may try to protect her from being bullied.

However, despite her appearance, she has a strong core.

The inner strength and depth hidden in her heart are as black as her hair and unfathomable.

Isn’t it this unbreakable part of her that makes Junko Himuro feel attracted to her?

Considering her usual interpersonal relationships, there are probably not many people who would cover for her.

“…No, Natsume herself would refuse to be covered for.”

Just like she put me off earlier, she’s willing to take on this problem alone.

“It’s not romantic feelings… is it?”

At the time, I was interested in one of the girls in my class as a member of the opposite sex.

We sit close to each other, and I have the opportunity to talk to her from time to time.

Just because of that, I thought, “Maybe this girl likes me!” I don’t think it’s fair to make such a mistake, but there was no doubt that I was romantically interested in that girl.

Natsume Sayuki was just a slightly different junior who was also a member of the same library committee.

Still, it’s upsetting to be shown a scene like that and have her say, “You can’t help me anyway, can you?”

Of course, I have a sense of justice that bullying is unacceptable.

But if that’s all there is to it, it shouldn’t be my job.

There are plenty of other people who are qualified for that job: parents, teachers, school counselors, and… classmates who are closer to the relationship.

I have a feeling that she would take action, even file a police report if she really couldn’t take it anymore.

The question is whether Junko Himuro will get tired of the bullying or whether Sayuki Natsume, sensing the danger, will fight back.

Time will tell.

But..,

“It’s too uncool for me to go on like this, you know?”

I don’t think I’m a special person, but I’m also annoyed that no one expects me to do anything.

――It is that kind of self-indulgent disgust.

That was the reason I went to the dungeon.