Volume 4 Chapter 19 The Assertive Girl and the Shy Girl
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
When Togaki Yomi was little, she was a feisty girl.
Even though her small body was weak, her fighting spirit never lost to anyone.
She never backed down in fights with boys and never got outtalked.
Even while scraping her knees, she faced everything without crying.
”I can’t beat Yomi!”
Hearing that made her so happy.
But change came with time.
As puberty started, the boys around her kept getting taller.
A gap in their strength appeared, and she couldn’t win by power anymore.
She could no longer fight with her fists.
Her body was changing too.
Her chest started to swell, and her waist began to curve.
When she ran, they jiggled, and the changes became obvious even through her uniform.
Compared to the other girls, her chest was clearly bigger.
Before she knew it, the boys’ gazes were all on her.
From the front, the side, and behind.
It felt like someone was always watching her, no matter where she was.
At first, she thought it was just her imagination.
But she realized the truth.
They were seeing her as a girl.
For a sensitive girl in her teens, it was simply painful.
She used to stand equal to the boys, but now they looked at her as just ‘a girl.’
That was so uncomfortable, so wrong.
It scared her.
So, she hid.
She slouched to hide her chest more.
She started wearing baggier clothes to hide her body shape.
Baggy sweatshirts and loose skirts.
With that, she thought no one would look at her.
It was around then that she started growing her bangs out.
She wanted to escape the boys’ stares.
If she could avoid their gazes, she thought she would feel a bit safer.
Still, she had to go to school.
So she tried her best to not stand out.
She began reading books in the corner of the classroom.
She immersed herself in reading because she didn’t want to be talked to at all.
The world of stories felt so much more comfortable.
In the books, no one looked at her in a sexual way.
”Yomi, you haven’t been talking much lately.”
”You seem kind of dark now.”
Being told that didn’t even matter anymore.
Time slipped by, and before she knew it, she was a high schooler, and no one remembered the once tough Yomi.
Then, the day came when she was summoned as a hero.
In a vast hall of a foreign castle, nobles in dazzling attire, knights in armor.
She felt both unease and anticipation.
Maybe this was the change she needed from her closed-off life.
But that hope was quickly betrayed.
Those summoned as heroes were each given a special skill.
The skill she got at summoning was ‘Reading Comprehension’.
It seemed like a skill just for her, always buried in books.
To test her skill’s effects, the castle folks had her read all sorts of books.
Novels, history books, academic texts, spellbooks, you name it.
Yomi read every book they handed her.
With each page turned, words flowed into her mind.
Texts, charts, the structures of magic circles.
Everything was etched into her memory.
She remembered everything she read.
After reading heaps of books, they concluded her skill meant she could ‘completely memorize the content of any book after reading it once’.
Initially, they expected her to excel as a magician, using spellbooks.
But it didn’t work out that way.
Spellbooks were too complex.
They couldn’t be understood in a day or 2.
And her skill only let her remember the contents.
She couldn’t understand the meaning.
A spellbook is useless if you can’t understand what’s written.
Just memorizing didn’t help.
And the more powerful the spellbook, the harder it was to understand.
She managed to grasp the simpler spellbooks and could use basic magic.
But that was it.
As a hero, as a fighter, she was deemed useless.
Some said she might be useful as a civil official.
Her ability to memorize vast knowledge could be handy in politics or academics.
But the castle didn’t trust her.
The reason was simple.
She was a foreigner.
What if they gave her important info and she betrayed them, leaked it?
What if someone got caught by the enemy with a Status that remembers all the kingdom’s secrets?
They couldn’t let her read important books, ’cause she’d remember everything after just one time.
So, they refused to hire her as an official clerk.
She wasn’t useful as a hero, and ’cause no one trusted her, they didn’t give her any big jobs.
That’s Yomi, with that troublesome ability.
People started to resent having her around.
In the end, Yomi was kicked out to Dungeon City with other unruly, hard-to-handle heroes.
Like they were tossing out useless heroes nobody wanted.
And then, I met her.
* * *
”So yeah, that’s how it was.”
Sitting next to me in the hot spring, Togaki Yomi just told it like it was.
Summoned as a hero to another world, but couldn’t use her power right, got hated, and finally banished to Dungeon City──that was her story.
There was no anger or bitterness in her voice.
It was like she was talking about some other person, completely detached from it.
”I see.”
I soaked in the hot water, taking in her story.
Guess Yomi was naturally kind of fiery and stubborn.
She’d seemed shy before, but that was just a front.
Watching her stretch her shoulders, looking a bit worn out, I felt a strange closeness.
Yomi was kicked out just like me.
Both of us got tossed out of the castle ’cause we weren’t good for fighting.
Though, I got dumped ’cause my skill “Love Hotel” was called dirty, and she was dangerous ’cause no one trusted her, so maybe it’s a little different.
Still, both of us were summoned to another world but ended up unwanted, losing our place──maybe we’re the same there.
”That sounds rough.”
I said that and slipped my arm around her shoulder, pulling her close.
When I lightly ran my hand over her head, her wet hair tangled in my fingers.
”Stop treating me like a kid already.”
Yomi said that but didn’t fight back.
If anything, she looked kind of comfy with it.
”But honestly, this turned out okay. The food here’s good, and I even get to soak in some hot springs like this.”
She stretched her body a little and squinted her eyes like it felt good.
The bath we’re soaking in right now is a milk hot spring.
It’s a new hot spring setup we just bought recently.
The water’s milky white, soft like it’s wrapping around your skin.
Steam floats up gently, and a faint sweet smell tickles your nose.
According to the menu, it’s supposed to be really good for your skin.
The ladies begged hard for this, so we ended up buying it.
Well, I’m happy they get prettier from it, too.
Seeing them get beautiful and happy makes it worth it.
Thinking about that, it’s not a bad buy at all.
Actually, soaking in it feels way better than I thought it would.
”Even at the royal castle, I never got a bath this nice. Seriously, this place is heaven.”
Yomi breathed out satisfied while soaking in the water.
Her shoulders were totally relaxed, and she let her body sink into the milky bath.
”Well…”
She hesitated there.
”You do terrible things as the price though.”
She gave me a side-eye glare.
But I could tell she wasn’t really mad.
”But you don’t hate it, right?”
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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