arc02 · 041-The_World_Midori_Knew_1

Episode 41: The World Midori Knew (1)

Aizawa Midori was born into a family of adventurers.

Her mother retired upon marriage and pregnancy, but her father is still an active C-rank adventurer.

Her parents doted on their children, and Midori grew up loved.

Having heard dungeon stories since she was small, Midori thought she'd like to work in a dungeon-related job herself someday too. Only, whether by innate temperament or simply because she'd been loved too much, Midori was terribly bad with conflict.

Things at home went very well, but school life turned bitter for Midori.

In elementary school she was often picked on by boys. In reality it wasn't bullying but the common elementary-school pattern of a boy pestering the girl he's interested in—though there was no way Midori herself could see it that way. And so she grew more and more withdrawn.

In middle school she overheard her girl friends badmouthing her behind her back. Midori, who'd never had many friends to begin with, found it even harder to make any. This too was something Midori herself never knew, but the badmouthing came from plain jealousy. The boy she liked had feelings for Midori—a thoroughly ordinary story.

In short, Midori was more than reasonably popular.

That, combined with her personality, worked against her in the worst way.

As a result, she became a socially hopeless gloomy loner with no friends.

Having grown afraid even to meet people's eyes, she started letting her bangs grow out.

High school—she'd go somewhere nobody knew her. So Midori decided.

◇

The day of middle school graduation: the long-awaited day she could enter the dungeon.

She was bad with fighting and conflict, but if she happened to get a combat skill in the dungeon, she'd give it her best—that's what she'd thought.

She registered as an adventurer, entered the dungeon, and the skill she obtained was 【Alchemy】.

Disappointed, or maybe relieved—Midori's feelings were complicated.

【Alchemy】————a famously well-known skill.

A representative rare skill of the production classes that creates all manner of things.

Midori registered with the production guild immediately.

She still couldn't hold a proper conversation with anyone but family, but the senior production workers were adults, and perhaps for that reason they handled her without trouble.

This side of things is, in contrast to adventurers, plain above all.

You shut yourself in a workroom and spend the whole day absorbed in making things. Then you deliver the finished goods to the guild and earn income.

The workroom was extremely large, and though it was partitioned into sections, all sorts of sounds came from everywhere. The sound of a blacksmith striking iron, the sound of a pharmacist grinding ingredients with a mortar, the shrill ring of a metalworker's chisel, the sewing machines of tailoring and leatherwork. None of these sounds existed in town, but Midori found them oddly calming. It was comfortable.

Perhaps because alchemists are few in number, the guild staff treated her with great courtesy.

Making potions. They'd hand her the materials and ask her to follow the recipe.

Just by looking at the materials, the method for making a low-grade potion rose up in her head naturally, even without the guild's recipe. That was the power of the skill.

Besides Midori, the Akabane Guild had only three alchemists. All of them were adults, much older.

As Midori got used to the work, low-grade potion production was preferentially routed to her. The other three had higher levels, so having them make other products was better both for them and for the guild—that was the judgment. Naturally, at Lv. 1 there was very little Midori could make, so being entrusted with work was good proficiency farming for her.

It was a little different from the dungeon work she'd imagined, but she thought it suited her.

Every day she came to the guild and made low-grade potions. Made light orbs.

Then when she went home, she'd tell her parents about her day. That was her spring break.

◇

High school entrance.

As planned, she was going to a high school where nobody knew about her.

Her doting parents even moved the whole family. Her father, an upper C-rank, earned more than reasonably well, so that much was nothing to them.

Midori had intended to change once she started high school, but her socially awkward, withdrawn nature hadn't been cured, so in the end she made no friends at school.

Her surname, Aizawa, meant her seat was in the very front row, which also worked against her. It was a position that made it hard for both herself and those around her to start a conversation.

Exchanging a word of greeting in the morning and on the way home—that much she somehow managed to do her best with.

But once school ended she'd go straight to the Akabane Guild, and her high school life had half-entered give-up mode.

(I really am hopeless. At least I'll do my best with the work over here. The guild staff are counting on me too.)

Her parents were overjoyed that she was an alchemist with no danger to her life either.

Her father said he'd go get materials for her, but she declined, as expected. She couldn't put such trouble on an upper C-rank party. Someday, when her own ability caught up, she'd ask him properly.

(All the other alchemist seniors have their own trusted adventurer partners. Maybe I should look for a partner too.)

She could earn income even when the guild supplied the materials. Converted to an hourly wage it was about the same as a part-time job, but it was still a sufficient amount for a high schooler.

(Well, whatever. Everyone moves forward a little at a time like this. When my chance comes, I'll give it my all.)

There was no particular need to hurry, so for now she devoted herself to making low-grade potions.

◇

It was exactly one week after enrolling that Midori met Kobayakawa Takeru.

That day too, during lunch break, she left the classroom and ate alone on an outside bench where no one would see her.

Somehow, since starting high school, she felt she'd been avoiding her classmates even more than before.

At the club introduction on the second day, on the way to the gymnasium, she saw everyone around her already formed into groups, chatting happily, and the impatience and unease made her feel sick. A girl nearby noticed and told a teacher, and thanks to that she was able to escape to the nurse's office. It was pathetic, but the quiet of the nurse's office saved her.

Since then, she'd been wandering around looking for a place to be alone during lunch break.

She still hadn't found a regular spot.

Even while eating her bento with her head down, she was thinking about 【Alchemy】.

Lately she thought she'd been energetically applying herself, looking things up in the guild's reference room.

Beyond potions and light orbs, the list of things she wanted to make and could make kept growing. Someday she wanted to make an item good enough to give to her father. That was how she felt.

And that was when it happened.

"Um, do you have a second?"

A voice from nearby. Someone was here, she thought, and when Midori raised her head————

"Hm?"

It seemed the person was talking to Midori.

In her fluster, Midori mistakenly assumed she was in the way.

This spot must have been this person's favorite seat, surely.

But apparently that wasn't the case.

"Sorry for suddenly calling out. I just wanted to do a little club recruiting…"

Club recruiting.

But Midori had no intention of joining a club. After school she was planning to go to the guild.

She declined softly—and then learned a shocking fact.

"Um, this is very hard to say, but. Our school apparently makes clubs mandatory?"

"…………Huh? Y-you're joking, right?"

"No, seriously. I was planning on the going-home club myself, but I found out last week and panicked and went looking."

"…………I-I'm done for…"

"No, no, no—you're not done for!?"

"No, I—I can't do it… Places with lots of people are impossible for me… And, I, I just can't, t-talk to people properly…"

"Ahh, that's what it is. Then you're fine! Our club is, believe it or not, just two people: me and a senpai with no motivation! And ghost members seem to be OK, so if you'd like, please!"

"R-r-really!? Such an ideal club exists!?"

"Yes. It's a mysterious club called the Dungeon Research Club, though."

"Th-th-the D-Dungeon Research Club!?"

"Oh? You know of it?"

"No, I didn't know, but p-please, I'd love to be taken care of there!!!"

"You got suddenly proactive!?"

"N-no, um, I, I go to the guild a lot…! S-so I know a bit about dungeons…!"

"Ah, figures? I thought I saw you at the guild the other day."

"Huh!?"

The flood of information had her flustered in an entirely different sense.

That clubs were mandatory. That the boy recruiting her hadn't known that. That he was being considerate of her nature. That the club he was recruiting for was the Dungeon Research Club. That the boy in front of her also went to the guild.

She had no memory of seeing him at the production guild.

Which meant this boy must be an adventurer. And if he was in the Dungeon Research Club, he must love dungeons.

Thinking that, Midori found herself talking more actively than she ever had.

"Um, um, um! C-can I ask your name!?"

"Hm? Oh, right, I didn't introduce myself. I'm Kobayakawa Takeru, in 1-B. Nice to meet you."

"P-please treat me well! I-I'm Aizawa Midori, ah, 1-D!"

"Then I'll come pick you up at your class after school today, so wait for me when class ends."

"Ah, um, yes! I-it's a promise to meet up, right!?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I guess so?"

"Hehe, ehehe, I-I'll be waiting, okay?"

"O-okay."

Kobayakawa Takeru.

Even faced with a Midori who spoke haltingly, this boy talked to her brightly and normally. A fellow first-year, a comrade who liked dungeons.

Maybe they could become friends.

It was the moment light shone into Midori's school life.