I (30), Who Works for a Black Company and Died While Regretting My Gloomy Life, Started Over From High School! - chapter 9

9.The school caste rank has increased.

“Hey, hey, Nihama, you got a minute?

While Ginji and I were eating lunch in the classroom during lunch break, we were called out by a girl in our class named Fumihashi. She is an athletic girl with a short haircut who has a cheerful personality, but disappointing grades.

“Oh, what’s the matter, Fumihashi-san?

“Oh, no, that ……, please! Nihama, lend me your notebook! That perfect notebook that Goto-sensei praised so much during the last class!”

“Oh, Fumihashi-san, you’ve been sleeping a lot in Goto-sensei’s class, maybe because you’re tired from club activities? I think you’re in trouble because the note check is coming soon.”

“Yes! It’ s embarrassing, but you’re absolutely right! Please, please!”

“Hmmm, …… then, in exchange with a strawberry milk from the vending machine in front of the store.”

“Got it! I’ll buy you a drink later!”

It’s okay to lend them out, but if you lend them out for free, there might be a lot of other people who want to borrow them, so you have to charge a certain fee.

When you sell a favor cheaply, there is nothing but tragedy.

“Then we have a deal. But please try not to borrow again next time.”

“Oh, I’ m saved………! Thank you so much!”

I handed her the notebook and she went back to her seat with a delightful look on her face.

” Hmm, Nihama. Do you have a second?”

As if he was waiting for me to finish, Tsukamoto from the baseball team approached me.

“She heard my ringtone that you set the other day and she wants to use the same one. But I don’t know anything about cell phones. ……”

“Yeah, I’ll set it up next time just bring her phone over.”

“Oh, thank you so much! I’ll buy you bread from the store next time!”

Tsukamoto left with a rather relieved look on his face, perhaps because his girlfriend had been urging him to do so.

I missed ringtones though. They were so popular during the cellular phone era, but why did we stop hearing them so much in the smartphone era?

“You …… are seriously moving up in the ranks”.

“What? Ranks?”

I blinked my eyes, not understanding the meaning of the words that Ginji muttered with a mysterious look on his face.

“It’s the rank of the school caste. You used to be in the bottom ranks like me, but now your popularity points have increased and you’re in the middle ranks, maybe even higher.”

“No, no, no, ……, that kind of division doesn’t change that often.”

“Normally. But your change is not normal.”

Well, a high school student who has experienced years of company-slave life is not normal in a bad way.

“You started to look better,feel more comfortable talking to people, became very good with cell phones and computers, and often helped people. And then there is the case with Hino, It’s rumored that you yelled at a Yankee in front of the public and got him to wipe his ass.”

“Well, I’m aware that I’ve changed a little, but the incident with Hino was his fault because he tried to take my wallet. Anyone would have lost their temper if he did that.”

“But we were the ones who got scared and freaked out. According to the people who saw it, it was so deadly that even the people around were stunned. You’ve been through a lot in the other world, haven’t you?

“I’ve definitely been through the death march many times. There are many parts of it that are so hellish that I have lost track of them, but I do remember one time when I was fighting all night every day with no end in sight. I remember thinking seriously for a moment, ‘Oh, that’s right, if I jump off the roof, I can rest.”

“The slave soldier route is crazy……”

“Oh, geez. Dreams and hopes don’t even occur in my head in the first place.”

The only reason why I realized that it was some sort of brainwashing is because I left that place like this now.

I can’t even think straight, and I don’t even know I’m in hell.

“Well joking aside, the ones who came just now are also the popular sports girl, Fumihashi, and the baseball player with a girlfriend, Tsukamoto. You’re no longer at the bottom when those people come to you for help. You must have noticed that the people around you are starting to look at you differently, right?”

“Well, certainly …….”

The memories of my high school days become more vivid as I go to school like this, but at that time, I was clearly looked down upon by those around me.

I was targeted and picked on by the delinquents and bullies, and subconsciously treated as an inferior being by the normal people.

(But obviously now it’s different…….)

Stupid guys don’t bully me for fun anymore, and I haven’t been involved with any delinquents since the incident with Hino.

When I talk to them, they don’t look at me like I’m scaring them, and everyone responds normally.

“The people around you are watching your change, you know. A guy who used to barely talk is starting to assert himself, his grades are going up, and he’s taking care of other people with what he’s good at. …… That kind of attitude and helping others is really increasing your power to speak up.”

“Well, that’s …….”

It wasn’t that I wanted to change my status in school, it was just that as an adult, I wasn’t as intimidated by my surroundings as I had been in high school.

Studying and strengthening my communication skills with others was for the sole purpose of becoming a man worthy of Shijoin-san, not because I wanted recognition from anyone else.

(After all, Shijoin-san is in the same class as me. ….. I can’t show her anything uncool, even if

it’ s by chance.)

I glanced over to one of the classrooms, where Shijoin-san was chatting happily with a female friend. If possible, I would like to talk to her in the classroom as well as in the library after school, but I’m still looking for a good excuse to do so.

“Well, Thankfully, I don’t get made fun of by idiots or get into trouble with delinquents..”

“Yeah, but be careful. As I said the other day, some people don’t like it when people who are lower in the school caste move up. …… Oh, the bell has already chimed. I’m going to go back to my seat.”

“See you later.”

( Those who don’t like it when someone from a lower position in the school moves up. …… Well, there are people like that, too.)

In fact, I got involved with that idiot Hino just because I went to school with Shijoin-san.

Just be careful with …… hmm?

“What is this? A letter?”

When I reached into my desk to get my textbook for the next class, I felt a thin sheet of paper, and when I took it out, I found out that it was a letter.

What was written in the letter was a simple sentence: “I will be waiting for you on the bench in the courtyard after school.

I stared at the letter for three seconds.

“What is this, a prank?”

I crumpled it up and tossed it into a trash can near the podium.

In the school building after school, my heart was filled with joy.

After all, today was the day of the weekly library committee work.

In other words, it’s a sacred time to be alone with Shijoin-san after school.

(The week before last we went to school together, and last week we had a lot of fun talking about our favorite light novels. …… That’s probably not enough to raise her affection for me, but it’s worth it to build it up like this.)

I’ve already had the key to the library.

As I crossed the courtyard to take a short cut, thinking about what I would talk about today, I was suddenly greeted by a voice.

“I’ve been waiting for you, Nihama.”

” Hmm?”

I stopped in my tracks and realized that the owner of the voice was a female student who was standing in front of a bench in the courtyard.

We were in the same class, …… I think her name was Sakai?

I believe she was part of a group that liked to hang out in the city, often going to karaoke and arcades with the boys.

“I’m the one who sent that letter. There was something I wanted to tell you.”

“Letter? Oh, …….”

The only thing that came to my mind was the letter that was in my desk at lunchtime.

I thought that was just a prank and threw it away as fast as I could. …… Could it be that the meeting place written there was here ……?

As I was trying to grasp the situation, Sakai continued to tell me further.

“Hey, Nihama ……, I like you. Let’s go out together.”