The Flying Board afterparty proceeded in a lively manner. The place felt like a local festival or perhaps a banquet, a very relaxed and fun place to hang around in.
Yellow Pipe’s live cooking was very popular and there was a large crowd around them, and since we were the winners, we were approached quite often and had a lot of conversations with the others.
Most of the participants, regardless of whether they made it to the finals or not, seemed to be people who enjoyed Flying Board, and the conversation we had with them was very friendly. I suppose this may be because Flying Board itself is a competition that strongly factors in luck, so even if one loses, they can just easily dismiss it as bad luck.
Anyway, I was enjoying the afterparty, but my stomach was already filled to some extent, so I moved to the edge of the venue and took an after-meal rest.
The area around the afterparty site is relatively quiet, as it is in the middle of nowhere.[……Kaito-san, you’re taking a break?]
[Unnn? Ahh, you too, Aoi-chan? ……What about Hina-chan?]
[Hina-chan is still eating over there. As for me, I’m already full so……]
While I was relaxing, Aoi-chan approached me with a drink in one hand. I couldn’t see Hina-chan with her though, so when I asked, Aoi-chan pointed in a certain direction with a wry smile.
When I turned my gaze over there, there was Hina-chan deliciously eating food, and when she noticed us, she lightly waved her hand.
[She’s eating so deliciously. I’ve always wondered about this, but Hina-chan eats a lot huh?]
[At least, she eats a lot more than I do. Looking at the amount of food she eats, I thought one would normally gain weight, but perhaps because she runs a lot…… or because all of those calories were going to her chest, that doesn’t seem to be the case.][Ahaha, I see.]
She’s young, so her metabolism is good, and even if she eats a lot, she won’t gain weight. I think I also ate quite a lot when I was about Hina-chan’s age.
Well, thinking of the standards of this world, there’s Alice’s black hole-like stomach, so I feel like those standards whether one eats a lot or not have been shaken……
When I was thinking about that, leaning against the fence I was leaning against, Aoi-chan smiled.
[We’ve got a very satisfactory outcome today.]
[Even with all this and that, the race had been fun. At first, back when Hina-chan invited us, I could only tilt my head in puzzlement but……]
[I get what you mean. To be honest, I thought that if Hina-chan’s gonna invite us to something, she could have picked something better.]
If Hina-chan didn’t push hard, partly because this was just a minor competition, I would have given up on participating. If that had been the case, I wouldn’t have experienced the passionate competition, the sense of accomplishment from winning, and the chance encounter with Shigenobu-san, so I’m grateful to her.
[……Speaking of which, a while ago, we were talking about our high school life, right?]
[Eh? Ahhh, that one about Aoi-chan being popular?]
[That’s just Hina-chan exaggerating. Rather than that, I’d like to ask Kaito-san how you were like back then. Looking at how you are in this world, I feel like you’d be someone too popular in your school…… so I’d like to hear about your love life back in high school.]
[H- Hmmm. Even if you say that, I really was just sleeping in classes…… I hadn’t experienced any sort of springtime of youth events.]
This really is the truth, not me trying to lie about it at all. Even if they were my classmates, I still kinda feel like there were many of them with whom I never exchanged even a single word.
I’m someone who reasonably crams overnight for tests, my athleticism wasn’t that great, and my face and height were very average, so I lacked all the factors that could make me stand out.
[In the first place, why are you sleeping in classes?]
[I was into MMO back then. My lifestyle felt like my days and nights were almost reversed.]
[……Come to think of it, I feel like you’re basically always online whenever I logged in……]
[Whenever I was at home, I really was logged in the entire time. Well, thinking about it now, I feel like I was just finding a way to escape reality and being absorbed in online games ended up being the most fitting……]
There are many reasons for this. It was an MMO with a monthly subscription fee system with no item billings, so I could play as much as I wanted for about 2000 yen per month, so the cost performance was good. Speaking of MMOs at that time, it was one where the more time you spent playing, the more advantageous it was for the player.
It’s just, it really feels like it was because I kept running away from the reality that my mother and father were gone.
[On the other hand, I remember how your log-in times had been shorter and shorter around that time, Aoi-chan. Was it family reasons?]
[Yes, I had a lot of lessons to attend too, so I didn’t have a lot of free time…… But well, gaming was also like an escape from reality for me too.]
[……I see.]
[Yes.]
It seemed that there were various complicated circumstances regarding this matter, but I don’t think this was a topic I should tread into casually, so I didn’t ask any more questions.
After a few moments of silence, Aoi-chan spoke with a wry smile on her lips.
[……Would you mind going along with my complaints for a bit?]
[Of course, as much as you want.]
[Thank you…… I have always hated my home…….]
Saying that, with a somewhat nostalgic expression on her face, Aoi-chan began to speak quietly. About the trigger that led her to start playing the MMO and us meeting each other……
<Afterword>
Serious-senpai : [For some reason, the number of appearances the kouhais had since the afterstory arrived increased. They’re almost no different from mobs back in the main story, but when the afterstory started, they became Adventurers, went around stalls, raced in the Flying Board, I feel like they’re starting to become main characters and were talking more and more…… though that happening is kinda sending chills running down my spine……]
