Saturday morning arrived with a wash of pale sunlight streaming through the window, casting a warm glow across Kaedehara Tetsu’s room.
The air still held the heavy, lingering scent of last night’s passion, a sweet and musky fragrance that refused to dissipate.
The bed was a tangled mess of sheets, bearing the clear traces of everything that had transpired in the dark.
When Tetsu slowly opened his eyes, the spot beside him was already cold to the touch.
The steady sound of rushing water echoed from the bathroom.
A few minutes later, the plumbing fell silent.
The bathroom door clicked open, releasing a thick wave of steam into the bedroom.
Kamuro Masumi stepped out.
She was already dressed in her school uniform from yesterday, the buttons of her crisp white shirt carefully fastened all the way to her collar, as if the intense intimacy of last night had been nothing more than a fleeting hallucination.
But the faint dark circles under her eyes and the slight, awkward stiffness in her gait betrayed the true, exhausted state of her body.
“Are you okay?” Tetsu asked, his voice smooth and unhurried.
Masumi’s shoulders stiffened for a fraction of a second.
She shook her head without turning back to face him.
“I’m fine.”
Keeping her back firmly toward the bed, she adjusted her collar and smoothed out the pleats of her skirt, then walked straight toward the front door.
“Just leaving like this?” Tetsu watched her retreating figure, a faint, teasing lilt coloring his tone.
“Not staying for breakfast?
My cooking is actually quite good.”
“No need.” Her hand rested heavily on the doorknob.
She paused for a long moment, her grip tightening slightly.
“I…
need to go back and get some sleep.”
The door was pulled open, then clicked gently shut behind her, leaving him alone in the quiet room.
Tetsu lay in bed for a few more minutes, savoring the lingering quiet, before lazily sitting up and stretching his limbs.
Last night had demanded a considerable amount of stamina, but right now, he felt unusually energized, his mind sharp and clear.
He stepped out of bed barefoot, casually cleaned up the lingering mess on the mattress, and walked into the bathroom.
The enclosed space was still thick with the humid steam Masumi had left behind.
He turned the shower dial all the way to cold.
Icy water poured down from the showerhead, instantly enveloping him.
The freezing spray pounded against his skin, bringing a biting chill that thoroughly dispelled the very last traces of his morning lethargy.
After stepping out and drying off, he changed into a fresh set of his school uniform.
He did not rush out the door.
Instead, he took a seat at his desk, letting his consciousness sink deeply into the system interface resting within his mind.
[System Shop]
He mentally scrolled through the extensive product list with practiced ease, his gaze quickly locking onto the specific target he had planned to acquire long ago. Find the original chapter at NovelPing.
[Skill: Eidetic Memory]
[Effect: Grants the host perfect memory.
All information received through sight and hearing can be selectively and permanently stored in the brain.]
[Price: 200 points]
For the grueling Special Exams that awaited him in the future, as well as the inevitable psychological games played against the other classes, a flawless memory was the most fundamental and devastating weapon he could possess.
Relying solely on the fading, fragmented memories of the plot from his previous life was far from enough to guarantee total control.
[Purchase: Skill: Eidetic Memory – 200 points]
[Confirm]
[Points – 200.
Remaining points: 273]
[Skill: Eidetic Memory equipped]
A sudden, icy sensation bloomed from the very depths of his brain, washing over his synapses.
He felt his cognitive processing sharpen, his thinking becoming vastly clearer and more structured than ever before.
To test the acquisition, he picked up a random textbook from the table, flipped to an arbitrary page in the middle, scanned the text for a single second, and then closed his eyes.
Every single word, every punctuation mark, and the exact layout of the paragraphs rearranged themselves perfectly in his mind’s eye, as if he were reading a high-resolution photograph carved directly into his consciousness.
“Very good.” Tetsu closed the book with a satisfied smirk, slipped his phone into his pocket, and finally left the dormitory room.
Today was Saturday, and he had only one specific destination on his itinerary: the campus library.
The library of the Advanced Nurturing High School was a massive, multi-story facility boasting a sleek, highly modern architectural design.
Enormous floor-to-ceiling glass curtain walls lined the exterior, allowing natural sunlight to flood the entire interior of the building with a bright, welcoming glow.
Tetsu walked through the entrance doors.
The atmosphere inside was exceptionally tranquil, the heavy silence broken only by the occasional, crisp sound of turning pages and the muffled thud of soft footsteps on the carpeted floor.
Endless rows of towering bookshelves divided the vast space into a maze of quiet aisles.
He did not immediately wander the aisles looking for reading material.
Instead, he approached the digital retrieval terminal in the first-floor lobby to study the library’s layout map.
The school’s collection was astonishingly vast, holding complete volumes that covered almost every conceivable academic and literary field.
Just as he prepared to head deeper into the stacks to locate a few specific titles of interest, his gaze was suddenly drawn to a petite figure standing a short distance away.
It was a girl with long, silky silver-white hair that cascaded down her back.
Her large, expressive purple eyes gave her the distinct appearance of a gentle, entirely harmless little animal.
She was currently standing in front of an exceptionally tall wooden bookshelf, balancing precariously on her tiptoes.
She stretched her slender arm as high as it could go, trying desperately to reach a specific volume tucked away on the very top shelf.
She tried several times, hopping slightly in place, but her fingertips were always just a fraction of an inch too short to hook the spine.
Frustrated by her lack of height, she puffed out her soft cheeks in distress, painting an incredibly endearing picture.
She was practically a fixed NPC of this library.
Shiina Hiyori. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
A prominent student from Class C, and a pure, utterly fanatical book lover.
Tetsu adjusted his trajectory, his footsteps completely silent against the carpet as he walked up directly behind the struggling girl.
Just as Hiyori once again rose onto her tiptoes and stretched her arm to its absolute limit, a larger hand reached over from just above her head, effortlessly sliding the stubborn book down from the high shelf.
Hiyori froze in surprise, suddenly acutely aware of the tall figure looming closely behind her.
She turned her head and looked up, her purple eyes widening as she took in the sight of a boy significantly taller than her.
He was casually holding the exact book she had been fighting for, looking down at her with a gentle, polite smile.
“Is this the book you were looking for, classmate?” Tetsu asked smoothly.
“Ah…
y-yes!
Thank you so much!” Hiyori hurriedly bowed her head in appreciation.
She accepted the book with both hands, her delicate features lighting up with a bright, genuinely grateful smile.
It was a rather thick hardcover volume.
The bold title printed across the dust jacket read The Offering to Nothingness.
“A classic by Nakai Hideo,” Tetsu noted casually, glancing at the cover in her hands.
“The complex structure of an anti-novel, combined with a heavy deconstruction and criticism of the detective fiction genre itself…
it is a very refined choice.
However, for a reader encountering his work for the very first time, the narrative style can be quite off-putting.”
Hiyori had been entirely immersed in the simple joy of finally securing her beloved book, but the moment she processed his casual literary critique, her head snapped up.
In those bright purple eyes, a brilliant flash of surprise and absolute joy at discovering a kindred spirit instantly erupted.
“Y-you know this book too?!” she gasped, her usual quiet demeanor breaking into pure excitement.
“As fellow fans of detective fiction, isn’t it only natural to be familiar with the classic masterpieces of the genre?” Tetsu replied, his calm smile remaining perfectly in place.
“A fan of detective fiction!” Hiyori’s eyes practically sparkled with delight.
She hugged the heavy hardcover tightly against her chest and unconsciously leaned a step closer to him, completely forgetting her personal space.
“Um…
classmate, what specific subgenre of detective fiction do you prefer to read?
Do you favor the strict logical deduction of the Honkaku school, the bizarre trick innovations of the Shin-Honkaku school, or perhaps the gritty, realistic atmosphere of the hard-boiled school?”
She fired off the series of highly specific literary questions like a machine gun, her gaze filled with breathless anticipation as she stared up at Tetsu.
For a true, dedicated bookworm like her, stumbling across a potential kindred spirit in the middle of the school library was no less thrilling than Columbus discovering the New World.
[Inorin’s Note: “Honkaku” (orthodox) refers to the classic, puzzle-focused style of Japanese detective fiction that emphasizes logical deduction.
“Shin-Honkaku” (new orthodox) is a later movement that retains the puzzle focus but often incorporates bizarre, highly complex, or almost impossible locked-room murder tricks.]
[Inorin’s Note:
Hey guys, hope you’re enjoying the novel!
Hate waiting for updates and cliffhangers?