“Remember to eat breakfast.”
Morning.
Kitahara Minakaze received this message.
Looking at the sender’s name—a string of heart emojis and various weird symbols—it took Minakaze quite a bit of effort to remember that this was a message from Natsume Mio.
Although Mio looked incredibly cool wielding a sword and appeared gentle and virtuous in daily life, no matter how she acted, she was still fundamentally an ordinary girl.
This was evident from the name she saved herself under; the strong vibe of a modern high school girl speaking in incomprehensible slang perfectly proved this point…
“Just save your name normally.”
While eating breakfast, Minakaze picked up his new phone and deleted the pile of baffling symbols and emojis.
He only kept the name Natsume Mio.
Then he put down the phone and continued enjoying his breakfast.
But soon after.
He picked up the phone again, thought for a moment, and typed a heart symbol back in front of Natsume Mio’s name.
For the sake of the ten thousand yen.
I’ll keep one symbol.
Minakaze thought this as he looked at the name, nodding in satisfaction.
I’m such a softie.
…
The walk to school was as peaceful as always.
Even though this “as always” had only been going on for two days.
Minakaze still went to check on Mio’s classroom first.
Today, Mio seemed to know he was coming.
The moment he appeared, she spotted him and gave a slightly shy wave.
Minakaze nodded, ignoring the stares of the others, and turned to leave.
But on his way upstairs, he sent Mio a message.
“Just checking on you once a day like this is completely useless if you actually run into trouble, and pointless if you don’t. Why don’t you wake me up in the morning so we can go to school together?”
Mio’s reply came quickly.
“I have to get up really early for morning practice, you know.”
“No problem. Don’t underestimate a corporate slave’s adaptability.”
“Brother… you’re still a high schooler. Why do you talk like an old man?”
“Is it gross?”
“Not really…”
“Then it’s fine. Wake me up tomorrow.”
Minakaze smiled and replied directly, “Don’t worry. Call me if anything happens.”
There was a pause on the other end.
“…Then do you need me to go with you to look for a job this afternoon?”
“No need. I can handle finding a job on my own.”
Minakaze sent a simple reply, checked the time, and without waiting for Mio to text back, put away his phone and continued up the stairs to the third floor.
The moment he appeared, he drew quite a few stares.
Entering the classroom, just like yesterday, caused the room to fall into a brief silence.
“Good morning.”
Ignoring the surrounding gazes, Minakaze simply greeted Shigeta Kaisei, whose seat seemed to be near the door and who had looked terrified of being beaten up yesterday.
Shigeta Kaisei instinctively tried to protect his head again, but fortunately caught himself at the last second.
Looking awkward, he nodded at Minakaze and quietly mumbled a good morning.
Minakaze walked to the back and returned to his seat.
[ ]
The young lady of the Miyata family beside him glanced his way.
Minakaze gave her a thumbs-up.
I don’t know what it means anyway.
I’ll just treat it as a greeting.
Seeing Minakaze’s gesture, Miyata Yui energetically returned the thumbs-up.
The classmates watched this scene unfold, utterly amazed by Minakaze, who for some reason had suddenly stopped wearing his usual scowl.
Seeing his classmates’ expressions, Minakaze was highly satisfied, feeling that his reputation was finally starting to change.
Then.
By noon.
The rumor that Kitahara Minakaze was off his meds today.
Spread like wildfire.
Hearing this rumor from inside a bathroom stall, Minakaze’s mouth twitched.
He muttered a curse under his breath.
…
Turning over a new leaf was hard indeed.
But a man had to eat, and a job still had to be found.
Minakaze left the school gates as soon as classes ended, meeting the wary gaze of the school security guard.
He didn’t linger at the entrance, heading straight down the main road toward Fujisawa Station.
When it came to high schoolers working part-time.
Most people’s first impression would be places like convenience stores.
But in reality, for a high schooler, working at a convenience store was quite a rip-off.
Furthermore, working at a convenience store—especially one nearby—made it very easy to run into acquaintances.
Classmates were fine; Minakaze wouldn’t feel embarrassed or anything, but running into teachers would be a hassle.
Although public schools didn’t explicitly forbid high schoolers from working part-time, they certainly didn’t encourage it.
Plus, according to school rules, high schoolers had to submit an application to work.
Minakaze didn’t want the trouble, so he immediately vetoed the idea of being a convenience store clerk.
The same went for working at a restaurant.
However, even excluding those two, there were still plenty of jobs Minakaze could find.
The original owner of this body was actually a part-time warrior before…
After all, he owed loan sharks.
So the original owner had done almost every job imaginable: dishwasher, porter, newspaper delivery boy, handyman, cleaner, and so on.
Of course, there were also some shady, non-compliant gigs.
For instance, he had even worked as a host…
Even though the original owner wore a scowl every day, he was genuinely handsome.
And while Kanagawa didn’t have a place like Kabukicho, it definitely had host clubs.
During his runaway period, he had lied about his age, and the boss, seeing how tall and imposing he was, actually let him work…
The customers didn’t seem to mind his aloofness either; some were actually quite into it.
This was also the highest-paying job out of all the ones the original owner had done.
Some wealthy women, seeing his cold expression, wouldn’t hesitate at all to order expensive drinks.
However, it was impossible for the current Minakaze to go back to doing that.
If he got caught, it would truly be game over.
Underage drinking and working as a host.
Although he had never provided any escort services…
and the original owner had never intended to please anyone, just maintaining a scowl while pushing drinks one after another and drinking desperately like a reckless fool, just thinking about the image of being surrounded by wealthy women was incredibly embarrassing.
If this got out, let alone picking up high school girls and enjoying his youth, it would be a miracle if he wasn’t expelled.
So it was best to let this matter scatter to the wind…
Anyway, Minakaze had no intention of recalling this matter anymore, nor did he plan to do that kind of work again.
He could only find a job among those miscellaneous gigs like newspaper delivery or handyman work.
Hopefully, I can find a suitable job.
Corporate slave Ah Yue, now Kitahara Minakaze, held onto this expectation.
He set foot on the path to job hunting.
Looking at his back…
he had the imposing aura of a brave hero departing, never to return.