Konbini Ossan Volume 6 Chapter 20 — To the Reception Hall

On the way to the venue, I ran and thought.

Why did I do something so foolish?

Why did I choose a path that, no matter how you looked at it, would only make the both of us unhappy?

It must have been that sense of powerlessness that had ruled me for so long.

When I was young, I thought I was special.

Smarter than everyone else, surrounded by idiots.

I believed only I had noticed something extraordinary.

But it was all wrong. Just delusion. And before I knew it, I’d grown older without accomplishing a single thing.

The classmates I once mocked had married and started families.

The college friends I thought were ordinary had found jobs in big companies or back home.

And I…

I drifted between part-time jobs anyone could do.

That baseless invincibility gradually flip-turned into a vague, crushing helplessness.

I wrote myself off, thinking this was all I would ever be.

And that was how my current way of thinking was forged.

But enough of that.

Throw it away!

If it’s to make Arisa-san happy…

If it’s to stop choosing wrong and giving up over and over…

Then I’ll graduate from this helplessness and return to who I once was.

Not to that arrogant phase where I thought I was special.

Further back.

To the time when every day was filled with adventure, surprise, and discovery.

When I was honest, straightforward, and corrected myself whenever I made a mistake.

Running, I let my gaze drift to the street around me.

To the houses, the storefronts, the faces of passing people.

Not to judge them.

Not to compare myself to them.

But like I used to, wondering why someone was laughing.

Feeling drawn to shops full of things I’d never seen.

Imagining who lived behind each door.

Little by little, I moved forward, remembering that boyhood self.

Even so, my high stats meant I reached the reception venue without stopping once.

The ceremony was to be held in a great cathedral within the capital, a facility of the state religion.

There, the priest would deliver his blessing and the couple would declare their engagement before God.

If I was going to interrupt, it had to be before that.

The cathedral entrance was surrounded by several knights.

Not kingdom knights like Marceline-dono, judging by their equipment.

Likely church knights.

If I tried to force my way through, I’d have to fight them.

I couldn’t do that. They weren’t guilty of anything.

As I searched for another way in, I noticed an upper window—three or four stories up—left open for lighting.

I’d go through there.

“Ah, hey! You there, what are you doing!”

They shouted once they realized I was leaping toward the window, but it was too late.

I slipped inside the cathedral.

Just in time to hear the priest begin his blessing—chanting solemnly from a book.

I couldn’t wait another second.

“ARISAAAAAA!”

I leaned over the railing near the window and shouted.

Every face in the hall turned toward me.

More strangers than familiar ones. Expressions spilling over with shock, joy, suspicion, disgust—every emotion imaginable.

Still, I shouted again.

“ARISA!”

Arisa looked utterly confused.

The Marquis Roosevelt stood beside her, unreadable.

He wasn’t angry, at least.

After glancing around several times, Arisa shouted back:

“Yuuichi Onii-chaaan!”

“Arisaa!”

I answered her call, then jumped straight down into the center of the hall.

Gasps rippled around me — some like screams — and then fell eerily silent.

People instinctively backed away, watching me with wary eyes.

Only the Marquis Roosevelt stepped forward, placing himself between us.

“What is the meaning of this, Otsugi-dono?”

“I have come to object to this engagement.”

The moment I said it, the hall erupted in noise.

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E/N:

That roar… it sent chills down my spine, my God! The whole scene I imagined in my mind was so vivid and beautiful…

Stay tuned, ladies and gentlemen, the conclusion draws near. Ossan, fight!

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