Chapter 1: Contract with the Scary Princess
“Could it be that being a student is vocational training to become a corporate slave!?”
I was in despair――
To reality―― to this lifestyle.
“Normal students come to school at 8:30 in the morning… If they were to do something like club activities, they wouldn’t be home until after 7 PM…”
When there is no responsibility, a certain amount of failure is allowed compared to working adults. However, most of them are forced to engage in ‘things they don’t want to do’, and the time students are bound by the school is almost the same as that of company employees.
I suspect that this may be training to gradually raise people’s tolerance for being workaholics, starting from their growth period. Moreover, in my case, these doubts have intensified since I entered high school.
“I get up at 3 in the morning to work as a part-time newspaper delivery, and after school is over, I work a part-time job at an izakaya until 10 PM… When I get home, I sleep like a log and wake up at 3 o’clock every day…”
Spring of the first year of high school.
It was a time when everyone felt cheerful or excited, but my heart was in the depths of despair.
“Yeah, I want to die.”
Five months ago, my father disappeared with a debt of 20 million yen, and my mother collapsed from it. Furthermore, four months ago, some middle school girls who claimed to be my half-sisters suddenly came to our house. And it was three months ago that we came to the conclusion that the rest of our family would work hard to repay the debt.
“If only I don’t have debts… It’s really difficult to earn money…”
The importance of money really hit me in the spring of my 15th year.
I was so exhausted that I had the illusion that the whole world had turned gray.
But, even for someone like me, there is something to look forward to.
It was in the early morning classroom, where no one was yet present, after going out for the newspaper delivery.
It’s the middle of April and spring is in full swing, but the morning air is clear and cold. The faint voices of the students who are practicing in the morning can be heard coming from a distance.
I sat in my seat and looked outside.
The sunlight shining through the window is slightly blinding, and it reflects off the dust particles lightly floating in the classroom, making them shimmer like powdery snow.
In a classroom that is usually filled with the endless chatter of classmates.
But now it seems like a place wrapped in silence, far removed from reality.
This kind of atmosphere beautifully washes away my anxieties.
Now, let’s immerse in my daily sacred morning ritual.
“Tekubi Kiruru is really cute, as usual.”
What is shown on the smartphone screen is the magical girl VTuber, Tekubi Kiruru.
She is my favorite.
By the way, her character traits are a unique combination of Cruel x Menhera x Committed.
“What’s this? ‘Announcement: All annoying monsters are sentenced to death’. Is Kirurun going to do a dungeon stream soon?! I’m worried… I want to watch it in real time somehow! No, I will definitely watch the first stream!”
By the way, do you know what a magical girl VTuber is?
Two years have passed since the natural disaster known as the [Otherworld Update] occurred, and the world has changed dramatically.
Dungeons and monsters appear in reality, and magical girls who protect people from those threats also appear.
Nowadays, there are even gates connecting Earth with another world called Pandora.
Now, even the magical girls who were once the guardians of humanity have become ordinary.
Because a certain number of people have awakened to their status.
Adventurers, people who seek the unknown resources of Pandora and exchange them for cash on Earth, have become a new profession, and magical girls are deprived of their active role in the world.
The reason is that magical girls don’t grow.
Unlike adventurers, even if their level goes up, their status does not increase.
Therefore, tasks such as defeating monsters and conquering dungeons became the exclusive domain of adventurers.
Magical girls who have become socially irrelevant.
In the midst of such adversity, the magical girl VTuber appeared.
Usually, as a VTuber, they engage in a wide range of activities such as game commentary, singing, and ASMR. And in case of emergency, they transform into the same character design as the VTuber’s skin and fight monsters.
Magical girls originally transformed to fight.
That’s right, it’s a dream collaboration between the magical girl x VTuber.
They regularly deliver content that resonates with people’s hearts, providing them with happiness. And sometimes they show their bravery.
For us who struggle every day in reality, it gives us love, courage, and hope… It was a fighting idol.
That’s why, no matter how tough reality is, I feel encouraged by watching their streams.
That is why I do not spare efforts in missionary activities.
“Last night’s stream, Kirurun was really on fire doing her best… I will do my best too!”
She is prone to illness, and despite her tofu mentality, she keeps challenging herself with different games and events, failing, trying and failing, and getting depressed.
She is also cruel enough to kill anyone who steps on even the slightest bit of landmine, and even to kill friendly NPCs. As a result, she found out later that it was an important NPC and felt distressed about it.
Yet she never gives up, which is why I can’t afford to let debt discourage me.
That’s the way I see it.
She is quite famous among independent creators, and I have been supporting her since her debut. I have watched her grow as if she were my own child.
“Well, it’s about time.”
And there is one more reason that I like the classroom in the early morning.
The reason is that the door connected to the hallway will be opened energetically.
My real-life favorite, Aoi Aizomezaka.
She is a member of the swimming club and always leaves her belongings in the classroom before morning practice.
I use that brief amount of time to have what can’t even be called a conversation just an exchange of a word or two with her in the classroom. That’s my enjoyment.
……Yes, I like my classmate Aoi Aizomezaka.
She is a popular member of the class because she is always cheerful and she never stops smiling.
When I think of her coming soon, I get a little nervous. Let’s go get some juice to relax.
I tried to take the 100 yen coin out of my wallet, but my trembling hands caused me to drop the coin.
“My 100 yen coin!?”
I bent down and tried to pick it up immediately, but the 100 yen coin rolled vertically on the floor.
“You have to be kidding me!? No, calm down…”
The coin rolls slowly and quietly towards the classroom door. There is no need to be impatient. Since the door is firmly closed, the 100-yen coin cannot get out.
I regained my composure and crawled to the door on all fours like a little baby.
At that moment——
A rattling sound came from the door.
The door leading to the hallway opened with a rattling sound that shattered the silence.
I turned my attention to the person who opened the door, thinking it might be Aizomezaka who had come.
A beautiful girl with long, beautiful black hair stood there with a composed look on her face.
At a distance of about 2 meters. It’s fairly close.
From the hallway and the classroom, our gazes intersect.
In an instant, her crimson eyes filled with contempt were directed at me, piercing my entire body.
“Oh, why is there a cockroach in the classroom?”
A classmate girl who witnessed me crawling on the floor of the classroom in the early morning said.
“Sure, the classroom isn’t exactly spotless, but seems unrealistic for such a huge cockroach could appear there. Am I now encountering the Seven Mysteries of School?”
A cockroach… Your perception of your classmate is more unrealistic.
But I won’t argue back.
Her eyes, shining red like rubies, looked down at me as if they wanted to say ‘creepy.’ In contrast to her jewel-like beauty, there is a coldness of absolute zero in her gaze, which causes a tinge of fear to rise in me.
“Or, could it be something else? Is that why you were crawling around sneakily, waiting for the girls to come by so you could take a peek at your classmates’ underwear?”
The girl’s gaze at me became even colder. Her attitude of not considering others as human beings is one of the main reasons why she’s avoided by her classmates.
I was at lost. I feel like talking to her in the morning is mentally exhausting.
The girl makes a face of obvious displeasure at me, who is hesitating to answer.
“As I thought, it seems to be a genuine cockroach. It looks like you don’t understand human language.”
The name of the girl who does not categorize her classmates as human beings and calls them cockroaches is Yuuki Kurenai. She is a first year student like me and is hated by her class and classmates as the Second Princess.
At this high school, there are two princesses who make even delinquents tremble with fear.
That’s why she is nicknamed the Second Princess, and the other one is a second year senior and is referred to as the Purple Princess.
And she is being teased as ‘Princess in Red’ or ‘Red Princess’.
The deep crimson eyes that seem stained by blood are natural. Her skin is as white and beautiful as porcelain, and her face is terrifyingly well-proportioned. Her appearance is as beautiful as that of a princess, but all the words that come out of her mouth are as harsh as if she were tearing people’s hearts to pieces.
However, that’s not a good reason to ignore her, so I try to dispel the suspicion of being a peeping tom.
“Ku, Kurenai. Calm down a bit. I was just trying to buy a juice and dropped a 100-yen coin, so I was just trying to pick it up, that’s all——”
“I don’t see any 100 yen coin, though?”
“No, it rolls down the hallway——”
“Cockroach, don’t speak without permission.”
I should have guessed she would say that.
I had known Kurenai since middle school, so I knew I wouldn’t get a proper answer.
I quietly sigh.
“How bold you are to sigh in front of me. And if you’re going to lie, at least make it a better lie. Cockroach sure have an unusually low IQ.”
“Yeah yeah.”
“So, what kind of juice were you trying to buy?”
Having arbitrarily decided that I am lying, she continues to dig deeper.
That follow-up blow is really harsh.
“…Tomato juice.”
When I retort back in defiance, she presses further with an even harsher tone.
“That red and muddy liquid that looks like bloody vomit? Well well… You were trying to buy something disgusting.”
You are far more muddy, Kurenai. Trying to get someone to explain in detail their lies. And besides, red stuff is totally your thing.
Well, I felt sorry for tomato juice being insulted by Kurenai, so I decided to support tomato juice as much as I could for no reason.
“Kurenai, you don’t understand. The feeling of refreshment that hits you after drinking that thick, sludgy liquid is incredible, you know? It gives a very calm feeling. Don’t badmouth it just because it was muddy and red.”
Did Kurenai flinch at my words, or was it just my imagination?
“…W-well, never mind. I understand that, but… How long do you plan to keep crawling like that?”
She narrows her red eyes slightly and looks at me as if searching for my line of sight.
Wha, it’s not that I’m intentionally trying to see someone’s underwear…
While looking at me crawling on the floor, Kurenai has a faint smile as if she thought of something.
“It’s perfect timing. If you don’t want that ugly behavior of yours to be exposed to the class, take this.”
Kurenai said as she closed the door and took a few steps towards the classroom, pointing at her feet.
My domain and the Red Princess’s domain intersected.
I look at Kurenai’s legs, flinching inwardly, wondering if there’s any poop or anything on them.
Hmm… What a pair of beautiful legs.
“Where are you looking, cockroach? The part you should look at is the indoor shoes.”
I was hit on the head from above.
“Please remove the sticky candy that is stuck to my indoor shoes.”
After being told to look at the indoor shoes, I stared at them and noticed there was gum stuck on the toe and sole.
In the early morning, in an empty classroom with no one else, just the two of us… I was ordered by a girl in my class to knell and play with her legs. There is no denying that there is some sense of immorality. Moreover, if the other person is the Red Princess, it is even more dangerous… It intensifies the impression of sweetness.
Of course, if someone were to see a scene like this, it would be bad.
But… I don’t want Kurenai’s sharp tongue to get out of hand and my classmates to think I’m a pervert because of the strange things she says. Above all, I don’t want Aizomezaka to misunderstand that the reason I came to the classroom early every morning was to peek at her underwear.
Since there was no other choice, I reluctantly tried to remove what seemed to be gum stuck on her indoor shoes while in a crouched position.
And then, inevitably, the Kurenai’s legs come into view in front of me.
Dazzling whiteness from the knee to thigh above the navy blue socks. A pair of soft-looking, elastic feet appears right in front of me.
Wow, this girl has really smooth skin. I mean, it’s just really beautiful… This is bad.
it also has a nice smell, too?
“…Hurry up and take it, cockroach.”
Did she sense my wicked thoughts? Kurenai, with her eyes half closed glared at me sharply.
And there, I made a blunder!
I reflexively ended up looking up. In a crouched position!
It’s inevitable! I didn’t expect to see that pure white object glimpsed for a moment behind the skirt of her uniform!
Hmph.
Surprisingly, it’s not so bad to go along with this girl’s unreasonable demands.
I decided to take as much time as possible to carefully remove the gum from her shoes. My hands got dirty, but that’s no problem! My head is full of pure white gardens.
“…Stupid, slow, clumsy, cockroach, bald, old man, no name.”
Kurenai seems to be in a bad mood as I work slowly, but it’s a silvery paradise. Kurenai’s mood has nothing to do with me.
Just as I was about to say, ‘Phew, it’s difficult to take off,’ the classroom door suddenly opened with a clatter.
“Huh? Nanashiro and… Yuuki…?”
Yes, Aizomezaka was there, looking at me kneeling before the red princess and playing with her feet.
H-how could this happen!?
How can I deceive her, how can I get through this situation!?
“Ahh… Um, was I in the way?”
Aizomezaka tilts her adorably cute face and gives a slightly troubled smile.
I immediately turned my gaze to Kurenai the only person here who is capable of clearing this misunderstanding.
“I don’t mean to intrude, but you didn’t really want others to see you, right?”
Noooo, wait a second!?
You are not mistaken, but it’s not what it looks!?
If you put it that way, people will think that Kurenai and I had some kind of secret romantic meeting, won’t they!?
Sure enough, Aizomezaka who is innocent in heart, turned bright red all the way to her ears and said, “S-sorry!” She screamed and left the classroom.
“Hey, Kurenai… How are you going to fix this?”
“What could it be?”
“You! That way of speaking would give Aizomezaka the wrong impression!”
“Shut up, cockroach. I don’t care what Aizomezaka thinks of me.”
“I care about it!”
“Ah, I see.”
Kurenai replied with a total lack of interest, but I somehow managed to hang on.
I usually don’t pay much attention to what Kurenai says and does. But only this time, Aizomezaka is involved, so I can’t compromise.
“I’m begging you! Please explain to Aizomezaka later that I was just removing gum from your indoor shoes!”
“That too, in its own way, is a funny story, isn’t it?”
“Now that you mention it, it is indeed?”
Why was I removing the trash stuck to Kurenai’s indoor shoes? It was really an unusual sight.
“Kurenaaiii! You set me up, didn’t you!?”
“Pfft, kukuku… It’s kind of funny even for a cockroach, isn’t it?”
This girl really went and did it.
However, Kurenai’s unusual giggles and laughter distracted me from my anger.
“I’ve been thinking this since middle school, but in spite of all the harsh words I’ve said, cockroach sure is really tenacious.”
“Is that it? Are you telling me to die?”
“You are not wrong for the most part.”
“That’s awful.”
Kurenai was definitely making fun of me.
“It’s precisely because you are someone like that, that I’m offering you this contract.”
“…A contract?”
Kurenai’s crimson eyes burn with a mysterious aura.
“I’ll give you a million yen per month, so be my slave!”
The red princess pointed her index finger at me and gave me a very serious look.
However, from an outsider’s perspective, her statement only looked like a ‘sugar mama’ high school girl had suddenly emerged.
“Eh, what? Is it sugar mama?”
“That’s not it. Your idea is way too disgusting, cockroach. I’m thinking of starting a certain business.”
“Hah… A high school student starting a business?”
Come to think of it, I’ve heard that Kurenai is a young lady from a wealthy family, Is that why she has high standards? If you come from a good family, does that mean that your mindset is on a different scale even when you’re a high school student?
Hmm?
Is that why she only thinks of me as a bug?
“Starting a business as a high school student isn’t that uncommon, you know?”
“That’s something for the wealthy, isn’t it? Oh well, that’s fine. So, what does this contract have to do with the business and me?”
When I became interested, Kurenai smiled slightly.
If you usually smile like that, the rest of the class won’t distance themselves from you. If anything, more people would be more likely to approach you. She has the beauty to make you think so.
“For the business I’m going to start, I need someone with mental resilience who’s as tenacious and tough as a cockroach, like you.”
What? That’s scary.
From what I can tell just by listening, the working environment only sounds like a ‘black company,’ right?
“If you cockroach sign an employment contract with me, then I might have something good to say to Aizomezaka about the matter from earlier.”
Wait, what!?
I almost going to be willing to say ‘OK’ and readily agreeing, but… Stop at the last moment.
As it may seem, I’m currently experiencing the hell of working multiple part-time jobs more than six days a week. It’s obvious that it is dangerous to sign an employment contract without checking the working environment and the remuneration.
“…What does the job entail and how much does it pay?”
“It’s 800,000 yen just to play with me. I will also ask you to do some additional work like editing the videos, but I will pay a separate fee for that, so I guess it’ll be over 1 million yen a month?”
“1 million yen a month just to play with you, Kurenai!?”
What the heck, Kurenai!
You wanted a friend that much!?
Wow, buying friends with money is so like you!
Without a second thought, I readily agreed to the employment contract with Yuuki Kurenai.
At the time, I was just happy to be freed from labor hell.
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