Togawa Sakiko’s heart skipped a beat.
A sudden sense of wariness crept over her as she looked at the girl sitting in front of her.
But almost immediately, she felt ridiculous for reacting that way.
Even so, she couldn’t hide the slight change in her expression.
“You know her, Sakiko?”
“…”
“Wait… is she your classmate?” Chihiro put on an exaggeratedly relieved look. “I was actually thinking of asking if she’d be willing to hire another friend, but… looks like I almost made a mistake.”
“It’s nothing,” Sakiko said, shaking her head, though the uneasy feeling in her chest remained. “How did you even end up at her house?”
What are the chances…?
Sakiko couldn’t explain it, but she had already come to understand that the world she lived in was nothing more than a slapdash stage play—one where absurd coincidences happened all the time.
“Well, since I’m hoping to save up money and eventually get into college, I was thinking about finding another part-time job. So I checked out a few prep schools while I was at it.”
“I see…”
Chihiro hadn’t even gotten to the main part of the story yet, but just hearing that made Sakiko sigh.
This girl didn’t even have a school to attend right now.
“And it just so happened that I ran into Nagasaki Soyo at one of those schools. She warned me that they were basically a scam, so I was grateful and ended up chatting with her a bit.”
“Eh?”
Sakiko suddenly had a strange mental image—of a scheming Soyo putting on a friendly act to charm a naive Chihiro.
But… that couldn’t be right.
As manipulative as Soyo was, she wouldn’t go out of her way to do something like that, would she?
“Wait, she was at a prep school?”
That was what threw her off the most.
From what she knew of Soyo, there was no way she would step foot into a place like that.
“Yeah. I think she was inquiring about study-abroad programs? I didn’t ask for details.”
“Hah?”
Wait, seriously?!
Sakiko didn’t know what to think. It felt like Soyo was becoming more and more of a mystery to her.
“Anyway, after chatting a bit, she learned about my situation. Then she suddenly asked if I’d be interested in working at her place—doing housework and helping her with English.”
“Helping her with English?” Sakiko was starting to lose count of how many times she had been shocked today.
“Yeah. Before my family situation went downhill, we were doing pretty well. I actually lived abroad for a while, so I’m decent at English.”
“I see…”
No wonder Sakiko had felt a strange sense of familiarity with Chihiro. That subtle air of someone who had once been privileged but had since fallen from grace—it was something they shared.
And her sharp eye for expensive clothing suddenly made a lot more sense.
So it really was just a coincidence… This world is so absurd.
“Chihiro…”
“Hm? What is it, Sakiko?”
“Soyo probably won’t do anything to you. Working for her is fine. Just… don’t mention anything I’ve told you about her, okay?”
“What are you talking about?” Chihiro’s face was the picture of innocence. “You’re my friend, Sakiko. Of course I wouldn’t go telling people your secrets.”
“Besides, we already made a promise, remember?”
“…Yeah. We did.”
Hearing the word promise made Sakiko feel a pang of guilt.
After all, she was someone who hadn’t kept her promises—to CRYCHIC, to her friends, to herself.
Everything was slipping out of her control. The world was moving in ways she hadn’t predicted.
It was overwhelming.
But wasn’t this the outcome she had wanted all along?
…
That day at work, Sakiko found herself distracted.
She spaced out several times, misheard customers on multiple occasions, and had to ask them to repeat themselves.
It was an uncharacteristic amount of mistakes.
Thankfully, none of the customers she dealt with were the type to snap at her over it.
Maybe it was because of Soyo, but Sakiko didn’t walk home with Chihiro after work.
She went back to her apartment alone.
To her surprise, the usual mess of beer bottles wasn’t there.
Of course, that was simply because her father wasn’t home today.
Sakiko had always felt exhausted by her life.
At school, she had to maintain her pride and grace while keeping her distance from everyone—ensuring no one ever found out about her situation.
After school, she had to work part-time to make money. Then she had to come home and take care of her father while still making time to study.
She clung to the idea that as long as she kept up her grades, the bright future that teachers always talked about would eventually come to her.
Chihiro…
Sitting at her desk, she thought about it for a while.
Soyo had let go of the past.
Maybe it was time she stopped resisting so much too.
There were things she wanted to say to her.
Not about the past, but about the future.
With that in mind, Sakiko pulled out her phone and unblocked Soyo’s contact on LINE.
After a long pause, she finally sent a message.
[Chihiro is my friend. If you can, don’t do anything too cruel to her.]
The moment she hit send, she regretted it.
The message wasn’t exactly polite.
And she had just outed herself as someone who knew Chihiro.
But there wasn’t much else she could do for her fellow fallen noble.
And maybe… this message wasn’t just for Chihiro’s sake.
Maybe it was also a way for her to let go.
To see if Soyo had truly let go too.
This is fine. After all, I was the one who broke my promise first.
—
Elsewhere, at her home, Nagasaki Soyo was absentmindedly plucking at her bass when she heard the notification tone from her phone.
Thinking it was just another message from Taki or Chihiro, she lazily reached for it.
But when she saw the sender’s name, her fingers trembled.
Her phone nearly slipped from her hands.
And her jaw nearly hit the floor.
Sakiko?! She actually unblocked me?!
Was this some kind of black magic?!
Just yesterday, she thought she had seen the peak of Tsuzuki Chihiro’s abilities.
But in less than a day, she had already gotten her removed from Sakiko’s block list?!
5,000 yen a day… was highway robbery for this level of skill!!!
No. I can’t get too excited. I can’t let that scammer look down on me and say I’m dragging her down again…
She had to stay calm.
She had to remember the words of wisdom that the Great Con Artist had imparted to her just last night—
“Most of the time, doing something directly will have the opposite effect.”
With trembling hands, she carefully typed out a two-character reply:
[Understood.]
—
T/N: oh… so to get more money… i must spend more? should i go back to gacha
This is a fan translation of 素世同学，恭喜你被我优化了 by 杰克喵. All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!
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