A Late Bloomer's Powerful Restart ~My Second Life Starts at a Prestigious School Where the Gender Ratio Is Totally Off, and for Some Reason, All These Talented Girls Get Attached to Me...!?~

Chapter 1: Flash

My name is Taiki Kashiwado. At the young age of fifty, I finally climbed my way up to become an executive officer in the Kunoe Group. I was an elite.

But I had not been an elite from the start. The path to this position had been a harsh one.

After all, the old me had no talents at all. No matter how hard I tried, I could never become more than average, and people around me looked down on me.

Everything changed when various talents bloomed in me during university.

I placed second in the national intercollegiate triathlon championship, received awards at academic conferences, and while working part-time as a stylist, I ended up styling an actress and even gained a bit of fame on social media.

As an outstanding student, I was selected for a scholarship and joined the Kunoe Group straight after graduation.

Even after that, I got caught up in office politics and the road was long, but the one who survived was me.

In the end, I reached the status of a successful man.

“So this is the view a successful person sees…”

I looked down from the top floor of the tallest building in the city center.

Right now, I was the only one standing here. This entire floor had been reserved just for me.

If I had been younger, I probably would have felt superior in this position, but the only feeling left in my heart was a trace of loneliness.

“I see… today is Christmas Eve… the holy night.”

With my good eyesight, I caught sight of several couples.

I could not make out their expressions as they gazed at the city’s XR illuminations, but I could tell they seemed happy.

In contrast, I was all alone.

“It’s just like my life.”

That was one of the reasons an outstanding man like me had not risen to executive status until this age.

It left a bad impression that an executive-level person in a major corporate group was not even married.

Of course, it was not that I was unpopular.

On the contrary, after my talents bloomed, I was really popular.

Famous idols, models, and even the young lady of the Kunoe Group all tried to win me over.

But I never dated anyone.

“—Will you… become my first and last friend?”

I could not forget the mysterious girl I happened to meet during high school.

She was a mystical girl who seemed like she might vanish in the wind at any moment.

We met only once. We spoke only once.

All I knew was her name, “Shika,” and that she wore the uniform of Teimon Academy.

Teimon Academy produces the elites of the future.

So… if I ever made it big, I might one day meet her again… Believing that, I gave it everything I had.

But the day of reunion never came.

Even when I searched through upper-class connections, no one knew who she was, and I carried that first love for over thirty years.

This emptiness would probably never go away until I died.

Because my sharp memory, which had awakened at some point, had recorded those memories vividly in my brain.

My hand trembled as if my supposedly cured neurological disorder had returned.

I already knew this first love would never come true.

“Should I… finally respond to Sasa…?”

Sasa was the name of the Kunoe Group’s young lady who had pursued me.

If my first love could not come true, maybe it would be good to try being with someone else.

“That could work. It might be too late, though.”

It might be hard to have children at this point, but I thought I could at least spend the rest of my life with someone. That is, if she still had feelings for a guy like me.

“…”

Feeling drained by how late everything was, I gazed blankly at the scenery.

The red light from the XR illuminations flashed as it expanded.

It was probably a light show prepared for the holy night.

Seen from this high vantage point, it looked like fireworks drawn on the ground.

—Zing!!

At that moment, my vision went completely dark.

It was not just the room lights that went out. The city I had been looking down on, the starry sky—everything disappeared.

Terror poured into my empty heart, and then the world regained its light.

Or it should have.

“…Huh?”

When the light returned, right in front of me was a crosswalk.