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 41.1: Our First Date!?

It was the weekend. Today, just as promised, I was going out with Sasa for a date that included going around clothing stores and such.

Even though some time had passed since we started school, this was actually the first time Sasa and I had gone out together like this.

I suggested we go a bit farther away since it was a special occasion, but she said she still didn’t know the town near the academy very well, so I ended up becoming her guide too.

Right after we left the academy grounds… even on the way to town, Sasa couldn’t stay still. She skipped ahead happily.

“Fufun, it looks like no one has noticed us yet, surprisingly!”

“We’re not exactly celebrities or anything.”

“Is that so?”

She turned around, pushed the frame of her sunglasses up with one finger, and let her amber eyes peek out.

Was this supposed to be a disguise…? Honestly, it felt like it was making her stand out even more.

“Commercials are a big deal, you know? And besides… lots of girls are really into good-looking guys!”

Sasa kept glancing at me while saying something that didn’t quite make sense.

The idea that girls are mostly into looks was probably just a stereotype, and even if it were true, it had nothing to do with why I would stand out.

Anyway, as a precaution against reporters who seemed to have me as their main target from the start, I wore glasses to try to look like a different person.

Even though my date was with Sasa, this was still my first time going out with a girl. I didn’t go full-on disguise mode—I just wanted to keep it casual.

…In the end, though, Sasa was the one who seemed way more into the “secret outing” vibe and was clearly enjoying her disguise.

“Surely the first clothing store we go to will make us carry a lot of bags, right? So I want to stop by lots of other places first!”

“Got it. How about a bookstore then? There’s a pretty good one nearby.”

“Nice idea! I still haven’t read the continuation of that light novel you lent me before… and I also want to ask for more recommendations.”

I hadn’t actually meant it that way, but right—she had gotten hooked on light novels.

I remembered how it rained hard that time and she ended up not buying it.

Even after all this time, she still hadn’t bought it herself… Well, I guess it’s hard to picture a sheltered young lady like Sasa going to a bookstore alone.

When we were alone together, she only ever looked like an innocent, sheltered princess, but lately I’d noticed she acted differently when she talked with the girls in her own faction.

If she wanted to, she could behave perfectly like an elegant ojou-sama, and surprisingly, she actually cared quite a lot about how others saw her.

She had said it was for her father—that she wanted to become a proper, admirable daughter.

Eventually we reached the bookstore and went inside.

The store wasn’t especially big, and the shelves were packed tightly with books.

There were only a few students wearing uniforms from other schools, and they were quietly browsing.

“Where’s the light novel section?”

“Right over there.”

I answered in a low voice, and she skipped ahead.

Sasa quickly found the newest volume of the series I had lent her before and picked it up.

I gazed at the titles lined up on the shelves with a sense of nostalgia.

It really had been a long time since I last smelled the scent of real books.

The feeling was incredibly nostalgic… In the near future, e-books would become the norm.

In the future I knew, you almost never saw paper books anymore.

Suddenly, the technology that caused it all came to mind—the e-book system that still kept the sensation of turning pages.

A future technology that loaded the data of any book you wanted into a blank book with nothing written in it, projecting the text onto the empty pages.

The appearance and physical form of books wouldn’t disappear.

But in the future, bookstores would only sell empty cover jackets with nothing inside—a bizarre phenomenon that would be unthinkable in this era.

And all of it… was the revolution I had caused. It was the destruction of one entire culture.

I had to admit it. It might even be counted as one of the reasons the anti-future-tech activists—led by people like Kano—came into existence.

I felt like some heretic blaspheming against scripture, but I still pushed forward.

Because within the Kokonoe Group, it was the right thing to do.

But—

“Hey Taiki, don’t you think this main heroine looks a little like me!?”

Watching Sasa’s eyes sparkle as she held up the book and bounced with excitement… I couldn’t hide my agitation anymore, even this late.

Trying not to let it show, I looked at the illustration in the light novel she was showing me.

“Y-yeah… The art is cute, and she’s really popular with readers too.”

“C-cute… I mean, not just on the outside, but on the inside too, right?”