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 43: Luck Test with the Lucky Set

Right in front of me sat two young ladies from prestigious families, both happily munching on hamburgers together.

I never thought I’d run into Shika here of all places…

Of course, even in her previous life memories, she used to enjoy fast food like this, so it wasn’t completely unexpected.

Still, timing matters.

There was no need for her to come at such a busy, noticeable hour—Shika really does have that reckless side to her.

Even though she had the hood of her parka pulled up, Sasa spotted her instantly. I wish she’d pay a bit more attention to her own image.

“This junky taste is amazing…!”

“The crispy potatoes—this is it, this is exactly it… such a nostalgic texture!”

The place wasn’t really somewhere you’d expect Sasa and Shika to run into each other… yet the scene in front of me somehow made them look like two of a kind.

No one in the restaurant would ever guess that these two were the daughters of companies that represent the nation.

They just looked like ordinary teenage girls hanging out with a friend on their day off… Wait a second. Does that actually make me the one who doesn’t fit in here…!?

“More importantly, Taiki, what is this? There’s something soft inside!”

“Oh, that’s a freebie that came with the Lucky Set.”

The Lucky Set was one of this fast-food chain’s big draws… You’d normally think stuff like this was aimed at elementary-school kids or little children, but they were selling it to all ages.

It was pretty unusual these days, and I couldn’t help noticing the clever, in-depth marketing behind it.

It didn’t seem like they were just clearing out some manufacturer’s old stock… Instead, it looked like a brand-new collaborative product born from a crossover between two different IPs, put together by three companies.

The chain itself was apparently foreign-owned, but their SNS promotion was really well done. With two secret rares included, the full set of twelve random items had become a domestic trend.

This first-wave collab featured the mascot characters from the communication app “LORN”—known as ‘LORN FRIENDS’—crossed over with the SNS-hit series ‘The Familiar That Dies 1000 Days Later.’

Five of the items were palm-sized plush toys of animals wearing wizard hats and holding staffs. The other five were squeeze toys shaped like animals hugging giant crystal balls.

The existence of secret rares had already been discovered on SNS, but no one had found them yet. Apparently the plush toys were the more detailed ones and counted as the “good” pulls.

“Hey, Taiki! And Shika-san too—let’s open them together, okay?”

“Y-yes… W-well, I’m not childish enough to get excited over toys or anything… but if Sasa-chan wants to, then…”

Shika kept stealing nervous glances at me while she spoke.

Random collectibles seemed exactly like something Shika would secretly love… Even though she tried to hide it, the excitement was leaking out all over her face.

“Okay then, let’s open them on three.”

“One, two, three!”

“W-wait, too fast… Sasa-chan!?”

The three of us opened our toys together.

I was especially curious about whether any of us got a secret—

“What the… is this?”

What came out of my bag was a magic carpet printed with pictures of all five ‘LORN FRIENDS’ animals.

Since it was listed in the goods lineup, this was probably one of the secret rares… but it was so different from what I expected that I just froze.

“N-not cute at all… As I thought, today my LUCK stat is just too low…”

While I stood there stunned, Shika right across from me looked devastated and muttered under her breath.

In her hand was a plush hedgehog wearing a pointed wizard hat. Its buck teeth stood out, and its eyes looked perpetually sleepy.

Unlike the other characters, this one didn’t hold a staff, so it really just looked like a hedgehog with an ill-fitting hat forced on its head.

But apparently on SNS this hedgehog was the most popular one—people called it “gross-cute.”

“Fufu〜n! Mine is a cute bunny!”

Next to the shocked Shika, Sasa showed a very satisfied expression.

What she pulled was a squeeze toy of a bunny sitting on top of a crystal ball, looking adorable.

Clearly pleased with it, she proudly held it up for Shika to see.

“…Hmph!”

Suddenly Shika pointed the pointed hat of her plush hedgehog at Sasa like she was stabbing with it… while Sasa protectively cupped both hands around her squeeze toy to shield it.

What exactly are they doing…?

“Kashiwado-kun… what did you get?”

“Oh, this… a magic carpet. Probably one of the secret ones.”

“S-secret…!?”

You could clearly see the shift in Shika’s eyes—the tragic atmosphere from a moment ago vanished in an instant.

Right, she basically lives life like it’s a game. So of course words like “secret” or “limited” would be her weakness.

“…I-I’m not jealous or anything… but, um, doesn’t this hedgehog… seem like it would pair really well with that?”

Shika looked at me with longing eyes as she spoke.

I see… I thought it was completely out of place compared to the other items, but her point actually made sense.

The magic carpet was a little bigger than the palm of my hand and made of the same fabric as the plush toys.

In other words, this carpet was probably meant to be the base that the five plush animals could ride on.

“Yeah, you’re right. The carpet by itself feels kind of lonely. Here, Shika—you can have it.”

“Th-thank you so much! …Hehe, now you’re just an ordinary, harmless little mouse.”

She took the small carpet from me and—surprisingly—didn’t put the hedgehog on top of it.

Instead she wrapped the carpet around the hedgehog’s back, covering its spines like a blanket.

“Hehe… Now that I look at it this way, it actually looks cute.”

Indeed, with those perpetually sleepy eyes, the hedgehog really suited the sleepy blanket look…!

Somehow I felt like I lost in terms of imagination.

Not that this was supposed to be a competition or anything.

Still, I genuinely felt glad that Shika was happy… but then the person sitting right beside her fixed a steady stare on me.

“Um… Taiki…? Does that mean there’s nothing for me…?”

“Uh… y-yeah, that’s true…”

Sasa was squishing the cheeks of her bunny squeeze toy, clearly showing her displeasure.

What’s wrong…? Just a minute ago she was so excited about getting a cute bunny, but now her eyes were starting to get watery.

Did she really want a secret that badly?

I didn’t think a squeeze toy would really go with the carpet… but I could clearly see she was jealous of Shika.

Even back in her previous life, when she felt this way she didn’t say much—instead she would just chug alcohol recklessly while wearing exactly this expression.

My instincts were screaming that this was dangerous… I couldn’t believe something this small would change Sasa’s personality, but I had to do something anyway.

“A-actually, I’m still kinda hungry. If you guys don’t mind waiting a bit longer, can I go buy… one more Lucky Set?”

“R-really…!? cough I mean, time isn’t a problem at all, you know?”

The gloomy look that had been gradually darkening her eyes suddenly burst open and sparkled brightly.

I decided that eating too many carbs wasn’t good, so I’d make sure to exercise later.

Even if that weren’t the case, ever since starting at Teimon Academy I’d been eating too many sweets and had to diet anyway, so this was pretty much my normal routine.

“Boys really do eat a lot, don’t they… High stamina stat…”

I thought it was a pretty lame excuse, but Shika accepted it with some mysterious interpretation of her own.

Maybe she was just in a good mood because I gave her the carpet, but at least she didn’t think it was weird.

It hadn’t been that long, but since it was almost lunchtime the place was getting crowded, and a line had started forming at the registers.

“…………!”

When I joined the end of the line, I realized there were two girls from my class standing right in front of me.

And farther ahead, two young ladies were happily enjoying their Lucky Sets.

There was absolutely no way I could let them notice me.