Translator: Haruto

Greetings, friends. It’s me again, Shuu.

I’m currently passing my days away as your average kindergartener.

With a year under my belt already, I’m now what you call a kindergarten sophomore.

“Huh? Wait, why didn’t you start your narration a year ago then?” you ask?

Well, allow me to answer your question with a question. Do you think you’d have been able to stomach seeing me experience living hell for that long?

My oasis in the desert, Amane, was assigned to another class.

F me, I guess.

On another note, kindergarteners are beasts disguised as little people.

Similarly to the kids I met during my first time at the park, they were full of energy.

All the memories I’ve got of my first year involve playing around like a madman!

Nonetheless, at long last, I’ve joined Amane’s class this year!

And as you may have heard, a play is usually held on the second year of kindergarten.

You know, the ones in which kids are tasked with acting out good old fairy tales and stuff like that.  

That being said, my class will be performing an original story this year.

It looks like my teacher is really into this kind of thing.

The story goes like this: In a land far, far away, there lived a princess of unrivaled beauty who hailed from a country up north, and a handsome prince, affiliated with an enemy nation to the south.  

With both countries on the brink of war, the situation was as dire as you could imagine.

In order to alleviate the tension, the prince embarked on a journey to the north. Then, by a stroke of luck, the two protagonists met, and the prince fell in love with the princess at first sight.

One day, however, a piggy, evil duke abducted the princess.

Logically, the prince moved heaven and earth to rescue her.

Once he did, they got married, their nations started getting along peacefully, and the couple lived happily ever after. Yeah, not exactly the most original script ever, huh.

Of course, every boy in the class wanted to be cast as the prince, so we held a rock-papers-scissors tournament and the winner was…!

Nah, I didn’t even participate.

Our class’s leader, Aoyama-kun, won.

He’s—how should I put it—not exactly the most lovable leader in the world.

He’s a little too arrogant.

Be that as it may, in kindergarten, the leader of the class tends to be whoever’s good at sports and proactive enough to take the reins of the entire class.

For example, when the tournament’s finals were taking too long to end, with a word of Aoyama-kun, bam, we had our winner.

By the way, he hates my guts for some reason.

“Hey, you! Yeah, you!”

Urk, speak of the devil and he shall appear.

“You’ll be the villain!”

“Huh? Why should I…?”

“Zip it! Ugh, I can’t stand that laid-back expression you’ve got on your face at all times! Listen, my rank in the Purging Mask is higher than yours so you’ve gotta do what I say!”

“???”

Why is this guy bringing up the Purging Mask all of a sudden?

Like, what does that have to do with anything?

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh? Looks like you really don’t know. Well, let me clue you in. The shrine that your family runs is a retainer shrine of my family’s!”

Huh, first I’ve heard of it.

I mean, whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!

Is he for real?!

“And just so you know, I’ve begun calamity-purging training already.”

“Oh, cool. I haven’t started yet.”

After starting kindergarten, we’ve had the chance to watch the adults purge calamities, but we still haven’t gotten our hands dirty.

Perhaps you’re wondering why I used “we.” Well, since my family’s shrine and that of Amane’s have pretty close ties, we spend a lot of time together.

Anyway, I’ll just do my best to help out at the play and hope that it’ll all be fine and dandy in the end.

But, alas, I was in for a rude awakening…

According to Aoyama-kun, the only available role for me was the piggy duke after all.

Amane was chosen as the princess by the way.

I heard it was because of her silver hair which people say looks like a princess’s.

Amane is a bit conscious of her hair color so she wasn’t that enthusiastic, but in the end, she just went along with it.

I can’t blame them. She really is quite the looker.

At any rate, that’s basically how I got the role of the piggy duke.

At the moment, we’re practicing our lines.  

“Mwahahaha! The princess is mine!”

“Oh, no! Help!☆”

Um, excuse me, would you mind, I don’t know, acting a little scared…?

Like, you actually look over the moon while I carry you in my arms.

“Amane-chan, I need you to act frightened!”

“Oh, but I am! Look. Goodness me, how scared I am!♡”

She’s hopeless.

She’s adorable and I love the heck out of her, but…

Oh, who cares, let’s focus on taking as many mental snapshots as I can.

Ah, wait, this is actually bad news… I think?

I turn around to get a glimpse of the teacher’s face, and I see her eyes light up.

“Huh, a villain’s love side story wouldn’t be so bad either! A beauty and the beast kind of thing!”

She was on board with the idea.

Disregarding how I felt about the whole affair, the preparations for the play were progressing smoothly.

For some reason, though, the piggy duke’s character had turned into a tragic hero. I wonder whose idea that was.

“Alright, listen up guys! I think you’ve gotten your lines down by now, so let’s try a little rehearsal, okay?”

Thus, the rehearsal began.  

And as it came to a close…  

“Hey, Teach, I think something’s off.”

“Yeah, I’m starting to feel bad for the piggy duke.”

“And the prince’s so freaking lame!”

“Even I can act better than him!”

One by one, the students voice their opinions.

Well, I also think there’s no point in adding so many scenes to make the audience feel sympathy for the villain.

“Then, what do you guys think we should do to improve the play?”

“…No idea.”

We all went home without being able to find an answer.

…At home.

We’re currently in some sort of dojo, sitting cross-legged, and practicing how to sense life energy.

Man, training children from such an early age so that they can fight calamities one day… Talk about hardcore, am I right?

Beside me, Amane looks troubled. It seems she still hasn’t gotten the hang of it.

However, I can tell she’s overflowing with life energy.

She probably has ten times more than what I had at the beginning.

She’s got incredible potential.

I can’t fall behind and have her protect me instead, so I’ve gotta steel my resolve and train even harder!

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