Editing Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha:Volume 9 Prologue (section)

===Part 3===

A flow of people moved through the gates of Hijirigasaka Academy. It was like a one-shot expulsion of students making their way home. Walking against that wave was a single girl who moved towards the school building.

“…Ah, Kajiura? I thought you went home earlier?”

A puzzled voice called out to her, belonging to a boy. It was Kanou Santa, a boy who worked as the treasurer of the student council this year. In response to Kanou who had called out to her, the vice-president Kajiura Rikka stopped walking, having brushed past Kanou, and said

“Yes… That’s how it should be, but…”

Just earlier, the other executives of the student council had gathered with her. In short, it was a simple meeting. Together with the other members, they met at the student council room.

Kanou Santa, Takei Touko, Tachibana Nanao — the three of them plus Rikka herself made four.

Tachibana Rikka thought Kanou’s question was reasonable. Since school had ended, each of them had made plans with their friends, and it was Rikka herself who announced that they should finish quickly. Rikka too, had plans with her friends after this, but

“I forgot to send the latest data for the school festival to myself.”

“You forgot you say…but if it’s just the data, did you not send it yesterday?”

“Yes, that was up till yesterday. What I forgot was the updated version from today.”

“You’re coming to school tomorrow, so you could do it then…you sure are diligent.”

Indeed. Tomorrow, the student council members including Rikka planned to come to school. On top of summarising the previous year, they had to prepare for the school festival that would begin with the new trimester, and hence they had to work during the spring holiday. Kanou approached this with almost apparent disbelief.

“Well…I thought of that, but…”

As she said that with a small sad smile, Kanou in front of her looked at her in an unexpected way.

“…What is it?”

“You sure have changed.”

Kanou said to the puzzled Rikka.

“You were too diligent before, and you do things by yourself too much.”

“…Sorry for being so painful to look at.”

“No, it’s not like that—”

As Kanou panicked, Kajiura chuckled.

…That’s right.

She wasn’t sure if ‘diligent’ was the correct term, but if what Kanou meant was ‘inflexible’, Rikka thought she was indeed like that before. By working hard and diligently, and by putting in effort where appropriate, what she’d done until now would amount to something. But since the sports festival, she understood that there were times when it was possible to do that. During those unreasonable moments and times when one’s strength wasn’t enough, it was pertinent to rely on others.

“…”

If she had changed, she felt that it probably stemmed from that. A while before this, Kajiura Rikka became interested in a boy. A boy one year younger than her who participated in the sports festival committee. Hence at the end of last year, Rikka had invited him to “join the student council activities next year” but, since she asked at the start of winter break, ‘he’ was still mulling over it undecided, having said “please put it on hold a little longer”. When she asked, it seemed that he had a bit of a complicated home life, and surely that meant a lot of difficult things were undecided for him. She was certain that he was giving it serious thought. And his answer…

…That’s right.

Even if it was a no, Rikka felt like she would be able to accept it. There was a slight warmth in Rikka’s chest.

“You’ve really changed after all…”

Kanou said, shrugging his shoulders as he mentioned a name.

“—This is thanks to Toujou too, huh?”

When she suddenly heard ‘his’ name

“W-Why are you suddenly talking about Toujou!?”

Her face heated up at once. Though she was unaware herself due to the absence of a mirror, her face had indeed turned completely red. With that,

“Nah~ don’t worry. Though, people really don’t change that easily after all.”

Having grasped her weakness, Kanou grinned as he spoke.

“It’ll be nice if he joins us next year. Since starting next year, you’ll be president, and you can use your power to make sure you don’t lose to those girls he lives with by coming up with an appealing plan, right?”

“…Stop saying idiotic things, hurry up and go home!”

“Damn, okay, see you tomorrow.”

As Rikka raised her voice without concern for the other students around them, Kanou stepped away from her and towards the school gate with a teasing grin.

“…Geez.”

Rikka watched as Kanou’s back disappeared from her sight, and taking a deep breath to calm herself down, she turned her heels to head towards the school, walking with her cheeks flushed.