A Rider Doesn't Need a Youth Romantic Comedy [27]

Watching Rōma leave, Fukube Satoshi scratched his head in puzzlement.

What a strange guy.

Though he was quite polite, he clearly gave off a distant feeling.

However, Fukube didn't dwell on it too deeply.

As the vice-chairman of the General Affairs Committee, he'd seen plenty of odd characters before.

By comparison, Rōma was actually one of the more normal types.

“Oh right, there’s also—”

Turning back, Fukube excitedly resumed discussing urban legends with Oreki Houtarou.

The sharp-minded Oreki seemed to have noticed something unusual.

With his naturally keen deductive ability, he'd vaguely grasped the threads of something suspicious.

Yet, he had no intention of pursuing it further.

If I don’t have to do something, then I won’t. If it must be done, then make it quick.

That was Oreki’s personal life motto.

Minimal effort—typical energy-conserving philosophy.

Clearly, whatever involved this barely familiar Rōma-classmate definitely fell into the category of “optional.”

Oreki had no desire to waste his precious brain cells on it.

...

Returning to his seat, Rōma took out his phone and quickly sent a message.

It briefly explained the leak concerning SO-3008’s information.

Mobile Task Force would start investigating externally, looking into everyone who'd approached that street recently.

Rōma planned to visit the Occult Research Club later to see if he could find any clues.

“Rōma-san, are you interested in urban legends?”

Kouno Sakura curiously glanced over and asked.

In Sakura’s impression, aside from his part-time job, Rōma didn’t seem interested in anything else.

Be it classmates or the lessons taught by teachers, he appeared indifferent to it all.

Only when occasionally discussing his “part-time job” would he perk up a little.

From Sakura’s perspective, Rōma must have found a part-time job with rather generous pay.

Enough to make him financially independent to some degree—at least enough to buy whatever he wanted without hesitation.

This was obvious from Rōma’s daily behavior.

He wasn't exactly extravagant, but he never seemed overly cautious either.

Although Sakura genuinely wanted to remind him that part-time work wasn't sustainable long-term and he should instead focus more on studies—

She ultimately couldn’t bring herself to voice it.

While they could be considered friends, their relationship wasn’t quite at the level where she felt comfortable discussing such personal matters.

It was best not to meddle too deeply in other people’s lives.

Quietly pushing down her internal concerns, Sakura kept watching Rōma curiously.

“Yeah, somewhat.”

Being deeply involved with anomalies certainly counted as having an interest in urban legends, right?

After brief thought, Rōma replied positively.

He also had a small ulterior motive.

If he established a persona as someone “keenly interested in urban legends,” it’d make gathering future intel on anomalies a lot more convenient.

High school gossip often turned out to involve anomalies directly or indirectly.

Sometimes even the Institute couldn’t understand how students got their information so quickly.

In the end, it could only be chalked up to the inexplicable mystery known as “Japanese high schoolers.”

“That’s a bit unexpected.”

Sakura looked genuinely surprised as she responded.

It just didn’t seem to fit him at all.

“Why’s that?”

“How should I say it…?”

Sakura struggled briefly, trying to find the right words.

In her mind, people obsessed with urban legends usually gave off a gloomy, antisocial vibe.

Gloomy, isolated, rooms stuffed with posters and strange memorabilia—

All these stereotypes formed Sakura’s image of people obsessed with urban legends.

Truth be told, she’d never actually met anyone who really fit this image.

All of these were just impressions she'd picked up online.

Though it might sound biased, many people nowadays formed impressions of others entirely from secondhand information.

In that sense, Sakura couldn't really be blamed.

“Maybe because you don’t have that vibe?”

After a short pause, Sakura offered this cautiously.

Aside from not being very sociable, none of the other traits matched him at all.

Besides, Sakura sensed that Rōma wasn't incapable of socializing—he simply felt it wasn’t necessary.

He preferred quietly resting at his desk rather than chatting with classmates.

At least when talking to Sakamoto-san and herself, he seemed pretty normal.

“Maybe because I'm only slightly interested?”

Rōma roughly guessed Sakura’s thoughts.

After all, Japan had serious biases against otaku culture.

Some people would even hide in toilet stalls to eat lunch if their otaku status was exposed.

Although the bathrooms were quite clean, eating lunch there was still pretty sad.

Some companies even explicitly banned their employees from eating lunch in restrooms.

“I see.”

Nodding lightly, Sakura didn't continue further down this line of thought, instead shifting the topic toward the Occult Research Club.

She at least had some familiarity with that particular club.

“If I recall correctly, that club only has five members.”

As a member of the student council, Sakura had impressions of most clubs at school.

Including a certain “Service Club” that had just one member.

Or rather, precisely because a certain shameless teacher openly sheltered it, combined with that certain someone's peculiar personality, Sakura vividly remembered that club.

And of course, the Occult Research Club—constantly teetering on the brink of disbandment—was naturally memorable as well.

“The president is a third-year senpai. Of the remaining four, two are first-year freshmen, and two are second-year students.”

“Even though it's called a research club, it's really just a group for playing games.”

“But their president genuinely loves urban legends.”

“The entire club is pretty much supported by him alone.”

Sakura paused for a moment, unable to recall any further useful details.

Such clubs were actually quite common at Sobu High.

She couldn’t possibly remember every single one clearly.

Honestly, even the president’s name was slipping her mind.

“Thanks.”

Rōma casually thanked her, not feeling particularly disappointed.

Based on the current information, there were two possibilities:

Either someone in that club had accidentally encountered an anomalous organization and had been recruited, thus learning about SO-3008—

Or, less likely, the entire club consisted of members from such an organization.

As to which it was, he'd just have to check after school.

Rōma wasn’t worried about any trouble occurring in the meantime.

As the saying went, “Trust in the power of Chaldea.”

For ordinary people, causing trouble under Chaldea’s watchful eyes was about as difficult as getting a Weeping Angel to abandon its obsession with the back of your neck.

Small groups aiming to challenge Chaldea's authority weren’t uncommon, and troublemakers appeared constantly.

Yet, even now, Chaldea remained the undisputed overlord of the world’s shadows.

To this day, small organizations challenging Chaldea existed, though they'd been replaced countless times.

And those troublemakers?

They were probably already halfway to their next life by now.

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This is a fan translation of 骑士不需要青春恋爱物语 by 青琮 All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!