Bonus Short Stories
Princess Meets Mermaid
Amakawa Haruto is a Japanese boy who just became a second-year student at his high school.
One day after school, shortly after the new term began, he passed by a girl named Flora Beltrum in the corridor.
The moment Flora saw his face, she greeted him brightly.
“Good afternoon, Mister Haruto!”
Flora was an overseas exchange student who just arrived at their school this spring, and her older sister Christina had transferred into Haruto’s class, so the two were acquainted.
“Hello, Flora. That’s a lot of books you’ve got there.”
Although Haruto was a little confused by being addressed as “mister,” he chose to ask about the ten-odd books in Flora’s arms.
“I was just on my way to return these to the library.”
“You borrowed a lot.”
“I love reading. It also helps my Japanese, and there are so many interesting stories to read.”
“I see. But that must be heavy... Let me help you carry them,” Haruto said, moving before Flora could reply. He took more than half of the books from Flora’s arms, lightening her load by a considerable amount.
“Huh? Th-Thank you. Isn’t it heavy to carry?”
“No, this much is nothing. To the library, was it? Let’s get going.”
“R-Right!”
Haruto started walking towards the library, and Flora hurried to walk alongside him.
“What kind of books do you like, Flora?”
“I love novels the most. I’m currently looking for a story with a princess as the protagonist. Do you have any titles you could recommend, Mister Haruto?”
“Let me think. What about a fairytale with a mermaid? Oh, but it’s a famous story, so you probably know it already.”
He said the first title that came to his mind, but it was a famous work that any child in Japan would know already. However...
“No, I don’t know that one. What’s it about?”
It seemed that Flora wasn’t familiar with it.
“Hmm. It’s a story about a mermaid princess who falls in love with a human.” Haruto gave a simple summary of the story, not wanting to spoil the plot.
“Oh, that sounds interesting! I’ll go look for it!” Flora’s eyes sparkled with curiosity.
“But I heard the original tale was a little on the darker side...”
“Huh? Really?” Flora asked timidly. She seemed to be afraid of scary stories.
“A picture book of the story wouldn’t be as scary, but it’d be much shorter... I know, there’s a children’s movie based on the story, so maybe you could watch that instead.”
“A movie... Okay! In that case, I can invite my sister and Professor Celia along to watch it together. I’ll go look for it!”
Haruto then gave Flora the movie title, promising to help her look for the movie after school.
◇ ◇ ◇
The next day, during a break...
“Mister Haruto!”
Flora had come to visit Haruto’s class. Instead of calling for her sister, she searched for Haruto’s face and called his name as soon as she spotted him.
Being overseas exchange students, both Flora and Christina were famous throughout the school. Their elegance and charm made them extremely popular among the second-year boys. And now, the younger one of the two had appeared in a second-year classroom, calling the name of one of the boys.
“...”
The boys—and the girls, for that matter—all fell silent and stared at Haruto. Christina was the only one smiling in amusement.
“Is something the matter, Flora?” Haruto asked awkwardly, quickly standing up to approach Flora. He seemed rather bothered by the stares.
“I watched the movie you told me about yesterday! It was so good, I wanted to thank you for it.”
“I see... I’m glad to hear that.”
Seeing how innocently Flora spoke made Haruto chuckle with a smile.
“A mermaid princess and a human prince. There’s no gap in their social status, but the conflict born from the gap in their species is...”
Flora then began to enthusiastically tell Haruto her thoughts on the movie, drawing the attention of the entire class.
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