Episode 1: I'd Rather Have a Moped Than an Isekai Cheat.

The opening ceremony is the most grueling, non-routine event of the year.

And by non-routine, I don't mean the kind of novel-esque events where a transfer student arrives at high school, a mysterious beautiful girl suddenly confesses her love, or the whole class gets summoned to another world.

It just means that the struggle for survival that unfolds every morning for me becomes even more severe.

My name is Kaede Rindo.
I'm a second-year high school student this spring, just your average farmer's second son.

The commute from my house to school is fourteen kilometers one way.

If you're from the city, you'd probably think, 'Well, that's about right for a commute, isn't it?'
But that's assuming there's public transportation available.

Commuting by train sounds nice, doesn't it? I envy that.
However, once you get out into the countryside in Hokkaido, your means of transportation become extremely limited.

Out here in the vast wilderness of Hokkaido, walking or biking is a little—no, desperately too far.

And the bus schedule, which is the lifeline of this region, is like a bulletin board from hell.

7:00, 9:00, 16:00, 18:00.
Four buses in total.
By the way, on weekends, it drops to just two: 9:00 and 16:00.

To make it to the opening ceremony, I absolutely cannot miss the 7:00 bus.
If I miss the 7:00, the next one is at 9:00.

While I'm leisurely waiting two hours for the bus in the spring breeze, the homeroom and even the opening ceremony in the gymnasium will have ended at school, and I can only foresee a future where the chalk thrown by my homeroom teacher pierces my face.

Current time: 6:55.

'Damn it...! I completely messed up...!'

It's because of the light novel I was reading late last night.
Today, I'm forced to carry out a far too mundane event that a novel protagonist would never do: a 500-meter dash to the bus stop.

I open the front door and kick off the gravel path.
There are no tall buildings around.

Thanks to the wide-open rice paddies and fields, I can perfectly track the bus's movement from two kilometers away.
I feel just like a sniper on the battlefield eyeing his prey.

As if to prove its former glory, the aged reddish-brown and pure white proudly divide the body. The legendary route bus!

'It's a showdown! Route bus! Don't underestimate me just because it's the new school year.'

The bus slowly bypasses my bus stop and heads toward the final stop.
That's the only steep slope section.

The bus slows down significantly on the climb, and by the time it turns back, it comes down at high speed while engaging the engine brake.

—The only people who get off at that bus stop are me or the grandmas going shopping in the next town.
If the grandmas aren't there, the bus is non-stop.

And today, there's no sign of the grandmas!

The moment I reached a point 100 meters before the bus stop, it finished its turn too!
The showdown is whether I can stand at the bus stop and raise my hand before the bus finishes descending the slope.

Just before I hit the asphalt road where the bus runs, I muster my final strength.

However, fate is cruel.
My stamina is long gone.

A heated battle between the driver and me that no one understands.
That's right, fighting doesn't benefit anyone. It only breeds sorrow.

'Stop! Just stop! You can see me, right?! Just stop, there's only one person!'

My scream was sucked into the clear morning country air and dissipated.

'Kaede Rindo, beloved by the rural landscape, couldn't get on. Why!?'

I felt like the driver glanced at me briefly from the corner of my vision.
But he didn't slow down at all.

Rather, as if to say, 'It's because you're just a kid,' the bus roared past me like the wind.

Today is my loss. The two characters for defeat were heartlessly carved into the spring sky.

If I were a novel protagonist, a beautiful girl would happen to ride by on a bicycle at this desperate moment and say, 'You're going to be late, I'll give you a ride!'—that kind of sparkling development would be waiting.

But reality is cruel.
On this single road, there's nothing but frogs waking up from hibernation.

Defeated, I turn on my heel and dash with all my might back toward the road I came from (home).

'Mom! The truck! Bring out the truck!'

This is how the morning of my second-year high school opening ceremony begins.

'Sigh... If only I had a moped...'

That's right. Actually, I've already obtained my moped license.

...It's just that I can't activate that skill yet.

After all, this is Hokkaido.
Early April. Even if it's spring on the calendar, the road surface still carries plenty of the lingering scent of winter.

During this time of year when you never know when it might start snowing, I can't ride it because the school won't give me permission!

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