Chapter 362 325 – Shizuka Yoshimoto’s Past

Hakari Hanazono, who was pressed tightly against Takumi's side, very happily shared her excitement.

"I found a special kind of fried chicken. It looks so cute."

"Ah, I had some ideas about that too."

Karane Inda, who was clinging tightly to Takumi's arm, also spoke up.

"Please don't copy me!"

"Hah?! I was clearly first!"

The two started arguing again at the slightest disagreement.

However, seeing that they were only bickering verbally, Takumi did not bother interfering.

Looking at them like this, they really did give off the feeling of a pair of happy rivals.

But as Shizuka Yoshimoto watched Takumi, Karane, and Hakari getting along so harmoniously, her footsteps suddenly stopped.

Hiding in the corner, she did not dare step forward at all.

That beautiful scene over there did not belong to her. It was also something she did not dare reach out and touch.

[So Takumi-kun already has people he's dating… In that case, he must usually be very busy… He probably won't have time to read books with me either…]

[That makes sense. He never should have been with someone like me in the first place…]

A pained whimper echoed in Shizuka's heart, and bean-sized tears unconsciously slipped from the corners of her eyes.

Memories of the past could not help flashing through her mind.

"Hey~ Yoshimoto-san, what are you trying to say with that book?"

"Can't you just speak properly?"

"That feels so gross."

"I don't know. She's so weird. Let's just ignore her."

When she was in elementary and middle school, she had tried to communicate with her classmates, but no one had ever patiently read the sentences she pointed to the way Takumi had.

And at home, her mother, who had raised her alone, had also been deeply troubled by this.

"Come on, speak properly!!!"

"It's because you keep using that book instead of speaking properly that your voice won't come out!"

Her mother had snatched away her book, slapped her across the face, and repeated those words over and over in her ear.

Faced with her mother's teaching, Shizuka could only cry helplessly and painfully, repeating, "I'm sorry."

But her voice was far too quiet and was completely drowned out by her mother's.

"Why are you such a strange child?!"

Those words from her mother had always tangled in Shizuka's mind, refusing to fade even after so long.

With her head in complete chaos, Shizuka did not know when she returned to the classroom.

And after class ended, as the library assistant, she hurried straight to the library office and sat alone in front of the computer.

She had taken on this position partly because she loved books, and partly because she was all alone.

Sitting there by herself, lonely and isolated, Shizuka stroked the copy of The Crown Love Story that she loved so much.

She really wanted to share this book with Takumi, to discuss it with him, to tell someone else about her love for it.

Unfortunately, in the end, she still had no one she could share it with.

"The other little Shizuka, Shizuka Cutie—why are you hiding in this room all by yourself?"

Takumi's smiling voice came through the crack in the door, and then he slipped into the room.

After skillfully closing the door, he sat down in front of Shizuka.

Seeing Takumi suddenly appear, the ahoge on both sides of Shizuka's hair twitched like a kitten seeing its owner.

With an adorable expression on her face, she looked at Takumi in bewilderment.

"Hahaha~ What's wrong? Did I disturb you by following you here?"

Hearing this, Shizuka immediately shook her head and pointed at the book in her hands.

"There isn't a single guest right now."

"Why did you come here?"

"Please tell me."

Those three sentences revealed Shizuka's confusion.

Takumi smiled and did not speak right away.

Ever since they had returned to class together earlier, Takumi had noticed the melancholy in Shizuka's emotions.

He did not know much about her family situation, but he could still see the difficulties Shizuka faced in life.

Her way of communicating with others using sentences from books was clearly not accepted by other people.

From someone else's perspective, making them wait while she flipped through a book and then carefully read the sentence she pointed to would practically be torture.

It could be said that no one was truly at fault, but Shizuka's condition still could not be accepted by the public. Even her mother was the same.

Thinking this, Takumi's expression became a little more serious.

"I noticed, Yoshimoto-san. Since you can only communicate through books, it's very difficult for you to talk to people."

Takumi's words, which went straight to the core of the matter, immediately made Shizuka fall silent.

As she closed her eyes in fear and the image of her mother scolding her appeared in her mind, Takumi gently stroked her cheek.

"Mm?"

When she opened her eyes, she met Takumi's gentle smile.

"But since this is your habit, forcing you to change wouldn't be good either."

Looking at Takumi, who was able to understand her, Shizuka felt an urge well up inside her to hug him tightly.

For the first time, someone understood her. For the first time, someone did not force her.

And as tears began shimmering in Shizuka's eyes, Takumi moved his chair over and came to her side.

"Thank you for today too, Yoshimoto-san. You helped me find so many books.

"You helped me this much, so I should return the favor somehow.

"Since you like communicating this way, I think it's necessary to make it a little more efficient."

"?"

Under Shizuka's blank and adorable gaze, Takumi clicked on the computer in the library management room.

He placed both hands on the keyboard and immediately began typing at a speed ordinary people could not follow.

Line after line of code was rapidly written out, and in a short time, he had made a piece of software.

"Import the full text of The Crown Love Story and load the voice function. Yoshimoto-san, try to make a sound for me."

"Eh? Ah~"

The confused Shizuka heard Takumi's instruction and tried hard to open her little mouth.

Two light, airy sounds came from her mouth, and Takumi immediately caught them in his hand, forcibly transformed them into electrical signals, and imported them into the computer.

[Beep, beep, beep. Analyzing.

AI voice synthesis… Synthesis complete!]

Looking at the progress bar on the computer screen, Shizuka still could not understand what was happening.

But very quickly, a freshly made text-to-speech app appeared on the computer.

"Come on, Yoshimoto-san. Give me your phone."

"Mm…"

The quiet, doll-like Shizuka sat in her seat and immediately obediently handed over her phone.

After connecting it with a data cable, Takumi imported the app onto her phone.

As he handed the phone back to Shizuka, Takumi explained, "This is an electronic text-to-speech app I made. I also added an AI program inside, so it'll evolve automatically.

"When you want to say something, you can tap a paragraph or some words in the text."

As he spoke, Shizuka, who had taken the phone curiously, also tapped it.

"My name is Kamael. I am the knight who protects this country's princess."

A clear, sweet voice came from the phone, just as if Shizuka herself had spoken. It was simply much, much louder than her own voice, enough for ordinary people to hear.

...

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