Chapter 112 A happy day... Rio's Birthday!
(It's a filler chapter, feel free to skip it if you want.)
Academy, Market Area, 12. August. 4346.
Café:- Star Chaser.
The café is filled with many students as usual, but today there's a peculiar silence in the café. On any other ordinary day, the atmosphere in the café is very lively with student laughing and talking to their friends with big smiles on their faces.
But today there was no one laughing and even if someone talked, they deliberately lowered their voice as if they were afraid of someone hearing them.
Even the staff members could sense this peculiar atmosphere.
All this was happening due to the presence of a certain black-haired boy sitting on the table near the window.
The boy seemed to have been waiting for someone, he looked ordinary but everyone who had watched yesterday's news knew, that this person was not an ordinary passerby.
Some first-years whispered in low voices among them, while secretly glancing at the black-haired boy.
"H-hey, isn't that… 'Dark Star Rio'!?"
"Y-yeah… I saw him on TV yesterday…."
"W-what is that guy doing here, I come to this café daily! This is the first time I saw him here!..." (Actually, He has seen Rio many times in the café before, it's just that Rio's face is too ordinary and he is easily ignored among a group of people, that's why this guy didn't notice Rio, until today.)
Suddenly Rio tilted his head and glanced at the students who were whispering about him, but he didn't think too much and looked away after just a single glance.
But the two students felt that they were looked at by a predator and just that one glance from Rio, made them tremble.
"Shh… don't talk about him, he is said to have been able to rival 'Link', it's better not to talk about it anymore…"
"oh, okay…"
The two first-year students took their belongings and hurriedly left the café. Other students continued to mind their own business while avoiding even looking at Rio.
Everyone could feel the intense cold aura leaking from Rio, they didn't want to get beaten like the newbies who got eliminated by Rio's one attack.
The other staff members looked at this scene and urged a newbie member to go and ask Rio for his order. The newbie resisted with his all, but eventually, he was pushed by the other staff members and had to go in front of Rio.
The newbie waiter gulped his saliva and slowly reached Rio's table. Rio's pitch-black eyes glanced at the waiter and the waiter felt his legs soften.
"Tea" (Rio)
"U-understood!"
Although there was a smile on the waiter's face his whole body was drenched in sweat by just standing in Rio's presence. After taking Rio's order the waiter left hurriedly with his trembling legs.
…
Rio looked at the waiter wobbling around and felt weird.
'Hmm, does that guy have some kind of disease? Why is he wobbling like that? He looks fine to me though…' (Rio)
What Rio didn't notice was that he was emitting a strong aura today that was making everyone in the café nervous.
Rio shook his head and thought back to all that had happened in the morning.
'Ugh, did they really have to show my face on the national TV? now everyone knows me…' (Rio)
After Rio's face was shown on national TV, he became famous overnight, when he got up in the morning, his smartwatch was filled with friend requests and various messages.
In the end, Rio had muted his notification volume. Otherwise, he would have to hear those notifications every second. This ruined his mood a lot.
Moreover, when Rio left his room he found that many students were blocking the way and standing in the corridor to wait for him. Some wanted to be friends, some wanted to talk and some wanted autographs. That was a real headache for him.
He had to jump out of the window to safely leave his room while avoiding the students, who wanted to meet him. But this was not the end of it. He found that more students were standing all around the dormitory to meet him. Rio had a hard time sneaking out of the huge crowd.
'If not for the fact that Lia had asked me to come to this café, I would not even have left my room for a whole month, sigh~' (Rio)
In the morning Rio got a message from Lia that she wanted to meet him at the same café, where they talked for the very first time.
'This café brings back memories, at that time I had no idea, that one meeting would bring me so many surprises in the future…' (Rio)
…
Eventually, the waiter came back put the teacup on the table, and hurriedly left while avoiding Rio's gaze.
Rio ignored his clumsiness and took his tea. While sipping the tea, several thoughts came to his mind.
'Come to think of it, it's already been more than a year since, I came to this world…' (Rio)
In his previous life, Rio had no family and no lovers, there was only one friend who usually gave him novels to read. Rio was an orphan who spent his childhood in the streets, searching for food and fighting other beggars for a place to sleep.
One day he was taken in by a small orphanage and there he learned how to read and write. Eventually, the orphanage owner died of old age and all the children disappeared from the orphanage.
Rio obtained a scholarship due to his talent in studies and went to a Boys-only government school, where he made his very first friend.
'I had already forgotten my previous life's name when I transmigrated here, and now I can't remember that friend's name either…' (Rio)
Rio had lingering attachments to his past life, neither did he want to return to his previous world nor did he have any need for that. The only regret was that he didn't get to say 'farewell or goodbye' to that friend.
'I just hope that he deleted my browser history after I disappeared…' (Rio) (Consequences of being single for twenty years, sigh~)
Just when Rio was contemplating life and was busy in his thoughts, the door of the café opened and three students came in. Rio was quite familiar with all three of them.
The trio directly came near Rio's table and sat around him.
"Here!" (Lia)
Lia sat beside Rio and placed the huge box in her hands on the table. She removed the cover and brought out a beautiful and delicious-looking cake.
The trio looked at Rio and said in a united voice.
"Happy Birthday Rio!" (Lia)
"Happy Birthday Rio!" (Riya)
"Happy birthday Rio!" (Link)
Hearing them Rio's face stayed expressionless for a few seconds before a small smile appeared on his face.
"Thanks, all of you!" (Rio)
'Ah, I forgot that today was this body's birthday, the commotion in the morning caused it to slip out of my mind.' (Rio)
Rio glanced at the cake and sure enough, Rio's name was written on it, and the number 17 was written on it. (Last year, Rio came to this body in June and he was trained for three months, thus he skipped his sixteenth birthday. Now, he is 17 years old.)
"Quick! Blow the candles! The cake will melt away!" (Riya)
Stars seemed to be shining in Riya's eyes, she wanted to devour this cake already, and she was barely keeping her saliva from flowing out of her small mouth. (She loves sweet things too much.)
Seeing her eagerness, Rio stopped hesitation and blew out the candles and the trio clapped, moreover, the other people, who were present in the café also started to clap together.
In his two lives, this was the first time Rio had celebrated his birthday so luxuriously and happily.
Lia brought out a small batch and put it in Rio's hands. The batch had a star on it, which was shining with dark rays and several stars shined in the background.
"This?" (Rio)
Rio tilted his head in confusion after looking at this batch.
"A gift from me. It's the symbol of your fandom 'Dark Star Fandom', did you like it, I got it custom-built for you!" (Lia)
Rio nodded his head and said:
"Good, I like it very much." (Rio)
Then Riya also gave him a pouch that had several cookies in it. Rio found that most of them were burnt, perhaps Riya made them herself. Rio didn't reject them and accepted the gift. (He would later give them to Link, and Link would laugh from ear to ear while eating these burnt cookies.)
"Thanks." (Rio)
Nonetheless, Rio thanked Riya for her gift, the thought behind the gift is more important to Rio, not its value.
Then, Link brought out an expensive-looking box.
"I heard from Lia, that you like tea, here take this…" (Link)
"Thanks." (Rio) (I feel like, Rio said 'thanks' more times in this chapter, compared to the collective amount of times, he said it in the whole novel.)
This was the gift that Rio liked the most, tea is always appreciated by him.
After the gifts were accepted by Rio, the cake was divided into four of them. Riya got three-fourths of the cake and the rest was divided among the three of them.
While Riya gobbled down huge chunks of the cake, the other three could only shake their heads. If not for their experiencing it themselves, no one would believe that a cute and small girl like Riya could eat so much.
And just like that Rio celebrated his birthday with his precious friends.
'I hope, that every year, I get to spend my birthday happily and peacefully from now on…' (Rio)
...
...
Author's Notes.
Yo! Your beloved author is here! Let us cheer Rio together on his birthday!
Question of the day.
How did you spend your birthday this year?
1. No Celebration (Slept all day and watched TV, there were no celebrations and no friends who gave any gifts. A boring birthday as always.)
2. Small Celebration (Spent time with family and celebrated with a minimal amount of money spent.)
3. Others (Tell me in the comments.)
This chapter is updated by freew(e)bnovel.(c)om