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Section 1
# Riku and Chisei: The Boy Who Delivers the World, and the Girl of the Villa
## Illustrations
> https://www.bilinovel.com/novel/1199/121329.html
              
## Prologue
> https://www.bilinovel.com/novel/1199/46896.html
Taiwanese edition. Transcribed from Light Novel Kingdom. Scans: Naztar (LKID: wdr550) Typesetting: Naztar (LKID: wdr550) This summer, you taught me so many things. The sun sinking slowly between the mountains was more brilliant than I had ever imagined. The green grass of high summer gave off a warm, ardent scent. Mild night wrapped itself around my skin, and overhead a sky full of stars glittered, dazzling and alive. Until this summer, I truly knew nothing of any of it. I did not even know that the village which had raised me held, hidden within it, the most beautiful place in the world. The world is so full of color. All of it set my chest alight. And yet, reflected in my eyes, there you were, wearing a look of loneliness. We spent this summer together, never once apart. Like a faun and a nymph: pure, and happy. Summer is about to end. These memories fill my heart to the brim. And so— we have to say goodbye.
## Chapter One: A Summer Vacation Spent Alone
> https://www.bilinovel.com/novel/1199/46897.html
In the brilliant afterglow of the slanting sun, a pure white ribbon caught the light. The next moment, Chisei's straw hat rose on the summer wind and sailed high into the air. The hat's white ribbon fluttered like a heavenly maiden's feathered robe through the orange sky, then came to rest at the tip of a great tree's dense branches. (What do I do...) Sunset had dyed the tree red, and the tree, like a boy playing a prank, held the hat high overhead. Chisei could only look up at it, at a loss. About an hour earlier, Chisei had told Mrs. Ando, the housekeeper who looked after the villa, "I'm going for a walk," and stepped outside. The roads here were unpaved, nothing but dirt. Grass and trees grew thick along the wayside, and the stream ran so clear she could see every stone on its bed. All of it felt wonderfully new to Chisei. She walked with her eyes wide, and then a sudden gust snatched her straw hat and left it hanging from a branch. The brook flowed on slowly beneath the evening sun. Trees crowded its banks, and the one that had caught her hat was especially massive, its bark rough, its look almost frightening. Chisei had only brushed it lightly, and already the skin of her palm was scraped. She had grown up in the city. She was no good at sports, and she had never climbed a tree. She was dressed for summer now, in nothing but a white dress and delicate sandals, and her hair, falling to her waist, would only get in the way. The stream murmured softly past. Chisei could only listen to the water and fret. And then, just then. A bicycle came along the path strewn with orange light... (Content failed to load! Please refresh or try another browser.)
## Chapter Two: Beneath the Clear August Sky, There Is Only You
> https://www.bilinovel.com/novel/1199/46898.html
(Will the girl from that villa be waiting for the paper again this morning?) Half past three in the morning. At the village distribution office, Riku stacked the freshly printed papers on the rear rack of his bicycle and looked up at a sky that was still dark. Rain had been falling without pause since the middle of the night. There was no wind, but if that girl were standing outside in weather like this, her beautiful jet-black hair, and that fresh-colored dress of hers, would surely be soaked through. Riku had met the girl from Tokyo one evening a week ago. In the dazzling afterglow before sunset, a straw hat had danced high on the summer wind. A pure white ribbon swayed in the air, its whiteness untouched by the crimson dusk, and came to rest on a branch of the great tree beside the stream. Beneath the tree stood a girl. Straight black hair fell down her back. She was slender, and she gazed up at the branch with a troubled look on her face. She wore a long white dress, and her pale feet were in delicate strappy sandals. Her arms and her neck were as white as her feet, delicate and refined, as if they might break at any moment. Anyone could tell at a glance that she was from somewhere else. —So she lives in that villa. Past the little bridge by the stream stood an old house, its walls covered in vines, its garden thick with plants. The house had stood empty since its owner died in the spring. The shop manager at Riku's workplace had told him the place had passed at last to a relative of the late owner in Tokyo, and that the new owner's daughter would be staying there over summer vacation, so... (Content failed to load! Please refresh or try another browser.)
## Chapter Three: Slowly Spreading, the Color of the Blue Sky
> https://www.bilinovel.com/novel/1199/46899.html
Three days had passed since her mother called. Since then, neither of her parents had been in touch, and Chisei still could not tell how their divorce agreement stood. One day, at noon. Chisei looked down at a dandelion-yellow plate, her eyes crossed, her brows knotted tight. The rim of the plate was jagged, so that it really did look like a dandelion. The plate alone was cute enough to make a person smile. If only those finely cut green things were not sitting on it. Better still, if only those glossy, vivid green things were not a vegetable called green pepper. No—even if they were called green peppers, it would be fine, so long as they did not taste like green peppers. "Miss Chisei, you don't have to force yourself to eat them." Mrs. Ando said so, but: "No. I'll finish them." Chisei answered, her face set with resolve. "At least let me cook them? A sprinkle of bonito flakes takes the bitterness down, and they turn out quite good. Or you could put them in with tomato and bacon and sauté them in olive oil. Or chop them fine and work them into ground meat for an American-style meat patty, and then you can't taste the pepper or feel it at all... You really don't have to eat something you dislike raw, on purpose." Three days ago, Chisei had suddenly told Mrs. Ando that she wanted green peppers in the side dishes every day from then on. Mrs. Ando still could not understand why. On the first day Chisei managed the stewed peppers. On the second day, the peppers stuffed with meat passed as well. On the third day it was eggplant, green pepper, and a great deal of... (Content failed to load! Please refresh or try another browser.)
## Chapter Four: An Unfamiliar Boy
> https://www.bilinovel.com/novel/1199/46900.html
In the sketchbook on the easel was a girl with long hair, quiet and slender, and her shy eyes were looking at Riku. He drew glasses on her, and it deepened the impression she gave: reserved, and fresh. Since last week—since the morning after the rain, when he had spoken with the girl from the villa—he had given himself wholly to drawing her. Before that, the harder he tried to draw her well, the farther that quiet, reserved smile receded, until he was frantic with frustration. That morning, Riku had gone out to deliver the papers in a gloomy mood. And the girl, as always, had come timidly out from behind the fence. She was not wearing her glasses. Her hair was tied in two bundles, and she had on rain boots patterned with water droplets. When she saw Riku, she lifted a shy smile. But when Riku saw her face without the glasses, something like disappointment must have shown on his. The moment she noticed, her smile froze, and she looked a little lost. Riku hurriedly held out the paper. As she took it, a nervous look crossed her face. —M-my contact lens got washed away, so, so until the new lenses arrive, I put my glasses on... When she finished saying it, color rushed into her cheeks. Seeing her like that, Riku felt a shock at once. The same shock as the first time he had seen her in glasses. She was not wearing them now. And yet she was just as lovely as when she had been. There was something childish in her shyness, something pure, and it set his heart racing. He understood. He had cared too much about how the glasses sat with her face, and... (Content failed to load! Please refresh or try another browser.)
## Chapter Five: A Farewell at Fifteen
> https://www.bilinovel.com/novel/1199/46901.html
(It's the last day... and I still haven't seen that girl...) After finishing the morning route, Riku returned to the distribution office and picked up this month's pay statement. The girl from the villa filled his head. Today was the last time he would deliver a paper to that house. But beside the mailbox, the long-haired girl with the shy eyes was nowhere to be seen. Even if he had seen her, all he could have done was hand her the paper. He would not have been able to say a word. Even so, the thought that he would never see her again left him weak all over. The world around him seemed to blur, and lose its color. Carrying that emptiness, Riku went to school. Alone in the art room, he opened his sketchbook. The girl in the drawings smiled at him, shyly. Each page he turned showed her in some other way. Glasses on, face red, looking up at him. Braids hanging, eyes wide. Or bent in a deep bow. Riku looked at the drawings, and his chest ached. Just then— "...Arimura." A voice so faint it nearly vanished brushed past his ear, and there before him was Suzuka, on the verge of tears. She looked at Riku, whose eyes were cold. "I-I'm sorry." She lowered her head. Tears brimmed in her downcast eyes. "I know you're angry with me, Arimura... and of course you are... Even if you ignore me for good, I have nothing to say... Y-you can ignore me for the rest of your life, and that would be all right... But I just... wanted to apologize properly. I said I was going to win you over this summer because, if someone else... (Content failed to load! Please refresh or try another browser.)
## Final Chapter: The Promise
> https://www.bilinovel.com/novel/1199/46902.html
"To Riku: On my way to school today, I saw frost columns standing up from the ground. They glittered in the morning sun, and they looked terribly sweet. I couldn't help crouching down and watching them for a long while. Winter is almost here. Four months have passed since summer ended and I said goodbye to you. Time really does go quickly. It startled me. Last week, Father's new wife had a baby. It seems I have a little brother. I haven't seen him yet, but I'm sure he's cute. I've been living on my own for three months now, and I'm more or less used to it. When I go to school, a housekeeper comes to clean and make dinner, so I'm getting along well. Breakfast, and the bento for lunch, I make myself. The recipes in the newspaper have been a great help. I can cook quite a few more dishes now. How many letters to you does this make? Next year I'll be a high school student, and I'm still writing letters I can never send. People would probably think I'm childish. But whenever I write to you, my heart grows warm, and I feel as if I can face things again. Every letter I finish goes into my favorite cookie tin, kept safe. They are my treasure. Sometimes I take them out and read them again. My chest aches a little, and still I feel so warm, so happy I can hardly stand it. I finally understand why Granny Shiori kept the diary of her sixteenth year with her sweetheart at the very bottom of her sewing box. I'm sure she read that diary again and again, and felt perfectly happy. Oh, and also, Riku... (Content failed to load! Please refresh or try another browser.)
## Afterword
> https://www.bilinovel.com/novel/1199/46903.html
Hello, I'm Mizuki Nomura. I wrote the outline of this story while I was working on *The Moon Rabbit Princess*. My editor at the time asked me, "Would you like to try writing a sorrowful short love story?" and we put together a number of proposals. I asked a coworker at my part-time job what kind of story they wanted to read, and their eyes lit up at once. They recommended, with real force: "I want to read a romance with a gap in status, between a rich young lady who's frail and sickly, and a poor boy who delivers newspapers!" That was what they said. "A n-newspaper boy...! And a y-young lady...? Th-the era gap is way too..." The request was so unexpected, and so far off the beaten path, that I shrank back and turned it down. Then, one day when my shift happened to be completely dead, I found myself drifting into daydreams about the idea. A boy who delivers papers... so he'd be a middle schooler. If he were in high school, there would be better jobs. His personality would be cold, and quiet... The girl's personality would be shy... Why would two people, raised so differently, standing so far apart, still be drawn to each other... The moment I began to imagine them, Riku and Chisei slowly took shape, and by the time I came back to myself I had filled more than ten pages of notes. This piece was meant to follow *The Moon Rabbit Princess*, and to be published as a short-story project. But sales of *The Moon Rabbit Princess* were a little sluggish, and the people upstairs rejected this story on the grounds that, commercially speaking, it was too dull. The whole thing was frozen while it was still an outline. I took the out... (Content failed to load! Please refresh or try another browser.)