2. Lucky me and my unlucky older brother

---

“I will lend you a field, so try to be able to live there.”

My father said so, It was about the evening of February when the snow was still ongoing.

At this time i will graduate from my the university soon, I gave up job hunting that lasted a whole year and went home to a snowy home.

The activity of the first year student already started, and the turn of the fourth year student was over.

“I am ronating for employment, I will do my best next year… ”
(TL Note : Can’t translate well with the word Ronin on it ” 就職浪人して ” )

I was afraid to say such a thing.

“Are you going to retire?”

I shook my head.

I have already completed the necessary credits and graduation is already decided.

“If not, brothers should deal fairly.”

My older brother is nodding at the back of father.

My name is Yabane Minoru (TL Note : Name written in Kanji ” 矢羽根稔  ” )

My three years older brother Hōsaku said it (TL Note : Name written in Kanji ” 豊作 “)

“… … I understood”

I gave up

My parent’s motto’s [Brotherly fair]  does not pass any logic.





I heard that I was born under a lucky star.

It seems that the year when I was born, the village have a huge harvest that only once in 50 years.

My dad saw a rice earrings shining golden color, and my dad seemed to call it Minoru.

By the way my brother seems to have been born in the year of great crop poisoning.

Dad taught me secretly that because it was so bad it gave him the name good harvest. (TN : Hōsaku = Abundant Harvest)

My brother and I were raised separately with our parents.

My brother seems to have been dissatisfied with it, It began to come to me in the shadow explicitly (TN : Not sure with this, ” 陽に影に俺に突っかかるようになった ” )

I did not like my older brother, and my older brother thinks the same to me.

 But, somehow [Brotherly fair] It should been our life, Change in just short time of ten years.

Our house is a farmer house like any other  in the village.

Once in a while, my older brother walk for one hour to go the old kindergarten over the mountain.

The wind blows to the crevice old school building, it is not like a place where children pass, And everyday my brother grumbles about it but he was letting it pass.

When the year I entered, a new kindergarten was built at 15 minutes on foot.

It is a modern facility, it is said to be a concept to utilize as a nursing home when children become few in the future.

All the rooms in the new school building has air-condition, my brother was grinding his teeth at anger.

I think that the first time i have a feud with my older brother.

Since then, the difference between me and my older brother spreads, and also the distance between us.

My brother was a hard worker even from my point of view.

Although it was rare that it will be rewarded.

My older brother studied by clenching his teeth at a local public high school in the neighborhood, and when he about took a college entrance exam… … the road from the village to the station was closed due to heavy snow which rarely seen for the first time.

Then, staying at the house of the relatives living in the city and preparing for it, he failed because he catch a cold from our relatives.

For the sake of passing it he stay in a hotel, but failed to sleep until the dawn due to the fire alarm malfunctioning, and when he should get off only a few more stations, he  overslept and went pass the neighboring prefecture and failed.

It was on the level that it would be better to pursue this already, Eventually he failed all college entrance exams that year. (TN : これはもうお祓いをした方がいいのではないかというレベルで Not sure about this line)

My father said to brother to “keep the house”. (TN: Or Succeed/inherit the house)

My brother’s future has been decided there.

Speaking of which, I got a scholarship in a private high school which is famous locally, I also did not study particularly, but I was able to attend a university in Tokyo for a single entrance examination.

I think that it is infuriating from my older brother, but in my opinion there is no choice because we are born differently.

Because of such feeling, I wonder if I have a high chance with my job hunting , but it was annihilated. (TN: Ugh ” そんな感じだったので、俺は就活もなんとかなるだろうと高をくくっていたら、全滅してしまった “)

Is it the first setback in my life?

There was a serious mistake in my life design.

---

Previous Chapter

Table of Content
Next Chapter