Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Kat
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 4
Author Note:
I’m very grateful to have such high expectations, but at the same time, it made me very worried…
I was a small fry of an author, so please watch over me.
※Thank you for the comments and typo report
After the entrance ceremony concluded, the geography of the school premises was discussed during homeroom, and then we disbanded at noon.
However, I was summoned by Mashima-sensei because of a certain thing.
“Is there something, Mashima-sensei?”
“Sorry for calling you here. I’m sure you’ve been informed by the chairman to some extent, but it was decided that humanitarian consideration was necessary for Takashiro and Sakayanagi. Therefore, some special measures will be taken. I will now explain the content, so listen carefully.”
I thought it was preferential treatment rather than humanitarian consideration, but the teachers might be in trouble if they said that. I felt a little sorry for him.
First of all, regarding dormitory life.
Since Arisu-chan was born with a weak body as a premise, I, her old friend, was made to support her. In order to achieve that, we were given rooms next to each other.
Originally, the student dormitory at this school separated the area where boys and girls stayed.
The girls stayed upstairs and boys were prohibited from entering after 8 PM. As an exception, I was given the room on the lowest floor of the girls’ area and was allowed to enter that floor regardless of the time.
“Needless to say, you’re forbidden to enter another student’s room other than Sakayanagi’s after the curfew.”
“That’s obvious, I guess.”
I also thought it would be painful if I had to rush to the elevator every morning to pick her up. Since our rooms would be next to each other, there would be no problem regarding that matter. If she suddenly felt unwell or got injured, I could help her as soon as she contacted me.
…That said, not only was leaving my room every time something happened troublesome, but it was also unclear if she could afford to keep in touch in case of an emergency. I didn’t intend to use the consideration straightforwardly.
The easiest and surest way would be to live together in the same room.
What if she fell in the bathroom? What if she had a sudden seizure? Rather than having such worries every night, it would be better to live together. I planned to do so if it were allowed.
Receiving two adjacent rooms was very efficient in terms of living. This was because two rooms could be used by two people.
These things were naturally taken into consideration, so I would use them gratefully.
As a matter of fact, ever since January this year, we had almost always lived together in the same room. It was because I was studying for the exam while staying in Arisu-chan’s room.
Since we lived together pretty well, I found it hard to return to my previous lifestyle… but since it turned out this way, I still appreciated it.
“In addition, if there are any circumstances, such as when Sakayanagi is unwell and needs support in school life from now on, please don’t hesitate to tell the teachers about it. All staff were informed that absences that occur due to that reason would be excluded from evaluation. Moreover, this will be announced to everyone in Class A during the next homeroom.”
A further exception was conveyed using a slightly difficult-to-understand way of speaking.
…Since it would be mentioned the next day, I guess it is related to class points.
Originally, such a thing didn’t need to be relayed to everyone in the class. The personal evaluation of me and Arisu-chan had nothing to do with the class as a whole.
Basically, the evaluation he spoke of referred to the “class evaluation.” And Mashima-sensei still had to keep this a secret, which is why he spoke in such a roundabout way.
“I’m sure you’re aware of it, but she’s the chairman’s daughter… we won’t pursue things too deeply, but please don’t push yourself too hard. From the perspective of us teachers, we’re more worried about you than Sakayanagi.”
“I’m fine. I never thought that the school would give such consideration. I really appreciate it.”
He seemed worried about me, but there was no problem at all. It was something I had been doing for years, and not once did I ever think of Arisu-chan as a burden.
“That’s all I have to say. Please take care.”
“Yes. Please take care of me from now on.”
Anyway, Mashima-sensei was a good person.
As far as the homeroom teacher was concerned, I was glad I was in Class A.
After leaving the staff room, I reunited with Arisu-chan, who was waiting at the entrance.
“You aren’t injured, right?”
“I’m fine. We were apart for just 8 minutes, so there’s no problem.”
Oi oi, she sure took note of the time. It certainly felt like 8 minutes had passed.
It might be a little overprotective to worry about her safety despite being apart for that amount of time. However, she was someone who could get hurt if nobody paid attention.
I could trust Arisu-chan’s “I’m fine” if it were regarding her intelligence, but I couldn’t trust her “I’m fine” when it came to her physiology at all.
“I can’t help but worry. I couldn’t see what was going on while we were apart after all.”
“……Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.”
Oh, uh.
My words got stuck since I didn’t expect such straightforward gratitude.
Recently, she thanked me more often. She practically never did before… As expected, it seemed she still felt bad regarding that matter, even though I didn’t mind at all.
Anyway, it made me feel embarrassed. I would like to be spared from that.
In order to make her not realize I was embarrassed, I decided to change the topic.
“Well then, let’s take a look at the room for a bit then settle for a meal somewhere and go shopping. We can always stop the outing whenever Arisu-chan feels tired.”
“Okay. Let’s do that.”
As we held hands tightly, we walked away.
Suddenly, something came to my mind.
If I didn’t enroll in this school, would the story really return to the original?
Was Arisu-chan’s entourage in Class A taking care of her this much in the original?
Was the thing I did for Arisu-chan really something that someone other than me could do?
I came up with one possibility.
Even though I thought it couldn’t be possible, a terrifying hypothesis came to the surface.
If that was really the case, then I…
As I was afraid to know the answer, I chose to stop thinking.
“…”
Arisu-chan was observing me.
She stared at me in silence without changing her expression.
Her beautiful eyes were slightly moist.
Several hours later.
After confirming our dormitory, we went to the shopping mall.
We could buy most things, including daily necessities, at the convenience store, but Arisu-chan said, “I want to go to the place where many people go,” so we came here instead.
When we went shopping like this, I was surprised at the number of corners where things were free of charge. Not only the supermarket and convenience store—there were many specialty stores that had such corners. Even if the number of items that could be purchased there was limited per month, one could still procure a lot of items if they visited all the shops.
Just like the original story, this would guarantee that students could have a somewhat decent life even if they ran out of points.
From the perspective of the new students, these could be only seen as goods for students who overspent their points. There were too many things available for that, but it was harder for them to think about how weird it was.
It might be weird for me who knew the answer beforehand due to my knowledge from my previous life, but it meant there were hints of places here and there.
However, it was obvious that students wouldn’t think that much since they were still joyful they managed to enroll in this school.
And Arisu-chan was one of the few who realized that.
“Is this thing free of charge like that thing?”
“Although they’re cheap goods, it’s still amazing.”
We went to the drugstore at the mall to look for necessities like detergent.1
As I put things in our basket, Arisu-chan paid attention to the people who took things from the corner where things were free of charge. Perhaps she was observing the tendencies of people who went there?
After observing the surroundings for several minutes, she called out to a female student who seemed to be a senior.
“Excuse me, may I ask for something?”
“Hm, are you a new student? We’re told to not talk too much, though…”
“I’m terribly sorry. It’s our first time visiting here, so we’re troubled since we have no idea where things are located.”
“You can just ask the staff in this store for that.”
“You see, what I’m looking at the moment is sanitary products. As you can see, the staff here for today is a man, so…”
“So you have a hard time asking. Okay then, it’s over here.”
She asked in a natural way. The conversation proceeded without causing any suspicion.
It was both the amazing and scary part of Arisu-chan.
Even though she was a girl, it was amazing she could come up with that…
The senior, whose name we didn’t even know, guided us to the place with sanitary products.
“Thank you very much. By the way, I saw senpai take soap from that corner, but are you saving your points?”
“…I guess so.”
“I’m sorry if that offended you. However, senpai didn’t seem to be a person who would splurge your points unnecessarily. Was there some sort of factor that caused points to be reduced?”
Certainly, this senior seemed to be a serious person based on her atmosphere.
If I were told such a person would use 100,000 points every month, I would be very skeptical.
“…I can’t answer that.”
Wasn’t that practically the answer already?
“I see. Thank you very much. Can I ask for one last thing?”
“Haah, what is it?”
Arisu-chan proceeded to ask further. It seemed she proceeded to extract information.
Since she seemed to already come up with the answer, she asked only for confirmation.
“If you don’t mind, can you tell me the number of points you used during March this year?”
It was an easy question to answer. They might be prohibited from explaining details of class points to the new students, but there was no way they were prohibited from telling others the number of points they used last month. It could be considered an idle chat topic, and as long as the one who asked couldn’t connect that to the change in the number of points a student received in a month, it was just a topic to check the person’s spending habits.
“…It’s not like I’m obligated to answer, but okay, I’ll tell you out of respect for how amazing you are. It’s around 20,000 points.”
“I understand. Thank you very much.”
“Geez, an amazing person came in this year. There’s no other student who realized this much by the first day they enrolled in this school.”
“Fufu, I’m just the type who’s curious about details.”
“I guess you might become a student council president in the future. I don’t think it’s bad to sell favors at this opportunity. Yep, it won’t be bad.”
With that said, the senior left with a wry smile.
“That’s amazing.”
“Well, it’s just that simple.”
How to say this, it really felt like the Arisu-chan way of doing things.
After taking a bath, I thought about things that happened today while drying Arisu-chan’s hair with a hairdryer. This had become a daily routine for us these days. I didn’t hate doing this at all, so I would continue this until she told me to stop.
“How to say this, it really felt like a busy day.”
“You’re right. It was the day we enrolled in this school, but I especially didn’t expect to meet Ayanokouji-kun today, so it felt even more so.”
She had white skin and smooth silver hair. Looking at it, she was really beautiful like a doll. It made me more motivated to take care of her.
“What will you do about what you asked earlier?”
“You mean about points, right? Since we got the information, it’ll be too boring to keep quiet about it. Of course, I’ll choose who to share it with.”
“I see. In that case, there will be people who are conscious about Arisu-chan to compare their answers from next month onward.”
“I guess that will happen if the person who knew this seeks to benefit from it.”
The number of points students earn each month would change.
I thought Arisu-chan did that out of the game-like feeling of solving a mystery, but it seemed that wasn’t the whole story.
I couldn’t see how it turned out at all. Even though I got the knowledge of the original story, I still didn’t know what her purpose was. How will Arisu-chan enjoy this school?
“What will we be doing tomorrow?”
“I have some speculations, but most are the things that are still unconfirmed. I will take some actions to confirm these speculations.”
“Okay. There, it’s done.”
The skin care was concluded. All that was left was to sleep.
In the end, I had no idea what Arisu-chan was thinking.
“Thank you very much… Haruto-kun, you don’t have to think about anything, you know?”
“I’m sorry for being stupid.”
“It’s okay. I’m fine as long as you stay on my side.”
Looking at her cute smile, I no longer cared about anything.
Well, let’s just let things unfold.
Author Note:
Ayanokouji: “(I got a message from Sakayanagi. The content is…)”
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