Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Kiro
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 66
The next day began. I somehow managed to move my fluttering body and complete the day’s classes.
“Oi oi, are you okay?”
Kiyotaka spoke to me worriedly. I endured the headache and drowsiness as I faced the last class of the day, zazen.1
…But every day felt like this when I was in middle school. It felt a little nostalgic.
To put it another way, I was fine having such a life for three years straight. So a week shouldn’t be that big of a deal.
“Guh… this doesn’t suit me.”
Ryuuen was following the class more seriously than I thought. It seemed he had no intention of doing anything on the boy’s side so he was surprisingly quiet. In a sense, he was quite firm… perhaps he judged that working hard in the lesson would give the most benefit to his class.
After a long zazen session, we stood up while holding back the numbness of our legs.
It was interesting to see Ryuuen try to act fine despite clearly stumbling about.
Dinner time had come, so I headed over to Arisu-chan again.
“Ah, Haruto-kun, I missed you.”
“I missed you too. First of all, I’m glad you’re safe today.”
We embraced each other and rejoiced at the reunion. It was only one day, but it felt incredibly long for us. It was as if we had been separated forever.
If possible, I would have liked to have a pleasant chat right then and there. However, there was something I could only ask at this opportunity. I asked Arisu-chan a question as I put the food on the tray in my mouth.
“Sorry for asking suddenly, but please tell me about Hiyori’s group.”
“…Hiyori-san’s group, is it?”
“Yes, I’m looking into it for a bit. That said, it is practically confirmed so I’m just asking to make sure. To be honest, this is more of a confirmation than a question.”
“I understand. I’ll tell you what I remember.”
Arisu-chan put down her utensil and thought a little.
“Her group consists of 13 people, with 8 of them being students of Class D, so it’s quite an anomaly. The other five were students of Class C, but they only reluctantly entered the group with the condition they are ‘not being held responsible.’ It felt like quiet people ended up entering that group after getting the short end of the stick.”
In other words, except for Hiyori, there were 7 other students of Class D in her group. That was enough to count as the majority.
…It was going as I thought so far. Let’s dig a little deeper.
“Thank you. And who is the person in charge of that group?”
“It’s Hiyori-san. It seems to have become that way as a result of the majority vote… Aah, so that’s how it is.”
She nodded in understanding. It seemed Arisu-chan arrived at the same conclusion as I was.
Even so, it was quick. To think she could read my intention and understand everything…
“As expected, I’m no match for a genius.”
“That’s not true. In fact, I’m very surprised right now. I strongly feel that I’m glad you are my boyfriend… I see that you’re growing. Somehow, it makes me happy as if it was my own matter.”
She gave me a big smile. Although I did receive gratitude for my daily support, she rarely complimented me for my growth. It felt a little ticklish since I wasn’t used to it.
The accident happened just after dinner.
When I left Arisu-chan and was about to return to my room, I heard a loud voice in the corridor.
I intuitively felt it was bad and rushed to the spot.
“It hurts…”
The thing I saw there was Arisu-chan, who had fallen and suffered a minor injury. This was my fault. Even though I saw Kikyou-chan and Honami being surrounded by the people of their class at the moment, I ended up trying to return alone.
A man reached out his hand. Situation-wise, he should be the culprit.
“Sorry, sorry. Are you okay?”
While thinking ‘There’s no way she’s alright, you fool,’ I supported Arisu-chan’s shoulder and helped her stand.
Rather, who was this guy? If I recall correctly, he seemed to be someone in the same class as Kiyotaka…
“Yamauchi, you should be more careful.”
Kiyotaka suddenly appeared and patted the student called Yamauchi on his back. That’s right, he was Yamauchi. I forgot since his personality wasn’t that conspicuous, but I think he was someone who was referred to as the “Three Idiots” along with Ike and Sudou.
“Hey, I don’t know why she is this clumsy.”
Yamauchi pouted while withdrawing his hand. It seemed he didn’t think he was at fault as he spoke complaints that could be taken as insults. His attitude made Kiyotaka shut his mouth and avert his gaze.
…What’s the deal with him? What an annoying guy. You, of all people, shouldn’t call others clumsy.
A crowd started to gather. Arisu-chan, who became the center of attention, replied without hesitation.
“I’m sorry. It’s as you said, I’m clumsy.”
She spoke with a slightly depressed expression. Seeing that, the onlookers stared at Yamauchi with criticism.
“Guh…”
Yamauchi, who felt uncomfortable staying, left with an awkward expression.
After leaving Arisu-chan to Kikyou-chan, who came in a hurry, I turned left.
“Sorry about that. However, that man won’t be staying long. Just forgive him this time.”
I heard Kiyotaka’s words from behind. I wasn’t that stupid to not understand what he meant.
Aah, now that I thought about it… he was the “person in charge.”
There was about an hour until 10 pm when the light had to be put out. Despite my strong sleepiness, I continued to think about the topic from yesterday. It also served to organize what I would do tomorrow.
I already saw through Ryuuen’s goal. The thing he was trying to do was…
Make Shiina Hiyori receive expulsion as punishment.
First of all, it was essential that Class A adopt the policy of excluding Class D as the premise. That said, it was something anyone could see would happen. It was just speculation, but I think Ryuuen got the idea from here.
Since most groups would consist of members of the other three classes, it meant there would be many students of Class D left over. Therefore, the first strategy was to create a group of girls with low ability other than Hiyori to create a guaranteed loss group.
…Hiyori’s insight was sharp. It wouldn’t be strange if she already felt something was off at this point, but considering she was among the low-caste people of her class, it must be difficult for her to resist her surroundings.
Then through a majority vote, Hiyori was put as the person in charge. Since the majority of the members of her group consisted of girls from Class D, she couldn’t avoid that.
After that, they just make the students not follow the lesson properly and it would be over. The rumors that a certain group on the girl’s side already boycotted the zazen class. It would fall far short of the borderline set by the teacher, and the person in charge would be expelled.
With the hints given by Ryuuen, it was easy to understand that.
So what should I do once that happens? That became the problem. The most important point at this time was what I would do when Hiyori, the person in charge, would be expelled from the school.
There was only one answer. I would order Honami to help Hiyori in any way possible.
That was what he was aiming for and my “nature” he spoke of… was that I couldn’t abandon people who were close to me.
It seemed he was watching me more than I thought. It made me a little happy.
As I reached that conclusion, I asked Mashima-sensei several questions. One of them was “During the Mixed Training Camp, is it possible for a class to extend a lifeline to the students of another class?”
…The answer to that question was NO. It seemed that wasn’t possible. Because that was clearly an act that betrayed the class, I guess it was obvious such a thing wasn’t allowed.
There was another point of interest here. Ryuuen’s Class D didn’t currently have the 400 class points. The requirement for extending lifeline was 20 million private points and 300 class points+100 class points from the expulsion penalty. They didn’t fulfill any of those conditions.
However, there was a loophole in this rule. It was mentioned in the handbook, but if there was a shortage of class points during the Mixed Training Camp, the points would turn into 0 and the unpaid points would be deducted accordingly from the class points in the future. It might sound difficult, but simply put, having a “debt” in class points was allowed.
In other words, extending the lifeline was possible even if the class didn’t have 400 class points.
To support this hypothesis, I asked Kiyotaka earlier.
[“What did Chabashira say about the relief measure for expulsion?”]
I checked how the homeroom teacher of Class C who only had 262 class points would explain that matter.
…It was as expected that she said ‘it was possible to pay with points.’ In addition, she didn’t mention that the method was unavailable for Class C or lower. That was almost certain.
In that case, it was highly possible that Ryuuen would bring out a contract similar to what he signed with Katsuragi back in the deserted island… something to make up for the 300 class points for canceling expulsion, 100 class points for the penalty, and 20 million private points for payment to Honami and I.
Yesterday, Ryuuen’s words of “crushing Class A” toward Kanzaki were also a bluff. Ryuuen’s real goal was to earn a huge amount of private points by abandoning the class points.
Wonderful. He was the best. I think Ryuuen was an interesting guy to be able to come up with such a well-crafted plan in such a short time. It was a strategy that made it impossible to take countermeasures even if you knew the whole picture, which was taking the student of his own class hostage. I was impressed that it was certainly the best method against me.
Seeing how interesting it was, I didn’t mind losing as the reward for his effort… but I already found out what he wanted to do.
A detective novel that the answer was already revealed was not interesting. Now it came to this, the Mixed Training Camp would become boring again.
So I decided to cause a bit of ruckus at the very end, which served as my gratitude for Ryuuen’s idea for exciting tactics. It would make things twice as spicier.
“Takashiro, I need to talk with you regarding the matter you asked this morning. Come over here.”
At just the right moment, Mashima-sensei called me.
I grinned and got up from the bed.
There were 30 minutes left until lights out. In the chilly hallway, I handed Mashima-sensei an envelope.
“…You are really sure for me to accept this, right?”
“Yes, please do.”
Although this thing wasn’t strictly necessary, I still submitted it to make things more interesting.
I personally wanted Arisu-chan to enjoy it as well. With that in mind, this kind of surprise production was quite important. Even that girl wouldn’t have thought I would come up with this idea. I could already imagine her surprised expression. I look forward to the day it will happen.
“Understood. Also, let me formally answer the question I couldn’t answer at that time. ‘Expulsion would be processed when the notice of expulsion gets approved by the chairman.’ Is this good enough?”
“Okay. As I thought, it isn’t the moment when the expulsion was decided by the exam.”
“Exactly… combining what you talked about yesterday, I think I could see a little of what you wanted to do. There’s no doubt it would be the first time it happened over the course of this school’s history.”
“Is that true? I thought anyone could come up with such an idea.”
“No, in the first place, thinking of rescuing a student of another class from expulsion… that action itself was something I never saw during my career as a teacher. Moreover, you are the only student who was trying to make use of the loophole in the system to achieve that.”
Since we didn’t have much time left, we exchanged words in rapid succession.
…This might be the first time I saw Mashima’s happy expression since I entered this school.
“Not to be the number one, but to be the only one. It is a phrase that doesn’t fit the culture of this school at all, but I think that suits Takashiro the best. Well then, good night.”
After saying that, Mashima-sensei disappeared into the darkness.
Author Note:
It will take around half a week for the next chapter. Since the burden of taking care has been reduced, he began to grow.
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