"When Reika said she'd drawn the short stick, I didn't look closely. But I only realized recently that mine was a short stick too!" Holding the short stick high overhead, Miyuki tearfully accused Ash of his inhumane behind-the-scenes rigging as it gleamed strangely in the sunlight.
"Ash-sensei." Before she knew it, the soft little hand gripping Ash's wrist tightened. "What is going on? Could you please explain?"
"I don't know either?!" This was truly like an upperclassman drinking tea and having no clue what was happening. Ash, watched by one pitiful gaze and several increasingly disapproving ones, frantically summoned the system panel and had it explain things using its history log.
On the system panel's display, Ash had been speaking while holding several sticks when he carelessly snapped one of the long sticks in half. Reika had happened to draw one half and assumed she had drawn it herself, while innocent Miyuki became one of the victims of this misunderstanding.
"How could the plot develop this ridiculously?! Was this episode written by Inoue Toshiki or what?!"
Besides, how could I even mess up? Was that reasonable? Was that even legal?
[Namu-san, it was karma.]
"So—so that means I was supposed to be the wife, waaah—" Rubbing her reddened pink eyes in panic with the back of her hand, Miyuki's tears left two distinct trails through her transformed makeup, somehow giving the usually silly girl an unprecedented broken beauty.
What else could I do? I'm the one being wronged here!
"That's so unfair! Whatever the reason, it's too unfair for Ash to rig things like this!"
"Ash-sensei~ is that true?"
Trying to explain only made Ash feel like he was about to sit down for a meal with Banno, but having finally understood what had happened, he raised his