Tuition Fees, Striving for Dreams Naturally Comes at a Price

Influenced by Mako Amikura, the others also lost interest in attending the so-called club orientation.

Compared to clubs that could be joined later, it was far more interesting to watch their classmate, the big shot, show off his skills.

In an instant, Tetsuya Hamaguchi, Norihito Watanabe, Mako Amikura, and Sayo Ando all changed their minds, wanting instead to see how Dokuho Kouya planned to earn points.

"Counting me, that makes five people," Dokuho Kouya muttered to himself, "It might be a bit crowded."

"Kouya-kun, do you have any concerns?" Tetsuya Hamaguchi noticed the boy's expression, "If there are too many people, I'll just go to the club orientation instead."

Sayo Ando realized what was happening and quickly added, "If someone needs to leave, I should be the one to go to the club orientation; after all, I wanted to join the Volleyball Club anyway."

Hearing the two eagerly volunteering to step aside, Dokuho Kouya was stunned.

Good grief.

As expected of a class known for being full of little angels.

The moment they encountered a situation that might inconvenience others, they scrambled to sacrifice themselves.

"It's fine, there's enough space in there for us to fit," Dokuho Kouya tapped the desk, "Before that, let's finish our lunch first."

"I'll take you all over there in the afternoon."

After school.

Dokuho Kouya led his newly made friends to the Club Activity Building and navigated his way to the Shogi Club with practiced ease.

"Why are you here again?"

The expressions of the Shogi Club members turned sour.

"Takuya-senpai, your expression looks a bit off. Are you feeling unwell?"

Dokuho Kouya asked with a smile.

Isn't that because of you!

Hearing this, the Shogi Club member named Takuya glared at him irritably.

Yesterday, Kouya had won 700,000 private points from the Shogi Club.

As a third-year student, Takuya had personally lost 200,000 points, so he was beyond furious.

Those were points he had painstakingly saved up, only to be snatched away in the blink of an eye by this first-year brat, Kouya.

It was infuriating!

"We aren't giving you any more money," Takuya said crossly, "Just give up."

Yesterday, even when three people challenged him at once, none of them won.

If they continued to compete, the ones losing would be the Shogi Club members 100% of the time.

Although they had lost miserably, they weren't idiots; knowing there was no chance of victory, there was no need to keep handing money over to Dokuho Kouya.

"That senpai seems really afraid of Kouya-kun."

Seeing the expressions of the Shogi Club members, Mako Amikura, who was following behind, whispered to her companions.

"Yeah, it's hard to believe that in just one day, Kouya-kun seems to have left such a deep impression on the senpai."

Norihito Watanabe shrank his neck, sweat slightly beading on his face.

Although the entertainment works of this country loved to depict "underdog triumphs," in reality, the vast majority of the time, the older ones suppressed the younger ones.

Especially in school, even if the other person was only a year older than you, you had to respectfully call them senpai and help them with all sorts of things.

In such an environment, it was far more common for the junior to fear the senior, not the other way around.

"Takuya-senpai, I'm not here to compete with you guys this time." Seeing that the senpai was quite resistant to interacting with him, Dokuho Kouya felt both amused and helpless.

"You're not here for money?" Takuya-senpai frowned, looking quite skeptical.

"I'm here to coach you, Takuya-senpai," Dokuho Kouya said with a smile.

"Coach?" Takuya's brow furrowed, his expression turning ugly.

He was a shogi player capable of reaching the national tournament.

His level was better than many adults.

If some unknown guy stood up and wanted to coach him, he would definitely scoff at it.

But the person proposing the idea of coaching was the very person he had deemed an unbeatable, powerful enemy, which made his inner feelings quite complex.

"If I'm not mistaken, the school doesn't hire masters of shogi to coach you, right?" Dokuho Kouya asked.

Takuya-senpai didn't speak, but his expression said it all.

Unlike sports clubs like soccer or basketball, their Shogi Club didn't have a teacher hired by the school to instruct them.

Aside from going out to play in tournaments, they basically just had internal matches among club members or played shogi against others online.

Whether it was the frequency and quality of actual practice or post-game analysis, they were at a significant disadvantage compared to national-level experts from other schools.

Not to mention, they were also constantly delayed by the school's various special exams.

The most obvious situation was when they went out to compete; opponents who were originally evenly matched would, before they knew it, be firmly suppressed by them.

Upon arriving at Advanced Nurturing, despite growing in both body and mind, they had been treading water in their strongest suit: shogi.

"Sigh..." Takuya let out a faint sigh. "We certainly need someone to guide us, but we'd definitely have to pay points, right?"

"There's no such thing as a free lunch, after all." Seeing Takuya's reaction, Dokuho Kouya knew he had this in the bag.

A professional shogi player's monthly income can reach as high as 3 million yen, equivalent to a year's salary for an ordinary person.

As a player capable of reaching the national tournament, Takuya surely harbored dreams of becoming a professional shogi player.

However, if they continued to stay at this school, they would only be able to become professional players using the benefits provided by the school if they graduated as students of Class A.

Unless, starting from now, they found an excellent master to provide them with detailed guidance.

"Kouya-kun, right?" After pondering for a moment, Takuya called out the name with some uncertainty.

Seeing the other party nod, Takuya took a few deep breaths and continued, "Could you first tell me about your fee structure?"

Personal points were certainly important.

But compared to the million-yen monthly salary of a professional player, spending a few personal points to improve oneself was nothing.

"Although I'd love to ask for the moon, you seniors probably couldn't afford that much." Dokuho Kouya thought for a moment. "How about 50,000 personal points per month?"

Holy crap!

And you say that's not asking for the moon?!

Takuya nearly bit his teeth into pieces.

He only received 60,000 points from the school each month, and this guy wanted 50,000 of them.

Wouldn't that mean he'd only have 10,000 points left to live on each month?

"Takuya-senpai, realizing a dream naturally requires paying a price."

"Furthermore, we can try it for one month first. If you feel it's not worth it by then, we can stop the lessons immediately, and you won't have to pay any more."

"Seniors, surely you aren't saying you can't even afford 50,000 points?"

Noticing that the seniors were wavering, Dokuho Kouya knew the deal was sealed.