Good morning, new students of Advanced Nurturing. It's another beautiful day.
Well, maybe it isn't quite so beautiful.
I wonder if our Little Sister-chan has found the Pseudo-human in her class. I don't have high hopes, but I wish you luck anyway.
I haven't actually written that many diary entries, but it feels like I'm always writing about you guys. That doesn't seem quite right, so I've decided to write about myself for a change!
April 2, weather: sunny.
It's my second day at school, and I'm starting to get a little scared.
Because there seem to be a lot of God-men in my class.
I won't even mention the famous Black Room's greatest masterpiece. You know the deal. And let's set aside that Pseudo-human over there, putting on airs. Let him keep it up a little longer if he wants. There's nothing to say about Low-Spec Yukino and Low-Spec Hayama; those two are just plain weak.
But why is the Two-Faced Person here too?
Big Sis, I'm begging you, seriously. This school isn't worth it. How about we just quit?
I'm scared with you here!
I'm just a weak, pitiful, helpless Ryuen background character, and the school's even labeled me defective. I can't mix with you God-men.
Actually, I really wanted to introduce myself yesterday, but I got interrupted. Honestly, red hair is so mean!
I'm going to draw a circle and curse him to fail his exams.
...Sorry, I can't keep this up. I'm done pretending.
Actually, I'm a good student in Class A. I'm really sorry for pretending to be defective for so long.
I mean, think about it. How would a defective student from Class D know they were defective? Right?
Sigh, those poor defective students have no idea what's coming.
But when I think about it, it's not that bad. The school's got us covered, and we can't die, so getting to enjoy a whole month of this dreamlike life is already a bargain.
I really don't understand why the school admits these defective students. Is it raising them like poison insects?
Or are they being used as a control group? A comparison makes the high-quality consumables produced by the school look even better, right?
I'm not the school, so I wouldn't know. Let's call someone who does.
ALICE-chan, ALICE-chan, ALICE-chan, ALICE-chan, ALICE-chan—
(Clawing furiously) (Twisting) (Convulsing) (Howling) (Wriggling) (Letting out an eerie growl) (Crawling ominously) (Screaming)
Chapter 32: Basically, She's Super Fierce
Little Princess, I miss you so much...
(Voices pain)
Anyway, that's how it is. If you have any questions about the school and can't get a straight answer from the faculty, why not try asking the biggest Nepo Baby at Advanced Nurturing!
She can even find a way to get someone into Class A. What can't she do?!
That's enough small talk. Back to business. Under normal circumstances, I should probably keep dishing out spoilers today.
After all, I've already given you a subtle introduction to two people. It wouldn't be right to play favorites.
But, well, first, what I just said probably counts as a spoiler already. Second... I've realized that if I keep this up, I might run out of material.
Not now, mind you. I've still got plenty of material I can show you.
But high school lasts over a thousand days.
It'll fly by in the blink of an eye, but when you do the math, that's still quite a lot of days.
If I introduce one God-man a day, I'll run out eventually, no matter how many God-men there are at Advanced Nurturing.
So today, I'm going to reveal for free the explosive information Recorder Bro sold Ryuen for two million Private Points!
1. Only Class A graduates have the privilege of employment.
2. The first month's Special Exam has already begun.
3. Class A are workhorses, Class B are workhorses too, Class C stir up trouble, and Class D are trash.
4. You can transfer classes for 20 million Private Points.
...On second thought, I have reason to suspect that Little Princess, who clearly has a serious flaw but was still placed in Class A, got there because her dad paid 20 million to transfer her before she enrolled.
Must be nice to have that kind of money. I'm so jealous.
I should've sold information too. But getting exposed for selling information would be pretty stupid, and if I really went to Class C to compete with Recorder Bro for business, I'd be afraid he'd beat me up.
If I'd come from the White Room, I wouldn't have to be so scared.
Too bad I didn't.
Oh right, there's one more thing.
It's related to Little Princess too.
I feel like I've revealed quite a bit about Little Princess today. Since that's the case, a little more won't hurt, right?
The second day's already over, so I imagine Little Princess has already recruited Miaoshou Kongkong as a tool.
Actually, I should've swooped in and claimed her first. Phantom Thief isn't much use, but the whole "You wouldn't want..." setup is surprisingly thrilling. It really amps up the sense of coercion.
Unfortunately, I forgot.
People's memories get worse with age. I even forgot to recruit a tool.
But what's missed is missed. I'll leave Phantom Thief for Little Princess.
Besides, she probably likes being ordered around.
I've written a bit too much. I'd planned to write more about myself, but it's hard to write about the school without writing about myself.
So, that's it. Good night, and I hope you all sleep soundly.
Asakusa Toru reined in the word count a little. An overly long diary would put readers off. He let out a long breath and set down his pen.
He'd written what he should, and what he shouldn't.
Now all that remained was to see the results.
Revealing the school rules should stir up more emotions than targeting a particular reader to fleece them. And spoiling information that had already been sold today probably didn't count as excessive spoilers.
As for whether it was entertaining...
Well, that depended on whether the material he'd borrowed from Mikuni Hatsune was any good.
"...It still doesn't feel oppressive enough." Asakusa Toru lowered his head and reviewed what he'd written once more, then decided to reflect on it.
Words had power.
Powerful writing could easily make people feel as if they were right there in the scene, conveying the emotions contained in the words to anyone who read them.
In other words, good writing could make readers feel visually violated.
If Sakayanagi Arisu were reading the diary he'd written right now, she'd feel as though she were being licked from head to toe. That was what he wanted to achieve.
Still, Asakusa Toru wasn't Sakayanagi Arisu, and it was hard for him to feel much of anything when looking at words he'd written himself.
Whether he'd managed to get the effect he wanted... he'd just have to wait for the final rating.
Be patient.
Wait, and look forward to it.
"ALICE-chan, ALICE-chan, ALICE-chan, ALICE-chan, ALICE-chan—"
Sakayanagi Arisu gently turned the pages of the diary. On the next page, separated from the previous entry, the word "ALICE" filled almost the entire page, startling her badly.
"...What a freak." Sakayanagi Arisu knitted her delicate brows and muttered under her breath.
Of course she knew that ALICE meant her. There wasn't anyone else called ALICE at Advanced Nurturing.
The later remarks about the Little Princess and the Nepo Baby made it clear that this guy was slandering her.
But... what did he mean, "get someone into Class A"? What did he mean, her father had paid 20 million points to transfer her into Class A?
What a joke! She had gotten into Class A entirely through her own abilities!
She, Sakayanagi Arisu, had never once used her influence for personal gain!
The farther Sakayanagi Arisu read, the tighter her silver teeth clenched.
What kind of nonsense was this guy spouting?!
If this kept up, if this kept up, people would start questioning her father's impartiality!
Her small hand trembled slightly around the diary. For the first time, the diary itself had stirred her emotions.
"I only planned to treat this as a bit of entertainment, but if you dare to do this, you'd better be ready to face me, wouldn't you?" Sakayanagi Arisu murmured, her red lips parting as a fierce glint appeared in her eyes.
Though her petite frame meant that even her fiercest expression looked to others like a kitten throwing a tantrum.
But anyway, she was super fierce.
"..." Her small, pale fingertips turned the diary's pages back and forth as Sakayanagi Arisu stared at the writing, brows tightly furrowed.
She'd originally treated the diary as a way to pass the time, and the first two entries had indeed entertained her.
The declaration of war written in the diary and the Trial to find the Pseudo-human, in which the writer pretended to be some unknown person's older brother, had both been rather amusing.
That was why she'd chosen to open it again when the diary updated.
But today's entry had made her very unhappy.
The slander, the malicious speculation without a shred of evidence—he hadn't just targeted her, he'd even cast suspicion on her father.
That was going too far.
Chapter 33: Sakayanagi Arisu Holds a Grudge
She didn't believe any claims of knowing the future, and she didn't believe the supposed identity of a transmigrator either.
The diary itself was certainly unusual. No matter how often she threw it away, it returned to her, and it updated with new entries at unpredictable times.
But the only unusual thing was the diary, not the person recording it who claimed to be a transmigrator.
Just by writing in a diary, someone could get rewards?
How could anything that convenient be real?
Besides, everything written in it so far had been vague, impossible to verify, and probably meaningful only to the people involved.
Not one thing could be called a prophecy.
So Sakayanagi Arisu didn't believe a single word written in the diary. Not even a little.
From the start, she'd simply treated the diary as entertainment.
She'd read the entries, which seemed to name people but never gave their actual names, and described things so vividly that it felt as if the writer were speaking directly to someone. Then she'd tried to guess which students at the school were the Two-Faced Person and Low-Spec Yukino the writer meant.
Although she'd accepted the challenge the writer issued in the first entry, the other person hadn't really made a move over the past two days. And with the busy start to the school year, Sakayanagi Arisu had put off the Hide and Seek Game for the time being.
But now things were different.
Today's entry was complete nonsense.
"I'm a Nepo Baby?" That was the biggest joke she'd heard since starting school. It might even be the biggest joke she'd ever heard in her life.
Her innate intelligence and invincible wisdom put her far ahead of her peers. Although her congenital illness held her body back a little, she still wasn't someone just anyone could compare themselves to.
She didn't need to, and would never, use her father's authority as the chairman of Advanced Nurturing to secure a place for herself in Class A!
The more Sakayanagi Arisu thought about it, the more ragged her breathing became. Her already delicate heartbeat quietly quickened.
"Stay calm, stay calm..." She clenched her silver teeth and tried to slow her breathing.
Don't fall for it.
This guy was definitely trying to provoke her. The first two entries had made it clear that his writing was highly targeted, so this reaction was entirely predictable when he wrote about her.
You want to provoke me? Then you'll get your wish!
Before you continue