Classroom of the Elite, I Have a Life Simulator

"How about giving them a discount?"

"They're just former classmates, the kind I have a terrible relationship with."

"I see."

The man with the buzzcut jerked his chin at the two of them, pointing to the white running shoe on his right foot.

"No discount then. That'll be one million yen, please."

"It's just a little bit of mud! How could it possibly cost that much? And why are you picking a fight with a cat?"

Ichinose Maki poked her head out from behind Karuizawa Kei, clutching the cat as she shouted.

The whole situation started when Hotaru accidentally brushed against the man's shoe while running wild on the mountain path. Although the man kept harping on about it being a limited-edition brand, Ichinose Maki felt that an apology and reasonable compensation should have been more than enough.

"What would a brat like you know?"

The man with the buzzcut pulled a cigarette from his pocket, completely ignoring the "No Smoking in the Scenic Area" sign nearby, and lit it, dangling it from his lips.

"One million yen. As soon as the payment is made, my brothers and I will be out of your hair."

Karuizawa Kei looked warily at the five or six delinquent-looking students standing behind him. On this rugged, single-lane mountain path, she didn't have the confidence to carry an exhausted Ichinose Maki all the way down to the crowded area at the base of the mountain.

"Ken-ge, actually, I have another idea."

Karuizawa Kei watched as Emi Eura slithered up to the man's ear like a snake, flicking her tongue as she whispered:

"If she can't afford to pay, why don't you just make her lick it clean for you?"

The words were like a sharp blade reopening a scabbed-over wound. Karuizawa Kei bit her lip until it turned white. She stared at this former classmate who had bullied her for the first time. Even though the girl had been expelled from school after stabbing that knife of pure malice into Karuizawa Kei's left abdomen, Karuizawa Kei's life had already been ravaged beyond recognition. From the age of fourteen to her current age of sixteen, the label of "the bullied" branded onto her by this girl remained inextricably linked to her.

"It's okay."

She whispered, trying to comfort Ichinose Maki.

Back when the bullying first started, Karuizawa Kei would choose to cry to her parents or complain to her teachers, but the end result was never the end of the bullying. So, she learned to be silent and to accept it. Sometimes, after licking a girl's shoes, being doused with water in the bathroom, or cleaning dead rats out of her desk, she would go to a nearby forest to cry alone. She would hug a tree or a rock, crying as she imagined them to be living beings, fantasizing about creating a protector for herself.

Of course, these wooden or stone protectors never actually stood up or walked over to defend her. The only things they ever taught Karuizawa Kei were loneliness and endurance. Relying on these two skills, she had stumbled and crawled her way to the present.

Until a few days ago, when they suddenly came to life and truly reached out a helping hand to her.

Ichinose Maki's phone had been turned off an hour ago, so Karuizawa Kei had no choice but to reach behind her back and use her own phone to send her location and a recording to the person at the very top of her contact list.

Only after doing all of this did Karuizawa Kei truly lift her head to look Emi Eura in the eye.

She believed he would come. He would definitely come.

Karuizawa Kei had only known Kitagawa Ryo for a few days, but in their brief time together, if there was one thing she felt confident she surpassed Ichinose Honami in.

It was her trust in him.

That was enough.

Today's update will be a bit late.

Due to some real-life matters, I expect the update won't be ready until this afternoon. I'll also be using the time to make some revisions. I hope everyone understands.

Wishing every reader good health.

Wishing every reader good health.

Wishing every reader good health.

Wishing every reader good health.

Wishing every reader good health.

Chapter 14: The Actor (End)

It must be said that although a straight hiking trail had been built leading to the summit, most tourists didn't actually choose to follow the trail obediently. The surrounding forest was crisscrossed with winding paths worn down by people's footsteps. For many sightseers, this seemed like a better way to get close to nature. Since the scenic area regularly closed the mountain for clearing, there was no danger from wild beasts. If it weren't for the fact that Ichinose Honami was wearing a skirt today, the two of them might have chosen one of these small paths as well.

After climbing along the main trail for half an hour, they caught sight of a pavilion meant for tourists to rest. Inside, there was a large vending machine. Kitagawa Ryo walked over to take a look; it mostly contained drinks, snacks, and bottled water, with prices slightly higher than those outside.

"Want to take a break?"

Checking the time on his watch, Kitagawa Ryo took Ichinose Honami by the hand and led her into the pavilion to sit down. The number of tourists today wasn't very high; perhaps because of the sweltering heat, most people chose to climb halfway up the mountain and then take the cable car to the summit, leaving the pavilion empty except for Kitagawa Ryo and Ichinose.

"Yeah."

Her forehead was already beaded with a fine layer of sweat. Ichinose Honami was also breathing slightly heavily as she sat down to rest, subconsciously pulling out her phone as if to check her sister's location.

"I feel like Honami is a bit distracted today. Are you tired?"

Kitagawa Ryo lay back on the seat, tilting his head to count the patterns on the ceiling of the pavilion. They seemed to be carved cuckoos—one, two, three, four. Four in total.

"I'm fine."

Ichinose Honami put her phone away with a guilty expression. Although she found it strange that Ichinose Maki's location had been stationary for nearly twenty minutes, she didn't feel comfortable asking Karuizawa Kei, who was with her sister. She just apologized to Kitagawa Ryo:

"It might just be that the weather is too hot."

The sun in the sky was indeed scorching. She took a handkerchief from her bag, handed one to Kitagawa Ryo, and wiped the sweat from her own forehead.

"Honami."

Every time he spoke, it made her jump, as if her heart had soared to the clouds in an instant, only to be slammed back into her chest the next.

"Yes? What is it?"

Yet she still had to pretend that nothing was wrong, like an actor who had already botched their performance but was forcing themselves to finish their lines.

"I dreamt last night that we were playing together when we were little."

As Ichinose Honami watched the smile on the boy's lips across from her, she felt an inexplicable, stifling resistance toward this topic.

She was a girl who cared far more about the future than the past. While Kitagawa Ryo was still reminiscing about his seven-year-old self at seventeen, she had been desperate to jump straight to twenty when she was only ten. This strange sense of disparity caused a peculiar hatred to well up from the bottom of her heart.

Kitagawa Ryo's childhood was filled with the shadow of Ichinose Honami at almost every turn, but Ichinose Honami's childhood included not just Kitagawa Ryo, but also her younger sister, her mother, and a father whose face had become so blurred she no longer recognized him. When she was little, Ichinose Honami often dreamt of a faceless monster, with her mother following right behind it.

It wasn't until later that she realized that monster was actually her father, because from the time she could remember, she had never seen the man again, let alone recalled what his face looked like.

What she felt grateful for was that after she turned twelve, she never had such dreams again, because she had finally managed to purge this non-existent man from her life. From reality to her dreams, she would never mention the word "father" again, which made her feel an unprecedented sense of relief.

"Hmm, what did you dream about?"

She asked a redundant, completely irrelevant question. If it were the usual Ichinose Honami, she would have noticed, but at this moment, her heart was in such turmoil that she merely sank into her own negative emotions, desperately trying to suppress those surging feelings back into her body and return to being the Ichinose Honami she was at the start.

"Just that we were eating those soda-flavored popsicles we used to buy for sixty yen."

Kitagawa Ryo didn't seem to notice Ichinose Honami's strange behavior, still appearing immersed in his memories as he described something that could no longer be bought.

"Oh, those were indeed delicious. I remember there was a chance to win a prize, right?"

When Ichinose Honami looked up again, she had returned to her usual gentle and kind self. Since she had already made up her mind and reached this point, she had no intention of leaving herself any way out.

But when she met Kitagawa Ryo's pitch-black eyes, she still felt a pang of cruelty. She was the type of person who cared about others' feelings more than her own; if she were to become an actor, she would probably feel embarrassed for the audience before they even had a chance to express their own opinions.

"Yeah, 'get another one' on the stick."

Kitagawa Ryo sighed softly:

"It's a pity you can't buy them anymore. Maybe in another two years, kids won't even know these popsicles existed."

"Isn't it enough that those who have eaten them remember?"

Ichinose Honami propped her chin on her hand and sighed, mimicking him:

"But they really were cheap. If you won a prize, didn't that mean it was essentially thirty yen per popsicle?"

"When we were little, we never calculated things like that. Every time I won, I just felt like I'd picked up sixty yen for free. Sometimes I couldn't even bear to trade the stick in for a new one."

Ichinose Honami was amused by Kitagawa Ryo's earnest tone and let out a soft laugh:

"Wouldn't you think the used stick was dirty?"

"No, no."

Kitagawa Ryo waved his hands in denial:

"You had to wash it clean and keep it in your pocket. Thinking back now, I'd even show it off to other classmates. If someone got it dirty or snatched it away, I'd even tell the teacher to get it back."

"You boys really are exaggerated."

Ichinose Honami checked her phone and asked with some confusion:

"Did Maki send you a message? I haven't been able to reach her for an hour."

Only then did Kitagawa Ryo take out his phone. Because he intended to spend time alone with Ichinose Honami today, his phone had been on silent.

He swiped open his phone, and the first thing that caught his eye was a location and a voice recording from Karuizawa Kei.

The time sent was—

Three minutes ago.

In truth, Karuizawa Kei was a beautiful girl who was well above the standard, but a girl's appearance didn't always bring good things, as was the case right now.

According to Emi Eura, she was nothing more than a weakling who wouldn't argue or resist even when trampled upon. Whether she was dragged into the restroom by girls to be doused with water and beaten, forced to pick up a spilled bento from the floor with her mouth and eat it, or had her skirt pulled down in public, Karuizawa Kei would obediently endure it.

If not for that knife she had plunged into the girl's abdomen back then, she might have been able to play with this toy for another two years.

Emi Eura picked at her nails, feeling a hint of regret. She and Karuizawa Kei were the same type of girl, but compared to Karuizawa Kei, she was more accustomed to social interaction, which was why she had become the leader of the girls' group shortly after entering middle school, naturally isolating Karuizawa Kei to bully her.

Why exactly did she find her so annoying in the first place?

Emi Eura looked viciously at Karuizawa Kei, who was biting her lip. Her azure eyes met her own without a hint of fear, even glaring back fiercely.

Tsk.

Only now did Emi Eura realize that the reason she had initiated the bullying of Karuizawa Kei was, in fact, nothing more than pure jealousy and malice.

She just wanted to see this annoying face trampled under her feet.

"Did you not hear Ken-ge?"

Emi Eura continued to urge her, having even made up her mind that the moment the other girl gave in, she would not hesitate to trample her back into the dirt.

"Or do you want to be... by me again here?"

Ken-ge, standing to the side, stopped Emi Eura's intimidation. He grinned at the two of them:

"Actually, it's not like there's no room for negotiation. If you don't want to pay up and you don't want to lick our shoes, how about you come drink with us brothers when we head down the mountain later?"

A chorus of jeering laughter came from the delinquents behind him. Emi Eura's expression turned ugly, but knowing she couldn't afford to offend Ken-ge, she could only continue to lock onto Karuizawa Kei's movements like a venomous snake.

"My boyfriend is coming right away. He just went to buy some water."

Karuizawa Kei took a step back, as if someone were truly standing right in front of her.

"A boyfriend? Then we really should run away quickly."

Emi Eura seemed to have found her sense of presence, stepping forward to tease Ken-ge beside her:

"After all, half the boys in our grade have been confessed to by this classmate Karuizawa, haven't they?"

Her exaggerated gestures and words drew a roar of laughter from the delinquents behind her, and even Ken-ge spoke up with a laugh:

"That is a bit scary. These middle schoolers don't look like much, but they sure play around."

"Hey, Karuizawa, if you really have a boyfriend, what does he think about that scar of yours when you're doing it with him?"

Emi Eura had no intention of letting it go:

"Why don't you act all coquettish and tell him it's a mark left over from a C-section?"

A torrent of filthy, chaotic obscenities flooded into Karuizawa Kei's ears. She simply let Ichinose Maki behind her cover her ears, took a deep breath, and remained indifferent, just as she had been before.

"Ken-ge, a bitch like this will behave once you slap her. I've seen plenty of her kind; they look all put-together now, but in a moment, they'll be crying harder than anyone else."

Emi Eura noticed Karuizawa Kei's slightly trembling fingers. She knew the other girl was far from as strong as she appeared; she was merely putting on a brave face because she was worried about the kid behind her.

Seeing Ken-ge gesture at her with his chin, Emi Eura stepped up to Karuizawa Kei's side and whispered into her ear:

"Karuizawa? It must be tiring to keep up the act. No matter how you hide it, aren't you still afraid?"

"What are you afraid of? Are you afraid of me? You are afraid of me, aren't you."

She licked her lips, her tongue a vivid red.

"Though, it really is beyond my expectations that you haven't been broken yet. It seems the girls who came after me weren't as ruthless as I was."

Her palm was raised high: