Classroom of the Elite, I Have a Life Simulator

Bounty, open!

After resting for three days, I feel like I'm back in the game, so I'm opening a late launch bounty.

The timeframe is from this Monday to Friday, five days total.

Three hundred monthly votes for one extra chapter.

One hundred and fifty blades for one extra chapter.

Ten thousand cat biscuit tips for one extra chapter.

Four thousand recommendation votes for one extra chapter.

The extra chapters for this book are all 4k words each, so one extra is worth two.

The cap remains at ten chapters, totaling forty thousand words. Let's go!

Chapter 4: Plot Prologue: Return of an Old Friend (Part 2)

Karuizawa Kei noticed that every detail, every word, and every action of hers was being scrutinized by others, whether by boys or girls. She tried hard to create a protective shell of innate nobility for herself, but perhaps she was simply not born with that so-called "queen" aura, so she maintained a style of offending no one as much as possible in her daily school life.

"Don't you feel like Kei is being too careful with those people? It's completely unnecessary. With boys, as long as you give them a little bit of a good look, they'll stick to you like stubborn plasters that you can't shake off."

A girl once offered this advice to Karuizawa Kei.

The cause was that a month after school started, many boys finally summoned the courage to forget about Karuizawa Kei's "boyfriend." Yes, in increasingly absurd rumors, Kitagawa Ryo's status had been upgraded from "childhood friend" to "boyfriend," and judging by the trend, it would likely evolve into something like "fiancé with a marriage contract" in a while.

These slightly bold boys began to stir, wanting to approach Karuizawa Kei. It wasn't necessarily that they wanted to pursue her; they just held the idea of wanting to show off in front of the girls. Students who had just entered middle school didn't have that many complex thoughts yet. Since Karuizawa Kei was the core of the girls in the class, performing well in front of her was equivalent to standing out in front of all the girls in the class. Holding this simple and crude concept, the boys began to take action.

Karuizawa Kei began to be frequently spoken to by them, whether it was about daily life or class notes. Karuizawa Kei also dealt with these with some fatigue. She really couldn't understand why there were still people in the class asking her about study problems. If she really had the ability to teach others, she wouldn't be hovering in the middle of the pack with her own grades.

"Ah... indeed, it's getting annoying."

Karuizawa Kei lay on her desk and complained softly.

"Exactly, Kei should be a bit colder. Besides, compared to Kitagawa-kun, none of them can even compare."

"Seems like it."

Karuizawa Kei listlessly fiddled with her fingernails, her slender, fair fingers tapping on the desk:

"Hmm... let's do that then."

It was only then that Karuizawa Kei realized that the protective shell of "Kitagawa Ryo" she had built for herself had indeed erected a wall outside her heart, but it had also hindered normal interpersonal interactions. The relationship she described between herself and "Kitagawa Ryo" had already destined Karuizawa Kei to have no qualification to accept kindness from boys; this was equivalent to denying everything she had said herself.

Since you are so close to "Kitagawa-kun," and the other party is even preparing to transfer back from abroad for you, how can you show intimacy with other boys?

Having figured this out, Karuizawa Kei began to put on a cold front. When dealing with boys who came to communicate with her, regardless of whether they held good intentions or just wanted to be friends, she responded as coldly as possible. Karuizawa Kei had become increasingly proficient at controlling her facial expressions—squinting, raising her eyebrows, clicking her tongue. Before long, rumors spread among most of the boys that Karuizawa Kei had a terrible temper, and that she looked down on everyone just because she had a boyfriend.

Having lost her reputation among the boys, Karuizawa Kei could only be more careful to maintain her status among the girls.

"Kei, a girl from the next class intentionally knocked me over in the cafeteria at noon, and she didn't even apologize."

During lunch break one day, a girl suddenly ran to Karuizawa Kei, panting, and complained with an indignant look:

"It's Wakata from the next class. She relies on her boyfriend being a senior and always looks down on people. She knocked me over just now, and my entire set meal spilled on the floor. In the end, she didn't even apologize. When I asked her to pay for a meal, she walked away as if she hadn't heard me."

Although the girls' group had some small contradictions and conflicts internally, when they encountered such a rare opportunity to unite against an outsider, everyone empathized with a sense of friendship:

"I've long heard that Wakata from the next class has a bad temper. I don't know why her boyfriend is even willing to date her."

"Exactly, I heard her boyfriend recently became the vice-captain of the school basketball team. When I saw her in the hallway two days ago, her eyes were practically looking at the sky."

"She's just relying on her boyfriend to cover for her; otherwise, she would have been ostracized by all the girls in the class long ago."

Everyone discussed it in a clamor, their mouths busier than anyone else's, but their feet stood rooted to the ground.

Clearly, verbal condemnation and support were the easiest things to do. If they were really asked to face the person head-on, they would have to wait for a leader to speak up.

So everyone looked at Karuizawa Kei, including the girl who had come to complain at the beginning. It was almost as if they were demanding that Karuizawa Kei make the decision for her, and she stood to the side, looking like she was about to cry.

"Then, why don't we go to the cafeteria together and ask Wakata... ask Wakata-san?"

Karuizawa Kei felt their gazes were a bit stinging. It wasn't until she finished this sentence that those nail-like stares dissipated from her. A feeling of exhaustion welled up from the bottom of Karuizawa Kei's heart. Since she had decided to be a tiger, she had no way to be weak in such matters. Those who eat grass are rabbits, not tigers.

So the girls in the class, as if they had received some instruction, immediately surrounded Karuizawa Kei and the bullied girl, and the group rushed to the cafeteria aggressively.

Perhaps due to the timing, just as they arrived at the cafeteria entrance, they happened to run into Wakata-san, who had finished eating and was walking out of the cafeteria alone toward the courtyard to the side, looking as if she intended to take a walk after the meal.

"Hey, you were the one who knocked our class's Yuko over just now, right?"

A dozen girls immediately went up and surrounded her. The current time was a particularly subtle moment, right at the end of the lunch break. If it were earlier, there would probably be many students eating lunch boxes in the courtyard, and if it were later, it would be filled with students coming and going to class.

Seeing that there were few people around and that they were a group of a dozen facing one person, the girls immediately felt the power of the group. They dragged Wakata into a more secluded grove and pinned her under a big tree.

"Yuko, is it her?"

Emi Eura, who was at the front, pulled the other girl's hair and turned back to ask.

"Yes, it's... it's this person. She didn't apologize after knocking me over."

Yuko still looked a bit timid, speaking stutteringly.

After hearing such a clear answer, Emi Eura showed a happy and even cruel smile.

"Wakata, right? Do you think you can do whatever you want in school just because you have a good boyfriend?"

Wakata seemed to have just realized what was going on. She was tall and had short hair, and she was said to be a key player in the track and field club. She slapped Emi Eura's hand away without hesitation, straightened her clothes, frowned, and said:

"She bumped into me because she wasn't watching where she was going, so why should I be the one to apologize first?"

"I haven't done anything wrong, and class is about to start, so just get out of my way."

The other girl's righteous attitude undoubtedly added fuel to the already tense situation. Yuko lowered her head and pursed her lips, looking as if she were about to burst into tears at any second. A girl standing nearby seemed unable to tolerate Wakata's behavior any longer; she rushed forward and gave her a hard shove.

"What are you putting on an act for? Apologize to Yuko right now!"

Karuizawa Kei recognized this girl. She seemed to be a member of the track team as well, but unlike Wakata, she was just an ordinary member. Perhaps she had accumulated a considerable amount of resentment toward Wakata during their daily club activities; Karuizawa Kei could even see a faint sense of pleasure in her eyes.

When personal grudges are projected onto the goals and actions of an entire group, one can carry out retaliation with a sense of legitimacy and without any restraint.

Karuizawa Kei felt a strange chill run down her spine.

"Yeah, hurry up and apologize to Yuko!"

"Why aren't you calling for your boyfriend now? You'd better take this chance to call him a few more times, otherwise, once he graduates next year, who knows which high school you'll have to go find him at."

"Dating a senior two years older after only a month of school, tsk."

With this girl taking the lead, the rest of the girls seemed to let go of their inhibitions all at once. They moved like a wall closing in, compressing the space around Wakata until, in the end, everything she saw and heard was nothing but inexplicable insults and curses, which had long since strayed from the original incident itself.

"Fine, I'll apologize, okay?"

Wakata seemed to realize the situation had turned sour; she muttered a perfunctory apology and tried to push through the wall of people to leave.

"You call that an attitude for an apology?"

"Can you stop wearing that sour look on your face?"

"I really want to teach you a lesson."

Karuizawa Kei stood in this noisy little world, feeling somewhat dazed. When Wakata uttered the apology, she inexplicably thought of herself. She almost wanted to scream at Wakata, wanting to tell her that apologizing was actually useless and could even be seen as a sign of submission.

"...Um... is that it?"

Karuizawa Kei tried hard to step forward and interject. She felt that if the situation continued to develop like this, it would soon reach the level of school bullying.

"Kei, should we teach her a lesson?"

Emi Eura cast a playful gaze toward Karuizawa Kei, whose knees were already trembling slightly. Unfortunately, the girls around them were still immersed in the feeling of being "cool" for standing up for their friend, and almost none of them noticed Karuizawa Kei's wavering heart.

"--!"

Following Emi Eura's words, everyone seemed to suddenly remember Karuizawa Kei. After all, for the past few minutes, Karuizawa Kei, who was ostensibly their "core," hadn't said a word. All eyes, including Wakata's, turned toward Karuizawa Kei like spotlights.

"Kei?"

Emi Eura called out to Karuizawa Kei again, like a loyal servant awaiting her master's orders, quietly waiting for her next move.

"------?"

Karuizawa Kei managed to pull her thoughts back, though a fine layer of sweat had already beaded on her forehead in just that short time.

"Karuizawa? So it's you. I'd heard there was a legendary figure in the class next door."

Wakata emphasized the word "legendary," as if she had found the true mastermind. She said with a mix of anger and regret:

"So you're the one backing these people up. Tsk, I actually thought you weren't that kind of person."

"What do you mean? You were the one who started it. Regardless of what Kei thinks, I can't stand people like you bullying our classmates."

Before Wakata could finish, the girl from the track team spoke up to refute her.

Emi Eura, also acting as if she were furious on Karuizawa Kei's behalf, grabbed Wakata by the hair, slammed her against a tree, and used her left hand to deliver a direct slap to her face.

It seemed neither side expected Emi Eura to resort to violence so suddenly, as the sound of the loud slap echoed in the quiet air for quite a while before fading away.

"Listen well, don't mess with people from our class again. I was only planning to give you a little lesson, but you actually dared to insult Kei."

Emi Eura exaggeratedly forced the lines into Wakata's ears. Seeing the look of disbelief on the other girl's face, she nudged her chin toward the person behind her.

"Yuko, do you want to try it too?"

"I... I don't think I need to. Hitting someone feels like going too far."

Yuko whispered her refusal; she didn't seem to expect things to escalate to this point either.

"It's fine. She was supposed to apologize to you anyway, and besides, there's no one else here."

Emi Eura unceremoniously drove her knee into Wakata's side. She grabbed the girl by the collar and issued the invitation to Yuko once more:

"If the person involved doesn't want to, wouldn't it make us friends look like we're overdoing it?"

She was certain the other girl wouldn't refuse again. For someone with such a timid personality, as long as she used the excuse of "You're my friend, I'm doing this for you," Yuko wouldn't refuse again, even if only out of fear of making her angry.

Sure enough, Yuko didn't refuse again. She stepped forward hesitantly and gave Wakata a light, painless slap, keeping her eyes closed the entire time.

"It's okay, you need to use more force."

Emi Eura didn't seem satisfied. She reached out and slapped Wakata hard as a demonstration. Forced into a corner, Yuko had no choice but to use a little more strength, feeling a slight stinging sensation in her palm.

If it hadn't been happening right in front of her, Karuizawa Kei would have found it hard to imagine the always submissive Yuko slapping Wakata, who looked tough at a glance. But now, this surreal reality was impacting her mind over and over again. She even saw two other girls who couldn't hold back anymore stepping forward, eager to try, including the girl who was in the track team with Wakata.

It wasn't until the preparatory bell for class rang ten minutes later that Emi Eura finally stopped the assault—or more accurately, the four or five girls led by her did.

"Kei, how was that?"

Emi Eura patted Karuizawa Kei on the shoulder when she returned, her tone filled with the genuine satisfaction of a mission accomplished.

Karuizawa Kei suddenly remembered something important. If Emi Eura was a student from the same elementary school as her, then she might also know about the bullying she endured before the fifth grade. Her teeth began to chatter in a panic.

"It's fine. Aside from the first few slaps, you can't see anything on her face at all. Telling the teachers or parents wouldn't do any good anyway."

Emi Eura turned her head to comfort her companion, who had become a bit worried after the fact:

"What if her boyfriend comes looking for us?"

Emi Eura tilted her head, looking at Karuizawa Kei with a half-smile, like a hunter eyeing its prey:

"Isn't Kei still here? Right?"

Chapter 5: Plot Prologue: Return of an Old Friend (End)

The transformation from bully to bullied often takes only a single night. Karuizawa Kei tossed and turned in her bed, unable to sleep. The moonlight was beautiful tonight, so she opened the window, letting the moonlight seep into her room like water, bit by bit, until it submerged her completely.

It was already 1:30 in the morning. Unable to find rest even at this hour, the thoughts in Karuizawa Kei's mind sprouted like fungi, growing wildly and unchecked in the vast moonlight. Her head was filled with all sorts of chaotic ideas, so she simply turned on the room light.

But after a short while, Karuizawa Kei worried that her parents might see the light on in the middle of the night if they got up, so she turned off the stark white overhead light and switched on the orange desk lamp. Wrapped in her quilt, she tossed and turned in bed amidst the moonlight, like a fish swimming back and forth in a rippling lake.

Another thirty minutes passed just like that. Karuizawa Kei was likely exhausted, so she closed her eyes and forced herself to sleep. However, as soon as her vision plunged into darkness, the scenes from the day clung to her like a nightmare. The more she tried to forget, the clearer the memories became. She gasped for air, and resigned to her fate, she opened her weary eyes once more.

Karuizawa Kei caught sight of the photo frame on her desk. Inside was a picture of her and Kitagawa Ryo taken at their graduation ceremony. The black and white uniforms looked abruptly ghostly in the unlit night, but Karuizawa Kei didn't mind as she gripped the frame and reached out to stroke the two people in the photo.

Her fingers traced over their uniforms bit by bit, as if she could transcend the medium of the photograph to touch the actual texture of the fabric. Seemingly finding a sense of peace, she placed the frame on the nightstand closer to her bed and finally, slowly, closed her eyes.

From that day on, Karuizawa Kei began to dread the start of every day. The arrival of every morning that required her to go to school left her feeling anxious. The world's time seemed to have been placed under a slow-motion spell after that day, making every day feel incredibly hollow and strange. She sat in the classroom, still surrounded by girls during breaks, but gossip, trends, romances, and all sorts of conversations and news could no longer fill the void in Karuizawa Kei's heart. She knew she was still preoccupied with what had happened.

"Wakata...-san, she hasn't come to cause you any more trouble since then, has she?"

Five days after the bullying incident, Karuizawa Kei finally found the right opportunity to ask this question.

"Oh, Wakata? I heard she broke up with her boyfriend."

A girl who was in the know answered with a melodic tone: