And if he could cook for himself, he could save on food expenses.
Shirogane had brought homemade lunches from home in the past, so he knew exactly how much money that could save.
But the more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
Because...
Every student had 100,000 points, equivalent to 100,000 yen in living expenses. With such a generous allowance, would anyone really need to cook?
Was the school trying to make sure everyone knew how to cook?
Or did most students need to cook for themselves using gas, so the school had provided the necessary equipment?
Then why would so many students need to cook just to save money?
As he wondered about it, Shirogane took out his phone and started making a list of the household goods he needed to buy.
The school had required them to bring nothing when they arrived, so they needed to buy everything from toiletries to bedding and casual clothes.
Looking at it that way, perhaps nearly half of the 100,000 points they'd just received would go toward settling in.
Although they could keep using these things after buying them once, it still left him feeling uneasy. Would they have this much again next month?
Yes.
That was Shirogane's first thought.
They were all new students this month, and they had to buy household goods. Some might spend only 20,000 or 30,000 Private Points, while others could spend 40,000 or 50,000.
That meant only 40,000 or 50,000 would be left for food and other expenses.
As long as prices on and off campus stayed the same, 40,000 or 50,000 points would be enough to cover a high school student's living expenses.
But if 40,000 or 50,000 points a month were enough, did the school really need to provide them with so many points?
So...
There was a very good chance these points would fluctuate. They would definitely be cut.
With that in mind...
Shirogane left the dorm. He needed to go shopping, too.
The dormitory housed both boys and girls, with boys on floors one through four and girls on floors five through eight.
When Shirogane had collected his key card from the dorm manager on the first floor, he'd asked about the building. Everyone living there was a first-year student.
The upperclassmen's dormitory was farther back.
[Narration System: You've checked out your dorm room, and you think it's pretty decent.]
[Narration System: You're starting to estimate what you need to buy.]
[But I suggest you don't pinch pennies too much. Money is earned, not saved.]
Hmm.
As Shirogane thought, another voice appeared in his mind as usual.
He just didn't agree with it.
He believed that careful saving could add up to a considerable amount.
But the best value came from both earning more and spending less.
"Have you ever lived in a room this small?" Shirogane suddenly asked.
[No, my house is huge. Wait. The weather's lovely today. It's only eleven thirty, so if you head out now, you can have lunch in the Shopping District.]
[There's a delicious beef hot pot restaurant there.]
The Narration System kept chattering away.
"..."
But Shirogane had already figured it out.
So the Narration System really was a little strange.
It talked a lot and occasionally provided useful information, but maybe it was alive. And it had a big house, so it was probably human, too.
Then why was it bound to him? And what was all that about them being fated to meet?
Shirogane couldn't make sense of it.
Still, aside from trying to push him into approaching the silver-haired girl, it didn't seem to be doing him any harm.
Shirogane closed his dorm room door and headed downstairs.
His room was 404. He could take the stairs or the elevator.
Shirogane was in decent shape, but he liked saving effort whenever he could.
"Ding!"
The elevator doors opened, revealing two girls already inside.
Both were beautiful.
One was a girl he'd never met before, with pretty, short blond hair. Short hair was difficult for most girls to pull off, but it suited her effortlessly.
She was incredibly cute.
She gave the impression of a little angel.
The other was the black-haired, fox-eyed girl he'd met once before.
Just like in the Gymnasium, the black-haired girl still exuded a cool, distant air.
"Horikita, are you going to the Shopping District later? Some of our classmates have already gone. They said we can use our points. I'm not bragging about how many people I know, of course—"
As the elevator doors opened, the short-haired blond was chatting with the fox-eyed girl, who wore a cold expression.
So the black-haired girl's surname was Horikita.
Horikita.
Shirogane had come across that name earlier today, in the Gymnasium.
[I'm the Student Council President, Horikita Manabu.]
Judging by that, President Horikita and the black-haired girl standing before him had the same hair color.
Still, it wasn't unusual for siblings to have different hair colors. Shirogane himself had short blond hair, while his little sister Kei had long silver hair.
But President Horikita and this Horikita did look somewhat alike.
"..." The fox-eyed girl, Horikita, remained expressionless. She stood by the elevator buttons, her right hand on the button holding the doors open.
"Are you getting in?"
She spoke in a chilly tone.
In other words, she was asking whether he wanted to take the elevator.
"I am. Please let me in." Shirogane hurried inside.
"Hi!" The cute blond girl greeted Shirogane first, flashing a sweet smile. "I'm Kushida Kikyo from Class 1-D. I'm a new student this year, too."
Her smile was sweet and her voice adorable, giving him a floaty, giddy feeling.
"Hello." Shirogane nodded. "I'm Shirogane Miyuki from Class 1-C."
As he spoke, Shirogane looked at Horikita. He was supposed to ask her name, too, right?
"..." The fox-eyed girl didn't seem inclined to respond.
"By the way, the Student Council President's name is Horikita, too," Shirogane said. "And you look a little like him. Are you siblings or something?"
"..." The fox-eyed girl.
The fox-eyed girl looked at him without expression. "I'm Horikita Suzune."
"..." Kushida.
!!?
"Classmate Kushida?" Shirogane noticed that Kushida's expression had suddenly stiffened.
"Oh, it's nothing. I just think the air conditioner's turned up too high, and it's blowing right at me," Kushida said.
There was no air conditioner in the elevator, only a fan mounted overhead, and it was blowing right at her.
Clearly, mistaking a fan for an air conditioner wasn't normal.
But if she said so, then so be it.
Shirogane thought that although Kushida was cute and friendly, she was probably in an unstable mood right now.
P.S. I want monthlies, guys.
P.S. Squeak, squeak.
Chapter 7: Ryuen Gets into Trouble!
Although he'd ridden the elevator with two beautiful girls, they got off when it reached the first floor.
That pretty much confirmed they were both doing the same thing as him: going back to their dorms first, then heading to the Shopping District to buy household goods.
Still...
What Classmate Kushida had said earlier was worth paying attention to.
The school had admitted so many students and promised them free tuition and living expenses, so it had no reason to withhold the money. That meant the 100,000 Private Points on their Student IDs were probably meant to be spent just like cash.
But Kushida had found that out so quickly through her classmates. Students from her class had gone to check for themselves.
So...
Shirogane had noticed a problem.
Their class group chat hadn't been created yet.
Normally, a class would have a group chat, but no one in his class seemed to have taken the initiative.
Still, it was the first day of school, and the students had been given a lot of information, so it was only natural they might have overlooked it for a while.
But if Kushida had already had classmates verify the information so quickly, did that mean she was especially good at socializing?
As Shirogane thought about it, he noticed that the voice in his mind had gone quiet.
Apparently...
Just like in the Gymnasium, the Narration System seemed to fall silent whenever Horikita was around.
That was certainly strange.
As Shirogane was about to leave the first-floor lounge, he noticed a girl sitting on a bench nearby. Her feet were together, and her hands rested on her knees. When she saw him come out, she stood up.
She walked straight over.
"I thought you'd head to the Shopping District after checking out your dorm, Classmate Shirogane."
So she'd been waiting here to catch him?
"I still think the school's giving us too many points. There are forty students in each class, and four classes make 160 students, so that's 16 million in expenses. That's just for this month. If it's the same amount next month, the costs would be frightening. At the very least, they'd have trouble covering the expenses."
The girl speaking was Shirogane's seatmate in class.
Classmate Shiina Hiyori.
She had beautiful silver hair and a sweet-looking face. Her style was completely different from the cool Horikita Suzune and the angelic Kushida Kikyo he'd met in the elevator.
But Shirogane wasn't focused on her looks right now. He was interested in what she'd said.
In other words, Classmate Shiina was the thoughtful, analytical type.
And she seemed to enjoy reading, too.
Shirogane had brought all seventeen books back with him, while Classmate Shiina had brought back eight books from four subjects.
Before you continue