Chapter 162: Plans Change-Ichinose Is Out? / Chapter 172: Chapter 163: The Uninhabited Island Exam Ends, with the Expected Results

Ichinose Honami: "..."

Mom, sister, what should I do?

"Hoshinomiya-sensei, Shiranami- kun has really fainted. We need to go there now—"

"Oh! I know. I knew it the first time you said it, you don't need to repeat it so many times!"

Not far from Hoshino En and Ichinose Honami, Kanzaki Ryuji looked at his homeroom teacher, who was stubbornly refusing to move, and a hint of panic appeared on his usually calm face.

"Then why are you just sitting here watching, teacher? Shouldn't we hurry over there?"

"Calm down, don't be so impulsive in your actions and dealings."

Hoshinomiya Chie responded calmly, saying, "[× turn] {group★<:1○ˇ0‰7￠≯3>¤9×'2☆￡8♀3 [...35.

"Besides, didn't you see Hoshino -kun over there?"

"Don't let his gloomy and unapproachable demeanor fool you; he actually has a strange obsession with certain things—like the safety of his classmates and the outcome of exams. He cares more about the former than the latter."

"Since he's not in a hurry, it means Shiranami's problem isn't a big deal. You can really put your mind at ease!"

Her gaze remained fixed on Hoshino En and Ichinose Honami, who were not far away, and she couldn't hide the excitement in her eyes.

Ichinose, you truly are my wonderful Class Representative!! I never expected you to make progress with Hoshino -san so quickly!

Try harder, try to steal his heart too, and then lure him to our class. If that doesn't work, at least make sure he stops contributing to Class D.

Her current thoughts are somewhat obsessive.

The reason Hoshinomiya Chie became like this was because she heard about what Hoshino En had done during the deliberation between Class C and Class D in June. The other party's overly active actions gave her a bad feeling—if Hoshino En wasn't restrained, that little brat Chabashira Sae might really take off.

That won't do. Sae-chan should stay in the lowest-ranking class and fend for herself. How can she just come up here like that?

She is now deeply entangled in her own obsession. Compared to the matter of "abducting Chabashira Sae's 'vanguard'", everything else - including the safety of her own students - is trivial and can be temporarily put aside.

"Besides, Kanzaki, look how nice their atmosphere is, how can you bear to disturb them?!"

Meanwhile, Hoshinomiya Chie pointed at Hoshino Emi, who was pinching Ichinose Honami's cheek with one hand, seemingly saying to her, "Woman, you're playing with fire," and complained to Hoshino En Kanzaki Ryuji.

7. "Don't you know that disturbing someone's good time will get you struck by lightning?"

Kanzaki Ryuji: "..."

Jiu had only heard that if a couple showed affection in public, the boy would be tied to a cross and burned at the stake by a strange group of people who carried sickles and torches and wore purple robes that covered their faces.

Secondly, looking at the ferocious expression on Hoshino Enishi 'Hoshino En as Ichinose Honami, he simply couldn't see this scene as something to be congratulated on or as a happy occasion.

8. "Hoshinomiya-sensei, I feel like if we don't leave soon, Ichinose might get completely ruined by Hoshino -kun."

"Oh dear~ Why are you bothering a young couple with their sweet moments? I know Hoshino -kun, he knows how to behave~"

... Hoshinomiya-sensei must have misunderstood something, right?

Seeing that his homeroom teacher absolutely refused to care, Kanzaki Ryuji could only stand there and observe.

I hope Hoshino doesn't have any bad intentions...

First Semester of First Year:

Chapters 171 and 162: Plans Changed, Ichinose Out?

"En-kun, you seem very angry. Did Ichinose do something to you?"

After leaving Class B's camp, Hoshino En soon "bumped into" Sakayanagi Arisu and Shiina Hiyori, who were out playing, in the woods on her way back.

"Haven't you all already seen it? What else do I need to explain?"

Without turning his head, Hoshino En took the little girl's hand from Shiina Hiyori's hand very naturally, and grabbed the literary girl's hand that was trying to escape with his other hand.

"Oh my, you really did see it."

However, upon hearing this, Hoshino En suddenly looked at her.

"No, you should have been behind me. How could I have seen Matoba behind me?"

Sakayanagi Arisu: "..."

"I'm just guessing, because Ichinose's reaction was a bit off."

"When I pinched her cheeks, she showed a shyness and withdrawal that she didn't want others to see, so I guessed she must have seen someone she didn't want the other person to know that she had been in contact with me: it could be you, or it could be her Hoshinomiya-sensei."

"However, you all saw it, right? She and I only had a small argument, so there's nothing to explain."

"But En-kun, your reaction is a bit off."

Shiina Hiyori chimed in from the side.

"You seem very angry, like you have a fire burning inside you. Did Ichinose say something to you?"

The Silver Fairy enveloped the boy's hands in her own, the soft palms slowly relaxing his tense muscles.

He let out a deep breath, as if finally relieved, and confided in them, "Actually... I just feel betrayed. I really liked Ichinose."

His words made the two girls' hearts tighten, and they paused for a moment.

However, Hoshino En's next words immediately broke the tension between them.

"An angel who is willing to break her own principles for someone else, even if that person is important to her, shouldn't everyone like that?"

So that's what it is! It's the same kind of liking I have for Kushida!

The two women breathed a sigh of relief.

"But she's changed now. She's become the kind of person I hate most—selfish, hypocritical, using the gentleness of treating everyone equally to mask her own desires."

"A gentle girl is gentle to everyone, but 'gentleness on an equal footing' is equivalent to 'indifference' that keeps people at arm's length. The pain it causes is even deeper than direct indifference. A soft knife cutting flesh is more painful than a straight knife."

Despite being recognized as Archangel by everyone in the grade and even the entire school, Hoshino En's opinion was completely different from everyone else's.

Even Sakayanagi Arisu didn't have such a bad opinion of Ichinose Honami.

But neither she nor Shiina Hiyori interrupted Hoshino En's outpouring. They both knew that what he needed right now was a listener, not unsolicited advice.

The chirping of cicadas in summer silenced his resentment deep within the woods.

When the three returned to the camp, Kushida Kikyo and Karuizawa Kei saw Hoshino Enishi, who was calm, occasionally cracked a little joke, and was considerate and Hoshino En.

However, when Hoshino En went to check in for the evening, Sakayanagi Arisu and Shiina Hiyori approached Karuizawa Kei.

They entered the Small Wooden Cabin that served as their base of operations.

"You've left me out again. Would it kill you to let me listen?!"

Kikyo Kushida, who was "assigned" to watch the fire outside and make some late-night snacks, was furious.

"It's just Hoshino's business, isn't it? Why doesn't he just say what's wrong? He insists on putting on a brave face, forcing me to pretend I don't know."

As an expert in "mask wholesale," she is more sensitive to this kind of thing because of her years of experience—she can tell at a glance whether a person is wearing a "mask" while speaking.

But since Hoshino En didn't clarify his feelings, it meant he didn't want to talk about it, so she wouldn't ask any further.

"Honestly, he was so arrogant when he was lecturing me, but now that it's his turn, shouldn't he understand that there are some things that the person involved can't say out loud?!"

Turning the grilled fish over the campfire, sprinkling it with some seasoning that Hoshino En Enishi had somehow gotten her hands on, Kushida Kikyo took a big bite.

"Mmm... really, I made the grilled fish, I'll eat it myself first, you guys can wait until it gets cold! Mmm..."

Inside the Small Wooden Cabin.

"So, what exactly happened to En-kun? Didn't he go to Class B's place to play today?"

Hoshino En's feigned concealment did not fool Karuizawa Kei. As someone who had witnessed his tyrannical side, Karuizawa Kei's understanding of him, while not entirely thorough, was at least deeper than that of the others in Kodo Ikusei.

Although Hoshino En showed no outward signs of abnormality upon her return, she could still sense a familiar feeling emanating from him.

"Let me guess, it's Ichinose, right? Did she make En-kun angry?"

"We were quite far away, so we couldn't hear anything clearly, but we did see him and Ichinose getting into a conflict."

Shiina Hiyori described the scene they saw in detail, including the Hoshino En pinched Ichinose Honami's cheek as if she was about to kiss her.

Sakayanagi Arisu then recounted in detail their conversation with Hoshino En on their way back, adding, "But in any case, we have to slow down our previous plans; Ichinose isn't really ready to join right now."

But Karuizawa Kei's expression was even worse than they had imagined.

"No, I think you'd better be mentally prepared: although En-kun is very magnanimous, even if he really dislikes someone or something, he won't bother with it as long as it doesn't jump in front of him; but if it does jump in front of him, he won't show any mercy."

"For example, Yamauchi our class. Just because he made a lewd joke about Sakura during swimming class in April and tried to pull En-kun into the water, En-kun, in the incident with Sudo in June, when Class D was in chaos and Yamauchi was attacking everyone, directly confronted him and made him die."

"Although Hirata and the relationship between Yamauchi and the other students improved somewhat, he was actually being subtly isolated in Class D."

Just like in this exam, Yamauchi Haruki's "good buddies" Ken Sudō and Kanji Ike both chose to help his "enemy," Hoshino En. ※∏

Although one of them helped because they had received a favor, and the other happened to be able to and simply wanted to contribute to the class, without any intention to target Yamauchi Haruki, objectively speaking, this was a sign that Yamauchi Haruki had completely lost power in the class.

"Not to mention that Ichinose made En-kun feel 'let down,' so it's questionable whether she and Class B will be able to smoothly advance to the second year."

She's worried that what happened to her back then might be repeated at Kodo Ikusei. If that happens, Ichinose might be ruined by En-kun before even entering the venue. How can she possibly heal him then?

"Let's not get involved in Ichinose's matter. If she walks in on her own, then that's a different story."

First Semester of First Year:

Chapters 172 and 163: The Uninhabited Island Exam Ends, a Result as Expected

On the night of the sixth day of the exam, Hoshino En did not see Ryuen Kakeru, nor did she see Kaneda Satoru at the Observation Post.

That's true. Even without radio, they must have prepared other coded signals for their meetings; Ibuki has already succeeded and passed on the message, so Ryuen should already know that his plan has gone wrong.

In this situation, rather than risking a meeting, it would be better to have Kaneda withdraw directly.

However, he didn't come away empty-handed.

Late at night, news came from the Observation Post: Kaneda Satoru, Ibuki Mio, and Shiranami Chihiro left the scene.

2. So now, the "Leader" of Class A is confirmed to be Totsuka Yahiko, the "Leader" of Class B is unknown, and the only possible "Leader" of Class C is Ryuen Kakeru, the only remaining member of Class C.

July 10th, the seventh day of the exam.

Knowing that Hoshino En was in a bad mood, Sakayanagi Arisu and Shiina Hiyori didn't bother him to run around. Instead, they sat quietly by the Small Wooden Cabin and chatted with him.

That night, or more precisely, the next day, July 11th, at 2 AM, Hoshino En was "accidentally" bitten by a snake on the island and unfortunately had to leave the exam.

He led Sakayanagi Arisu and Shiina Hiyori back to the ship leisurely, and instructed Karuizawa Kei to appoint an inconspicuous "Leader".

At 10 a. m., a broadcast announcement, loud enough to be heard throughout the entire island, rang out.

"The Uninhabited Island Exam is over. All remaining members of each class, please assemble at the beach. The results of this exam will be reported shortly."

Soon, the remaining students from the four classes gathered again in front of the beach.

In Class A, Katsuragi Kohei led the exhausted Class A students to a stop, his face particularly grim.

He originally accepted Ryuen Kakeru's suggestion hoping to make a big splash in this Special Exam, but the Waterloo he suffered on the first day shattered his "dream".

With an initial score of 300 points, after deducting 100 points for mistakes and 30 points for Sakayanagi's departure, they have 170 points left; adding the 20 points from the 7-day check-in and the 50 points from correctly guessing the identity of the "Leader" of Class B, they can finally get 240 points.

After deducting the Private Points corresponding to the 200 Class Points they have to give to Ryuen Kakeru each month, they will probably only have a meager 40 Class Points to gain this time.

We lost a fortune!!!

Moreover, because of this defeat, his prestige in the class will decline rapidly, and it's likely that Sakayanagi will have to take over next semester.

Thinking of another candidate for class representative, Katsuragi Kohei's gaze drifted towards the Cruise Ship where the other candidate should be, and his expression darkened further.

He wasn't against having someone else host, but Sakayanagi's style was too radical, and he didn't know why she was so obsessed with Hoshino from Class D. He was really worried that she would put her personal feelings above the interests of the class once she was on stage.

Sigh, what a worry!

On the other side, the Class B students looked much better than the dejected Class A students.

No, it wasn't just good; compared to the sullen expressions on Class A's faces, their expressions could even be described as "overjoyed," and some couldn't even suppress the smiles on their faces.

"Ichinose, maybe Hoshino- san just hasn't adjusted yet? He's just too concerned about you, you don't need to worry so much."

"Once you're back on the Cruise Ship, apologize to him properly. Be a little coquettish and sweet, and he'll definitely forgive you. No guy can resist a girl as cute and sexy as you."

Hoshinomiya Chie patiently tried to persuade her representative to cheer up.

But her words of persuasion were like tiny raindrops falling into the ocean, failing to elicit any noticeable response from Ichinose Honami. The Archangel remained dejected, staring blankly in the direction of the Cruise Ship.

On the other side was the formation of Class D. Although there were only a dozen or so people, and their faces were full of fatigue, everyone was in high spirits at the moment.

Everyone has put in so much effort this time, we will definitely achieve final victory!!