A New Month, More Upheaval / Point Anomalies, Sudo Again?

Soon, Hoshino En finished tidying up the kitchen, dried Karuizawa Kei's clothes, placed them on the bedside table, turned off the light, and then lay down with her.

"Hehe! En-kun ~ En-kun ~ We can finally sleep together~"

Karuizawa Kei on the bed was far from still; she curled up in Hoshino En's arms, rubbing her pretty face against his chest, her breathing heavy and warm.

"Stop rubbing against me, it's hot."

"Okay, then I won't try to rub against them."

Hoshino En couldn't help but complain, and then the girl really refused to continue.

This girl is awake after all... Oh well, I'll just let her be for today. (Seven)

Karuizawa Kei stopped moving, and Hoshino En stopped complaining; the room fell into a quiet murmur.

"Hey, En-kun." (Save)

After an unknown amount of time, Karuizawa Kei suddenly spoke up and asked, "Er..."

Her voice no longer held its previous softness and feigned sweetness; it was now clear-headed and detached. (Pa)

So this guy was awake a long time ago?

Hoshino En suddenly had an urge to kick her off the bed, but he ultimately suppressed the thought.

"What's wrong?"

Excluding other influencing factors, she has indeed done a very good job these past two months, much better than that Kushida the Little Fool, so it's only right that he gives her a reward.

... It's absolutely not because a well-fitting, soft pillow helps with sleep that he let her design deceive him! Absolutely not!!

Hearing his response, Karuizawa leaned back so that his head could rest on the pillow and not be pressed so hard that his muscles would go numb.

Then she asked another question.

"En-kun... do you hate trouble?"

"Nonsense, most people don't like trouble, right?"

"Well... if I were to take charge of the class and help you reduce your troubles... would there be a reward like this, or even better?"

This guy was definitely eyeing my kidneys!

"Girls should respect themselves and not bring up those kinds of things so easily."

"... You sound like a pedantic old father."

"I also have a twin sister. I used to be both the father and the mother to her, so of course they look alike after a while."

So, does it exist?

Why is this guy so stubborn? This kind of feeling is too heavy!!

After a moment's thought, to prevent her from doing anything more unpredictable, Hoshino En decided to agree to her request for the time being.

"... Yes. As long as you can keep up and stay by my side, I will naturally give you the reward you want."

"Wow!! That's wonderful!"

She whispered, then, as if finally relieved, she pressed her head against Hoshino En's head and moved his deliberately distant hand onto her own body.

"I belong to you, and that will never change. You don't need to be so restrained."

Her voice was full of laughter; even though she couldn't see clearly, Hoshino En could imagine her smile.

"Don't worry about anything else; consider this part of my reward."

This guy...

First Semester of First Year:

Chapter 93, Section 87: A New Month, Another Unexpected Turn of Events

The last holiday of May ended uneventfully.

Without Sakayanagi Arisu's sudden outburst, and without having to take care of the child every day, even Kushida Kikyo, who was often under immense pressure and needed to vent regularly, didn't bother Hoshino En in the past three days. He was enjoying his long-lost freedom.

Even Kiyotaka declined several of his invitations for nighttime outings, citing the need to celebrate his successful exams; this was a bit too much of a stretch.

But... oh well, if the child wants to make friends, then as a parent, I won't be so old-fashioned as to interfere. Anyway, he'll have to learn from his mistakes.

Overall, he was in a pretty good mood.

"Hmph~?~Hmph~?~Hmph~?~"

Shiina Hiyori, who was sitting next to him reading a book, was also in a good mood.

It's the last day of May, and Hoshino En Yukino is enjoying the last moments of leisure with this bookish girl.

"Shiina, why are you humming a song? Did something good happen?"

"Of course, because the exam is over! And everyone passed safely."

A silver-haired girl, holding a copy of "Pride and Prejudice," hummed a song softly, her face beaming with an undisguised smile.

"Moreover, because I've been tutoring students this month, we've had less time to study together in the afternoons... It's been a long, long time since we've sat together quietly like this, reading together."

That makes sense, since Shiina is one of the few students in Class C with exceptional academic ability. Not long after the Midterm Exam were announced, she was called away by A-Sho to tutor the other students in Class C.

Although Class C is better than Class D in terms of overall quality, there are quite a few good students in Class D, and with the help of Class B, if you distribute them a little, there aren't many bad students assigned to each [top student]. But Class C is different. There are really not many students there who study hard. Even A-Sho can't do it. They are almost entirely supported by Shiina and a boy named Kaneda Satoru.

Furthermore, the students in Class C don't have very good tempers. Although they are not as good as Sudo, they are similar to Shinohara and Sato from Karuizawa. They are the kind of people who don't like to be scolded. You can imagine the pressure on Shiina, who is gentle by nature.

When Hoshino En occasionally ran into her at the library, she always had a long face and looked extremely worried.

You've had a tough month.

Thinking of this, Hoshino En reached out and rubbed her head; the soft, long hair felt very comfortable to touch.

"But don't worry, this kind of test shouldn't happen again. Just like the second principle of Jusaston, the effect of using the same trick a second time will be greatly reduced. Since this school aims to cultivate elites, such loopholes will definitely not exist."

"It definitely won't be so tiring in the future."

There will probably only be one exam where you can reasonably get the answers. After that, even if there are any more difficult exams, students who already understand the true nature of the school will definitely study desperately to avoid being expelled. At least Shiina won't look as haggard as she has this month.

Despite being ambushed from above, Shiina Hiyori's expression remained unchanged, and her smile did not diminish. She even narrowed her eyes and rubbed against Hoshino En's palm.

"Yes, it's so tiring. If I can't read with Hoshino-kun soon, I'll wither away."

"So, Hoshino-kun, let's read a book together!"

She pushed the copy of "Pride and Prejudice" in front of Hoshino En.

"I'm exchanging Hoshino-kun's Robinson Crusoe for this one~"

She placed the book she had taken on top of the one Hoshino En had been looking at, and then took away the book he had been reading.

Hoshino En: "..."

No wonder Shiina, who usually prefers mystery novels, was unusually engrossed in a romance novel today; so that's what she was planning...

Well, he'd already read Robinson Crusoe's story countless times—even if he were dumped on Uninhabited Island inhabited by cannibals in the summer, he was confident he'd survive—so let's just indulge Shiina a little today, it's been a while.

"Sure, no problem..."

The setting sun on May 31st caught the quiet page of the book and swished: ∽♀er; #≡≌, and soon, a new month has arrived.

June 1st is internationally recognized Children's Day, and also the "rebirth day" for Class D, freeing them from their "midnight life." However—

The points haven't been transferred.

After returning from her morning exercise, Hoshino En looked at her point balance, which was exactly the same as yesterday, and her temples throbbed.

He expected that there wouldn't be any problems with the points this month, but things didn't go as planned... Was there some unforeseen, unknown censorship involved?

This unexpected threat feels absolutely awful.

After breakfast, Hoshino En walked to the classroom alone and sat in her seat in the corner.

Kiyotaka has recently been encouraging Horikita to go for morning exercises, and he waits for her in front of her room every morning so that their departure times are just different.

Although the possibility is low, hopefully he won't get caught by someone else—if a boy is caught going to the girls' floor during private time, it can cause a lot of trouble.

Meanwhile, inside the classroom, the students who had arrived earlier than Hoshino En were discussing something, their expressions still quite flustered.

The seats were quite far apart, and Hoshino En wasn't very familiar with them, but they were talking quite loudly, and he could still vaguely hear some of it—it seemed that, just like a month ago, they were still asking about points.

It seems that none of the students received any points; this is not Hoshino En Yuuki's situation.

Thinking of this, Hoshino En's mood warmed up a bit.

He thought he had been tricked by the eight people without his knowledge, but since it was a problem for the entire Class D, he had nothing to worry about.

He didn't care about the few Private Points he got from the Class Points; if he got fewer, so be it.

Soon, the rest of Class D arrived one after another. As always, Hirata Yosuke was surrounded by many girls, but their emotions were clearly different today. Hirata Yosuke was doing the comforting work that he usually did in the next stage.

Kushida Kikyo forced a smile as she dealt with the harassment from the [flirting group] led by Yamauchi Haruki and Kanji Ike, but the harassers looked flustered and had no interest in harassing her at all.

Koenji sat alone in his seat as before, his legs propped up on the table just like last month, his face still bearing an expression of indifference.

Horikita Suzune, however, acted out of character. Although her expression remained the same as always, she deliberately took a route she wouldn't normally take: she entered through the front door of the classroom, walked along the first desk near the door to the last desk—that is, Hoshino En's seat, and then turned right with a disdainful air, walked to the second desk by the window, and sat down in her seat.

Although she acted as if she didn't care, Hoshino En realized that this was a counterattack she had launched.

The weapon of retaliation... was Ayanokoji Kiyotaka Hoshino En her route.

Hoshino En looked at the expressionless face she hadn't seen in a long time, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka also looked at him.

Hoshino En Yuuki: [Seiji Takashi, how did you become her servant? Being a simp is not advisable.] 5.6! [≡ˉ

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka: [Yuki, let me explain, it's not what you think...]

Hoshino En: [Also, Horikita boasted that she would beat me, and this is where she ends up? She probably doesn't even know you live next door to me, does she?]

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka: "..."

She really didn't know that.

First Semester of First Year:

Chapter 94, Section 88: Anomaly in Points, Is It Sudo Again?

With the arrival of the main group, the farce from a month ago was repeated in Class D's classroom. However, Hoshino En was not bothered like he had been a month ago. After all, there was already a precedent—although that girl had started the trouble first, and although Hirata Yosuke had already calmed her down, the impression of Hoshino En [unforgiving when in the right] was already deeply ingrained, given the previous incidents of Chabashira Sae and Yamauchi Haruki. So this time, no one dared to provoke him, and he was happy to have some peace and quiet.

The free time in the morning passed quickly. As the school bell rang, Chabashira Sae walked into the classroom; the class meeting was about to begin.

"Chabashira-sensei, why haven't the points been credited this month? We didn't make any mistakes in our performance last month."

Hirata Yosuke once again spoke up to ask a question on behalf of the class, and his efforts to maintain class order meant that no one had any objections to him representing the class.

"This time it's not a problem with you four (grades 9 and 4), it's a problem with the school. There were some issues with the distribution of the '8' (grades 8 and 4), and the '8' (grades 3 and 1) of students in the four classes of grade 3 and 1 were delayed."

"The school is currently reviewing the details. Once the results are in, this month's points will be issued as normal."

Upon hearing Chabashira Sae's explanation, the students in the classroom breathed a sigh of relief, and then their faces lit up with excited smiles again.

Since it's a school issue, then their Class D' s Class Points should be fine... They're finally going to have some points to spend!!

However, their excitement lasted less than two seconds before Chabashira Sae, after reading the message she had just received on her phone, delivered news that left them speechless.

"Sudo, come out with me for a moment."

"Ha?"

The person named looked completely bewildered and followed them out with a puzzled expression.

But the atmosphere in the classroom plummeted to freezing point the moment he left, only to surge back to its peak at an astonishing speed.

"It's Sudo again! What has he done this time?!"

"I knew his temper was hopeless; he must have gotten into a fight with someone from another class!!"

"I remember bullying classmates is strictly forbidden, right? He's definitely going to get a severe scolding this time."

"But he committed a crime, so we'll be punished too. Our Class Points for the month will be gone again."

"Does that mean we can only eat wild vegetable roots?"

"..."

The classroom was filled with lively discussions, but without exception, they were all criticizing Sudo.

Under such circumstances, even Hirata, who was willing to speak up for Sudo, could only exert a very limited influence.

His voice echoed through the crowd, yet didn't even cause a ripple.

Seeing the chaotic scene in the classroom, Hoshino En's face darkened, and a nameless anger flared within her.