YES! President!

"Oh, right. If you're worried about running low on points, you could consider joining a club at the recruitment fair coming up soon.

"The school grants clubs a certain number of points to use as activity funds, based on factors such as the club's size and its achievements. You can earn a little spending money at school that way.

"When you get back, pass this information on to the others in your class. If anyone still can't find a club willing to take them, my Traditional Literature Club can make room for them.

"But my members won't get any activity funds, because Ryuen will confiscate all of it. As club president, all I can do is make sure they get enough to eat, so they don't have to go to the cafeteria for the free Mountain Vegetable Set Meal."

"Okay, we'll be sure to pass along what Sima said!"

That afternoon, after tidying up the Activity Room, I asked Ishizaki and the others to spread the word.

Come to think of it, Chairman Sakayanagi had given my newly formed club quite a few privileges. Besides not imposing a limit on the number of members, he'd privately told me that the Student Council had increased my club's activity funds for its first three months.

Before we achieved any results, I'd receive 200,000 personal points in activity funds during the first month. The amount would drop by 50,000 each month, and after the third month, the club would be evaluated by the usual standards.

For a club that had started with only one member, this was unprecedented preferential treatment.

Last night, when Chairman Horikita Manabu complained to me about it, his tone had been helpless. Maybe it had made the Student Council's budget for the quarter a little tighter.

By evening, Hiyori and I had been working hard all afternoon. We sat in recliners, quietly reading our books while enjoying the tea she'd brewed.

We both knew it was getting late. The sunset's afterglow had passed through the glass and draped over us like a robe, but neither of us wanted to be the first to break the silence.

It wasn't until a series of hurried knocks sounded that I reluctantly put down The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

"What's going on with you guys?"

When I opened the door, I saw Ryuen with a bruised and swollen face, Albert bent over and occasionally twitching, and Ishizaki, who'd helped me out earlier that day.

Of the three, Ishizaki was the only one who looked normal.

More than their condition, what caught my attention was the huge pile of things they were carrying.

"Don't ask. Let us in, quick! This stuff's heavy!"

Ryuen's battered state stood in stark contrast to how relaxed I was.

Ryuen, whom I'd blocked in the doorway, didn't bother being polite. He shoved me aside with his shoulder, then came in with Ishizaki and Albert, carrying six huge bags of ingredients.

"You're in charge of all this."

After stacking the bags on the kitchen counter, the three of them headed for the U-shaped desk I'd chosen as my office desk. They opened a drawer and took out three application forms.

"I have to ask: is there not a single one of you who knows how to buy groceries?"

Standing by the kitchen counter, I emptied all the ingredients Ryuen and the others had brought out of the bags.

Putting aside the fact that there wasn't a single green vegetable among their purchases, they could've at least brought back a bag of rice. Or, at the very least, they could've done what I'd done at lunchtime and snagged some rice from the free Mountain Vegetable Set Meal in the cafeteria.

There were no vegetables, no staple foods—nothing but meat. Just looking at it gave me a headache.

"Isn't buying groceries just a matter of buying the ingredients at the supermarket?"

Ryuen, who was filling out a form, remained silent. Albert, who was filling one out too, also remained silent. Only Ishizaki, who couldn't find a pen, answered me.

"Oh, they actually discount ingredients at the school supermarket?"

I'd only learned about this from videos shared by overseas bloggers, showing people buying discounted bento and grabbing marked-down ingredients. I usually didn't pay much attention to everyday expenses.

Besides, I generally didn't even want to look at discounted bento. It simply wasn't something I'd consider buying.

But if the school had discounts like the stores outside, marking things down after a certain time, then I could probably save quite a few points over time.

"Of course! Under Boss Ryuen's leadership, we bought up all the discounted ingredients!"

Ishizaki proudly told me about their triumphant haul.

At last, I understood why they'd bought nothing but meat. In Japanese supermarkets, it was usually prepared foods and meat that got discounted later in the day. Vegetables and fruit were often marked down too, but the discounts were usually small, and those items were generally placed in a different corner.

With the way Ryuen and the others had shopped, they probably hadn't noticed the discounted produce.

"At least you had the decency to buy seasonings. But why are there so many sweet sauces? What on earth is this sweet soy sauce?"

I dug through the pile of meat and found the small amount of seasoning they'd bought. I'd learned a bit about local tastes since coming to Japan, but I still couldn't understand why people here liked sweet food so much.

Was it because the "sweetness" from lead pipes had affected their sense of taste?

"That brand of sweet soy sauce is awesome! I used it when I had yakiniku last time!"

Looking at Ishizaki, who was full of energy, I couldn't bring myself to criticize their lack of life skills any further.

"Thank goodness, I've found our savior. Once it goes on the attack against the ingredients, everything will be fine!"

After sorting through most of the seasonings and meat, I happily dug a huge bag of hot pot soup base made in China out of the bottom of the pile.

There was a pot here that we could use for hot pot, too. Everything was going to be fine!

"Have you finished filling out the forms?"

Now that I had an idea of what to make for dinner, I looked up at the three of them. They'd each dragged over a recliner and even found the big bottle of cola left over from lunch in the fridge. All three were sprawled out in their chairs.

"Yes, President."

Ryuen, stretched out in his recliner, raised his paper cup of cola with one hand as he answered.

"Then, as your president, I'm assigning you a task. Go to the cafeteria and bring back five free Mountain Vegetable Set Meals. If you think there won't be enough rice, get a few extra. We need some vegetables and staple food, or your jaws will give out from chewing all this meat!"

"Ishizaki, Albert, go get a few extra Mountain Vegetable Set Meals. That way, we won't need to get so many tomorrow."

"Yes, Boss!"

Ryuen certainly knew how to give orders. All he had to do was tell people what to do. But there was no "but." Ishizaki and Albert didn't need to think things through; they just had to do as they were told.

"Masaryu, let me help you."

After setting the table, Hiyori came over to lend me a hand. Compared to Ryuen, Hiyori really knew how to be considerate!

Once we finished eating, I'd make Ryuen do the dishes. It was settled!