A breeze swept by. The grass bowed its head, and the leaves rustled as they swayed. Unfortunately, it did nothing to dispel the bewildering atmosphere beneath the shade of the tree.
"May I ask what you can see while lying under the tree?" Yukino Yukinoshita asked calmly, without raising her voice in accusation.
"Yukinoshita, look at us here..."
"Hm?"
"We're up high, with a wide-open view. One glance is all it takes to see everyone below clearly..."
"..." Well, she couldn't deny that. From here, Yukino Yukinoshita could see exactly what those children were up to. But still... "Even so, are you watching them? Can you really see anything while resting under the tree...?" Before she could finish, Sogo Doma said in surprise, "Aren't you watching them?"
"But Hiratsuka-sensei told us to watch them together!"
"That just means she's bad at judging people..."
"Indeed!" Yukino Yukinoshita actually agreed, adding, "Hiratsuka-sensei shouldn't have asked you—or thought you'd be any help..."
"No, no, no..." Sogo Doma cut her off again. "I mean Hiratsuka-sensei doesn't understand how to allocate resources properly. Someone like you, Yukinoshita, is all we need to look after these elementary schoolers. Actually, anyone could do it, as long as they paid attention..."
"..." The young miss, who had been rather pleased by his remark that she was all they needed, suddenly wanted to hit him. What did he mean, anyone could do it? What a jerk!
"Having three people do a job that one person can handle is just a waste of manpower. Unfortunately, she's a teacher, so I couldn't argue with her. To keep her from wasting resources, Utaha and I are resting..."
"Stop talking nonsense!" Having her words interrupted was nothing new, but Yukino Yukinoshita couldn't help herself. Even if Hiratsuka-sensei was wasting manpower, why were the