Chapter 21
"..."
Ichinose Honami wore a faintly reproachful expression.
Even so, her intuition told her with ten-out-of-ten—or at least nine-out-of-ten—certainty that Nangong Cheng really wanted to call her Mom.
Seriously... how could someone like him even exist?!
Flustered-and-annoyed.jpg
"You're not just saying the opposite of what you mean, Nangong?"
"Aren't you saying you don't want it while secretly hoping I'll agree to that mischievous condition of yours?"
The girl planted both hands on her hips to bolster her confidence, putting on a fierce little expression.
But Nangong Cheng only found her adorable.
"How is that mischievous?"
"Don't you know, Ichinose? People always crave what they don't have. So what's wrong with me wanting a woman who can be my mother?"
"..."
Ichinose Honami sighed helplessly.
You've already said everything. What else can I say?
"Then what exactly are you thinking, Nangong? Even if I agree to let you call me that, you aren't actually planning to do it in front of other people, are you?"
"Hmm... we'll cross that bridge when we get there."
Nangong Cheng rubbed his chin.
He didn't particularly mind showing off his kinks, but for this world's current timeline, that junior's brand of mommy fixation was still far ahead of its time.
Better tone it down for now.
"So you're agreeing, Ichinose?"
"I... well, if you really want to call me that, Nangong, I can't exactly control your mouth, can I?"
Ichinose Honami turned her head away, leaving Nangong Cheng with only a view of her slightly flushed profile.
If she couldn't resist, she might as well accept it.
That's right, that's right. I just can't resist. It's definitely not because I actually want to accept it!
Besides, it was only a form of address.
As long as he didn't call her that in front of other people, and she only indulged Nangong Cheng's bizarre fetish in private...
[Task complete] [Task reward: host receives 2,000 points]
It was actually fine.
She wasn't losing anything.
Even if Nangong Cheng called her Mom for three whole years, the two thousand points she'd received were a tangible material reward she could exchange for two million Japanese yen.
If she had to name a loss, at most, she might have sacrificed a little of something as intangible as her dignity or sense of shame.
The ratio of effort to reward was absurd.
It was practically eroding her conscience and boundaries.
Although Ichinose Honami wanted to say she would definitely resist the temptation next time, she honestly wasn't completely confident.
Because when profit was on the table, even dignity could be weighed and priced.
Even a hair clip priced at ten thousand Japanese yen, but perhaps worth only a thousand, had required her to get on her knees to make amends.
That went double for task rewards that started at hundreds of thousands.
If she wasn't willing to do it, plenty of others would be.
Reality was that stark—and that ironic.
"That's why I'm asking what you think, isn't it, Ichinose? Besides, I won't just casually call you Mom in front of other people."
Naturally, Nangong Cheng had no idea what Ichinose Honami was thinking. Otherwise, he would have solemnly explained a certain truth to her.
This world was a delicate shade of gray. There was no absolute right or wrong, good or evil.
Judge people by their actions, not their hearts; judge their hearts, and no one in the world would be flawless.
Ichinose Honami had indeed stolen a hair clip, an act morality and the law would define as "wrong" and "evil."
But she had also done all sorts of good deeds, large and small. In the eyes of her family, classmates, friends, and teachers, she was a good daughter, a good friend, and a good student—the very embodiment of "right" and "good."
Human beings were bundles of contradictions.
No action should be defined with a hasty, simplistic label. What mattered was why someone had acted that way.
"So you mean that when no one's around, you're going to keep calling me Ichinose Mom, Nangong?"
"You really are mischievous!"
Ichinose Honami put an end to her tangled thoughts.
Whatever the case, she was now full of hope and anticipation for the future.
Though the tasks issued by the system were tricky in a particular sense, and the punishments were quite "excessive," they weren't deliberately designed to be impossible to complete.
In short, everything was visibly getting better.
So she couldn't be too greedy.
"This is a right I earned by trading you a Student Council position. Even if you say that, Ichinose Mom, I'm not changing my mind."
Nangong Cheng was thoroughly satisfied now.
Leaving aside whether he'd become a fellow mommy-obsessed junior, he had at least successfully established an unusual, special sort of intimacy with Ichinose Honami.
With that connection in place, both building her affection further and issuing all kinds of interesting tasks would work in his favor as the mastermind behind the scenes.
For example, the next thing he wanted to do.
"Ichinose Mom, I might need your help with something else."
"You won't turn me down, will you?"
Ichinose Honami rolled her eyes adorably.
She would have liked to refuse.
But she knew she'd benefited enormously from Nangong Cheng giving her the Student Council position. If helping him could ease some of her guilt, she was naturally willing.
"Only if it's something within my abilities, okay? Otherwise, I won't be able to help."
"Don't worry. It's something very simple~"
Nangong Cheng smiled mysteriously, then motioned with his eyes for Ichinose Honami to follow him.
Volume one: Even if you're a dragon, that's fine too
About ten minutes later.
Nangong Cheng brought Ichinose to the surveillance room.
"Hello. Could we check some surveillance footage?"
"What date? Exact time? Location?"
The staff member on duty was very concise.
"The entrance to the supermarket convenience store, from after classes ended on the first day of school until around six. Sorry for the trouble."
The surveillance footage was quickly pulled up.
Nangong Cheng soon found the segment he wanted and asked the staff member to isolate and enlarge it.
"This part. Can I buy it?"
"100,000 points."
What a rip-off.
But considering the footage's "value," Nangong Cheng readily paid.
"Do you understand what this means, Ichinose?"
Ichinose Honami nodded.
It wasn't hard to understand.
"According to the information you mentioned, Nangong Cheng, upperclassmen aren't allowed to tell first-year students about the school. But what they said in the video counts as a violation."
"It isn't particularly serious, since the people involved didn't even realize it. Everyone already knows these things now, too, so the school might not actually take action."
"But if you choose to make an issue of it and insist on treating it seriously, that could change things."
It looked like there would be another victim.
Ichinose Honami observed a second of silence for them in her heart.
"Exactly."
Nangong Cheng nodded.
Of course I'm going to make an issue of it!
Who'd turn down free money? An idiot?
"And I can tell you that this video actually had something to do with how I got that Student Council position."
"Hm?"
Ichinose Honami's curiosity stirred again.
There was a story behind this, too?
Nangong Cheng motioned for Ichinose Honami to leave the surveillance room with him first, while opening the System Shop.
[People-Finding Cane: stand it upright, and it will point in the direction of the person or item you are looking for. Success rate: 70%. Points required to redeem: 500]
From Ichinose Honami's perspective, Nangong Cheng pulled a cane out of his clothes as though performing a magic trick, then spent a while gesturing with it.
Was this some kind of divination?
How strange.
"It's a little trick passed down through my family. Don't mind it... I'll explain what I'm about to do."
Nangong Cheng led the way with the People-Finding Cane in hand, turning his head to explain to Ichinose Honami.
"According to what I've learned through my investigations since the first day of school, the second years are currently ruled by a Class A student named Miyabi Nagumo."
"Why use the word 'ruled'? Because he can make the vast majority of second-year students obey him alone. For all we know, he might even collect private points from them every month like taxes and keep them as his personal assets."
"Also, he has another identity—the Student Council vice president."
Watching Ichinose Honami sink into thought, Nangong Cheng wrapped up his explanation.
"Now, Ichinose Mom, you should understand what I'm planning to do next, right?"
"...Yes. I didn't expect this."
Nangong Cheng's explanation wasn't complicated, so Ichinose Honami fully understood why he had made a point of visiting the surveillance room first.
The information that was now public clearly stated that, until the end of the first month, all upperclassmen and faculty members were forbidden from revealing information involving the school's secrets to first-year students.
Yet the upperclassmen in the surveillance footage had used suggestive terms such as [defective goods] and [hell].
It was exactly the kind of sabotage only an incompetent teammate could manage.
So this Student Council vice president named Miyabi Nagumo was truly in for some rotten luck. She was ten-out-of-ten—or at least nine-out-of-ten—certain that Nangong Cheng would demand an exorbitant price.
He'd been minding his own business, only for trouble to fall straight into his lap.
The two chatted as they walked, soon finding the two upperclassmen from the video in the cafeteria.
After signaling that Ichinose Honami only needed to watch, Nangong Cheng walked straight up to confront them.
"Hello, upperclassmen. Sorry to bother you for a moment."