Chapter 301: Defeat? The Heroine Gathering
Lunchtime.
In the White Team’s camp, a solemn atmosphere lingered, unlike the cheerful Red Team.
In the middle of the icy White Team camp stood a girl.
A beautiful girl with silver hair and silver eyes, resembling a full moon.
Aris, with her long limbs and ample chest looking stunning in her bloomers, had a stiff expression on her face.
“I worked hard preparing this lunchbox…”
In front of her was a typical Japanese-style bento.
White rice, rolled omelet, Vienna sausages cut into octopus shapes, menchi katsu, and shrimp tempura arranged neatly.
All prepared with thoughts of him in mind.
However, due to the terrifying rule that the Red and White teams had to eat separately during the Sports Festival’s lunchtime, she was forced to eat alone.
“…Junior. I wanted to feed you the lunch I made…”
Next to Aris was Kasumi.
With striking purple hair and purple eyes, Kasumi bit her lip, wearing a white headband.
The lunch she prepared was omurice.
A bento cutely decorated with ketchup to create a smiley face, but in the end, she couldn’t give it to him.
“…Junior is a bad guy. He won’t even eat the lunch I prepared…”
Kasumi’s gaze shifted to the White Team’s camp.
There, under the high, blue autumn sky, Kim Deok-Sung and the heroines were enjoying their lunch and dessert, laughing together.
Olivia, Rin, Haru, Makoto, Eri, and Seira were all wearing happy smiles.
“…Wuuuu…”
Kasumi’s shoulders slumped.
“Ugh… Hoshino-san. Doesn’t this feel more like a defeated heroine gathering?”
Aris said in a trembling voice upon seeing the scene.
But the gloomy atmosphere didn’t dissipate.
Thanks to that, for a radius of 10 meters around their mat, there wasn’t anyone else.
Everyone felt overwhelmed by the negative chill emanating from the two girls.
“President, it’s scary.”
“Can our White Team win?”
“Is that what female jealousy looks like? It’s terrifying…”
“There’s a Korean proverb that says when a woman harbors resentment, frost falls in the month of May. I guess it’s true.”
The extras whispered to each other.
Straddle.
However, Kasumi and Aris couldn’t hear the voices of the extras.
At that moment, when they were chewing on their tear-soaked bento boxes with dead eyes.
“President. Hoshino.”
Olive-colored-haired beautiful girl, student council vice president Morishita Miho appeared in front of them.
“What’s the matter, Vice President?”
“What’s going on? Vice President?”
Two pairs of unfocused gazes directed toward the vice president.
“You two don’t need to be so gloomy! If we win the afternoon events, the throwing game and the cavalry battle, our White team will take both the championship and MVP!”
The vice president spoke while patting her chest.
The white cloth symbolizing the White team wrapped around her forehead looked particularly white today.
“MVP… MVP… I see.”
The focus returned to Aris’s eyes.
If she wins MVP at the sports festival, she gets a chance to ask someone out.
Perhaps due to the gloomy lunch hour, she had momentarily forgotten about it, but the vice president reminded her.
Just then, as Aris mumbled about the MVP…
“But President-senpai, can our team really win in the cavalry battle?”
Kasumi said in a gloomy voice.
“What do you mean, Hoshino?”
“But the Chairman is with the Red team as a special transfer student. In the cavalry battle where abilities are allowed, can we really go up against the White Empress…?”
Kasumi trailed off.
At her words, Aris’s face tightened slightly.
Yoshizaki Seira.
As a special transfer student in 1st Year A-Class, she served as the captain of the Red team, boasting an impressive rank of EX.
White Empress, Five Crowns, Chairman of Shuo Hero Academy.
She held numerous flashy titles.
No matter how injured she was, she was not an opponent that could be matched by students.
If Seira truly unleashed her full power, victory in the cavalry battle, which had the highest points in the sports festival, would naturally go to the Red team.
“Well…”
Aris’s words trailed off.
After all, this is a sports festival.
While the thought that Seira wouldn’t go that far rose to her throat, she couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud.
It was because Aris had a gut feeling about it.
Seira was also aiming for the opportunity to ask someone out.
She would surely put in her all in the cavalry battle.
“But that doesn’t mean we can leave the Chairman out. I don’t have the authority to do that…”
“How about we limit her instead, President-senpai?”
Before Aris finished her sentence, Kasumi jumped in.
“We restrict the Chairman from using her EX rank power.”
Kasumi beamed as she smiled.
Hearing that, Aris nodded.
Complete exclusion would be unfair.
But limitation is a perfectly reasonable approach.
“That’s a reasonable solution. But I don’t have the authority to…”
“I’ll handle that.”
Kasumi grinned.
She took out her phone.
“I happen to have a bit of a connection with Instructor Mayuzumi. I’ll ask her.”
“…Thank you, Hoshino. I owe you one.”
Aris responded with a slightly trembling voice at Kasumi’s words.
The Chairman was like a mentor and second parent to her, but that didn’t mean she was going to give up her chance to ask someone out.
She was like a teacher and a second set of parents to me, but that didn’t mean I was going to give up my chance to ask someone out.
“Alright. With Hoshino’s help, I’ll seize this chance to ask for a date…”
Blush.
Aris’s face turned red.
Images of herself going on a date with him floated in her mind.
Exploring Tokyo’s landmarks together, eating ramen together with him.
Thump, thump.
Aris’s heart raced.
Kawasaki, watching this, had round eyes filled with surprise.
“Sounds good.”
She was creating allies within the Harem Plan.
Mayuzumi-sensei was nearly on board already.
Kawasaki’s next target was none other than Saionji Aris.
Aris was the perfect candidate to become her ally in every aspect.
She wasn’t participating in the Harem Plan yet, liked Kim Deok-Sung, and was the only powerhouse who could check the current front-runner, Olivia.
“Our junior has had a crush on the president, so…”
Kawasaki already knew that Kim Deok-Sung’s affections were leaning toward Aris as well.
She was quite perceptive that way.
“The president is definitely the queen that belongs on my chessboard…”
If Mayuzumi-sensei was the rook on that board, then Silver Queen Saionji Aris was a worthy queen and joker card.
Kawasaki’s eyes sparkled.
She had to recruit her.
And now, when she owed her a favor, it was the perfect moment to pull Aris into the Harem Plan.
“Hoshino, um… thank you for your help. I have no idea how to repay you, and I can’t offer anything in return…”
Aris said, slightly hesitating.
Unexpectedly, she received help from someone she didn’t anticipate.
But there could only be one MVP at the Shuo Sports Festival.
By the rules, Kawasaki was also a competitor to Aris.
And there was no reason for Kawasaki, who wasn’t in the top rankings, to help her.
This help was purely her goodwill.
That’s how Aris viewed it.
“Being helped by a junior…”
As the model student council president and the third-year leading all students, rather than guiding juniors, she had ended up receiving kindness instead.
It was the first time since Kim Deok-Sung that this had happened.
Having received kindness, she felt obligated to repay it.
Just as Aris was thinking that, Kawasaki smiled.
“Repay… I didn’t really do it expecting anything in return… but there is one thing I wish from the president.”
“What is it, Hoshino? I’ll do anything.”
Kawasaki, hearing Aris’s words, smiled innocently.
She said, “I hope the president joins the junior’s Harem Plan… and becomes my ally.”
The moment Kawasaki’s words ended, Aris’s eyes wavered.
It was during lunchtime for the White Team.
*
But isn’t it unfair if the EX-rank Seira genuinely joins in?
Anyway, it’d be great for me since we’d win, but if Seira hard-carries the equestrian event, the date request rights would fall right into Seira’s hands.
It can’t be like this.
My plan is to snatch up the date invitation and render it void.
I can’t let anyone else take the date invitation away from me.
Once again, Seira has to be eliminated…
“Hehehe. Anyway, the one getting trampled under this little one’s feet will be me!”
Seira shakes the lottery box, getting all dramatic.
The sound of slips crashing inside the box pierces my ears.
Seeing that confident smile makes me uneasy.
Is she going to manipulate the lottery again, like during the three-legged race partner selection?
Just as my thoughts wandered while I was watching Seira with the lottery box, a peculiar voice intruded between the heroines and me.
“Principal. I mean, Sera-chan.”
“Mayuzumi-sensei?” Eri tilts her head.
“Mayu…”
Seira’s expression stiffens slightly.
“Ahem. Just now, we established temporary rules for special transfer students during an impromptu staff meeting!”
Mayuzumi-sensei clears her throat and speaks.
Temporary rules, huh?
Out of nowhere?!
As everyone falls silent, Mayuzumi-sensei smiles and brightly states, “EX rank students can only use power equivalent to S rank level in horseback combat! Yay!”
It’s a rule clearly aimed at Seira.
But it makes sense.
Even though she’s only half an EX rank, Seira’s strength can overwhelm all the other students—it’s on a completely different level.
Without such restrictions, the horseback combat could turn into Seira’s one-man show.
And that’s not what I want.
“………. I can accept that much. Hmph.”
Seira hides her face behind her black lace fan.
The edge of her fan quivers delicately.
[Sis… Are you really going to go all out during the kids’ sports festival…?]
The Black Prince sighs at that sight.
It seems my concerns were valid.
What a mess.
While no one noticed, Mayu, who thwarted Seira’s plot, giggled.
“And secondly, the grouping for the horseback combat was decided collectively by discussions among the instructors and a random draw!”
At Mayu’s words, Seira’s face tenses up again.
Rustle.
She pulls out a piece of paper that seems to be bursting from between her ample bosom.
Wait, why are you pulling out papers from there again?
This is insane.
“Here! Kim’s grouping for the horseback combat!”
Regardless of my blurry thoughts, everyone’s gaze fixated on the paper Mayu pulled out.
Mine followed suit.
Written on it was the grouping.
[Horseback Combat Grouping]
[Red Team B Group]
[Kim Deok-Sung]
[Kamiya Makoto]
[Nishizawa Eri]
[Shinozaki Rin]
Fortunate or unfortunate, Seira’s name was missing.
“Ugh…!”
A suppressed voice came from next to me.
The black lace fan covering her face trembled even more noticeably as she stared at the list held by Mayuzumi-sensei—none other than Yoshizaki Seira, the white-haired, red-eyed beautiful girl.
At that moment, her plot was unintentionally shattered by Mayuzumi-sensei.
