Ch.30Male Friendship (1)

Well, whether they conquered a dungeon or not, high school students were still high school students.

“Shiiiit.”

I barely managed to get up to the sound of my alarm. Wait, how did I manage to get to school at 6:30 AM when I was a school kid? Now that I’m older but living on a high school schedule again, it’s absolute torture.

Well… the older you get, the more you regress to being a baby, I guess.

After graduation, even waking up at 9 AM became difficult.

‘Ugggh… morning lectures are too hard.’

I’d say that while dragging myself to morning classes.

And after becoming an adult and a full-time writer, even waking up at 10 AM was a struggle for me.

Now going back to waking up at 6:30 AM was killing me.

‘I should be doing club activities too…’

But I didn’t have the energy for that. My daily schedule was already packed.

Anyway, I headed straight to school.

——–

“Shota!!”

As soon as I entered the classroom, Umi and Taiga grabbed me. What’s this? Is this the setup for getting mugged? It certainly looked that way.

“Shota.”

Sasitsu was in the corner. He waved at me.

“What’s going on? I want in too.”

Eri tried to join us, but Umi blocked her.

“It’s club activity talk.”

Umi grinned as she pushed Eri away.

“Club? You guys are in a club?”

Eri looked at our group of four suspiciously.

Sasitsu, Umi, Taiga, and me. Honestly, we weren’t exactly a harmonious combination.

“Sigh… am I the only normal one here? That’s a heavy burden.”

I muttered without thinking.

“You’re the biggest weirdo of all!!”

Umi immediately objected.

“Club? Hmm… what kind of club?”

Eri asked me, clearly unconvinced.

“Well… we call it a club, but it’s just a social group. We haven’t gotten official approval from the school.”

I made up an excuse.

“Really? Then I want to join too.”

Eri was quite persistent.

“Hold on, Eri. Let’s have a chat, just the two of us.”

Umi reluctantly put her arm around Eri’s shoulder.

*Whisper whisper*

Some mysterious conversation passed between them.

“Well… if you put it that way.”

Eri seemed to accept whatever Umi had proposed. What did they talk about? I was curious.

“Then have a good club meeting, my darling.”

Eri said, and suddenly planted a kiss on my cheek.

*Smooch*

“Ahhh…!”

Taiga made an indescribably complex expression.

Then, Eri trotted back to her seat. It seemed she wasn’t going to interfere with us anymore.

*THWACK*

Immediately, Taiga’s retribution came flying. A strong heel kick to my side.

“Why did you hit me?”

I protested to Taiga.

“Just because. Something annoyed me.”

Taiga said with an irritated expression.

Hitting someone because you’re annoyed… that’s straight-up delinquent behavior.

“Anyway, Sasitsu. Why did you call me?”

I asked Sasitsu.

“Everyone. Have you checked the news?”

Sasitsu asked.

“No.”

After conquering the dungeon, I was too tired and just crashed.

“Sigh… you all need to pay more attention to matters that concern you. Look.”

Sasitsu opened a local internet news page.

Being a local newspaper, the news was quite modest.

‘Emoshita City Zoo’s panda Ku-chan safely delivers twins’

‘Famous restaurant in Emoshita City finally introduces self-service kiosks. Elderly man who doesn’t know how to use it sits down and cries’

A parade of completely irrelevant news stories. Well… it’s a local newspaper with nothing newsworthy.

“Not that. Look below. Below.”

Sasitsu scrolled down.

‘Mass recovery from catatonic state at nursing home, patients showing improvement’

‘Victims had common symptoms including hallucinations and auditory delusions’

‘Heavy metal poisoning? Food inspection shows no abnormalities’

“The catatonic condition has been cured. This morning’s investigation showed everyone has returned to normal. They recovered suddenly. So suddenly that people were shocked.”

Sasitsu said.

“Could it be… because we freed the souls trapped in the fortress?”

Umi’s eyes lit up.

“Yes. We saved people. I don’t usually like this sort of thing, but we should celebrate.”

Sasitsu said with a slight smile.

“We… saved people.”

Taiga muttered with a moved expression.

“Yes. We saved people. What we did wasn’t meaningless.”

Hearing Sasitsu’s words made my heart swell.

This emotion… I had to express it out loud.

“KIEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!!!!”

A roar spontaneously erupted from my mouth.

*THUD*

“Shut up.”

Umi immediately hit me to quiet me down. Other students briefly looked our way, but soon went back to their business. Everyone knew that’s just how I am. Somehow… I’d become established as the weirdo character. Well, that’s my karma. I had been living too excitedly lately. The excitement of being possessed still hadn’t worn off.

“Let’s keep doing this. It’s something only we can do, something adults and police can’t do.”

Anyway, Sasitsu said something important. It was exactly like a line from the game.

It truly was something only we could do—our mission.

Knowing this, everyone nodded firmly.

And so, the bond between comrades grew even stronger.

———

After that, an ordinary day passed.

“Ah… everyone’s excited. Is it because of Golden Week? I get it. But you know you can’t just goof off, right? This is your opportunity. Opportunity. You need to build your foundation now so you won’t regret it in your second year.”

Our homeroom teacher spoke in a languid tone.

“Golden Week… it would be fun if you had friends or lovers, but my school days weren’t like that. My memories of Golden Week are probably just watching late-night anime.”

The homeroom teacher shared a dark page from his youth.

“Tch. Now I’m in a bad mood. Everyone, put away your textbooks. Let’s have a pop quiz.”

And suddenly, the homeroom teacher revealed his personal malice. Your personal grudge is showing too much.

“Of course, I’ll grade them today and give you the results. And yes, all scores will be made public.”

The homeroom teacher said with a malicious smile.

“Those who were swept up in youth and didn’t study will regret it.”

“Ahhh!! Teacher!! That’s too cruel!!!”

“A pop quiz right before Golden Week is unfair!!!”

The students immediately protested loudly.

“Come on. Put away your textbooks.”

Anyway, that’s how the sudden pop quiz began.

——-

It was just a simple test with three problems written on a memo. The results came out immediately.

“Oh… Arigiri Shota. All correct. You must have been paying attention in class.”

The homeroom teacher said.

“Hehehe. I’m a model student, aren’t I?”

I said with a smile. Well, before being possessed, I had already built up a high school level of academic ability. I easily got the first-year math problems right.

“Surrounded by girls, giggling, and still doing well in studies… go die.”

Suddenly, the homeroom teacher looked at me with a gloomy gaze.

Wait. Telling a student to go die… is that even allowed?

“Aiueo… perfect score too. Well done.”

Sasitsu just stared out the window, seemingly indifferent. However, as a Sasitsu expert, I noticed the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth. He was enjoying the situation of casually getting a perfect score. Really… that’s why cool kids are so…

“Arghh!! It hurts my pride! Shota! Were you always this smart?!”

Umi said with a tearful face.

She only got one out of three correct. Well… she’s not the studious type.

“Well… Umi. No need to blame yourself. You and I are just different breeds. You did your best according to your breed.”

I sincerely tried to comfort Umi.

“You… didn’t choose to be born stupid. What’s wrong is this cruel world.”

I looked out the window, contemplating the cruelty of this world.

“Arghhhh!! This guy is so annoying!!!!”

Umi immediately started hitting me.

“Really… losing to someone who usually acts like an idiot…”

Umi slumped down at her desk.

“Should I… actually start studying?”

Umi seemed genuinely troubled. Is losing to me that frustrating?

Eri had also received her quiz results.

“Ah… I got everything wrong. I gave up on math a long time ago.”

Eri scratched her head.

“……..”

I didn’t think she’d get everything wrong. Even though I like teasing people, this felt wrong to mock.

“I should learn from my smart Shota.”

Eri said as she snuggled up to me.

Then, Eri whispered in my ear.

“In exchange, I could teach you… physical education…”

My face turned bright red at Eri’s suggestive comment.

“Back away! You devil!!”

Feeling my chastity threatened, I immediately made a cross with my fingers to ward off the evil spirit.

“Hmm? The cross doesn’t seem to be working?”

But Eri just chuckled and took my hand.

*Squish*

Then, Eri placed my hand on her chest. With that, the cross I had made with my fingers melted away. Hmm… she was too powerful a demon to exorcise.

“Why are you making that relaxed expression?!”

Umi immediately scolded me.

“Tch. Arigiri. Talking during class. Submit a written apology.”

The teacher immediately demanded an apology letter from me.

Wait. Why… I was about to protest, but stopped.

Tears were welling up in the homeroom teacher’s eyes.

I’ll just write the apology and submit it. If that soothes the teacher’s bitter heart, I’m satisfied with that.

Teacher… I’ll definitely visit you on Teacher’s Day.