If Her Flag Breaks Volume 1 Chapter 3

Flag 3: Exploring and Rebuilding the Guild Base

“Um… I live in a dorm. What about it…?”

As Souta slung his backpack over his shoulders at the end of the school day, Akane had asked, “Souta-kun, where do you live?” After Souta answered, she nodded in feigned understanding.

“Can we go play there?”

“No.”

Hearing Souta’s response, Akane’s eyes welled up in tears. She blubbered “Oh~”, her friendship flag breaking in reply.

He’s still as rough with the flags as before… Nanami watched the conversation in her peripheral vision as she put her stationery in her school bag.

“That kind of place isn’t suitable for girls to visit.”

“Like the boy’s bathroom?”

“What kind of dorm would that be?!”

Akane’s off-putting question resulted in a rare Souta retort.

“Like your room’s in a stall?”

“Even prisoners live better than that, right…?”

No, since it’s Miss Heiress, the toilet in her mansion might be quite big. With this thought process, Souta decided it was pointless to hide it, so he told the truth.

“How do I put it? It’s because my dorm’s messy, it’s a total wreck.”

“Then we’ll go clean it up! Don’t look at Akane that way, but Akane really does love to be clean though? Mm-hmm!”

As usual, another one of Akane’s friendship flags was raised immediately. Souta’s feelings about them had already begun to gradually move from fear to admiration.

Despite Akane’s enthusiastic proposal, Souta still crossed his arms and sighed in contemplation. “Hmmmm…”

On the other hand, Akane was really motivated. For some reason, she was wiping an imaginary window with exaggerated movements, as if she were practicing boxing. Although, even if she was wiping a window, it was more like ‘Wax on, wax off.’

“Huh?! Huh?! What happened? Souta and Akane, why did you guys suddenly become so close without Big Sis’s consent?!”

Kikuno, not knowing what had happened during lunch, protested with her eyes welling up in tears. She seemed to blame Souta, her expression a little accusatory.

“That requires consent…?”

Nanami, having become a bystander, murmured to herself with a faint smile.

“We just ate together during the lunch break, we’re not actually as close as you say…”

Kikuno puffed her cheeks angrily, as cute as a child no older than one. Souta comforted her while explaining what had happened.

After listening to Souta’s explanation, Kikuno nodded with a slight smile, feigning understanding.

“Really? Akane-chan is a really good kid, Big Sis strongly approves of your friendship!”

It seems consent has been acquired.

Kikuno turned and faced Akane with a deep bow.

“Please take care of Sou-kun.”

“D-don’t be like that, Okiku-nee…!”

“Yeah, Kikuno-senpai, it’s not like I’m an outsider.”

“Huh?! You’re already family?! Sou-kun, why didn’t you discuss this with Big Sis first?! Big Sis feels so lonely!!”

It seems consent has not been fully acquired.

“Huh? What do you mean…?”

Big Sis’s logic was too unpredictable and Souta was at a loss, but Akane, the central subject, was still smiling brightly.

“... Speaking of which, Akane just referred to Okiku-nee as ‘senpai’, right?”

Although Kikuno was supposed to be a year older than them, calling a classmate ‘senpai’ is still pretty strange.

“Ah, um. Senpai guided me when I came to this school last year. Since she was Senpai at the time, it feels a bit weird to change it now…”

“Ah, but, at the time, I already knew I would become a freshman a year late.”

The senpai in the same grade seemed a bit shy.

It’s unclear whether this resolves the subject, but Akane, who wasn’t especially paying attention, returned to the original subject.

“Then, since we got your Big Sis’s approval, we can go to Souta’s dorm now! Mm-hmm!”

“... She approved?”

“Big Sis also wants to go! Mm-hmm!”

Kikuno, even more free-spirited than Akane, raised her hands with this declaration, cutting off Souta’s question.

Met with inexplicable enthusiasm, Souta was then patted on the waist from behind, startling him.

“!?”

He turned to look, but there was nobody behind him… Then he found that it came from below.

To Souta, who was 170 cm tall, the other person was a girl 50 cm shorter than him. Not only her height, but her appearance looked young. Although she looked like an elementary school student, her uniform revealed her to be a student in the same grade. That said, the other students had called her ‘Grandmother’ during the lunch break, even asking her for advice.

“Give up, young Souta.”

“Young?!”

The young girl, who seemed not to wear anything on her lower half, spoke to Souta in a wizened tone, as if he were a little rascal or devil. As a result, Souta couldn’t help but raise his voice.

“Young Akane has a disease where she just can’t leave tragic beings alone, you could say she’s in a critical condition. If you continue having this kind of tragic aura, you’ll always be stuck with her, okay? Plus, young Kikuno is also very stubborn.”

The little girl chuckled and went on her way home.

Akane followed the silhouette with her eyes, and told the dumbstruck Souta:

“She’s Grandmother Tsumugi.”

“‘Grandmother’...? … Is she an old lady?”

They say that humans will gradually shrink when they pass a certain age, so maybe she was like that? But whether it’s her delicate skin or her facial features, she looks indistinguishable from a young girl. Or is she just an old-fashioned little girl who skipped a few grades? The mysteries surrounding her identity increased.

“She’s the Living Dictionary of the academy. They say that our academy doesn’t have students who don’t listen to Grandmother Tsumugi’s words.”

“What happens if you don’t listen?”

“You’ll be cursed.”

“That isn’t the same as a living dictionary, right?!”

Akane was pretty much just saying random things, but Souta didn’t know whether to take the rumor seriously or lose to Akane’s enthusiasm or even think that Tsumugi’s advice did indeed make sense. Regardless, Souta sighed deeply, forced a smile, and said to Akane:

“Nevermind. Since you want to come over so much, come. But I’m not kidding that the dorm is messy, alright?”

“Mm-hmm!! I’ll take the chance to show my great skills! It’ll be my first time cleaning up a boy’s room!!”

“B-Big Sis also wants to clean up!!”

“Let’s team up!! Attack as a team!”

They actually wanted to attack…? Souta’s mood dimmed, and he looked at the ‘Inexplicably Motivated’ flag sticking up on Akane’s head with a strained smile.

“It’s highly-anticipated, right, Nanami?”

“Huh? Why ask me?”

As Nanami zipped up her backpack, she was suddenly thrown into the fray by Akane. Nanami frowned in suspicion.

“Because we’re going together~”

“Why…?”

“I’ll tell you after we get there.”

“There’s basically no point in telling Us after we get there!!”

Nanami somehow discovered Akane’s trap. Mahougasawa Akane… How did you think that she wouldn’t notice?

“... Nevermind, there’s nothing to do anyways. Plus, the Big Sis isn’t very responsible, and giving the kind of guy Souta a chance to be by himself is dangerous, so there’s no harm in having Us accompany you.”

“After all, Souta-kun would explode.”

“Am I really that dangerous?!”

This requires a Level 5 hazardous waste management license. In other words, a nitroglycerine person; or, perhaps, human nitroglycerin? Anyways, there’s no difference.

And so, the four-person group of Akane, Nanami, Kikuno, and Souta was formed, heading towards the dorm where Souta lived.

Hatagaya Academy’s huge campus was encircled by a total of four H-Bahn sky train stations; namely, Yoyogi Uehara Station to the southwest of the academy, Yoyogi Park Station to the southeast, Hatagaya North Station to the northwest, and Hatsudai North Station to the northeast.

The high school division was near Yoyogi Park Station, while Souta’s dorm was near Hatsudai North Station.

Although these were walkable distances, students of Hatagaya Academy can freely get on and off these four stations so long as they present their student IDs, so of course they choose to take the trains.

“I thought the dorms were all concentrated on the main road. Turns out there are some here as well.”

“Yep… For the sake of caution, I’ll confirm once again: the dorms are really messy, are you guys absolutely sure you want to come?”

“Hey Souta, thou hath only transferred for two days, and your room is already messy enough that it’s not to be seen by others…?”

“If you have any complaints, then just don’t come…”

Before Nanami could counter Souta’s already exhausted words, Akane interjected cheerfully:

“It’s definitely just that your luggage hasn’t been completely sorted yet and is in a messy pile, right? Just leave it to me!”

Akane’s ‘motivated’ flag was still flying strong.

The four got off at the academy’s Hatsudai North Station and, after walking a short distance, gradually saw farms and pastures.

“... What is this? The countryside?” Nanami asked.

“If I remember correctly… this is the farm of the Agriculture, Forestry, Aquaculture, and Horticulture Club.”

“Horticulture…?”

The landscape looked bucolic from a distance, and it felt considerably large. Nanami frowned, wondering if it was part of a backup plan adopted by farmers afraid of the production reduction policy.

Behind the farms was a dense stretch of woods, actually more like a forest than woods. Walking in there felt like being showered by forest.

“... There’s a dorm in this place?”

“Awesome, your home is in a forest.”

Compared to Nanami’s unhappy expression of “there should be a limit to how remote this is”, Akane smiled as she always did, thinking positively.

Souta, leading them, had a different attitude and plodded on.

And then, in a small clearing in the forest—

A building stood quietly.

The edge of the roof had fallen, and not only was part of the wall collapsed, it was also covered with vines. The door had almost rotted through, the windows were broken, and the surrounding area was overgrown with weeds.

Even by the lowest standards, it still looked like…

“Ruins…?”

“What…? What’s going on with this tattered dorm…”

“Are these not ruins? Souta, thou didst not go to the wrong place, right?”

“See? What did I say?”

Souta showed the dorm’s certification page in the student handbook. It said ‘Quest House’. Nanami looked at the moldy dorm plaque and knit her brows.

“This is indeed ‘Quest House’...”

“So you live… here…?”

Akane’s eyes lost their light, frozen in shock. However, Souta smiled and nodded with a hint of self-deprecation.

“For a lonely, poor person like me with dead parents, what could I expect? I have nowhere to go, and no home to go back to… The academy now not only gives me shelter from the elements, but also a scholarship. If I ask for too much and get kicked out, wouldn’t I be in an even more tragic state?”

“But… even if it’s like that, to live in this kind of place is…”

“After all, this is my situation, so I’m pretty easy to take advantage of. But taking in somebody like me makes it easier for the academy to raise money… Although, the fact of the matter is, they only need to take me in. Nobody really cares how it’s handled afterward.”

“How can this be… That’s too much…”

Souta’s attitude might have been due to all the tragedies he’d experienced. This attitude, coupled with his situation, made Akane even more worried.

But before Akane’s feelings burst out, Kikuno’s tear glands had already let loose.

“It’s too much… It’s too much… So it’s like this… they actually want Sou-kun to live in this kind of place…!!”

Kikuno’s tears streamed down her face as she cried. Souta was taken aback.

“Hey… Wh-why does Okiku-nee need to cry? I… I don’t really mind.”

“Anywhere is fine… Poor Souta-kun…”

“Even Akane is crying?!”

Next to Kikuno, Akane followed suit, her tears pouring down like a waterfall. In this atmosphere, Souta was already in no position to prevent this.

“... Souta, didst thou plan to let the peerless Miss Heiress clean this place up? Instead of cleaning it up, is it not faster to raze it to the ground and rebuild it again…?”

At least, Nanami wouldn’t want to step foot into this dorm.

“Why… Why did Sou-kun have to meet this kind of treatment…”

“Waaah~ It’s too much… It’s too unfair…”

Kikuno and Akane, who erupted into tears, and Souta, who had been struggling to deal with Akane, didn’t hear Nanami speak at all.

Especially the always indifferent Souta — although he didn’t care about hurting himself, when he met girls who felt sad for him, he didn’t know what to do. Since he had no clue how to deal with Akane, he looked to Nanami for help, almost crying himself.

Having never encountered such mayhem before, Nanami retreated on the spot.

“Uh…! … This… E-enough! Crying for what? Think of a solution instead! Doing anything else would be better than this!”

Nanami already stopped holding back, pretty much ready to ride to battle at this point. Akane stopped crying, beamed, and hugged Nanami.

“Nanami really is a good person!”

“Whoa… Hey! Stop hugging, stop sticking to Us! Quick, Souta, come save Us!”

Nanami, who couldn’t stand Akane rubbing her cheeks, issued an SOS signal. Souta mocked instead:

“Isn’t this great? I think you guys are closer friends with each other than with me, yeah?”

Souta, who originally had a sad smile, didn’t mean anything bad when he said this. However, facing the wrong direction, Kikuno’s super-sensitive Sisterly Love Radar received the wrong signals at that moment and she rushed over to Souta.

“D-don’t worry, Sou-kun! Big Sis will help you ask Akane to be your friend! You don’t have to feel lonely!”

“Huh…? No… Okiku-nee, what are you…!”

“Akane, please also be friends with Souta!”

Kikuno, ignoring Souta’s attempt at stopping her and with her sisterly doting reaching its peak, sincerely pleaded.

Receiving her plea, Akane’s frequently-used Loneliness Sensor revved to its max. She let go of Nanami, clasped Souta’s hand, and said:

“I’m sorry, Souta! I’m your friend, but I made you feel lonely; I’m unworthy of being a friend! Souta-kun’s my good friend, though! Please don’t feel lonely! Akane and Nanami and Kikuno-senpai and Souta-kun are a very close group of four!”

Akane made Kikuno hold the hands of Nanami and Souta, and took the two’s empty other hands herself, forming a circle. The four started spinning circles, but only Akane laughed aloud: “Ahahahahaha!”

After spinning for a while, Akane, albeit dizzy and unsteady, faced Souta and said:

“Look! I also can’t let poor Souta go uncared for!”

“Souta’s on the other side, Akane.”

Because she was dizzy and unsteady, she didn’t face Souta.

“Mother once said, ‘Close friends are magic staffs’ and ‘That’s the magic that makes you feel like you can do anything’. In my mind, Souta-kun and Nanami are wonderful, bright magic.”

Akane clasped Souta’s hand again, smiling. As if infected by the poetic lines, Nanami grinned slightly and added a sentence of her thoughts:

“Put simply, Akane is a magician specializing in summoning gentle fairies~”

“Nanami, you’re a poet!”

“Huh?! Th-that doesn’t count! Wh-what was just said doesn’t count!!”

Nanami, snapping out of it, thought she said something embarrassing, and her face heated up.

“I want to hear more of Nanami’s poems!”

“Do not mention poetry!!”

“What does that matter, this is the privilege of youth! Everyone, let’s abuse this privilege together and run around the seaside asking for trouble at dusk!”

“Do nyaat waste your youth!”

The atmosphere’s getting better and better… Souta thought as he watched Akane and Nanami with a strained smile. He then inadvertently looked at the top of Akane’s head…

“Souta-kun also needs to waste our youth with us.”

Akane’s ‘can’t leave pitiful people alone’ attitude completely switched on, and friendship flags raised in an overwhelming frenzy

Seeing the flags raise everywhere, Souta thought, Was it me?! Did I do something wrong?! God… please, don’t do this anymore. He couldn’t help but take three steps backwards. Unfortunately, he didn’t realize that within the pile of friendship flags stood a singular pink flag with a heart symbol…

“... Then, what should we do to fix the dorm?”

“That’s what We want to ask!”

Sitting on the train on their way back, Akane triumphantly turned her neck and asked. Nanami then roared back, as if attacked.

The group consisting of Her Princess Highness and Miss Heiress, who were a little ignorant of the world, plus the newly transferred Souta, crossed their arms and looked to the sky in deep thought.

Watching this group of youngsters with a smile, Kikuno picked the right opportunity, raised her index finger, and said:

“When in a predicament, the saying goes that only old ginger is spicy.”

Rumor has it, the person who looks like a little girl and sips green tea at the Tea Ceremony Club might be the “old” ginger.

“The tattered dorm? Quest House? After all, it was built when the academy was founded. Even if you tidied it up, it still wouldn’t become clean.”

It was the academy’s Living Dictionary. After listening to Akane and co. speak, Tsumugi put a rakugan in her mouth and said:

“Would it not indeed be faster to rebuild it from the ground?”

Although Nanami asserted that her earlier joke wasn’t far from the answer, Tsumugi took a sip of her tea and then poured cold water over her.

“I heard that the school management is in dire straits due to the declining birthrate. Would they be willing to pay for it?”

“Can’t we… think of a way?!”

“Students these days are too dependent on other people. They just don’t understand taking matters into their own hands…”

Seeing Tsumugi enter preaching mode, the four all inched back slowly, smiling stiffly.

“Speaking of which, it’s just a little worn out, but you immediately lose heart, proving that recent young people lack perseverance. It’s not like we elders like saying this…”

Akane and co. quietly slid open the paper shoji of the Tea Ceremony Club. Meanwhile, Tsumugi was still ranting with her eyes closed.

After leaving the Tea Ceremony Club, they sat down on the benches on the sidewalk, hopelessly sipping on juice boxes.

“Then, would we get in trouble if we rebuilt without permission?”

“It’d be surprising not to…”

Nanami, relatively less demoralized, asked a sincere question and was immediately rejected by Souta.

“Then there’s no other way… Souta, please get in trouble.”

“You’re planning to rebuild in secret?!”

Souta was scared silly.

“Don’t worry, Sou-kun! Big Sis will get in trouble in your stead!

“Doting to this extent…!”

Big Sis’s sisterly love made Nanami retreat.

Meanwhile, Souta was afraid of Akane, whose tears had broken the surface tension of her eyes.

“... Every time I watch Princess Sara or Dog of Flanders, I always can’t stop crying, can’t stop crying, can’t bear to keep watching! When I imagine Souta in that position… in a tattered dorm, in a snowstorm… dying… I just…”

A huge teardrop streamed down Akane’s face again.

“Don’t make people cry!!”

“S-sorry… I-I’ll be fine. See~ Speaking of which, I’d probably be more like Perrine or Lassie.”

“More like an animal…”

“Sou-kun, you’re so cute!”

“Souta-kun, so you’re actually a beast!!”

Disregarding the discrepancy in opinion between sister and friend, Souta felt aggrieved at being called a beast.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s a Souta beast’s house or a dog’s house. The point is that, even if we wanted to remodel, we would have to overcome the issue of finances.”

“Nanami called her friend a beast or dog, that’s too over-the-top!”

“Thou clearly saidst it first, thou clearly saidst it first!!”

As Akane and Nanami chattered, Souta, at his tender age, discovered that being called a beast or dog by the female sex really hurt.

“Souta, dost thou want to try begging? Since Akane is a rich heiress, she could definitely provide funds.”

“Huh?! Souta, you want to beg me?! That’s more than I could ever wish for! It’d be the first time a boy begged me! Go ahead, go ahead, please! Mm-hmm!”

“......”

Seeing Akane move her arms like a wrestler before a match, expressing her enthusiasm by bringing both elbows horizontally in front of her chest while breathing heavily, the corner of Souta’s mouth twitched.

If Souta refused to beg Akane now, Souta’s tragic plight would not be resolved, Akane would continue to be sad, and Nanami would continue blaming Souta for making Akane sad. In this spiral of sorrow and pain, it was ultimately Souta who got hurt.

Additionally, he also thought that the most important thing was avoiding Akane’s expectant smile. So, after thoroughly preparing himself, Souta finally said:

“Akane, please build me a new dorm.”

“Huh— how ordinary—”

“Couldn’t thou have acted more flattering, Souta?”

Reprimanded by the two girls, the young man instantly lost his foothold.

“Sou-kun, do you want Big Sis to help you beg?”

With even the doting Big Sis saying something, even getting a toehold was unthinkable, not to mention a foothold.

At this point, Souta steeled himself, forced out a dazzling smile, and said to Akane:

“Could you please help poor little old me build a new dorm, o mesmerizing Akane-chan? You are the angel of my heart, the only one I can beg.”

“Souta-kun, you sound like a player.”

“Souta, thou art thoroughly rotten.”

“You two were the ones who wanted me to say it, though!!

Souta was hit hard, hugging his knees and shouting into them on the bench.

“Big Sis knows her Sou-kun isn’t that kind of child!”

Doting Big Sis’s trust was unnecessarily heavy.

“But, I wouldn’t be a woman if I couldn’t respond to a man’s whole-hearted plea. I want to do something for him… however—”

“However?”

Seeing Akane stop talking, Nanami was puzzled.

“I, don't have money…”

“Huh? Art not thou Miss Heiress?”

“To be honest… When I came here to live in a dorm, I accepted my family’s condition: unless it’s an urgent emergency, I must do my best to deal with it without depending on my family. So…”

“So it’s like that. Allowing freedom, but requiring self-sufficiency… It’s like that everywhere.”

Nanami smiled wryly, clenching her empty juice box.

“Huh?”

“It’s okay. However, this is a headache. Our principality is also very poor… To ask for money is to ask the impossible…”

Akane and Nanami cast Souta aside and started their own discussion. This allowed Souta to suddenly regain his senses.

“Excuse me… That said, what exactly did I just do that for then…?”

“Souta-kun’s efforts will not be wasted. Someday that effort will bear fruit, and its harvest will be taken for foodstuff and displayed in a storefront.”

Although he felt he was gradually being taken for foodstuff, since Akane’s coy laugh of “Heeheehee” was really cute and he didn’t feel any malicious intent, Souta could only deal with it with a sigh in the end.

“Before Souta-kun is taken for foodstuff, we must do our best to help him, Nanami!”

“Huh…? We need to too…?”

Both hands held tightly by Akane, Nanami frowned, troubled.

Although, Akane just seemed to like the uncommonly used word ‘foodstuff’, so she really wanted to use it.

“Big Sis will come too, Sou-kun!”

What Big Sis would do afterwards was unclear.

In the end, they didn’t think of a good idea that day, so the meeting was adjourned… The next morning—

Souta entered the classroom and sat down in his seat. Nanami turned, sitting on the side of her chair, and said good morning while getting to the point.

“We asked the housemasters at Our dorm, and it seems that the boys’ dorms are full to the point they’re about to burst.”

“Ah, then… me being put there, might not have been entirely out of malicious intent.”

Looking closely, while Souta’s uniform and school bag were obviously brand new, they seemed to be covered with a layer of dust.

“It might genuinely be better for thou to live in a tent.”

“I can’t put one up though…”

“You guys are planning to go camping without inviting me?! It would be my first time living in a tent. I always live in a villa, homestay, or vacation apartment and such!”

Akane popped in between the two.

“Thy head is only filled with thoughts about playing…”

Nanami smiled lightly, and Akane continued to ask her, “Are you going to the mountains? Or the beach?”

“Thou misunderstandest. We’re talking about Souta’s dorm.”

“Oh… Everyone should forget about the dorm business, and go play together?”

“Thy optimism is too exaggerated!!”

Incidentally, when you get tired of playing and go home, there is a trap of ‘remembering reality and falling into despair’ waiting for you.

“Hey~ What’s up with the dorm?”

The classmate with blonde hair and pierced ears who gave Souta his seat earlier heard the exchange and asked frivolously.

After Souta explained, he looked at the sky with an “Umm--”, and, after a long while, he said:

“Would you like to come to our dormitory? I think it’d be okay as long as you explain everything. Although crowding a fifth person into a room meant for four might be a little tight.”

He’s obviously a frivolous guy who would cheat girls everywhere, but he’s still kind regardless The surrounding students lamented that this guy really didn’t match his appearance.

But, Souta looked at the frivolous classmate’s head, and immediately replied:

“I can’t sleep if I’m not alone.”

“Really? Then it can’t be helped.”

He gave up and walked back to his seat.

“We said that thou art not allowed to break flags!”

Nanami saw everything, and mercilessly awarded Souta a hand chop.

“Flag…?”

Akane tilted her head suspiciously, and Souta hurriedly covered it up with a “Nothing, nothing.”

However, either because Souta didn’t cover it up correctly or his agitation wasn’t very natural, Akane felt that something wasn’t right with Souta’s series of actions.

“What’s going on… Is he awkward? Or… afraid?... Just like that time… like with me… if it’s really like that… if it’s really like that… then there’s even more reasons why I can’t just leave him alone!”

Akane’s mind strengthened Souta’s sorry impression, and her flags stood up more fiercely on her head.

Souta saw this and tiredly exhibited a pained expression.

… At this time, the dainty classmate Ryuukishibara Tsumugi and Kikuno walked into the classroom with a young girl wearing a uniform with a strangely colored bow tie, equipped with shoulder pads and arm guards, dressed quite strangely.

“Ah, Kikuno-senpai… and Grandmother.”

“You lot, you left yesterday without listening to all of my words?! Young people nowadays are really…”

“Okay okay, Grandmother, pointless ramblings don’t really count.”

The female classmate brought by Tsumugi let out a heroic laugh of “Bwahahahahaha!” and stopped Tsumugi’s rant.

“You just said something silly…”

“Excuse me, Grandmother… This person is…?”

Akane asked this, and saw the mysterious girl catch everyone’s attention by unnecessarily flipping her hair and stepping forward.

“Yours truly waited for someone to ask before introducing myself, that was really Discord… correction, that was really discourteous of yours truly. Yours truly Hatagaya Academy’s student president, Seiteikouji Mimori!”

“The student president…”

“This academy attaches great importance to student autonomy. Seek the Student Council if you are in need of assistance. In fact, the Student Council is also responsible for dormitory affairs, and yours truly is the person in charge.”

“Eh?! So she’s the one who put Souta-kun in that kind of dorm?!”

Akane’s and Nanami’s gazes were mixed with some hostility.

“Yours truly was accidentally on autopilot and put him in an empty dorm~ But I hear it’s very shabby, right? Yours truly will observe the situation after school, and then we’ll go on from there. And Grandmother asked yours truly to do what I can to help!”

“Huh… Didn’t Grandmother say that we were too dependent on others yesterday…?”

“I did say to take matters into your own hands. But I never said I wouldn’t help? The short-temperedness of young people isn’t good.”

Tsumugi crossed her arms and pursed her lips. Purely in terms of appearance, she looked like a pouting young girl.

But, her raised arms exuded so much senseless good intentions that Akane happily put her hands together.

“Grandmother is so reliable!!”

“Although it should be that yours truly is more reliable!!”

Mimori pointlessly and unreasonably refused to be outdone, making Nanami laugh.

“The student president is so childish…”

“... And, since young Kikuno was full of sisterly love and pleaded tearfully, it can’t be helped. You, sir, have a good sister, young Souta.”

Although, said sister was really just a sisterly neighbor who lived nearby and loved to take care of people. However, Souta couldn’t say anything about that in this kind of atmosphere.

“Thank you, Okiku-nee.”

“Why so polite? As Big Sis, helping Sou-kun goes without saying!”

However, those who knew the truth strained a smile. The only person at the scene who wasn’t straining a smile but rather smiling from ear to ear was Akane.

“Great, Souta-kun!”

“I don’t really care… but, since Akane and Okiku-nee won’t be sad, then so be it, I guess?

Regardless of his real thoughts, Souta naturally smiled a little as he said this, making Akane ecstatic and feel as if all her pores had opened.

Souta-kun’s smile… as expected, it’s mesmerizing…! I want to see it more!

Seeing the flag on Akane’s head twinkle, Souta’s smile instantly clouded over, and Akane nearly cried.

Translator notes and references

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