CH 76

My vision was filled with Onesco’s moist eyes.

She’s so close that I could almost count the number of her wet eyelashes.

The sweet, flowery scent of flowers, I think.

I wonder why girls smell so good.

And finally, even our breaths mingle.

“… Le- Leopin-kun… Thank… you….”

It was a voice that seemed to transfer the soul from his mouth.

And then silence… for a beat.

“Ni- Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!?!?”

A scream, like a cat being chased by a rabid dog, fell from the sky.

I quickly flipped Onesco’s body off.

Onesco rolls to the side, “Kyaa!”

And right after that, we switched places.

*Doshhhhhhhh!!!*

The girl in the black cape fell on her butt on my stomach.

She is small and light, but as expected, it is hard to resist a full-body hip attack on the stomach.

I squeezed out a “Gofu!?” and folded my body into a crook.

“Sh- Shinobuko-san!” said Onesco.

Shinobuko was on top of me, catatonic and shaking.

“Ni …… ni ni ni …… ku, a black panther, that– it was on the tree-degozaru …!”

“Oh, that’s probably Tom, he’s Leopin’s pet, he’ll be fine.”

Onesco says soothingly, coming back to me.

Shinobuko hugged Onesco with a shuffling motion, like a flying squirrel jumping from tree to tree.

Onesco was not surprised then she suddenly hugged and patted her head, “Oh, you were so scared.”

Then she turned to me and said, like it’s normal.

“Whenever she’s scared, she hugs me like this, and the night we tell her a ghost story, she stays like this until morning.”

Shinobuko shook her head from side to side, clinging to Onesco like a jittery koala.

“It is not true, it looked like I hugged you but it was an optical illusion. In fact, it was the other way around, Onesco held me in her arms, she did that, and this is the Ninpo “Konakijiji no Jutsu”, Nininin.”

“Yes, yes, I get it.”

Onesco stands up, looking like she’s about to taunt a child.

She said, looking down at me with her usual hung eyes as I fell.

“I’d better get back to Monaka-sama. I’ll just say thank you. I used to think you were a bad horse, but from now on, I’m going to think of you as a regular horse.”

“Nin nin. So that’s why you were straddling him a while ago.”

“No, of course not! It was just an accident! Shinobuko-san, if you say such lewd things, the ‘lewd obake’ will come at night!”

“Nin?!”

Shinobuko buried her face quickly in Onesco’s chest, like a child afraid of thunder.

Onesco patted the back of her head and dexterously pulled out a booklet of slave tickets.

She tore a sheet from it and pitched it to me, her cheeks tinted in an awkward way.

“Take it, or I won’t be happy at all. But don’t get me wrong, this is just a small token of my appreciation! Well, I’ll be going now!”

Onesco walked away without him, and Shinobuko, still in her arms.

“The next time we meet, we will kill each other-degozaru”

She said with the authority of a mother koala and the stance of a baby koala.

I looked down at the ticket that was handed to me and was taken aback when I saw the value.

And I didn’t even know it.

This ‘little bit of gratitude’ is causing a hell of a lot of happenings in faraway places that I don’t even know about…

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇ ◆

At this time, Headmaster Nekodran was not in the “Royal Pioneer Academy”.

They were in the royal capital, a land more than 4,000 kilometers away from the academy.

He is standing on the stage set up in the conference hall of the royal castle, dressed up more than usual.

On the stage, there was a banner that read.

“The Leek Eight Kingdom, Royal Pioneer Academy, Presentation of Educational Achievements”

In front of the stage, reporters from not only this country, but even from neighboring countries are packed.

The principal was holding a magic loudspeaker and was bathed in the flashes of the magic shinsha devices.

He cuts them off with a smile and a cough.

“I’m sure you’ll be happy to hear this. But my ‘Royal Pioneer Academy’ will soon be this civilized!”

His voice echoed throughout the venue, and the audience cheered “Oh!”

“The school hasn’t even been open for a month and they’re already on the verge of installing a magic device!”

“As expected, there is only Principal Nekodran, who was said to be the hope in the family!”

“Could it be that the magic device in the back was developed at the academy?!”

“No, this is a ‘magic board’ on loan from this country’s magic research institute!”

“That board says ‘asset ranking’! Could it be that that’s the first time it’s been introduced, ranking the assets of the students of the academy?!”

When the principal nodded ‘Mm!’, the reporters cheered again.

The first place of “Asset Ranking” attracts attention.

1st place, Class 1-19, 46,315,300 Yen

“Wow, number one has assets far exceeding 40 million Yen! To earn that much in one month of opening the school is …!”

“Class 1-19 is the class where Miko’s Kotone is the leader!”

“Yes! Even the best academies can barely make a million …! That’s what I’d expect from a group of outstanding sons and daughters!”

“By the way, Headmaster, why is that ranking board from second place down covered with cloth?!”

“Ah, that’s because it’s still a period of time where information about the Royal Pioneer Academy is limited to its supporters. The breakdown of this ranking board has a significant impact on the market rate in this country and the position of the families of the parents. It would cause a lot of inconvenience to many people if it were made public without permission. But it would be a shame not to publish it at all, so I’ve made a special effort to publish only the first place.”

“I see.!” the reporters agreed.

But needless to say, this is only a prelude.

The second place, just below the first place, covered by a cloth, was never to be shown.

The headmaster chuckles.

‘I managed to fool them just fine.’

‘If this continues, the existence of that garbage will not leak out to the outside world.’

‘After all, it was the right decision not to bring the vice principal. That man has been acting strange lately. As soon as something happened, he would have a seizure and start screaming and acting out. If we don’t cut him off as soon as possible, we’ll be in danger.’

‘I’ve been in a tizzy preparing for this presentation for a long time.  Once this is done, I must hurry to find a new vice principal. Then we will be in a strong position and I will be a legendary headmaster. …! This presentation was a great success and a fitting start to the legend. No matter how much that ●● garbage is, it can’t touch a place 4,000 kilometers away.’

‘Only God could do such a thing! Garbage should be buried in a garbage dump! Yippee …!’

He was still underestimating him.

The boy he calls trash is not just any boy, though.

If the boy wanted to, he could easily show his face here at any time…!

“That’s it for today’s presentation at … Next, we’ll move on to the press conference.”

Just as the principal was about to leave the stage with his closing words, the ranking board behind him suddenly began to move.

“What the hell is …?”

The principal rushes back to the stage.

He didn’t think it was possible, but just as he was about to pounce on it to cover all the ranking boards with cloth just in case…

He just popped out of nowhere!

1st Special Training Class 51,200,000 Yen