Chapter 74

The day has finally come.Will the protagonist really be coming to my school?My heart is pounding. The next three years are going to determine the path of my life. Here we go!

The high school section entrance ceremony was held on a bright April day, sakura petals dancing in the breeze.I turned about and scanned the auditorium, but I couldn’t find anybody who matched the description.Since about a hundred new External Students will be joining us, it makes sense that I couldn’t spot her.I suppose I’ll just watch the ceremony.The representative of the current Suiran students was Tomoe-senpai, the Student Council President of the high school section, and it was him who gave the speech too.He sure has matured in the time I haven’t seen him. A totally different person to the middle schooler who snacked on sweets with a smile.As I was thinking about how cool he is, next up was Kaburagi, representing the new students.When he reached the podium, the audience grew noisy. He does have pretty stunning looks, so I can hardly blame them for being shocked. His black hair together with the tinge of coldness on his face made him look like a black panther. Leaving the Internals aside, it must have been pretty shocking for the Externals with no resistance yet.Anyhow, eventually the ceremony ended and we headed to our cla.s.srooms as we looked at the sheet with our cla.s.ses on them.After I found my name, naturally it was her name that I looked for next.Doesn’t seem to be in my cla.s.s at least.As I continued looking through the list of first years&h.e.l.lip; umm&h.e.l.lip; Oh!

Takamichi Wakaba.

&h.e.l.lip;Her name was really there.Wakaba-chan. The protagonist of 『you are my dolce』, and the heroine who ended up with the Emperor after many twist and turns. And the important girl who will determine my future.Where is she? I wanna see her. I wanna see what Wakaba-chan looks like.But since everyone needs to quickly make their way, I don’t have time to visit another cla.s.sroom.Can’t be helped. I’ll have plenty of other chances to see her. I’ll give up for now.I decided to just give up and headed for my cla.s.sroom.

When I entered my new cla.s.sroom, the students were divided firmly into two camps: the new Externals who were sitting nervously by themselves, and the comfortable Internals who were happily chatting in groups of existing friends.

“Ah-, Reika-sama!”

“Reika-sama, gokigen’you. It appears that we’re in the same cla.s.s this time!”

Starting with my own group, girls began to form a ring to welcome me.

“Gokigen’you, everybody. It overjoys me that we will be together this year. Please take care of me.”

“Gokigen’you, Reika-sama. I’m feeling terribly relieved to be in the same cla.s.s as you.”

“Reika-sama, gokigen’you.”

Everyone started greeting me with a smile. A few Externals glanced my way. Some of them seemed familiar somehow, so I suppose they must be members of upper society. There aren’t that many scholarship places, so the rest of the Externals have to be from fairly high backgrounds or at least rich enough to pay tuition. The number of genuine commoners is surprisingly little. And Wakaba-chan is one of those few genuine commoners.She must be getting hit by such a culture shock right now. This is just totally different from any school she’s been to, after all. I was shocked too when I entered the primary school section. But boy is she going to be even more shocked once they introduce the students to the facilities.

When our new homeroom teacher entered the cla.s.s, everybody took a seat and we began our introductions.

“I am Kisshouin Reika. I sincerely hope that we shall get along this year.”

When it was my turn I gave what I thought was a fairly standard introduction, but for some reason a number of people started applauding me.Wha-, stop that!I know that you kids don’t mean anything bad, but please stop that!Look! Look at the Externals! They’re all shocked! They’re all shocked and thinking, ‘Holy s.h.i.t, this girl is bad news!’I’m not bad news at all, okay~ I’m not scary at all, okay~ I’m not a threat at all, okay~After that, Sensei picked out people for cla.s.s representative. I had the faint feeling this was going to happen, but I ended up as the female cla.s.s rep. Ehh~ I’d already planned on being a proper Pivoine and staying away from ch.o.r.es and everything too&h.e.l.lip;There were some other girls who seemed like they could do it, but Sensei just looked at me with these eyes that said, ‘Hey, you wouldn’t refuse, right? Hey, you’ll do it, right?’ so in the end I accepted. Ueh~ Must be hard on you, Sensei.The other cla.s.s rep was a boy who entered Suiran in middle school.Deciding the people for the various other roles as well as a tour of the school would be taking place during tomorrow’s home room period, so with that, cla.s.s ended and we were all excused.

In the end, I never got to see Wakaba-chan today.In the manga she was a cheerful girl, but I wonder what the real Wakaba-chan is like.At any rate, now that Wakaba-chan has entered school, I don’t have any time left to lose.When I got home, over and over, I told Otousama,

“Fraud is bad.”

Otousama was playing dumb and said he had no idea what I was talking about, but I’m begging you here, just tell the truth.I have no plans of getting in the way of Kaburagi and Wakaba-chan anymore, but if you’re still committing fraud then there’s a chance somebody else will report you, right?Aaah, I’m not making any progress with Otousama. I have to talk to Oniisama instead!

The next morning, it was time for the various other responsibilities to be handed out.Speaking of which, last year Little Monk mentioned something like,

“Enjou-kun handed out the roles to the External Students who were less familiar with the school,”

didn’t he. Should I copy him?But it would be mean to suddenly force them into it, wouldn’t it. Maybe it would be better to have them help out as half members or something just to get them to partic.i.p.ate.Anyway, I decided to take a stab at it.

“Those of you who have just entered, I encourage you as well to proactively volunteer.”

Still, not many of them raised their hands. Hmm~ Guess it can’t be helped.In the end, most of the representatives were Internals, so I suppose I’ll just have to slowly get them to partic.i.p.ate from now on.

After that was a tour of the school. Sensei and the cla.s.s reps led everybody else in a row.Because there are more people in the high school cohorts, the facilities were larger than the ones in middle school, but most of it turned out to be the same. Because of that, the Internals, myself included, were all fairly relaxed. In contrast, every one of the External kids were shocked and bewildered. Well, that’s how it is.The next place on our tour was the cafeteria. Wow, it’s larger than the middle school one too. I wonder if the menu has increased too.Ah! Speaking of which, the cafeteria was where Wakaba-chan stirred up trouble by trying to sit in the reserved Pivoine seats, wasn’t it. What do I do. Should I warn all the Externals here? But in that case, we’d have to explain what the Pivoine is first, and having me openly declare all the privileges that we Pivoine get is a bit&h.e.l.lip; you know? Maybe I should just get somebody to tell them in secret later.How did it go in middle school again? They just seemed to all know after a while.

After that, we continued touring here and there, and just as the tour was about to end, we finally arrived at the Student Council room.

“Oh! So it’s your cla.s.s, Kisshouin-san. Come in, come in.”

When we entered, Tomoe-senpai and the rest of the members introduced themselves to us.

“Kisshouin-san, you’re cla.s.s rep even though you’re a Pivoine? Geez, you should just go all the way and enter the Student Council already,”

said Tomoe-senpai with a cheerful smile.

“That would be impossible for me.”

“Yeah. I mean, youarestill Pivoine, huh. Oh, you External kids, the Pivoine is a group that receives special treatment here at Suiran. For the details you can ask some of the Internals. Incidentally, that red flower badge that Kisshouin-san is wearing is proof of membership, so be careful about those who wear them.”

Tomoe-senpai, explanations are fine and all, but the way you said it sounded like you were warning them to be careful aboutme, you know!?Isn’t your girlfriend a Pivoine too! I’m definitely going to tattle to Kasumi-sama.Look, aren’t all the External kids looking even more frightened of me now&h.e.l.lip;

“If you have any problems at all, come talk to the Student Council. But well, I guess things should be fine since you have Kisshouin-san anyway. She’s great at looking after others. If there’s anything you don’t know, just ask her. She’s a really good girl.”

Kyau~un! Tomoe-senpaaai! I really do love you after allll!

After saying goodbye to the wonderful Tomoe-senpai and co., we were heading down the hallway as another cla.s.s came from the opposite end.──And for a moment, a familiar face pa.s.sed by me.

Wakaba-chan!

The Wakaba-chan I spotted was just like the Wakaba-chan I knew.As usual, her hair was a bit messy, and her eyes were filled to the brink with curiosity. That girl was the real Wakaba-chan.Uwahhh, this is kinda moving.After that, I kept turning around to look at her, and the new cla.s.s rep started looking at me with worry. Oops, look at me, making mistakes so soon after entering. I’m n.o.body suspicious, okay~

Yesterday I only saw her name, but seeing her in person today moved me a little.Again, I decided to carefully explain to Otousama the meaning of the idiom, “Swift is Heaven’s Judgement.”As expected, he probablywasdoing something shady because he escaped to the study and holed himself up in there. That why to be doubly sure, I stood in front of the door and said,

“The heavens are always watching, okay!”

when Oniisama came home and dragged me into the living room and got angry at me, saying,

“I’ve already checked the records for the last two years, and there’s nothing like that, so just stop with the weird worries already.”

Really, Oniisama? Can I trust you, Oniisama?

“Dad is getting depressed because his daughter keeps falsely suspecting him,”

he said, so I decided to reflect a little on wronging Otousama.I understand. I’ll believe in you and Otousama then. We’re family after all.

But just to make sure, I’ll just make sure to remind him once in a while that the Heavens = Me.Hey, it’s just to make sure, okay?