Volume 2 - CH 3.1

1

More than 1,000 students were gathered in the gymnasium, and none were paying attention to the student counseling teacher’s lengthy speech about the regulation for winter holiday.

The speech before a long holiday is generally always the same. And Sandai did sense the content seeming similar to the end-of-term ceremony before the summer holiday and spring break.

Nevertheless, the sight of enrolled students all being gathered at the end-of-term ceremony was quite incredible. He had never bothered to pay attention to it before, but it was truly a school with a lot of students.

“Be aware that you are a student of our school, do not cause any trouble to the public, and behave uprightly and appropriately as each of you bears the name of our school on your back… err… in other words…”

When the student counseling teacher was done with the speech, next began the awarding of students who had made outside contributions such as having won an award outside of the school.

The principal stepped up next, and began to make a speech similar to that of the student counseling teacher’s.

It wasn’t like anything interesting was happening either, and as time passed, some began to whisper to each other, not content with just letting the speech go in one ear and out the other.

However, it wasn’t only the students who were beginning to get into such a slack mood, as it was the same for the teachers as well.

There were also many teachers with an expression as if wanting to say this was all a bore. And it was especially apparent when it came to Nakaoka, as she was completely asleep.

“Nakaoka-sensei, Nakaoka-sensei, please wake up.”

“…Fuheh?”

“You were sleeping just now, right?”

“…Oops.”

“I understand the urge to sleep, but you have to stay awake.”

“…Zzzz.”

“And she went right back to sleep.”

“Well, Nakaoka-sensei is someone who does things her own way after all.”

“…I apologize as I seem to jump in on the conversation, but speaking of Nakaoka-sensei, there is one thing that has been bothering me. Regarding the school trip in the third semester, I do have a feeling that only Nakaoka-sensei’s class hasn’t reached the decision for the destination, but…”

“Eh? Are you sure it’s not your imagination? Nakaoka-sensei certainly does things her own way, but for that sort of stuff, she is surprisingly reliable, so…”

“Is that so? Well, if the school nurse Sasakura-sensei, someone Nakaoka-sensei is on good terms with, says so, then that could possibly be the case. Nevertheless, if the school nurse is this pretty, there must be many students who make an effort to go to the infirmary every day, aren’t there?”

“Oh, please. That’s simply not the case. Fufu.”

The sense of becoming lax was prevalent among both students and teachers, and the principal looked somewhat crestfallen, but leaving that aside, the end-of-term ceremony ended without a problem.

For school events like this one, which comes with the word ceremony attached at the end, if it was an adolescent drama or something, the student council probably would have hijacked the gymnasium and started a band performance, or young motorcycle-riding delinquents would have gathered outside as a result of a fight caused by delinquent students, but this is reality.

Of course it wouldn’t develop that way. The ceremony simply came to a close, students returned to their classrooms, and the last homeroom of the second semester conducted in every class also went by.

“We have to be aware that we are students of this school, and this guidebook mentions all of that in detail. This is something the school has prepared for us, so we must act upon it during the winter holiday. Is that clear, everyone?”

“As if we can follow something like that, man.”

“Just don’t do anything that’ll get you arrested, then all’s fine.”

“Of course you mustn’t do anything that would get you arrested! Other than such obvious matters, this guidebook also provides reminders about areas that we tend to forget. It also has listings regarding places where there is a possibility of you getting caught up in an incident. For example: do not go to dangerous places like downtown after dark and such.”

“Yeah, yeah…”

“And one last thing from me as the class president. Those in the supplementary class, make sure to come tomorrow. I’ve been asked by the mathematics and physics teachers to help out with the supplementary class, you see. Those of you who failed in the relevant subjects, you can feel grateful.”

“For real?”

“I wish I’d failed, too… I would be able to study together with Shihouin-kun if I did… uwh… we finally managed to become friends and yet, I’m so stupid!”

School would also end earlier than usual on the day of the end-of-term ceremony, and students were dismissed at noon. It was time to leave school already.