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Chapter 132 Part 2

Ten…fifteen minutes passed since the discussion began.

As time passed, a murmur spread among the students of both schools.

「Given the situation, do you think we will go into extra time?」

「Hmm… If we’d made such an agreement from the start, that’d probably be the case, but somehow I get the feeling that we didn’t put into account the case where it ended in a tie.」

Yuu was sitting in the first-year boys’ section.

Although he was a member of the student council, he was a participant this time, so the only time he showed up at the headquarters, where Sayaka and Eimi were staying, was when their group got eliminated, and for the most part, he stayed in the boys’ section.

Everyone around him was curious about how the winner would be decided.

In fact, Yuu, who was also in charge of designing the tournament as a member of the student council, thought that it would probably be close to the case Masaya had imagined earlier.

Number-wise, the quiz questions, which were publicly solicited from both schools, also included a reserve, so there should be plenty to spare.

However, he heard that the difficult quiz questions designed for the finals were specially created by asking teachers from both schools.

As such, they might not be able to prepare them right away.

As the competition had developed into a close match, the participants and supporters from both schools were more enthusiastic than expected, which was a great thing.

However, he never expected that it would be a close match until the very end.

This, too, was probably an unexpected development unique to the first installment of an event.

Looking at his watch, it was approaching 3pm, the scheduled end time.

◇ ◇ ◇

About 20 minutes after the discussion began, the executive committee member who was acting as the moderator finally came out.

The fatigue on her face was more apparent than before, probably because the discussion had been so chaotic.

『Well, I will inform you of the outcome of the discussion. By all rights, we were supposed to go into extra time to decide the winner, but… As the headquarters had not expected the match to get this close, we had not prepared an extra time befitting the final round. Upon coming to a conclusion that there was not enough time to make the preparations now, and that it would be difficult to hold a quiz match that would satisfy both schools, we decided to conclude the final round here. As for the school competition, with the final score of 808 to 808, we decided to call it a tie between the two schools.』

Surprise-filled murmur and sighs, as if they had expected this, resounded.

There were also some voices of dissatisfaction in the mix.

『Please give a big round of applause to the five groups that made it to the finals!』

As soon as the announcement was made, applause could be heard from the guest seats.

It spread to the students of both schools and exploded like heavy thunder.

As time was running out, they hurriedly dismantled the stage for the finals, with the help of the general students.

Soon after, like during the opening ceremony, the students of both schools gathered on the grounds, and the closing ceremony began.

The Ayakuni Cup trophy, which was provided by the board of directors, had two ribbons with the names of Sairyou and Sairei tied on it.

As for the place where it would be placed, it was decided that for the time being, it would be displayed on the first floor of Sairyou’s administration building, but after six months, it would be moved to Sairei.

As for the individual rankings, Riko and Weifei’s groups took first place with the same points.

The five groups that made it to the finals were given meal vouchers for luxury restaurants, gift vouchers for department stores, and book vouchers according to their rankings.

And then, the problem was the rights given to the winner of the school competition, but as it was a draw, it was decided that it would be granted to both sides.

Otherwise, neither side would have been able to accept the result.

Compared to the opening ceremony, the closing ceremony was concluded in a short time, partly because clean-up was awaiting them.

As soon as the closing ceremony was over, as if they had been waiting for that moment, a group of Sairei students came rushing over to the Sairyou boys.

It was to invite them to their school-wide recital to be held in early August.

Apparently, Sairei Academy held a number of open campus events during the summer vacation.

The art course in particular was said to be very popular due to the high-level recitals they held.

It seemed that they were trying to use one of these events to invite the Sairyou boys.

「It will be held on August 3rd, so please come!」

「On the day of the event, we will hire security guards to ensure your safety, so…」

「Everyone is very excited to show the results of their daily practice!」

「Well…」

As if pushing it onto them, they handed the flyers they were carrying to the boys.

In part because the boys around Yuu were all first-years, their response was weak.

Some of them only took one glance at the flyer and then folded it up.

As expected, it would be rude to throw it away in front of them, or rather, they were probably afraid of making them angry.

The only ones who were looking through them properly were those who were interested in music, like Masaya.

Earlier today, before the start of the Ayakuni Cup, they were shown an introductory video of Sairei Academy, so they had gotten to know at least the outline of the school.

Yuu also accepted the flyer handed to him by one of the Sairei students and started reading it.

Suddenly feeling someone’s gaze on him, he looked up and spotted a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl in uniform looking at him from a short distance away.

That’s… Keiko, I mean, Kate.

When their eyes met, Kate beckoned to him.

After nodding his head, Yuu excused himself to his friends, and then went toward her.

「Today, did you participate as a contestant? Or were you helping out at headquarters?」

As they walked towards the courtyard, he tried to speak to her first, but Kate was just as unfriendly as ever.

As Yuu waited patiently, she finally replied.

「A contestant. I got eliminated in the second round, though.」

「I see. I made it to the third round.」

「I see…」

「…..」

Just like that, they sat on a bench in the shadow of the school building, leaving about one person’s space in between.

Today, Kate had her long blonde hair tied up in a ponytail.

From her shapely profile, he could see her long eyelashes and high nose typical of Anglo-Saxons.

Looking at her expression, which was filled with melancholy today, she gave off a mature vibe, hard to believe she was someone in the same grade as him.

Yuu kept stealing glances at Kate, but despite the fact that she was the one who invited him there, she continued to keep her mouth shut.

「Don’t you have something to tell me?」

「Hmm… haa~~」

After a long sigh, Kate opened her mouth.

Somehow, it seemed like she had something that she had to say, even though she didn’t really want to.

「The 3rd of next month.」

「Hmm? Ah, the day of Seirei recital.」

「Err, you see, our student council is planning to invite everyone from Sairyou’s student council. It’s on the assumption that you’ll come.」

「Ah, so that’s the case.」

A girls’ high school was a garden of women. A place that men longed for.

Back when Yuu was a high school student prior to his rebirth, there were times when he had such a fantasy.

However, he had heard that in reality it was not such an incredible thing.

If anything, as there were more boys watching them, it was said that girls were more mindful about their appearance and the way they spoke in co-ed schools.

In particular, in this world, the girls at Sairyou, which was a co-ed school, were considerate and knew how to treat boys, partly thanks to their ladies’ education.

He didn’t have much desire to go out of his way to go to a girls’ high school.

However, if it was part of his job as a student council member, it would be a different story.

Naturally, he had to be with Sayaka and the others, no compromise there.

「If I’m invited as a member of the student council, of course I’ll go.」

「Honestly, you’d better off not…」

Kate’s voice trailed off.

「No, it’s nothing. Glad to hear that. That’s all I wanted to say.」

Yuu was a little curious about the things that she hesitated to say, but feeling that making this tight-lipped girl talk would be a huge pain, he decided not to worry about it.

「It must be that, right? The ones who are actively inviting us are the president and the other vice president, Oomori, right?」

When Yuu said so, it seemed like he’d hit the nail on the head.

「Well, yeah. As a boy, are you bad with them?」

「Nah. Not really. After talking to him, I think they’re interesting people. If it’s just talking, that is it.」

「As I thought, you’re a strange one.」

「Well, back at you.」

Feeling that they also had this kind of exchange when they met again, Yuu broke into a smile.

As if drawn by it, Kate also loosened her lips up slightly.

Like that, maybe because the mood had become a little more relaxed.

Yuu thought about asking her the thing that had bothered him before.

「You see, when we first met, you gave me a Japanese name, right? When we met again as fellow student council members, you said it was a fake name, but why?」

「Ah…」

As if feeling awkward, Kate looked away, but Yuu kept staring at her.

That was because even if it was a fake name, he thought it was weird that she would go out of her way to give a Japanese name.

Even though there were plenty of names that were way more Western-ish.

「Now that I think about it, when you introduced yourself as Keiko, you said 『Kei from Keio』, right? Isn’t that weird?」

「Uh… Ah! That’s right, not good! I have another thing the president has asked me to do!」

「Huh?」

「Sorry! Let’s talk about that later.」

Crying out to drown his words, Kate got up and ran off immediately, leaving Yuu sitting there, unconvinced.