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Chapter 149 Part 2

They had been told that the three-story building that stood tall like a tower in the lawn that spread southeast from the fountain plaza was the student council building.

When they stepped through the door on the north side and into the entrance, they found that it was cool inside.

It seemed that the whole building here was air-conditioned too, talk about luxurious.

She must have recognized Yuu and the others as they entered.

A girl at the reception booth greeted them with a smile and started to contact someone on the phone.

「Huh? They’re already here. But… Well… yes. I, I see…」

「Is something the matter?」

「Fweh?!」

Calling out to the girl, who was confused, was Yuu.

Perhaps never expected to be spoken to by a boy out of the blue, she was so flustered that she dropped the phone she was about to put down.

「Ah, sorry. I believe we are right on time as mentioned in the invitation, though?」

「No… It seems that there are some confusions about the preparations upstairs. If you could just wait a moment…」

「Preparation? Since we have come all the way here, we are thinking of saying hello at least, but we plan to go home without staying too long here today, you see. I’m sorry to trouble you, but can you call them for me?」

「No, um… If you don’t want to wait, that would put us in trouble, though.」

「Can’t you at least call the student council members?」

「Err, that…」

「Oh my?」

Just as they were about to start arguing, a woman who happened to come down the stairs noticed Yuu and the others and called out to them.

「Are you the Sairyou student council, by any chance? Welcome.」

「Ah, hello.」

「「「Hello!」」」

The woman, who was going through middle age weight gain, dressed in gray pants and a white blouse was probably in her late 40 or around 50.

She had the air of a somewhat pushy teacher, moreover one who held a certain status.

She was probably the vice principal or head of the grade.

「Our student council is waiting for you. Do come in.」

「No, I’m sorry for all the efforts you have put into it, but we only want to say hello….」

The receptionist girl told them to wait, and the teacher in front of them told them to go in.

As far as Yuu and the others were concerned, they wanted to just say hello here, but…

「It’s the prided student council office of generations of student council presidents, you see. It’s definitely worth a look. You’ve come all the way here, so you should just quickly go in and make yourself at home. Come on now!」

This kind of aunty was the type of person who wouldn’t listen to what people said and just pushed you along.

Even so, she believed that she was doing a good thing, so you would have a hard time dealing with her.

Yuu and the others were hesitant, but when the teacher pointed to the stairs with a hand gesture, saying 「go ahead, go ahead」, it was hard to refuse.

As expected, it seemed that she showed some reservation when it came to Yuu, but she went behind Sayaka and the others and kept pushing them towards the stairs.

Sayaka and the others, who had indescribable expressions on their faces, and Yuu headed for the stairs as the teacher saw them off.

「It seems like not only the third floor; the other floors are reserved for the student council as well.」

「This whole building is reserved for the student council, huh. To think there’s even a dedicated conference room.」

「They have a huge budget for the student council, you see.」

「Even though we’re both private schools, there’s a huge difference there, isn’t there~?」

The Sairyou student council office was simple and unadorned, as it was located inside the boarding house.

Moreover, it had been more than 30 years since it was built, so age-related deterioration was noticeable here and there.

However, perhaps it had been renovated once, this building in which the Sairei student council was located had a new interior, and it gave off the impression of a stylish office in the city.

As they climbed the stairs and reached the third floor, they suddenly heard a stern voice coming from inside.

「You haven’t finished the preparations yet?! Even though they’re already here.」

「There seems to have been some kind of mistake… I’m going to get it now!」

「Good graciousness! If there’s something wrong with the arrangements, I’ll hold you responsible!」

「I, I’m terribly sorry.」

「It’s kind of hectic over there.」

「Yeah.」

「Shall we come in?」

He knocked, but there was no response.

As before, all they could hear were swearing and constant apologies.

Judging from the familiar sounding voice, it seemed that it was the student council president who was mainly doing the swearing.

He felt disinclined to go in there, but they couldn’t just wait there forever.

Sayaka and Riko had an exasperated look on their faces. Eimi was scared and stuck close to Yuu’s back.

He already felt like going home, but he was scared of what might happen afterwards, so he had no choice but to open the door quietly.

「Hello~」

「「「Ah!」」」

Although Yuu had never been in such a place throughout his life prior to his rebirth, the spacious, stately, and chic interior reminded him of the director offices of large companies he saw on TV.

Facing the window on the right side as you entered, the tables were arranged in a U-shape, but just by looking at it, they seemed to be made of authentic office materials, unlike the Sairyou student council office.

On the left side was a black leather lounge suit, and on the one-person sofa directly in front of Yuu as he entered, the president was leaning back as she sat with her legs crossed.

As such, Yuu’s eyes ended up getting drawn to her long bare legs, which were exposed right up to her thighs.

Upon noticing Yuu, Rinne hurriedly stood up, tidied up her long hair, brushed her one-piece uniform to smooth out the wrinkles, and plastered a graceful smile on her face.

「Oh my! Thank you for coming! We have ordered some rare, high-quality tea leaves from overseas for this day. But unfortunately, the tea isn’t ready yet…」

「No, please don’t worry about it. As we are planning to go home as soon as we have said hello to you.」

「I, I’m sorry. For being late… Ah!」

「Kyaa!」

「Hmm?」

When Yuu turned around at the sound of the voice, he saw someone who had come into the room in a hurried manner and was about to bump into Eimi, who was near the entrance.

Perhaps their posture as they tried to forcefully avoid her was poor, the person, who was shorter than Eimi, stumbled and nearly fell forward.

「Whoa!」

「Oops.」

Yuu took a step forward and caught the brown paper bag flying at him with his chest and grabbed it with his left hand.

At the same time, he caught the small figure, who had let go of the bag and was about to fall toward him with their arms outstretched, and supported them with his right hand.

With short, curly black hair, and dressed in a white shirt and black shorts, that person looked like a boy younger than Yuu.

「Hu… h…?」

「Are you okay?」

When the boy looked up, Yuu could see that he had dark skin and chiseled features, perhaps he was from West Asia.

He stared at Yuu with his wide-open, black eyes.

「I, I’m sorry.」

「Amir!」

「Ha!」

「That’s rude to our guests!」

「For you to be such a dullard at such a crucial moment.」

「Did you get caught by another woman and come?」

Perhaps Amir was his name.

The one who scolded him in a harsh tone was Rinne.

Yuu didn’t notice right away, but it seemed that Vice President Li Weifei and Oomori Norika were standing with their arms folded by the wall at the far-left side of the room.

As far as Yuu was concerned, he found the scene before his eyes unsettling.

That was because up until now, he had never seen a scene of a woman harshly scolding a man.

Not to mention that the boy in front of him was still young, looking to be around 12 or 13 years old.

He might even be an elementary school student.

However, Amir, who quickly got away from him, bowed deeply not only to Yuu but to everyone in the room.

「I, I’m terribly sorry. Right away…」

「If you have time to talk, just get on with it already!」

「Wait a moment. I don’t know what happened, but no matter how you look at it, he’s too pitiable, no?」

「Huh?」

He had no idea what kind of circumstances were at play here.

It was just that, Yuu felt sorry for Amir who was being treated so harshly by older women, or rather, he simply thought it was not right for people to group up and scold someone much younger than them, regardless of gender.

As Amir, who became teary-eyed, was about to walk away with his back hunched, Yuu held his shoulder and stepped forward to protect him.

「Yuu-kun…」

Sayaka and the others showed a worried look on their faces.

Rinne and the others showed a puzzled look on their faces, their eyes widened as if they found it really surprising.

「Y, you see, ever since his parents took refuge in Japan, I’ve been taking care of him and having him help out at the Sairei Student Council, so…」

「Even so, he’s still a child, isn’t he? It’s human natures to make mistakes, so you can just watch over him with warm eyes, no?」

「Well…」

As far as Yuu was concerned, he just wanted to say something about the way these girls, who were high school students and practically adults, treated Amir, who was still a child. There was no difference between men and women there.

Sayaka and the others also quickly stood next to Yuu to protect Amir, and the two sides began glaring at each other.

Seeing this, Rinne looked annoyed for a moment, but eventually sighed in resignation.

「Phew. I understand. I believed that to discipline a child of this age it was essential to treat them in a strict manner, but as opposed to just scolding them, I guess it’d be a good idea to watch over them gently from time to time. Now, Amir, prepare the tea for our guests.」

「Y, yes! Um… thank you very much!」

「You’re welcome.」

Yuu smiled at Amir, who bowed deeply in front of him.

But then he remembered. That they came here today with the intention of getting it over with quickly.

「Um, you see, about today…」

「Now, come over here.」

「Mitsuse-san!」

Yuu called out to Rinne’s back as she headed towards the door at the back without listening to what he said.

When Rinne turned around, she had a slightly dissatisfied look on her face.

「As I told you before, we should call each other by our first names.」

「Ah… that aside, I appreciate your kind invitation, but we’re thinking about going home after just saying hello to you….」

「Thanks to the excellent recital in the morning, our male students are looking forward to the tour in the afternoon, you see. As such, we would like to go around and take a look at that instead.」

「Maybe we can hold the review meeting for the quiz championship at another time?」

Following Yuu, Sayaka and Riko also added their words as if to provide cover.

Hearing this, the expression vanished from Rinne’s face, looking as if it had turned into a Noh mask.

「Oh dear. Amir, who you all protected earlier, is doing his best to prepare tea, you know? He’ll probably be disappointed if we let that go to waste.」

「Ugh…」

Yuu was also perplexed by Norika’s words as she stood next to Rinne.

She had a radiant smile on her face, but she was hitting on their weak spot.

He exchanged looks with Sayaka and the others on either side of him.

「Hmm… It might be impolite to leave without even having a cup of tea.」

「When you put it like that…」

「Well, it’s true that I’m a little thirsty.」

「Then, since they’ve taken the trouble to prepare some tea, why not?」

Nodding at each other, Yuu and the others decided to have just one cup of tea, and followed Rinne and the others into the back room.