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Chapter 201.1: Suggestion Box
「NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!」
That high-pitched scream in the school tower was the first sign of trouble.
It started from the entrance of the first floor and went all the way up the stairs to the second-floor plaza.
Since that place was the alchemy workshop, I went there immediately.
「Wha-What happened?」
「Oh, Momokawa.」
The one to call out was Yamada who was right beside me when I arrived.
Since the hunting team was about to depart, it seemed a few other classmates had already gathered in this place beforehand.
「There was a huge quarrel. Shimokawa seemed to be trying to peek into Takanashi’s pants from under the stairs.」
「Uwa~」
That’s a spell for huge trouble for sure.
What were you thinking Shimokawa?
 But then, Takanashi could actually be trying to put a false charge on Shimokawa.
That malicious Takanashi might even try to create a rift in my faction.
And no matter how much I wished that it was nothing but mere overthinking on my part, it didn’t change the fact that she might be overly conscious of Shimokawa after his previous rape attempt.
「Hey wait a minute, I’m innocent, ain’t seen anything at all!」
「LIES! YOU KEEP LOOKING IN MY DIRECTION!」
「Well, you saw it right?」
「I knew y’er feeling, Shimokawa.」
「This is slander!」
Takanashi was already wailing like a kid, and the one who stood by her side as she cried was, of course, Kenzaki. She regained her confidence when Mei-chan wasn’t around.
Naka and Ueda, who stood by Shimokawa’s side, were actually trying to pit their own buddy. Man, that’s friendship for ya.
「Oi Momokawa, aren’t you gonna stop them?」
「Nope, it’s not my turn.」
Yamada-kun, you might think that I would go straight and poke my nose into this matter that has nothing to do with me immediately but I am not the kind of guy with a strong sense of justice nor am I a meddlesome person.
I was more like a common and curious bystander, but everything changed ever since I came to this fu*king dungeon in which I was forced to make use of everything at my disposal just to survive.
Even so, I didn’t have to act as a mediator in this case.
「Leave this matter to the public morals committee.」
As I looked around, the chief of the public morals committee, Souma-kun, and his sidekick Randou-san, made their entrance.
Both of them seemed to have rushed as soon as they heard Takanashi’s scream.
「Oi, what in the world is happening here?」
「Did someone just commit a crime~?」
Souma-kun looked around with a sharp gaze, and Randou-san looked like she was watching an interesting quarrel.
Randou-san, have you by chance already forgotten the fact that you’re the vice chief of the public morals committee whose main job is to prevent something like this? Your job isn’t just digging a trench you know.
「
 It really is okay.」
「Say that after those two take care of the problem.」
Yamada looked as if he had yet to understand the situation, but I decided to go to my workplace and entrust this incident to the duo from the public morals committee.
I mean, there was no meaning in appointing them to their posts if they couldn’t even resolve a small incident like this.
Man, nothing can beat the feeling of dumping the troublesome relationship problem onto someone else. I must be a genius for even forming the public morals committee.
Well then, make sure this incident settles down peacefully, Souma-kun, Randou-san.
— 5 minutes later.
「――THIS IS BAD, MOMOKAWA-KUN! SHIMOKAWA-KUN IS GOING TO BE KILLED! KOTORI HAS BEEN CRYING NONSTOP AFTER RANDOU-SAN HIT HER! HURRY UP BEFORE THINGS GET OUT OF CONTROL!」
I was being carried away by the nape of my neck by Class Rep who rushed in.
It seems I chose the wrong person as the public morals committee member.
「――In short, we won’t give punishment for this incident due to lack of evidence.」
With Class Rep and me in the lead, we started an emergency class meeting— a trial to judge the suspect Shimokawa, who was suspected of peeping into Takanashi’s pants.
The verdict was just as I had expected, he was declared innocent due to lack of evidence.
The crime he committed was really trivial matter, but it was still impossible to gather evidence. God knows if Shimokawa really did try to peep into Takanashi’s pants, or if this incident was simply Takanashi’s plot to persecute Shimokawa.
Although this matter was truly filled with many uncertainties that couldn’t be treated lightly, the silver lining of this incident was the fact that it wasn’t such a big deal to the point of being unforgivable. And since this matter was really trivial to the point of a joke, there was no need to dedicate our precious time and manpower just to investigate this incident.
It’s not like we couldn’t investigate the truth but this matter was just troublesome and trivial. Even I got tired due to this triviality.
「Let me be honest Souma-kun, you’re such a huge disappointment.」
「
 Sorry, my deepest apology.」
After we announced the end of the class meeting, both Class Rep and I dole out a harsh sermon to the two members of the public morals committee.
「Exactly, Souma, you have to get a grip on yourself.」
「You too Randou-san, you can’t just suddenly go physical like that.」
The reason we held an emergency class meeting to resolve such a trivial matter was the failure of the public morals committee’s members to act as mediators.
Souma-kun couldn’t stop the enraged Kenzaki nor appease the bawling Takanashi. Randou-san, on the other hand, got really annoyed by Takanashi’s nonsense cries and almost went to slap her in the face.
「Souma-kun, let’s be honest, you really think that Shimokawa-kun was peeping right?」
「That
  yes
 He has a history of almost kidnapping someone, after all.」
「I think I understand why you have come to such a conclusion. But doing that as the public morals committee’s chairman is the same as doing injustice to Shimokawa-kun.」
As we had already agreed in the first class meeting, the crime committed before coming to this area would be forgone, or should I say, shelved for now, and everyone had agreed with that.
Since that was the case, the trial that would be held after this should never bring about those crimes, even as a special case.
If we did that for today’s case, it was only natural for Shimokawa to be a criminal considering his previous rape attempt on Takanashi. Doing that was equal to destroying a new relationship of trust which had formed after such a compromise.
The loss of mutual trust would lead to a loss of morale.
Now that many of our classmates had gathered together, we had to at least trust each other. We were equal under school regulations.
「You just betrayed Shimokawa’s trust. The one thing the public morals committee needs is trust to be impartial when giving the judgment. If not for that, everyone will become unruly.」
「
 Yeah, I understand.」
「Make sure you apologize properly to Shimokawa-kun later.」
The only way to resolve this situation was to make peace with Shimokawa-kun with Souma-kun in the lead.
If Souma-kun as the chief of the public morals committee doubted Shimokawa, it was equal to him being a suspect.
The most important thing was not criminal suspicion, the 『Bad Guy』 wasn’t just limited to one person.
Communication between 18 people here was really important.
That’s why for the case handled by the public morals committee, the most important thing wasn’t how to judge the criminal, nor who the criminal was, it was how to handle this matter peacefully.
Otherwise known as ‘Peace is the best principle’.
「In this regard, though Randou-san is a bit too radical, she barely got a passing score.」
「Ri~ght?」
In regard to the matter of Randou-san slapping Takanashi, I could see it as the latter being simply too annoying.
In fact, the so-called victim kept bawling like some sort of a maniac despite such an important case, not even Randou-san asked for Takanashi’s explanation. Thus, the situation just spiraled down in a worse direction.
I’ve already said it before, but the most important thing was how to solve a problem peacefully.
On top of that, an even more important thing was being impartial to both sides.
On this occasion, I learnt that we had a lot of homework. I realized that the peacekeeper and protector of order had to be extremely self-controlled to be able to accomplish their jobs.
Maybe, even if Shimokawa was under such heavy suspicion, if it’s a situation that could be resolved with a word of apology, he should’ve apologized properly. In short, he had a reason for not doing that.
However, the act of playing victim like what Takanashi did only looked like she was trying to build a charge on the suspect, namely Shimokawa.
In that situation, it became unclear whether Shimokawa was really guilty or not. The girl called Takanashi Kotori had been crying non-stop as if Shimokawa’s deed was a capital offence.
「I think it was all thanks to Randou-san’s slap that prevented Shimokawa’s predicament from taking a turn for the worse without any trial.」
「I don’t actually want to protect Shimokawa though. I just want Takanashi to shut up.」
Still, thanks for a good punch.
That Takanashi, I doubt I will ever come to terms with that girl.
「But I really hope that you stop going physical next time.」
Randou-san’s slap had stopped Takanashi’s cries and Kenzaki’s rage, but since the situation couldn’t be handled by the public morals committee, Class Rep went to call me in hurry.
「I’m reflecti~ng.」
Randou-san didn’t seem to be reflecting on her actions.
Well, I guess I could ask her to stop another round of crying next time.
「For now, Randou-san has to apologize to Takanashi-san for slapping her. Naturally, it’ll be Souma-kun’s job to convince Takanashi-san to accept it obediently.」
「Tch, ain’t feel like doing that, can’t be helped I guess.」
「I understand, I’ll at least mediate that matter.」
「Anyhow, since the situation isn’t bad to the point that I have to reshuffle the member of the public morals committee, both of you will do your job as usual. However, I wish you guys get a grip on the situation next time, I’m serious.」
And please spare me from having to mediate such a squabble again. Holding class meetings every day is tiresome

「――I’ll make a suggestion box.」
Next day, I made an announcement during the breakfast.
Everyone was looking at me with a “What in the world is this guy talking about?” look on their faces.
「Uhm, what is a suggestion box?」
「Wait, you don’t know what it is, Randou-san?」
「I dunno
 E~h, it’s normal to not know about it ri~ght?」
Randou-san, whose shoulder got tapped by JuryMary who looked at her as if they pitied her, had finally shut her mouth.
I had never expected that the student of a famous private school, Shiramine Academy, was actually completely clueless about a suggestion box
 It made me curious about how Randou-san managed to get accepted into such a prestigious school. She didn’t use the backdoor, right?
「Although it is a suggestion box, it doesn’t mean that we’ll put a real box. You can contact Momokawa-kun or me if you have a suggestion or request.」
Yes, it wasn’t a real suggestion box, it was your average mailbox.
Yesterday’s incident hadn’t been resolved properly, but after a short consultation between Class Rep and me, we decided to make this suggestion box to know of their discontent.
I thought the problem could be resolved far more easily as long as we talked to the related party, but the related party would have a hard time speaking about what was on their mind if seen by others.
Fortunately, since our smartphone’s functions such as mail and charging could be used again, thanks to Takanashi’s effort, we had an alternative way of communication. We could offer consultation and suggestions anonymously.
Class Rep and I vowed to keep the identity of the one who gave the suggestion or consultation anonymous unless the other party wished otherwise. If not, the suggestion box wouldn’t serve its purpose.