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 couldnât find anybody who matched the description.
Since about a hundred new External Students will be joining us, it makes sense that I couldnât spot her.
I suppose Iâll 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 havenât 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 classrooms as we looked at the sheet with our classes on them.
After I found my name, naturally it was her name that I looked for next.
Doesnât seem to be in my class at least.
As I continued looking through the list of first years⊠umm⊠Oh!
Takamichi Wakaba.
âŠHer name was really there.
Wakaba-chan. The protagonist of ăyou are my dolceă, 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 donât have time to visit another classroom.
Canât be helped. Iâll have plenty of other chances to see her. Iâll give up for now.
I decided to just give up and headed for my classroom.
When I entered my new classroom, 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.
âAh-, Reika-sama!â
âReika-sama, gokigenâyou. It appears that weâre in the same class this time!â
Starting with my own group, girls began to form a ring to welcome me.
âGokigenâyou, everybody. It overjoys me that we will be together this year. Please take care of me.â
âGokigenâyou, Reika-sama. Iâm feeling terribly relieved to be in the same class as you.â
âReika-sama, gokigenâyou.â
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 arenât 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 sheâs 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 class, everybody took a seat and we began our introductions.
âI am Kisshouin Reika. I sincerely hope that we shall get along this year.â
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 donât mean anything bad, but please stop that!
Look! Look at the Externals! Theyâre all shocked! Theyâre all shocked and thinking, âHoly shit, this girl is bad news!â
Iâm not bad news at all, okay~ Iâm not scary at all, okay~ Iâm not a threat at all, okay~
After that, Sensei picked out people for class representative. I had the faint feeling this was going to happen, but I ended up as the female class rep. Ehh~ Iâd already planned on being a proper Pivoine and staying away from chores and everything tooâŠ
There were some other girls who seemed like they could do it, but Sensei just looked at me with these eyes that said, âHey, you wouldnât refuse, right? Hey, youâll do it, right?â so in the end I accepted. Ueh~ Must be hard on you, Sensei.
The other class 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 tomorrowâs home room period, so with that, class 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 donât have any time left to lose.
When I got home, over and over, I told Otousama,
âFraud is bad.â
Otousama was playing dumb and said he had no idea what I was talking about, but Iâm begging you here, just tell the truth.
I have no plans of getting in the way of Kaburagi and Wakaba-chan anymore, but if youâre still committing fraud then thereâs a chance somebody else will report you, right?
Aaah, Iâm 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,
âEnjou-kun handed out the roles to the External Students who were less familiar with the school,â
didnât he. Should I copy him?
But it would be mean to suddenly force them into it, wouldnât it. Maybe it would be better to have them help out as half members or something just to get them to participate.
Anyway, I decided to take a stab at it.
âThose of you who have just entered, I encourage you as well to proactively volunteer.â
Still, not many of them raised their hands. Hmm~ Guess it canât be helped.
In the end, most of the representatives were Internals, so I suppose Iâll just have to slowly get them to participate from now on.
After that was a tour of the school. Sensei and the class 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, thatâs how it is.
The next place on our tour was the cafeteria. Wow, itâs 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, wasnât it. What do I do. Should I warn all the Externals here? But in that case, weâd have to explain what the Pivoine is first, and having me openly declare all the privileges that we Pivoine get is a bit⊠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.
âOh! So itâs your class, Kisshouin-san. Come in, come in.â
When we entered, Tomoe-senpai and the rest of the members introduced themselves to us.
âKisshouin-san, youâre class rep even though youâre a Pivoine? Geez, you should just go all the way and enter the Student Council already,â
said Tomoe-senpai with a cheerful smile.
âThat would be impossible for me.â
âYeah. I mean, you are still 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.â
Tomoe-senpai, explanations are fine and all, but the way you said it sounded like you were warning them to be careful about me, you know!?
Isnât your girlfriend a Pivoine too! Iâm definitely going to tattle to Kasumi-sama.
Look, arenât all the External kids looking even more frightened of me nowâŠ
âIf 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. Sheâs great at looking after others. If thereâs anything you donât know, just ask her. Sheâs a really good girl.â
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 class came from the opposite end.
ââAnd for a moment, a familiar face passed 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 class rep started looking at me with worry. Oops, look at me, making mistakes so soon after entering. Iâm nobody 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, âSwift is Heavenâs Judgement.â
As expected, he probably was doing 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,
âThe heavens are always watching, okay!â
when Oniisama came home and dragged me into the living room and got angry at me, saying,
âIâve already checked the records for the last two years, and thereâs nothing like that, so just stop with the weird worries already.â
Really, Oniisama? Can I trust you, Oniisama?
âDad is getting depressed because his daughter keeps falsely suspecting him,â
he said, so I decided to reflect a little on wronging Otousama.
I understand. Iâll believe in you and Otousama then. Weâre family after all.
*
*
But just to make sure, Iâll just make sure to remind him once in a while that the Heavens = Me.