I Became the Academy's Pink Airhead - Chapter 19
I opened my eyes at the sudden presence I felt.
The first thing I saw upon opening my eyes was a fist approaching me.
I caught the attack before it could reach me.
Thwack―!!
The attack was easily blocked.
But since it wasn’t a proper attack to begin with, the opponent withdrew their fist without any lingering attachment. Then they brought their fist to their stomach and started scratching vigorously.
“…”
“Grr… Mmm…”
The opponent was Kara.
Kara was still sound asleep.
She made mumbling sounds with her mouth, not even realizing her attack had been blocked.
And she was tossing and turning, thoroughly wrinkling the red tracksuit of <Central Prism Academy> she wore instead of pajamas.
“Mnya…”
Her height over 180cm, and the huge revolutionary pouch rising and falling with her breathing. It proved the best physique of the Peach Sisters in the game, but. Now it was just a mass of collisions causing numerous traffic accidents.
I sighed softly looking at that sight.
‘Her sleeping habits are really terrible.’
It was maddening enough that this big-bodied person had such bad sleeping habits. I thought I had gotten used to it over the past week, but I was seriously starting to consider tying her up with a blanket before bed.
I looked at her thinking I’d tie her up if she caused a ruckus one more time, but after that she was just quietly scratching her stomach.
“…”
“Snore―”
Scratch scratch
“…”
“Suu…”
Beyond the sound of the huge troublemaker scratching her stomach, I could sense two more people sleeping.
Deep breathing making cat ears twitch.
Breathing from the corner with a blanket pulled over the head.
“Suu… Su…”
“Mmm.”
As I recognized the breathing sounds and looked, my vision rapidly adapted to the darkness. Then in the faint predawn moonlight, I could see three female students sleeping in the small room.
“Suu…”
“Grr…”
The sight of the girls huddled together in the small room, wrapped in shabby blankets as they slept, was somehow pitiful. To be honest, they looked like refugees in a disaster situation I had seen on the news in my past life.
‘Well, we are sort of refugees in a way.’
This was a small room provided by Grandpa Hua Tuo from the tailor shop in the shopping district. The reason we had been staying in this small room for a week was because of the major renovations at <Central Prism Academy>.
『First wish.』
『Repair the old facilities of <Central Prism Academy>.』
It was one of the two wishes I had asked of Maya. The construction by members of <Facilities Engineering Department> who came for that was in full swing.
About 3 days after the new student welcome event ended. The members of <Facilities Engineering Department> who came to assess the estimates sighed as they gauged the dilapidated buildings here and there.
-Hmm… It’s quite old overall… We’d have to demolish everything to do a proper renovation.
I was shocked to hear that.
‘Ah, completely demolishing everything is a bit…’
Suddenly demolishing all the buildings of <Central Prism Academy> would be somewhat fatal for the future story development. So I asked them to focus on construction that could be finished quickly without touching the buildings as much as possible.
-Ah…! Is that so? Then we could quickly do the auditorium roof, dormitory building, and classroom remodeling.
The personnel dispatched as external construction managers from <Facilities Engineering Department> also seemed to welcome finishing the schedule quickly.
The day after the assessment team left, the working team from <Facilities Engineering Department> that came from <Mimir Technical High School> immediately began work.
The renovation that started like that.
Of course, it was a sudden start, so all my juniors were surprised.
-Re-renovations―?! Did our school have that kind of money?!
-Hmm… The Facilities Engineering Department wouldn’t help for nothing, right?
-Senior Clara… You didn’t get scammed or something, did you?
I responded casually to the three pairs of eyes filled with shock, doubt, and suspicion looking at me.
-You see―☆
The recently started expansion plan for the <United Student Council>’s stationed areas. Dispatching support to schools in the eastern region affiliated with the union, in line with the ominous movements taking place between <Public Bana Boarding School> and <Svart Technical High School>.
‘Well, it’s ‘support’ only in name, but actually treating them as affiliated territories.’
It was a lie that <Central Prism Academy> was also included in that plan along with <Mimir Technical High School>.
-Since <Central Prism Academy> is also a school affiliated with the union―☆
Anyway, Maya had also seasoned the Facilities Engineering Department students who were dispatched with an appropriate pretext, so there was no one who could verify the truth of it on the spot.
‘Truly Zhuge Liang’s strategy.’
Didn’t Zhuge Liang, even in his dying moment, intimidate Sima Yi with his 1:1 figure and repel him? As long as you deceive well, it becomes the truth on the spot.
I made such an excuse and apologized to Alvit with a sloppy smile.
-I forgot to relay it to the Student Council President―☆ Sorry sorry☆
-Eh… Am I really going to be the Student Council President―?!
-Congratulations.
-Congratulations.
-Congratulations―☆
Clap clap clap
You have to put the armband on before the target runs away.
Alvit’s Student Council President inauguration ceremony was held in the same manner as deciding on a group project leader in college.
-You’ve received applause, so now dismiss―☆ Pack your things and come out☆
-Ah, I need to bring more books.
-I’ll help with that, comrade!
-Hmph. Thanks.
-I-I’m the Student Council President…?! To end up like this so absurdly…?!
Along with the conclusion of Alvit’s Student Council President inauguration ceremony. We packed our belongings from the dormitory. Then we came to stay in the room provided by Grandpa Hua Tuo from the tailor shop in the shopping district.
That’s how our one-room living started.
But we didn’t spend time idly just because our living environment changed a little.
We all ran errands for the shopping district or patrolled the surroundings to chase away delinquent students. A week of such daily routines repeated. It was good that the awkwardness between us had largely disappeared during that time.
‘Maybe because they’re all fundamentally good kids, we got along well.’
Especially the Peach Sisters became close like friends who had been together for a year, after living together for a week.
But their attitude towards me was complicated in many ways, in a good sense.
-Senior Clara is… um… how should I put it… you know?
-Hmm… To be honest, she doesn’t feel like an older sister at all…
-I can immediately tell she’s a thoughtful and kind comrade… but…
-That’s right… She’s nice… She’s nice, but… Strangely I don’t feel any respect at all…
Pity to take care of her as a foolish senior.
Admiration for the occasional appearance as a senior.
A subtle feeling mixed with these two emotions.
So I somehow became something like the beloved youngest of <Central Prism Academy>.
‘…Was the Clara act too much?’
Anyway.
We became close over a week. We could treat each other comfortably.
‘Now it’s too comfortable to the point of being a problem…’
“…”
“Grr…”
I looked at the big one’s sleep talking again after returning to reality. Then I sighed softly. I quietly got up from my seat, threw the blanket I had been covering myself with to Kara, and came out.
Creak―
With the sound of the old wooden door.
From the yard of the tailor shop located at the highest point of the shopping district, the view of the hill village where <Central Prism Academy> is located comes into sight.
“…”
I stretched while looking at the sky that had not yet dawned.
“Uaaw…!”
Shoulders and arms stretching naturally, without a single sound from bones.
“…Hup☆”
I sat down on the bare ground of the yard and did the splits, and again my leg muscles moved naturally and stretched without any pain or resistance.
Simple stretching that started like that. With just a little stretching, the stiffness from sleeping on the bare ground was already gone. The pleasant elasticity and warmth gradually rising from my body endlessly proved my body’s health.
I felt immense gratitude for that fact.
‘Being this healthy really is a blessing.’
A healthy morning.
A day without the pain all over my body that I always had during my office worker days was so refreshing.
I look up at the sky once again and send a word of thanks.
As I was looking at the gradually dawning sky, Grandpa Hua Tuo came out from the open store building in front. And he leisurely entered the yard with bow-legged steps.
“You’re up already. You’re supposed to sleep a lot when you’re just a bean sprout.”
“I’m already a proper lady, so it’s fine―☆”
Grandpa Hua Tuo muttered ‘What lady?’ then sat in a wooden chair and started smoking.
Wooo—
Cigarette smoke passing through the mechanical mouth.
Grandpa Hua Tuo opened his mouth smelling of cigarette smoke and spoke to me.
“…Come to think of it, didn’t you say the construction would be finished today?”
“Yes―☆ I’m planning to go check when it’s finished this morning―☆ Thank you for letting us stay until now☆”
“What thanks, how many times have you helped out until now.”
“…Still, I didn’t expect you to let all four of us stay here together―☆”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Sip―
Wooo…
Cigarette smoke heavily exhaled.
Grandpa Hua Tuo often filled the emptiness and loneliness of lost morning sleep due to old age with cigarettes. So he seemed to have received a lot of comfort from me who came to run trivial errands every early dawn.
Grandpa Hua Tuo blurted out in an indifferent tone:
“…Reminds me of my daughters who left for other places to get married. It wasn’t bad.”
“…”
“I packed a few bottles of juice for you to drink on your way. Drink them as you go.”
Those indifferent words contained emotions and times beyond the text of an NPC in the game.
We welcomed the morning of the shopping district like that for a while without saying anything.
* * *
“Then we’ll be going now!”
“Thank you for your hard work―☆”
“Thank you so much!”
“Thank you! Please return safely!”
“Thanks for your help!”
The place where we saw off the vehicle that carried us on the day we returned from the new student welcome event. There, we once again saw off the <Facilities Engineering Department> students who had come to do construction.
Vroom―
The back view of the large vehicle quickly disappearing down the road.
After watching that back view we saw again, we were about to return to the hill village where our school is located.
Alvit murmured in a voice overwhelmed with emotion, recalling the appearance of the school changed by <Facilities Engineering Department>:
“I really didn’t think the facilities of this beggar school could change to be so livable…”
“It’s still shabby, but it’s much better than at first.”
“That’s still something.”
As we were chattering and climbing the hill road holding juice bottles.
At that moment.
I sensed something off.
“…!”
Someone had infiltrated the school.
I focused all my nerves on the <Central Prism Academy> building about a hundred meters ahead, maximally deploying my cognitive ability which was my unique ether characteristic.
-Hup…!
Then I felt someone crawling in through a window in the direction of the newly repaired student council room. And that intruder organized the materials scattered in the student council room, then brought out a chair.
Creak―
Scrape scrape scrape…
The intruder plopping down on the chair.
They crossed their legs or struck meaningful poses while sitting like that.
-Hmm… If I sit like this the eye line doesn’t match so it doesn’t look good.
Then after setting the chair facing the main entrance.
They stuck remaining construction materials under the chair, trying to match an authoritative gaze as much as possible.
The intruder mutters in that pose:
-Hmm~? Are you that Central… Hm. It feels like I’m acknowledging them too quickly. Hmm? It’s really a shabby school? Hmm… Shabby? No…
The intruder suddenly says with a ‘Ha!’ sound:
-Hmph. What a really dirty school, how long do you plan to keep me waiting here? This should work. Hehe… They’ll be surprised when they come in soon?
At this point.
I had a pretty good idea who that person was.
‘The concept freak of the <United Student Council>…’
That person was a character who liked to appear meaningfully and see others get intimidated.
‘Why at our school…?’
The appearance of the <United Student Council>’s concept freak should be after the story progresses further. For some reason, she had already crawled into our school and was doing her vicious concept act.
‘I don’t want to bring down the juniors’ mood on such a good day…’
As I was thinking that.
Alvit grabbed my arm and said:
“…So senior!”
“Yes, yes? Why are you calling me―☆”
“Let’s go sightseeing in the city since we’re out!”
“Oh! I agree―☆”
So we left that person waiting until 6 PM.
When we returned, they were waiting dejectedly in the dark student council room.
“…Why are you coming only now.”
“…Who?”
“…Haah.”
‘Bell’, the vicious concept-obsessed secretary of the <United Student Council>, hung their head low.