“Sorry, Tachibana-chi… I kind of got carried away and said something like that in front of everyone…”

“Ah, no… it’s fine. I’m not bothered by it, so you don’t have to apologize so many times, Mito-san.”

While eating lunch, I smiled and told Mito-san that I didn’t mind, as she sat there on the verge of tears.

What Mito-san was apologizing for was the little incident during music class.

Mito-san, who calls herself the class’s strategist, ended up calling me a perverted boy and as a result, several girls from other classes got so flustered they actually fainted.

Because so much time was spent taking care of them, the very first music class ended with us barely doing anything, which means the biggest victim might actually have been the music teacher.

By the way, when I tried to princess-carry one of the girls who collapsed and take her to the nurse’s office, everyone around me desperately stopped me, yelling, “You’ll seriously make her heart stop, so please don’t!”

“So you’ve gone and increased your fanbase in other classes again, Tachibana-kun…”

“Maybe we should strengthen security during inter-class movement…”

“Uh, sorry about that, Tatarahama-san, Kuruwa-san.”

“No, it was within expectations that Tachibana-kun’s appeal would be exposed to other classes through the elective arts subjects. We even drafted a security plan in advance.”

Ohhh, so that part was expected.

But I feel like Mito-san calling me a lecherous guy was probably not part of the plan…

“So anyway, today’s a lunch meeting in preparation for the class replacement match, right?”

Today, we’re all eating lunch together in the same conference room we used when we had that joint lunch with Class 1 before.

You could say it’s basically a pep rally before the class replacement match.

“Yes. First, about the class replacement match—it’s a comprehensive competition where we compete in intelligence, physical strength and wife aptitude.”

“Uh-huh, yeah.”

Now then, I kind of glossed over it, but while you can roughly imagine competitions for intelligence and physical strength, what exactly is a competition for wife aptitude?

That’s something that’s hard to explain because the events are extremely diverse, so it’s best to just see the real thing during the actual competition.

“For the intelligence division, Erina-chan the strategist will be in charge. For the physical division, Kuruwa-san the head of security. And for the wife division, I, the class representative Tatarahama, will serve as division head.”

“Huh? Wait, isn’t Tatarahama-san supposed to handle the intelligence division?”

Tatarahama-san once said that if she hadn’t caught a cold on the day of the entrance exams, she would definitely have ended up in Class 1 based on her academic ability.

If someone with Class 1–level academics like Tatarahama-san entered the intelligence division, then against Class 3, victory would basically be guaranteed.

“As you know, Tachibana-chi, the wife division tests overall capability. So we decided that Minami-chi, the class representative with the highest overall ability, was the most suitable choice.”

I see. That makes sense.

Yeah, yeah.

That competition really is…… kind of brutal in a lot of ways.

So much so that it’s impossible to fully describe here.

“So with this lineup, we’ll be taking on Class 3. Is that alright with you, Tachibana-kun?”

All the girls in the conference room looked at me, waiting for my answer.

Their faces were blazing with fighting spirit.

Good expressions.

As they head into battle, all I can do as nothing more than a trophy is offer words of encouragement.

“Yeah. I believe in all of you.”

The words are short.

But that’s because I truly trust them.

“Hell yeah! We’ll wipe the floor with Class 3!”

“We’ll crush them so badly they’ll never dare mess with Class 2 again!”

Girls in this world are cute, but they’re also seriously cool.

Bathed in the fierce, blazing fighting spirit pouring off them, I popped one of Kuruwa-san’s handmade octopus-shaped sausages into my mouth and thought that, honestly, being fought over like this isn’t such a bad thing after all.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

‘Hmm… I’m bored.’

After school.

Everyone else in the class had practice for the class replacement match, so I was all alone.

I even offered, “Want me to cheer you on as part of the support squad?”

But Tatarahama-san turned me down with, “You’d be too distracting, so please refrain,” leaving me feeling dejected.

In the class replacement match, it’s a rule that every student participates in some kind of event.

And since the points of the top three performers in each division are added to the class score, raising the overall baseline of the class is essential.

It’s not a system where only the absolute ace has to carry everything and that’s honestly what makes it so well designed.

So, every single student in Class 2 was seriously practicing.

And as for me, whose role is basically just being a trophy, I had absolutely nothing to do.

Now then, what should I do?

Should I go drag Ecchan-sensei to my house again, or maybe hang out with Haruto?

Thinking that, I headed toward the shoe lockers.

“That’s outrageous! What the hell is this supposed to mean?!”

A rough voice reached my ears and I instinctively stopped.

A guy’s voice?

It was clearly a male voice.

Trouble?

I quietly peeked out from behind the shoe lockers in the direction of the sound.

“Calm down, Toramine.”

“How am I supposed to stay calm?! This is the most humiliating thing that’s ever happened to me!”

Overlapping a girl’s deliberately calm voice, the guy only got angrier and angrier.

Wait, that’s Arasaki-san.

The girl scolding the guy was Arasaki-san, the class representative of Class 3.

Which means the guy having a full-blown meltdown right now is…

“Mai. Isn’t this your fault for failing to properly control the class as the representative?!”

Ah, yeah. Definitely a Class 3 male student.

And right now, he’s taking out his frustration on Arasaki-san.

Huh? Come to think of it, Arasaki-san called him by his given name earlier and he’s calling her Mai too.

Were they acquaintances from before?

“I simply followed the will of the class as the representative.”

“And you’re supposed to guide them properly as the representative! Because of your negligence, the girls in the class turned against me right after enrollment and now I’m a complete laughingstock!”

Well… yeah.

If girls start fawning over guys from other classes right from April, that’s a direct hit to a guy’s pride.

If I, the person at the center of this mess, step in directly, it’ll just complicate things further.

Better to leave—

“But that’s because you barely ever come to school.”

“Don’t talk back to me. You’re just a woman!”

The Class 3 guy raised his hand.

Arasaki-san looked up at the descending slap with emotionless eyes.

“Ow!”

The one who cried out in pain was the Class 3 guy.

I had stepped between them and blocked the strike with a high guard, causing his wrist to twist with a nasty crack as it hit my forearm.

“W-who the hell are you?!”

“Hey. I’m Tachibana Tomoki, Class 2.”

I introduced myself concisely in response to his demand for identification.

Ahhh…… yeah, I definitely just locked in a first contact that’s guaranteed to get messy.

Even so, I don’t regret it.

There’s no option in my book to just look away when a girl is about to be hit.

“Are you okay, Arasaki-san?”

“I-I’m fine…”

Probably surprised by this unexpected intervention, her eyes behind her glasses were full of confusion, showing a rare, very human reaction.

“Yeah. I like it better when you change your expression like that. It’s cuter.”

“W-what?!”

Ever since we faced off in music class, I’d been bothered by it.

Arasaki-san always looked like she’d given up on something, unlike the other girls.

But if she can change expressions like this, then there’s something I can do too.

Like sticking my nose in and messing up the cool, composed face of the cold class rep.

“P-please don’t say weird things…… someone as unfriendly as me…”

“No, that’s not true. You’re—”

“Hey! You bastard! Why are you getting so familiar with my Mai?!”

The Class 3 guy barged in, shouting.

“It’s Tachibana, not ‘you.’ I told you already, Toramine-kun.”

“I don’t have to let you call me by my given name!”

Saying that, Toramine-kun raised his uninjured arm high again.

Seriously, your motions are way too big…

Thinking that, I placed another high guard along the path of his swing.

“Ow! It broke! This time it really broke!”

And just like before, he collapsed onto the floor clutching his arm, undone by the recoil of his own attack.

Man… guys in this world really aren’t used to fighting, huh.

This world’s setting says there are quite a few men like this who hit women, but I guess they don’t expect any resistance.

As I watched Toramine-kun writhe on the floor—

“That’s enough, both of you!”

A voice that cut through the chaos rang out from the school entrance.

“By the authority of Honey Academy Student Council President Isshiki Reina, Tachibana Tomoki of Class 2 and Toramine Nemuro of Class 3, you will both accompany me to the student council room!”

The voice of Student Council President Isshiki, clad in a silver school uniform, carried an undeniable force.