The day after I dealt with the pervert who tried to assault Sakura, I refused Chabashira-sensei’s kindness of telling me to rest as much as I wanted and headed to school with bandages wrapped around my right hand and knee.

Even with the bandages, nothing was broken, it was just a treatment to stop the bleeding from scraped skin so it did not interfere with writing or walking and it would have been ridiculous to file a sick leave over an injury like this in the first place.

When I arrived at the classroom, it seemed everyone had heard the full story because every gaze locked onto me, then they swarmed me in an instant and started bombarding me with questions.

“Ayanokoji, is it true you beat the pervert who tried to mess with Sakura?”

“Is it true that you broke five of his teeth because you were so enraged?”

“They say that pervert fell into a coma and hasn’t woken up...”

“I heard you hit him so hard one of his kidneys got wrecked?”

“I heard three of his ribs were broken and his heart almost got pierced.”

“Did you really try to make him a eunuch?”

I never expected the rumors to be exactly as they were.

Once a rumor passes through people’s mouths and brains, it always gets distorted however it wants.

...But what did these incompetent people think I was, usually?

“Haa... it’s not like that, so can you get out of my way?”

When I spoke coldly with a slightly annoyed expression, everyone immediately moved aside.

The eyes staring at me, regardless of gender, were filled with awe.

No matter how strong I am for a woman, if they hear I subdued a grown man trying to commit sexual assault and left him unable to move, they obviously can’t believe it.

“Ayanokoji! Are you really okay? Wouldn’t it have been better to rest?”

Hirata had heard about yesterday’s incident and called me in a panic.

I told him it was fine, but the bandages around my hand and knee must have been bothering him quite a lot.

“It’s just a scrape. Also, for this incident, the chairman said he’ll make sure there’s no trouble, so you don’t need to worry about losing class points.”

“I’m not worried about that. But... you’re really not hurt, right?”

“If you saw him in person, you’d be more worried about the pervert. I stopped just short of killing him.”

I mean it.

I hit him hard enough that my hand and knee ended up like this, so there is no way he looked normal.

My memory is hazy but I think his nose was completely crooked, the blood vessels in his eyes burst and blood ran down and around five or six teeth were broken. He also looked like he couldn’t even control his arms and legs properly.

More importantly, Sakura hasn’t been seen since earlier.

Well... after going through something that serious, there’s no way she’d come to school like nothing happened. Is she taking some time off?

“Sakura still hasn’t come?”

“Yeah. Not yet.”

“Chabashira-sensei said even if she’s absent, it’ll be treated as a sick day, so even if she doesn’t come, class points won’t be deducted. Keep your mouths shut so she doesn’t get dragged into pointless gossip.”

“Don’t worry. Everyone’s worried about Sakura.”

Either way, it’s not my problem.

The Sudō incident is already completely over, treated as if it never happened. That means Sakura is no longer worth paying attention to.

I decided not to care any further and took out a book from my bag to start reading.

It was around the time I quietly flipped a few pages.

“Um, who are you? This is Class D.”

“First-year... right? I’ve never seen that face before.”

“Wait, no way... Sakura?”

“What? Eeeeh! It really is Sakura!”

“Oooo! What the heck is going on! That Sakura is such a beauty?!”

“No way! She was hiding it with glasses?!”

All at once, the class grew noisy.

Of all things, the book I was reading was an English original of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.

When it became impossible to focus, I sighed and put the book back into my bag.

“A-Ayanokoji...”

At the gentle voice I’d grown used to over the past month or so, I unconsciously raised my head.

Sakura was standing in front of me.

But she wasn’t the plain-looking Sakura from before who wore glasses and loosely tied her hair just enough.

She had thrown away the glasses she used to hide her identity, tied her hair into twin tails with a ribbon that suited her, put on light makeup and dressed up a little, the same dazzling look as the photo from the deliberations, no, even more glamorous than that.

The incompetent people in class couldn’t hide their shock at how different Sakura looked from the quiet girl with a tacky impression.

Especially the boys who constantly talk about girls, their stares were so blatantly obvious it was uncomfortable. I met each of their gazes one by one and warned them with my eyes.

Sakura is someone who suffered a sexual assault attempt and they’re making those leering expressions. They really don’t have a thought in their heads.

“About yesterday... thank you so much. If it weren’t for Ayanokoji, it would’ve been really bad.”

“It’s not like that. When you threw the letters on the ground, I thought you did pretty well. For you, that was a lot of courage.”

“Ahaha... yeah... I was really scared then.”

The incompetent girl who cried her eyes out in front of me, Ichinose and Kanzaki yesterday is laughing today like it’s ridiculous.

It’s better than seeing tears well up in her eyes.

Even though it happened for the sake of my match with Ryūen, the Sudō incident became a chance for Sakura to grow.

Not that I intended it and it doesn’t benefit me.

“Still, it’s impressive. You came dressed like that, fully prepared for the whole school to panic.”

“...Because I promised Ayanokoji. That I wouldn’t run or hide...”

Because of some promise she made on her own, she’s prepared to endure those impure, leering stares, truly foolish.

Now that she’s shown herself like this, Sakura’s life probably won’t be very smooth from here on.

With that feminine personality and her slightly airheaded side, all kinds of guys will underestimate her and cling to her stubbornly.

Well, does it matter? She looks satisfied. Since she’s being commendable, I’ll give her a reward at least.

“If something like yesterday happens again, even more than Kushida or Hirata, make sure you tell me. For the purpose of preventing a repeat, that’ll be faster.”

At those words, Sakura showed a brilliant smile I’d never seen before and nodded.

At the very least, no one will dare stalk Sakura recklessly anymore.

As long as they don’t want to get on the bad side of a woman who can brutally beat a grown man.

There’s nothing to misunderstand.

Even now and in the future, I won’t think of incompetent people as friends.

This is simply a ‘reward’ for doing a job well.

Sakura, having gained courage from me, will do her best for Class D going forward.

They say losers always look back on their misery and regret it when it’s already too late, but Sakura overcame that early.

It’s definitely different from the scenes my brother and I have seen so many times.

Maybe this school... might be a bit different from the White Room.

Then again, it’s a place crawling with incompetent people.

* * *

Time passed and the bell for morning homeroom rang, then Chabashira-sensei entered the classroom. She confirmed that Sakura and I had come to school normally and her expression looked like she was in a better mood.

“As you’ve all already heard, the incident caused by the conflict between Sudō and Class C was resolved when Class C requested to withdraw the complaint and the school accepted it, resulting in both Sudō and all of Class C receiving a verdict of not guilty. In other words, there will be no point changes due to the incident and by this morning, both Class C and Class D points will be distributed normally with no minus.”

At that, everyone in class shouted and celebrated their victory. Since if Sudō had been punished, there was a possibility that points would decrease at least somewhat, the complete preservation of points without any minus was enough to send everyone into raptures.

But that wasn’t the only good news.

“One more thing. Yesterday after school, there was an incident where an employee of the Keyaki Mall large electronics store attempted to sexually assault Sakura and Ayanokoji subdued him. The school is grateful for Ayanokoji’s achievement in preventing what could have become a major crime, so we have decided to award her personally one hundred thousand Private Points and to award this Class D an additional one hundred Class Points as a reward. These Class Points will be added to the points that will be distributed this morning. Congratulations. It seems the delayed point distribution turned out to be beneficial, didn’t it?”

That’s something to be grateful for.

I already knew from the student council president that I’d be receiving one hundred thousand Private Points personally, but I didn’t expect them to give class points too. Accepting the match with Ryūen returned some profit.

“Really? That’s the best! It’s 19,700 points!”

“That’s almost 200 up already!”

“This is all thanks to Ayanokoji. We’re saved!”

Since it was my achievement, everyone was busy praising me.

Watching them treat me like Class D’s savior is at least tolerable.

If they knew this whole thing happened because of me and Ryūen, what kind of expressions would those guys make...

Just imagining it is horrific beyond words, I mean the hopeless expressions of incompetent people.

“Compared to the foolish spectacle at the beginning of enrollment, I’m impressed you’ve raised your class points this well. If you keep this up, Class A might be difficult right away, but even moving up to Class C is no longer a dream.”

Seeing Chabashira-sensei, who was unusually generous with praise, everyone burned with determination.

They probably think that if they just keep at it, they can reach Class C.

Idiots. Do you even know that I’m the one who created all these class points? The moment I stop lifting a finger, this class will drop straight into the abyss. If you don’t work hard, you’ll never grow.

The only person who seemed to know that was Horikita, sitting next to me with a blank expression.

Maybe yesterday shocked her more than a little because she was acting like she was trying to avoid me. She must have realized that I’m clearly in a different position from her.

It’s good that she finally seems to understand what level she belongs at. If she stays quiet like this without overstepping, I have no intention of getting involved in whatever Horikita does going forward either. I just hope she uses this chance for some deep self-reflection and properly understands her brother’s intentions.

“Then we’ll end homeroom here. Be diligent today as well.”

And so, today began again. I really wish... this peaceful life could keep going.

Though there’s no way this school would allow that.