A Late Bloomer's Powerful Restart ~My Second Life Starts at a Prestigious School Where the Gender Ratio Is Totally Off, and for Some Reason, All These Talented Girls Get Attached to Me...!?~ - 21

Chapter 21: Rumors About the Nanamiya Faction

After that, I finally realized something.

Once the time for going to school had passed, I could just openly let Sasa return to the girls’ dormitory.

In the end, the fact that Kurumi had come to my room was already known to several people.

Showing up late together with her actually started to feel like the more natural option.

As for Sasa… she decided to take the day off claiming a cold.

Even as the young lady of the Kokonoe Group, being late or absent without notice would leave a bad impression.

I should have handled it this way from the beginning… Well, since she was actually perfectly fine, I lent her some light novels I had in the room to pass the time. I knew she had been interested in them before, so they should keep her occupied for at least a day.

When I arrived late and stepped into the classroom during homeroom, I immediately caught some unpleasant rumors.

There were even looks of pity or sympathy mixed in, but I decided not to think too deeply about it.

At lunch, in addition to Ousei who usually ate with me, Kotetsu showed up for some reason too.

The boys from the recommendation group that he had brought along yesterday didn’t come over, so the three of us ended up eating together.

Tano and Yūki were apparently doing their own thing.

“I never thought you’d be the one showing up late, Taiki. You’ve gotta be careful.”

“Totally. But… even a genius can lose his head over a girl, huh.”

I had been wondering why they chose to eat here of all places… but it seemed they had come specifically to gloat over me.

They both had very pleased expressions, like they had finally found a weapon to tease me with—something that had nothing to do with studies or sports.

…Even though I hated it, I couldn’t really talk back here.

Because if they ever figured out that this had anything to do with Sasa, who was absent from school today, it would be a disaster.

“Is Kokonoe-san okay? A sudden cold like that.”

“She’s a sheltered young lady, so probably the exercise yesterday finally caught up with her.”

“She used to brag that she had never caught a cold in her entire life.”

…They really didn’t need to bring that up. Well, it does sound exactly like something she would say.

I had planned to say it was just a mild cold so she could come back to school tomorrow, but maybe that was a bad move.

“A-Anyway… You know how the Nanamiya young lady is always alone too? Do you guys know anything about that?”

Trying to change the subject, I accidentally blurted out the one topic I was most curious about.

The way I squeezed it in… it wasn’t too awkward, right?

“Nanamiya-san? Yeah, that’s true. At first it looked like she was avoiding Kokonoe-san because she has so many friends… but I guess that’s not it. From what I can tell, she just likes being alone.”

I had definitely gotten that kind of vibe from Shika.

But apart from her, the Nanamiya faction seemed to revolve around a girl named Morozumi.

Misaka was part of that group too, and it didn’t give off a very good impression.

She might have some rivalry toward Sasa as the daughter of a competing company, so I should probably keep an eye out.

Since I had forced the topic, I didn’t manage to get any useful information after that.

Besides, Kotetsu didn’t seem interested in girls at all—he stayed completely unresponsive to this kind of talk.

Well, I didn’t really need to worry about being considerate toward him anyway…

At that moment, a conversation from a nearby group of girls reached my ears.

“Did you hear? Misaka has some super talented twin sisters, apparently.”

“For real? Then why did the nervous one get to enroll?”

“You know there’s only one recommendation spot, right? She probably cried to her parents and stole it from her older sister.”

“Ugh, that’s awful… Totally fits the spoiled act.”

“Right~”

“…”

I hadn’t expected talk about Misaka’s older sister to come up this quickly.

I had more or less anticipated Misaka’s current position, but since the bad rumors hadn’t spread too far yet, I had relaxed thinking it was limited to just a few people.

(If I leave this alone, it might get really bad.)

According to Kagurazaka, the girls’ conversations had been full of nasty rumors about me and Sasa.

But maybe because of what happened this morning… the suspicions about me and Kurumi had put those out like a fire.

…And that’s probably why some pointless topic like Misaka’s sister came up instead.

I hadn’t meant to act as a breakwater, but if she was actually in danger, I couldn’t just ignore it.

Still, there wasn’t much I could do about it right now.

—What should I do?

So that’s how I ended up at the Western sweets shop again today to meet the well-informed Kagurazaka.

She greeted me with the kind of wry smile that no shop employee should ever make, so I ordered a mont blanc as usual.

“You were avoiding me today, weren’t you?”

“…Look, Taiki. Did you really think Tsukimi would be available for you anytime~?”

“You’ve got to have some idea why.”

It was about this morning—how I had asked Kagurazaka for help, but Kurumi showed up instead.

“…………Sorry about that.”

She must have felt guilty, because she immediately dropped her usual little-devil act.

In the end, Sasa got marked absent with a cold, and Kagurazaka was probably curious about what had actually happened too.

“I didn’t tell you, but this morning I was getting homework help from Kure-chan~…”

“And that’s how our conversation got seen.”

“…Yup.”

So Kurumi said she wouldn’t help, but she was secretly backing her up behind the scenes.

She really is a good person… considering she still made me bark like a dog.

“You managed to get help from her, huh.”

“Well, Tsukimi’s really good at making sweets… so I made some for her and she liked it.”

Tch, so there was a reward after all.

Even the savior got baited with snacks.

“And then she even told me I have talent for statistics! If I just build on that one strength, don’t you think my life will be smooth sailing?”

“If you want to become a scholar, that could work.”

She didn’t look very happy about the scholar idea. Well, even if she’s strong in a specialized field, becoming an academic is tough.

Still, getting praised by someone like Kurumi was actually pretty impressive. She had every right to be proud.

Anyway, the mystery of how she managed to do homework while barely keeping up in class and working part-time after school had finally been solved.

I hadn’t realized the two of them were that close, so that part was surprising… but Kagurazaka’s life seemed pretty tough too.

“So, is Sara-chan okay?”

“She’s totally fine. Since three of us showing up late together would look suspicious, I had her play sick.”

“…Taiki, you’re kind of a delinquent, huh…”

Ugh, I only missed the time because I wasn’t paying attention, so I had no comeback.

If that’s the case, then Kurumi—who’s close with you—is a delinquent too… but I kept my mouth shut because I was scared she’d snitch on me later.

“Well, let’s just forget about this whole thing. I don’t want to drag it out either.”

“Okay. Tsukimi doesn’t want any weird rumors about Kure-chan either… unlike a certain someone.”

“The rumors about me are already dying down, right? More importantly… how far have the rumors about Misaka spread?”

When I slipped the question into the conversation, Kagurazaka made an “Ah…” face like she knew exactly what I was talking about.

From the look on her face, it definitely wasn’t pleasant news.

Even so, I had to confirm it.

Because if the truth that Misaka told me in my previous life ever spread, she wouldn’t be able to live a normal school life anymore.