Dungeon Streaming in a Chastity-Reversed World with 1:99 Male-to-Female Ratio! I Might Be a Rare Man, But I’ll Risk My Life to Find a Wife! - 43

Chapter 43: The Man Who Could Not Accept and the Women Who Did

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“Ho-Ho-Ho-Hold on, Heike-sensei! What’s going on!? Why are we in a different team from Ittou!?”

“Calm down, Akagi.”

Heike stopped Anri, who had leaned forward and pressed in on her. On the Monday after school, Ittou and his Guardian Girls had been summoned by Heike to the faculty office.

What he told them was that for the dungeon training subject’s midterm test, Ittou and the others would be split into separate teams to participate. Unable to accept that, Anri had confronted Heike, but the other two Guardian Girls also felt the same way and openly showed their dissatisfaction.

“Heike-sensei, we are Ittou-sama’s Guardian Girls. And we pride ourselves on having top-class performance in dungeon training within the class. So why would you separate us from Ittou-sama?”

“Separate you… Look, I told you this is only for the midterm. Well, you’ll have to dive with that team for the rest of this week as preparation, sure. …Including Itsukushima, I know your grades are excellent. …But, there’s been talk that it’s a problem if he only interacts with Guardian Girls.”

Heike let out a sigh, scratching at the area around her eyepatch with her thumb and wearing a bitter expression. Just as Anri and Kusumi were about to press her further, Kanna stepped forward.

“Even if you say it’s a problem for him to only interact with Guardian Girls, the original purpose of Guardian Girls was for girls appointed by the school—or girls designated by the male students themselves—to protect those boys from other girls, so that the boys would not be intimidated by the overwhelming number of girls. I don’t see how that could be a problem. And who, exactly, said such a thing? Unless you at least tell us that, we can’t accept this.”

“…You’re right. I should tell you properly. It was Kondou-sensei from Class 2-8.”

““““!!!””””

“From Class 8… Kondou-sensei…? The English teacher?”

At the mention of “Kondou-sensei,” Ittou looked around the faculty office, but could not spot her. Kondou was the English teacher, with reddish-brown permed hair and glasses.

Ittou’s impression of her was that she was strict toward female students but lenient toward him, the lone male student. In a world with a 1:99 male-to-female ratio, favoritism toward the boy in class was nothing unusual—but Ittou found Kondou’s moist English pronunciation and clinging gaze unpleasant whenever they spoke.

The Guardian Girls seemed to be thinking the same, as they all frowned and looked toward Heike.

“Haah… Well, Kondou-sensei said it. She doesn’t want what happened in her own class to happen again, so she thought it best if the boy—Ittou—interacted with other students as well. Especially if he’s here to find a bride.”

Unlike other boys, Ittou was known not to flinch away when girls approached him. This fact had spread widely when Chuma had tried to smear him, and it had reached the teachers as well. Since he wasn’t afraid of girls, Kondou argued that for the sake of harmony, Ittou should broaden his interactions in class.

Though this went against the academy’s established methods, it was not considered wrong.

“When you say ‘what happened in her class’… Kondou-sensei herself was involved in that too, wasn’t she?”

“Akagi. Even if you think it, don’t say it out loud.”

Seeing Heike scold Anri in a low voice, Ittou couldn’t help but lean in and whisper as well.

“Come to think of it, Class 8…”

“Yeah. There was a boy in that class before. But rumors spread that the Guardian Girls failed to protect him and hurt him instead. The atmosphere soured badly, and the class fell apart. In the end, the boy stopped coming to school.”

“Rumors… If you asked the boy himself—”

“He kept saying, ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’ We couldn’t force it out of him. And no one would listen to the Guardian Girls’ denials. In the end, two transferred schools, and one refused to attend anymore.”

Ittou had heard about Class 8 from Niko when they first met, so he knew of the situation. But he had not known the details. Learning them now, he frowned. The Guardian Girls also wore pained expressions, as if recalling that time.

“It was said Kondou-sensei only listened to the boy’s side and ignored the Guardian Girls’ voices.”

“Of course she denied that. She insisted she had listened to both sides carefully and responded sincerely. On top of that, she claimed through tears that the whole thing was her own lack of ability. She cried so hard it almost seemed fake.”

Heike scratched roughly around her eyepatch again and spat out her words.

“Anyway, that’s the reason. I know you’re not happy, but I believe Ittou will be fine. Besides, I think you girls should take this as an opportunity to grow more for yourselves too.”

““““???””””

The three tilted their heads in unison.

“Ittou’s bride should be someone excellent, but that doesn’t mean she has to be a Guardian Girl. So, it’s up to Ittou to choose. He might very well take a liking to one of the girls he’ll be teamed with from now on.”

““““!!!””””

The three of them straightened their backs at once.

“Ability is only one way to appeal, but it seems to me you’re too overprotective of Ittou, and your teamwork is taking the hit because of that. To reexamine that, you should take some time apart and think about what you ought to do, what you can do for Ittou.”

“No, Heike-sensei…Stuff like what they should do or can do for me…That’s…”

Not wanting to be a burden, Ittou tried to cut Heike off—but Heike raised her voice to cut him off instead.

“All right then, how about this? You’ll all be on different teams for the midterm. Whichever team gets the top score, gets to have the others do one thing for them.”

“Wait a second! Teachers aren’t supposed to encourage gambling!”

Ittou panicked and tried to stop her, but Heike just grinned and ignored him. Ittou thought he could almost hear a rumbling gogogo sound in the distance.

“It’s just a game. A game. A bit of play to boost your motivation to study is necessary. Besides, if you don’t want to do something, you can refuse. It’s not ‘anything goes.’ So? Ittou doesn’t look too eager, but you girls…”

The air itself seemed to rumble with gogogo sound, and Ittou shivered as he turned to look back. There were three smiling girls, their magical power rising.

“…Hah, it can’t be helped. Let’s make this an opportunity for Ittou-sama to realize just how important I am…!”

“Okayyy… Time to show off my strength…!”

“W-well, I don’t care about the request part, but I don’t plan on giving up first place in class. Not the request part, no way!!”

“E-everyone…Haah~ well, I guess… It’s better if I get along with the other girls too, so I’ll try my best—”

““““Don’t try your best.””””

Ittou had worked himself up to try harder, but was immediately shot down. Crushed by the girls’ pressure, he shrank away and slipped quietly into the corner. When he glanced at Heike, the teacher was scratching her eyepatch with a smug grin.

“What the heck is this supposed to beeee!?”

Ittou’s scream rang out through the Monday afternoon. And then came the day of dungeon training.

“Ah, so, I’m Ittou Itsukushima. Nice to meet you…”

“Ahhh~……………… Nice to meet youuu~”

“Hehe… Nice to meet you.”

“Welcome to Team H! Nice to meet you!! Hahahahaha!”

“’s nice to meetchuuu…”

“’s nice to meetchuuu…”

Team H, even more colorful in personality than his Guardian Girls, welcomed Ittou.

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