I Got Dumped by My Childhood Friend Fiancée Who I Didn’t Even Like, I Thought I Could Finally Have a Peaceful School Life… But Then I Got Targeted by SS-Class Beautiful Young Ladies - Chapter 38

Chapter 38: [Public Execution] The Presentation Opponent Was Everyone Except Me

I asked the question out of pure curiosity toward Ryuki, who was showing an abnormal level of obsession with me, but he just narrowed his eyes and brushed it off.

He stayed silent, keeping that vulgar smile plastered on his face, stabbing me with an ice-cold glare. This guy probably gets his greatest joy from looking down on people and laughing at them.

—The pet dog of the conglomerate heiresses… huh.

That was a really sharp, ironic way to put it. He’d nicely picked up on the old nickname “Kirishima’s useless mutt.”

So Ryuki was capable of wordplay that delicate… I almost laughed at how unlike him it was, but I held it in and let a dry chuckle slip out instead.

“Hey, maybe… you’re jealous? If you are, just say so. I’ll give you the big doghouse anytime.”

“…Huh?”

“Oh, was I wrong…? Sorry, sorry. I just figured you were jealous of me having connections to the conglomerate families and decided to mess with me… you know? Right now that’s the one card you want most, isn’t it?”

“Grh! You…!!”

Normally I wouldn’t bother with such a pointless comeback. Like I’ve said over and over, dealing with this guy is just a waste of time.

But this time was different. I’d just been warned by my family at home, and more importantly, if I let him say whatever he wanted, it would affect the reputation of those eccentric girls.

At the very least, I wanted to keep all his hate focused on me.

That’s why I threw out the light jab, but… it looked like it hit him right where it hurt.

A thick, angry vein popped up on Ryuki’s forehead.

“You… don’t get cocky.”

He leaned forward aggressively for a second.

But surprisingly, he stopped the movement almost immediately, wiped every trace of anger from his face, and curled the corner of his mouth into a smirk.

“Haha! So that habit of putting up meaningless bluffs never got beaten out of you, huh?”

“…Bluffs?”

When I asked that, Ryuki snorted and turned away from me, facing the rest of the class instead.

“Yeah! Bluffs! Your plan is to get close to the conglomerate people and build yourself some backing, right?”

“Sigh… which part of that conversation did you cut out to come up with that interpretation?”

“It’s not the conversation, it’s your actions, Yoichi. If you really had connections to the conglomerates, there’s no reason you’d hide it until now, is there? You were probably planning to keep it secret until you got officially recognized as their pet dog, weren’t you?”

The heir of the Kaga family proudly laid out his completely off-base reasoning.

But I could immediately guess what he was aiming for. I see. So that’s why he unusually held back his emotions.

Ryuki kept speaking fluently, like he was giving a speech to the whole room.

“Hey. Let me teach something good to you ignorant fools. The four big conglomerates—Minase, Tachibana, Shiramine, and Ooragi—each one runs on overwhelming one-man rule! They dominate, but they don’t cooperate or lend a hand outside of mutual interests.”

“…………Hmm.”

“In other words? No matter how much you play the toy, they’re not gonna help you. Got it? I’m just kindly warning you out of the goodness of my heart. Don’t make yourself any more pathetic than you already are!”

Still wearing that vulgar grin, Ryuki explained my relationship with the conglomerate heiresses in weirdly specific detail.

Our views of the world were one hundred eighty degrees apart, but that probably didn’t matter to him from the start.

Whether what he said was actually correct. Whether the people listening would buy it. That’s what he’d been thinking about when he started talking.

In reality, if I really had approached them looking for protection, everything Ryuki rattled off would’ve been undeniable truth.

That’s why little agreeing murmurs were leaking out from all over the classroom.

“…Yeah, true.”
“When you put it that way…”
“Yeah… no way those people would ever protect Kirishima.”

Soft whispers filled with understanding. These guys were so simple it made me wonder if they even had brains, but oh well. Thinking takes effort, after all.

Ryuki listened to them and twisted his mouth in satisfaction.

For me, arguing with him any longer felt ridiculously stupid. He looked happy enough, so this was probably a good place to stop.

I let out a small breath, raised my face to meet his eyes, and said,

“…Thanks for the warning. I’ll live modestly so I don’t end up too pathetic.”

“…Grh!”

I hadn’t put any malice or provocation into it—I was just lightly brushing off the conversation—but even that seemed to piss him off.

Ryuki’s face twisted for a second and he started to say something—when—

“—Aaaalright. Time to start morning homeroom~”

The classroom door opened at the perfect moment.

The familiar sound of the door and the homeroom teacher’s voice sliced through the tense air.

The classroom atmosphere snapped back to everyday life in an instant.

Ryuki clicked his tongue, glared at me one last time, then turned on his heel and went back to his seat.

The people around us also left with slightly reluctant faces and slowly scattered back to their own desks.

I didn’t have anything else to say either, so I rested my elbow on the desk and faced forward.

The teacher who’d just walked in opened the attendance book like nothing had happened and started reading the usual announcements in his normal tone.

Just like that, the ordinary morning scene was patched back together in the blink of an eye.

But—the heat from all those stares that had been on me still felt like it was stuck to my skin.

This was probably not just my imagination. My peaceful school life was already completely dead.

The connection between me and the conglomerate heiresses would spread beyond the class and through the whole grade in no time. Once that happened, every single move I made at this school would be watched.

“Sigh…”

I tossed my gaze up at the ceiling and let out a breath-like sigh so no one could hear.

And once again I thought,

—I really shouldn’t have gone to the neighboring town yesterday.

I wanted to punch the version of myself that had gotten strangely excited and a little carried away.

This was the result of letting myself get swept up in stuff that didn’t suit me like excitement and a racing heart.

The price was way too heavy.

Even though homeroom had already started, my head was swirling with nothing but that regret.