In a World of Reversed Chastity, I’m Rumored to Be an Easy Bitch (♂) Among Lustful Girls - 64

Chapter 64: Chicken Speak Louder Than Words

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It was Sunday, and the test at the start of the week was finally drawing near. To make one last push, I decided to go to the city library. Thanks to the support I’d received from Ayame-san and Hinayo, and the review sessions where I’d taught Riria, I had been able to study more effectively than ever before.

If everything went well, I might be able to aim for my highest ranking yet. If that happened, I could use my improved grades as leverage in negotiations—a golden opportunity to finally increase my income, which until now had remained completely stagnant. This was what you’d call a “battle for money,” which was a fight I absolutely couldn’t afford to lose.

I had known this about myself, but the moment a clear reward was dangled in front of me, I somehow became capable of giving it my all.

“—Wait, what!? ‘Itookashi’ doesn’t mean a snack!?”

“Pray tell, how did you even come to that conclusion…?”

“Well, it’s got ‘ito’ (thread) and ‘okashi’ (snack) in it, so I figured it meant something like Baby Star Ramen…”

“There’s no way Baby Star Ramen existed in the Heian period! If that were the case, their maker Oyatsu Company would be celebrating their thousandth anniversary! They’d overtake all the historic Kyoto wagashi shops and become Japan’s top confectioner from Mie Prefecture!”

Because Riria, who had come to study with me, threw out a line so ridiculous it couldn’t possibly be real, I reflexively launched into an exaggerated retort. We might be causing a bit of a commotion for being a bit too loud, but since we were on the terrace seats of the library, I hoped we were just barely within acceptable limits.

I glanced around to see if we were getting any judgmental stares.

…Alright, looks like we’re good. Though I might want to lower the volume of my comebacks a bit.

“A-Anyway… The test starts tomorrow, so wouldn’t it be better to focus on topics that will likely appear on the test rather than stumbling over things like the meaning of ‘itookashi’…?”

Watching me and Riria bicker so noisily, Hinayo—the supervisor who had come with us—muttered nervously. I didn’t know whether Riria and Hinayo were particularly close, but seeing how they were getting along without issue, I figured they probably weren’t on bad terms.

Well, they say girls’ relationships aren’t always what they seem on the surface. For all I know, they could be secretly at each other’s throats. Girls’ relationships are scary like that. 

“That’s it!! That’s the strategy we needed!”

“Eek!”

“If I don’t understand it anyway, I should just focus on what’s likely to come up! If I can guess about a third of it right, I’ll avoid a failing grade!”

“B-but, the types of questions and the format… Don’t we need to know those things to make good predictions? Without that, how would we even know what to focus on…?”

“Fufufu. I figured you’d say that, so I brought something good.”

Riria pulled out a sheet of paper from her bag. The paper was a little sun-bleached and faded. What on earth was written on it?

“Sotogahama-san, what’s that paper?”

“This is a past test. I got it from an upperclassman I know.”

“What…! A-a past test…!?”

The school’s regular exams were written by the faculty. Assuming the Ministry of Education didn’t throw in any curveballs, the pace of the classes—and thus the range of the tests—was the same every year. And since the teachers weren’t exactly brimming with free time, they would naturally want to minimize how long they spent writing questions.

That made slightly modifying last year’s questions the most efficient route. This applied not only to modern and classical Japanese, but also to math, science—pretty much everything.

That was why forming connections with upperclassmen and getting access to past tests was an extremely efficient way to study. The only problem was how to form those “connections with upperclassmen” in the first place.

For people like me or Hinayo—who weren’t in any clubs, didn’t have many friends, but could study decently—it honestly felt quicker to just study the old-fashioned way. Making those connections was such a hassle for someone like her and yet… Riria had pulled it off so easily.

She had plenty of dumb moments, but when it came to social skills and initiative, I had to admit she was impressive in those aspects.

“Past tests… I didn’t even know those existed… I thought I’d never get to see one in my life…”

“Yeah, same here. I figured they’d be forever out of my reach…”

“Actually, if you had something that good, shouldn’t you have pulled it out from the start…?”

“Yeah, I was thinking that too…”

“Shut up, both of you! You should be praising me for having the guts to try without relying on past tests at first!”

“Yes, yes, good for you.”

“Anyway, I got three years’ worth for all the main subjects, so let’s start predicting the test content!”

And so, Riria began narrowing down the material to areas she might be able to pass, using the past questions as the guide. As we read through the problems, both Hinayo and I started to pick up on the trends, and it actually turned out to be a fairly efficient way to study. I wished we had started using this earlier, but that was something to keep in mind for the next test.

“—I think this should do it. If you cover all of this, you shouldn’t fail.”

“Yes. A quick estimate suggests we can get about forty points in each subject, so at the very least, I don’t think there’s any risk of Sotogahama-san being held back because of this test.”

“Thank you both… I feel like I can actually do this…”

“If Sotogahama-san can avoid failing the test, then Sotogahama-san will have to treat us.”

“Ugh… But I guess I do owe you two that much… I’ll think about it.”

Riria gave a sheepish smile as if to say “can’t be helped.” It looked like she was seriously going to treat us. In that case, maybe I’d have her buy me a party barrel from Kentucky Fried Chicken.

I loved fried chicken so much I could eat it forever.  Sincerity wasn’t expressed with words. It was expressed through money, or rather, chicken. One of my favorite baseball players said something like that too. Yeah.

As the library’s closing time approached, we began to clean up. I had just started putting away my notes and stationery in my bag when a familiar voice rang about somewhere.

“Huh? Hinayo? You’re studying in a place like this? Come on, no matter how much you study, it’s all only going to go down the drain anyway.”

“Y-you’re…!”

The voice belonged to Misawa, Hinayo’s childhood friend. Apparently, he had also come to the library.

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