When I read the heart of the never-smiling princess, for some reason she had already fallen head over heels in love for me. - v1 Chapter 26

Chapter 26 : The Princess’s Reputation

In a corner of the staff room, Hoshino and I waited anxiously for the teacher’s response.

A middle-aged woman in a white lab coat was slowly reading through the documents in her hand. It was a somewhat unusual sight.

Fuyuko Hashikura, the physics teacher at Oomine North High School and the advisor for this term’s student council. If you had to describe her in one word, it would be a person who thinks ‘everything’s-too-troublesome’.

No matter when you look, she’s always wearing a teacher’s tracksuit under her lab coat—because choosing an outfit is too much hassle. Her hair is perpetually messy, her eyelids puffy, and her default expression is one of sleepy lethargy, likely from lack of sleep. No makeup, of course—because that’s too much effort too. Despite her rather attractive features, when female students try to doll her up, she brushes it off with a single word: “Too much of a hassle.”

So her laziness is only limited to her appearance? Well not really. During class, she’ll sometimes decide it’s too much trouble and say, “Read from this page to this page, do the practice problems, and that’s it for the class,” before ducking out early.

Naturally, a person like her, it’s only natural she skips student council meetings. Even major events are almost entirely left to Minami-san. Moreover, the controversial “Special Greeting Campaign,” for example—she barely even glanced at it. We explained it to her beforehand, and her response was, “Heh~? Sounds fun, go for it!” She probably couldn’t even be bothered to ask questions, cause it’s too troublesome. Rumor has it she got an earful from the principal afterwards.

And so, this teacher—being nicknamed “Fuyu-chan” by the students—lets us operate with relative freedom. But that doesn’t mean she can ignore everything. Even for her, these documents seemed to be something even she couldn’t just breeze through.

“…Fuun.”

Fuyu-chan, or rather, Fuyuko sensei, tossed the finished report onto her characteristically chaotic desk.

“Surprise inspection results received. Good work.”

“Is that it?” I asked, just to be sure, though I’d expected her same response.

Fuyuko sensei leaned back in her chair, hands behind her head, and yawned sleepily.

“Nn? What do you mean by ‘Is that’s it’?”

“No opinions nor revisions? We can resubmit if needed.”

“Nah~ bi beed, it’s perfect.”

Yeah, right. She’s just being lazy and half-assing it, as usual.

It’s great that she’s letting it slide, but as someone who worked hard on it, I kind of wanted her to take it a bit more seriously. As if she heard my thoughts, Fuyuko sensei glanced at the report and said with a laugh, “I did read it properly.”

“It’s actually well done. It’s not just a checklist—it summarizes the student council’s opinions, including fine details. Moreover, it’s concise, with no excessive explanations, with a manageable length. The photos showing things like the condition of equipment or the need for repairs are a nice touch for conveying what’s hard to describe in words. The writing is clear, gets the point across, and is free of typos. It’s actually a good model, something the future student council can learn struggling with their reports.”

As she saw me stunned, Fuyuko sensei shot me a suspicious look.

“What’s with that face?”

“Nothing, just… you actually read it.”

“I told you, didn’t I? What did you think I was doing just now?”

“Planning tonight’s dinner.”

“You, really nailed that perfectly.”

Is this teacher really alright?

Still, the points she praised were exactly what I’d been careful about. It seems she really did read it thoroughly. As I thought, as a teacher, she’s got her act together in moments like this. Maybe I should give her some credit—nope, scratch that. She’s our advisor, she gotta do her damn job.

That said, being praised does feel a bit embarrassing. Minami-san gave it her approval right away as well, so maybe this is something I can consider as one of my strengths. Before meeting Minami-san, I never would’ve never imagined I had a talent like this. Thanks to her, a lot of things inside me have started to unfold.

“By the way, the rate of finding personal items in this term is unusually high. Sure, everyone probably brings something to the clubrooms, but wouldn’t they’d usually hide it? Did you guys hire a detective or something?”

Hoshino and I exchanged glances and gave wry smiles.

We didn’t hire a detective, but someone certainly played the part.

Without me even needing to read the club members’ minds, Minami-san uncovered hidden items left and right—snacks, manga, hobby items, even legendary test answer keys passed down through generations. She found them all through her own deductions and sternly told the culprits to take them home.

Her ruthless observational skills left everyone trembling, earning her not only the nickname “The Princess Who Never Smiles” but also “The Queen of Oomine North High.”

Her feats were so impressive that Minami-san became the talk of the school for a while. Instead of complaints about the surprise inspections, students started saying, “If it’s a student council president like her, what can you really do?” and gave up resisting. Due to her relentless thoroughness, no matter the club, it actually boosted her credibility. The student council’s reputation for integrity wasn’t bad either.

Did Minami-san, maybe even calculate all of this beforehand?

If so, the fact that even I can’t imagine what she would do next, sounds downright terrifying.

“Well, whatever. The clubrooms seem to be used properly, and there’s no trace of delinquency, so I’ve got nothing to say. I’ll submit this report officially.”

I nodded magnanimously. There was one club doing something shady, but keeping quiet about it is the student council’s policy.

“So then, are we done here? Then I’ve got a favor to ask you all next.”

“Sorry, just one more thing,” I said, turning to Hoshino.

She hesitantly handed a document to Fuyuko sensei.

“Um, actually, we’d like you to check the student council’s annual budget plan as well.”

Fuyuko sensei’s face twisted in ‘Geh’ an obvious disgust.

“What the heck? What’s with this much paperwork to check~?”

“S-sorry!” Hoshino bowed her head repeatedly.

“No need to apologize for this, Hoshino. We’ve got to have her do her job properly.”

“Are you my grade supervisor or something.”

That retort could be dangerous depending on who hears it, Fuyuko sensei.

After some grumbling, Fuyuko sensei finished checking the document, and when we thought that our business was finally done—or so we thought. But there she was, grinning as if she’d been waiting for this exact moment.

“Excuse us.”

Hoshino and I bowed our heads and left the staff room, carrying even heavier loads than when we arrived.

I was lugging physics lab equipment in both hands, while Hoshino carried a tower of documents, heading toward the science room.

This was all because of an errand Fuyuko sensei dumped on us: “Take these to the science room.”

“Why does that woman make us carry this stupidly heavy stuff in the first place!?”

“She said the vendor left it in the staff room.”

“That doesn’t give her the right to make her students haul that over…”

As I sighed in exasperation, Hoshino deepened her wry smile. Her steps were noticeably slower.

“Moreover, are you okay? Isn’t that too heavy for you?”

What she was holding, was a stack of blank answer sheets in both hands. It didn’t seem like much to me, but that’s just a guy’s perspective. For someone as petite and delicate as Hoshino—smaller than even Minami-san—it might be quite a burden.

I’d love to swap with her, but my hands were already full with an oscilloscope and a pendulum device, both even heavier than that. As expected, there’s no way I could let Hoshino carry these instead.

Or rather seriously, that teacher shouldn’t be entrusting critical lab equipment to students like this.

“N-no, I’m fine,”

Hoshino said with a weak smile, then let out an odd “Ngh!” as she dropped the stack of answer sheets.