Living in a Class-Based World - Chapter 25: Yuuta Attends School ②

After Yuuta had accepted the Service request for Moe’s Grandmother, Yuuta and the girls spent some time having a relaxed chat.

For some reason, Manami looked slightly appalled by Aoi, but Yuuta never noticed any of that. And even Moe, who had some leeway to relax a bit after getting Yuuta to accept her mother’s Service request, was surprised as she had never seen Aoi being so high-strung and jovial.

“It is truly regrettable, but it’s about time…”

Those words of Manami became the signal. No matter how much they wanted to continue the conversation in this nice atmosphere, it’d be wrong for Aoi’s group to constantly monopolize Yuuta’s classroom. Just as arranged by Manami in advance, the female students, whom she had currently on watch so that no one would enter the classroom, would enter the room afterwards, requesting to talk with Yuuta.

“Uuh…just a bit longer.”

“Aoi-sama. Won’t you be able to meet him as early as the day after tomorrow?”

Even though they had set up all of this beforehand, Aoi became sulky, as if completely unwilling to separate from Yuuta. Then again, her behavior was way too adorable, so it also caused Yuuta’s heart to flutter.

“But I guess I have no choice. Yuuta-sama, I wanted to talk with you much longer, but we mustn’t get in the way of your exchange with other students. Please allow us to excuse ourselves at this point for today.”

“O-Okay. I’m happy that I’ll be able to meet you in two days, but I’d be happy…if I could talk with you…Aoi-san…Manami-san, and Moe-san again like this.”

“Yes! There is yet another School Day scheduled before your graduation, Yuuta-sama. Since we are going to attend it by all means necessary, I would love to keep you company at that time.”

“I will be eagerly awaiting that day then.”

“I am very delighted that you gave me your permission to accompany you on the sick visit in two days. I shall be waiting for you at the hospital.”

“Okay!”

After making a promise to talk again on the next School Day, Aoi, Manami, and Moe left Yuuta’s classroom. On the way out, Moe kept bowing her head over and over again, trying to convey her feelings of gratitude.

That was lots of fun.

Yuuta was immersed in the afterglow of the wonderful conversation he had enjoyed with Aoi’s group, but within less than a minute after the three girls left, female students swarmed into the classroom.

Eh? You gotta be kidding me.

The number of female students entering the classroom exceeded ten ― or to be precise, it was 12 in total. Four high class daughters, who were permitted to attend, had each brought two friends with them.

“Yuuta-sama, we took the liberty to come here in order to extend our greetings.”

Starting with those words of the first girl, one female student after the other formally greeted Yuuta. Surrounded by twelve girls, the classroom had suddenly turned into a bed of pretty flowers, and in the center of all this, Yuuta was humming with busyness as he dealt with all of them.

Nevertheless, he kept interacting with them while politely returning each of their greetings. He didn’t share such a deep conversation with any of them as he had done with Aoi, but because the girls skillfully brought up one topic after the other, Yuuta could spend an easy time, having lighthearted chats with them.

Some female students also looked inside the classroom from outside, and as such, the vicinity around Yuuta’s classroom continued to thrive in activity.

Things were so hectic that Yuuta didn’t even realize that the clock had already reached lunch time.

“Yuuta-sama, thank you very much for this wonderful period of time.”

“The gratitude is on my side. It’s great that you all allowed me to enjoy myself so much.”

The female students left Yuuta’s classroom because of lunchtime. Logically, Yuuta was left all alone.

Now then, I wonder what I should do. I don’t really feel like going, but I kinda want to see their reaction when I head over.

Lunchtime would serve as an opportunity for the attending male junior high students to network with each other. Because of that, the female students weren’t allowed to mingle with the boys during lunchtime.

It’s also possible to eat my lunch here, if I don’t go to the school cafeteria…oh well, whatever. Let’s give it a go.

Yuuta got off his laurels and walked to the cafeteria.

It wasn’t as though all of Yuuta’s male classmates were in attendance for today’s School Day. Rather, given the time of the year, the number of attending boys was actually low.

Many guys had already finished making promises with the female students in regards to the formation of their classes for high school, and thus had no reason to attend around this time. In other words, the only ones attending the School Days before the graduation ceremony were leftovers and losers who didn’t manage to make any arrangements about their high school classes.

Most of these boys would be forced to start their high school life as E-Ranks since they failed to reach D-Rank during the final ranking exam of junior high. Basically, they were the preferred male targets of Dreamseducers.

Keita-senpai had to start high school as E-Rank as well, didn’t he?

And sure enough, the E-Rank boys were currently eating their lunch in the cafeteria while complaining about this and that to each other.

However, as soon as they noticed Yuuta entering the room,

“Ah! The scum is here!”

“Hey, wait a sec!? For real!?”

That’s a scene I’ve encountered somewhere before, isn’t it? Yuuta didn’t pay any attention to their insults. He could match some of the faces with names just like back during the incident with Keisuke and Tsubasa, but one of the faces was new to him. As he surveyed the cafeteria, he realized that only three boys seemed to be present.

He didn’t know whether some of the guys were taking their lunch inside their classroom, seeing how the rooms came equipped with everything that would be necessary for that.

“Long time no see.”

He didn’t ignore them, but after a short greeting, he sat down in a seat slightly apart from them, and started his lunch.

As if happy that they had found a distraction in Yuuta not having been able to become a D-Rank, they began to trash-talk him.

“Even if the likes of an F-Rank attends school, it’s beyond pointless. As if anyone would visit your classroom.”

“Right, right. You’re just getting in our way, so be a good boy and hole up in your room again.”

“Your high school class will only consist of you alone anyway, no? Do your best at being a loner!”

“””Hahahahaha””” His classmates roared in laughter.

Yuuta kept responding by simply returning an insincere smile.

The women would immediately get informed about rank changes among men, but men wouldn’t be particularly told about the ranks of other men, so the three boys apparently believed that Yuuta was still an F-Rank.

These guys are worthless trash, I guess. I doubt they’d be regarded as useful for the goal of Dreamseducers, Yuuta assessed.

Dreamseducers aimed to help the common women who had lost all hope. As such, the organization was looking for men capable of gently interacting with common women to help them with their goal. It seemed like there were many problems with that as it wasn’t like all current male members of the organization were able to handle women kindly, but at the very least, a man needed to have traits that made it theoretically possible for him to be nice to women.

Even now, those classmates, who considered Yuuta to be an F-Rank, were still having a blast belittling Yuuta for being inferior to them. Of course, no one in the organization would believe that they would be nice to women if they were acting like this to their peers.

Still, the organization has to look for male personnel among men like these here as it’s a world with few men to begin with, huh…? No kidding. This makes things fairly hard. And it allows me to fully realize that I might truly be the ideal sort of guy for Dreamseducers.

It’s clear that it has been Ayaka-san who guided me, who died all alone in my old world, into this world. I should repay that debt and work properly for the organization.

He didn’t get any worthwhile time with the other male students, but Yuuta solidified his resolve to survive in this world once more and then went back to his classroom. It seemed to be common practice for men to eat their lunch and go back home on the day of their school attendance, but Yuuta tried to go back to his own classroom once, nonetheless. He thought that some female students might have shown up. Since he got a late start in his mingling with the girls because Yuuta-kun stayed holed up at home all the time, Yuuta was trying to do his utmost now to salvage the situation as best as possible.

And as if to answer Yuuta’s feelings, the door to his classroom was opened. Once he looked in the direction, he found a single girl standing there.

She had a well-shaped, beautiful face and naturally light-brown hair. Her snow-white skin drew Yuuta’s eyes. And at the end of his sight he found a chest bulging so much that you’d never expect her to be a junior high school girl.

The girl approached him while smiling like a work of art.

“Yuuta-sama, please allow me to extend my greetings. My name is Yukishiro, the next head of the Eternal Minato family. I already had the honor to introduce myself to you on the very first School Day, but I am happy to get another opportunity to do so on this fine occasion.”

“I-It’s a pleasure! I’m Yuuta. I’m also happy to make your acquaintance.”

“Congratulations on your ascension to E-Rank. After hearing of your great exploits, I felt very happy, too.”

“A-Ahahaha, but it’s still just E-Rank. So I’ll be starting my high school at that rank.”

“Oh my, you do not need to abase yourself so much, I believe.”

Yukishiro very naturally grabbed the sleeves of Yuuta’s uniform in a gentle manner.

“Yuuta-sama, you are very different from the other men attending school today. After having suffered a mental breakdown due to that terrible incident, you made a full recovery and are now doing your best like this.”

“T-Thank you.”

“There would be nothing as delightful as me being able to lend you my strength as next head of the Eternal Minatos. By the way, you have been proceeding on the class creation for high school, haven’t you? It might be very precocious of me, but I have been quite worried because of your current situation, Yuuta-sama.”

“U-Umm. No, not at all.”

The figure of Aoi, who had visited his classroom in the morning, surfaced in Yuuta’s mind. Moe had mentioned that she was an ordinary citizen, but it was unthinkable for the same to apply to Aoi and Manami.

They hadn’t introduced themselves as high women to him or anything, but since it was normal that high women were to attend male schools, he had no doubt about Aoi being from a high family. And going by Manami’s conduct, he couldn’t believe her to be anything other than a high woman either.

Even so, he felt like it’d be great if Aoi could become directly affiliated to him.

“In that case, how about I offer you some assistance with this, Yuuta-sama?”

“Assistance, you say?”

“Yes. Please give me a moment.”

Yukishiro headed to the classroom’s door and said, “Enter.”

“Excuse me.”

In response to Yukishiro’s command, the door was opened and a single girl entered. She was the type of cute girl with her very charming smile leaving an impression.

“Yuuta-sama, please allow me to introduce her to you. This is Akari-san, a second generation high family member.”

“I am very pleased to make your acquaintance. Please refer to me as Akari, Yuuta-sama.”

“H-Hello, I’m Yuuta. Please treat me well.”

“Yuuta-sama, would you be willing to directly affiliate Akari-san to you?”

“Eh!? Me?”

“Yes. I was thinking that you might find it difficult to choose female students to trust as you did not have many opportunities to mingle with the female student body. Akari-san is a very lovely girl on top of being smart and having a firm character. I am certain that she would be of great assistance to you…”

Direct affiliation was a term referring to a man allowing a girl to join his class in high school. Affiliated girls would be allowed to enter a boy’s class facilities at any time. However, girls could only affiliate themselves with one boy’s class. Once a girl had chosen her class, she wouldn’t be allowed any indirect or temporary affiliations to other male classes.

Because a directly affiliated girl would automatically become a girlfriend candidate for the boy she was affiliated to, all the female students were scrambling to build relationships with outstanding men during their time at junior high, aiming for the best possible affiliations.

Indirect affiliation referred to girls who would commute to a boy’s high school class after being approved of by a directly affiliated girl. Of course, the directly affiliated girl needed the permission of the boy to grant another girl an indirect affiliation.

Yet, in this case a limit like the one where one permitted girl was allowed to bring two other girls with her to School Day didn’t exist. As long as the boy gave his approval, a directly affiliated girl could bring in as many indirect affiliates as she wanted.

However, in case any of the indirect affiliates caused some sort of problem, it’d become the responsibility of the direct affiliate who had recommended the offender’s affiliation, so most directly affiliated girls would be very strict in whom they’d allow to join their boy’s class.

Moreover, although it wasn’t allowed to possess more than one indirect affiliation, an indirectly affiliated girl could change classes during high school. If she applied to leave the class she belonged to until then at the beginning of a new term, she would be able to switch her indirect affiliation to another class.

But, all of this didn’t apply to a directly affiliated student. Changing classes wouldn’t be approved for such a girl. If a girl was accepted as a direct affiliate by the boy she chose, she had to remain in his class until high school ended.

There existed only one exception to this rule: The boy had to exile her from his own class.

In such a case, her direct affiliation would be terminated. But, given that it’d be the worst-possible humiliation for any woman, and especially high family women, to be banished from a class, the girl in question wouldn’t be able to become a direct or indirect affiliate of another boy’s class afterwards.

Temporary affiliation referred to girls who applied to a boy’s class, hoping to become direct or indirect affiliates. Of course, they could change their class application at any time. But, because applying to two classes at the same time wouldn’t be tolerated, any temporary affiliation would be based on a single application.

The question of who would become his direct affiliates was the most crucial matter for any male student’s class creation. While deepening his relationship with the girls who were girlfriend candidates after having become directly affiliated to him, things would proceed towards engagement and marriage.

Yukishiro had recommended Akari as such a crucial, direct affiliate to Yuuta. And certainly, Yuuta considered her to be a very adorable, dependable girl going by his first impression of her.

Moreover, if Akari was being endorsed by the next family head of the Minatos….all of the boys, who had earlier bickered about their own circumstances in the cafeteria, would likely jump at that story full of delight.

But.

“I appreciate your proposal, but please give me some time to consider things.”

“Of course. Today I had hoped that I could simply introduce Akari-san to you.”

“I also feel very glad that I was allowed to meet with you, Yuuta-sama.”

“It is I who’s happy that you feel like that.”

As if it was very natural, Yukishiro smiled cheerfully at Yuuta not accepting her proposal right off the bat, without showing even the slightest hint of displeasure. The same applied to Akari as well.

“I would love to talk with you for a while longer, but it looks like there are still many more girls who wish to speak with you today, Yuuta-sama. Please excuse us at this point.”

After bowing gracefully, Yukishiro and Akari left Yuuta’s classroom. Yuuta silently saw them off as they elegantly took their leave.

…