Chapter 80

"Then, all day long, you were studying between Mr. Godo and Mr. Mochizuki? That must have been tough."

"It was really tough... But, I did learn a lot."

In the classroom of Class 13, first year, at To Quartz High School, during lunch break. As usual, we were gathered in a group, poking at our bentos, and I was telling everyone, including Risa, about the surprise study session that awaited me last Saturday.

The season was early summer, and the fresh green leaves were shining brightly. This school, located on a hill, offered a good view from the classroom windows, and the cherry trees lining the street, now in full leaf, shimmered in the light, a sight that was gentle on the eyes. The temperature was mild, and it was easy to doze off during class. In my case, I had recently asked Liebe to wake me up as soon as I started to fall asleep.

"Please call me 'Alarm Liebe-chan!' It's a waste to spend your precious school life sleeping, even during class!"

Her grateful words echoed in my mind. Indeed, sleeping isn't good. Thank you.

While feeling somewhat grateful, I returned to the conversation with everyone. When I mentioned that I had been dragged into a surprise study session with Kano and Mochizuki on Saturday, their reactions were subtly different.

"Mr. Godo, you mean Kano Godo? The super beautiful A-class explorer."

"Studying with her and someone as cute as Mochizuki? Yamagata, you're living the high life."

"No... It was studying in my weak subjects. It wasn't fun at all."

Matsuda and Kataoka, who envied me for studying with two beautiful girls, I could understand their feelings, but honestly... my weak subjects are really weak. No matter how cute the girls sitting next to me were, it was still painful. The fact that my Saturday was ruined also caused a lot of mental damage.

But, they treated me to a lot of food afterward, so it was all even! It was a free sushi feast!

I didn't mention this part. It wouldn't balance out the self-inflicted study session, and it might complicate the story.

"So, are you doing okay with science and math?"

"Kind of. I've moved from the level of just not failing to aiming for average scores."

"Really? I'm so jealous, I wish I could have joined."

"I think we'll have to study a bit during the Golden Week too."

"Well, well. I'm planning to work throughout the Golden Week. We both have our challenges, yeah."

Kusaka and Endo, who envied the success of the study session, didn't seem to be good at studying either. They were already turning pale at the thought of the midterm exams after the long break.

Hmm, I was in the same boat as them until Saturday. Or rather, since Matsuda and Kataoka were in the top group, I felt even more out of place.

And then, there was one more person. Surprisingly, Risa, a gal-type high school girl who was in the top of the class, said:

"Kouhei, are you going to the dungeon the whole Golden Week? Can't you hang out with us?"

"No, not really. I'll be on a business trip for a few days in the middle. I won't be able to during that time."

"Business trip? An overnight stay?"

"Yeah. The guild is organizing a tour. A three-night, four-day dungeon exploration tour in an ancient city."

I explained to her, who had planned to spend time with me. Yes, in the middle of the Golden Week, I was planning to join the guild-organized exploration tour and travel to the neighboring prefecture.

I had been a D-class explorer for a while, and I was starting to get curious about dungeons in other prefectures and wanted to meet other explorers.

After all, my explorer acquaintances were limited to Kano, Mochizuki, Oosaka, and Sekiguchi. I mean, that's too few, right? I was a loner. I was a loner.

Even if the exploration itself would be a solo activity, it wouldn't hurt to expand my social circle in my private life.

When I explained this, Risa nodded and said softly,

"Is Kano going too? From what I've seen on her channel, I think she might show up."

"Ah, yeah... I don't know. I can't stop her, so there's no point in worrying. Haha."

"...Good luck."

She said, a bit worried in a low voice.

Ah, I guess Risa can see how much Kano is into me. I understand.

I've been checking her channel videos recently, fighting with my embarrassment... She really puts a lot of effort into editing the videos. She even adds commentary as a secondary audio track to her exploration videos, making them easy to understand and useful as advice for new explorers. The explorers in the videos are too unique to be of any practical use, though.

Because of this, her subscriber count has been increasing, which is scary. While the channel is mostly treated as a joke, there are occasional serious comments. Among them, there's someone who seems to be trying to worship me. Judging from the account name, it's probably Mochizuki. You have your own channel and are a popular streamer, so what are you doing? I'm really going to get flamed because of this.

Anyway, regardless of Kano's actions, my Golden Week was going to be spent like this.

At the time of posting this story,

it has received the following rankings:

- Low Fantasy: Daily 1st, Weekly 1st, Monthly 1st, Quarterly 4th

- Overall: Daily 17th, Weekly 9th, Monthly 9th

Additionally, it has reached 40,000 mutual evaluations and 10,000 bookmark registrations.

Thank you very much.

I would appreciate it if you could continue to bookmark and evaluate the story.