Chapter 51

Today, there is a bit of an announcement in the afterword and activity report (https://syosetu.com/userblogmanage/view/blogkey/2612630/).

It was the first day back to school after the sports festival. Early that morning, the (second) nationwide mock exam taken during the summer break was returned.

The atmosphere among the students after the exam results were returned... could be described as a cacophony of wails. Few wore expressions of joy.

Yuzuru's high school is classified as a "prestigious school." Therefore, the students who gather at this school are, for the most part, good students who were relatively capable in their studies during middle school...

However, the difficulty of studies in high school is a step up from middle school.

Additionally, the school rules at this high school are very relaxed, and there are almost no assignments given.

The amount of summer homework, according to Yuzuru's perception, was less than one-tenth of what he had in middle school.

In short...

Those who slack off, do so to the extreme.

Due to the difference in the number of participants in the mock exam, most students seem to have received worse results than they had anticipated.

Now, how did Yuzuru fare...

(Well, it's pretty good, I guess.)

Yuzuru isn't particularly serious, but he does put in a fair amount of effort in his studies. In other words, he makes sure to keep up with the lessons.

While it's not the best, he managed to get a decent score.

Now, how did Arisa do?

Yuzuru turned his head slightly to check her face.

She seemed to have already finished looking at her results, folding the individual score sheet and putting it away in a file. Her expression was as usual, calm and cool, almost expressionless.

The students around her were whispering, "Yukise-san looks so relaxed," "She must have done well."

But...

(She's probably disappointed.)

Tomorrow is Saturday.

He decided to console her a bit.

---

Now, after school that day.

As Yuzuru was about to leave, someone bumped into him from behind.

Turning around, he saw a very cheerful childhood friend.

"Hey, Yuzuru. How did the mock exam go?"

A beautiful girl with black, shoulder-length hair and slightly reddish amber eyes, smiling broadly, stood there.

It was Tachibana Ayaka.

"Do I have to tell you?"

"You're not being very friendly. We're childhood friends, right? Besides, is there a reason you can't tell me?"

"Well, no."

There was no particular reason to hide it.

Yuzuru took out a file from his bag.

Ayaka's eyes widened.

"Yuzuru, filing your individual score sheet!? It's going to rain tomorrow."

"You're being rude."

Still, it was understandable that Ayaka was surprised, as he had been rather careless with his records in middle school. The reason Yuzuru started organizing his test results in a file was that he heard Aisara did the same.

"It's a bit of work now, but it will save time later."

He decided to try it out after hearing that.

"Wow, as expected of Yuzuru. You're strong in these external mock exams."

She then let out a slightly impressed sigh.

"Oh, you're second in the school rankings."

"Seems so."

"You don't look very happy."

"The school rankings don't really matter, do they?"

University entrance exams are a national-level competition. While a good position in school is beneficial, it's not worth getting too excited about.

Besides...

He's bound to lose to the girl in front of him.

"By the way, I..."

"Probably first, right?"

When Yuzuru asked, Ayaka narrowed her eyes.

"You figured it out."

"You're strong in external exams. Besides, it's impossible for you to do worse than me."

Yuzuru had a certain level of trust in Ayaka's intelligence. She is very smart.

Yuzuru has never once beaten Ayaka in any of these exams.

"Hehe, well... I'm good at these 'papers.'"

Exams are just 'papers,' after all.

While she was being modest, she proudly showed Yuzuru her results.

"Very impressive."

Looking at Ayaka's individual score sheet, Yuzuru couldn't help but mutter. He could beat Ayaka in only one of the three subjects.

"But, I'm disappointed. I lost in English."

"If I lose to 'Tachibana' in all subjects, I won't have a leg to stand on as 'Kasegawa.'... You could let me win a little, you know?"

Again, "I lost to 'Tachibana.'"

He thought about how he would have to report this to his family.

While the Kasegawa family isn't explicitly in competition with the Tachibana family, they do have a bit of a rivalry.

"I can't let up. I want to tell my uncle that I beat 'Kasegawa' again."

Ayaka lost her parents, so her guardian is her paternal uncle.

In that sense, her situation is a bit similar to Aisara's. However, Ayaka and her uncle have a very good relationship, which is quite different.

"Still, Yuzuru, it's just 'paper.'"

Ayaka patted Yuzuru's shoulder, the air of a victor.

"I want to be able to say that to you someday, Ayaka."

Maybe he should try to put in some serious effort to beat Ayaka.

Yuzuru thought about it for a moment.

---

Now, in the evening of that day.

Unusually, a package arrived from his family.

It said "Refrigerate."

It seemed to be food.

Opening the box, he found a styrofoam container and a letter. The letter read, "I got this from a friend, so I'm sharing it with you. Have Aisara cook it." It appeared to be from his mother.

Opening the styrofoam container...

"Hmm..."

A strong smell hit Yuzuru's nostrils.

The source of the smell was...

"I see. When you have this many, they do smell."

It was a large quantity of matsutake mushrooms.

As mentioned in the activity report (https://syosetu.com/userblogmanage/view/blogkey/2612630/), I plan to post this novel on Kakuyomu as well. There won't be much difference between the Narou and Kakuyomu versions. However, if Yuzuru and Aisara do something that might upset the Narou management, I might write it on Kakuyomu. Shoulder massages and moans are safe, but breast massages and moans are a bit gray.

So, if you have a Kakuyomu ID, I'd appreciate it if you could rate and bookmark the story.

Also, there seems to be some ad revenue, so if you have time, please click on the ads.

I've included the URL (https://kakuyomu.jp/works/1177354054917391687) at the bottom of the table of contents, so please check it out.

Now, about the story itself:

In romance novels or school stories, characters' academic performance is often indicated by their school rankings.

For example, "〇〇 is always at the top of the school rankings!"

In reality, school rankings aren't very reliable.

However, they are easy to understand, and using national-level standard scores might change readers' perceptions of good or bad grades. So, using "school rankings" as a relative evaluation of the characters in the story is a safe choice.

Therefore, I don't plan to use specific numbers in this novel. (For now)

However, I'll secretly mention the standard scores of the character with the highest IQ (Ayaka) here.

For those who don't want to see it, I'll put it on a new line.

Ayaka's standard scores are:

Math: 80

Japanese: 80

English: 70

When she's in good form (though it's more about the test's difficulty), she can score 90.

By the way, it's based on K〇〇 tutoring.

If you think Ayaka is smart and cute,

Please bookmark and rate the story (change the ☆☆☆☆☆ to ★★★★★).

If you're a student, your grades might improve.

The next update will be in three days.