Chapter 710: Be That As It May

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I ended up having a study session with Rei-san.

No matter how much I might flex being Lv. 150 in ShanFro, in real life, I'm just an ordinary high school student, and final exams carry the exact same difficulty whether you're Level 1 or 150.

I've been managing my academics by following the future career chart carefully crafted by my life mentor, Takeda-shi, but studying is a troublesome thing. While the vast majority of students view it as a troublesome Demon Lord, its true nature is closer to a steady, continuous grinding system, so if you slack off on your walkthrough even a little bit, it will absolutely come back to bite you later.

And so, after bringing up that topic to Rei-san, it somehow flowed into a "Why don't we have a study session together?" kind of situation.

You don't even have to think twice to realize that Rei-san is smart, making her the ideal study partner. At the very least, she isn't going to suddenly start reciting poetry in English out of nowhere like a certain poetry bastard I know...... I still have that guy's "English Poetry Series" tucked away as my trump card.

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She ended up having a study session with Rakuro.

Even at this current point, Rei's consciousness had already stepped two paces away from completely fainting, but a chain engraved with the words "Romantic Feelings" was barely keeping her consciousness tethered through pure stubbornness, telling her that she absolutely could not let this chance slip by.

(Haah... haah...... I feel like I'm going to throw up......)

A study session—in other words, just the two of them. Which is to say, a date or a synonym thereof. It was a leap in logic so extreme that Iwamaki would likely sigh with half-lidded eyes if she heard it, but Rei had been diligently applying herself to her studies ever since middle school while daydreaming about situations like "hosting a study session and having Rakuro-kun rely on me......" It was entirely understandable that several years' worth of utterly tangled and twisted emotions would come overflowing at this very moment.

(I-I need to make perfect...... yes, perfect preparations......!!)

She couldn't afford to show an unsightly appearance even by a one-in-a-million chance; she had to ensure she could answer absolutely any question Rakuro threw at her.

With the possibility of herself asking Rakuro a question completely dropping out of her head, Rei impulsively went on a buying spree of digital reference books aimed at high school students aiming for highly selective universities. There was no one to stop her, and to make matters worse, since her outward appearance looked like an "honor student fired up for university entrance exams," there was even less reason for anyone to stop her.

And as a result.

"............"

"............"

A completely silent study session stretched out before them, composed of Rakuro—who wasn't struggling that much since it was only the upcoming final exams—and Rei—who wasn't struggling at all and was merely waiting for questions to be asked.

To begin with, the municipal library in the town where Rei and Rakuro lived had undergone a massive renovation about a year ago, transforming it into a high-tech library equipped with some of the most cutting-edge facilities in the country.

By utilizing the fully touch-paneled system desks where you could operate a console by touching any "surface" of the desk, one could display the latest reference books without even standing up from their seat.

In other words, even if you factored in future utility, Rei's impulse buying was completely wasted spending, but to the person herself, the current situation was worth a thousand gold pieces, so she paid absolutely no mind to a little pocket change.

"............"

"............"

Isn't something wrong here?

While her academic parameters were rising, a shiver ran down her spine at the distinct feeling that some other parameter was aggressively plummeting.

Yes, she should have learned through her own real-life experience over the past few years that absolutely no progress is made if you just stay passive. Then what should she do?

".........!"

Rei sought help from Iwamaki.

A few seconds later, a reply came through on the SNS. When she looked at the notification with expectant eyes,

Iwamaki: Confess.

"............"

If she could do that, she wouldn't be struggling like this. Concluding that Iwamaki was absolutely no help in this situation, Rei fired up her brain—which society's general standards would categorize as an "honor student's"—to maximum capacity, coming up with an excellent plan to use a shared topic as a conversation starter.

"......Umm,"

"Hm?"

Praising herself with an *As expected of me*, Rei spoke a single line in a slightly lowered volume, taking the library environment into consideration.

"I saw that, um, video, but......"

"Nguh?!"

Zudooooon!!!!!!!

"Pyoh?!"

Rakuro slammed his forehead into the desk with a considerable amount of force and collapsed face-down.

Saiga Rei had stepped on a devastating landmine.

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A sneak attack hit me, feeling like some weird juice leaked out from around my liver and exploded in the back of my nose. I'm pretty sure a sound came out from somewhere between my throat and my nose that I haven't produced even once in my entire life, as far as I can remember.

The pain in my forehead rebooted my thoughts, which had bugged out for a split second. While bowing my head to the surroundings to signal that there was no problem, I gathered up my remaining sanity and constructed a completely composed outward appearance of "There's absolutely no problem here."

"H-Heeeh? Y-You saw it, by any channnnce?"

"I-Is something...... umm, uhh, that is, I-I'm sorry?"

"No problem 'ere, there ain't no problem at all 'ere."

"I-Is that so......... Um, it was very...... coo...... u-umm... it was, amazing."

"H-Hahaha......"

Being praised so simply is the absolute most painful thing right now.

Even though I supposedly didn't save the video as an archive, for some reason the fully recorded data right from the start is circulating around as a mirror...... And the fact that some random guy uploaded the video, got ads attached to it, and racked up tens of thousands of views means the ad revenue is going straight into someone else's pockets, which is just way too shrewd or whatever...... Though when I checked this morning, it was deleted. And then it multiplied into three separate uploads by different uploaders.

"So Orchestra is...... like that, huh."

"The route branches into two, so yeah...... Ah, are you going to challenge it too, Rei-san?"

"N-No, I'm still, um, dealing with a lot of things related to the sword and armor......"

Ah, that's right. This person is rocking an only-one setup in ShanFro, after all.

"Um...... why did you, Rakuro-kun, upload the video......?"

"............The truth is, I intended to do a private stream to verify things with Library, but I messed up the controls and set it to public."

"Ah......... That's, um, that is........."

If you want to laugh, go ahead and laugh, Rei-san. If it were those fiends, they'd definitely burst out laughing anyway.

When I casually checked my mobile terminal, all three mirrors had hit 100,000 views. How many tens of thousands is that in total? Hey, World-kun, isn't the level of the trials you're imposing on me just a bit too high?