Chapter 41: Confessing one’s feelings (1)

The night was quiet.

Lin Yu sat at his desk in the dormitory, staring blankly out the window.

After being eliminated, they had stayed in Antarctica for another two days.

Once the club activity had completely concluded, they returned to the school under the institution’s unified arrangements.

The results of the activity were exactly as predicted.

After Alexander and Mu Chengfeng were eliminated, Kobayashi Mirai secured an easy victory.

Although there was an element of a sneak attack involved, both Alexander and Mu Chengfeng conceded their defeat.

Inside the dormitory, Li Hao was bored, playing a computer card game called Slay the Spire.

Mu Chengfeng’s seat was empty.

According to the schedule, the end of the club activity marked the beginning of the school’s final exams.

Mu Chengfeng seemed like a high-achieving student, so he was likely busy reviewing.

“Dete kite, watashi no kareshi ni natte. Dete kite, watashi no kareshi ni natte.”

Suddenly, a mechanical Japanese broadcast drifted in from outside the dormitory.

The voice fluctuated, sounding distant one moment and close the next.

“It’s past 10:00 PM. What are they doing?”

Li Hao said, glancing at the time in the bottom right corner of his computer screen.

“Who knows?”

Lin Yu replied casually.

After some time, the broadcast outside showed no signs of stopping, repeating the same Japanese phrase over and over.

Slowly, the dormitory building began to stir.

Even on the first floor, the two of them could clearly feel the vibration of the building.

“Is this some kind of emergency assembly, or has this noise just caused a public outcry?”

Driven by curiosity, Li Hao paused his game, walked to the window, and leaned his head out.

Outside was a speeding blue convertible sports car.

The source of the sound was a megaphone sitting in the passenger seat.

The reason the voice sounded distant and then close was that the convertible was circling their dormitory building.

It was an expensive Lamborghini, and the driver was Kobayashi Mirai.

Other students in the dormitory were also poking their heads out of their windows like Li Hao, and a crowd of onlookers slowly began to gather outside.

“It’s that Japanese girl who blocked our way that day…”

Li Hao scratched his head in confusion.

“She’s driving a sports car… circling our dormitory.”

An ominous premonition welled up in Lin Yu’s heart.

‘If you refuse, things won’t go well for you at this school from now on.’

Fu Qiesi’s translation surfaced in his mind.

Feeling an inexplicable unease, he slowly approached the window.

The moment he reached the window, Kobayashi Mirai happened to sweep past.

For a split second, his eyes met the girl’s.

The screech of heavy braking even drowned out the megaphone.

Kobayashi Mirai hopped out of the car, megaphone in hand, and walked to the window.

She waved at the stunned Lin Yu.

“Be my boyfriend.”

Kobayashi Mirai turned off the megaphone and spoke the Japanese phrase herself.

Lin Yu instinctively pulled a headset from his pocket, intending to use Vigus’s translation.

But before he could even put it on, the crowd of onlookers erupted into a complete frenzy.

Unlike those two, who only knew Japanese through anime, there were plenty of people in this school who had formally studied the language.

They all knew what Kobayashi Mirai had said.

It was a casual confession that meant—be my boyfriend.

The onlookers were no strangers to Kobayashi Mirai.

At this semester’s opening ceremony, she had been specifically singled out and criticized by the Disciplinary Committee.

The reason was her record of nine school rule violations the previous semester.

Perhaps the Disciplinary Committee’s diligent guidance had some effect, as she only had a mere five violations as the end of this semester approached.

It was a significant improvement compared to the last term.

Coupled with her recent victory in the school activity, she was a bona-fide celebrity on campus.

She was certainly flamboyant, but no one expected the girl to exercise her winner’s privilege so soon.

According to the rules of the activity, the first person the winner pursues—provided they also participated in the activity—has no right to refuse the confession and must maintain a relationship with the winner for at least two months.

While this rule was typically used by boys pursuing girls, Kobayashi Mirai was no ordinary person.

No one was particularly surprised by her proactive confession; they were only interested in who the lucky guy was.

They all looked toward the first floor, trying to catch a glimpse of the fortunate soul.

But since the target was inside the window, they couldn’t see anything.

All they saw was a white-haired old man rushing over in a rage.

“What are you doing? What do you think you’re doing?”

A cold, mechanical voice came through Lin Yu’s headset, and the source was that little old man.

In an instant, every head poking out of the dormitory windows vanished.

The crowd gathered on the road also scattered, leaving only Kobayashi Mirai and her car.

***

In the Principal’s office on the top floor of the Main Tower, Principal Elizabeth and a black-haired young man sat on opposite sides of the desk.

The man lowered his head to check his watch.

“Dear Principal, I’m a bit pressed for time, so I won’t waste words on pleasantries. I’ve come to the school today to ask a favor of you.”

“It’s quite all right, Mr. Sakuraba. Please, go ahead,” Elizabeth said, taking a small sip of tea.

“We have always kept your assistance in mind. If there is anything we can do to help, we will certainly do our best.”

“To be honest, it’s about my sister. Perhaps her older sister and I have spoiled her too much,” the man said, shrugging.

“She’s a bit mischievous, but she’s reached an age where she needs to grow up. So, I want her to enter Thanatos for some tempering.”

“Tempering?”

Elizabeth was stunned for a moment.

The man sitting across from her was a vital source of intelligence and funding for Thanatos.

Not only had he provided the school with several bronze fragments of the Scroll of Pluto, but he had also invested a significant amount of money into the construction of the Equipment Department.

Just recently, they had successfully secured the second Divine Artifact mentioned in the Scroll of Pluto—the Eye of Ra.

She had assumed the man’s arrival was related to the Divine Artifact, but it turned out he only wanted to send his sister to the school.

“To be honest, Thanatos isn’t exactly a great place for ‘tempering,’ but if it’s just about the university, I suppose I should…”

“No, no, no,” the man interrupted Elizabeth with a smile.

“Of course we both know what kind of place Thanatos is, but I think my sister will like it here.”

“Are you certain? You want to send your sister here?”

Elizabeth looked at the man to confirm.

For her, admitting one more student was not difficult.

“Of course. However, if she truly can’t handle staying here, I might have to trouble you, Principal, to help her process her withdrawal. Naturally, it would be the kind of withdrawal where her memory isn’t erased. Is that acceptable, Principal?”

Elizabeth nodded slightly, giving her permission.

The man stood up, satisfied.

“It’s getting late. Since our business is concluded, I won’t disturb your rest any further.”

The man gave a slight bow of farewell.

Leaving the school, he hurried to catch a train to London Airport, preparing to take an early morning flight to Japan.

He had a mountain of matters waiting for him to handle over there.

Finding an empty carriage, he pulled out his phone and dialed a number.

After a few seconds, the call connected.

“Sister Yue, the admission matters have been settled. But… I have a feeling that sending Xiaoye there might cause some problems,” the man said somewhat helplessly.

“Sigh,” the woman on the other end of the line let out a helpless sigh of her own.

“She’ll probably be clamoring to come back within a week. But if you didn’t send her, she was going to disown you as her brother.”

The woman chuckled helplessly.

“Where is she?”

“She’s already asleep.”

“She went to bed that early?”

Sakuraba Hi was somewhat shocked.

Although it was nearly 12:00 AM in the United Kingdom, it was only just becoming evening in Japan.

His sister was not exactly the type of girl who enjoyed an early bedtime.

“I confiscated her tablet. She got bored, so she naturally fell asleep.”

‘So that’s how it is,’ Sakuraba Hi thought, smiling.

“I’ll probably be back in Japan tomorrow.”

“Safe travels.”