Chapter 525 - Tuition Fee
The battle lasted a little over thirty minutes. It was a harrowing experience.
As is my right, my opening move was to declare loudly, “I have absolutely no such specific ‘hobby’!” But frankly, the three guys probably didn't care about the truth; they just wanted to poke fun at a prime target and refused to listen.
Sora-san was being cute, pinching a lock of her silky hair and glancing my way, but Nia, who seemed to have developed some mysterious sense of rivalry, accelerated the festival by blurting out something unnecessary like, “He’s totally staring at my hair too!!!”
In the end, I was labeled the ‘older-woman-with-long-black-hair-lover,’ and even Helena-san, who had stayed neutral and out of the commotion, was shaking her shoulders with laughter.
This was mortifying. Utterly mortifying. And it was all—
“You really did it this time, Princess…”
Whether this was all according to the plan of one Alicia White, who was now sitting next to me during our morning study session with a completely unapologetic, prim expression, I couldn't say.
I mean, she was literally white. The morning sun reflected off her, and it was so bright. Can I close the curtains?
“I know you have a shy personality and can be oddly considerate, but… I wanted you to notice on your own, if possible.”
“So this is your payback, is it? I swear, it’s not like I’m uninterested, like you said that one time, you know?”
“I know. Because you look at me a lot.”
As she spoke, Alicia clicked her ring and ‘transformed.’
“Look… I’ve told you so many times, my basic image of you is your avatar in the virtual world, so the difference and everything just draws my eye…!”
It wasn't an excuse; it was the unadulterated truth.
It was the same with Nia. The atmosphere between her spiky short hair over there and her fluffy long hair over here was just so different that I couldn’t help but notice.
Yes, in other words, the contrast—no, that’s not it. I don’t have a specific hobby.
“…………”
“Oh? What’s with that dissatisfied-looking expressionless face? That’s a pretty skillful display of emotion you’ve got there.”
I glanced sideways as I continued writing in my workbook, only to find a pair of garnet—not black—eyes staring at me. Stop putting it on and taking it off just for fun.
“Leaving aside hobbies and fetishes…”
“Hey, don’t just casually throw the word ‘fetish’ around.”
“You must have some preferences. Which me do you like?”
“Don’t think I’ll answer anything just because you throw a straight fastball.”
As expected, I had no intention of being so foolishly honest as to expose unnecessarily sensitive parts of myself. No matter what she said, on this matter, I would remain sile—
“My reward.”
“What?”
“I demand my reward for acting as your temporary tutor.”
—nt… or so I was thinking, when the conversation took another strange turn, and I couldn't help but stop my pen.
“…Wasn’t you coming on the trip kind of the reward itself? No, not a reward, but more like you came along thinking of it as a study camp, right?”
“That was just me providing you with an excuse and a pretext to skip university. My accompanying you on this trip was supposed to be compensation for me tacitly approving of your one-on-one event with Nia, if you trace it back.”
“H-hold on a second? I feel like there are a lot of things to pick apart there, so give me some thinking time…”
“I won’t wait. Just tell me what you like about me, Nia, and Sora. Hurry.”
“Huh? Wha—Wait, wait, wait, wait!”
Hey, what happened in that split second? The question just underwent some kind of mysterious ultimate evolution.
“That’s ridiculous, how did it come to this…! I could maybe understand if it was just about you, but why do I have to answer for the other two as well!”
“…Because I want to hear it?”
“Don’t you dare think a cute little head tilt is going to sway me…!”
It’s exactly that kind of thing that gets me—is what I couldn't possibly bring myself to just blurt out.
As I frantically tried to figure out how to escape this situation, Alicia narrowed her eyes, showing a rare expression, and….
“Then I’ll make a different demand.”
“…………Oh? I’ll hear you out. Let’s have it.”
“Regarding the fact that you allow significantly less physical contact with me compared to Sora and Nia, I demand an adjustment right here and now to ensure fairness—”
“Okay, what I like about you all. Let’s go with one thing for each of you.”
My father once told me that when a woman corners you on a sore spot as a man, it is wise to immediately wave the white flag and surrender. Otherwise, you’ll end up paying a much greater price, and you’ll be the one to regret it.
To reiterate, it’s not that I dislike physical contact with Alicia. It’s that when dealing with her—a person who has no brakes—I can’t ignore the possibility that we both might become unable to stop, so I have no choice but to avoid it.
And so—things I like about them, huh…
“Uh… okay, first, as a premise.”
“Mhm.”
“Anything about physical appearance is off the table. All three of you are, how should I put it, beyond the level of talking about preferences.”
“…………You don’t have to elaborate, but I’d still like you to say it clearly.”
Damn… she’s showing no mercy.
“So, it’s like… uh, basically, well, you know.”
“Mhm.”
“It’s on a level where my personal preferences don’t even matter; you’re all just that attractive, I guess you could say.”
“Mhm.”
“Sora is… well, she’s just ridiculously cute, you know? And Nia is this overwhelming mix of beautiful and cute, right? As for you, Alicia, well, it’s like…”
“Mhm.”
“…You’re so beautiful that, even now, I still find it hard to look at you directly.”
“Mhm.”
I'm glad to hear your mood improving with every nod, but I’m so hot from the neck up—no, my whole body is—that I can’t even focus on studying anymore.
Seriously, it’s so obvious at this point. The fact that all three of them are absurdly beautiful. I’ve been praised plenty, but I still don’t think my looks can ever match up to theirs.
“So, yeah. That’s it. Are you satisfied?”
“Mm—alright, next. About the parts other than your looks.”
“Ah, yeah, okay…”
It would have been nice if she had let me off the hook with that…
“Okay then, let’s see… First, about Sora.”
It was clear there was no escaping this. Not against Alicia, who has already seen through my heart so many times. I’ll just have to resign myself to this one or two extra embarrassments.
…I wonder, will my heart survive this?
You know why I cut it here? That's right, because it's going to get long.