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Monaka and Kotone suddenly threw their entire fortunes at me.
Peeking out from the booklets they offered were two Gold Tickets.
Both shimmered in brilliant gold, each bearing the profile of a beautiful girl.
But what shocked me even more was the sheer number of zeros.
So many zeros were lined up that I couldn’t count them at a glance.
In more ways than one, I was completely bewildered.
“N-No, I really can’t accept something like this—”
“Kyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—!!!”
A familiar shriek—one that was fast becoming a seasonal tradition—cut in.
“No! That’s not allowed, zansu! Giving tickets to a Special Training Class piece of tra— I mean, student, zansu!”
Monaka and Kotone snapped their heads up and protested indignantly.
“Why not, Vice Principal!? Leo-kun always takes such good care of me! You yourself said tickets could be used to express gratitude, didn’t you!?”
“Indeed so! I receive constant guidance from my master! My gratitude is so overwhelming that words alone cannot express it!”
“N-No! Gratitude is something the lesser offers to the greater, zansu! You two are far, far more important than Leopin-kun, zansu!”
“That’s not true! Leo-kun is far more amazing than I am!”
“Indeed! There is no finer gentleman than my master!”
“A-Anyway, no means no, zansu!”
Still, Monaka and Kotone refused to back down.
“Then it’s fine if it’s payment, right!? Leo-kun built a wonderful house just for me!”
“And I study under my master! If I offer this ticket as tuition, there is nothing strange about that, is there!?”
“Ggh…! Ggnnnngh…!”
The vice principal faltered.
A house purchase fee and tuition were both legitimate transactions.
Denying that would mean denying the ticket system itself.
The vice principal broke into a cold sweat, like a frog being stared down by two snakes.
At last, he forced out a voice that sounded like his guts were twisting.
“G-Grrrk…! F-Fine, then… you may give him just one ticket at the minimum face value, zansu…!”
““Thank you very much!””
Monaka and Kotone cried happily.
Honestly, I thought this decision wasn’t bad either.
Handing over an entire booklet felt excessive, but one minimum-value ticket shouldn’t be a big deal.
That assumption turned out to be terribly wrong.
The two girls gleefully tore a bill from their booklets and carefully presented it with both hands.
When I saw the number printed on it, my eyes nearly popped out of my head.
“T-Ten million!?”
Yes—“10,000,000”… seven zeros…!
The students who had been watching erupted in shock.
“What!? You’re kidding! That’s the minimum!?”
“No way! Even my highest-value ticket is only ten thousand Ender!”
“Well, if you can give orders to those two, maybe that’s cheap!”
“Amazing… as expected of the noble daughters of the Saint and the Miko!”
I hesitated, wondering whether I should really accept a total of twenty million Ender.
But the two girls looked up at me with sparkling, hopeful eyes.
…Well, I didn’t actually have to use them…
If it made them happy, maybe I should just accept them…
I held out both hands and took the two bills at the same time.
They were just pieces of paper, yet they felt strangely heavy—as if filled with the girls’ hearts and souls.
Only then did the vice principal scream as if someone had stomped on his foot.
“G-Gyaaah!? N-Never mind, that doesn’t count, zansu! If trash gets them first, this will be a disaster, zansu!”
But it was already too late.
A rattling sound came from the ranking board on the stage—
“Kyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!?! Stop it, stop it, stooooooop it—!!!”
The vice principal rushed back to the stage with a deathly expression.
Just as he grabbed a nearby chair to smash the board—
1st Place: Special Training Class — 20,000,000 Ender
With a loud clatter, a single lonely class appeared on the rankings.
“Kyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—!!!”
The vice principal, now a walking festival of shrieks, swung the chair down and struck the board.
His eyes crazed, he raised the chair again, screaming,
“Zaaansuuuu—!”
The students recoiled from the stage like a receding tide, while teachers rushed in and restrained him.
“P-Please calm down, Vice Principal! This Magical Board is on loan from the Royal Court’s Arcane Research Institute!”
After Physical Education teacher Nickbacca slapped him hard across the face, the vice principal came back to his senses.
In front of the entire student body, he finally collapsed in tears.
“Ugh…! Uuuugh! I really thought I could finally give out a prize this time…! I thought making that trash’s ticket value zero would keep him out of circulation…!”
Just then, the ranking board rattled again as it updated.
I realized there was now a third ticket in my coat pocket.
Its face value read “1,000,000”—six zeros.
The portrait on it was Akemi, winking.
Looking over, I saw Akemi acting as if nothing had happened.
“Heehee. My ticket isn’t paper—it’s wind. It just blows wherever it wants to go. That’s all.”
Before I knew it, yet another ticket was fluttering in front of me.
It was dangling from something like a fishing rod made of branches and vines.
Following the line, I spotted Shinobuko holding it.
“Nin-nin, here you go. If you can catch it, then catch it…”
She tapped the ticket playfully against my face.
With a flick of my hand, I snatched it away in a blur.
The sheer speed made Shinobuko’s eyes go wide. “Nin!?”
1st Place: Special Training Class — 21,100,000 Ender
The face value was “100,000”—five zeros.
The portrait showed Shinobuko with an unamused glare.
Until that morning, I’d had zero money and tickets worth zero value…
Yet in the span of a single morning assembly, I had become the wealthiest student in the entire academy.
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