The Unexpected Hidden Player

Kakerukun had been cornered from his very first day in office.

He looked ready to explode at any moment, but just before that, the vice principal waiting at his side shouted loudly.

“Raaah! Quiet down, ra! This entire transaction is invalid! Because it goes against the rules, ra!”

Her voice carried well and thundered across the entire schoolyard. The students, too, snapped their mouths shut.

Making use of that silence, the rule that was announced was an unexpected one.

“To begin with, in the ‘Cheers Game,’ if the number of classes that refuse the toast is four or fewer, then the entire student body has to make the toast, ra!”

Kakerukun immediately jumped on that.

“Oh, right, right! I just remembered that rule existed too!

That’s our vice principal for you! You really are my reliable dealer! Right! Right!?”

“What!?” Shock rippled through the crowd.

““No way!? That’s far too awful!”” said Monaka and Kotone.

Onesuko stepped forward as if to shield the two of them.

“Principal! You only decided that just now because the four classes that refused were ours, didn’t you!?”

“Ehh, but I said it beforehand, didn’t Iii! ‘This game has a few rules (●●●●)!’ I just remembered a rule I’d forgotten! And yet you’re saying it like I cheated! If this game gets invalidated, then the hundred million I worked so hard to give away will go to waste too! That’s awful, isn’t it, everyone!?”

The students below the stage, not wanting to lose the hundred million, voiced their agreement with, “Y-… yeah, that’s right!”

“I will not stand here and indulge this farce! Let us go, Kotone-sama!”

Tomoe said it as if cutting the matter down, then urged Kotone onward.

But the principal immediately cut them off, skittering sideways like a crab.

“Oho! No running away, no no! I said at the start, didn’t I, that dropping out in the middle of the game isn’t allowed!

And besides, this is a perfectly legitimate educational curriculum, planned by me, the principal, and approved by the Board of Education!

So if you break it, you can’t complain even if you get ranked down! Right? Right!?”

“Ghk…! How underhanded…!”

Kakerukun grinned back at the teeth-grinding Tomoe.

‘—I’m not letting you get away…! I came up with this game to erase the memory of Leopin’s accomplishments and make him fall back into ruin again! Forget the other little brats—if Monaka and Kotone don’t make the toast, this means nothing! I’ll erase all memory of him from everyone except himself…! Then he’ll become a tragic hero whom no one acknowledges…!’

Suddenly, a female student below the stage raised her hand.

“Principal teacherrr, question.”

“What is it? Is it?”

Kakerukun turned his gaze toward the direction of the voice.

Because large-built students were standing in front, he could only see the female student’s hand.

“You just forgot that rule, right, Sensei, you didn’t tack it on afterward, right? Once you say something, you don’t change it later, right? Like saying afterward that it wasn’t a hundred million after all, it was one Ender, so give it back.”

“Yep! Of course not! If I did that, then I, the parent, would absolutely win every time, and I’d never be able to lose anything, right! That wouldn’t even be a game anymore! So even if there are things I forget, once I’ve said something, I absolutely won’t change it, so don’t worry! Right!”

Saying, “Got it,” the female student shoved aside the students in front of her and stepped forward.

The girl with curled hair and gyaru makeup kept her hands in the pockets of her witch-class robe, and spoke in a deliberately lazy tone.

“Then, like, my class is bailing on the toast too. I don’t wanna forget Leopin either.”

“Ha… Hassaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!?!?!?”

Cyaruru’s mental simulation had been perfect.

The new principal and the new student council president floundered in confusion, and her fantasy had already swelled to the point where Leopin was hugging her.

‘—Yep! If my class refuses the toast too, that makes five classes…! Then I won’t have to forget Leopin’s accomplishments either…! And if I pull it off sharply like Kotone did, maybe Leopin will turn back toward me again too…!’

Cyaruru gulped, then spun her carefully prepared feelings into words toward the principal.

“Then, l-like… m-my toa… class… quits… ’Cause Leo… forget… pin… don’t want…”

But it was falling apart, like the scarf she had once knitted.

She was usually crisp and outspoken, saying whatever she pleased without hesitation, but only when it came to her true feelings about Leopin did she mumble.

The girl’s big moment did not even last five seconds.

Weiss, who had been standing in the wings, felt a chill at his classmate’s sudden rebellion, but shrugged and stepped forward.

“Good grief. It seems Cyaruru simply cannot wait to forget Leopin as soon as possible. Principal, now that it has come to this, it cannot be helped. Since it has already been decided that the whole school will make the toast, how about having the remaining classes do it all at once?”

“Y-yeah! That’s right! Let’s hurry up and finish this game before any more weird interruptions get in the way! Ohohoh!”

But things did not work out that way.

Instead, an unexpected hidden player stepped forward.

“Principal! We of Class 1-03 also refuse the toast! In honor of the great Tamer, Leopin-kun!”

“Ha… Hassaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!?!?”

The students of Class 1-03 all had birds or small animals perched on their shoulders.

That’s right—the Tamer class had finally risen up.

To protect their memories with Leopin…!

Leopin himself, meanwhile, was not merely outside the matter, but sitting with his back to the stage in a place so far removed it was like a fire on the opposite shore.

After learning that he could not participate in the ‘Cheers Game,’ he had grown bored of watching and was trying out Taming on the ants in the schoolyard instead.

“Hmm, it’s not working. Ants aren’t animals, so maybe the ‘Taming’ skill doesn’t work on them… ? I’d like to try raising my ‘Charm’ and test it, but I’d hate for it to end up like last time… It’d be bad if the game the principal is using to deepen friendships with everyone got ruined because of me.”

He did not know.

Without him laying a finger on anything at all, his very existence alone was already turning the game into a complete mess.