Everything Ryunosuke had done for her was visible to Suzune. She said nothing, but something was different from before. She was no longer treating it as something owed to her. She had grown, at least a little. She made a quiet note of the kindness in her heart.
(I'll just make him a few more meals later. He usually eats nothing but instant noodles anyway. There's no nutrition in that at all.)
That was how she framed it to herself. She didn't notice anything unusual about that line of thinking. She had simply stopped seeing him the way she once had, without realizing it.
The class exam got underway. The format was similar to the sports festival, but with academic scoring layered in. A combined test of body and mind, something like a Commander Tower exam, with Suzune at the helm.
Elsewhere, Honami had seemed dull and withdrawn for some time. Since hearing that Ryunosuke was taken, she had kept her distance and hadn't crossed paths with him in a while. Himeno was much the same, looking pale and low-energy.
Hachiman, watching both of them, had already drawn his conclusions. He could read people well enough.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. What a Casanova." He didn't know what else to say. He was fully aware that the source of all of this was Ryunosuke.
Fuutarou, who was in Class A and possessed the emotional awareness of a particularly inexpressive piece of furniture, asked Hachiman with complete sincerity, "What's wrong with those two? Are they sick? Is their health off?"
"Ugh. If you're asking me, I honestly don't know how to answer that." Hachiman had no comfortable way to tell the truth.
Was he supposed to say they were moping over a guy? Those words would never leave his mouth. He would be beaten to a pulp if they heard him say it.
Getting nothing from Hachiman, Fuutarou gave up asking. What mattered to him was studying enough to graduate as a Class A student and stop being a burden to his family. Everything else he could do without.
The final exam for the first-year students arrived. Each class chose a single opponent. Class D, under Shiina Hiyori's leadership, chose Class B, which was led by Yuuki Asuna.
Ever since the incident with Masumi's near-expulsion, Arisu had handed over all of her authority. She was no longer Class B's leader. Asuna had tried to convince her to co-lead, because the last thing she wanted was to be responsible for an entire class on her own.
The main reason was obvious: she had no time to play games.
Arisu, however, had conveniently gone selectively deaf. Her thoughts were occupied with her husband. She had no room left for a leadership role, and this was a perfectly convenient opportunity to shed it so she could spend more time with Ryunosuke.
Asuna wanted to cry. She didn't want this. She didn't want to manage a whole class by herself. Her gaming hours were going to collapse.
But in everyone else's eyes, she was a remarkable leader. Her classmates followed her with complete devotion, practically worshipping her as though under some kind of spell. That perception made it even harder to say what she actually felt.
She had even gone so far as to order a book online called How to Become a Quality Ruler and started working through it.
Asuna lay on her bed, kicking her bare legs in the air as she read. "I see. In front of subordinates, you must project dignity so that authority naturally radiates from you."
She closed the book and decided to put the theory into practice. The class exam was just beginning, so the timing was as good as any.
The results were convincing enough to suggest she might have genuine natural talent for it.
Seen from a distance, she raised her arm in a commanding sweep, the aura around her surging dramatically outward. It was the presence of someone born to rule. The kind of Haoshoku Haki that appears in only one person in a million.
Her expression was grave and focused. Her white uniform made her look like something worth kneeling before. A warm breeze lifted her reddish-brown hair and sent it streaming behind her.
Katsuragi Kohei was trembling with feeling. He was the one who had saved his subordinate, Totsuka Yahiko, from expulsion. Since that day he had sworn loyalty to Asuna, the captain of knights.
Hashimoto Masayoshi felt exactly the same. Compared to the little princess Sakayanagi, who had always seemed indifferent to the class, a leader with the spirit of a knight was someone he could genuinely follow. That was why he had turned away from the princess. (Forgive me, Sakayanagi. But my life belongs to Yuuki Asuna now.)
Up on the platform, Asuna said absolutely nothing.
The truth was that she had completely forgotten her notes.
Her classmates, however, had already started the process of over-interpretation, very much in the spirit of Ainz's subordinates in Overlord.
(Incredible. Even without a single word, the pressure she exerts is enough to take our breath away. Asuna-sama is on a different level entirely.)
Every member of Class B below the stage began to worship her even more fervently.
Yuuki Asuna: (Why is this happening to me?!)
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