After leaving the tea room, Fujiwara Shirayuki started looking around the crowd. She called out to a few students she didn't know, and they answered her with puzzled looks. The numbers beside them were mostly around 50, which seemed to mean stranger.
Yeah, talking to these people won't really tell me anything.I need to test this on someone I actually know.
Drawn by the smell of food, she headed into one of the classrooms and found Special Week just after she had ordered fried rice.
"Spe-chan."
"Shirayuki? What is it?" Special Week asked through a mouthful of food.
"I just wanted to see how high your affection level is."
Shirayuki looked at the number through the glasses.
Affection: 83
"Whoa. Spe-chan, we're basically besties."
At that, Special Week's ears perked up, and she broke into a smile. "Of course we are. Were you looking for lunch too?"
"I've still got something to do, so maybe later. Let's have dinner together tonight."
With that, Shirayuki ran off again, leaving Special Week quietly stuffing more fried rice into her mouth.
"She was in such a hurry… Also, what were those giant glasses about?"
Shirayuki kept moving through the halls, calling out to her classmates one by one.
"McQueen-san."
"My, Shirayuki. What an unusual look."
Affection: 79
"Sky-chan."
"Uwah~"
Affection: 75
"Opera O-san."
"Yo~ White Wolf."
Affection: 81
Seems accurate enough. Spe-chan talked with her almost every day after class, and sometimes they even hung out after school. Calling them best friends would not be strange at all. She got along pretty well with the others too, and Opera O-san's number being a bit higher also made sense considering their history on the track.
Now then, who should I try next? Someone I know well enough that I can tell whether this thing's really working.
As Shirayuki moved through the crowd, she caught sight of a small figure in a blue-purple hat.
"Rice-chan."
She quickly walked over. Rice Shower turned around with an excited look, but the moment she realized it was Shirayuki, a hint of disappointment crossed her face.
"What's wrong? Are you by yourself?"
"I just split up with Urara. Rice is looking for Onii-sama."
Shirayuki checked the glasses.
Affection: 68
That's… lower than I expected.
It wasn't exactly low, but compared to Spe-chan and the others, it felt surprisingly low. It was even lower than Agnes Tachyon.
That's weird. It's not like I've done anything to make her dislike me…
"Chiya is on the third floor right now."
"Eh?"
The moment Shirayuki said that, Rice froze. Then the number dropped.
47
Wait, it can go down too!?All I did was tell her where he was!
"Shirayuki-san… were you with Onii-sama just now?" Rice asked in a small voice.
"No, I just came out of the classroom. I saw him on the way."
"I see…"
As soon as Rice heard that, she let out a quiet breath of relief. At the same time, the number slowly climbed again and finally stopped at 63.
Is this thing really accurate? The standards feel completely random…
"Then Rice is going to find Onii-sama now."
"Wait a sec." Shirayuki stopped her and handed over the glasses. "Give these to him too."
Rice looked at the oversized glasses in her hands. "Does Onii-sama have bad eyesight?"
"No, it's just a toy. More like a novelty item."
Shirayuki had her doubts. Maybe the results changed depending on who was using them. If Chiya tested them too, she could compare.
Back on Fujiwara Chiya's side, Kiryuin Aoi was happily eating an apple candy, while Meek stood beside them with takoyaki in one hand and a toy ball in the other.
"It really does feel like a festival," Aoi said.
"Well, Tracen wants to show everyone how lively the academy is," Chiya replied as he ate his yakisoba.
He had to admit, the students were all surprisingly good cooks. At the very least, the food was worth what they were charging.
"Chiya, let's go check over there next."
Aoi tugged on his hand, clearly not done having fun yet.
"I'm waiting for someone."
"Hm? Who?"
"They should be here any second."
Right on cue, a small figure came hurrying through the crowd.
"Onii-sama!"
"Rice."
Chiya stepped forward to meet her.
"Rice wants to walk around the festival with Onii-sama."
"Sure. I was waiting for you too."
"Oh, right. Shirayuki-san told Rice to give this to Onii-sama."
She opened her hand and showed him the huge pair of glasses, which looked almost too big for her to hold properly.
"Thanks. You saved me the trouble."
He patted her on the head and put them on.
"So you were waiting for Rice after all. But why are you wearing glasses?"
"They're just for decoration."
"Decoration?"
She tilted her head slightly. Honestly, they looked kind of silly.
"Onii-sama looks good in anything," Rice said with a happy smile.
Alright then, let's see what your numbers look like.
With that in mind, Chiya looked at Rice.
Affection: 93
That's way too high.
Wasn't anything above 90 supposed to be the level of lovers? Rice had already gone past that, and yet their relationship definitely was not like that.
I figured hers would be around eighty-six or eighty-seven at most…This is way higher than I expected. Even Shirayuki's wasn't anywhere near this. Isn't that a bit much?
He immediately turned his gaze to Aoi.
Affection: 84
That one also felt oddly high. They were friends, yes, but they had not seen each other in over a year. In Chiya's mind, their relationship was somewhere in the 70s at best.
"Meek."
"Yes?" she replied, tilting her head.
Affection: 75
That seems about right. Around the level of a friend.I only trained her for a few days, after all.
This thing really does seem to rate everyone higher than they should be.
"Onii-sama, let's go."
"Yeah."
Holding Rice's hand, the group continued walking around the festival grounds. Along the way, they ran into Yota, who still looked completely exhausted from inspection duty.
"Chiya, you idiot, don't come any closer," Yota said.
His affection level was 77.
That number somehow hurts to look at…
A little later, they ran into Trainer Nase.
"Trainer Chiya."
"Trainer Nase. You came to the festival too?"
"Teio dragged me here," she said, pointing toward a brown-haired girl who was shooting arrows at balloons nearby.
"Yes, ten points!" the girl shouted excitedly.
"And you?" Nase asked.
"I'm just walking around with Rice and the others."
Rice leaned happily against Chiya's side, munching on cotton candy. Nase gave her a slightly meaningful look, then nodded. At the same moment, Chiya saw her number.
Affection: 85
Again? That's way too high.
"Well, I won't keep you."
"Thanks."
Nase nodded and watched them disappear into the crowd before looking away.
A while later, just as Chiya was starting to feel tired and was thinking of finding somewhere to sit down, a familiar figure in green appeared in front of him.
"Hayakawa-san."
"What's with the glasses?"
"I felt like trying a different look. They're just decoration. I'll take them off tomorrow."
"I see. Do you have a moment?"
"Yeah, I do."
"The chairwoman said she has something she wants to discuss with you."
"Alright. I'll head over now."
"Onii-sama, do you have work again?" Rice asked, sounding reluctant.
"Sorry, Rice. Wait here for me a little while, okay?"
"Okay… Rice will wait right here for Onii-sama."
Rice sat down obediently on a nearby chair.
Chiya then hurried off toward the chairwoman's office, but there was a strange, unsettled look in his eyes.
Just now… if I didn't misread it…Hayakawa-san's affection level was… 96?
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A/n: Just want to inform you guys, there might be some inconsistency from chapter 70 and up. Because after 69 chapters, the page that I have been using to translate seems to get dumber with each chapter, so I need to make a new one. And there is no context of the previous chapter on the new page.
But I will still try to make it consistent with the previous chapter.