Volu 14, Epilogue: “The Seeds of Unrest”
The pouring rain began to get stronger.
Having taken the ti to cool her head and co to terms with her own feelings, Nanase spoke with a heavy tone.
“It’s my loss… Ayanokōji-senpai.”
“Can I take that to an you’re finally convinced?”
“Yes. It seems that, despite my best efforts, it truly isn’t possible for to beat you Senpai.”
Having been seen through to her very core, she seed resigned, as if all the spite and malice from earlier had been drained away.
Making her stand down without laying a finger on her had, in a way, been successful.
“If possible, how about you explain everything in detail? Why were you targeting ? If we don’t clear this up, there will be several issues later.”
“That’s fair. You have a right to know─ No, I want you to know, Senpai.”
She sat down as she spoke, having lost the strength to stay standing any longer.
While her movents hadn’t been those of an ordinary person, it still didn’t seem like she was the White Room student.
Her strength was definitely praiseworthy. So much so that she probably wouldn’t lose out against an opponent like Horikita or Ibuki.
Compared to soone who hails from the White Room, however, she was far too rough around the edges.
Moreover, it would be strange for the White Room student to bring up Matsuo’s na, of all things.
So, in order to find out the truth, I patiently waited for her answer.
“I… I enrolled in this school because I wanted to avenge my childhood friend.”
“Your childhood friend? You an─”
“Yes. Matsuo Eiichiro.”
I felt all but certain that she was referring to the son of the very butler who had taken care of in the past.
“I hadn’t truly realized it before enrolling here, but since this school is completely isolated from the outside world, there’s no way you could’ve known what happened, is there?”
To her credit, Nanase wasn’t exactly wrong for thinking this. However, in this case, I happened to know at least a little bit about what had happened to the Matsuo family. After all, ‘that man’ had ntioned it back when he had shown up to take back to the White Room.
At this point, Nanase calmly began to tell everything.
How Eiichiro had been forcibly expelled from the high school he had worked so hard to get into due to my father’s relentless scheming.
How, no matter which school he tried to apply for afterward, he ended up suffering the exact sa fate, eventually leading to him giving up on pursuing higher education altogether.
How, upon finding out about this, his father had committed suicide, burning himself to death.
And how, after his father’s death, he was left to do what he could to make ends et by working a part-ti job.
Even though ‘that man’ had already told all of this, I simply chose to hold my tongue and listen.
“From kindergarten up until the day he graduated from middle school, I was always together with Eiichiro-kun. He was a year above and better than at just about anything, from studies to the gas we played together… He was my inspiration, my role model.”
Nanase’s calm voice gradually began to grow heavier.
“Even after he was kicked out of his ho, Eiichiro-kun said he wouldn’t give up until the very end, and that’s when he started working. While we weren’t able to see each other as often, I didn’t think the relationship between us would change.”
She continued without pause, speaking as though she was reliving the past.
“Even though he had given up on his education… Even though he had lost his father… He told that he wouldn’t give up… That he’d look toward the future and try his best… He even smiled… And yet…”
Nanase’s voice began to shake, her fists clenched.
“Earlier this year, on the evening of February 14th, I paid a visit to Eiichiro-kun’s apartnt. He was trying so hard, so I was hoping to at least make him feel a little bit better, but─”
Even without hearing the end of it, I could tell exactly where she was going with this:
That, despite all his hard work, Matsuo Eiichiro had ultimately chosen to give up on his own life.
“‘If you can never et again, then you’ll never be able to tell them how you feel.’ You said it yourself.”
I was reminded of what she said back when she was consoling Ike on the second day of the exam.
In her case, she had been far too late for regrets. Heartfelt words would indeed be aningless when said to a corpse.
“I didn’t know very much about you or your father at the ti. In fact, I had only just sent out my application to another high school when… that person appeared before .”
“You an Tsukishiro?”
“Yes. Back then, Acting Director Tsukishiro told why Eiichiro-kun’s life had been thrown into turmoil. He said that the root cause of all of it had been that soone nad Ayanokōji Kiyotaka had escaped from an establishnt called ‘The White Room’ by enrolling at a school nad ‘Advanced Nurturing High School’, and that he had made arrangents for to enroll there myself.”
And so, she had taken him up on the offer in order to seek vengeance for the death of her childhood friend.
“If I could successfully get you expelled, he promised to let et your father, Senpai. Truth be told, I was going to ask your father to bow his head and apologize to Eiichiro-kun, but…”
Even if she sohow managed to get expelled, there was simply no way ‘that man’ would ever choose to bow his head.
Her words would’ve never managed to get through to him. Of that, I was certain.
I was able to see the bigger picture at this point, but there were still several things that I didn’t understand.
“Tsukishiro told that he had sent in a student from the White Room. Was that just a bluff?”
“Uhm, what do you an by that, Senpai? I don’t really know much about this ‘White Room’ thing to begin with.”
It didn’t seem like she was lying when she said this, so with that being the case, there were only two possible explanations I could co up with.
The first was that the enforcer he had sent wasn’t Nanase, but soone entirely different, be they from the White Room or not.
While the other was that the very ‘enforcer’ he had ntioned really was Nanase, and he had just wanted to think that she was from the White Room.
If it was the latter, then there wouldn’t be anyone else targeting anymore.
However, that felt pretty hard to imagine.
When compared to the general public, Nanase was exceptionally talented, but her abilities fell short for an enforcer tasked with forcing my expulsion. Even Tsukishiro should’ve realized that it would end up like this.
“I knew that you weren’t the one at fault, Ayanokōji-senpai, but… I wanted… no, needed soone to take it out on… all my pent-up anger and frustration…”
Upon hearing this, all sorts of things started to make sense. Her behavior ever since she first ca here.
Throughout all her attempts to have expelled, there had also been several occasions where she had stepped in to help .
Contradictory behavior that had co about because Nanase herself didn’t truly believe that she was doing the right thing.
And today, convinced that she had Matsuo Eiichiro’s dying will at heart, she unleashed it all.
We were high up on the mountain and the falling rain had cooled down the ground beneath our feet, causing a thick fog to enshroud the area.
“I… I don’t know how I can face you anymore, Senpai… I’m so, so sorry…”
Ashad of herself and what she had done, Nanase covered her face with her hands, unable to look at .
Without saying a word, I waited patiently until she had cald down.
“You don’t need to apologize. The anger you feel is perfectly justified.”
The fact of the matter was that ‘that man’ had committed such a grave cri just to bring back.
A cold-hearted, calculating being who doesn’t even see others as human.
But, ironically enough, that was also a projection of myself.
“I’ve failed to carry out the Acting Director’s orders. There’s no point in staying here anymore.”
“Will you drop out?”
“It’s the least I can do to atone for my actions.”
‘That man’ and I had always been similar.
As long as we could protect ourselves, our own existence, it didn’t matter what happened to others.
And neither of us believed in casually revealing our true nature to outsiders.
However, despite our similarities, there was still a key difference.
It all ca down to whether or not we’d choose to discard the ignorant who stand in our way.
That is, whether or not we were even capable of extending our hands.
Extending his hand to an ignorant person was sothing ‘that man’ would absolutely never do, and that was the decisive difference between us.
I slowly reached out, extending my hand to Nanase.
“Senpai…?”
“If you’re really sorry, then please take back what you said just now.”
“What… do you an…?”
“You have nothing to feel ashad of. You simply tried your best to avenge your friend. But there’s a reason I can’t lose to you, since I believe that staying here at this school is the only way I have of going against ‘that man’, my father.”
While still unwilling to et my gaze head-on, she lifted her head just enough to stare at my outstretched palm.
“If I could be a bit selfish here, I’d rather not hear about you leaving the school. Instead, I’d like you to cooperate with . Even now, Tsukishiro is probably scheming to use this special exam to expel and present as a gift to my father. If that were to happen, all the painstaking efforts Matsuo Eiichiro went through to get into this school would be for nothing.”
“Are you saying that… I should’ve been doing the opposite this entire ti?”
“Can you lend your hand?”
Her delicate, smooth hand took hold of my own.
“─It’s a promise.”
Though her hand was cold due to the rain, there was still a hint of warmth contained within.
Nanase, whose head had been down for a while now, finally looked in the eyes.
This had nothing to do with whether she’d actually be able to help or not.
I just needed to make good use of her so that she could, even if I ended up only using her once and throwing her away.
“You’ll catch a cold if you stay in the rain for too long, so let’s get going.”
“…Okay.”
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