"Misfortune…"
Kazuo sighed, shaking his head, as he tidied up the folding chairs in the auditorium.
"Eh, good luck will secretly slip away from your lips, and Ahua only made the two of us clean the auditorium, so in a sense, we're quite lucky."
A certain carefree senior was still grinning, and Kazuo felt a terrible headache, giving him a speechless look and saying, "I'm just lamenting why I ever met you, Koji…"
"Isn't that a bit rude? I'll be sad, you know," he said, though there was no sign of remorse. He even pointed at himself with a hint of boastfulness, "At least I begged her not to make a big deal out of it."
"No… that was just pure shamelessness, wasn't it? It was clearly because she couldn't stand you prostrating yourself in public, right?"
Kazuo looked at this guy, utterly speechless. This unreliable, unprincipled fellow, with it written all over his face, actually made Miss Toujou unable to save face in front of everyone… Truly, there's always one to conquer another… He just felt that he was unusually skilled when dealing with Miss Toujou.
—He's clearly a repeat offender.
"Ah~ You praising me like that makes me shy."
He's beyond help.
For the duo's series of actions, Miss Toujou finally gave a symbolic punishment, making them clean the entire auditorium after the opening ceremony.
It could be said to be a blessing in disguise.
Kazuo certainly didn't want his life at Tresen Academy to end like this.
"Hmm, is it already this late?"
Koji exclaimed, looking at his wristwatch. Kazuo, who had just placed all the folding chairs into the movable cabinet under the auditorium stage, wiped the fine sweat from his forehead and asked,
"What's wrong? Do you have something urgent to do?"
"Not exactly urgent… I just happen to need to go to the city center to run some errands."
Koji smiled somewhat awkwardly. Although he didn't elaborate, it was clear he had a genuine difficulty.
"You're going into the city now? Then why did you come here to see the entrance ceremony, Koji?"
"Uh — on a whim? "
"...Hah... Then what time is the appointment for? "
"Half past eleven..."
"Which means there's still an hour left? Taking the academy bus from here and then transferring to the subway, it'll probably take about forty minutes."
Kazuo glanced around and then replied, "Then, should I take care of things here by myself? "
"Eh, wouldn't that be bad? "
Although he's usually not serious, Koji was clearly a little embarrassed at this time.
"It's okay, I've already cleaned up more than half of it anyway. If I do it slowly by myself, it won't take half an hour. Rather than that, Koji, you should hurry up and take care of your own important matters."
Koji was greatly moved by this. He patted Kazuo's shoulder forcefully: "You're really a great guy, Kazuo! Oh right, after you finish cleaning up, it'll be about noon, right? As a thank you, I'll give you my meal card. You can use my meal card to eat in the cafeteria then, okay? "
As he said that, he took out a light green card from his pocket and handed it to Kazuo.
"Eh, really? "
Seeing Koji hand over the meal card, Kazuo couldn't help but be tempted. After all, considering the balance of income and expenditure, he originally planned to use that box of cup noodles to get through this week.
"It's nothing, there's quite a lot of money in it anyway. You can order whatever you want."
At this time, Koji was rarely generous. After all, these were also considered part of the subsidies that the Tracen Academy gave to them Trainers. Kazuo was a newcomer after all, and Koji estimated that he also had difficulties in this regard, so he planned to thank him in this way.
However —
"Oh right, remember not to eat dinner tonight. Come back to the dormitory directly at seven o'clock."
For some reason, before leaving, Koji did not forget to mention this.
Although he was a little puzzled, Kazuo readily agreed.
.
After Koji left, the entire huge auditorium was left to Kazuo to clean up by himself. By the time he finished all of this, it was noon.
Holding the meal card that Koji gave him, Kazuo also excitedly went to the academy's cafeteria center. After all, he was interested in new things and he had indeed done a morning's worth of physical labor, wearing a heavy mascot suit, and being punished to clean up the auditorium or something.
Kazuo was also so hungry that his front chest was sticking to his back.
However, when he arrived at the academy's only cafeteria center, he belatedly realized something.
That was —
Everywhere he looked, there were newly enrolled Uma Musumes.
The Tresen Academy has a total of less than a hundred faculty and staff members, while the Uma Musumes in the academy number nearly two thousand... He hadn't been aware of this situation before, but when he was sandwiched between the girls in the queue, Kazuo realized the so-called beauty and sweetness of girls.
The academy did not strictly distinguish between the dining areas for teachers and students, so everyone was now eating together in this cafeteria center.
The girls didn't seem to care much about Kazuo's existence. After all, they weren't sheltered young ladies. At most, everyone would take a few more glances at the very young Kazuo.
On the contrary, Kazuo was extremely concerned now.
"The Student Council president is really so handsome! "
"Yeah, I really want to join the Student Council..."
"There seems to be an event being held in the class this afternoon, I'm so looking forward to it~"
"Look, there's a special radish hamburger steak here! "
Listening to the heated discussions coming from his ears,
It turned out that Kazuo wasn't the only one who was excited about all of this.
The group of Uma Musumes queuing in the cafeteria chattered non-stop. Some were looking forward to their future academy life, some were still immersed in the demeanor of the previous Emperor, and of course, there were also people who were happy to discover novel things in the academy.
Girls are some indescribable beautiful things wrapped in spices and white sugar, but the presence of such sweetness before and after makes people feel uncomfortable.
What's good to eat for lunch... In order to divert his attention, Kazuo couldn't help but look up at the display screen hanging on the ceiling of the cafeteria.
Steak salad with carrot juice set meal,
Hamburger steak tempura miso-style traditional Japanese meal
...A dazzling array of varieties and various styles of meals... Should I really sigh that it's worthy of being Tresen Academy? There are even various desserts and snacks. If he didn't consider the price, Kazuo should also feel very happy.
Right now —
The more it looks appetizing, the easier it is for him to fall into a faint sadness.
After all, today can only be regarded as a brief happiness. Starting tomorrow, he will return to the ordinary days of plum rice balls and cup noodle barley tea for three meals a day.
However, come to think of it... Why does it feel like the line hasn't moved forward since just now?
Coming back to his senses, Kazuo couldn't help but look forward. He saw the Uma Musume standing directly in front of him, seemingly standing there blankly as if she didn't know what to do.