"You don't need to get so serious all of a sudden."
Seeing Natsuki Subaru's overly earnest expression, Hiyori Shiina quickly waved her hands.
"Natsuki-kun."
"How many personal points do you have left for this month?"
After a moment of thought, Hiyori Shiina asked with a similar seriousness, "I'm asking because I've noticed your daily spending seems rather casual."
It was just as Natsuki Subaru had guessed.
Hiyori Shiina's hesitation, and what she had just emphasized, were related to the school's rules.
The reason for her conflict was simple. Year 1, Class C had already realized this academy focused on competition between classes, and Hiyori Shiina was privy to this information.
If she didn't handle her interactions with Natsuki Subaru with the right balance right now, it would be easy to cross the line between personal and class relationships, resulting in an act of betrayal toward her class.
Originally, Hiyori Shiina had wanted to keep the matter of inter-class competition out of her purely book-loving friendship with Natsuki Subaru.
However, during this time, Hiyori Shiina had also eaten with Natsuki Subaru twice.
How should she put it?
Natsuki Subaru's meals were always a bit too extravagant.
Hiyori Shiina was a little worried about her friend, Natsuki Subaru. Worried that he thought the school would give him one hundred thousand personal points every month, leading him to spend the initial one hundred thousand completely.
If that were the case, life would become very difficult for him.
Hiyori Shiina couldn't just stand by and watch Natsuki Subaru spend his personal points so lavishly, only to end up in a tough situation later. She couldn't accept watching a friend suffer. It was out of the question.
So, Hiyori Shiina was conflicted about how to remind Natsuki Subaru.
She needed a way that neither violated the boundaries between classes nor damaged the relationship between friends.
"I see."
"Are you worried I'm spending too many of my personal points?"
Hearing Hiyori Shiina's words, Natsuki Subaru nodded.
Although he had been paid hush money and couldn't just say certain things before the results were out, there were some things he could still show Hiyori Shiina.
"Yes."
Hiyori Shiina nodded, waiting for Natsuki Subaru's reply.
"If it's just my personal spending, I think it should last me for a semester."
As Natsuki Subaru spoke, he showed his point balance on his student terminal to Hiyori Shiina.
Currently, Natsuki Subaru's personal point balance was one million, seventeen thousand, six hundred.
Seventy thousand of those points were from his meals over the past half-month; the rest were for other daily expenses.
"Huh?!"
"O-One million?!"
Seeing the balance displayed on Natsuki Subaru's student terminal, Hiyori Shiina was so shocked she covered her mouth.
Just now, Hiyori Shiina had considered many possibilities.
She had thought Natsuki Subaru might have very few points left due to his recent high spending. She had also considered that he wasn't as extravagant as she'd imagined and still had forty or fifty thousand personal points left.
She was also mentally prepared. If Natsuki Subaru was really tight on points, she might be able to find a more subtle way to remind him without revealing the core of the inter-class competition rules.
And if things got really difficult, she wouldn't mind using her own points to help this rare friend.
However, the seven-digit number displayed on Natsuki Subaru's student terminal completely overrode all of Hiyori Shiina's assumptions.
'One million?!'
'But... the school's initial points are only one hundred thousand. Even if he didn't spend a single point, it's impossible for it to become this much...'
The enormous sum made Hiyori Shiina's mind go blank for a moment.
Because Hiyori Shiina knew that Natsuki Subaru was not the actual leader of Year 1, Class D. The one million points he had could not possibly be class funds collected from his classmates.
Having read so many mystery novels, Hiyori Shiina almost instinctively began to analyze the situation.
"It seems my previous worries were unnecessary."
"I was still thinking about how to remind Natsuki-kun to be mindful of 'sustainable development'."
Hiyori Shiina realized that this huge amount of personal points, a fortune for an individual, likely involved Natsuki Subaru's personal secrets or methods.
Prying too deeply into a friend's secrets was not something she wished to do.
"This result is something I never expected."
"Natsuki-kun, you've long been standing at a height I can't even see."
In any case, Hiyori Shiina's initial worry, her fear that her friend would fall into hardship due to extravagance, vanished the moment she saw the seven-digit number on Natsuki Subaru's student terminal.
"No, it wasn't unnecessary."
"Not only that, I'm very grateful to be cared for so much by Shiina-san."
Hearing Hiyori Shiina's words, Natsuki Subaru's tone became exceptionally serious. His voice was lower than usual, yet exceptionally clear.
"Your concern itself, Shiina-san, is something very precious."
Natsuki Subaru looked at Hiyori Shiina and gently shook his head, not taking this opportunity to try and guide her into a multiple-choice question.
Normally, this was a very good opportunity, and it was one Hiyori Shiina had offered up herself.
If Natsuki Subaru had been a bit vague and not shown Hiyori Shiina his point balance screenshot.
Hiyori Shiina would definitely have started talking to him about what to do next. He would have been able to see how she chose between her personal relationships and the collective, and quickly make a judgment about her.
But that thought didn't even linger in Natsuki Subaru's mind for more than a second.
When a person begins to intentionally 'test' another, the tester themselves has already lost the qualification to be a "genuine article". A 'genuine article' should be pure, an existence without any impurities.
Why did Natsuki Subaru so desperately crave and pursue a 'genuine article'?
Was it not because he himself, in his endless loops, had lost the purity and naturalness of a 'genuine article'?
The moment he had the thought of 'using this opportunity to test what kind of choice Hiyori Shiina would make' to verify if she was his 'genuine article'.
Then his own actions would be thoroughly branded with the color of a 'fake'.
While he held others to a high standard, Natsuki Subaru would absolutely not have double standards, with one set for himself and another for others.
On the premise of demanding others to be a 'genuine article', Natsuki Subaru's demand for himself was also the same.
___
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