The Villainess Reika-sama

[130]

"To be blunt, I do not think I could burn off my fat with such a mild course."

I was annoyed at Okaasama, so I refused. For her own purposes, she sat by and watched her daughter grow fat.
Okaasama begged me in panic.

"Reika-san! Please, come with me? If you hadn't been there last year Okaasama wouldn't have been able to bear it. Please? Please, Reika-san!"

"No."

I turned my head away.

"Mrs. Kaburagi said she wanted you to come too. She told me during that last party. You'll come, won't you, Reika-san?"

"Ehhh~"

Now that she had brought up Kaburagi's mum there was even more reason to refuse. Okaasama started pointing out stuff in the brochures like 'developing a body that gains less fat' and 'natural-style cooking' and stuff but I was having none of it.
Irritated by my complete refusal, Okaasama changed her tune.

"Then are you saying you want to be this fat forever, Reika-san! It's summer! The season where you wear less clothing! Are you going to pass summer with that thick waist of yours!"

"Oww! Okaasama, that hurts!"

Okaasama was pulling at my midsection with both hands. Oww!

"You must come, Reika-san! I won't accept a refusal!"

She was getting angry at me now!? The victim!? People often said that guilty people would try to hide their sins with anger. Okaasama was the very picture of that.

Having lost to her intensity, I trudged back to my room. I didn't wanna go...

The spirit of my hatred was still lying around in my room, so I gave it a small pyre as a funeral.

On Monday morning I was putting my shoes away at school when Ririna came up to me and pointed right at my face.

"Reika-san, you've gotten fat!"

A moment later, Minami-kun and companions had taken her away. That idiot came up to me first thing in the morning to say that?

Should I punch her...?

The summer holiday was coming soon, so Class Rep and I were collecting the printouts for that. When we headed to the Student Council room, Fellow Stalking Horse was there.

Come to think of it, the summer break would be when the Student Council members passed their roles over, wouldn't it. I guess that made Fellow Stalking Horse the next President after all.

"Kisshouin-san, could you take this half?"

"Okaaay."

He may have said 'half', but the ratio was actually 3 to 2 his way. He might have been a maiden at heart, but that didn't mean he wasn't also a gentleman.
After we made sure we had them all, the two of us were about to leave when Stalking Horse called out to stop me.

"Did you need something?" I asked.

"...I'm sorry for the bias I showed you back then."

"Pardon?"

What was this?

"Tomoe-senpai also told me off for having preconceived notions of you."

"Eh-, Tomoe-senpai did!?"

What's this? What's this about Tomoe-senpai now!? I want to hear it! Tell me about Tomoe-senpai!

"The other day I met with him, and you came up in conversation. That was when he scolded me..."

Ehhh~!? Stalking Horse met with Tomoe-senpai!? Sneaky! I wanted to meet him too!

"If you have any complaints about what I've done, I'm willing to hear them."

"I have no complaints against you in particular, Mizusaki-kun."

Mm. I just wanted to know how Tomoe-senpai was doing. I have nothing to say to you, Comrade. I suppose if I really had to say something, I'd be telling you to actually do your job as the village vice-chief. Don't think you can graduate from this village before I do!

Obviously I couldn't actually say this, so I left the room even as he looked dissatisfied.

"Kisshouin-san, did something happen between you two?"

"Who knows. I cannot say I quite understand it myself... Nothing bad happened though, so pay no mind."

"That makes sense."

After that he talked about his love life until we reached the classroom.

"Apparently Honda-san is going to be doing the summer vacation remedials, so I'm thinking about doing them too."

I was listening to him talk when a while later Iwamuro-kun came down in the other direction.

"Master! Let me carry those!"

And so even though we were in different classes, he ended up carrying them for me.

"Also, I have something I want your advice on, Master..."

Advice for Iwamuro-kun... I bet it was about avoiding tanning for the summer.

In the hallway with our classrooms I saw Miharu-chan and Nonose-san talking merrily to each other. When Class Rep saw them, he turned into a maiden.

I think the two of them liked the fantasy genre. I overheard them speaking about it a lot. By "mercenary" did that mean they were reading a war novel at the moment?