Classroom of the Elite: Checkmate

Chapter 24 - Control

Around an hour later, the three of us arrived back at the camp.

We were quite surprised since the visitor count in our base had once again increased. Just like before, it was a Class C student, one I had seen on the beach. It was rather difficult to overlook him because of his immense height, which should have eclipsed every student in the first-year with ease.

The giant in question sat next to Shiina-san, who munched on a handful of red berries.

Kushida-san ambled over to the pair with more fruits in hand and offered them to our new guest. He took the bowl-like container Ike-kun had crafted from tree bark and thanked her for our hospitality before decanting the fruits into the silver-haired girl's bowl.

Feeling a headache coming, I surveyed our surroundings for Kiyotaka.

Much to my regret, I couldn't find him anywhere.

Sudou-kun ambled out of the cave and performed a few exercises to loosen his strained muscles. His back pain seemed to have worsened compared to this morning, at least if his expression was anything to go by. The rest of our classmates were doing much better than him and continued their chores despite the confusion about our new arrival.

Hirata-kun discussed something with Karuizawa-san and a few other girls, while Ike-kun started the fires around the camp. Class B's leadership excused themselves and wandered towards their own comrades to go over some related matters. Horikita-san rested near the cave as usual and glanced around the area with a weary, tired complexion.

Our gazes met for a moment before she averted her eyes.

Was she also searching for Kiyotaka?

I wasn't sure if I should speak to her, because it was a well-known fact that she didn't enjoy talking with our classmates. In case she had to, she was rather prickly and a nightmare to converse with, at least according to Ichihashi-san, Azuma-san, and a few others. I had only spoken to her once, so I couldn't read much into her overall bearing, but my exhaustion was quite pronounced, which was why I decided against addressing her right now.

My energy reserves to deal with her antics were too low.

"Hey, Kushida-san. Do you know if Kiyotaka made it back?"

The girl carrying around a dozen small branches stopped in her tracks and bounced over with a bright, cheery expression that could burn the repressed fatigue away before it managed to affect someone.

"Um, he returned quite a while before you guys and is resting in one of the tents at the moment. Kiyotaka mentioned that he was tired and that he wanted to get some sleep before his trip tonight. I think he's in the second boy's tent close to the cave's rear."

"Thank you, Kushida-san."

She nodded, hopped back and dumped the firewood next to one of the pits.

"Kanji-kun, this is enough, right?"

"Ah, thank you Kikyou-chan! This should..."

The two of them had a lot on their plate, so I left them alone.

Kushida-san and Hirata-kun were the biggest reasons that our class worked as efficient as it did, and I was more than thankful for their help. Without our own private angel and knight in shining armor duo keeping the class cohesion high, I would have had a lot more trouble supervising my classmates.

This could also be said about Ike-kun, who had improved our chances at winning this exam without spending points by leaps and bounds due to his prior knowledge, which was not only helping us, but also his own damaged reputation.