Classroom of The Elite : The Marionette

Chapter 40: Special Exam

"Yukiharu just told us that the trial went well," Shinji said. "I don't know what's going on, they might accuse you of all kinds of things and call you this and that but don't let it bother you."

Shinji tried to lighten the mood by providing a little moral support. Unfortunately, that only made Nanahara's face even more sour. On the other hand, Iwa, who had been complaining about Nanahara, was now silent when the person herself appeared in front of him.

"Oi, Nanahara, it seems Kouki has something to say to—hmppph!" Gilang was about to snitch on him but Iwa hurriedly covered his mouth with his hand. His pitiful face was directed at me and Shinji implied his plea to us not to continue Gilang's words.

When my friends started joking around, as usual, I thought the atmosphere would improve. I thought my classmates would come to their senses and just mind their own business, apparently, it's not that easy. At that time I heard someone's footsteps walking closer. When I looked it turned out to be Sawatari walking towards us with an annoyed face.

"What's wrong Sawatari?" I asked and the girl ignored me and instead walked closer. I think I can guess what she wants to say.

"Nanahara-san," Sawatari said coldly. "It looks like Kurose-kun and Satonaka-san managed to get you out of trouble... well, it's good to be back at school, but isn't there something you should say to us?"

"What do you want?" Nanahara answered in a tone that was no less cold and that made Sawatari even angrier.

"You seriously don't understand? You think you can just come to class as if nothing happened? After the trouble you caused us?"

"Sawatari, enough," I immediately intervened. "That problem has been resolved."

"No, it's not finished yet!" Sawatari argued with irritation clearly visible in her voice. "I don't know why you're so tolerant of this delinquent, but just because she's declared innocent doesn't mean that the problem just goes away. Don't forget that she beat up four people and we will lose points because of it."

Satonaka, who noticed the commotion, immediately approached us. "Rie-san, please just let it go. Nanahara-san already regrets her actions."

"Is that so? It doesn't look like that to me."

Hearing their argument, Nanahara sighed and then got up from her chair. For a moment I panicked because I thought she would throw some insult or maybe even leave the class but it turned out she did neither. Nanahara just stood and looked at Sawatari closely. Now the whole class's attention was focused on her, waiting to see what this girl would do.

"So...you want me to apologize?" Nanahara asked with a rather bored tone.

"Well, of course. If you have a little bit of self-awareness, that's the first thing you should do when you set foot in class."

Nanahara was silent for a moment. I couldn't read her thoughts at all and became even more worried because of that. On the one hand, the girl has also told me that she won't cause me any more trouble, so I still have hope that she won't say something outrageous.

"Okay..." Nanahara said. The response took us a bit by surprise. "All this time I realized that I kept my distance from all of you, and I don't regret it, I still think that everyone is free to live their days as they like... however, now I also realize that this behavior has caused problems for everyone, because of that...I apologize."

Nanahara immediately bowed before Sawatari after saying that. No, she bowed to everyone. Sawatari was a little dumbfounded by that and so did the other students. Maybe they didn't expect that she would apologize this easily. Even Satonaka seemed stunned to see her, but a moment later she looked like a proud mother.