Card Game Tournament Arc
08 Red Eyes and the Caressed Cheek

The next day, it was announced in an emergency meeting of the high school section.

"Next week, we will hold a card game tournament."

The students" mouths dropped open when Hayate said that with a dead serious expression. The only ones who stood listening calmly were the executives and Meru.

"Wait a second, Meru. What"s up all of a sudden? With the emperor."

Maiko asked, leaning in close to Meru"s ear from her position in the line behind her. Meru pointed at Hayate on the stage and said, "Listen to the next part and you"ll understand," narrowing her eyes.

"The card game tournament will include Old Maid, Fan-Tan1, Daifugō2, Speed, Concentration, and Poker. Please choose and partic.i.p.ate in whichever game you are the best at from these six. And…"

Hayate grinned.

"We will guarantee the ultimate winner of each game a seat as a student council executive.

As if to show they were full of confidence, the executives snorted. Maiko muttered, "I see."

Amongst everyone"s excitement, Meru alone sighed.

"Which one do you want to partic.i.p.ate in, Meru?"

Meru was carrying a bulky armful of doc.u.ments as she walked down the hallway with Hayate. The perpetrator behind this morning"s executive recruitment announcement was as usual, making her do work.

""Which one do you want to partic.i.p.ate in"… There aren"t many left, right?"

Meru pursed her lips. Hayate and Meru were, of course, talking about the card game tournament. However, one problem had arisen with her partic.i.p.ation in the tournament.

The tournament was being held for the sole purpose of making Meru an executive. In other words, the executives couldn"t face each other and Meru couldn"t face them either, nor could any of them lose.

As expected, the executives also had strong and weak suits where it concerned card games, so aside from Hayate, the other four had apparently chosen their events.

"So, which do you prefer?"

"Haa… Um, Poker or Concentration, huh… Then, I"ll go with Concentration."

She raised a hand and told Hayate. Meru figured that she should just be grateful that Old Maid wasn"t one of the leftover options.

"Normally, if you want to make me win, you should let me choose first, right?"

"Haha, you can probably win at anything, can"t you? You"re good enough to compete with me in Oth.e.l.lo."

"Do you know the phrase "by chance"?"

"It"s improbable that I could lose to something like chance."

Hayate"s almond-shaped eyes gazed gently at Meru. Meru sighed and smiled at his overestimation of her.

"Not to mention, my grades are normal."

"You"re always more or less at the 100th rank. Your mock examination results are always consistent too, is it?"

Since Hayate correctly guessed her results, Meru"s eyes widened in surprise.

"Why do you know that?"

"I looked it up in the student information data file Laila has."

"The heck is that…"

According to Hayate, Laila wasn"t just a machine maniac, he also excelled at gathering information. Incidentally, her3 USB had a simple profile of every student from the elementary section to the high school section as well as a record of all the mock exam results.

"Well, that"s a mystery to me. Why you get average grades like that, that is."

"I"m normal, so they"re normal. There are higher people above me, you know. Yeah, like you, Kamishiro-kun."

As though it had just come to her mind, Meru pointed at Hayate. Hayate made a helpless face and smiled.

"There"s something that only you have. If not…"

Hayate caressed Meru"s cheek.

"Then I can"t explain the reason I"m so charmed by you."

Meru and Hayate locked eyes with one another. Hayate"s red-tinged eyes were beautiful, and Meru was fascinated by them for a moment.

Luckily, there were no students in the hallway in front of the staff room. However, Meru flinched. If someone were to see this situation, even though she already stood out, she would draw even more attention.

"Kamishiro-kun."

"What is it?"

"These are heavy, so let"s hurry up and go."

Meru unhesitatingly separated her face from Hayate"s hand. As she did, Hayate lightly sighed as if to say "how unfortunate."

"You"re about the only one who can ignore what I say, Meru."

"Ohh. This is special treatment, isn"t it? Yaaay."

Meru smiled sweetly and placed the doc.u.ments she was carrying on top of Hayate"s with a thud.

"If I have special treatment, then I"m also excused from work, right?"

"…Meru."

"It"s just over there, so you can carry them, right?"

When Hayate narrowed his eyes, Meru waved her hands in front of her chest. In front of Meru"s behavior of acting the fool, Hayate said, "It can"t be helped," and sighed.

"Later, Kamishiro-kun. Good luck with your Poker practice."

"You too, Meru, since it"s a compet.i.tion of memorization ability."

"Ahahahahahahaha."

Meru smiled wryly and turned her back to Hayate, heading back toward the cla.s.sroom. Meru didn"t know that Hayate stared at her until she disappeared from view.

"Really, it"s only you, Meru."

That murmur, too, didn"t reach Meru"s ears.

1 Aka Sevens

2 Aka Rich Man, Poor Man… I"m not gonna explain the game rules for these games cuz they probs aren"t relevant as Meru won"t be playing them. If you"re curious, feel free to Google them.

3 Idk y"all, the author suddenly referred to Laila as "she" here. Despite saying "he" before. Not sure which one it is since both have occurred exactly once. :") Thanks for the lack of p.r.o.nouns, j.a.panese. Aside from here, I"m going to tentatively continue with "he" until it becomes more obvious since Laila still seems to identify as male… Anyway, it might have been a mistake, so yeah.

I"m back and more tired than before my vacation, haha. Also jet lagged. RIP. It feels like we"re getting closer and closer to Meru"s abilities/story, so that"s exciting. I laughed at her really long laugh. Yep. Enjoy~

P.S. This one was short too, so there will be a second one today as well.