Classroom of the Elite 2nd Year - Volume 4.5 Chapter 3 Intro

To Each Their Own Holiday

In life aboard this ship, the problem of what and where to eat haunts people daily.

Every night and every day, the school carefully prepares food buffets which can be availed of for free.

Though we’re free to use it or not, not only is it free of charge but extremely delicious. So it’s popular with the students. Because of that, from seven to nine in the morning, each student is only allowed to enter thrice. This is to avoid traffic.

You could arrange to enter at your desired time up to 60 minutes prior.

I more or less wanted to eat at 8am, but since I had reserved late, the time slots for 8 and 9am on August 6 were full. I had to eat a bit earlier at 7am.

And because of that, now that it’s afternoon my stomach is unusually empty. Perhaps because I was forced to eat the bare minimum amount of calories at the deserted island, my body wanted energy.

Though the cafeteria food is popular, unfortunately, now it’s being offered at a price, albeit discounted. If you eat lunch there, which is in a set with drinks, you would have to spend at least 2000 points.

It would be fine to eat there with friends, but sadly today I’m alone.

In this case, wanting to save as much money as I can is natural right?

Stores were helpful with that.

Basically, like a convenience store, you could purchase onigiris or sandwiches with ease.

I headed to a store right away to order one onigiri and a tea pack which costed a total of 250 points. Then with my vinyl bag in my other hand, I looked for a place to eat.

It would be okay to look for a suitable eating place but since such places are mostly already being used by someone else I would have had to share narrow spaces with them. I really want to avoid that.

A place where I wouldn’t mind being close with people I don’t know would likely be outside.

The fruit of my search was the deck on the 6th floor which was close to the bow of the ship. Of course, because there’s no need to pay to enter this place, it’s suitable for eating convenience store food.

While I was eating some of my food, I thought I’d look at the magnificent view of the ocean. But I had come at a bad time. Many students were here to look at the view and it didn’t seem like they would go away anytime soon.

It was a wide deck but if so many people were using it then it would ultimately be difficult to secure a space. There was an empty bench overlooking the area. I spotted Nanase’s back sitting beside it.

She had a sandwich that could’ve been from a store in her hands and a milk pack beside her.

Interesting. It was the opposite of yesterday, when she spotted me.

Aside from Nanase there was Okiya Ijuuin, my classmate, Sakayanagi from A-Class, and many students from Ryuuen’s class such as Izumi and Suzuki. Like Nanase, they were staring at the sea while having their lunches.

In the end many people think the same way. Instead of leaving I turned my eyes to the ocean. Indeed, food eaten while facing this scenery would definitely be delicious.

But – the problem is that just as there were many 2nd years, there were also many 3rd years.

There were still only a few of them who noticed me. They started staring at me right away. If I just leave here, that would mean I escaped because I didn’t like those stares. Then they would think that they were effective and be encouraged.

Now that I think about it, Nanase seemed to have something she wanted to talk about yesterday, too. But Kobashi called her so she cancelled it, so now I’m going to call her.

After all, I could use this talk with her as a pretext for coming here.

“Nanase.”

When I called her name she turned around, surprised.

“Ah, senfaai”

Seemingly just having stuffed her cheeks, she looked at me while making sure not to let anything fall out.

Seeing her get flustered and try to eat as fast as she could, I felt that what I did was a little bit inexcusable.

In using her for one of my measures against the 3rd years, it looks like I’ve disturbed her unnecessarily.

“Ah, sorry. Should I come again?”

I tried saying that, but considering Nanase’s personality, that wouldn’t happen.

“Pleah, wait, shenfai”

She couldn’t spit it out now that it was in her mouth, so she started chewing quickly.

“Gulp. …Um, sorry, um, that was… I was eating.”

She spoke as if she was about to confess, but if anyone saw her they’d know that she was just eating.

You could say I noticed ever since I saw her back.

“Um, was there anything you needed?”

I felt a bit strange with Nanase still seeming nervous for some reason.

It was as if she couldn’t focus on her conversation with me. Her eyes kept moving.

“No, you seemed like you wanted to talk to me yesterday. I wonder what it was. Kobashi called you at that time.”

“Ah-“

Her thinking was dull. Her words wouldn’t come out right away.

After thinking for just a short while, Nanase shook her head.

“I’m sorry. I have already resolved it so could you please forget?”

“Okay. That’s fine.”

If Nanase was worried about something I could’ve started a conversation about helping her somehow, but if it’s resolved then there was no need to worry. More than that, the number one reason was because I could feel that it didn’t matter right now.

“Sorry for calling you so suddenly. I’ll go back inside. There’s more people than I thought, so it’s hard for me to relax.”

“Okay. Then I will see you again, Senpai.”

Right after finishing my business, I left this place.

When I turned around one more time, Nanase was continuing her lunch.