Chapter 13: Snow White’s Personality

2 WEEKS AGO 5 COMMENTS

Translated and Edited by: ynlucca.

Fully recovered, I take a quick morning bath and got ready for school. On the way there, Yui asked expectantly, “Did something happen between you two?” My answer was “No,” obviously.

I’m nothing compared to her. If life was a play, I’d be Shirayuki’s “Childhood Friend A”, “Neighbor A”, “Classmate A”, and “Student Council Officer A” — A mob character.

Well, I got another “role” recently, but it doesn’t change anything. Even if I get more of those, my relationship with her won’t progress. It won’t.

“I’m off then. You get ready to go as well, okay?”

“O~key.”

I went to Hakuou for the first time in three days.

The morning and afternoon classes went by in a flash. I grabbed my bag and walked to the student council office.

“—Yo.”

“Hello.”

Shirayuki’s greeting and mine were vastly different. This had basically become a staple when we met at the office.

“I see you’ve made a good recovery.”

“Yeah, I’m fine now,” I plopped my bag on top of the vice-president’s desk and sat down on my chair.

“Oh yeah, where’s Sakura?”

“She’s having her first meeting with the sports committee, so she’ll meet us halfway through the day.”

“She’s been working a lot lately,” Well, she is the class favorite.

After some light chit-chat, we finally began to get down to business.

“Today we’ll be checking out the supplemental budget applications that were submitted over spring break.”

“O~kay.”

The supplemental budget application is an application for extra expenses that are required due to some exceptional and extraordinary events that the main budget set last year can’t cover. To put it simply, it’s a way of asking for more money if they need it.

Let’s see… This one’s approved and this one’s not.

We put up a supplemental budget summary, affixing each request with either a seal of approval or disapproval.

Shortly, the office was filled with the mechanical sounds of flipping papers and the thumps of stamping. Shirayuki stops her hand for a moment.

“Z… Zee tee ex?” An unusually fluffy voice came out.

“What’s wrong?”

“This is an application from the Computer Research Club… Is this something about computer parts?”

“Let me take a look…”

“The ZTX 4090 will be on sale soon, so please increase our budget for it! It’ll cost ¥398,000 (TL: Approx. 3442 USD), including tax! (* Manufacturer’s suggested retail price).”

This won’t pass. The fact they sent this is amazing. This is just a frank fastball thrown at us… How loyal to their desires are they, huh?

“The ZTX 4090 is a new, state-of-the-art graphics card that just came out.”

“Graphics card?”

“Well, to put it simply, it’s a computer part. The graphics of today’s games are next-level, so if you don’t have a graphics card, the game’s graphics won’t be rendered properly, and you won’t be able to play.”

“I see, so this is about games… I’m afraid I can’t approve this one, then.”

After stamping her disapproval, she reached for the next application and froze.

“Won’t you give up?!”

It’s a copy of the previous request.

“…”

“…”

She tosses the copy into the trash in silence and reaches for the next paper.

It read, “Don’t throw me away like that!”

… Oi, don’t play with applications.

The next, and the next, and the next, and the next, and the next — More than 90% of the budget applications came from the Computer Research Club.

It seems the requestee is a fairly nasty club member.

“… Kuzuhara-kun, this is…”

“Aah… It’s best we go talk to them,” If we continue to ignore whoever sent these applications, they may take a more direct approach. It’s also best to extinguish any sparks before they turn into a fire.

Thus, Shirayuki and I headed to the Computer Research Club.

Reaching the place, we both confronted Rin Yuzuki, a third-year from class A.

She’s the head of the Computer Research Club?

Short black hair, and fairly short standing at about 155cm tall (TL: Approx. 5 feet). She was a beautiful girl brimming with confidence.

“Well, well… Why are the student council president and vice-president showing up together?” She folded her arms, inquiring us.

“We’d like to talk to you about the supplementary budget that was requested by the Computer Research Club.”

Shirayuki pulled a printed sheet of paper out of a clear file she brought.

“According to the application for the creation of the Computer Research Club, submitted to the student council three years ago, the main purpose of this club is to, and I quote, ‘Improve Internet literacy using PCs (Personal Computers), the development of programming skills, and the research of robotics engineering.’ Thus, we cannot approve of the purchase of expensive parts with the purpose of playing games. We reiterate by stating we won’t approve of the increase of said club’s budget.”

It was a well-put-together explanation.

Yuzuki-senpai, hearing this, cowered almost comically.

“Fuh… I see your point. I was also prepared for it because I knew the hard-headed student council would use these arguments, so let’s make a compromise.”

“A compromise?”

“Yes, please take a look at this,” she pointed at the LCD screen in front of us. On it, the game’s title and the number of firearms were displayed. “This is the popular game ‘All Players Eliminate’ also known as ‘APE’.”

“What’s up with this game…?”

“You still don’t get it, do you? You and I, Shirayuki-san, will play a 1v1! If you manage to win, I’ll back down silently and never spam applications again. However, if I win, our club will have its budget increased so we could buy the ZTX 4090 board! Let’s go all-out, the winner takes all, the loser loses all!”

Yuzuki-senpai said that while puffing her modest chest.

Oi, what’s the compromise here? Can someone bring me anyone that can understand basic Japanese?

Naturally, Shirayuki shakes her head softly. “Sorry, but we have to decline. We don’t need to play this game, since your club’s application is not suitable for the supplementary budget guidelines—”

“—Oh my, oh my~! The daughter of the prestigious Shirayuki conglomerate is fleeing with her tail in between her legs, huh~?”

“… What did you just say?”

This is bad. Very bad.

“Calm down, Shirayuki. Don’t get provoked,” I quickly tried to stop her, but it was far too late.

“The word ‘flee’ does not exist in the dictionary of the Shirayuki family. I’ll accept your match.”

“… Oh God…” I couldn’t help but slump my shoulders in disappointment.

Eye for an eye, huh. Seems Shirayuki’s competitive nature hasn’t changed one bit since elementary school.