Vol 3 Chapter 54 (1/2)
5-3 The Curtain Closes
063 - ♣20
The special, three-day long festive at to an end And it was ti Ceremony
The phantonificently achieved his final objective and made the Classics Club lose its proofread manuscript The result was announced by the Wall Newspaper Club, while the details were spread via word oftaken down, the ”Juuh the final event of the Kah School Cultural Festival has ended, everyone realized the Cultural Festival too is co to an end
As the Closing Ceremony approaches, I walked towards Mayaka, dressed in a track suit I never did asked why she earing such a track suit for nearly the whole day today Coot a bruise on his eyebrow for correctly guessing soood as he is, and I was unable to ask her properly
Yet, as though coa Study Club, Mayaka waselse entirely,
”I don't believe this! How did hefire in? Did he threw matches? But we didn't find any”
She was like that for a while now Sheploy to sell our Hyouka anthologies, but we never thought ”Juumoji” would actually appear, so she was pretty shocked All I could do was casually shrug my shoulders to tell her I wouldn't know the answer to her question either After all, IMayaka look so worked up than dejected
We walked down the stairs to the first floor
”Hey, fukube,”
Someone called me, it was Tani-kun
Iof a loser As I really have lost, so it was not a hard expression to h it was not Tani-kun that I had lost to
”Hey, Tani-kun As you see, we got had You were at the Geology Rooht?”
”Of course,”
Yet, Tani-kun spoke with less confidence than before That's to be expected I went on to ask,
”So, Tani-kun, did you e to find out who 'Juumoji' was?”
Tani-kun's face scowled for an instance He probably felt a sense of humiliation Yet he quickly went back to his relaxed deraceful manner,
”Nope, I haven't,”
”I see,”
”Well, there were too little clues With so little information, one could never come to any conclusion no matter how much they would think about it,”
There were indeed too little clues
”Then, what about you? Did you figure out so?”
He s with serious eyes, I sn of relief,
”I see, I see Even you couldn't solve it And I had expected so of you,”
”Sorry to let you down”
”Don't worry about it Well, it was a fun Cultural Festival I'll have to repay you for the Cooking Club clue you gave me someday,”
Co like that, but it was quite soo
We waved at each other and walked our separate paths Mayaka then asked,
”Your friend?”
Hmm, I wonder?
”Not exactly a friend,”
”Then what?”
”Hmm, let's see, you could say he's just a classmate,”
I gave it soht,
”He's bad in Languages, I think,”
”So he flunked his tests often?”
”Not really How should I say it, it's the way he uses his words that's weird,”
Mayaka raised her eyebrows, indicating that I was saying soain I smiled and explained,
”He uses the word 'expect' a bit too lightly,”
” What's wrong with that? It's not like it's a taboo word,”
”Uh uh,”
I raised er and waved it two, three times,
”This is a really complex subject I'll explain to you once the Cultural Festival is over,”
”Um, fuku-chan,”
”One should not use the word 'expect' when one is confident of himself,”
I interrupted Mayaka before she could continue, which was kind of rare Mayaka shut her mouth and held back whatever it was she had wanted to say
Looking down the decorated corridor, I s, to the point of not knowing how to make a serious face
”Dictionaries usually have a preset definition for a word I myself am not really a person that quotes from dictionaries So, Mayaka, while I wouldn't kno a dictionary would define this word, but foryou say when you've given up,”
””
I really hoped she would have said so to myself,
”One only expects when one is depleted of tiland expects that every man will do his duty' to his men was because even Nelson himself wasn't so sure if he could defeat France One only expects when one has run out of all other options
”Tani-kun doesn't really expect anything fro out by hi people these days misuse their words, there should be a refore education You only use the word 'expect' in occasions like”
As expected of Mayaka Just when I thought she was , she spoke with her usual annoyed tone,
”Like how Oreki beat you in figuring so out?”
Bravo I clapped my hands,
” Wo'd you know? I didn't even tell anybody about it,”
”If it's fuku-chan, I could tell just by looking,”
Was I really the type to show stuff on my face?
Approaching the gy students froh Everyone either felt fully satisfied, or wanted to spend as much fun as they could in these three days Dwarfed by such laughter, we could hardly hear each other speak And so I pretended not to hear Mayaka's reply
” fuku-chan, did you want to beat Oreki that much?”
Yet I was unable to ignore that No, that's not it, that's not what I had intended, but
”Well, it's couys You wouldn't understand even if I explained it to you,”
Glancing sideways atany sound I ed to make out ”That's not true” by her lip movements It's just that Mayaka rarely makes such a quiet expression, and I've not seen her like that before
So in response, I cheerfully placed my hands behind my head and said,
”I should have realized from the start now that I think about it I was careless He's the sort that would finish things off neatly withoutany unnecessary movements for not even a moment,”
Mayaka tilted her head to signal she doesn't understand what I was saying Entering the connecting passagee got closer to the gy Cereh Students around us could hear, I spoke clearly After all, this was so as I was very sure of it,
”I can't come to any conclusions just based on my own database alone”
Mayaka smiled bitterly in response
064 - ♥15
In the end, Irisu-san was able to sell all 30 copies of Hyouka that I gave to her, that's 15 of the total aht ould be able to sell them off via this method, so I was at a lost at how to thank her
Handing s, Irisu-san said softly,
”If I could, I had wanted to sell them at the full price,”
”No, that's h,”
Those 30 copies were sold at a 50 yen discount, still 150 yen is worthIt's better to sell these 30 copies at a discount than discard them completely, after all
While I haven't heard the exact figures from Oreki-san, but I hear that he's sold quite a lot of copies in the Geology Roo anxious Cultural Festival After that yes, all that's left is to investigate the person known as ”Juu that can stop me
After giving my aard thanks, I was about to return when Irisu-san stopped me
”Yes?”
”Hmm I think I'd better say this to you now
It is rare for Irisu-san to be so hesitant with her words I wonder if it's soht and replied,
”Yes, what is it?”
She spoke as though carefully choosing her words,
”My advice I heard you using it on the school radio broadcast”
Oh, the school radio broadcast Anyone in school would have heard that broadcast Even though I knew that already, when being told of that fact, it still felt a little e
Still, it was thanks to Irisu-san that ht, I must thank her properly for this,
”It's thanks to Irisu-san that I was able to do this properly, I”
”It's about that,”
Irisu-san interrupted me with a forceful tone,
”I was too naive I never thought you would reenact what I had advised
”I knehat your intention hen you agreed to appear on that radio progra with you when you went, right? So I' to tell you clearly, you're not suited for this sort of thing”
””
Without realizing, I nodded gently
Once she began, Irisu-san showed no sign of stopping,