After professor Reed had declared class 3 the winners of the competitive exam, each class was teleported into their classrooms where their teachers said a few words to them about the exam. Professor Isaac had nothing but praise for his class, congratulating them on their victory and announcing that they now hold position of class 2, since the former class 2, now 3, had failed the exam first. Even though Yamato actually beat class 1, you can only rank up one class per competitive exam. Meaning there were no effective consequences for class 1, besides them now being one student short of course. The letter forged by Yamato arrived at professor Reeds office the next day, and was not questioned much due to Yamato's fitting narrative and the lack of evidence that would cause suspicion. And of course, since the exam finished early this time as well, they were given additional days off to rest. Yuki of course already claiming them as time Yamato had to spend with her. Though since she too was quite exhausted, but mainly because she was supervising Yamato's injuries recovering, they chose to stay inside for the first day and don't do anything special. As Yamato was relaxing on his bed, Yuki, who of course was sitting next to him without being invited to do so, nudged his cheek curiously.
"Master? Are you asleep?"
"No. Is something wrong?"
"Not at all. Everything is exquisite today!"
"I'm glad to hear that."
"Buuut, there is one thing…"
"Which is…?"
She laid down next to him and stared at the ceiling, even though the bed was not made for two people lying next to each other.
"You said we couldn't win the exam because it would make us suspicious. But now we won, and no one is suspicious!"
"The problem was-"
"-Pat my head while you explain it!"
"…"
He started patting her head, not seeing a point to refuse.
"…The problem was that the only official way to win was through the objective. And that was actually impossible for us after you killed him."
"Actually you killed him…"
"You don't get to put that on me… I had no choice, as you quite literally forced my hand… And don't ever manipulate me like that again. Don't think I didn't notice, I already told you back then we will talk about it thoroughly."
She tensed up at his words. Getting caught sucks.
"But we get to that later… Back to your question, it is different now because we won without using the objective. And since our winning condition was different, the circumstances changed too."
"Ah, because we won through the dueling rule!"
"Exactly."
"Where did you pick that up anyway? It wasn't in anything I read."
"I just skipped through some books at thre school's library, and there it was. I was unsure if it was actually official, and I only remembered it later when I thought about ways to turn the situation you drove us in around. We got lucky there, that's all."
"It's not about luck, Master! It's about love!"
"Come again…?"
"Love!"
"…One more time."
She jumped up and sat straight, explaining proudly.
"Because you loved me enough to care about me getting caught, you remember a tiny detail that saved me from a consequence of an action that I took because I love you too!"
"Truly, you have a dizzying perspective on this…"
"Thank you!"
He sighed, not knowing how to respond.
"Ah, and what about those writings we found, Master?"
"What about them?"
"Weren't they mysterious and interesting~?"
"I guess…"
He pulled out the piece of paper he had ripped out of Satoshi's notebook with the writing he had copied of the wall to look at them.
"Besides from what you translated there doesn't seem to be any information hidden in between the lines as far as I can tell… But I'm not fluent quite yet so I might be wrong."
"Fluent in…?"
"The language it is written in, obviously."
"Huh?! But I didn't teach you a word!"
"You translated this. So I was able to understand the basics of the language."
"…Of course you were… Amazing work, Master!"
"I don't think we should put too much meaning into the prophecy… But we can't forget about it either. We should go into the library tomorrow and look if we can find anything about the "Sage", "Seven Prohpets" and "Four Heirs of Justice"."
"Hmm… A library isn't my first choice when it comes to where we should have a date, but fine! As long as it's just us, I am fine with just being anywhere!"
"Then that's settled…"
"I just hope it's not one of those libraries where you have to be super quiet and everyone is super grumpy!"
"You were never in there even once?"
"Nope! I don't care about books that aren't related to my glorious master!"
"Ah… I don't think there are books related to me yet though."
"Then I will write one! Or better yet, you write one for me!"
"I don't think I will…"
"Fine! I will write it then! Too bad I'll already know the plot then… But I would have read it multiple times anyway!"
She bounced around on the bed a little as she got very excited and energetic all of the sudden.
"I have so many ideas, Master! It will be aboht your glorious adventures with your humble perfect and gorgeous wife that supports you throughout your journey to kill everything that tries to steal you away from me! And when it's just is and everyone else is dead we have many children and live happily ever after for all eternity and then we repopulate the universe!"
"…Now you told me the ending though."
"Gasp!"
"And many kids? What if they steal my attention away from you? I would have took you for the person that-"
"Double gasp! You're right!! No children unless you promise to neglect them and only ever talk to me and look at me and have any form of contact and communication with me!"
"Yeah, that's more of what I imagined your opinion on it to be…"
"She'd be a horrible mother… Unless I guess they wouldn't show any interest in me at all. Maybe that would help? That seems bad too though…"
Her eyes sharpened as if she had heard that. She suddenly grabbed his cheeks and squished them together.
"…Do I see cheating in your eyes… No~! I'm glad!"
"I'm tired… Do you mind?"
"We aren't even together… Though I guess it is a relationship of intimate nature…"
"Ah, of course, Master! I'm sorry for stressing you out. You should rest! I will make sure you sleep peacefully and safe! Leave it all to me!"
She let go of him and instead hugged his entire head into her chest where she patted it gently in an attempt to soothe him. But she just fell asleep not even a minute after that and Yamato turned around on his side to sleep too, careful not to wake her and have her notice him removing himself from her arms.
Suddenly, a knock on the door. Yuki didn't seem to be awake, but that doesn't have to mean anything with her, as Yamato had learned. He stepped off the bed and walked to the door. As he opened it, a girl was smiling at him. She was a little taller than Yuki, but still smaller than Yamato. Brown eyes and blonde hair, tied together in a stylish pony tail. Yamato did not know much about hairstyles, so he could only guess if it was difficult to make. She had her hands behind her back and looked content and energetic.
He had never seen her before, so what could she want? No, that was inaccurate. He remembered her from the enrollment ceremony. She was a class 1 student, but he had not met her in the competitive exam. Actually, there were three class 1 students that Yamato did not know their positions of during the entire exam… But regardless of that, what could she want with him?
"Hi, there. I'm Jessica~"
"…Nice to meet you. I'm-"
"Yamato! I know, you're the one who beat us in the exam!"
"Actually it was a lot of working together as a class and only like that could we-"
"Aw, don't be shy! Or are you just humble? Either way, cute!"
"Ah… Did you want something?"
"Yes! Bad news, actually… May I come inside?"
"Oh… You see, it's all a bit messy. I let myself go a little after the exam, haha."
"That's okay. I don't mind at all seeing your messy side!"
"Ah, well you said it earlier though. I'm kind of shy about it, so please excuse my refusal. We can go for a walk though, so we don't have to stand in the hallway."
"Aww, like a date? Sure!"
"…"
"Is she flirting with me…? The time with Yuki makes it hard to tell what is normal and what isn't…"
After Yamato had successfully avoided Jessica to enter and find Yuki, they sat down on a bench outside of the dorms.
"So, what was it that you wanted to talk about?"
Jessica suddenly gently grabbed Yamato's hand and squeezed it.
"Brace yourself, this may come as a shock to you… I understand you are friends with Yuki Hikari, a girl from your class?"
"Yes?"
"What's with her… I'm used to stuff like this from Yuki, but if strangers come up like that it's weird…"
Jessica looked up at him with empathetic eyes.
"During the competitive exam… We have reason to believe that Yuki killed Satoshi."
"What makes you come to that conclusion…"
"We saw it."
"You… Did?"
"We? Not just her then? That doesn't make sense… If she had, why is she telling me? I was there too. She should have seen me as well-… Unless she isn't talking about the cave… Yuki said she roughed him up all over the place before… I wouldn't be surprised if that did not go unnoticed, even if it seemed to somehow be the case for the teachers. It doesn't seem like they have actual monitoring abilities, otherwise they would have interfered… Unless they didn't mind, but that's unlikely I think. So she and at least one other person saw Yuki throw him around, which they may not have found that suspicious at the time… But with the letter, his drop out doesn't make sense if you saw him losing… I didn't make it for eyewitness, the whole narrative of leaving to find worthy opponents doesn't make sense if they saw him get beaten to a pulp… No wonder they are suspicious…"
Yamato had to think quickly about what to do. Killing her would solve nothing since she isn't the only witness. She does seem to have an interest in Yamato, which he may be able to use.
"We will be reporting this shortly too, I just wanted you to know before the rest, since it seems like you two are close. I don't want you to feel like you are alone now, when she is gone. Y'know, with Satoshi gone, there's a space for you in class 1… I'm sure your achievements in the competitive exam will be qualification enough for a class transfer. So, what do you say~?"
"She's asking me to choose between Yuki and her, and my class and hers. Though out of her point of view there is no way I would refuse…"