Classroom of the Elite: Free Will

V5: Chapter 9 - Lunch Break

Tomori Nao POV

The show went on.

No matter the injuries or the absentees. They were simply disqualified, unable to earn any points. The rules were clear.

And so, the races succeeded one another under the same pattern that had been present since the beginning of the festival. The only differences were that the injured such as Matsuo, Kinoshita or Himeno didn't run.

In my race, I had gotten second place behind Kocho once again. The few points I was losing from my races against her should be somewhat important to decide the final ranking of our grade. Not because Class B got those few extra points but because Class A was losing them.

I don't have much to say regarding Karma and Mikoto's races. The first one got second place while the second one won by a landslide once again. She has had an annoyed face all day, but I suppose that had to do with the fact that she wasn't having any competition at all. Perhaps she expected to run against some of her friends from the track and field club or something like that.

As for Kiyotaka, he got second place once again. Because, unlike me or Karma who were holding back because of the point repartition, he couldn't help himself, he would just look around him as if he were taking a walk in the park to take notice of everyone's position. Despite competing against Koenji, he wasn't taking their competition seriously at all. After Kiyotaka's race, Koenji just left while gratifying him with a dissatisfied expression, visibly displeased with Kiyotaka's lack of seriousness.

Hmpf.

I knew Kiyotaka paid no mind to Koenji's glare, but it gave me some satisfaction. I got a little careless a while ago, and I was met with a glare. Well, not all white room students are capable of breaking Olympic or Japanese records. As far as I was aware, Kiyotaka, Tsukasa and Mikoto were the only ones that had broken some kind of record in sports.

In any case, after the 200-meter dash, there was a fifty-minute break.

Students could do whatever they wanted during lunch break and while some people ate lunch in the cafeteria as usual, others ate at a designated space on the field.

The festival offered more opportunities to eat together with upperclassmen regardless of gender. And I would take advantage of that opportunity to the fullest.

The best thing was the mountain of bento lunches that had been provided for the festival. The meals weren't made in the school cafeteria, but were high-quality catering brought in from outside campus. Only one type of lunch was free, so nearly everyone chose that option. Obviously, I wasn't among those. I bought the most expensive bento lunch there was.

I had to use the resources Karma had given me to carry out his plan after all.

Some students left the field without touching their lunch boxes, though. Among those, I noticed Ichinose and Kanzaki who followed Hoshinomiya-sensei out of the field.

I couldn't help but crack a smile. It feels good when things do go as you plan.

I picked up one of the abandoned lunch boxes and sat with Nagumo Miyabi and his friends who were eating calmly on the designated area.

Immediately, all conversations stopped, and everyone looked at me as if I shouldn't be here.

I tilted my head and looked at them in confusion as if I was unable to understand why they had stopped with their lively conversations.

"What is it, senpais? Is there something on my face?"

Nagumo, who was seated right next to me, was the first one to come out of his stupor and smile.