Published at 26th of March 2019 12:07 am

Volume 20, With Sports

The orders of priorities were decided based on many factors.

So, things were delayed because of those many factors.

"I say……"

"Don't say it."

Noticing the bad atmosphere that Leu was giving off, Samiraya quickly interrupted her.

"We can't do anything about it. Right, we can't do anything."

"How can we not do anything?"

But, she still couldn't completely defend against Leu's cold gaze and malice.

"Uuu."

"We've been busy with work recently."

"R……right right."

"And the person in charge doesn't look over the process either, and someone could smoothly participate even with some rough spots in their application information."

"Yeah, that's really scary!"

"Nn, truly scary."

Leu nodded her head with a straightforward expression. She had changed the target of her anger - thinking this, Samiraya relaxed her breath.

However, things obviously weren't like that.

"But-"

Leu's eyes flashed from behind her lowered glasses, and then she gripped Samiraya's head.

"Even so, what do you mean by lazing around until the manager of affairs ran over to ask me 'Is the President going to attend the athletic assessment soon?'?"

"Aauuu……"

The natural failure of her glossing-over tactics made the other students in the surroundings look over curiously.

(Uuu, don't look at me like that~)

Samiraya, who was being gripped by Leu, held her head in her hands.

It was the new semester when Samiraya had just become the Student Council President - and new students would be entering the campus these few weeks, and it was also an empty period without any big activities, other than the student-wide athletic assessment being held.

Of course, in the Academy City, 'student-wide' meant all of the residents, so it wasn't a simple activity that could be finished within a day.

So, the rules set forth by the person in charge of the athletic assessment this time were - regardless of what class or club you belonged to, you could register in the name of your society or register as an individual. During this activity, everyone could feely participate in the athletic assessment during the set times.

If everyone had to register individually, there would be many people skipping out on this activity. But, there weren't many people who were completely by their self and who didn't belong to any group. After all, the students of the Academy City would at the least belong to some department, grade, or class groups.

Today was the final day of the athletic assessment.

"This is a problem."

"Uuu."

Samiraya could only moan as Leu scolded her.

"I even believed that you would definitely participate with some group."

"Uh, I wanted to go, I did want to go."

"You were almost announced in the list of people who didn't participate. Do you realize that?"

"Auuu……"

"A leader like the Student Council President can't set a bad example, right?"

"Uu, sorry."

If the person in charge had done things by the book, Samiraya's name would definitely be listed on there.

"But that person noticed it in the end. Huh, maybe that means that I'm unexpectedly famous?"

"When you open your mouth to say the word 'unexpectedly', everything's already over."

"Yaah!"

Leu completely shattered Samiraya's resistance. Samiraya, changed into athletic clothing, listlessly sat on the bench in front of the lockers.

"Don't fall asleep there, hurry up and go."

"Leu, what about you?"

Leu was also in front of the lockers, but didn't seem to be changing clothes.

"I finished long ago. You see……"

"I- don't- wanna- go---"

Though these were words spoken from her heart, in front of Leu they were just empty cries.

"Weren't you the person who decided to have everyone do this kind of thing?"

"Auu!"

Those timely words were undeniable.

The athletic assessment's original goal was to raise the average athletic ability of the students. The focus of this activity wasn't to determine who was good at what event.

That was how things were, in terms of the goal of the athletic assessment.

However, for an individual, that wasn't the case.

"Agyaaa!"

Samiraya challenged the sit and reach while making strange sounds.

"……I see."

After the girl supervising the recording took the results, Leu said this with a cold voice, with her anger having completely disappeared:

"I probably could have guessed, but I never thought you would be this bad."

Her movements had stopped when her fingers had barely passed her knees.

"Shut up!"

"Nn, sorry. I was wrong."

"You should sympathize with the unathletic! You stabbed my heart!"

Samiraya shouted this, teary-eyed.

Correct, Samiraya wasn't very good at sports, even passing the level that could be described as 'not very good'.

"My body wasn't made to move."

"Does that kind of organism actually exist?"

"Yes, it's right here!"

"That kind of thing isn't anything to be proud of."

"Anyway, what use are things like assessments?"

"They're for setting the standards of the physical education classes."

"Something like the average isn't interesting at all to an individual. Even if I were told 'this is the average, so you also have to be like this', I still can't do things I can't do."

"Saying that is a bit unreasonable~"

"Things like sports should just be given to the Military Artists to do!"

Samiraya vented everything out as loud complaints. Because she wasn't very good at sports, she had been believed by many to be very 'slow' or 'useless', but actually that wasn't the case. Even if she wasn't good at sports, it didn't affect her personality.

Samiraya loudly delivered that argument.

"Well then."

However, Leu's voice was very cold after hearing that speech.

"What?"

"If you truly want to talk about things, who decided to hold this athletic assessment?"

"Auu."

"There were people who said, the assessment will be troublesome, it won't be much help for the physical education classes, so we should have no reason to force that kind of thing, but who was the person who had firmly opinionated that we should do it?"

"B……Because the person opposing it was Roderick…… You know too, that guy will oppose everything."

"Because he believes that it's his duty to raise the opposing opinion. But, Sami was the one who firmly wanted to do it."

"Guaah!"

"Isn't it a bit odd for a person to do that but be complaining left and right about everything now?"

"I don't even have the qualifications to be a person!?"

Leu mercilessly went on the offensive, making Samiraya crumble.

"In any case, you can't escape anymore, so do your best."

"Where are you going?"

"This activity will lend today, so I'm going to ask the workers whether they'll need help when it's time to clear things away. Other than that, I'll take the opportunity to compile other problems if there are any, and this way the next time it'll be easier to find a solution the next time we run into a similar problem."

"Leu's amazing."

"This is very normal."

"Leu, do you want to start being the President from now on?"

"I decline."

After expressing her refusal in a cold tone, Leu left.

"Uuu."

After being left alone here, Samiraya looked around the sports field. There were still many things she had to do - essentially, many things she had to show her ineptitude at.

As the Student Council President, she believed that the athletic assessment was something that had to be prepared, however……

"I want to cry."

As an individual, she really still didn't want to do this, Samiraya thought.

She felt that she had let out all of the groans in the world.

"Haah……"

Samiraya who had been unable to complete all of the tests before noon sighed as she sat on the grass field.

In her hand was the lunch and sports drink that Leu had bought.

But, she didn't have any appetite at all. Samiraya just continuously sighed while sipping the sports drink.

Students who were in their noon break were scattered around on the grass like Samiraya.

No one was as exhausted as Samiraya.

"Isn't it strange to be this tired after just doing the athletic assessment?"

Actually, no one said anything like that, but just thinking about those words made her mad.

But, there was some sort of feeling of partial emptiness.

"It's lonely when Leu's not here to nag……"

Leu really was busying herself talking to the workers.

"I feel like she's the most serious person."

No, Samiraya also felt that she was very serious, but she still felt that everyone in the Student Council rather depended on the all-encompassing strength of Leu.

"Ah, in the end I'm dependent on her too."

Samiraya didn't resent or envy Leu because of this.

She just wanted to become able.

Just as Samiraya was thinking about those matters, she noticed that someone was sitting down next to her.

"Nn?"

It was a girl.

She was very pretty.

"A first-year?"

"Yes, Student Council President."

Samiraya had only unconsciously spoken to herself, but that girl hadn't missed those words, and had made a reply.

"Oh, you know who I am?"

There were still many first-years who didn't know who the Student Council President was.

"Didn't the President make a greeting speech during the entrance ceremony?"

"Uh, nn, that's right."

Samiraya had fallen asleep during her own entrance ceremony, so she didn't remember who the Student Council President had been at the time.

She laughed dryly, and then looked at the girl.

"Did you come by yourself?"

"Yes."

"Really, you seem like someone who would be surrounded by many people."

"I looked into many things. Though I felt sorry for them, I still refused the solicitations of those people."

"Oh……?"

Samiraya didn't really understand. But, she was probably saying that she was very busy with many things after entering school.

That should be the case, but-

"Could you be not very good at sports?"

"No, I'm not bad."

"What."

Samiraya had been kind of expecting to meet a companion, but after hearing that answer, she let out a bored sigh.

"But, maybe. I only pushed it to the last day because I felt it was troublesome."

"Huh?"

"In order to attend the activity, there were some preliminary tasks that I had to carry out."

"Really?"

The way this girl spoke was a bit hard to understand, Samiraya casually thought.

"Meaning that you have an event you're not very good at, so you wanted to practice first?"

"No…………Nn, maybe. That's close to the truth. But rather than practice, it's preparation."

Samiraya didn't really understand the difference between the two, but since she had said so, that was probably how things were.

"Preparation, huh? I guess that's expected to deal with things you're not good at."

"I believed that there were reasons to take countermeasures."

"Yeah."

But in the end, what did preparation for an athletic assessment of the body's abilities mean?

Developing an exercise routine?

The thought 'so annoying' instantly emerged in Samiraya's mind, but that reaction also made her feel that she was truly useless in this aspect.

"Hey, do you have any way to overcome things that you're not good at?"

"Things you're not good at?"

"Nn."

Samiraya asked this naturally.

"It's not too good to stay bad at things you're not good at, so I think I should make some progress towards a certain level."

"In other words, the average."

"Nn."

"Does the Student Council President need something like an average?"

"Huh?"

"Average means you have no particular extraordinary abilities. If you want to deal with the affairs of the Student Council President, won't it be very troublesome to have no particular extraordinary abilities?"

"Nn, ah - that's true."

"Assuming the average is zero, suppose someone has negative one hundred in an event-"

"Nnnn?"

"If that person wants to reach the average position, he just needs to get a hundred in one event to raise his average to zero, or get a total of one hundred in other events, right?"

"Nn? Nn?"

The manner of speaking that this girl used was really hard to understand. Samiraya thought for a long while about the meaning of that speech.

"Uh, meaning that it's fine as long as there are other things I'm good at?"

"That's right, I believe that political experts have no need to be military experts as well."

"Hm."

After the short, strange manner of speaking came a commonplace encouragement.

But, it didn't feel bad.

"Yeah, I wanted to hear someone else say something like that. Nn, not bad."

She wanted Leu to encourage her with those words.

'Leu also has a weakness in that area.'

After thinking this, Samiraya's mood changed.

The noon break time was about to end.

"Thanks, uh……"

"I'm Vati, it was a pleasure to talk with you."

"Nn, then see you."

After parting, the two went their separate ways.

Samiraya still groaned again and again, but she no longer felt embarrassed like before the noon break. Also, after she stopped concerning herself with the people watching her, her body's movements ended up better than she expected.

"How's that!"

She showed off the assessment sheet in front of Leu, with a completely different mood from before the noon break.

"Uh, even if you ask me how it is……"

Leu, who had waited until the end, took the assessment sheet with a quite intrigued expression.

"I've grown!"

"R……Really?"

Leu showed an expression of being unable to keep up with Samiraya's momentum, and lowered her gaze to the assessment sheet.

Samiraya was full of self-confidence.

"……Can I tell the truth?"

"Nn!"

"Frankly, I feel this is terrible."

"Puah!"

"Your aggregate score is below average."

"Aaah!"

"And anyway, I don't know about Samiraya's previous assessments, so I don't know about whether you've grown."

"Guah!"

Leu's words were merciless.

Though her words were merciless, her tone had a considerate air, but that just strengthened the pain of her words stabbing Samiraya's heart.

"Uuu, but everyone said I worked very hard……"

If she thought calmly, she realized that Leu's words weren't wrong, so Samiraya couldn't say anything to deny them. Samiraya hung her head in disappointment.

"……Ah, but - the only meaning of these results is for records purposes."

"Leu?"

"You think you worked hard, right? Therefore, that's enough, right?"

Leu lightly placed her hand on Samiraya's head.

Leu showed a helpless smile. Samiraya really liked that smile of hers.

After seeing that expression, Samiraya's mood bettered itself in a flash.

"Come on, hurry up and change your clothes. There are still a lot of chores we have to deal with."

"Yaah!"

However, Leu was really still merciless.

Even if she said she was very tired, it was ineffective. Samiraya was towed back to the Student Council building without any further explanation.

Later, one assessment caught many people's attention.

There was a student who managed to get exactly average for all of the events.

However, the average was the average, and it wasn't unusual or compelling. After the workers discussed it a little amongst themselves, they forgot all about it.

No one knew whether that was her goal or not.

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