An ideal personality?
Did that mean… she could become the very figure she had imagined countless times in her dreams?
Airi Sakura felt her breathing grow ragged, and she could even hear the pounding of her own heartbeat within her chest.
“Sakura-san?
Your face is so red—you really aren’t feeling well, are you?
Why don’t I take you to the infirmary after all?”
Of course, Axel End knew exactly why Airi Sakura was reacting this way—because she had seen something she desperately wanted in the Exchange Store.
And naturally, this too was the result of Axel End’s behind-the-scenes manipulation.
Whatever these beautiful girls lacked or craved, he would use the authority of the Main System to make the corresponding item appear in the most eye-catching spot of their Subsystem’s shop.
Prescribing exactly the right medicine for the ailment.
“N-no, it’s nothing!”
“I-it’s just that I got a little too, too excited… B-because you, you’re my very first friend, End-kun…”
Airi Sakura stammered out her explanation.
And she wasn’t lying, because Axel End truly was the first friend she had ever made in her life.
The most special friend, at that.
Because he had brought her hope.
[The Perfect Life System has been bound.]
[Host Airi Sakura, hello.
I am the AI assistant of the Perfect Life System.
If you have any questions, simply recite them silently in your mind.]
Though the cold, mechanical voice ringing in her head startled her, this time Airi Sakura did not stutter.
“Hello… May I ask, are the things in the System Shop real?”
[If the System makes it, it’s guaranteed to be top quality.]
Airi Sakura nodded in a daze, then a little anxiously pressed on—
“Um, may I ask, is End-kun connected to you?
Why did he approach me and start talking the moment this quest appeared?”
[Axel End is the Host’s Community of Fate in this life—the destined person with whom you are fated to be endlessly entangled.
Therefore, this System will issue quests to the Host centered around him.]
[However, Axel End has no connection to this System.
Everything he does is a spontaneous act arising from his own will.]
“Community of Fate… what a romantic way to put it.”
Airi Sakura had already developed a great deal of goodwill toward Axel End because of his attitude toward her, and combining the actual circumstances with the System’s explanation, she chose to believe it almost without a shred of doubt.
There was even a fleeting moment when she had already decided on the names of their future children.
Axel End took all of this in.
Just as a murderer habitually rushes back to the crime scene the moment the deed is done, he—the mastermind pulling the strings—likewise enjoyed playing the hidden observer, watching how these beautiful girls behaved after obtaining the System.
“The Idol Diva Plan should get underway too.”
“And the first step is showing off oneself.”
[Quest issued: Before 12 o’clock midnight tonight, send Axel End a selfie in the guise of Shizuku, and ask: “Which version of me does End-kun prefer?”]
Confirm.
Issue.
Axel End glanced at Airi Sakura’s little face, currently flushed as if she’d come down with a fever, then calmly settled in to wait for class.
…
…
Lunch break.
Axel End arrived at the cafeteria for the appointment right on time.
As expected, several Class B students were still following at Honami Ichinose’s side, and her face wore an impeccably sweet smile.
Truly worthy of being the Archangel.
I really want to call her “mommy”…
“End-kun, I get the feeling you’re thinking about something strange.”
“That’s right.
I was thinking about how adorable you are, Ichinose-san—you give off a vibe that makes people want to tease you.”
“Ehh?!”
A pure, innocent beauty born and raised in Tokyo had never heard the greasy, corny flirtations of the Celestial Empire, and was rendered utterly speechless on the spot.
Thankfully, the entourage of close friends came to the rescue.
“Ahem, ahem!
End-kun, you mustn’t deliberately tease our little Honami, okay?”
Mako Amikura hooked her arm through Honami Ichinose’s and gave it a gentle shake, speaking up on her friend’s behalf.
Axel End gave a polite yet slightly awkward smile.
He mused that friendships between girls really were a wondrous thing—in just a single day they could already reach such a level of closeness.
“Sorry, sorry~ I got a little carried away~”
“So, is there anything you all wanted to ask?
Honestly, I feel that document was written pretty clearly.”
It really was clear.
Clear to an unbelievable degree, even.
Everyone had enrolled on the very same day and should have been looking forward to the high school life about to begin—only to be told that this school was, in reality, breeding poison-worms in a jar.
“Thanks to you, End-kun, Hoshinomiya-sensei has already told us a great deal about the school.”
There was a trace of melancholy in Honami Ichinose’s smile; she was already fretting over the scheming and backstabbing of the next three years.
It wasn’t something she was good at, nor was it something she enjoyed.
“If this competitive game leaves us no other choice, I don’t want to become your enemy, End-kun.”
“So, before coming here, we already discussed it among ourselves—”
Honami Ichinose deliberately paused, her gaze locked onto Axel End’s face.
“We hope Class B and Class D can form a partnership… or more precisely, a partnership with you, End-kun, and that girl.”
Axel End clasped his hands together in front of him, lowering his head with a pensive expression.
He was rather curious.
He wondered what sort of expression Chie Hoshinomiya would make if she knew the student she thought most highly of was making such a “treasonous” decision.
I’ll relay it to Horikita on my end as well, but—”
A partnership was actually of little consequence, because rather than a fragile relationship that could be swayed by profit, Axel End preferred to trust in the influence of the System.
So at moments like this, he chose to issue a quest.
“You should all understand that the premise of cooperation is either equal strength between both sides, or that each can take what they need from the other…”
“So I can be responsible for providing intelligence, or even step in personally to help you—but what help can you all offer me in return, Ichinose-san?”
[Quest issued: Ask Axel End whether he has a girlfriend.]
[Quest reward: 100 Points.]
[Penalty upon failure: Kiss Axel End in front of everyone, as a show of sincerity toward the partnership—with something even greater to follow.]
“Private points.
If our guess isn’t wrong, you and that Horikita-san you mentioned intend to take the route of using private points to advance to Class A, don’t you, End-kun?”
Before Honami Ichinose could answer, Mako Amikura, one of the entourage, spoke up first instead.
Beside her, Ryuji Kanzaki nodded in agreement as well.
“That’s right, that is indeed our plan.”
Axel End admitted it openly and without reservation.
At this point it seemed he was ready to agree to the partnership, yet Axel End didn’t want his answer to sound so cheap.
“But if it’s about private points, I imagine Class A would also be quite happy to cooperate with me against Class B—so couldn’t I simply play both sides?”
“…”
The two Class B students fell silent in an instant.
In the end, only Ryuji Kanzaki managed to force out a single line: “The students of Class A won’t necessarily be as friendly as we are.”
Axel End merely smiled at that.
After learning the truth about the Advanced Nurturing High School, the students of Class A might indeed develop an arrogant, superior mindset—but the truly clever ones wouldn’t think that way.
Arisu Sakayanagi, for instance.
This character, crafted to be a sickly yet resourceful and cunning Bratty Little Girl, had surely already seen through the true nature of the System.
Perhaps at this very moment she was still agonizing over whether to throw herself into the game.
The path forward might lead to heaven or to hell, but what lay behind her, she surely knew all too well.
How would she choose?
So hard to guess (not being sarcastic).
“End-kun…”
At last, after a while of silence, Honami Ichinose spoke up.
A maiden’s blush is itself a whole passage of dialogue.
Beneath Axel End’s smile—one that seemed to carry a special hidden meaning—and under the gazes and expectations of her Class B classmates, she opened her mouth.
“End-kun, do you have a girlfriend?”
____
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🔥 New history: COTE: Counterattack System
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