The azure sea, but a lonely, fulfilled life.

Iori and Kohei were both defeated. They looked at each other and a connection began to form in their minds.

Iori: [What's wrong with this teacher? It's like she sees right through us!]

Kohei: [What terrifyingly keen insight! What should we do next?]

Iori: [I can only hope for Nojima or Fujiwara.]

"Uh-huh!"

A wailing sound came from the side. The two looked in the direction of the sound and saw Nojima's arm twitching, his voice barely audible.

"The cheat sheet was completely soaked with sweat."

Who told you to [WAN NAI] in this heat?

Everyone placed their last hope on Fujiwara, and feeling their trust, he laughed heartily, saying, "Let's leave the rest to him."

He opened his clothes, just about to take out the cheat sheet, when suddenly a gust of wind blew the paper out of his arms, which flew right in front of the proctor.

Wow, an unexpected bonus! The proctor caught the paper with lightning speed and calmly asked, "What's this?"

When Fujiwara asked the question, cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He looked at the crowd and saw that they, who had been hoping for each other, were all pointing at him, completely betraying him.

"What happened to the promise of mutual help?!"

Fujiwara, out.

What a bunch of idiots.

Hachiman, who had been silently observing all of this, shook his head. The teacher had proctored countless tests, and in his eyes, trying to slip through the cracks was harder than climbing to heaven.

"What's wrong? Is there a question you can't answer?"

Chisa's extremely faint voice appeared in his ear. He looked at the girl who was glancing in his direction. It seemed that she took his shaking his head as a problem.

"Fortunately, this exam wasn't too difficult."

He replied quietly, finding the feeling quite peculiar; he had actually had the experience of whispering to someone during an exam.

After Chisa hummed in agreement, she focused her attention on the questions at the back of the test paper. He turned around to continue working on the test paper, and at that moment, he saw Iori making a gesture with the back of his hand behind his back.

Unbeknownst to the proctor, Iori placed all her hopes on Hachiman. This was a test of friendship and loyalty. Hachiman! Catch me! This was the umpteenth time he had asked this question!

Iori: [What should I choose for the third multiple-choice question?]

Hachiman stared intently at him as he held up three fingers. That meant...ok? Huh—I never expected Iori to be so confident, to actually give him a no-questions-asked gesture during his free time while doing his homework.

You can't judge a book by its cover. He clearly prepared a lot of cheat sheets to cheat not long ago, but after being discovered, he felt it was no problem. It seems that not only he thought so, but even Iori thought this exam was very easy.

Thinking this, he gave a thumbs up.

Iori glanced at Kohei: [What's the answer?]

Kohei glanced back discreetly: [He gave a thumbs-up, indicating an A.]

Iori: [Okay, A!]

--split line--

The proctor circled the exam room several times. The students this time could only be described as a disaster. Apart from the two sitting in the back, the others barely got any questions right. What surprised him was that the two sitting in the middle had the same thought process and made the same mistakes.

Having confirmed that they had not cheated, he couldn't help but marvel at how these two were practically brothers from different fathers.

However, judging from this, most people will probably fail the course, which is a real headache.

After pondering for a moment, he returned to the podium and cleared his throat.

"In order for everyone to achieve their ideal scores, I will give you a few free bonus questions based on the content of the class. All you need to do is translate what I say into German."

Is it true? Iori looked at the podium. This would make things even more secure! To be honest, choosing A for all multiple-choice questions was making him a little nervous.

"So, the first question is about rheumatic heart disease."

Hachiman was taken aback upon hearing the question. Had they even studied this? Was this really a freebie? Were they just giving it away for free?

Not only him, but everyone else also showed pained expressions upon hearing this, as it was completely outside their knowledge.

"The second question is about a naked man holding a banana."

...It has a philosophical feel to it.

"The third question is about James Thomas."

This can only be translated into English!

……

Even with bonus questions, is this still the best they could do? After grading the last paper that only scored a few points, the proctor felt utterly exhausted.

"Everyone did very poorly on the test."

Iori stared at the test paper in his hand, which only had eleven points. How could this be? He clearly wrote it according to the answers Hachiman gave him! Could it be that he only got a little over ten points?

"Hachiman, what's your score?"

He quietly ran up to Hachiman and asked him questions.

"Here."

Hachiman generously handed over his own exam paper.

Staring at the bright red number seventy-six above, Iori nearly ground his teeth to powder. He grabbed Hachiman by the neck and shook him back and forth.

"You not only secretly studied, but you also deliberately passed on wrong answers! You despicable bastard!"

He gave the wrong answer? What's going on?

Slightly dizzy from the shaking, Hachiman saw three figures of Iori in front of him. He slapped Iori's hand away and braced himself against something nearby: "What are you talking about? I didn't give you any answers."

Iori didn't reply, but stared at him and something beside him with a look of horror.

Hachiman turned his head and saw that his hand was on Chisa, who was about to come over to stop the two of them. It was in a rather awkward position. If he moved just one more centimeter up, he could hold the ripe fruit in his palm.

As Hachiman watched Chisa's face gradually darken, he felt a sense of foreboding.

This is a life-or-death situation.

Chapter 74 Cosplaying Jesus

"I said, isn't this unnecessary?"

On the legendary back mountain of Izu University, Hachiman was tied to a wooden cross, looking down at Iori, who was adding firewood to his feet. His face showed not only the pain of failing the exam, but also the shock of what had just happened.

What shocked him wasn't the other person's sexual luck, but that Chisa didn't make any move after that situation. Could it be that they were really dating?

But that doesn't make sense. If they were really dating, why would he look so upset?

"You don't understand, Kitahara."

Kohei approached Iori with a can of gasoline and said, "Even girls in the throes of new love don't want their boyfriends to show their lecherous side in front of others; it's a very shameful thing."

"really?"

Having no experience in dating, Iori murmured a question to Kohei, a galgame expert, who smiled knowingly and nodded.

"Hey, Chisa and I aren't in that kind of relationship."

"Do you know him? Kitahara."

Hachiman's words were drowned out by the conversation between the two.

"If you take what I just said in reverse, then as long as the two of you are alone, you can do whatever you want."

His words were like the whispers of a demon; any sturdy shield would be pierced by such a sharp blade, and the four people listening nearby shed tears of envy, jealousy, and hatred.

"I'll light the fire," Yamamoto volunteered, raising his hand.

"Leave the cleaning to us after that." Mitarai and Fujiwara exchanged a smile, willing to take on this tiring task.

"As for the final cleanup, don't worry, I'll handle it properly." Nojima pushed up his glasses, his shrewdness shining through the reflection in them, giving everyone courage and confidence.

“So, what about us?” Iori asked.

"You've done enough."

Nojima patted him on the shoulder. The two of them had carried this sinner's body all the way here, and they had suffered enough.

Moreover, this criminal was originally their beloved friend and family member. They must have felt terrible witnessing the execution. As their new best friend, how could they possibly let them see such a cruel scene?

"To be honest, I'm a little confused." Iori looked down at her hands. "Is this really okay?"

Iori... I never expected you to care about him so much.

Hachiman watched Iori struggling with his dilemma, and in that instant, he was moved. He had always thought that they were just brothers in name only, and in reality, they were just close friends who would abandon him in times of crisis, just like he had abandoned them in the cafeteria before. But he never expected that Iori would still have that kind of humanity to go to great lengths for his brothers.

This makes his previous escape seem like he was nothing short of despicable! Iori! He's made up his mind! From now on, if there's another five liters of shochu, he definitely won't sneakily shove the bottle in your mouth when you're drunk!

At this moment, we are the best...

"I still haven't gotten the phone numbers of his cute female friends!!! That's a huge potential for matchmaking!"

"What?! A beautiful girl friend?!"

Everyone was shocked, while Hachiman's eyes lost their luster, like those of a decaying crow.

"So, he not only has a close relationship with Kotegawa, but also has a group of beautiful girls his age with whom he has close ties?" Yamamoto said in astonishment, his expression beginning to crumble, and he babbled like a toddler who had just learned to speak.

"Wait, isn't it a corpse monster?" Nojima asked, still retaining a sliver of reason.

“They are all beautiful girls on par with Chisa,” Iori said.

"What? What an enviable guy!" Mitarai exclaimed in disbelief. He was clearly good-looking, but why did he still only have one female friend, let alone a beautiful girl?

"It seems we'll have to endure some severe interrogation before the burning at the stake." Nojima smiled smugly, putting on white gloves and adopting a very professional demeanor.

Having witnessed all this darkness of humanity, Kohei sniffed. Where did that smell of barbecue come from?

A thick plume of smoke drifted past everyone's eyes. They shifted their gaze and saw that the firewood beneath the cross had already caught fire, and Hachiman, who was tied to the frame, was struggling to kick it with his legs.

"Holy crap, which guy actually ordered it?"

Seeing this, everyone rushed forward and stomped on the flames to extinguish them. Hachiman looked at Iori and the others with a face full of grief and indignation. This was really risking their lives.

"Put me down right now! Didn't you guys hear the thunder? A bolt of lightning just struck!"

Upon hearing this, everyone realized that the sky had changed at some point, with thick gray clouds gathering together and rumbling sounds coming from them from time to time.

"It's going to rain."

"The weather is not cooperating. In that case, Kitahara, let's move tonight's plans forward."

"Shouldn't it be canceled in this situation?"

Nojima shook his head. He had originally planned to let it go this time and wait for next time, but after hearing what Kohei had just said, he couldn't accept the thought that this bastard on the shelf might be all lovey-dovey with a beautiful girl after he went back. So he wanted to go and find out whether Hachiman had found a girlfriend or not.

"Nojima, why are you so persistent?"

Fujiwara, who accompanied him, didn't understand why he cared so much about Hikigaya. To be honest, he hadn't had much contact with Hikigaya and naturally didn't have much of a feeling about it.

"All things considered, how am I any worse in appearance than him?" Nojima asked calmly.

"He can become a handsome guy by doing some tinkering, but you're at most a moderately handsome guy."

After seeing Hachiman's sharp and cool appearance after putting on his glasses and straightening his clothes, Kohei commented that his image would be well-received even in an otome game.

Where is the sound?

"Your voices are almost coming from the same vocal cord."

Iori said that sometimes when Nojima spoke to him, he would mistakenly think it was Hachiman talking.

“We both wear glasses and have the same voice. I’m taller than him, but not as strong. Overall, we’re about even. But even so, why am I still all alone?”

Nojima asked them questions, and for a moment, no one knew how to answer. After hearing this, it seemed that he was indeed not bad.

"Therefore, I must find the gap between them."

As Hachiman listened to his passionate words, he scratched his cheek, wondering how he could tell the truth that he really didn't have a girlfriend and had always been single.

"My enthusiasm has been aroused too!"

Yamamoto had regained his senses by now, and he also wanted to know if Hachiman had run away behind their backs! As a close friend, he had every right to be concerned about Hachiman's private life!

"Yamamoto..."

Mitarai looked at them, a tear rolling down his cheek. What a sincere friendship! He longed for that kind of friendship too.