La Faust Academy Arc: 52 The Reveal and Confrontation

La Faust Academy Arc
52 The Reveal and Confrontation

Meru was pulled along by Yuuri, running down La Faust Academy’s hallway.

It was unclear if it was Yuuri’s fault or the fault of Meru in her dress, but the students’ eyes were all fixed on the duo.

Yuuri mowed down the men in black suits moving under Seiya or Shin’s instructions with his wooden sword.

However, Meru was surprised at the fact that Yuuri’s martial arts switch hadn’t been flipped despite him holding the wooden sword.

“This way.”

Yuuri brought Meru into the blind spot of a hallway with no students.

The men in black suits didn’t notice them and ran past.

Yuuri let out a small breath in relief.

“Aidou-kun.”
“Yes?”

Yuuri replied without looking at Meru.

“Your switch hasn’t been flipped, has it?”
“It seems like it’ll be flipped at any moment, but Kamishiro-kun told me to hold on until we rescued you, Kusuhara-san.”

Meru’s eyes widened at Yuuri’s response.
Listening to Fuuga, she thought that his switch always flipped when he held his wooden sword, but it seemed that he was ok as long as he kept a cool head.

Despite that, if it hadn’t been Hayate’s order, his switch would probably be flipped currently, but that was the incredible Hayate’s majesty.

“I guess I should say that you came faster than I expected. Did you properly gather everything? The photo evidence.”

Yuuri shrugged his shoulders at Meru’s question.

“Because there wasn’t enough communication with Rengetsu-kun, he came marching over on his own.”
“Ehh.”

Meru’s eyes narrowed in exasperation. However, her expression was a little happy.

“Well, the evidence might be insufficient, but we also saw that kind of scene, and that is enough.”

‘That scene’ referred to Seiya embracing Meru.

“Let’s leave the rest to Kamishiro-kun’s art of conversation.”
“Yeah.”

Meru stared at Yuuri’s profile.

“Hey, Aidou-kun.”
“What is it?”
“Why won’t you look over here?”

Yuuri flinched in response to Meru’s question.

Meru peered at Yuuri’s expression.
As she did, Yuuri turned his face away from Meru.

“Eh.”

Meru gave voice to that sound helplessly.
Yuuri sighed with his back still turned toward her.

“That, it isn’t like you, Kusuhara-san.”
“Huh? Ahh…this, huh.”

Meru said and looked at herself. She certainly was different from usual. No matter how you looked at her, she was a young lady.

“It doesn’t suit me after all, huh.”
“Not at all.”
“Uwah, so straightforward.”

Meru said, cackling.

“That’s not it…”

Yuuri took a sidelong glance at Meru and took a deep breath.
“You’re too beautiful…that honestly, I can’t see you as Kusuhara-san. You look like a different person in that, and that’s why it doesn’t suit you.”

In truth, Meru was currently so beautiful that one would even be suspicious of her nickname, ‘Miss Average.’

Yuuri’s bashful voice was incredibly quiet.
But Meru, being close by, heard it clearly.

“Um…”

Not expecting to hear something like that from Yuuri, Meru blushed just a little.

“…Thanks.”

When Meru smiled shyly, Yuuri sighed helplessly.

“Honestly, this person…”
“Eh?”
“It’s nothing.”

Yuuri said lightly, then grabbed Meru’s hand again and ran down the hallway.

 

 

 

 

In the special affairs room that Meru and Yuuri had left, Hayate and Seiya were squaring off against one another. The inside of the room that held just the two of them was tense.

“You have a wonderful split personality.”
“If yer gonna say that, I’ll say you, too.”

Keeping a five meter distance between them, neither one moved.

“Kusuhara Meru is mine. How’re ya sayin’ yer gonna take her back?”

Seiya looked at Hayate and snorted scornfully.

“Do ya think ye can rival my influence with just tha power of an elite academy’s student council president?”
“Of course. Or rather, I should say for you…making a move on a female student purely invited as a specially admitted student…it’s a scandal you want to avoid even more so as someone with influence.”
“Between you and me, who d’ya think society is gonna go along with?”
“I’m not foolish enough to succumb to your influence.”

Hayate’s words were not a joke.
However, there was no way Hayate could rival Seiya’s influence. Even knowing that, it felt like if it was Hayate, he could make it happen.

“But well, our excellent executive that you took over is prudent. She took proper measures.”

Hayate said and pulled photographs from the pocket of his pants.
Seiya looked at those pictures and froze.

“How…did ya take those?”
They showed the broken violen, the horse running wild, and the other various sufferings Meru had experienced in the academy.
And astonishingly, even the incident with Haruka and the teapot from just a short while ago was also there.

“Just the violin and horse weren’t enough proof, but thanks to this female student doing this kind of thing to Meru at the last moment, we got definitive evidence.”

Hayate smiled in satisfaction looking at Seiya’s puzzled expression.

“This was taken by Meru.”
“…What didja say?”

Hayate looked at the pictures and recalled the last conversation he’d exchanged with Meru a few days ago.

 

 

 

 

“I’m going to go to La Faust Academy.”

Listening to Meru’s words, Hayate smiled helplessly.

“Alright.”
“Eh?”

Meru let out a sound in disarray at the unexpected reaction.

“What?”
“Uh…um, I mean, it was too easy, I felt… No, well, it can’t be helped, but…”

Looking at Meru seemingly slightly flustered as she spoke, Hayate chuckled and smiled pleasantly.

“It’s not ‘easily’ or anything else, you have a plan, right?”

Hayate dropped his gaze.

“I’ll have you come back properly. Kotokura Seiya’s wish is fulfilled the moment you, Meru, become a specially admitted student. After that, when I go to take you back is up to me.”
“That kind of unreasonableness…”

Meru smiled with squinted eyes.

“Well, it’s a different story if you want to go to that academy from the bottom of your heart.”

Hayate said cheerfully. He was speaking from a place of understanding Meru’s words.

Meru called out, “Kamishiro-kun,” with a sigh mixed in.

“Kotokura-san has enough influence to overturn your reason.”
“…And, your plan is?”

He understood what Meru was trying to say and asked.
Meru said, “As expected,” with a smile.

“I’m sure that if I go to that academy, at least one person will investigate me sooner or later. It’s strange if some female student who suddenly appeared is at Kotokura-san’s side, right? As such, well, for the students who go to La Faust Academy, they’ll be able to figure out up to the point that I’m a commoner. And, when they know that I’m a commoner, they’ll surely bully me, right? As long as we have that proof, we can grasp the true face of La Faust Academy. If it goes well, we might also take hold of Kotokura-san’s weakness. Using that as bait, we’ll have him return me to Reiryuu Academy. Though this is what I’ll have you and the others do, Kamishiro-kun.”

Meru said and stuck her tongue out.

“I don’t mind, but how will you get the evidence?”
“I’ve already asked Laila-chan for that.”

Meru made a V sign.

“You said it, right? If I’m troubled, rely on you. So I tried to rely on you all a bit, but… Is it…ok like this?”

Meru smiled apologetically. Meru, who wasn’t sure how to rely on others, didn’t know how much it was ok to rely on someone.

Hayate looked at the uneasy Meru and chuckled, approaching her.

“No problem.”

He gently caressed Meru’s head.

“Thanks, Kamishiro-kun.”
“That’s my line.”

Hayate loosened his lips faintly.

“I’ll definitely go pick you up.”

 

 

 

 

Recalling the full conversation that day, Hayate smiled once again.

“Meru was wearing contacts two or three days after coming to this academy.”
“Contacts…?”
“Contacts that print out what you see if you blink twice in a row seem like something out of a movie. Meru requested that our excellent executive who has no superior when it comes to mechanics make them, and they were delivered to her via her younger brother. And every picture that Meru sent came to us, and those are all right here.”

Hayate thrust those pictures toward Seiya as he displayed them.

“If we have these pictures, we can tell the true face of La Faust. If that’s discovered, it’d be inconvenient even for you. If we exchange the photos Meru took, you’ll have to return Meru, right?”
“And if I say I won’ return her despite that?”
“Then…”

A dark, suspicious smile came to Hayate’s face.

“I’ll take her back by force and make sure you can’t meet her again. Even if I have to use means that will make Meru resent me.”

Seiya let out a laugh at Hayate’s words.

“Ye are, after all, tha worst man.”

Seiya didn’t refute Hayate’s words further beyond that.
That was the signal of completed negotiations.

But Hayate was a little unsatisfied.

“It looks like a success, but…we ultimately couldn’t get any proof of your true nature to keep you in check.”

Hayate said as though he was truly disappointed.
After thinking for a little while, Seiya smiled just a little bit.

“Naturally.”

After saying that, Seiya returned to his serious expression.

“It can’t be helped, so I’ll do as ya say this time. But that woman isn’t a simple woman ye can handle.”
“I know–”
“Ya don’t.”

Seiya’s voice drowning out Hayate’s was serious.If he made that expression, Hayate couldn’t say anything, either.

“She will eventually be mine. Until then, I’ll let her have fun in yer disorderly student council.”
“That’s a remarkably high and mighty manner of speaking.”
“Because I’m high and mighty.”

Seiya smiled fearlessly.
Glaring at him, Hayate dropped the pictures gently. And then without looking back, Hayate left the special affairs room.

 

 

 

 

A few minutes after Hayate left, Shin came in.

“Seiya. Didn’t you withdraw too easily?”
“You too, ya didn’t stop her from leavin’ and gave her a push. Ya complete idiot.”

Saying so, Seiya threw a cushion at Shin. Shin said, “Uwah, you found me out, huh,” and cackled.

“… That woman, even though she caught a number of my weaknesses, she didn’ send ‘em to tha executives.”

Seiya hung his head and spoke in a subdued manner.

Meru was always by Seiya’s side.
Not to mention the pictures Meru took of Haruka dumping the teapot on her, it would have been an easy thing for her to take a picture of the scene where he punished Haruka.

And that would give them what Hayate referred to as Seiya’s weakness.

Yet in the pictures Hayate showed, that wasn’t one of them, and Hayate himself said that they hadn’t caught his tail.

“Really, she’s a woman who can drive ya mad.”
“Maybe also because you didn’t reveal Kusuhara-chan’s identity to the executives?”

If Meru thought about how her identity could be revealed, she would have remained under Seiya.
But Seiya, too, didn’t do that.

“…Maybe. That’s simultaneously ‘cause I made a promise with her and ta give my thanks for coverin’ for me. Nevertheless…”

Seiya took out a picture of the old Meru–Toujou Meru–from the pocket of his slacks.

“I also thought it was good if I know a side of her that those guys don’.”

Seiya murmured, gazing at Meru’s picture.

“That’s true.”

Shin said and went to leave the special affairs room.

“Don’t make a face that’s so unlike you like that outside, ok?”

Leaving those words behind, Shin disappeared from the room.
Left alone, Seiya had a lonely expression.

Whatever was said, having seen Meru’s expression at the moment she knew Hayate and Yuuri had come to pick her up, Seiya couldn’t hold her back.

“This is my utmost tenderness, Meru.”

Although his expression still seemed lonely, he was a little more gentle than the him from several days ago, and he somehow seemed content.

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<TLN>

And with this very much longer chapter, we have just about reached the end of the arc. I remember how irritating it was to translate the beginning of this arc, and now I’m a little sad to see it go. Funny how that works! The next chapter will tie up the final ends.

1 chapter left in the La Faust Academy Arc!

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