(T/L Note: This was already 70% completed in the reading thread on discord anyway, so I just finished it up and gave it an editing makeover.)
Approximately 50 minutes after the bus left the inn at 9 AM in the morning.
The bus stopped near Sapporo Station and we arrived at the destination that heralded our starting point for the day.
Sapporo Clock Tower was one of many famous attractions nearby that made this place suitable for sightseeing.
Once again, we were moving in our groups today, but there was one thing that was different to the previous two days.
There was a little test being imposed by the school. From within the 15 pre-designated locations, we needed to visit 6 of them in any order we liked before time was up (until 5 PM).
After arriving at the designated photo-taking spot at each site, we needed to take a commemoratory group photo with everyone included for the school to acknowledge that we’d visited the site. After which, we would repeat this process another five times.
This task cannot be cleared by groups that have all their members split up to go to different sites or groups with egocentric students who are unable to work together.
The only condition for failure is to visit less than 6 sites within the allocated timeframe. If that happens, the free activities time during the fourth day of the school trip will be confiscated and the students in the group will be forced to attend a study session in the inn until 4 PM.
In addition, each site has a points allocation and all students in groups which manage to secure at least 20 points with their 6 sites, will receive a reward of 30000 private points. However, this points value has no influence on the success or failure of the task, so it’s up to each group on whether or not they wish to aim for the rewards.
Furthermore, if the photo is blurry or the students in the photo cannot be identified, the photo won’t count. Leaving aside whether to aim for the rewards, if the students still want to have their free activities time tomorrow, they will need to approach this task seriously and cooperate with one another while sightseeing.
There are also no restrictions on the number of times public transport can be used, however, moving via taxis is forbidden. You needed to record the method you used to travel between each location.
Most of the students would have probably preferred to also be able to move freely on the third day of this school trip, but personally, I felt like it wasn’t bad to travel Hokkaido under the conditions applied by the school.
If we were only given free time to do whatever we wanted, the school trip would have ended with only skiing and visiting a limited number of sightseeing locations. There was a certain purity to the enjoyment obtained from compulsorily travelling and looking around Hokkaido.
A pamphlet was handed to each of us when we disembarked from the bus.
It was an original pamphlet made by the school which listed the spots which we could choose to visit.
Sapporo Clock Tower, Sapporo TV Tower and Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art were each worth one point. Nakajima Park and Hokkaido-Jingu shrine were worth 2 points. Sapporo City Maruyama Zoo, Hokkaido Museum and Sapporo Central Wholesale Market were worth 3 points. Moerenuma Park and Shiroi Koibito Park were worth 4 points. Mt Moiwa was worth 5 points. Sunpiazza Aquarium was worth 6 points. Jozankei Onsen was worth 7 points. And finally, Lake Shikotsu and Lake Utonai were worth 8 points. However, it was important to note that it wasn’t enough to simply get to the spot. For example, in the case of Sapporo City Maruyama Zoo, the condition to consider the sightseeing accomplished was to enter the zoo and take a photo with a polar bear or the polar bear enclosure as the background.
“This was a bit of a surprise. But it does feel like the kind of thing our school would make us do…”
Kushida was the one who called out to me as she got off the bus. For some reason, she was facing away from me.
“I’m here.”
“Ah, sorry. I had no idea.”
There’s no way that should’ve been true but… Well, I suppose she wasn’t even looking at me when she spoke those words.
Perhaps she’d also noticed the unnaturalness behind her actions, the person in question turned her head around and smiled.
“It’d hurt if an entire day gets ruined by a studying session because we didn’t take this seriously. The reason we were able to freely spend the whole day without restrictions yesterday was also probably in preparation for the sightseeing tour today.”
“Yep, you might be right.”
Now then, the problem here is what kind of choice our Group 6 will make. The sightseeing aspect was already explained before the school trip even started, but we’d only just heard on the bus about the slightly exam-like structure that posed risks to our free activities time as well as the private points reward. In other words, as of right now, the group’s policy still hadn’t been decided.
Groups that are aiming for the private points reward need to consider the possibility of failing to make it back in time, which naturally makes it the riskier choice. There were some groups that were still standing in place and talking amongst themselves, but most of the groups were already heading in the same direction.
“As expected, there’s a lot of groups heading towards Sapporo Clock Tower which is right before our eyes.”
There’s also the strategy of aiming for high scoring locations such as Lake Shikotsu or Lake Utonai but the risks are very high.
“Well, it’s more efficient to talk things out whilst walking.”
Just like Kushida said, the standard safe route to start things off would be to go from Sapporo Station to the Clock Tower, take a group photo at the designated location, before heading towards the TV Tower from Odori Park. Within a short period of time, you can visit two spots without spending any money.
However, at present, I’m not quite sure if that would be the best route if you were aiming for the goal of 20 points.
Afterwards, all eight of us from Group 6 finished our disembarking procedures.
“I just did a quick search using my map app, but even if we caught taxis, it’d still easily take several hours to go to six of the high scoring locations.”
Amikura’s calculations probably didn’t take into account the amount of time spent walking to the designated photo spots.
Even if we made full use of public transport, it’d probably be impossible to only visit high scoring spots within the allocated timeframe.
“Is anyone among us familiar with Hokkaido?”
Watanabe asked this question to those of us in Group 6, however, there weren’t any affirmative responses.
Just like with the other students, I didn’t have any knowledge of modes of transport around Hokkaido or any efficient methods. So unless I did some research, I won’t be able to guide them on the route that was most efficient.
“Hmm. I was thinking of using the map app to give me a route, but I don’t even know where anything is, so the order would become a mess.”
Amikura seems to have randomly entered the location names while tinkering around on her map app.
Since the spots are scattered in all directions from our current location, the first thing we’d need to do would be to understand the geographical positions of every spot. On top of that, there’s no guarantee of public transport being able to take us to any given spot, and there was nothing written in the pamphlet suggesting that the school hadn’t listed any nasty spots with a high degree of difficulty.
“Even if we can get private points, it’s only 30000. It isn’t called a sightseeing tour for nothing. Can’t we just forget about the bonus and focus on having fun?”
Watanabe’s proposal can also be considered one of the correct answers to this problem. The amount of fun we have will be reduced if we only rush around for the sake of accumulating 20 points. There won’t be enough time to savour the sights.
“So with that said, I’m in the faction that thinks it’s fine to not have to push ourselves.”
“I also think it’s a good idea to go to the places we want to visit. I wanna go to the zoo.”
As students who live in the school, there aren’t any opportunities to visit places like zoos or aquariums. It’s only natural for them to think that they don’t want to waste such a rare opportunity.
“Let’s listen to where everyone wants to go and come up with an itinerary.”
Amikura proposed a plan to ignore the points and focus on collecting the list of destinations that everyone wants to visit. Thus, including myself, six of us immediately agreed to leisurely visit the minimum number of destinations.
However, this was a matter that needed to be discussed amongst everyone in the group with total consensus.
The only people left were Kitou and Ryuuen who still hadn’t voiced their opinions.
“Kitou, how about you?”
Watanabe looked to confirm the opinion of Kitou who had been silent until now.
“I have no objections.”
When Kitou was asked, he returned a positive response, so for the time being, Watanabe and the others all breathed a sigh of relief. Now we had 7. The only one left was Ryuuen who still hadn’t given any response.
“Umm… Well…”
Watanabe seemed hesitant to ask, so I decided to ask Ryuuen for his response.
“Everyone here is in agreement. Can we treat your silence as consent?”
However, Ryuuen had declared to me that he was aiming to collect 800 million private points. His answer was obvious.
“We’re going to collect the points.”
It was a simple answer that opposed the opinion of the seven others in the group.
Of course, the method of approaching this sightseeing tour was up to individual preference. There would obviously be groups that prioritised visiting various locations to get the private points reward. However, in cases like this when opinions weren’t unified, further discussions were inevitable.
Watanabe looked terrified, so I took over the role of continuing the discussion.
“For the time being, can I listen to your reasons?”
“Isn’t that obvious? I’m doing it for the private points. I’m not thinking of it as just 30000 points.”
With two people from each class, the total number of points earned would be 60000.
Compared to his goal of 800 million points, it was a mere droplet in an ocean, however, it was true to say that it was still a step towards his goal.
“There’s no reason not to pick up the money you find on the street. All of you should shut up and follow my lead.”
On this sightseeing tour, although there were management-related risks such as running overtime or failing to collect enough points, there weren’t any demerits to choosing such a strategy.
If you followed the rules and accomplished the goals, you’ll be able to receive private points from the school.
In other words, there were only benefits of going with such a strategy.
It was a fact that you were only losing out by refusing to get the things that you could. However, in the face of Ryuen’s headstrong attitude which ignored the wills of 7 other people, it was obviously impossible for Kitou to remain silent.
“You want everyone else to follow your whims just for your own satisfaction?”
“Ah? You got a problem with that?”
“Your way of doing things is undemocratic. This should be the kind of thing that’s decided by majority vote.”
“Like I care. Since when did this group become a democracy?”
“For starters, I’m not satisfied with why you’re even obsessed with the money. I refuse to believe that’s actually your purpose.”
“Why else would I do something like this?”
I can no longer count how many times something like this has happened. Nobody can get between Ryuuen and Kitou when they confront each other.
“I reckon you just don’t like the fact that the group is unified, so you’re saying stuff to stir up shit.”
“I see. Who knows, that might be the case. It doesn’t feel bad to see your pissed-off expression.”
If we allow these two to continue the discussion by themselves, it instantly derails in a dangerous direction.
“A decent amount of points would also need to be spent in order to catch public transport. If you deduct that from the reward, you won’t even be left with 30000 private points per person. Are you still going to insist regardless?”
Right now, I don’t know exactly how much expenses would be incurred, but we would need to be prepared for a certain amount.
“Yeah, even with that being the case. Even if the reward fell to only around 20000, I have no intention of leaving it alone if I can get it.”
By the time we noticed, only our group was left in the area near the bus.
“Precious time is being wasted while we argue. Surely you understand that, right, Kitou?”
Ryuuen was urging us to hurry up and agree with him and start researching for the optimal route. He was applying pressure and intimidating us to do as he said.
Obviously, there was no way Kitou would become docile after such a remark which was like pouring oil onto fire.
“I refuse. If you’re going to stick to your policy of going for private points and ignoring the majority opinion, I refuse to cooperate with this sightseeing tour. In other words, let alone collecting private points, you won’t even be able to avoid losing your free activity time tomorrow.”
It seems like Kitou was planning on opposing Ryuuen to the bitter end and he announced that he wasn’t going to abide by Ryuuen’s wishes. He once again, strongly protested Ryuuen’s actions.
“Kuku, if this goes on, you’re the one who’s going to become the minority, Kitou. As time passes, these guys will have no choice but to follow my lead.”
He was asking whether Kitou planned on turning this into something akin to an endurance test at the starting point before they even managed to get anywhere.
The easiest way to move Ryuuen, who was refusing to move, was to unite the group’s opinions in the direction of aiming for the private points. To the six of us, aiming for 30000 private points wasn’t a bad idea and it wasn’t like there were only demerits to it.
Besides, if we were able to have our free time tomorrow, we can just go to the places we weren’t able to today.
If the other six people excluding Kitou decided to lean towards Ryuuen, that would turn into the majority opinion.
“Even if you force everyone else to follow your lead, I’m still going to refuse.”
In that case, Kitou would become the villain opposing the opinions of the other 7.
“If you’re going to go so far as to destroy the group, then I’m sure you have a good reason worth giving up on the money, right?”
“That’s right.”
As if to say he was already used to playing the role of the villain, Kitou didn’t show any indication of withering.
“C-Calm down, Kitou. As expected, going so far as to sacrifice our free time…”
Up until now, Watanabe had been a troubled spectator, but as expected, he no longer had any choice but to intervene.
“If you don’t want that to happen, then go persuade Ryuuen.”
“Ugh…”
Watanabe cradled his head as he worried over what to do.
“T-That’s right. Nishino, you’re his classmate so go and give Ryuuen a piece of your mind.”
“It’s easy to give him a piece of my mind, but there’s no way that would change his mind. I don’t like wasting my time on pointless endeavours.”
Having known Ryuuen for a long time now, Nishino was able to foresee the result if she tried such a thing. She was giving off a mood implying that we’d be better off giving up since there was nothing that could be done.
“…Hey, can I borrow you for a sec? …What do you think we should do about this situation?”
Kushida pulled my arm and brought me to a far enough distance away before whispering into my ear.
“I was thinking it’d be a good idea to go along with Ryuuen’s whims, but then Kitou decided to be like that. But even if we went along with Kitou, Ryuuen would refuse to move. They really are a selfish bunch.”
I could feel her dark side leaking out. She wasn’t even naming those two with honorifics anymore.
“It isn’t like there isn’t a solution to this.”
“Really?”
“I’m just a bit reluctant to recommend this method.”
“For the time being, can you tell me what it is?”
“The thing Ryuuen wants is private points. He thinks sightseeing is unnecessary. On the other hand, the 7 of us want to have fun and go to the places we want to visit. Kitou also shares this opinion.”
“Yep. We’re directly in conflict with each other.”
“In that case, everything is resolved if the seven of us pay Ryuuen what he wants. Kitou would surely refuse so I suppose it would only be the six of us. If each of us forks over 5000 private points to Ryuuen, there won’t be any problems.”
“Ah, I see. So there was a solution like that…”
“But we’re talking about Ryuuen here. He might not be satisfied with just the 30000 points for himself.”
I continued to whisper into Kushida’s ears and talked about the risks. Each class would receive 60000 private points if this group received the reward. In other words, at the very minimum, he’s also going to ask for the 30000 on behalf of his classmate Nishino. Even if Nishino didn’t want it, Ryuuen would demand it to keep it in his class’ pockets.
In this case, 5 people would be bearing the burden of 60000 private points. This would round out to be 12000 private points per person. There would obviously be resistance towards dishing out such a large sum of money just to have fun sightseeing.
“That’s… not cheap at all.”
In fact, this would make it so that the sightseeing tour which originally should’ve only had the possibility of profit, would suddenly cause us to incur losses. I doubt any of us would be able to enjoy the sightseeing after something like that.
And besides, it’d only set a bad precedent if the opinion of the majority were to give way to the tyranny of the minority.
“And in the worst case scenario, you also have to consider the risk of him demanding for us to hand over even more private points.”
“Huh? Who would demand something as ridiculous as that… Actually, if it’s him, I can totally see him doing it…”
“Yeah.”
“I understand what Ayanokouji-kun is getting at now. So that’s why you said you don’t recommend this method.”
“It’s best to unify the group’s opinions without resorting to any tricks.”
“But it seems difficult to have a civil discussion. Or rather, isn’t it impossible?”
It’s certainly hard to think that either of Ryuuen or Kitou will be easily persuadable. A stalemate is inevitable.
“That’s right! What if we just patiently waited? We’d have to really push ourselves to gather 20 points, right? If we waited 30 minutes or an hour, it’d become really difficult, right?”
A strategy of wasting time to limit the number of choices? But even a strategy like that entails a number of problems.
“Even if Ryuuen decided that there wasn’t enough time left, there’s no guarantee he’d spent the rest of the time compliantly visiting the spots we chose and having fun with us. The plan would end up failing. We would also lose our free time tomorrow.”
“Ahh… right. I can definitely see that happening.”
There aren’t many options available to us here. We have no choice but to bear some risks and try to unify the opinions of the group.
“I’d also prefer to not have to throw away this precious day. In order to move this in my desired direction, bearing with some pain is going to be necessary.”
“…What do you plan on doing?”
I’d come to a certain conclusion, but before broaching that, there was something important that needed to be brought up.
Even though it was to make it so our surroundings wouldn’t be able to hear our conversation, I’d spent far too long in a close proximity to Kushida.
The sight of Kushida and I secretively whispering to each other was standing out.
“You’re… dating Karuizawa, aren’t you?”
Watanabe lightly glared at me and voiced his opinion. Amikura also didn’t look very pleased.
“We’re holding a strategy conference. Isn’t that right, Kushida?”
“Of course. I’d just come to a conclusion with Ayanokouji-kun. Isn’t that right?”
And with that said, Kushida put a lot of distance inbetween us.
Her overreaction which felt like she wanted to move away from someone she didn’t like, didn’t feel great. However, it seems to have persuaded Watanabe and the others, so I have to say she made the right choice. I refreshed my thoughts and approached Kitou who was glaring at me as well as Ryuuen who was unreservedly looking at his phone. I then turned my back on the two of them and faced the other five.
“There’s something I’d once again like to reaffirm with the five people here excluding Ryuuen and Kitou. I’d like to collect your opinions again based on what you’re currently thinking. Do you want to prioritise sightseeing, or do you want to prioritise private points? Please raise your hand if your opinion has changed to the latter. Don’t bother reading the room and simply assert your opinion.”
Watanabe and the others watched each other’s reactions but nobody raised their hand. From their attitudes, it didn’t feel like anybody was lying. In other words, everyone was in agreement of prioritising sightseeing, and there was nobody in support of the policy of aiming for the reward.
“So what? It doesn’t matter what you say, I’m not changing my mind, Ayanokouji.”
I already knew that Ryuuen wouldn’t mind even if he didn’t have any allies to back him up.
“Sorry, but for now, I want to talk only with these five.”
I turned around once before focusing my attention back onto the five people in front of me.
“Now that the situation has come to this, I’ve come to the conclusion that the 8 of us won’t be able to come to a consensus and even discussing this would be a waste of time.”
“Then what do you propose we do? Are we going to go along with Ryuuen?”
As one of the people who wanted to go sightseeing, Nishino didn’t bother to conceal her dissatisfactions.
“Nope. I think individual opinions should be respected, but as long as we’re acting in a group, nobody gets more than 1/8th of the say. That’s something that mustn’t change. Kitou who’s opposing Ryuuen also only gets 1/8th of the say. Even if you exclude my opinion, the five people here hold 5/8ths of the say which is more than half.”
“Stop stating the obvious. Won’t we be in trouble if we don’t reach a consensus? Regardless of whether it’s 1 in 8 or 5 in 8, without everybody agreeing, we won’t be able to proceed.”
“That’s true. However, the ones who hold the authority to decide what to do about this situation is without a doubt, the five of you. If you can’t agree to Ryuuen’s methods and ideologies, there’s no need to go along. In other words, you can choose to abandon the policy of aiming for private points. You can even abandon the very idea of sightseeing right this instant and go wherever you like.”
“…Are you telling us to sacrifice our free time tomorrow?”
“Correct. Even if you choose to go along with Ryuuen’s plan here, there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to go where you want during the group’s free time tomorrow. If he says he’s not going to leave the inn, none of us would even be allowed to leave. On the other hand, today, all of you are free to do whatever you want.”
“But only until 5 PM, right?”
“That’s not quite right. You only have until 5 if you’re one of the groups partaking in the sightseeing tour with the mindset of securing your free time tomorrow. We only need to make it back to the inn by the 9 PM curfew and are free to do anything until then. On top of that, you can even act independently if you’d like to. You can even join the groups of your best friends. The school can’t stop you from doing that.”
Sacrificing the fourth day to turn the third day into one where nobody is able to restrain our freedom. This is an option that is only available for the five of them to choose.
“Ryuuen and Kitou aren’t the ones who choose what to do here. I’d like each of you to bear that in mind.”
“…I see.”
Without saying anything unnecessary, Kushida looked everyone here in the eyes and confirmed that they had all come to a single conclusion.
“Ryuuen-kun, we’ve decided that we’re not going to aim for the private points. We want to talk it out with everyone on where we want to go and have a fun-filled day. If you say you’re not going to go along with that, then we’re probably all going to split up and go our separate ways. After that, everything will just be as Ayanokouji-kun explained. All of us can have a fun studying session tomorrow.”
Nishino burst out into laughter whilst Amikura, Watanabe and even Yamamura nodded determinedly.
In response, the edges of Kitou’s lips slightly rose.
“That’s a good idea. Allow me to join you.”
Kitou, who had until now, been stubbornly objecting in retaliation to Ryuuen, decided to ally himself with the group of five.
With everyone having arrived at a decision, for the very first time, the ball was in Ryuuen’s hands.
Will he follow Kushida and the others and give up on obtaining the private points or will he choose to split up the group? Either way, he won’t be able to get the private points he wanted. On top of that, he’d even have to join us for a study session tomorrow.
“You did something unnecessary, Ayanokouji.”
He was voicing complaints, but it didn’t feel like he was actually all that dissatisfied. Although to the people around us, it probably only looked like he was putting on a show of bravado.
“Spare me from the fate of having to study on a school trip. I’ll follow your lead.”
I was wondering how long he’d resist for, but Ryuuen backed down. If he could earn private points by splitting the group up, I’m sure he would’ve done so without any hesitation, but as long as there wasn’t any profit to be had, he chose to avoid trouble.
After that, we followed the school’s instructions and visited various sites in the city and the highly coveted zoo, spending the day in a very traditional school trip-esque manner.
As a result, we weren’t able to gather 20 points, but everyone had a fulfilling day.
Trollcity Translations 