Ten minutes later, outside Dorm Room 1201.
"Hiyori Shiina" opened the door and, holding a screwdriver, struggled a bit to turn the screws, dismantling the tightly fitted lock components on the door.
Just then, Suzune Horikita happened to exit the elevator. After looking left and right, her eyes immediately fell upon the girl with conspicuous long blue hair, who was bent over, wrestling with the door lock.
As an aside, the Advanced Nurturing High School has four dormitory buildings in total, each with seventeen floors and ten rooms per floor. While this number of floors prevents male and female students from being on the same level, the unequal number of boys and girls in each class inevitably leads to classmates being on different floors.
This year's Class 1-D has a total of 22 female students, which naturally resulted in two "sacrifices." Suzune Horikita was one of them, and sharing her plight was another girl named Kei Karuizawa.
Returning to the matter at hand, seeing the girl busy by herself, Suzune Horikita hesitated for a moment before stepping forward for a closer look and asking, "What are you doing?"
"Changing the lock. Can't you tell?"
Symon finished removing the old lock and set it aside, then casually handed the screwdriver he was holding to her. "Hold this for me."
Suzune Horikita took it. "Why are you changing it yourself?"
Symon blurted out, "Because I'm poor."
"..."
Suzune Horikita clenched her fist. Looking at the slender, delicate "girl" who exuded an air of weakness, she fought back the urge to hit her.
Just from the points deducted from her and Ayanokōji last month, Hiyori Shiina had received a full 180,000. When it came to poverty, there was no way it could be her turn!
"Just kidding."
Symon unpacked the new lock and began installing it, taking back the screwdriver to finish the job. He asked casually, "Suppose the dorm room key cards had a set price—10,000 points each. Would you change your lock?"
Suzune Horikita was taken aback by this. She frowned and asked in a cold voice, "Other people's cards, too?"
Symon tilted his head in confusion. "What else?"
With a complex look in her eyes, Suzune Horikita tucked a strand of her dark hair behind her ear. "You're just telling me something like this?"
"I wouldn't go out of my way to hide such a trivial matter."
Saying this casually, Symon used the key to turn the lock twice. After confirming the job was done, he turned and teased, "Besides, I'm guessing you're definitely broke right now."
Suzune Horikita was left speechless, forced to admit this harsh reality. And it was foreseeable that—for a very long time to come—she probably wouldn't have the ability to pay for such a thing.
Seeing her fall silent, Symon finally asked, as if nonchalantly, "Haven't you considered asking Manabu Horikita for points?"
Suzune Horikita stubbornly lifted her head. "I wouldn't accept such a weak version of myself."
Symon was speechless. He complained to Hiyori in his mind, "It's over. This girl is completely stubborn. I was hoping to get Manabu Horikita to help pay off her debt. Looks like our path to debt collection will be long and arduous."
"As expected, Mr. Ghost's intentions aren't pure."
Hiyori chuckled lightly. After thinking for a moment, she whispered softly, "But we really should mention the issue with the key cards. Let's send an email to everyone later."
"Do as you please, but I suggest you limit the scope. Don't spread it too widely." Symon offered this advice after some thought.
To be honest, the moment he said that, he felt like he was cleaning up the school's mess. However, since male students couldn't get to the girls' floors anyway, and the doors had deadbolts, the problem wasn't actually that significant.
Seeing "her" not reply, Suzune Horikita didn't think much of it and said in a calm tone, "I have to go tutor the underachievers. I'll be taking my leave."
Symon was amused by this. He looked at Horikita as if seeing her for the first time and asked with a smile, "You actually have that kind of resolve? No plans to transfer classes anymore?"
During the previous deliberations, Suzune Horikita had been a complete loner, not even telling her classmates about the school's rules after she learned them. For her to be tutoring underachievers now was truly an eye-opener for Symon, and quite a surprise.
Suzune Horikita had just turned around when she heard his words. She paused, her tone calm as she said, "No. I will lead Class D to Class A. From then on, we will be rivals."
With that, Suzune Horikita didn't linger. She started walking toward the other end of the hallway, leaving Symon with only the sight of her dashing back, her long hair flowing.
"She's quite pretty, so why do I get the feeling she's a bit of an idiot..."
Muttering this, Symon paid no mind to her threatening words. He gathered the replaced smart lock and the room key, entered the room, locked the door, and took out his terminal. Turning on its light, he began searching the room for pinhole cameras.
After checking all the sensitive areas and finding nothing, Symon and Hiyori breathed a sigh of relief in unison—clearly, the school still had some sense and hadn't dared to pull any stunts like that.
After switching control of the body, Symon watched through Hiyori Shiina's eyes as she composed an email, selected some of the girls she was more familiar with, and sent it out as a group message. Afterward, she specifically sent a short message to Mio Ibuki:
『Hiyori Shiina: I'm very sorry, Ibuki-san. You were the first person I thought of, so I tried getting a key card for your room. I'll return it to you when you get back to the dorms.』
『Mio Ibuki: No need. You can keep it.』
『Hiyori Shiina: Does that mean you'd welcome a visit, Ibuki-san? I'll come over, you know. How about tonight?』
[User is typing...]
[User is typing...]
『Mio Ibuki: Fine』
Watching Ibuki type for so long only to squeeze out a single word, Symon couldn't help but tease, "I can feel her struggle even through the screen. Hiyori, could you stop bullying her?"
Hiyori Shiina blinked playfully. "I'm not bullying her at all~"
"..."
_____
🔥 New stories are out! 🔥
🪦 Save 25% on my P... page right now.
✅ Read 40 chapters ahead on all series.
✅ Get exclusive content and updates.
Help us hit our targets:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 free chapter for all
🚀 80 MEMBERS = +5 bonus chapters (all stories)!
👻 P - Walnutchan