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Although the living room was the best place for a study session, Yakishio Lemon was still angry, so she dragged Yuigahama Yui and Yanami Anna to the inner room.
Of course, the inner room, like the living room, had almost no furniture; even the low table had to be moved in from the living room.
"Asakura-kun, are you there?"
"Yuigahama, why aren't you studying with them? What are you doing here?"
Asakura looked at Yuigahama Yui, who was standing under the monitor, and asked in confusion.
"I just got a little tired of studying and came out for some fresh air. By the way, this was originally Asakura-kun's house, right? Why is it so empty inside, with nothing at all?"
The girl asked curiously.
"Because it wasn't needed, so it was all sold."
Asakura replied.
"Sold, sold? All of it?"
The girl was a bit dumbfounded.
"Yes, it was a bit difficult back then."
Half a year ago, when Asakura first arrived in this world, it was when 'Asakura Takuma' was at his most isolated and helpless—perhaps that's why he replaced him.
His parents had just died in a car accident. Although the inheritance was quite substantial, because his parents were identified as the main culprits in the multi-car pileup, most of the money in the account was ultimately used for compensation, leaving only this old detached house.
His only relatives weren't very fond of him either; the 3,000 yen monthly living allowance, less than a primary school student's pocket money, was the best proof of this.
Asakura, however, didn't feel any hatred or resentment about being mistreated. After all, apart from a subtle blood relation, he was practically a stranger to them. The original owner didn't even know he had such a relative when his parents were alive (and presumably, the relative didn't know Asakura Takuma existed either). He hadn't repaid them anything, so the fact that they sent 3,000 yen every month, come rain or shine, was already very benevolent of them.
However, it was extremely difficult to live in Chiba for a month on just 3,000 yen, so in the early days of transmigrating to this world, Asakura really struggled, studying hard while desperately working odd jobs that paid daily, and occasionally selling unused household items to second-hand shops. This was how he barely managed to keep himself fed and clothed.
It wasn't until the system miraculously produced a high-quality, perfectly sized piece of Phosphophyllite that Asakura successfully escaped poverty and accumulated a small fortune.
After that, he relied on the knowledge accumulated in his previous life to make small investments (occasionally getting scammed due to differences between his past life and this world). Coupled with the situation of 'one person fed, the whole family not hungry,' he currently doesn't have to worry about his household finances.
Now, the few remaining miscellaneous items in the house were locked in his utility room. Aside from large furniture like beds that couldn't be sold, most of the household items had already been sold by him—large furniture is considered large garbage, and not only can it not be casually sold, but you also have to pay to dispose of it. That's why in many animations, you can see unofficial garbage dumps made of furniture piled up in deep forests, because it's much cheaper to just dump them in the mountains than to pay for their disposal.
However, Asakura had no intention of complaining to the girl or using his tragic past to gain sympathy, so even though the girl had an expression of waiting for more, Asakura shamelessly cut off the story.
"Compared to such boring things, you should go back and study quickly, because as you just saw, to urge you all to study, I am willing to turn into a demon. You don't want to be publicly shamed like Yakishio-san, do you? Hehehe..."
"What kind of suspicious laugh is that?" Yuigahama Yui was amused, and after a moment, she suppressed her smile and looked at Asakura on the monitor, saying, "And Asakura-kun, you showed Lemon-chan that video not just to simply anger her, right?"
"Heh, heheh..."
Asakura tried hard to maintain his villainous smile.
"Even if you don't say it, Lemon-chan and the others will face this problem sooner or later... Rather than letting them indulge in immediate pleasure and ultimately regret wasting so much time before graduation, it's better to expose the reality while there's still time and then point out a practical path, giving them a clear direction to strive for."
Yuigahama Yui looked at Asakura and analyzed, "And to prevent them from taking it lightly, you deliberately acted like a villain to anger Lemon-chan, so that even she, who doesn't care much about the future, would listen to your words. It proves to be very effective; I've never seen Lemon so motivated..."
Although her motivation was mainly to get out quickly and punch Asakura a couple of times.
"You're not Yuigahama, who exactly are you?"
Asakura asked seriously, "The Yuigahama I know isn't that smart!"
"I'm actually quite good at reading the atmosphere, you know."
Yuigahama Yui complained coquettishly, "If you're going to do something like this, you could notify me in advance, and I could help out too."
Then she asked, feigning dissatisfaction, "In Asakura-kun's eyes, am I really that stupid?"
"Not really, probably about the same level as Yanami..."
"That's too much! I'm not that Hachi... that Anna!"
"I think you're more out of line for using Yanami's name as a substitute for 'baka.'"
The girl and Asakura on the screen looked at each other for a moment, then couldn't help but chuckle.
"Asakura-kun is indeed a kind-hearted person."
"That's not a compliment to me, and how can you tell? Factually speaking, I'm the big bad guy who's imprisoning you, you know?"
"Facts aside, when I called you here, didn't you immediately appear? That means Asakura-kun has been on standby monitoring all this time, doesn't it? In a sense, that's even more tedious than us studying in the room, right? But Asakura-kun didn't even complain once, and kept trying to act like a villain, so that we wouldn't feel guilty when being helped."
The girl sat on the steps of the entrance, hugging her knees, and looked up at the monitor with her small face. "So I'm actually very grateful to Asakura-kun..."
"It's just a study session, no need to make a big deal out of it."
The girl shook her head, "Not just this study session, but many things. Asakura-kun has helped me a lot, but when I think about it, I don't seem to have repaid Asakura-kun at all."
She looked around the empty room, remembering what Asakura had just said, and couldn't help but feel a little guilty, feeling that she had not shown enough concern for Asakura.
Yuigahama Yui looked up at the monitor again, this time saying seriously, "I want to help Asakura-kun, to the best of my ability."
Asakura was silent for a moment, then replied solemnly.
"Wait until you score 60 points first."
"Ugh... I, I'll try..."
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