Sebastian's eyes narrowed at the sight of the principal standing right there, completely unguarded. A wicked impulse stirred, and he was very nearly prepared to extend a villainous hand toward the unsuspecting man.
Before he could do anything, however, Iori's voice came from behind him.
"Sebastian — why did you stop?"
Sebastian clicked his tongue in irritation at the sound and reluctantly pulled his hand back.
He had no real choice. With Iori and Imamura present, any scheme would be severely compromised. The sensible thing was to shelve the idea for now and revisit it later.
At that moment, the principal — who had been waiting at the classroom door for the students to file out so he could close up — noticed Sebastian and the others dawdling. He walked over with a warm smile.
"Is there something I can help you with, students?"
The kind old principal had no idea that the student standing in front of him had, moments ago, been seriously considering laying hands on him.
Sebastian looked at the principal's gentle, benevolent face and thought for a moment before speaking.
"Principal — if I wanted to graduate early, what would I need to do?"
"I beg your pardon?"
Not only did the principal freeze — Iori and the others behind Sebastian turned to stare at him in equal bewilderment.
"Are you serious? School hasn't even officially started and you're already thinking about graduating?" Iori poked Sebastian in the side.
"Stop talking, I'm asking the principal." Sebastian waved him off impatiently.
"Well... I appreciate the, ah, forward-thinking attitude, but our institution calculates credits by year level. Graduating early is not technically possible." The principal said with a pained smile.
"So as long as I complete all the required credits, I can graduate — is that right?"
Sebastian's eyes lit up.
"That's technically correct — students at other institutions have bypassed the usual credit limits using that approach. The issue is that here, certain credits aren't available until the fourth year...."
The principal smiled apologetically and continued:
"I would really encourage you not to aim too far ahead of yourself. Rather than rushing through, focusing on achieving top marks in each course will serve you far better. Life is best taken one step at a time."
"There's really no other way?" Sebastian still wasn't quite ready to let it go.
"Not at this institution, I'm afraid. You're young — you have plenty of time. There's no need to be in such a hurry."
The principal offered this reassurance with patient, repeated kindness, like a gentle elder from next door.
In that case, it seems this old man is going to need to be restrained after all.
Sebastian thought this — and then looked at the mild, kind face in front of him, and in all honesty felt his conscience put up a genuine resistance.
"....Fine. Perhaps another way will present itself."
Sebastian sighed and shelved the plan for the time being.
At that moment, Iori poked him in the side again.
Sebastian, who was already in a foul mood, found an excellent outlet. He wheeled around and snapped at Iori with all the venom he'd been sitting on:
"If you have something to say, say it — stop poking me."
"Sebastian — do you have some kind of terminal illness? Are you actually running out of time, and that's why you're in such a rush to graduate?"
Iori asked this with an expression of complete sincerity.
Imamura beside him had arranged his face into something genuinely sorrowful, as though he were mourning a dear friend he had known for all of one day.
Sebastian felt his airway constrict. He reached out to deliver a blow to Iori's midsection — and the principal stepped in, catching his arm with a look of alarm.
"Please wait — was what that student said true?"
Sebastian raised his fist and looked at the principal, then had a sudden thought.
"If it were true — could you issue my graduation certificate early?"
"That wouldn't be possible, no. Though I could personally fund a meal card for you."
"Are you serious right now?"
Sebastian stared at the principal — who had seemed perfectly refined up until moments ago — with an expression of pure disbelief.
Was this old man actually just a wolf in a cardigan?
"I'll pass on the meal card.... He was talking complete nonsense. I'll straighten him out in a moment and he won't be mouthing off like that again."
"Oh, that really is good news."
The principal seemed genuinely pleased to hear it. Though what he'd just said had given Sebastian a somewhat revised impression of him.
If it ever came to restraining this old man, Sebastian now felt he could manage it with a clean conscience.
"Nothing else, Principal — I'll take these two off your hands."
Sebastian collected Iori and Imamura with brisk efficiency, grabbed one with each hand, gave the principal a perfunctory wave, and prepared to leave.
"One moment, student — after all that, I still don't know your name."
"I'm Iori Kitahara. Or you can call me Kōhei Imamura, either works."
Sebastian said this with a completely straight face.
"Mmmph—!!"
Iori and Imamura, being dragged along the floor, eyes wide open in outrage, strained to sit up and protest — only to have Sebastian clamp his hands over both their mouths and continue hauling them away.
The silver-haired principal watched the retreating figures of the three of them and gave a slow, contemplative click of his tongue.
"Young people these days are truly impossible to understand.... But isn't that what youth is? I'm getting old~"
Reflection complete. The silver-haired principal chuckled warmly, closed the classroom door, and walked back to his office with his hands clasped behind his back.
After all — the equally headache-inducing Sado-sensei was still waiting there for him.
.....
As soon as they were outside the school gates, Sebastian checked that no one was around, decided he couldn't be bothered dragging the other two any further, and released them both — letting them drop freely to the ground.
"You two can make it up to me. Help me think of a way to graduate as fast as possible."
Thud.
Both landed ungracefully, then clambered to their feet and patted the dirt off themselves.
"You are genuinely uncivilized."
"Less talking, more thinking."
"Why are you in such a rush, anyway? These are the best years of your life — if you don't appreciate them now, you'll regret it forever."
Imamura, freshly liberated, looked at Sebastian with genuine puzzlement.
"I have my reasons. I'm just asking you two to think of something practical."
"Why not just get expelled? At least that's a way out of the school, isn't it?" Iori suggested, brushing himself off as he got up.
"I knew I wouldn't get anything useful out of you two."
Sebastian gave a dissatisfied grunt.
Not that he'd had any right to expect otherwise. If the principal himself didn't know of a way, it probably wasn't the sort of thing he should have been counting on these two to solve.
The sky was getting late. Sebastian checked the time, said a few perfunctory words of goodbye to Imamura, then grabbed Iori and the two of them set off one after the other toward Grand Blue.