Book 14: Chapter 3: Travel Companion, Part 4
By the time we finished eating dinner, the sun had already set into the night. It was just around 8:00 PM, and we were all freely passing the time on our own. This ‘freedom’ came with limitations, however, as it wouldn’t exactly be a wise choice to go on a stroll through the surrounding forest in the dark like this. There were mosquitos upon mosquitos out there, so we were essentially forced to stay cooped up in our tents.
Given that, we naturally began conversing through the mesh fabric of our protective barriers.
Nanase, Ike, and I all had our tents set up in a row. Hondō’s tent was set up directly across from Nanase’s with Sudō’s right beside it.
“So Nanase-chan’s in Class D, huh? I never wouldda guessed.”
Hondō seemed pretty happy to be talking with a girl, seeing as he was the one asking Nanase the most questions out of all of us.
“No no. I’m really not a very capable person… Class D seems like an appropriate place for me.”
“Eh? No way. If anything, we’re the incapable ones here, ain’t that right guys?”
Hondō burst out in laughter alone, amused by his joke, but Sudō’s expression remained rigid. He was laying down on his back, staring at the roof of his tent without even trying to join in on the conversation. And while I couldn’t see what Ike was doing, he didn’t seem to be genuinely engaged with the conversation either since he wasn’t doing much more than passively comment on what was being said from time to time.
“The atmosphere feels down in the dumps. Kanji, Ken, what’s with you guys?”