The Reincarnation of a Commoner Couple - Episode 11

“Weren’t we supposed to keep things low-key?”

After a day at the races. We’re back at the same karaoke place as last week.

That was Azusa’s first comment after hearing how much we won today.

“This is low-key. It’s only a third of what we made last week.”

Today’s profit was around 12 million yen.

Split between the two of us, that’s about 6 million each.

I confirmed my remaining balance was 6.3 million. I raised my appearance by 1 point, leaving me with 5.8 million.

“Something’s different about you.”

“Right? Look. This is my face at 50. And this is my face at 58.”

It’s not like the change is dramatic.
How should I put it… my features just look more balanced now. Maybe my bone structure is shifting slightly.
Anyway, the point is: Azusa has become even cuter—and more beautiful. I couldn’t be happier.

“Keita, you’re looking pretty handsome yourself. As expected of my husband.”

“Heheh… You really think so?”

“Please don’t laugh like that.”

I’m sorry.

“Let’s stop increasing appearance at 60 for now.”

Azusa suggested that after thinking for a moment.

I wonder why? Is she satisfied with how we look at 60?
I mean, I’d love to see what 100 looks like now that we’re this far in.

“If we go past 60, we’ll stand out too much. You’re going to keep making money from horse racing, right? Even if you wear a disguise, it won’t be enough. Like I said before—since you’re planning to become a streamer, you’ve got to avoid scandals. If you get too handsome, you’ll start getting secretly photographed. Right now we’re still barely under the radar.”

Ahh, that makes sense.

If we end up drawing too much attention and can’t go to the racetrack anymore, we won’t be able to invest in our stat board. That’s something we definitely want to avoid.

“Let’s hold off until we get into high school and the stock stuff starts going well.”

“That’s a good plan.”

So, for now, we boost our appearance to 60.

That leaves us with 4.8 million.

Next, we bump our awkward academic score of 62 up to 70 in one go.

And just like that…

“Wow, my balance is exactly zero now.”

“At the middle school level, 70 is probably overkill. Depending on how your midterms go, you might be able to hold off on raising it more until high school.”

Which means that leaves physical ability and luck.

“Oh yeah, the sports festival is in June, isn’t it?”

“You’re right.”

I kind of want to raise my athletic stat and get showered with praise at the sports festival, but…

“Even at 40, your physical ability is already kind of insane.”

“It’s been hard to hold back during PE, hasn’t it?”

Yeah, I’ve already realized how ridiculous it is in gym class.

Even though boys and girls have different PE curriculums, during our first gym class after the time loop, we both slipped up.

I was hitting home-run-level softballs one after another and got aggressively scouted by the baseball club.
Azusa was dominating in volleyball.

Before the loop, we were just average at sports. Then suddenly, we were performing like completely different people. Of course people found it suspicious.

Since then, we’ve been doing our best to tone it down and aim for slightly above-average performance.

“So I guess we put physical ability on hold too.”

“Which leaves luck and skills.”

Luck is the hardest stat to actually feel working.

Right now, it’s sitting at 20, which is low—but it’s not causing any problems.

“But doesn’t it bother you seeing all the stats go up except for luck?”

“It really does.”

I mean, what if increasing luck is what helps us avoid getting caught doing illegal stuff? Or brings us good fortune?

Just thinking about that makes me want to boost it. And honestly, having one low stat on the board is just aesthetically annoying.

“Let’s bring physical ability and luck up to 50. Then we can start thinking about learning or upgrading skills.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Even though I’ve decided to become a streamer, I still haven’t figured out exactly what kind of content I want to make.

If I’m going to invest in skills, I need to start thinking seriously about that.

The tests are over.

I felt great about them, and with a 70 in academic ability, everything just clicked. Reading the textbook thoroughly made me feel like I couldn’t possibly mess up.

But if a guy who used to get average scores suddenly starts acing everything, people will definitely get suspicious.

So Azusa and I agreed that we’d intentionally make a few mistakes in subjects we’re not supposed to be good at.

Even so, we’re probably still going to score over 90.

“Having a better memory really helps. Even outside of schoolwork.”

“Yeah, and if I’m going to be streaming, dropping interesting trivia here and there might be useful. I should start picking up that kind of stuff too.”

I’m really looking forward to getting my test results back tomorrow.

I bet the teacher’s going to ask what happened, so I’ve already got a response prepared.

“Azusa and I decided to aim for the top public high school in the prefecture, so we’ve been studying hard since spring.”

Perfect honor-student answer.

Totally something a teacher would love to hear.
And it’s technically the truth, too.

The tests ended on Wednesday. We got the results back during Thursday and Friday’s classes.

All subjects came back with scores above 90.

I even got a perfect 100 in English.

“Tani. What the hell happened? You didn’t cheat, did you?”

As expected, my homeroom teacher asked.

I just gave him the line I’d rehearsed.

“I’ll prove it with similar scores on the finals.”

“Keita! You said you were the worst at this!”

That was my friend Masaru, who looked pretty upset.

Come to think of it, I did say that on my first day. Sorry, man. I invested.

“I studied like my life depended on it. Azusa and I decided on our target school.”

“Oh yeah? Where are you trying to go?”

“Chiba High School.”

“No way—that’s the top school in the prefecture!”

“That’s why we’re working so hard.”

“Damn… I don’t think I could do that. But good luck, man! I’m rooting for you!”

“Thanks.”

Yep. Masaru really is a good guy.

This was the perfect way to confirm how much of a difference high academic ability makes. I feel a lot more confident now.

I’m going to show my test results to Mom when I get home and tell her what school I’m aiming for.

There’ll be parent-teacher conferences later anyway, so it’s better to bring it up now.

“Keita! Let’s gooo!”

“Comin’! See ya, Masaru. Have a good weekend!”

“Later!”

Azusa apparently got around the same scores as I did.

Excellent. Operation Academic Brag Mode is officially underway!