At night in the dorm, Konoe finished washing up and changed into his pajamas. With a piece of candy in his mouth, he lay down and began sorting through and thinking about everything that had happened that day.
The Mind Palace was useful, but it took a great deal of energy.
He closed his eyes and first organized the questions he had. He needed to keep them concise.
He had told Ayanokoji the information, but would he help?
Telling Hirata the information had worked better than Konoe expected. Would the responsible Hirata manage to unite the class?
It was only natural for Sudo and Yamauchi to oppose him from their point of view. How could he silence their objections?
Most importantly, would he succeed in keeping his personal points? If he could do it all over again, how could he make things go smoothly from the start?
With these questions in mind, Konoe used the Mind Palace. As every detail of the scene took shape, he was able to observe the world from the perspective of an onlooker.
When he reached the Mind Palace's time limit, ten minutes later, all of Konoe's questions had been answered.
Ayanokoji wouldn't take action. From what he'd said earlier, perhaps he was the sort of person who disliked trouble. But he was getting close to Horikita, and she was probably the helper he was looking for. Konoe had seen her working with Ayanokoji in the gym before.
Hirata would probably keep trying to persuade their classmates. But since there was no solid evidence for the information, he wouldn't be able to unite the class. In other words, Class D would remain a disorganized mess.
Sudo and Yamauchi weren't opposing him because they thought it had nothing to do with them. Rather, the information had no reliable source, which gave people who were already lax in their daily lives even less motivation to act right away.
Luck... I understand what Ayanokoji meant. If I got another chance, I wouldn't rely on luck.
If he got another chance, he'd prepare evidence in advance to back up his suspicions. For example, he could accept Chabashira's deal or go straight to the upperclassmen to verify the information. He thought the upperclassmen had probably been ordered to keep quiet too, but perhaps he could bribe them with points.
Then he could find a few classmates who followed the rules in their everyday lives and have them publicly agree with Hirata, helping him win support. He could tell them that if the other students didn't follow the rules, they might lose their own points. They'd probably agree. Yukimura and Horikita would be good choices.
But people like Sudo and Yamauchi needed to be handled according to their individual concerns. That meant approaching them in advance and learning about their personalities.
As for keeping his personal points, that had basically failed.
Besides, it wasn't worth it anymore, Konoe thought. He had only hoped to keep next month's points while he was at it, but getting things to go smoothly would take far too much effort.
Konoe's conclusion was simple: if he got another chance, he wouldn't rely on luck. He'd just give up.
Over the next month, he'd cut his spending as much as possible and prepare for the next points distribution. He'd be satisfied as long as he got thirty or forty thousand points.
The day after Konoe decided to stop taking action, he went to Class A, hoping to sell the two pieces of information. A bald student turned him down, saying he wouldn't pay for information without any evidence. Konoe then went to Class B and, after a long negotiation with someone named Kanzaki Ryuji, finally managed to sell the information and earn sixty thousand points.
After learning that Konoe wouldn't be taking any further action for the time being, Ayanokoji nodded and said, "That's probably for the best." Then he left.
Hirata, just as Konoe had predicted, kept trying to take action. Unexpectedly, it seemed they were trying to verify the information with the second-years.
Although most of their classmates didn't agree with Hirata, they surprisingly reined themselves in quite a bit. At least they weren't acting with complete abandon anymore. A few students, however, still did whatever they pleased.
The week passed quickly, and the first Swimming Lesson arrived.
"Well, look who it is." Konoe joked when he saw that Yamauchi and Ike had already arrived in the classroom, greeting them at the same time. After what had happened earlier, he'd decided to start getting to know his classmates. Over the past week, he'd interacted with most of them.
"Man... I was so excited about today's class that I could barely sleep last night."
"Hahaha, this school is amazing! I can't believe we're having swimming lessons already in April. And when you think of swimming lessons, you think of girls! And when you think of girls, you think of school swimsuits!"
Only then did Konoe realize that the boys and girls would be taking the swimming lesson together. That meant he'd get to see all kinds of gorgeous girls in their school swimsuits... Once he understood, he got carried away too, and his heart beat a little faster.
Ayanokoji came over to Konoe and asked, "How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine! I've studied swimming carefully, so I'm feeling confident."
Ayanokoji nodded. "I'm only an average swimmer myself, but if anything happens to you, I'll figure something out."
"Hearing you say that makes me feel even more confident, Ayanokoji. But unless there's a snake or a shark in the water, nothing's going to happen during a swimming lesson. Don't worry." Konoe thanked him.
When Horikita walked into the classroom, Ayanokoji returned to his seat. Before long, the cold-faced Horikita started talking with him.
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