A Deal with Sakayanagi

"Although this matter has been suppressed by the Chairman, if it were to be exploited by someone with ill intentions, it wouldn't just be you—the entire Class B would be implicated."

"Yes, I understand. I can assure you that no one knows." Except for Sakayanagi Arisu, Byakuya thought to himself as he bowed ninety degrees to apologize.

"Actually, you don't have to be so tense. I didn't call you here to talk about that," Hoshinomiya said slowly.

"Yes, I won't make... hm? Then... what is it about?" Byakuya couldn't help but feel a bit fearful, his mind racing to search for any misdeeds he might have committed.

"I want you to pay a little more attention to Ayanokoji Kiyotaka from Class D~. He might just be the Joker that Sae mentioned," Hoshinomiya said with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

So that was it. Byakuya let out a sigh of relief; he had been worried that his secret purchases of advanced off-campus products had been discovered.

"Understood, I will keep an eye on him." After giving a casual reply, Byakuya walked out of the counseling room and happened to run into Ichinose and the other Class B girls who were looking for Hoshinomiya.

"Byakuya-kun? Do you have business with Hoshinomiya-sensei?" Ichinose asked, looking somewhat surprised. She felt that with Byakuya's personality, he would surely be spending the entire day having fun all over the cruise ship, so why would he have business with a teacher?

"It was just about the special exam. We've finished talking, so if you have business, go ahead inside. Hoshinomiya-sensei is quite free right now," Byakuya replied.

"Actually, we girls were thinking of inviting Hoshinomiya-sensei to hang out with us. Would you like to join us, Byakuya-kun?" Ichinose invited with a smile.

"I think I'll pass..." Byakuya had just wanted to refuse—being the only man among a group of girls would be so awkward—but then he had a change of heart. It's all girls, and I'm the only guy; isn't that actually a good thing?

"Since you've invited me, then I suppose I will..."

"Byakuya-kun, so this is where you are!" Just as Byakuya was about to change his mind and agree, an abrupt voice rang out, and the words died on his lips.

Turning his head, he saw a person wearing a mask. The mask looked very similar to the one Byakuya had worn on the Uninhabited Island, though the material was different.

"You wouldn't happen to be... Hashimoto, would you?" Byakuya guessed.

"Ahaha... you caught me. Regarding that matter, the Princess wants to have a word with you~." Hashimoto laughed and took off his mask.

"If you have business, Byakuya-kun, we'll invite you another time." Ichinose glanced at Hashimoto and didn't say much, simply leading Amikura and the others into the counseling room.

"Wait..." Byakuya wanted to ask them to stay, but eventually gave up. He sighed, "Oh well, never mind."

"Let's go, Byakuya-kun." Hashimoto urged him, walking ahead first, before suddenly remembering something and adding, "Sorry, sorry, I forgot to tell you—it's that Chess Room from before. Why don't we add each other on our terminals? It'll be easier to stay in touch."

Hashimoto had been following Byakuya around quite often lately. He had already discovered that this "bro" who liked to act unpredictably possessed significant personal strength. With the power balance between the classes currently equal, he couldn't yet tell who would be the final winner.

Therefore, the current Hashimoto, in order to ensure his graduation from Class A, had decided to build good relationships with all the powerhouses across the four classes.

"Byakuya-kun, long time no see."

Walking into the Chess Room, Byakuya immediately spotted Sakayanagi practicing Dragon Country Chess by herself. She was sitting upright in her chair, and upon seeing Byakuya, she took her hands off the board, gripped her cane, and wore a smile.

"Yes... long time no see, Sakayanagi-san." Byakuya returned the smile and sat down opposite her.

"Hmph, you pervert are quite self-aware."

Byakuya followed the voice and looked over. Kamuro was sitting in the chair in the deepest corner, glaring at him sideways as she spoke.

"Why are you here too!?" Byakuya was surprised at first, then remembered, "Oh, I recall now. You seem to have become Sakayanagi's personal servant."

"What!? Say that again!" Kamuro's face flushed with anger. She stood up and wanted to rush over to punch Byakuya twice, but was blocked by Hashimoto.

"Let's not get involved in this, let's go, let's go," Hashimoto urged, leading the reluctant Kamuro out of the Chess Room.

"Byakuya-kun really trusts me, doesn't he? After agreeing to that condition of mine, aren't you afraid I'll make you lose everything? By the way, I did save the recording of that phone call."

After seeing the two leave, Sakayanagi got to the point, bringing up her agreement with Byakuya.

"No... no problem, you can have whatever you want." Deep down, Byakuya felt that he had been a bit too careless yesterday, but he still believed that with Sakayanagi's personality, her pride would prevent her from making any particularly excessive demands.

"Haha, I'm just teasing you. I actually want to cooperate with you in the next special exam. A strong alliance between Class A and Class B—what do you think?"

Byakuya fell into deep thought. He didn't want to get involved in the class rivalry. Although he knew the plot progression, he was well aware that since he was already a player in the game, there was no way to escape.

But before that, he wanted to stay out of things as much as possible. His student life in his previous life had been too exhausting; it was no exaggeration to call it a prison sentence. Now that he could enjoy a school life at Kouiku, he cherished it deeply.

"I will only provide assistance in the form of points, is that okay?"

Byakuya remembered that Sakayanagi had agreed to buy him things, but now it had turned into a collaboration between two classes. If he had to connect the two, he could only assume that Sakayanagi had her eyes on his wallet.

"Byakuya-kun is indeed a sensible person. Rest assured, Class B certainly won't suffer a loss, at least not before I clear out the mosquitoes in Class A." Sakayanagi was also a straightforward person. She felt that when talking to smart people, there was no need to spell everything out; it not only increased efficiency but also allowed for setting traps in certain words.

"For matters regarding the class, just go find Ichinose. I'd like to go rest now." As a hedonist living in the moment, Byakuya preferred as little trouble as possible. For some reason, his points had been increasing lately, and even with his lavish spending, he had managed to save seventeen million points so far.

"I'm only putting up the money; I won't be doing any of the other work." After fishing all day, he was quite tired and just wanted to relax in the hot springs while watching videos of beautiful girls.

"You said that yourself, don't go back on your word later." Sakayanagi revealed a meaningful smile.

"I won't..." Byakuya felt that Ichinose should be able to handle Sakayanagi, so he would just focus on having fun.

Anyway, Byakuya remembered that the upcoming exam was quite simple—the VIP Exam, where one only needed to arrange things in a certain order to know which person was the VIP. Wait... what was that order again?

Byakuya suddenly realized a serious problem: he seemed to have forgotten the sorting rules for the exam.

Whatever, I'll think about it slowly...

Returning to his dormitory on the cruise ship, Byakuya sprawled out lazily on his bed in a "big" shape.

"Today was so tiring..."

Between fishing all day and being semi-forced by Sakayanagi to provide funds, and with the special exam coming up, he hadn't even enjoyed the luxury of the cruise ship trip enough yet.

"Byakuya, what did you do today? We were all looking for you to hang out," Hamaguchi and the others asked as they returned to the dormitory, seeing Byakuya looking half-dead.

"I... I was just going to play Fishing Master," Ying said with a guilty conscience. Although he felt that telling the truth to a few good buddies wouldn't be a big deal, he had already promised Hoshinomiya-sensei to keep it a secret, so he decided to hide it from them.

"But how come I heard you were with Sakayanagi from Class A?" Hamaguchi squinted at Ying, sensing something fishy about the whole affair.

"Ye... yes, we were playing together." To think someone could see them during such a brief meeting. Even though Ying complained inwardly, he still went along with what Hamaguchi said.

At this moment, Beppu quietly leaned into Hamaguchi's ear and whispered, "Ying is definitely lying. Watanabe saw Ying and Sakayanagi in the Chess Room, and there aren't even any game consoles there."

"Are you two doing something shady!" Hamaguchi demanded. He had felt that his brother had been missing often since the end of the semester and was frequently hanging out with people from Class A; there had to be something going on!

"It's really nothing, just playing cards, chess, reading books, and playing games."

A lone man and a lone woman playing those things for an entire day? Hamaguchi didn't believe it for a second.

"Just tell us straight, what is your relationship? We won't tell anyone else." Hamaguchi sighed, and both Beppu and Shibata nodded in agreement.

Hamaguchi felt that it was possible Ying had found a partner but was keeping it from everyone. However, given Ying's personality, he always felt that Ying was the type to show off and flaunt his relationship everywhere.

"It's not what you guys think." Ying felt they must have misunderstood; he and Sakayanagi were not in that kind of relationship, and everyone began waiting for what he had to say next.

"We just have a cooperative business relationship."

"Ying, we really misjudged you."

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