She's Definitely Not an Old Flame

Then, the sound of flowing water could be heard.

A moment later, accompanied by a scraping sound, Ibuki Mio, who had a deadpan expression but was clearly back to life, poked Asakusa Toru's waist.

"... If you dare tell anyone, I'll kill you, and then I'll kill myself." She said these words, which were fierce but not particularly threatening.

Chapter 176 Not an Ex-Lover

Although there was a slight smell, although the soles were slightly dirty, although...

In any case, when the agreed-upon thirty minutes arrived, the elevator lights came back on and resumed operation.

Before long, the elevator, under external control, returned to the first floor.

"Are you alright?!" The staff member, whose expression had changed drastically, quickly inquired about her well-being.

An elevator malfunctioning and trapping students inside—it couldn't get any worse.

If something really goes wrong, the responsibility would be enormous.

"It's nothing, it's definitely nothing..." Asakusa Toru hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

Half an hour won't cause any problems. There's also lighting. Although the air conditioner broke down and the stuffiness made my clothes soaked, going back to the dorm and turning on the air conditioner made me feel much better.

But, if there's anything wrong, there is.

Yes, there's a slight issue with the cleanliness of this elevator.

"Whoosh--" Just as Asakusa Toru was replying, Ibuki Mio, who hesitated for a moment, quickly lifted her toes, passed by the staff member with swift steps, turned a corner, and rushed into the stairwell next to her.

She didn't have the face to stay here for even a second longer!

The thought of being questioned and asked to explain by the adults if she stopped, or being stared at with strange looks by others because of the puddle of water, made Ibuki Mio feel extremely uncomfortable.

If he tells anyone, I'll kill him. If he tells anyone, I'll kill him...

Repeating the same words to herself over and over, Ibuki Mio climbed the stairs back to her dormitory.

She ran so fast that the staff didn't even have time to react; they only saw water droplets flying up from the ground, refracted by the light, and her short, swaying blue hair.

"Classmate--" By the time she realized what was happening, Ibuki Mio had already disappeared.

"This, this..."

"Never mind it." Asakusa Toru, who remained where he was, shrugged. "Everyone has to go to the bathroom sometimes."

The rest is irrelevant.

Although the staff members' expressions and gazes towards Asakusa Toru were somewhat subtle when they saw the puddle of water next to them after entering the elevator, they quickly withdrew their subtle gazes upon seeing his calm and composed demeanor.

As the saying goes, as long as I'm not embarrassed, it's others who are embarrassed. Besides, he didn't even put the water in, so what's there for him to be embarrassed about?

After borrowing some cleaning tools to help Ibuki finish her unfinished cleaning work, Asakusa Toru took another elevator that, for some reason, was running smoothly without any problems back to his dormitory.

The controlled variable method involves two almost identical elevators, traveling at the same time and to the same destination, but with different passengers.

One was working properly, the other was malfunctioning.

It's not hard to guess what the root cause of the elevator malfunction is.

The elevator malfunction was just a minor incident, although Asakusa Toru really wanted to tell Ibuki Mio that if she couldn't open the emergency exit upstairs, she could ask him for help.

But she ran too fast, and he didn't have time to say anything. He also didn't have her contact information, so he had to give up the idea of reminding her afterward.

Shaking his head, Asakusa Toru pushed open the door and took out Voice Recorder.

The latest recorded sound of water, along with the latest recording copied from the Voice Recorder on Ibuki Mio's body, were displayed on the screen.

That's right, Asakusa Toru wasn't the only one keeping a recording session; Ibuki Mio herself was also recording.

It's easy to understand why Ryuen Kakeru decided to join the Voice Recorder arms race after being tricked by Sakayanagi Arisu with Voice Recorder.

Therefore, his trusted subordinates were required to be prepared with Voice Recorder to transcribe any potentially useful statements.

Including his own.

Therefore, Ibuki Mio specially searched for the Voice Recorder given to her by Asakusa Toru in a hidden corner.

After all, it's free; buying a new one would cost a lot of Private Points.

Thanks to Ibuki Mio, Asakusa Toru was able to easily understand the situation from the recordings of Ryuen Kakeru and the others' post-event debriefing.

"... I see."

Asakusa Toru traced the surface of the Voice Recorder's screen with his fingertips, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Instead of going after Red Hair, they went after Kito Hayato?"

That makes quite a bit of sense.

After all, if you want to climb up the ranks, the enemy you inevitably have to deal with is Sakayanagi Arisu's class.

Rather than bullying those good-for-nothings in Class D, it's more reasonable to test the waters with Class B.

But...

"Who told Dragon Boy that Little Princess has a chairman as her father?" Asakusa Toru frowned, deep in thought.

It was obvious that Sakayanagi Arisu herself wouldn't have gone to such lengths, otherwise Ryuen Kakeru wouldn't have been able to use this to threaten her.

Kushida Kikyo didn't need to reveal this and expose herself, Horikita Suzune... Horikita Suzune has nothing to do with Class C.

Surely it couldn't have been Ryuen Kakeru who deduced it himself, could it?

... It's not entirely impossible.

After all, Sakayanagi Narimori's name is not a secret.

Asakusa Toru wouldn't suspect that Ryuen Kakeru also had Diary. If Ryuen Kakeru really did have Diary, he would have come knocking on people's door to yell at them the day he made the information public, instead of still adhering to the peace treaty.

But speaking of other people...

Neither Ibuki Mio nor Shiina Hiyori showed any unusual behavior at the start of the school year; in fact, the entire Class C was quite quiet.

Never mind, it's irrelevant.

Now that he knows about this, Asakusa Toru naturally...

You should keep a diary.

I was initially thinking that if I didn't have much to write today, I'd just drift along, but looking back, I realize there's plenty to write about!

Diary, come here!

"Splash--"

The pages of the book fluttered and turned, making a noise that annoyed Sakayanagi Arisu.

"--So noisy!" Sakayanagi Arisu grabbed the Diary and threw it away.

She's not in the mood to properly read her diary right now.

She is very unhappy now.

Sakayanagi Arisu has been in a bad mood for several days in a row. Ever since she met with Ryuen Kakeru, who threatened her with his father's status as the chairman of the board and forced her to compromise and reconcile, she has been in a very bad mood.

"Damn Diary, idiot Diary, moron Diary." Before she knew it, Miss Sakayanagi Arisu had begun to learn to use profanity.

It wasn't that she abandoned her elegance as a young lady; rather, she only discovered how satisfying it was to swear after using it.

Diary deserve to be criticized.

It's one thing to write it in Diary, and another to let guys like Horikita Suzune see it, but how did it all end up being known by so many people through Ryuen Kakeru's mouth?!

Let's not even mention the students from Class C like Ibuki Mio, Yamada Albert, and Kaneda Satoru; they belong to other classes after all.

But how come they even know about their own pieces?!

Kamuro Masumi, Hashimoto Masayoshi, Kito Hayato.

Three of her top generals were present and heard about this. Among them, that Hashimoto Masayoshi even shamelessly came over and asked her to use her special privileges.

It couldn't be worse.

For several days in a row, Sakayanagi Arisu didn't want to see that awful Diary anymore.

Despite this ridiculous Reading Points system, and despite the fact that it can add points to enhance Skill.

But she just didn't want to see that tattered Diary.

She didn't need to open the Diary to know what the other person would write.

It's nothing more than self-mockery.

Just like when she found Wang Meiyu last time, that guy would definitely laugh mercilessly at her miscalculation.

Just thinking about the other person's ugly face made Sakayanagi Arisu reluctant to open her Diary.

"Waaah..."

Sakayanagi Arisu buried her head in the pillow and made a sound.

Regret, in short, deep regret.

Why couldn't I keep a poker face? Why couldn't I control my emotions?

Ryuen Kakeru may have said it, but as long as she pretends to be unaware and indifferent, probably no one will think anything of it and will just take it as Ryuen Kakeru's slander.

The more reactions there are, the more it confirms the authenticity of the event.

The most crucial point is that while the claim of Nepo Baby was a lie, the undeniable fact was that she was related to her father.

She simply couldn't refute that, and there was no way she would refute it.

This is what makes one feel most powerless.

Even though she was only facing a small-time thug like Ryuen Kakeru, and even though she had actually recorded enough evidence to reverse the situation through brilliant planning, she was still facing a serious case.

But they failed at the last step.

I hate this feeling.

Along with that, the culprit —the Diary— is also incredibly annoying.

"..."

The sound of turning pages stopped the moment she threw the Diary away; the dormitory was unusually quiet.

The brief silence allowed Sakayanagi Arisu to calm down a bit.

I haven't checked my diary for three days in a row.

Things shouldn't happen more than three times; even if it's late, he probably won't happen to be laughing at me today.

As long as you don't look at the diary entries from the previous few days, it's fine.

... How about we take a look today?

With this thought in mind, the Diary quietly reappeared in Sakayanagi Arisu's hand.

"Splash..."

The page was turned, and clear text appeared on it.

Thinking about it, today seems to be a good day.

June 18th sounds like a perfect day for raising prices first and then offering promotions.

I happened to miss sharing the good news from a couple of days ago, so I'll just vent a little today.

I was wondering why Dragon Boy was taking advantage of Class D's misfortune instead of causing trouble for Red Hair.

Unexpectedly, in the blink of an eye, he'd gotten himself into trouble with the Little Princess.

That's more like it. Beating Class D is nothing. If we get Class D down to 0 points again, they should just self-destruct and kill us all.

Actually, if anyone in Class D had a sharper brain and realized that the Class Points wouldn't continue to decrease after reaching zero, they should have used their brains to pull everyone down together.

Since skipping class won't result in any points being deducted, why not send the whole class to the other three classes to cause trouble and drag everyone down to the same starting line?

Everyone will get a zero! We'll all be eating coarse food and wild vegetables!