Chapter 214

I regretted it twice.

That was a time when even love was something I dared not let arise.

Throughout her journey, whenever she felt frustrated, she secretly vowed to herself: Next time I experience this kind of feeling, I don't want to regret it!

"I'm sorry, Airi..."

Feeling an uncontrollable throbbing in his chest, Hasebe silently lowered his eyes, letting Aragaki Shun's actions become increasingly excessive, grabbing both of her hands and playing with them wantonly, his eyelashes casting a trembling shadow on his cheek.

It's rare to make such a compatible friend, and I have a strong desire to support Airi as adorable as a small animal.

If we can maintain the status quo and do nothing, perhaps that's not so bad.

So even if she regrets it again, even if her feelings are stronger than ever before, she has no intention of changing her mind.

But--

"I can only control myself, but I can't completely refuse him."

"That womanizer Xiaoshun, so greedy! She's already in Airi, why does she still bother me...?"

He sat down next to the girl without her noticing, Aragaki Shun slowly and deliberately ran his fingertips along the lines on the palms of her two hands, as if confirming something.

"Christmas is coming soon, Kaka, could you spare half a day for me?"

The boy slowly leaned closer, his warm breath brushing against her ear, making her feel a ticklish sensation.

In this blushing and heart-pounding atmosphere, Hasebe Haruka knew she had no choice but to refuse.

Without a doubt, Aragaki Shun absolutely met her high standards, and was even more unfathomable than she had imagined. If she missed him, she would definitely regret it for the rest of her life.

"... Why me? Even ignoring Airi, aren't Kikyo and Karuizawa more popular at school? And they would definitely accept your invitation."

During the Sports Festival, Aragaki Shun once carried Kushida Kikyo away in public during a Borrowing Race; and Karuizawa Kei became his spokesperson in Class D starting from the second month of the school year.

These two clearly have feelings for the boy, but it's really strange that they haven't started dating yet.

"Kushida's issue involves her privacy, so I can't talk to you about it. In short, our relationship is quite complicated."

Aragaki Shun shook his head. Of course, he wouldn't easily reveal other people's dark history, so he only gave a slight hint.

"As for Karuizawa Kei... while I could certainly give her whatever I wanted, the current distance is just right, and there's no need to take things further for now."

Miss Parasite's values have been corrupted too much by the scum who bullied her. As she continues to imitate the style of bullying the weak and fearing the strong, Karuizawa, who lacks a sense of security, may have even forgotten her original nature.

Normally, you should treat her like a sassy, unreasonable leader. So you can't be too nice to her, or she'll take everything for granted and keep sucking your blood.

If you really date her, it's inevitable that she'll become arrogant and spoiled. After all, according to a hot girl's mindset, good people will only be constantly taken advantage of, and she can do whatever she wants if she has the strongest backer.

From this perspective, Karuizawa is not suitable to be a girlfriend at all. Compared to tender and considerate gestures, she needs to be given strong commands and prove her worth by completing tasks in order to gain a sense of security.

That's right, it's purely a tool-like role.

This person has a tendency towards Stockholm syndrome. To win her over completely, you have to push her to the brink, leaving her with no other hope but you. Then save her one more time, and you can easily capture her heart.

Although Aragaki Shun considers himself not a good person, he is not that bad, and he doesn't have much need for this kind of tool, so for the time being, he maintains this host-parasite relationship.

"Okay then, let's go on a date on Christmas Day."

Seeing that Hasebe was still trying to change the subject, neither daring to agree nor refusing, Aragaki Shun's eyes sharpened, and he finalized everything directly.

The blue-haired girl pursed her lips, looking somewhat dazed and lost in thought, but in the end she just lowered her head with flushed cheeks, as if she wanted to bury her head in the heart of the plump man.

She knew nothing; it was all forced upon her by that womanizer, Xiao Shun.

While tutoring students and flirting with a busty girl, Aragaki Shun spent a pleasant time in the library. Back in his dorm, he finally received the message he had been waiting for.

"... So, you've already given the votes from both classes to Nagumo, and then obtained a contract from him?"

The person he was talking to was the leader of the former Class C and Class D in the second year, who had barely reached an agreement with Nagumo just half an hour earlier.

If that arrogant Yellow-haired Senior were to see this, his eyes would probably pop out of his head!

"That's perfect! It's getting cold, so let's have our respected senior, Nagumo, withdraw from school!"

291. Miyabi Nagumo, arrested in public; the sensational Advanced Nurturing

On December 10th, the rules for the Student Council election were announced, and the two candidates began campaigning.

On December 11th, Miyabi Nagumo used points and contracts to obtain more than half of the votes from the other seven classes;

On December 12th, Nagumo Class held a celebration banquet. With 242 votes to 193, the advantage was in our hands, and the position of Student Council President was already in our grasp.

On December 13th, Miyabi Nagumo was arrested by the school authorities right after finishing breakfast, marking the largest economic crime incident in the history of the Advanced Nurturing High School...

"They've actually cut off our supply lines from the root! What a brilliant move!"

In the classroom of Class 1-B, Katsuragi Kohei, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, Ryuen Kakeru, and others looked at the discussion posts that were spreading widely on the School Forum with serious expressions.

The post is titled: [Seventy million Private Points vanished into thin air; how will Vice President Nagumo fulfill his promise?]

Below the prominent text, the poster also uploaded a video recording a major news event that had shocked the entire school just half an hour earlier— Miyabi Nagumo was arrested by school staff.

The video was filmed outside the cafeteria, suggesting that the person behind it deliberately chose a crowded location and time, resulting in too many people witnessing Nagumo's arrest, making it impossible to keep a low profile.

After the video finished playing, continue reading, and the poster of the discussion thread begins to recount the ins and outs of the incident—

[Original Poster]: "Everyone is probably wondering, like me, what exactly happened this morning, and why Vice President Nagumo was openly arrested, right?"

[Original Poster]: "I have firsthand information to share with everyone. This time, Nagumo has really fallen from grace. He squandered all 70 million Private Points accumulated by all the second-year students, leaving not a single penny. As a result, he was reported by more than 100 second-year students at the same time. I don't believe that such a fraudster can continue to stay in Advanced Nurturing."

[Original Poster]: "By the way, I'm a student in Class 2-A, but I used to be in Class 2-C. Every month, apart from a very small allowance, I had to hand over all my Private Points to Nagumo. I was hoping to transfer to Class A before graduation, but that son of a bitch secretly spent all the money we had saved up!"

It's obvious that the person who posted this discussion thread was extremely agitated, directly launching into a tirade on the School Forum, seemingly without any concern about their account being exposed and prompting Miyabi Nagumo to settle scores afterward.

I don't know if he really had been holding it in for too long and finally exploded, or if he simply felt that the other person wouldn't be able to get through this ordeal.

"Seventy million Private Points —if that number is true, it's terrifying."

Katsuragi Kohei took a deep breath; it was truly unexpected that things had escalated to this extent.

It can only be said that the mastermind behind the scenes had no intention of letting Miyabi Nagumo stay in the Advanced Nurturing. When they did make a move, it was a sure kill.

"At the beginning of the semester, some students in the class asked Mashima what the highest number of points a student had accumulated based on their individual abilities since the school opened."

"The teacher's response was that three years ago, a student from Class B who was about to graduate had painstakingly saved up about 12 million Private Points, which became quite a sensational topic at the time."

"Then he was expelled before graduation!" Ryuen Kakeru sneered, continuing Katsuragi's line of thought, "The reason for his expulsion was—that audacious guy committed a large-scale fraud to accumulate Private Points."

However, from Ryuen's perspective, in this school, it's nothing to commit fraud, let alone use more insidious violent methods; the key is to avoid being discovered.

That legendary senior was a complete waste.

The idea of collecting Twenty Million Personal Points by deceiving newly enrolled and uninformed first-year students is indeed ingenious, but how exactly did he manage to end up being forcibly expelled?

In the past, Miyabi Nagumo would occasionally interfere with the Third Year exams, and nothing ever happened to her.

This shows that the school does not actually strictly restrict interaction between different grades.

"Rule-breaking acts can only be carried out in secret; once exposed, the school must punish them severely."

As she watched the number of replies in the discussion thread increase, Ayanokoji made a comment without any expression.

According to several class instructors, even if previous students committed criminal acts, the maximum they could accumulate was only 12 million Private Points.

In fact, Miyabi Nagumo had far more money at the beginning of the last semester than that... The question is, why didn't the homeroom teachers mention this second-year representative, who is quite well-known throughout the entire Advanced Nurturing?

It's a very simple logic. The school most likely doesn't consider those deposits to be Miyabi Nagumo's private property, because they were originally the transfer fees jointly raised by the four classes in the second year, and Nagumo just kept them safe on a regular basis.

Similarly, Manabu Horikita has spent 20 million yen more than once to protect his classmates, but these Private Points belong to Class A of the Third Year as a whole. Looking at him alone, he still hasn't broken the fraudster's record of 12 million yen.

However, if Nagumo were to actually embezzle all 70 million for personal reasons, he would undoubtedly face expulsion.

The key question is how the Advanced Nurturing will determine the ownership of this money.

Meanwhile, discussions on the School Forum also drew widespread attention from faculty and students across the university.

--[Third Floor]: "Is it really seventy million? If I can't graduate from Class A, I feel like I'll never be able to save that much money in my entire life."

--[Fourth Floor]: "Not only, in fact, there will be more than you imagine."

"We just went to the Third Year and Class 1-B to discuss it. For this Student Council election, Nagumo emptied everyone's savings in the class and squeezed out another ten million, so the total should be eighty million."

"Even if 25 million of them were donated voluntarily by his classmates, the other three classes combined would still have at least 55 million Private Points."

I wonder which incredibly talented student is on the Fourth Floor. After stating his conclusion, this person created a table below, which meticulously recorded Miyabi Nagumo's past major expenses.

Among them, the 5 million yen given to Ryuen Kakeru, the 10 million yen to Class 1-B, the 15 million Aragaki Shun, and the 29.25 million yen spent on the Student Council President Election... all these add up to 60 million yen.

But before that, he certainly couldn't have no expenses at all.

[Fourth Floor] The anonymous person carefully arranged the order in which the second-year students submitted: first, his own class, then the original Class D, then the original Class C, and finally the class where Kiriyama Ikuto was located.

Before he subdued the Kiriyama Class and unified the second-year students, he had already spent no less than 12 million Private Points in class competitions.

Finally, there's an unexpected expense: the cost of dating each girl Miyabi Nagumo pursued, and the breakup fees he gave after getting tired of her. All of this adds up to about 8 million.

If these expenses are true, then Miyabi Nagumo's total Private Points collected since the second year should be over 80 million.

The reason the poster of the discussion thread said 70 million was simply because they didn't include the portion recently taken from members of his class.

However, it's highly likely that Nagumo Class supports him personally, and the person who reported him is probably a student from the remaining three classes, involving a total of 55 million Private Points.

--[Fifth Floor]: "Holy crap, is it really that exaggerated? Junior Nagumo is living too well, hasn't he? He's already spent a total of 8 million on dating and breakup fees in just over a year?"

One thing to note is that Miyabi Nagumo is indeed a self-centered playboy who has made advances towards many girls.

Surprisingly, he wasn't actually disliked by girls. Even those who dated him for a while and then broke up with him didn't have much of a bad impression of him.

The reason is simple: he is genuinely willing to spend money. Not only would he buy all sorts of luxury goods as gifts during their relationship, but he would also give her a sum of money for living expenses after they broke up. Therefore, many girls in the second year were willing to maintain an on-and-off relationship with him, and would go for a transaction if they had financial difficulties.

Sakurajima is a country where the sex industry is rampant. This situation is not considered too serious in itself; at most, bystanders would offer some moral condemnation.

The problem is, this guy used the money to support the girl he was keeping to embezzle from the transfer fees for second grade...

--[Sixth Floor]: "Damn it, all the Private Points I handed in were used by this bastard to support women, gamble, and give away. Why doesn't he just die already?!"

--[Seventh Floor]: "I'm so envious. If I had that much money, I would definitely have several girlfriends, take them out to order the most expensive set meals every day, and let them sleep in the most comfortable beds."

--[Eighth Floor]: "Don't be envious. This is absolutely misappropriation of public funds, amounting to a whopping 80 million. If that were outside, it would be enough to keep you in jail for who knows how many years."

--[Ninth Floor]: "Um~ Are second-year seniors so easily fooled? That Nagumo didn't even sign a contract, just made empty promises, and you all voluntarily handed over all your Private Points? What a pity, why didn't I come a year earlier!"

--[10th Floor]: "There was nothing we could do. Back then, anyone who dared to openly defy Nagumo was expelled. We saw no hope of graduating from Class A, so we could only believe his suggestion that everyone pool their money to transfer to another class. But who knew that this bastard would squander all his Private Points on a life of debauchery, and they were all gone in an instant."

--[11th Floor]: "..."

The thread kept getting longer and longer, attracting not only the second-year students who were the victims, but also a large number of first-year students and Third Year students who came to watch the spectacle.

With the matter escalating to this point, it's clear that it can't be resolved hastily. Everyone is watching the Student Council and the school administration closely, eager to know the outcome.

After all, if things don't take any other turn, Miyabi Nagumo, who used to be so influential in the second year, might just disappear starting tomorrow.

As for accidents... Aragaki Shun would never allow that to happen!

"The strategy implemented by Nagumo is clear to all the teachers and students in the second year. The school, which has been secretly monitoring it all along, can't possibly pretend to be confused at this time, can it?"

It wasn't the Student Council's Activity Classroom, but the Board Chairman's office. Aragaki Shun, Manabu Horikita, and the leaders of the four second-year classes were all summoned there.

They were accompanied by the homeroom teachers of the four second-grade classes.

Regardless, Miyabi Nagumo is the Vice President of the Student Council, and he and Aragaki Shun are both candidates in the ongoing Student Council President Election.

Such disputes involving the next Student Council President are difficult even for Manabu Horikita to handle, so the school has to step in personally.

With great interest, Aragaki Shun looked at the ashen-faced Nagumo across from him, then beckoned Kiriyama Ikuto and the others to hand over several voice recorders and two cell phones with recording files open. He then casually picked up one of them and pressed the play button.

"These recordings were made by dedicated students from the three second-grade classes. Vice President Nagumo made a promise to them. I wonder if you still agree with that?"

Upon hearing this, the Yellow-haired Senior, whose expression was already gloomy, darkened even more, and his previously decent face suddenly became ferocious.

He truly hadn't expected that Aragaki would pull something like this on him.

In the past, those recordings would have been completely useless, because they only contained his promise to use the Private Points submitted by the four classes to help the capable students transfer to Class A before graduation.

This strategy was accepted by most of the second-year students. Even if a small number of people disagreed, it wouldn't matter. He could simply return the other person's Private Points and then use other means to expel them as a warning to others.

But now, he's used up all the Private Points that the four classes collected together...

No!