A little under half an hour later.
"Something good happen?"
In Aoyama's view at the Horikita Dormitory, Horikita Suzune had tied her long hair into a ponytail. After taking off her apron, she removed the hair tie holding the ponytail in place. Her pale nape, which had occasionally peeked out, disappeared beneath her smooth black hair once more.
"Nothing major. I won a bet with a classmate, and made a little extra money on the side."
Feeling a little regretful, Aoyama looked at the steaming dishes on the table.
Taking in their rich aroma, he thought they looked and smelled great. Surely they tasted good, too.
"A bet?" Sitting across from Aoyama, Horikita lifted her miso soup and took a sip.
"I bet a boy named Totsuka a hundred thousand Private Points that I could become Student Council Vice President by May first."
Aoyama gently blew on the miso soup in his small bowl. He was sensitive to hot food, so he only took a small sip. Its savory flavor burst across his taste buds.
The warm liquid trickled down his throat, warming his stomach, too.
"Not bad, not bad. Your cooking's better than I expected."
Aoyama nodded and complimented Horikita.
But Horikita's mouth had fallen open in shock, and she clearly wasn't listening.
"You won the bet?!! How is that possible?"
"What do you mean, how is it possible? I told you I could help people get into the Student Council, didn't I? This time, I even got two spots." Pleased by Horikita Suzune's shock, Aoyama decided to keep showing off.
If you didn't show off while you were young, you'd regret it when you were old.
The whole point of being alive was to show off.
"Two spots?!! How could my brother..."
She clenched her hands tightly beneath the table. Horikita Suzune now understood what it felt like to have your heart leap in your chest.
I want them.
I really want them.
I have to get them.
In the span of a single second, Horikita Suzune's thoughts raced through her mind again and again. Every instruction her brain sent her body urged her to ask Aoyama for a spot.
The thought of joining the Student Council and working alongside her brother made her tremble with excitement.
And fear, too.
What kind of stern expression would her brother make if he found out she'd bought her way into the Student Council?
"Didn't I just say I'd made a little extra money on the side? I sold one spot to Class C, and promised the other to a classmate."
Don't agonize over it. There was never a spot for you to begin with.
Horikita's feelings were so easy to read that Aoyama quickly figured out what she was thinking and put an end to her dilemma.
He'd ruled out Horikita as a potential assistant from the very beginning.
Kamuro was a little aloof, but she could communicate just fine. Even if she looked annoyed, she'd still do whatever she was told.
Horikita was different. She could offend someone in just a few sentences when talking to a stranger, and she'd only do what she was asked if she thought it was acceptable.
Only an idiot would choose Horikita Suzune when they had other options.
Chapter 23: The Blond Must Die
"You just mentioned the word 'brother,' didn't you?"
"So Student Council President Horikita Manabu is your brother."
Seeing Horikita Suzune's face turn pale and then red, Aoyama quickly pointed out what she'd let slip.
Horikita Suzune was clearly angry, and he didn't want to get into a fight before dinner.
"That's right. The Student Council President is my esteemed older brother."
"Unlike me, my brother has always been exceptional, from childhood until now."
"How could my brother casually give away such an important position as vice president? And why would he give you two spots for members?"
Realizing she'd said something she shouldn't have, Horikita Suzune wilted as if someone had doused her with cold water. A few seconds later, she puffed out her chest and admitted it.
Then she started muttering about how exceptional her brother was and how she was nothing like him.
"First, I need to correct two things you said."
Seeing that Horikita Suzune had lost her will to attack him, Aoyama no longer had to worry about the situation turning into a meal with a crow.
"First, you're actually very capable, too. You just have some pretty significant shortcomings."
"Second, one of the two spots is for a secretary."
Aoyama couldn't remember whether Horikita Suzune had ranked in the top five or top ten on the entrance exam, but she'd definitely scored very highly.
Physically, too, she could hold her own against students in athletic clubs.
Aside from her poor communication skills and lack of flexibility, her evaluation wouldn't be much lower than Horikita Manabu's.
"But I'm still not good enough for my brother to acknowledge me." Perhaps being acknowledged by someone as capable as Aoyama made Horikita Suzune happy, but she would never admit it aloud.
"Whether Horikita President—no, whether Manabu acknowledges you doesn't determine whether you're exceptional."
Realizing that the person in front of him was also a Horikita, Aoyama changed how he referred to Horikita Manabu.
Still, "President Manabu" sounded a little awkward.
"Don't call my brother by his first name so familiarly." Remembering that Aoyama had sold a Student Council position, Horikita Suzune felt he'd betrayed her brother's trust.
"You're both Horikitas. I have to tell you apart somehow. Should I call you Suzune, then?"
"...I'll allow it. Just don't make it seem like you and my brother are close. It'll ruin his reputation."
Huh?!! You're such a brocon, Horikita Suzune.
In Japan, being allowed to call someone by their first name was reserved for close friends.
Generally speaking, a man and woman who called each other by their first names were childhood friends or lovers. At the very least, they'd be longtime friends.
"If you're fine with that, I don't have a problem."
Aoyama didn't care if people mistook him for being close to Horikita Suzune and started rumors about them.
Besides, rumors about the two of them were bound to spread eventually if he kept coming here to eat with Horikita.
What was the big deal if a rumor or two went around because he was eating with a pretty girl?
"They're worthy of being called Student Council members, right?" Horikita Suzune asked suddenly, mechanically eating as if her mind were elsewhere.
What did she mean by "worthy of being called Student Council members"?
Did she think Horikita Manabu was Athena? Did only tough guys like the Bronze Saints get to join his ranks?
After a pause, Aoyama understood what Horikita Suzune meant and couldn't help feeling exasperated.
"Sure, sure. They're all incredibly tough, the kind who can hold up the sky and split the earth."
"I just want to make sure they're suitable for my brother. Who are you planning to let join the Student Council?"
After Aoyama gave her a hard time, Horikita Suzune realized that what she'd said sounded a little childish. Still, she wanted to ask.
She couldn't let a bunch of nobodies join the Student Council and disgrace her brother's name.
"Shiina Hiyori from Class C. Her academic ability and judgment are both first-rate."
"Kamuro Masumi from Class A. She has excellent judgment, and most importantly, she's very obedient."
There was nothing worth keeping secret, so when Horikita pressed him, Aoyama told her who he'd chosen.
He'd sold the Student Council position to Class C for four hundred thousand Private Points, paid in full upfront.
It was only after talking with Shiina that he found out Ryuen was even more shameless than he was.
The information Ryuen had bought from Aoyama had only cost him a million, but when he charged the students in his class, he told them it had cost two million.
After Yamada Albert, who looked well over 180 centimeters tall and was built like a boxer, learned about the competition between classes and submitted to Ryuen, no one in Class 1-C dared oppose him anymore.
So the Class C students could only grit their teeth and swallow the two-million-point information fee. Those who couldn't afford it had to pay in installments.
"What do you mean, 'most importantly, she's very obedient'?" Horikita had spotted the key point.
"As a subordinate, being obedient can sometimes make you more likable than being capable."
After stating his opinion, Aoyama swept the food off the table like a whirlwind.
Horikita Suzune's cooking was much better than he'd expected. Maybe she'd put in a lot of effort because she'd imagined cooking for her brother.
Just how much of a brocon was Horikita Suzune?
"Want some information on Horikita President? Ten thousand Private Points per fact."
After musing on Horikita Suzune's brother complex, Aoyama started acting like a real jerk.
"Who has a crush on Horikita President? Who's his archenemy? Who's been obsessively following him around?"
"I'm not obsessively following my brother around!"
Before Aoyama could ask which fact Horikita Suzune wanted to buy, she panicked as if he'd hit a sore spot. She was nothing like the ice queen she usually appeared to be, and her face had turned a little red.
Anyone who saw Horikita Suzune like this would think she was unfairly cute.
"I meant someone else." Watching the embarrassed Horikita Suzune, Aoyama couldn't help the corner of his mouth from curling up.
The answers to the second and third questions were the same person.
After Miyabi Nagumo had defeated everyone in his year, he'd grown bored and set his sights on the supposedly strongest Student Council President in Kouiku's history.
He clung to Horikita Manabu even more persistently than a scorned wife.
Aoyama remembered that after Nagumo graduated, he'd chosen the same university as Horikita Manabu and openly said he wanted to keep competing with him.
Compared with his childhood friend, Asahina, Aoyama was certain that Horikita Manabu was far more appealing to Nagumo.
If it weren't for the rumors that Nagumo had dated several girls, no one would have suspected he wasn't straight.
"I want the last one." Horikita Suzune's chopsticks even fell to the floor. The moment she recovered from her shock, she spoke up.
As the younger sister who respected her brother most, how could she let a pervert set his sights on him?
She bore the name of his sister. She couldn't lose.
"The leader of Class 2-A and the Student Council Vice President: a blond guy named Miyabi Nagumo."
After giving Nagumo a thorough dressing-down in the Student Council room earlier that day, Aoyama still felt pretty good about it.
As a purist who supported true love, he couldn't stand scumbags like blond homewreckers. He'd kill every one he saw.
The blond must die!
Chapter 24: I Only Care About Money, Not People
Morning.
Under the sunlight, which brought only a meager warmth, Kamuro Masumi walked into a convenience store.
It was a convenience store between the student dormitories and the school. Plenty of students bought breakfast there in the morning to take to school, so it was fairly busy at the moment.
So she'd come in after all.
Standing right in front of her target, Kamuro Masumi felt a little lost. Aoyama Shiki's face flashed through her mind.
Why was she staring at the beer? Of course, it was because if she hid something like beer in her schoolbag and went to pay, no one would believe she'd accidentally put it in her bag and forgotten to take it out.
Even elementary school students knew that minors weren't allowed to drink.
"Could you hurry up, please, shopkeeper?"
"What should I eat today? This is so hard to decide."
"Why not buy everything?"
"Then I'll get fat."
After looking around and confirming that no one was watching her, Kamuro reached for the beer on the shelf.
In less than a second, a can of beer that only adults were allowed to buy lay quietly in her schoolbag.
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