Choosing a New Boss

It's just that the reason it was discovered was because I was taking the blame for Sakayanagi instead of because of my own mistake, which is very upsetting.

I'm at their mercy, like a fish on a chopping board. Let me finish this performance one last time.

With a silent sigh, Hashimoto, like a lackey, entered the meeting room and pulled out chairs for Aoyama and the other two as they approached their seats.

As Sakayanagi, took his seat, Katsuragi also walked onto the podium, his expression as serious and resolute as ever.

"I think everyone is curious as to why all six exam groups ended so suddenly last night," Katsuragi said calmly. "The answer is simple, just as you all guessed: some classes discovered a pattern in the selection of those VIP."

"After my verification, I found a pattern in the selection of those VIP: Class C. Starting September 1st, we will be relegated to Class C."

The person speaking on the stage now is former leader Katsuragi, not current leader Sakayanagi.

Before the students in Class A could even feel a glimmer of hope that it wasn't their class and discover the pattern in the selection of those VIP, Katsuragi's continued speech shattered their hopes and brought them even deeper despair.

If they drop to Class B, they can still call themselves part of the top class. But if they drop to Class C, all their previous contempt for students in Class D will turn into boomerangs.

It hurts, it hurts so much!

"Classmate Sakayanagi, what's going on?"

"Didn't you say you were going to lead us to victory? How come you're even weaker than Katsuragi?"

"How can anyone accept dropping out of school because of a single Special Exam?"

After Sakayanagi didn't refute it at all, the students of Class A realized that what Katsuragi said was definitely true. On September 1st, they would gloriously become the biggest laughing stock of Kouiku.

A single Special Exam could drop your class ranking, and you might end up being labeled the worst Class A in history.

Simply put, they've lost all sense of shame.

Under everyone's gaze, Sakayanagi walked expressionlessly onto the podium, bowed his head, and said, "As the leader, I bear undeniable responsibility for this failure. My first instinct was to find the reasons for the defeat, and then..."

"I discovered a traitor in our class. He secretly sold information about our class's VIP to Ryuen in Class C."

"I obtained the evidence just last night."

Sakayanagi pulled a USB drive from her pocket, held it up high to show everyone, and then handed it to Katsuragi, whose expression had become even more serious.

"Could you please play the video clip I extracted from the USB drive for me, Katsuragi?"

Katsuragi's gaze turned icy. "You should know the real reason for the failure. The main reason for Class A's defeat this time can only be that Class D and Class C cooperated."

Having been in the Dragon Group last night, he naturally heard Horikita Suzune admit that Class D and Class C were cooperating.

He would not allow it if Sakayanagi tried to make trouble and shift the blame to Aoyama.

Sakayanagi raised her eyes and said calmly, "You can watch the video first. The protagonist isn't the Aoyama Shiki you're thinking of."

It was very simple; she could read what Katsuragi was thinking.

Slandering Aoyama without any evidence only gives Aoyama an excuse to make trouble. Katsuragi really underestimates her.

"Hurry up and release him, Katsuragi. I want to see who's so bold as to secretly betray their own class."

"We must not forgive him, we must expose his true colors!"

Upon hearing of the emergence of another traitor, the students of Class A shifted most of their anger from Sakayanagi's defeat to the new traitor.

They found it strange that there were so many traitors. No one from the Uninhabited Island had come forward to admit their involvement. Could it be that this traitor was the same person as the one from the Uninhabited Island?

Thinking of this, several students from Class A urged Katsuragi even more urgently to let them know who the traitor who had been caught red-handed was.

If it's not Aoyama, then who is it?

As doubts arose, Katsuragi plugged the USB drive into the conference room's computer and chose to watch the video alone first.

As Sakayanagi said, the videos contained clips from video recordings, with the timestamps marked in the lower right corner. According to the video content, Hashimoto Masayoshi from their class secretly met in the men's restroom on the mornings of the first and second days of the exam.

Although no video was captured of them coming out of the same bathroom at the same time on two consecutive days, it speaks volumes.

Katsuragi's face darkened, and he lowered his voice, "You want to shift the blame onto Aoyama?"

Hashimoto is currently behaving like a tagalong for Aoyama in class. Although Aoyama isn't the main character in the video, Sakayanagi are clearly a case of feigning innocence while actually plotting against him.

"How could I dare to target Aoyama? Hashimoto will take full responsibility for all the problems." With a smirk, Sakayanagi betrayed Hashimoto without hesitation, implying that Hashimoto had unknowingly become her person.

"It seems my decision was right after all."

After silently staring at Sakayanagi who showed no remorse for a while, Katsuragi replied in a deep voice, and then, under the pressure of the situation, had no choice but to release the video of Hashimoto's secret meeting with Ryuen to the students of Class A.

"You Hashimoto Masayoshi, Hashimoto Masayoshi!"

"Tell me, who ordered you? Were you also on that Uninhabited Island?"

As soon as the two short videos finished playing, the students in Class A glared angrily at Hashimoto, wishing they could beat him up to vent their anger.

How could someone be so despicable? Not only did they switch jobs from Sakayanagi, but they also betrayed their class.

"No one could have ordered me to do this. If any of you were even slightly smart, you would know that it wasn't Aoyama who ordered me to do this." With his signature frivolous smile on his face, Hashimoto stood up from beside Aoyama.

Then he stared intently at Machida, demanding to know who had instructed him.

"Before you even figured out the exam rules, Aoyama had already figured out the pattern for selecting the VIP. He could end the exam with just a flick of his finger, and I wouldn't even have a chance to participate."

"As for the time on the Uninhabited Island, that was of course me too. I made a fortune of personal points from those two trips."

"Only money will never betray me."

Ignoring the angry stares of the students in Class A, Hashimoto loudly proclaimed his reasons for betraying Class A.

A reason that evokes no pity whatsoever, but only further anger.

Chapter 162 Choosing a New Leader

"What nonsense are you spouting?"

"You have absolutely no shame! Having someone like you in Class A is a disgrace to Class A."

"You bastard!"

Hashimoto's unrepentant behavior immediately provoked even greater anger from the students in Class A, who vented their dissatisfaction on him.

"It won't be Class A anymore soon."

Faced with accusations, Hashimoto nonchalantly pointed out their sore spots, taking all the resentment of the Class A students upon himself.

In this way, although Sakayanagi will still be criticized, the criticism will be much less severe, and he will take the lion's share, which can be considered a perfect achievement of Sakayanagi's goal.

"You don't actually think I'd just let you off so easily, do you, Hashimoto?" Aoyama tapped the table lightly to get Hashimoto's attention, Aoyama coldly.

Now that things have come to this, he understands that Hashimoto is taking the blame for Sakayanagi, and he's probably even prepared to drop out of school.

If nothing unexpected happens, this is another Chairman of Sakayanagi's father, the chairman, exerting his influence. It seems that Sakayanagi Arisu some promise to Hashimoto, which is why Hashimoto was willing to take the Hashimoto in front of him.

"They won't go so far as to punish me even if I drop out of school, will they?"

Despite being insulted by seven or eight people, Hashimoto, whose expression remained Hashimoto and seemingly mocking, felt a flicker of unease in his eyes.

He might not take other people's advice about not running after school seriously, but Aoyama's is different.

He had a feeling that Aoyama would actually come looking for him after graduation and then give him what he considered appropriate punishment.

What do you think?

Faced with Hashimoto's ingratiating smile, Aoyama calmly confirmed his guess.

You think you can just run away after offending the abbot? It's not that simple.

No matter what reward Sakayanagi Arisu promised him, he would destroy Hashimoto after graduation, cutting off any possibility of Hashimoto becoming a winner in life.

"Keep quiet for now! Criticizing Hashimoto won't make things better."

As Hashimoto began to ponder how to beg Aoyama for forgiveness, Katsuragi slammed his hand heavily on the table, stopping the Class A students from venting their anger.

He then forcibly ordered Hashimoto to sit down and also Sakayanagi was about to say something, back to his seat.

"Class A needs a new leader, and everyone except me and Sakayanagi can participate."

Slowly scanning the still indignant students in the conference room, Katsuragi solemnly dropped a bombshell, instantly shocking all the students in Class A, including Aoyama.

He had thought that Katsuragi was in a hurry to hold a class meeting to set things right, but he didn't expect Katsuragi to remove him from the start, and at the same time, he also wanted to remove Sakayanagi.

Knowing he couldn't stand by and watch the facts unfold, Sakayanagi hurriedly stood up. "I never agreed to this, Katsuragi."

If the students in Class A really accept Katsuragi's stance, then wouldn't she have wasted her time sacrificing Hashimoto as a pawn?

"You still have the nerve to argue? If you lose, you should abdicate. Isn't that what you did before?" Aoyama calmly spoke up in support of Katsuragi, criticizing Sakayanagi without any politeness.

Although he didn't know what Katsuragi was planning, since he was targeting Sakayanagi, he would definitely help him.

She keeps trying to steal his girlfriend, does she really think he has no temper? She even tries to steal someone who's already taken, she's shameless.

"If it weren't for Hashimoto's betrayal, Class A wouldn't have lost so badly."

"Under my plan, the Chicken Group successfully misled Class D into guessing the VIP."

By redirecting the students' resentment towards the Hashimoto itself, Sakayanagi continued to boast about her achievements in the exam, which helped her regain some standing among the students.

"But you lost."

"I've only been in charge of this class for less than three days."

"So, did you lose?"

"If I have more time to prepare, I won't lose next time."

"Just tell me whether you lost or not." Aoyama seized on Sakayanagi's weakness and attacked relentlessly. "Since Katsuragi was ousted by you because he lost, shouldn't you set an example when it's your turn?"

The boomerang that had brought down Katsuragi hit Sakayanagi with pinpoint accuracy.

If Katsuragi were to make a comeback and compete for the leadership position, Sakayanagi would have reason to engage in a fierce battle with Katsuragi to see who gains more student support.

"You're not trying to say that the Chairman's daughter gets special privileges, are you?" Aoyama said casually, Aoyama eliminating any possibility of Sakayanagi resorting to shamelessness.

Having borne the benefits of being the Chairman's daughter, she naturally also had to bear the downsides. As long as Sakayanagi Arisu didn't want rumors to spread, she had no choice but to follow Katsuragi's advice.

Unless she's completely disregarding her father's reputation.

"You're something else, Aoyama Shiki."

When Aoyama brought up his father, the Chairman, Sakayanagi was seething with hatred, but he could only sit down with a cold face and tacitly allow Katsuragi to continue pushing forward the class meeting.

She could accept being misunderstood by ordinary students, but not by her beloved father.

"Please send this to Totsuka me."

Katsuragi took out a stack of white paper and instructed Totsuka to distribute it to each student.

Please circle the names of those you think are suitable to be class leaders; each person can only choose one.

After receiving the blank paper, Aoyama discovered that it contained quite a lot of information. Below the title were the names of the forty students in Class A, with Katsuragi and Sakayanagi's names highlighted in red.

"After making your selection, if you don't want others to know who you chose, you put the blank paper face down on the table, and then I collect them one by one after ten minutes."

With his arms crossed, Katsuragi calmly gave the instructions, then closed his eyes and waited for time to pass.

Kamuro moved the blank sheet of paper directly onto Aoyama's desk. "You choose."

"Then I'll leave mine to Aoyama as well."

Following Kamuro's actions, Yamamura, feeling embarrassed, also folded his own blank paper on Aoyama's table.

Suddenly, Aoyama had three votes, and with Shiraishi secretly glancing at him, he had one-tenth of the class's votes.

However, he hasn't decided who to choose yet.

Aside from Katsuragi and Sakayanagi, Class A still has students with leadership potential, but none of them have the desire to be leaders.

Shiraishi wanted to keep a low profile and hide himself, Sanada only wanted to play a supporting role, Machida had some ability but didn't get along with him, Morishita's behavior was usually too whimsical.

"Kamuro, would you like to be the class leader? I'll campaign for you."

"If you dare to do anything reckless, I'll beat you to death."

Kamuro gave Aoyama a disdainful look and Kamuro rejected Aoyama suggestion.

Student Council work already keeps her busy enough; she's not going to be a class leader who only gets bullied.

Yamamura cautiously began, "I think Aoyama can take the position himself."

"Then you'll have to come visit me in jail. On my first day as class leader, I'll embezzle all the class funds." With a light laugh, Aoyama placed his hand on Yamamura's head and gave it a good rub.

Becoming the leader of Class A would do him far more harm than good.

Putting aside whether he can actually come to power, even assuming he does, if he dares to line his own pockets and make dirty money, Sakayanagi will definitely come forward.

I'll work like a horse and a ox to lead Class A to victory and achieve a happy ending for everyone.