I Can Finally Keep You Here

"Chabashira-sensei, you just need to treat this as an investment. To be honest, I plan to earn the 20 million points I earned from transferring classes myself, but I need to see your sincerity and support."

As she spoke, Ichinose Honami smiled and opened her left hand to her:

"Consider the five million Private Points a loan from me. I'll invest the fifteen million principal with insurance, which should be enough for me to earn twenty million at this Sports Festival. Once your class has twenty million, I'll transfer to your class with Ryo."

Thus, Ichinose Honami, having once again successfully obtained points without any investment, amassed 15 million Private Points and has remained silent since the start of the Sports Festival, making no further moves.

Ichinose Honami created the most perfect alibi.

She continued to cheer and applaud Kitagawa Ryo's performance in the 110-meter hurdles and Four-Way Tug-of-War -of-war, just as she had done throughout the morning, noon and afternoon of the Sports Festival, and thoughtfully handed him water and towels.

It wasn't until the final event of this Sports Festival —the mixed 1600-meter relay— that Ichinose Honami began to act once again.

As this Sports Festival draws to a close, the competition for the scoring title among the three grades has become clearer.

After several unsuccessful attempts to counter him, Kitagawa Ryo, who is now almost undefeated, has secured the title of the top scorer among First Year. However, due to the substantial reward for the final event, he has not yet been able to confirm the title of the top scorer for the entire grade one round in advance.

In the second year, Kiryuin Fuka's total score is now fixed after all events have been completed (Class 2-B didn't even take her to the final event). Having won all the individual events, her current total score even surpasses that of Miyabi Nagumo, who skipped some events to conserve energy. However, thanks to the generous reward of the final event, as long as Nagumo himself can take first place and Kitagawa Ryo's Class 1-B doesn't make it into the top three, he can still surpass Kiryuin Fuka in team points and defeat Kitagawa Ryo by a narrow margin to become the all-year scorer.

Compared to the intense competition among the first and second year students, the situation of the third year students has been quite surprising. Class 3-A suffered a series of defeats in this Sports Festival. Although Horikita Manabu managed to retain his position as the top scorer among the third year students thanks to his outstanding individual abilities, Class 3-A have effectively dropped out of the competition for the overall top scorer title due to their losing more team events than winning.

The only theoretical possibility is that both Class 1-B and Class 2-A fail to finish in the top three, while Class 3-A wins first place.

But considering that all four contestants from Class 3-A who participated in the final event are currently lying in the infirmary except for Horikita Manabu, the possibility is almost nonexistent.

Simply put, among the players vying for the top scorer in the entire grade, Kitagawa Ryo currently has the biggest advantage. He only needs to finish in the top two to secure the title, and even if he doesn't finish in the top two, he still has a chance.

Then there's Miyabi Nagumo. The conditions he needs are that he comes in first place and Kitagawa Ryo can't be in the top three. Both conditions are indispensable.

Then there's Horikita Manabu. As mentioned above, he not only has to lead four substitutes to first place, but he also has to hope that Kitagawa Ryo Miyabi Nagumo both underperform and fail to make the top three.

As for Kiryuin Fuka, she won't be the top scorer in the entire grade unless the three classes above her finish last. But for her, as long as Miyabi Nagumo doesn't come in first, she can become the top scorer in the second year.

With things having developed to this point, even Miyabi Nagumo, who had always been confident to the point of arrogance, had realized that he had messed up.

After all, no one expected that not only would Kiryuin Fuka suddenly emerge from the second year, an unstoppable force, Kitagawa Ryo from Class 1-B would also be so formidable, managing to take first place in almost every event despite being targeted by countless students, effectively putting Kitagawa to his death in the final event.

The worst is just around the corner.

If he fails in the final event, then the two million he bet on the sophomore scoring title, the four million he bet on the 1600-meter relay, and the four million he bet on the overall scoring title will all be gone.

A whopping ten million Private Points!

In fact, Miyabi Nagumo's logic was very simple at first. She was only betting on the overall scorer of the grade. But thinking about it the other way around, if he could win the overall scorer title, wouldn't that mean he could also win the final project?

Moreover, at that time, various controversies arose in the forums involving him, Horikita Manabu, and Kiryuin Fuka. Coupled with his desire to vent after being threatened by Tsukishiro, this ultimately led to the expenditure of ten million Private Points.

Kitagawa Ryo and Sakayanagi Arisu; Miyabi Nagumo only had around 30 to 40 million Private Points, and 10 million was definitely a loss that would be incredibly painful for him.

Although he still has two loan contracts totaling 24 million with interest for Classes C and D in one year, that amount is definitely not something he can collect all at once.

Especially Class 1-C, the state of this class was even beyond Miyabi Nagumo's imagination. He had no doubt that Ryuen Kakeru would immediately expel the most rebellious students in the class after this Sports Festival. Who would he collect his debts from then on?

If he can't collect Private Points in a short period of time, it means that the Private Points Twenty Million Personal Points.

This is an amount that cannot protect oneself from the penalty of expulsion.

For Miyabi Nagumo, who is becoming increasingly suspicious, this is definitely a bad omen. If Kiryuin Fuka wins, the resistance from the second-year students will increase significantly, since even Kiriyama is now somewhat deviating from his wishes.

He desperately needs a large sum of money, preferably more than ten million Private Points, but forcibly increasing the percentage of points collected from second-year students would only have the opposite effect of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, and the same goes for collecting more points from his own class.

Just as Miyabi Nagumo was anxiously waiting for the final project to officially begin, a message from Student Council member Sakayanagi Arisu suddenly arrived in his inbox.

"There's a huge bet worth fifteen million, Vice President Nagumo, would you like to give it a try? If you win, the money will be credited to your account immediately—"

Chapter 315: Finally, I Can Keep You (9k)

Along with the message came a few seconds of screen recording, showing a phone displaying a balance of 15 million.

To be honest, this was the first time Miyabi Nagumo had ever seen such a large amount of readily available cash from any student other than him.

But Miyabi Nagumo didn't have time to dwell on why Sakayanagi Arisu such a huge amount of Private Points. Like a gambler about to lose everything grasping at a last straw, he quickly replied to Sakayanagi Arisu:

What do you want to bet?

Although Miyabi Nagumo currently lacks the 15 million Private Points to match, he still stubbornly refuses to back down.

"Even if you wager all 15 million Private Points, I can take it."

"Is that so? However, what I hope Vice President Nagumo will bet on at the table is not the number of Private Points, but the loan lists you have with the students of Class 1-C and Class D in the first year. Simply put, if you lose, you will need to transfer the lending and borrowing parties of these debt relationships to our Class B."

Even though the other party hasn't revealed a single detail about the bet yet, Miyabi Nagumo still habitually started haggling after hearing such an unequal wager demand:

"Impossible. These loan agreements, including principal and interest, total 24 million Private Points, while your bet is only 15 million."

"Many things cannot be valued solely by numbers. Vice President Nagumo should understand this principle well. Your loan contracts do indeed total 24 million, but considering the recovery of points and other unforeseen circumstances, they might end up as a series of bad debts. We also need to bear the corresponding risks."

As if she had already prepared her response, Sakayanagi Arisu sent messages one after another like a machine gun:

"Vice President Nagumo should know the situation of Class 1-C better than anyone else, right? Those students who borrowed Private Points from you didn't earn many points at this Sports Festival; most of them even lost money. Besides, given Ryuen's personality, he'll probably target them one by one and expel them after the Sports Festival. Do you think Vice President Nagumo can chase them off-campus to demand repayment of their Private Points?"

"In short, in my opinion, only the 12 million from Class D has equivalent value in this so-called 24 million loan. As for Class C, I can only say it's a matter of opinion. After all, given the personalities of those students in Class C, they might be even more arrogant and domineering than you, the creditor."

"Oh, and one more thing. I know that Vice President Nagumo signed the same contract with them as the second-year students, where a certain percentage of their Private Points each month would be directly used for repayment. But once students start dropping out of Class C, the Class Points will naturally drop to zero."

Before Miyabi Nagumo could react, Sakayanagi Arisu abruptly changed the subject:

"Of course, Vice President Nagumo can also hear the contents of our bet before making a decision. It concerns the final event of this Sports Festival —the all-grade mixed 1600-meter relay race."

"The terms of the bet are very simple."

"If Class 1-B can get first place in the final event, then we'll win."

"As long as Class 1-B isn't first, whether it's second, third, or any other ranking, it counts as a win for you."

It has to be said that the bet proposed by Sakayanagi Arisu instantly tempted Miyabi Nagumo, because from a purely probabilistic point of view, his chances of winning were undoubtedly greater.

It's always easier to make others lose than to make yourself win.

Many people cannot guarantee that they will win, but they are quite adept at pulling others down and making them lose. Miyabi Nagumo is no exception; otherwise, the number of second-year students dropping out under his control would not far exceed that of first- and third-year students.

However, Miyabi Nagumo still needs to further secure more benefits for herself:

"I can accept this bet, but no matter what you say, I still believe that the stakes between us are definitely not equal... How about this, I can bet all of Class C's loan contracts, but Class D can only offer half, which is a contract worth six million. That would make a total of eighteen million, how about it?"

"This is already my bottom line. For your Class 1-B, obtaining these loan contracts will not only bring you Private Points from other classes, but it will also cause a shift in the strength of the class. If used well, it can even cultivate two spies and exchange intelligence during the subsequent Special Exam, right?"

"Alright, then please move to the club building for now, Vice President Nagumo. I've already finalized the relevant contracts for you, and the teacher in charge of witnessing them is also here."

Upon seeing words like "contract," "witness," and "teacher"—words he was all too familiar with from the past— Miyabi Nagumo couldn't help but smile with a hint of disdain.

Although Miyabi Nagumo had become disdainful of the entire Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School system after being lectured by Tsukishiro, after recovering from his shock, his strong sense of self-respect led him to try to see things from a different angle. He managed to cultivate an arrogant attitude of being the only one who was truly enlightened, as if knowing that rules were meant to be broken made him superior to others.

Perhaps only by using this self-numbing mindset to view things can Miyabi Nagumo feel a little better.

After quickly signing the agreed-upon contract with Sakayanagi Arisu, Miyabi Nagumo immediately called over a dozen students from the other three second-year classes who were participating in the final project to her side:

"You all have only one task in the final project: don't let Class 1-B win. If you can do that... next month I will take out Twenty Million Personal Points and randomly select one of you to transfer to Class A."

As soon Miyabi Nagumo drew this ambitious picture, the students in classes B, C, and D all showed excited expressions, rubbing their hands together and eager to try it out.

"Hey, Nagumo..."

Kiriyama from Class 2-B sensed something was amiss, since it seemed like a decision made on a whim by Nagumo. But before he could ask, Miyabi Nagumo gave him a threatening look.

"Alright, just behave well. As long as you don't get into trouble and get expelled, I'll cover for you."

Miyabi Nagumo, who was just an hour away from officially taking over as Student Council President, spoke with considerable conviction. The students from all three classes nodded knowingly, preparing to demonstrate their methods to the First Year students during the final project later.

As for the First Year classes, Miyabi Nagumo felt that she didn't even need to inform them herself. Just by watching Kitagawa Ryo's other matches in the afternoon, she could clearly see that some of the students were probably even more unwilling to let Kitagawa Ryo win than she was.

"Fifteen million..."

Miyabi Nagumo murmured the number.

If he can get these Private Points, all his failures in this Sports Festival will become insignificant, and he might even make a profit.

The four contestants from Class 1-B for the final event were Amasawa Ichika, Horikita Suzune, Ken Sudō, and Kitagawa Ryo.

As the top athletes in the class, Kitagawa Ryo and Ken Sudō were naturally the first choices. Amasawa Ichika's performance was evident to all, and she was absolutely not inferior to the boys in the competition, so she was also selected to participate in the final event. As for the last choice, Yamada Albert's physical fitness was definitely not a problem, but his physique was not very suitable for this kind of short-distance track and field event. So after much consideration, Class 1-B finally chose Horikita Suzune, who was like a brick that could be moved wherever needed.

In fact, each class in each grade has its own set of considerations when selecting players for the final event. The level of cooperation among members and whether the main players still have enough stamina reserves as the Sports Festival draws to a close are all issues that need to be carefully considered.

"Everyone should pay attention to their surroundings while running, but never be distracted by other people's shouts or small movements. Just keep running forward. Liang has a big advantage right now; if we stay calm, we can win."

Horikita Suzune was conducting pre-battle ideological mobilization work. She had spent the entire day watching a lot of the disastrous matches between Kiryuin Fuka and Kitagawa Ryo, so she quickly gave Ken Sudō and Amasawa Ichika a brief overview of the tactics their competitors might use:

"This is the final and most difficult hurdle. After all, for those students who don't want Liang to win, this is their last chance. So you can imagine what crazy things they might do. Not only Liang, but we will also become their targets."

"Indeed, but I'll be careful."

Ken Sudō nodded seriously upon hearing this. His strategy for this Sports Festival was to blindly bet on himself to win. Naturally, there were gains and losses along the way, but given his own strength, he had made a small profit overall. Therefore, he was in a good mood and was preparing to take the final relay race in one fell swoop to bring this Sports Festival to a perfect close.

As always, Amasawa Ichika seemed completely unburdened. Ichinose Honami's execution ability far exceeded her expectations. As her assistant, all she needed to do was help Class 1-B win the final project.

Her stance at this Sports Festival was both ambiguous and clear. Although she was also reluctant to see Kitagawa Ryo transfer to another class, she was always worried that if she acted rashly, it might go against Kitagawa Ryo's wishes and cause him to dislike her.

For Amasawa Ichika, this is probably the worst possible outcome.

At worst, once Kitagawa Ryo transfers, she can find a way to earn Twenty Million Personal Points from him and go to Class A as well.

It was precisely because of this mindset that Amasawa Ichika secretly breathed a sigh of relief after being told part of the truth by Ichinose Honami. After all, with someone who was willing to openly challenge Karuizawa Kei and who could methodically execute the plan until only the finishing touches remained, her task became quite simple.

While listening to his teammates' conversation, Kitagawa Ryo also observed the players from other classes around him.

To be honest, if nothing goes wrong in this 1600-meter relay race, his most anticipated opponent is actually Class 1-D.

The quartet of Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, Hirata Yosuke, Hashimoto Masayoshi, and Kamuro Masumi definitely has the strength to win the championship, and with all eyes currently on them and on Class 1-B, their chances of winning have increased even further.

Seemingly noticing his gaze, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, who had been stretching his legs in preparation, also raised his eyes and nodded slightly in Kitagawa Ryo's direction, though it was unclear what he meant.

Just as the final project was about to begin, a significant commotion arose from Class 1-C. Two original participants, who had been forced to appear unwell by Ryuen Kakeru, were abruptly replaced by his trusted comrades, Ishizaki Daichi and Komiya Yogo, who then threw out another 200,000 Private Points.

Ryuen Kakeru's five million yen bet against Kitagawa Ryo was actually obtained from Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. He obviously still had some savings on hand, and even if it wasn't enough, he was absolutely capable of swallowing his pride and asking the homeroom teacher Sakagami Kazuma, for a loan. After all, in the eyes of this Class C homeroom teacher, Ryuen Kakeru was the class Leader he had chosen.

After the little incident involving Class 1-C, the first runners from each class, guided by school staff, gradually arrived at the starting line and took their starting positions, ready for the race to begin.

Soon, the referee, having confirmed that all the contestants were ready, raised his starting pistol and decisively pulled the trigger after the countdown began. With the sound of the starting gun, the contestants from all twelve classes across the three grades sprinted forward together.

The first runner for Class 1-B was Amasawa Ichika. Since most of the runners from other classes were boys, she, as a girl, was undoubtedly particularly eye-catching. However, no student who watched Amasawa Ichika's performance today would hold the slightest contempt or disdain for her.

After all, in terms of dominance in certain areas, even compared to Kiryuin Fuka, who made a mess of the second-year students, Amasawa Ichika is actually no less capable.

The brief straightaway passed in an instant as the runners unleashed their full potential. The bends, where crowds huddled together vying for position, were always accident hotspots. Apart from the students from Class 2-A who were focused on running forward, the first runners from the other three classes all crashed straight into Amasawa Ichika's direction.

But as if by Fate, students from three classes of equal numbers intercepted them one-on-one. One pair even used so much force that, amidst gasps from the surrounding audience, the baton slipped from their hands and rolled to the side.

They are students from Class 1-A, Class 1-C, and Class 3-A.

It's quite interesting, actually. Kitagawa Ryo always thought that Ichinose Honami and Karuizawa Kei were too cautious and didn't know his attitude towards this Sports Festival, so they didn't choose to place a big bet on him. After all, five million of the eight million for the all-year scoring champion project was invested by Ryuen Kakeru, and he himself invested one million for Shiina Hiyori. No matter how you look at it, you can't find Karuizawa Kei and Ichinose Honami's share.

But in reality, both of them chose to believe him. One of them bypassed the school's platform and placed bets in their own small group, while the other gambled away all their points at once.

So, aside from Ichinose Honami, Karuizawa Kei also hoped that Kitagawa Ryo could win in the end, whether out of consideration for interests or personal feelings.

Although that practical consideration was essentially driven by her personal desire to raise Twenty Million Personal Points to successfully transfer Kitagawa Ryo to another class.

That's why the students in Class 1-A received the same instructions as Ryuen Kakeru in the final event: to help Class 1-B succeed.

As for Class 3-A, having lost their key players, they had already lost their original competitiveness. Their Sports Festival was already over, so they might as well do Kitagawa Ryo a favor, since they might become family in the future.

Among the classes that didn't participate, Class 1-B and Class D of the first year, and Class 2-A were all giving it their all to compete for the championship. The other three classes of the third year, on the other hand, were watching from the sidelines. After all, under the remote command of Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, they had heavily invested their Private Points in the third-year events, and had already achieved their goal of defeating Class 3-A in this Sports Festival. Both sides had made a fortune, and there was no need for them to fight for Miyabi Nagumo and make enemies for themselves.

Thus, amidst the chaos, the strong and undisturbed Class 1-B, Class D, and Class 2-A quickly secured the top three positions and rapidly widened the gap with the other classes.

In the increasingly tense situation, Amasawa Ichika, who gave his all, finally took the lead. The baton exchange went smoothly, and he was the first in the entire field to hand the baton to Ken Sudō in the second leg, establishing a valuable early advantage for Class 1-B.

Ken Sudō's track and field skills are beyond question. Moreover, thanks to Kitagawa Ryo's persuasion, he did not impulsively choose to sign up for all events at this Sports Festival. Therefore, his physical reserves are still quite sufficient. When he passed the baton to Horikita Suzune, Class 1-B's advantage even seemed to be expanding.

But soon, Hirata Yosuke, who took over the third baton, and a boy from Class 2-A showed their speed. Horikita Suzune, who was definitely one of the best in the girls' group, was obviously struggling in this level of competition. The advantage she had built up in the first two batons was quickly being caught up. By the time she Kitagawa Ryo, the three classes were almost back to the same starting line.

Kitagawa Ryo seamlessly took over the baton from Horikita Suzune with perfect teamwork, and then started running together with Ayanokoji Kiyotaka and Miyabi Nagumo, who were also running the last leg and had a flawless baton exchange. They ran towards the finish line.

From that moment on, the atmosphere on the entire playground rose to its highest level. The outcome of this competition concerned the Fate of tens of millions of Private Points for hundreds of people. No one could accept the fact that they had made a mistake and ended up with nothing.

"Ayanokoji! Let Kitagawa get into the top two! I'll do anything for you!"

As the last thread of reason snapped, after the first desperate shout from a student already driven mad by the betting frenzy, countless spectators sitting around the stands abandoned their initial enthusiastic cheers of "Go! Go!" and instead began hysterically begging, swearing, pleading, or threatening at the three students running in the arena.

"Nagumo! If you fucking lose, do you still have the nerve to be the next Student Council President? You can do whatever you want with this next year's Sports Festival!"

"Hey Kitagawa, charge! If you win this round, you're my brother for life! I'll give you my ass!"

"Brother, don't worry, Beichuan has a big advantage right now."