What Can't He Do? Start a Class Feud? He's Number One!

Under a sunshade.

The three leaders of Class C sat down around a table.

Albert and Ishizaki stood behind Prince Ganlongdao.

Looking at the stack of A4 papers Dragon Garden had tossed onto the table, Kaneda and Prince Ganlongdao raised their eyebrows.

"What's this?"

"Take a look."

Dragon Garden's tone was unfriendly.

Aside from the Midterm Exam, he had spent most of this time gathering all kinds of information.

Then.

He discovered.

What had Prince Ganlongdao been doing all this time?

Nothing!

Every day, he ate, flirted with girls, and picked on Kaneda!

He hadn't done a damn thing.

Dragon Garden was practically furious.

When he was comparing himself to Prince Ganlongdao, the guy had acted like he was untouchable.

But after looking into it carefully, he found out the truth.

He couldn't do anything right, but he was number one at fighting his own class, huh?

If Dragon Garden hadn't seen a chance to turn things around, he would have loved to kill him right then and there.

However.

Before they had figured out what made this school special,

continuing to feud with Prince Ganlongdao could only do harm, and wouldn't bring them the slightest benefit. Expelling such a strong student would be like cutting off their own arm.

Therefore.

Dragon Garden wasn't planning to make a move just yet.

But he certainly wasn't going to be like Prince Ganlongdao, spending every day eating, flirting with girls, and picking on Kaneda.

Watching the two of them pick up the A4 papers, Dragon Garden explained coldly:

"These are the various things I've investigated recently: the school's surveillance cameras, blind spots, the placement of buckets and mops, staff shift changes, and information on the leaders of each class."

"What?"

Kaneda abruptly turned his head.

He stared at Dragon Garden in disbelief.

He hadn't expected that Dragon Garden had been skipping the study sessions to investigate all this.

More importantly,

in just half a month,

Dragon Garden had thoroughly investigated every aspect of the school.

At the thought,

Kaneda was impressed by Dragon Garden's abilities, but felt even more uneasy and angry.

"So that's why you weren't attending the study sessions. You were wasting your time on all this. What are you really up to?"

"Huh?"

Still bewildered, Ishizaki tried to smooth things over first:

"Kaneda, Dragon Garden was thinking of the class. And this stuff seems pretty important. It should help the class, so there's no need to get so angry."

"Shut up. What do you know?"

Pointing at Dragon Garden, Kaneda glared at Ishizaki. "When couldn't he have investigated this stuff? Why did he have to do it during the Midterm Exam? I say he was deliberately going against me."

"Surely... it wasn't that bad..."

Ishizaki glanced at Dragon Garden.

He suddenly felt that Kaneda might have a point... but still didn't think there was any reason to be this angry.

In truth, it was simple.

Compared to clear, logical arguments,

most people cared more about the relationship between the two people involved.

When someone liked you,

they thought you were right even when you were wrong.

When someone disliked you,

they thought you were wrong even when you were right.

He'd only gathered information.

Was that something he couldn't do?

Kaneda just felt that Dragon Garden was acting clever and stirring up factional infighting.

Actually,

Dragon Garden and Kaneda shared the same flaw.

They were both arrogant,

and thought they were the center of the world.

Each thought he was the best and that his own plan was the best, and neither could see other people's strengths.

A common way of thinking among college students.

Hearing their exchange,

Dragon Garden didn't take Kaneda seriously at all. He simply fixed his gaze on Prince Ganlongdao.

"Well?"

"Your drawings are really ugly."

"..."

Dragon Garden narrowed his eyes.

This wasn't going to work.

It felt like he and Prince Ganlongdao were just incompatible.

He really wanted to kill the guy.

I've done more in half a month than you've done in two months.

And all you have to say is that my drawings are ugly?

Prince Ganlongdao glanced at Kaneda.

"All right, you two, settle down. It's already happened. There's no point dwelling on it now."

"Hmph."

At that,

the two of them immediately quieted down.

Kaneda gave Dragon Garden a cold smile. It was clear that Prince Ganlongdao was still on his side.

"Compared to all this surveillance stuff..."

Prince Ganlongdao crossed his legs and flipped to the last two pages of the A4 papers:

They listed the names of the leaders of each class, along with general notes on their personalities and appearances.

"I'm more interested in the leaders of the other classes. Any interesting characters?"

At that, Kaneda and the others pricked up their ears, just as curious.

In fact,

even at the same school,

students in different classes rarely crossed paths.

And even when they did,

they usually just exchanged nods.

Anyone who could build connections across classes was undoubtedly a very skilled socializer.

"First, Class A."

Hearing this, Dragon Garden leaned back in his chair, hooked his hands over the backrest, and said mockingly:

"Class A doesn't seem to be united yet. Right now, it has two leaders: Katsuragi Kohei, who leads the conservative faction and has the upper hand, and Sakayanagi Arisu, who favors an aggressive approach."

"Heh."

Kaneda pushed up his glasses and sneered:

"They still haven't managed to unite their class by now, and they're supposed to be Class A? Looks like they're nothing special."

"..."

Prince Ganlongdao didn't comment, so Dragon Garden continued:

"Next, there's Ichinose Honami of Class B. I heard she united the class in just half a month, and..."

He paused,

waiting until Kaneda and Prince Ganlongdao were curious before continuing, his expression growing serious:

"I heard the whole class jointly elected her class representative. No one stayed silent, and no one opposed her. The entire class genuinely agreed. You could say she was chosen by popular demand!"

"Even now, I can't figure out how she managed it."

"Who are you trying to fool?"

Kaneda scoffed, clearly unconvinced. "They elected her class representative, and no one opposed her? Fine. But how could there not even be anyone who stayed silent?"

"Well..."

Ishizaki raised his hand, looking a little awkward. "I've heard Kondo and the others talk about Ichinose, too. She really does seem popular, and I think the upperclassmen have a pretty high opinion of her as well."

"How is that possible?"

Kaneda frowned, still unconvinced.

"You've even heard of her? In just two months, she's won everyone's trust, and even the upperclassmen think highly of her. How did she manage that?"

Actually,

Kaneda had never been convinced by either Dragon Garden or Prince Ganlongdao.

The two of them were just good at fighting, willing to ignore the class, and shameless. His grades were better than theirs, and he could figure out some of the class rules too.

It was just that moving up to Class A came with benefits.

Kaneda felt that he was enduring things for the class, making concessions for the class.

He never thought he was worse than the other two.

It was like playing chess.

You could get crushed by someone, but then, when you reviewed the game,

you'd suddenly slap your thigh.

How had I not thought of that move at the time? Then you'd feel like you were good enough after all.

But a tiny mistake could make all the difference.

A minute onstage took ten years of practice.

Realizing what you should have done afterward was useless. The real skill lay in making quick decisions and adapting on the spot.

The advantage of this kind of personality was that it made you hard to discourage, with incredible resilience under pressure. The downside was that it made it easy to lose sight of yourself.

However,

if what Ishizaki said was true,

Kaneda knew he couldn't have done what Ichinose Honami had.

Of course,

Kaneda didn't think that was his own fault.

He just thought there were too many idiots.

What he said clearly made more sense and benefited everyone else more, but there were always idiots in this world who refused to listen to him. Kaneda could never understand why.

That meant

Ichinose Honami was good at communicating with idiots.

Compared to Class A,

Kaneda thought Ichinose Honami was a far more formidable opponent, one they needed to be wary of.

Hearing the others' conversation,

Prince Ganlongdao seemed a little displeased.

Dragon Garden,

how could he completely miss the point?