Horikita Manabu's Defeat

Student Council Conference Room.

"Screech—"

The sound of the curtains being pulled open was exceptionally jarring.

Horikita Manabu stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, watching the crowd below—students were gathered at the entrance of the General Building like headless flies, bustling and noisy.

Clearly.

They had all come to report the situation.

Even though Student Council members were busy to the point of exhaustion, trying to maintain order while explaining the circumstances.

It was still difficult to sustain.

Furthermore.

There was no shortage of upperclassmen in the crowd joining in for the spectacle, and this group of old hands was even harder to manage.

"Sigh..."

Horikita Manabu let out a sigh.

He had been the first to order the third-years in the group chat not to act rashly, but even as the Student Council President, it was impossible to make everyone obediently listen.

The sunlight was warm, yet it could not dispel the heavy, almost suffocating atmosphere inside the conference room.

He did not turn around.

He merely lowered his head slightly, calmly watching the surging tide of people below, the reflection on his lenses casting a cold light that obscured the thoughts in his eyes.

He had searched the School Building all night.

Yet he had come up empty-handed.

Even he could not help but feel a hint of frustration.

Beside the long table behind him.

The high-ranking members of the Student Council sat in their respective seats, yet not a single person spoke.

Tachibana Akane lowered her head, her hands gripping her skirt tightly. She opened her cherry-red lips several times, seemingly wanting to say something, yet she did not know where to begin.

It's all my fault...

It's all my fault for bringing that notice in...

If I had been more cautious at the time... President... he must be... very disappointed in me right now...

The young girl's eyes turned slightly red, filled with self-reproach.

The atmosphere grew increasingly oppressive.

Regarding this matter, the Student Council executives had only learned of it today; last night, the Server Room had been robbed, and all the Private Points of the entire school had been stolen.

It was shocking!

If this hadn't actually happened right before their eyes.

They would have assumed it was a plot concocted by some third-rate novelist; it was simply too absurd.

One had to know.

There were many among them who had seen that card.

The contents were even still vivid in their minds.

[When the moonlight cleanses the pitch-black campus,]

[When the hands of the clock pass the apex three times,]

[I shall take away your treasures.]

Thus.

They were even more terrified; although they had dismissed it as a prank at the time, it was clear that not only had the President taken it seriously, but the other party had also arrived as promised and successfully taken the treasure.

It was terrifying!

Finally.

One Student Council executive could no longer hold out.

It was Kiriyama from Class B of the second year; his expression remained calm, but he straightened his posture slightly in his chair.

"President..."

"What should we do next? Although we have temporarily pacified the students, their patience won't last long. How should we explain things when that time comes?"

As for catching the thief? He didn't have the confidence for that.

However.

Before the President could even speak.

"Bang!"

The Vice President, Nagumo Miyabi, stood up abruptly; the movement was so large that the chair behind him let out a harsh screeching sound as it tipped over backward.

However.

He ignored them, simply bracing his hands against the tabletop as he cast a gloomy gaze around everyone in the Conference Room.

His eyes finally settled on his dear senior.

"An explanation?"

Nagumo Miyabi spoke, each word seemingly squeezed through his teeth, "The one who should be explaining right now isn't that ridiculous malfunction, but rather our Student Council President, who is in charge of the entire operation."

"Leading two hundred people last night and failing to even catch a glimpse of the opponent's shadow—it's absolutely outrageous!"

Clearly.

Nagumo Miyabi understood the principle of striking first.

He was destined to take the fall for this, but he would never let Horikita Manabu stay out of it; if he was going down, he was taking the President with him.

Thinking of this.

He felt incredibly stifled inside.

Not only had he been beaten up for nothing last night, but he had also lost a massive amount of points, leading to a decline in his prestige within the grade level while also having to shoulder the blame—he was undoubtedly the biggest loser in this situation.

And the one who brought all this about.

Was undoubtedly the dear senior before his eyes.

Nagumo Miyabi wore a vicious expression as he pulled out his phone and projected its screen onto the wall; the content displayed was a text message.

[Come to the Server Room at 12:00 AM.]

It was from an Anonymous Account, so how had our Vice President mistaken it for being from Horikita Manabu?

Damn thief!

Nagumo Miyabi gritted his teeth, his face slightly twisted, "It's all your fault for questioning me out of the blue a couple of days ago. I thought we were the only ones who knew about that location."

"That's why I let my guard down."

"Otherwise, how could I have been so easily deceived!"

Obviously.

Even now, he didn't know that there were two Student Council Presidents, still assuming that Horikita Manabu had leaked the information.

That matter.

Only Tachibana Akane and Horikita Manabu himself in the entire Student Council knew about it.

It had already been classified as confidential.

Under normal circumstances.

Nagumo Miyabi would never dare to speak to his senior like this.

After all.

Here in Sakura, people were very particular about the hierarchy of the workplace, but he had truly been pushed to the edge.

This incident had blown up too much.

If things went poorly, he might even lose his position as Vice President.

Therefore.

For the sake of his grand plan, he had to distance himself as much as possible and minimize the losses from this affair.

Facing the Vice President's outburst of emotion.

Everyone in the Conference Room held their breath.

They seemed to see a fierce battle between dragons about to begin, and it was best not to interject.

At the same time.

Facing this merciless questioning.

Horikita Manabu finally made a move; he slowly turned around, his expression extremely calm, devoid of any annoyance or signs of being provoked.

He neither denied it nor offered an explanation.

His gaze slowly fell upon the other man, and he spoke in a calm tone, "The failure of the capture is my responsibility, but you acted on your own accord based on a text message of unknown origin, disrupting the deployment."

"You must also take responsibility for that."

Hearing this.

Nagumo Miyabi fell silent, feeling somewhat surprised.

He had expected Horikita Manabu to stubbornly pin the blame on him, which would have been quite troublesome and, at the same time, the most advantageous choice for the President.

But he hadn't expected him to refrain from doing so.

"Heh."

Nagumo Miyabi suddenly laughed, his tone returning to its usual flippancy, "Well, well... having my dear senior share the burden isn't such a bad thing after all."

Horikita Manabu ignored his grinning face and slowly moved away from the window to the head of the table.

"Now."

"Let us review the situation from last night."

Seeing that a fight had not broken out, the crowd felt a tinge of disappointment.

However, they were also curious about the events of the previous night, so they listened to the President's speech as they usually did.

"First of all."

"We locked down the School Building at around seven in the evening, but according to our investigation, no one else entered besides Nagumo Miyabi and myself."

"This indicates that the culprit never left, and in all likelihood, they are among the students."

"At eight o'clock..."

"Around midnight."

"Nagumo arrived after receiving the text message, drawing..."

Suddenly.

Tachibana Akane pulled out her phone, and upon seeing a message, her eyes widened as she hurriedly stood up.

"Um."

"President."

"The school just sent a notification saying they've found that person..."

"What?!"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone present was shocked.