"We got dragged into something troublesome because of you." After leaving the reception room, Sawahara complained to Ayanokoji beside him.
"This was your trouble to begin with." Ayanokoji retorted, condemning Sawahara for trying to distance himself from it.
"That's hard to say... What do you think about the conditions your father gave us?" Sawahara brought up the terms Ayanokoji Atsuomi had proposed to the two of them before leaving.
"Only one masterpiece is needed. You two can play around at this school for now. The loser won't even be worth retrieving, so it doesn't matter if someone useless like that chases after so-called 'freedom.'" Sawahara repeated the words Ayanokoji Atsuomi had left behind.
"Someone expelled from school gets freedom... Want to give it a try?"
"You can't possibly believe that. If we really got expelled, we'd definitely be retrieved immediately." Ayanokoji's brow twitched slightly. He didn't think Sawahara could have failed to see that.
"True, but you didn't deny that only one masterpiece is needed, did you?" Sawahara pointed out the fact. Of everything Ayanokoji Atsuomi had said, that was the only part that was true.
"If you want it, take it." Ayanokoji didn't care about that so-called title—or perhaps he wanted to avoid what Sawahara really wanted to say.
"How do we escape the tiger's jaws?" Sawahara asked.
"...Can one person really feed a tiger?" Ayanokoji asked in return.
"You make a good point, ally." Sawahara said nothing more. Their alliance had always been fragile, but at least it wasn't time to break it yet.
"Have you been in a particularly good mood lately?" Sawahara looked at the girl who had come to his room again. This time, her calmness was almost frightening.
"Yeah. Watching Horikita have a bad time has put me in a great mood these