Concerns of the Star Palace

"A game, is it..." Kanzaki repeated in a low voice. The gaze behind his lenses refocused, becoming sharper and more clear-headed. "Fine. Then let us see exactly what the endgame of this game looks like."

He paused, adding with a hint of restrained fighting spirit that had just been ignited: "--Let's graduate from Class A together with everyone in Class B."

"Then you and Honami Ichinose will be in the light, while I remain in the shadows. We must play our strong cards slowly; our trump cards must not be revealed prematurely," Yun Lan said slowly.

"Alright, alright, isn't it just acting as a messenger for you? Fine, you have more talent than I do, so you need to stay hidden more," Kanzaki said casually.

"Enough, enough, I just don't want to step onto the stage so early," Yun Lan waved his hand.

The lingering echoes of the lunch break bell were still trembling in the hallway when the atmosphere in the classroom suddenly relaxed. The rustling of papers being closed, the friction of chairs being pushed and pulled, and the waves of eager conversation instantly spread, sweeping away the dullness left by the last class of the morning. The sun was fierce, cutting bright patches of light onto the floor through the windows, with dust motes floating in the air.

Ryuji Kanzaki tidied the notes on his desk and looked up to see Yun Lan still sitting in his seat, his fingers unconsciously tapping the lid of a plain bento box. He stood up, picked up his student handbook, and asked as if in passing:

"By the way, aren't you going to the cafeteria to eat?" His gaze swept over the bento box inadvertently. It wasn't an expensive multi-tiered lacquer box, just a common plastic one, but it was washed very clean, with not a single trace of grease on the edges.

Yun Lan looked up at the sound, his eyes refocusing from a vacant state. "I brought a bento," he replied, then countered, "What about you? Not going to fight for the limited set meal at the counter?" It was almost common knowledge throughout the school that the limited dishes in the cafeteria always disappeared the fastest.

"Since you hinted at me like that, I suppose I won't buy such a luxurious lunch," Kanzaki shook his head and replied.

Kanzaki's gaze lingered on the bento box for a second longer. It wasn't curiosity about the contents, but a deeper kind of probe. He suddenly spoke, his voice lower than before, sounding exceptionally clear against the noisy background, carrying a tentative tone that hovered between a joke and seriousness:

"You wouldn't happen to be..." He paused, his gaze seemingly glancing toward the front row of the classroom at the seat belonging to Honami Ichinose, which had long been empty, "...in a romantic relationship with Honami Ichinose, would you? Is that why... you have a bento?"

The moment the question was thrown out, the noise in the classroom seemed to be separated by a layer. A few boys who were messing around passed by their table, laughing and running past, stirring up a breeze that ruffled the bangs on Yun Lan's forehead.

Yun Lan's movements paused for about half a heartbeat. Then, he raised his eyes to look at Kanzaki, the corners of his mouth pulling into an arc that was somewhat helpless and carried a "here we go again" implication.

"I've already said it," his voice was not loud, but clear, as he reached out and waved his hand casually in the air, as if to brush away some non-existent smoke, "we've just known each other since we were children; I helped her out."

After saying this, he picked up the bento box with one hand, casually shoved his other hand into his trouser pocket, nodded slightly at Kanzaki, and turned to walk toward the back door of the classroom. His pace was steady, his back straight, and the simple bento box reflected a thin layer of light on its edges under the bright light streaming through the door and windows.

Ryuji Kanzaki stood where he was, watching Yun Lan's back disappear into the crowd pouring through the doorway. He pushed up his glasses, his face expressionless, but a faint, unconfirmed thought flickered in the depths of his eyes.

"Just helped her out since childhood... huh, but I see how she looks at you..."

He muttered to himself, unable to tell if he believed it or otherwise. In the end, he also picked up his things and headed in the same direction as Yun Lan--the hallway leading to the microwave heating area.

The classroom gradually emptied, leaving only the sunlight to occupy the vacant desks and chairs. The question about the source of the bento and the relationship that had been so lightly denied were like dust motes suspended in a beam of light, slowly rotating, never settling. And Yun Lan's flat denial seemed to have become a footnote in this midday clamor, one that was deliberately kept brief and therefore appeared all the more mysterious.

The afternoon sun cut diagonally across the blinds of the faculty office, casting alternating stripes of light and shadow on the polished floor. Fine dust floated in the air, slowly rising and falling in the beams of light, mixed with the scent of old paper, ink, and a faint hint of coffee. Chie Hoshinomiya was not sitting in her somewhat oversized office chair, but was leaning sideways against the windowsill, her fingertips unconsciously twisting a green leaf she had plucked from a potted plant.

Outside the window was the school courtyard, where students walked by in twos and threes, their noise filtered by the thick glass into a blurred background sound. Her gaze fell on a point in the void, her focus unfocused; she was not looking at the scenery.

"Little Yun Lan, you think that by threatening me like that, I'll just behave myself..."

She murmured in a low voice, her tone as light as a sigh, yet the corners of her mouth curled into an arc of amusement and calculation that did not quite fit her gentle teacher persona. The arc was very faint and fleeting, as if it were merely an illusion caused by light and shadow.

The smart terminal screen on the desk beside her was glowing quietly, displaying a summary of today's abnormal point flows. The first item, bolded and highlighted in red:

[First-Year Class B, Yun Lan, Club Activity Wager--Total points credited: 10,000,000.]

Ten million. For a freshman, this was simply an astronomical figure. Most students were still meticulously calculating how to allocate their monthly "living expenses" of one hundred thousand, yet on his very first day of school, he had leveraged the rules in a way that was almost an elegant "game," nonchalantly prying open the system to seize such a massive amount of resources.

Chie Hoshinomiya's fingertips loosened, and the green leaf drifted down, landing on a thin layer of gray dust accumulated on the windowsill. She turned around and walked slowly back behind her desk, but did not sit down, instead tapping her knuckles lightly against the cold tabletop.

"What a... breathtaking 'talent' indeed. Should I say as expected of the heir to the Yun Family?" She spoke to the empty office, but there was no admiration in her eyes, only deep deliberation. "Without showing off or making a scene, not even using class resources, simply utilizing the loopholes in the rules of challenging clubs and wagers... precise, efficient, and completely 'compliant'."

Everything in this school was built upon points. Points were blood, power, and the cornerstone of survival and advancement. A student possessing such keen "point intuition" and operational capability had a value... far exceeding that of an ordinary "honor student."

The problem is--

Chie Hoshinomiya slowly sat into her chair, leaning back, the chair back emitting a slight creak. She raised her hand to rub her brow, and the face that was always filled with a cheerful smile now held only a depth that bordered on exhaustion.