Chapter 50

Dangerous for me? No, I'm quite familiar with this sense of danger; it's the feeling of encountering one of my own. People who don't care about their own allegiances and live only for themselves all radiate this kind of "approachable" aura, and I am the same way within Class C. "Hashimoto Masayoshi, nice to meet you." After stepping into my room, he politely refrained from looking around, but that only made my first impression of him deeper. Do you also use your "peripheral vision" to observe this world? A ruthless wolf! Brother, we've met our match! "Hello! I am Kitazawa Minya. Sorry to make you come all this way. Princess Sakayanagi should have briefed you, right?" "Yes, Her Highness asked me to cooperate with you and stir up some trouble for Katsuragi and his group." Hashimoto nodded, taking the drink I handed him. "You might have heard that Class D was tricked by a fake exam paper during the midterm. I intend to plant this fake paper in the hands of one of Katsuragi's subordinates. Do you have a suitable candidate? The second-year side will cooperate when the time comes." "I see. Katsuragi usually leaves such chores to Totsuka Yahiko. Totsuka is his most loyal follower, but he's a bit too straightforward." Hashimoto thought for a moment before coming up with a candidate. "Then it's him! Can you predict what he'll do once he discovers the fake paper?" Perhaps out of trust in the abilities of a kindred spirit, I made the decision immediately. "He probably won't care much, but he won't just throw it away either... How about this? I'll have a word with Totsuka's desk-mate, Masumi, and ask her to keep an eye on it." "Is she also one of your Sakayanagi faction? Don't let things get complicated..." I warned him vigilantly; the fewer people who know about this, the safer it is. "Of course, don't worry." "Haha, it sounds like you and Masumi are quite close? Is she a beauty?" "I can't believe you saw through that." Facing someone he had just met, Hashimoto admitted it openly. He really is the same type of person as I am. "Heh heh, that's because our styles are so similar..." "Indeed, let's be friends. You definitely want information on Class A, right? People like us make friends for the sake of necessity, don't we?" "I couldn't agree more." Having reached a consensus quite happily, we exchanged contact information. As one of the capable henchmen under Sakayanagi, Hashimoto lived up to expectations and tucked the fake math paper into the drawer of Katsuragi's subordinate. This strange, anonymous paper was discovered a few days later by that guy named Totsuka. Thinking it was someone's practice work left in the wrong seat, he placed it in the lost-and-found corner of the classroom. The students of Class A gradually noticed the paper, but they just glanced at it and moved on. No one thought there was anything special about it, until one day, when Kushida visited Class A and happened to see the paper posted in the corner. "Nishiharu-san, what is this?" Kushida asked, pointing to the paper posted in the lost-and-found. "Oh, it seems to have been there since last week. I don't know whose practice paper it is." "..." Curious, Kushida read through the problems on it and was suddenly shocked. "Who found this thing?" "Who knows? It seems Totsuka asked around the class before if anyone had lost a math paper, but no one claimed it at the time." "Then can I take it back to look at? Class A's practice sets must have some superior qualities, right? I want to study them properly." "Take it. If anyone wanted it, it would have been claimed long ago. It's probably just scrap paper, right?" Just like that, the paper no one in Class A cared about was obtained by Kushida, and Hashimoto, who was observing from the shadows, immediately reported the success to me. Not long after, news came from the second-year level. Hirata, Karuizawa, and others went to confirm the matter of the fake paper again. Under the dual pressure of points and evidence, the senior from the soccer club who had tricked Hirata finally admitted that it was a deal made with Totsuka from the first-year Class A. Totsuka is an idiot who doesn't even consider logic when lying, so this matter was definitely directed by his boss, Katsuragi. Now, Class A, which had been kept in the dark, heard about the incident. The reactions within the class were mixed; some approved of Katsuragi's actions, while others blamed him for not consulting everyone before doing it. In short, they didn't take Class D seriously. So what if we tricked your Class D? It's a school where strength is supreme anyway; it's just that Hirata was stupid enough to fall for it. Katsuragi, the person involved, knew that no one would believe him if he said he didn't do it, so he tacitly accepted the blame. Since the fake paper did indeed damage Class D and even hit the economic strength of their competitor, Class B, his position in Class A became even more secure. The entire Class D was furious. They had been suppressed for so long, and they had finally found the culprit. If he hadn't just gotten into trouble, Sudo would have gone to challenge Katsuragi to a one-on-one fight. Ichinose, who had provided a large amount of points to Class D, naturally stood on their side. She undoubtedly wanted to be promoted to Class A as well, and Class B's eyes were currently still mainly focused on Class A. The result was that these matters had nothing to do with Class C, which was watching the fire from across the river. I was living my life happily, waiting for the end of the semester. Heh heh, what will that girl Karuizawa do? She certainly won't agree to break up with Hirata and be with me. Her options are to play matchmaker or to break her promise. I actually hope she breaks her promise, as that would make the internal situation of Class D even more unstable, since I have no interest in any of the girls in Class D except for Horikita. That's how girl groups work; once Karuizawa loses her prestige, there will definitely be other replacements, or the group will fall apart and be cannibalized by other factions. More importantly, since Karuizawa and Hirata, two important figures in the class, are dating, their honor and disgrace are tied together. If Karuizawa's status drops and Hirata doesn't dump her, his status will drop too, and dumping her would clearly disrupt the stability of the class. So, I wasn't interested in a gal like Karuizawa in the first place; I was preparing to shatter the status of Karuizawa and Hirata within the class to make the already scattered Class D even more chaotic. However, Karuizawa has learned to be obedient lately and is clearly avoiding me. Not to mention that she chooses to take a detour instead of passing by our classroom door, she even retreats three times whenever she sees me in the cafeteria. But I don't intend to let her off that easily. With a large group of people behind me, I walked straight toward Karuizawa, who was trying to hide behind Hirata, preparing to beat a dog that had fallen into the water. "Isn't this Karuizawa-san? I heard you've made some progress in gathering evidence lately?" Don't blame me for rubbing salt in your wounds; I'm just deepening the impression for all the witnesses. "What are you doing? I'm not even close to you... Yosuke, let's ignore him..." Karuizawa's face flushed slightly as she tried to play dumb. "Karuizawa-san, you misunderstood Kitazawa-san before. Kitazawa-san, if you are dissatisfied because of this, I apologize to you on her behalf." Hirata, who somehow found out about this bet, was indeed a good guy. He immediately blocked Karuizawa behind him, wanting to take responsibility for her. "Kneel." "Kitazawa-san?" "If you want to apologize, kneel down and apologize. She made a bet with me, after all."