9. Only Those With Weaknesses Are Trustworthy

"Tachibana, come in." Horikita Manabu raised his voice slightly.

Hearing the voice, Tachibana Akane pushed open the door. Her gaze landed on the seated Shiraishi Makoto, and a flicker of surprise crossed her face.

"Shiraishi will be a member of our student council from now on." Horikita Manabu turned his head to introduce him. "This is Tachibana Akane. You met her during the club recruitment day. She's our student council secretary, mainly responsible for assisting me in council work, and she's usually the one who relays council tasks to you."

"Hello, Senior Tachibana." Shiraishi Makoto faced her and gave a slight bow in greeting.

"Hello, Shiraishi." After responding, Tachibana Akane instinctively looked toward Horikita Manabu.

"Shiraishi is quite outstanding and met the admission standards." Horikita Manabu explained flatly, then turned back to Shiraishi Makoto. "I'll also approve Ichinose's application. I hope you'll pass that along."

"I'll relay it fully." Shiraishi Makoto nodded in agreement.

"Good. Let's exchange contact information. There will be an official induction ceremony later, and we'll notify you then." Horikita Manabu issued a clear dismissal, signaling that he had matters to discuss privately with Tachibana Akane.

"Understood. Goodbye, President. Goodbye, Secretary." Shiraishi Makoto added Horikita Manabu and Tachibana Akane as contacts, then left the student council room.

Walking down the hallway, Shiraishi Makoto lightly patted his chest. Horikita Manabu had spoken in riddles the entire time, and to keep up, Shiraishi Makoto had no choice but to play the same game. Still, the outcome was good—both he and Ichinose had successfully joined the student council.

Inside the student council office, after Shiraishi Makoto left, Tachibana Akane finally voiced her doubts. "Didn't we decide earlier, to prevent Nagumo Miyabi from targeting first-years, that we wouldn't recruit any freshmen for now?"

"Just now, Shiraishi told me that yesterday afternoon, Nagumo Miyabi privately met with Ichinose Honami, whom I had rejected, and invited her to join the student council." Horikita Manabu paused briefly. "He's already caught on to my intentions, so this tactic has lost its effectiveness."

"Besides, Shiraishi himself is quite remarkable. Didn't you notice yesterday?" Horikita Manabu prompted, his thoughts drifting back to a scene in the gymnasium two days prior.

At the time, he had been giving a speech from the podium. The moment he said, "We only welcome those who can understand this," several freshmen in the audience simultaneously glanced in Shiraishi Makoto's direction. That caught his attention, and upon returning to the office, he used his authority as student council president to look into that student's information.

"Although his enrollment records show nothing particularly outstanding, Shiraishi has actually set a precedent." Horikita Manabu explained slowly. "I requested the school to review the surveillance footage. I found that he began consciously gathering information from his very first day on campus. By the second day of school, he had deduced the school's entire rule system and completed the consolidation of his class. They might even become the first class in the school's history to overtake another within the first month of enrollment."

"That impressive?" Tachibana Akane was astonished.

Horikita Manabu gave a slight nod, a trace of barely perceptible approval flickering in his eyes. The hidden entrance exam at this school was always the same—under the strict prohibition of teachers and upperclassmen voluntarily revealing the rules, it tested whether new students could discover them on their own. Since the school's founding, many had uncovered the hidden rules within the first month, but someone like Shiraishi Makoto, who saw through everything just two days after enrollment, was unprecedented.

"At the very least, these two from first-year Class B have already grasped the school's true rules and have the ability to protect themselves under Nagumo's pressure. And since I'm still the student council president, Nagumo's attention will mostly remain on me until we graduate. With me as their cover, letting them gain experience and grow early might not be a bad thing." Horikita Manabu tapped his fingers lightly on the desk as he spoke slowly.

From that interview just now, he had roughly gauged Shiraishi Makoto's personality. Unlike Nagumo Miyabi, who was both capable and extremely arrogant, he keenly sensed a hint of self-doubt in Shiraishi Makoto.

Even though Shiraishi Makoto had performed smoothly throughout the interview, the subtle fidgeting of his fingers, the occasional wandering of his gaze, and the deliberately controlled rhythm of his breathing all betrayed his inexperience in such settings. This also explained why the first person to come for a student council interview had been Ichinose Honami.

The weakness Shiraishi Makoto revealed actually put Horikita Manabu at ease. Because it precisely showed that Shiraishi Makoto would not become another Nagumo Miyabi.

"What about Katsuragi from first-year Class A?" Tachibana Akane suddenly recalled Katsuragi, whose interview had just ended, and asked softly.

"Katsuragi... he's still too naive." At the mention of that name, Horikita Manabu's brow furrowed slightly, indicating he wasn't satisfied with his interview performance.

Listening to Horikita Manabu's assessment, Tachibana Akane couldn't help but suppress a smile. She had also looked into all the candidates' information beforehand, so she naturally knew that first-year Class A had already split into two factions, secretly vying for class leadership.

Once the student council recruitment announcement was officially released, everyone would discover that first-year Class B had two successful candidates, while Katsuragi, the core leader of Class A, had unexpectedly failed. The scene at that time would surely be quite amusing.

After leaving the student council office, Shiraishi Makoto immediately returned to his class and promptly reported everything that had happened that day to Ichinose Honami and the others.

"But this way, we're essentially burning bridges with Vice President Nagumo outright." Kanzaki Ryuji calmly analyzed the current situation, his expression growing serious.

"Although Vice President Nagumo doesn't know what you discussed with President Horikita today, given his nature, he'll definitely find this suspicious. First, he's already confirmed through Ichinose that President Horikita wouldn't let any first-year join the student council. Ichinose was someone he personally invited, so she was considered his ally. But now someone suddenly appears and joins the council—so you're unquestionably on President Horikita's side."

Moreover, both Ichinose and Shiraishi Makoto were from first-year Class B, and Class B wasn't plagued by internal strife like Class A. Nagumo Miyabi only needed to connect the dots to guess the truth.

"It's not a big deal. We shouldn't have any chance to run into him in the short term." Shiraishi Makoto wasn't bothered by burning bridges with Nagumo Miyabi, because he knew full well that cooperating with him was like lying down with a tiger.

Nagumo Miyabi believed in the philosophy of "individual ability above all," advocating for a stronger push to expel underperforming students. This was fundamentally incompatible with the ideals of Horikita Manabu, Shiraishi Makoto, Ichinose, and even the entire Class B.