After Chen left, Kazuha Toyama gave Sonoko Suzuki another thumbs-up and said to her in delighted surprise, "Sonoko, that was brilliant! A strategic retreat—you got Chen to leave directly and successfully let us off the hook. Sonoko, you're incredible. I'm impressed."
After Kazuha's flood of praise, Sonoko was a little bewildered. However, she quickly came back to herself, a mysterious smile appearing on her face.
"Just a little trick."
Kazuha had definitely misunderstood something, but no matter what she had misunderstood, Sonoko was happy to accept it. After all, she was being praised.
Being praised naturally felt wonderful, and Sonoko even wanted Kazuha to praise her some more.
"Looks like I need to learn more from you in the future," Kazuha said seriously to Sonoko.
Hearing Kazuha's words, Sonoko felt a little guilty. Learn what? Even I don't know what I did so brilliantly.
Earlier, she had simply thought there was no escaping, so she had resigned herself to it.
If Kazuha really came to ask her for advice, Sonoko would be genuinely worried. Hopefully, Kazuha was just saying it and would not take it seriously.
"Let's go. We should head back first—and settle the score with Akako Koizumi. ..." The moment Sonoko mentioned Akako, her eyes flashed red.
"That's right. That hateful Akako actually betrayed us. It's time to make her pay the price." Kazuha and Sonoko went looking for Akako in a rage.
However, Akako had apparently known long ago that they would come looking to settle scores with her, and she was not in the classroom at all.
Kazuha and Sonoko were extremely frustrated that they had failed to find Akako.
"Sonoko, isn't your information network supposed to be well-connected? Can you find Akako?" Kazuha asked Sonoko.
"I'll try."
Sonoko immediately began contacting people. In truth, Sonoko's