When You Feel Sad (Sakayanagi IF Route)

The next day.

Oreki got out of bed.

No one had come to wake him, and it felt a little strange.

"Seven o'clock..."

He took a bottle of milk from the fridge and toasted a slice of bread.

That would do for breakfast.

Besides...

Oreki wasn't in the mood to go to some restaurant.

On the way.

He rode his bike with a piece of bread in his mouth.

He reached the building in less than three minutes.

There weren't many people around at this hour.

When he got to Class A, Oreki sat down at his desk.

There were six people in the classroom besides him.

One of them didn't need to be named. He knew who it was.

Hashimoto Masayoshi.

When it came to matters affecting his future, Hashimoto Masayoshi never took things lightly.

Even if he graduated from Class A, he'd still have to work for rich people.

But there was nothing he could do about that.

His family wasn't particularly prominent.

And they didn't have much money...

So Hashimoto Masayoshi could only be a little more tactful in his dealings with people.

"Houtarou, you're here early today."

"If you have something to say, say it."

"Right, right."

Hashimoto Masayoshi looked around, and only after confirming there was no one worth worrying about did he feel at ease enough to speak to Oreki:

"The vote canvassing is going smoothly, but..."

"What?"

"That bald guy... Katsuragi doesn't seem happy about it."

"So?"

"He's teamed up with a few people to oppose my proposal."

"And you call that going smoothly?"

"Come on, come on. Hear me out first, Houtarou."

"..."

"After all my hard work, I finally defeated—"

"Get to the point."

"Ahem. I used points to turn the people in Katsuragi's group against him."

"..."

That finally left Oreki speechless.

Why did he keep feeling...

like this was some kind of comedy?

He'd gone to all that trouble to win people over, only for the opposition to buy them off with money so easily.

"How many points did you use?"

"Well... about ten thousand?"

"You're pretty generous."

"Ha ha ha... Not really."

"I wasn't praising you."

Oreki shook his head.

He understood. There was no way ten thousand points was all it took.

At least double that.

But it didn't matter.

It wasn't his money, anyway.

Besides, even if he had used his own money, it wouldn't have been a big deal.

He still had over four million in his balance, right?

Points could only be used at this school.

And the school sold a very limited range of things.

The claim that points could buy you anything...

was just an exaggeration.

For example, if I wanted to buy a nuclear missile, would you sell me one?

The answer was obvious.

If they really could sell you one...

then with that kind of ability, running a school would be a waste of their talents.

They'd be better off pulling off something big.

That was what had been bothering Oreki.

He should've asked Sakayanagi's Father for cash at the time.

Though he didn't know if he would've agreed...

"Houtarou?"

"Yeah, I'm listening."

"To put it simply, three-quarters of the class will choose you as leader."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. It's not that I didn't want to win over the rest, it's just..."

"What?"

"Well... you understand, Houtarou. The neutral faction? No, that's not quite it... They're the sort of people who don't want to get dragged into any kind of conflict."

"That's pretty common."

"I'm glad you understand, Houtarou. Don't worry, though. They won't vote for you, but they won't vote for anyone else, either."

"You mean?"

"They'll abstain."

"Hmm..."

Oreki began to think.

At least a third faction hadn't formed yet.

Oreki had taken over Sakayanagi's faction.

Katsuragi was still as he'd always been, with few useful people around him.

The rest all kept to themselves.

They were simply afraid of being caught up in factional strife.

Once Oreki defeated Katsuragi, the rest would naturally join him without complaint.

Then there'd only be one faction.

And that wouldn't be called a faction. It would be called...

"Well, I'll leave it at that for now."

Hashimoto Masayoshi left confidently.

He couldn't wait to see Katsuragi get humiliated.

Hashimoto Masayoshi had gone through a lot just to build a good relationship with Katsuragi.

That included, among other things, listening to Katsuragi ramble on about a bunch of big ideas.

When it came down to it...

wasn't it all about personal ability?

If those ideas worked, Sakayanagi wouldn't have been able to toy with him so easily.

Sakayanagi Arisu had gotten to everyone he wanted to recruit first.

The few decent prospects had all stayed out of it, ignoring Katsuragi's invitations.

How pitiful.

After that, people gradually began to arrive.

At eight o'clock, Kamuro Masumi entered through the back door and sat down beside Oreki.

"Has Sakayanagi contacted you?"

"..."

"What's wrong? Give me an answer."

"No."

Oreki looked out the window.

Sakayanagi Arisu hadn't contacted him since yesterday.

He didn't know why.

Every time he called, it said she was unavailable.

If something was wrong, she could've told him.

Why did she have to shoulder it alone?

His thoughts grew confused again.

"I see... Then something must've come up. I thought she'd found some new game to play..."

"A new game?"

"Like deliberately ignoring me for a while. If I didn't go looking for her, then she'd play... No, never mind."

Realizing she'd let something slip, Kamuro Masumi quickly left.

Although Kamuro Masumi hadn't said it outright,

Oreki could guess...

Still, she probably wouldn't show that sort of personal interest while they were dating, would she?

Right?

Oreki shook his head.

It was too early to think about that.

Sakayanagi Arisu was still waiting for him to go find her.

Too bad they didn't sell GPS trackers.

Never mind.

Even if they did, Oreki wouldn't put one on Sakayanagi.

That would be way too creepy.

He just couldn't bring himself to do it.

"All right, all right, everyone, return to your seats."

The homeroom teacher entered the classroom through the front door.

After reaching the lectern,

he took a drink from his thermos before speaking:

"Now, let's begin the vote."

A slip of paper was handed out to everyone.

It was very simple.

All they had to do was write down their nominee.

Then the papers would be collected, and one student would announce who had received the most votes.

A minute passed.

"Time's up. Hmm... Hashimoto, come collect the papers for me."

"Got it."

Hashimoto Masayoshi was startled at first.

But he quickly stood up and got to work.

When he reached Katsuragi, he couldn't help laughing.

There was nothing wrong with voting for yourself.

But you had to be certain you'd win.

Otherwise, you'd just make a fool of yourself.

After all, if you couldn't win and still voted for yourself...

you might as well leave the paper blank and have it counted as an abstention.

Katsuragi clenched his right hand.

He quietly warned Hashimoto Masayoshi:

"Don't get too excited."

"Is that so? Then I'll make sure to laugh at you properly later."

"...Hmph."

Oreki, walking behind them, saw what they were doing.

He wasn't interested.

It was time to look into the leaders of the other classes.

The easiest class to learn about at the moment was...

Class D.

It's time.

With that, Oreki took out his phone and opened Karuizawa Kei's email.

--To be continued