Hachiman began paying attention to Ryuen.
After all, just listen to how shameless and false Ryuen's words were.
Back at the All-School Sports Festival, Ryuen had not hesitated to get Kinoshita from his own class injured for the sake of his goal. He had even deliberately provoked Horikita, framed and falsely accused both Horikita and Sudō—yet now he claimed he disdained such methods.
That was way too fake.
But the fact that he said that meant... he was fooling Yamamura.
And Ryuen was indeed fooling Yamamura. He remembered her; she was the one who had been bullied by students from another class during the school trip.
Generally speaking, people who were so easily bullied were at the bottom of the heap—the type to shoulder problems alone, hide them without reporting them, and then be unable to solve them themselves. Weaklings, in other words.
And people like that were easy to coax information out of.
So if he could get useful intelligence from her, that would be great. If not, it did not matter.
Ryuen had previously gotten information from Ibuki that Yamamura seemed to have been assigned by Sakayanagi to follow Hachiman Hikigaya. Since Sakayanagi had assigned her to follow Hachiman, she was probably someone Sakayanagi paid attention to and considered useful.
So, if he could turn her—or even if he could not, if he could affect Yamamura's state of mind and hinder her ability to perform—then that would benefit him in this exam.
Thus.
Ryuen's mind was now filled entirely with class competition.
And so.
Ryuen said something terrifying.
"Or do you want me to tell Sakayanagi that your surveillance failed and you got caught? Once I'm the one reporting it, Sakayanagi will definitely decide you're useless," Ryuen said.
"Then she'll probably discard you whenever she feels like it.