How dare you imprison your future king

Kazami Saku had just finished laying out his plan to have Yamauchi shadow people and extort points. The boys had yet to recover from its sheer absurdity, but the girls were already unable to hold back their criticism, launching straight into a barrage of rejections.

Satsuki Shinohara looked at Kazami Saku, her voice full of disbelief. "How could that possibly work? You're just making things up! That's completely ridiculous!"

Kei Karuizawa looked equally disgusted. "Exactly! What even is this? Could you stop coming up with such rotten ideas? It's seriously so stupid!"

Their successive complaints slapped the label "useless" firmly onto Kazami's second plan. The rest of the class nodded along, unanimously deciding that this plan would never work.

Just as everyone was ready to reject it outright and put an end to this farce, Kazami Saku spoke quietly from the podium. "Don't be so quick to dismiss it." His gaze swept across the girls. "Let me ask you one thing. Could any of you stand being relentlessly pursued by General Yamauchi, who would never take no for an answer?"

The previously noisy girls fell silent at once, instinctively turning to look at Haruki Yamauchi's expectant face. At the thought of him following them around twenty-four hours a day, confessing his love in every way imaginable, and refusing to leave them alone... a collective chill ran down their backs. Too terrifying. Rejected on looks alone.

Satsuki Shinohara immediately changed her tune and admitted her mistake. She genuinely could not imagine being treated that way; she would rather die. "Sorry, I admit I was a little loud just now. That was out of line. Pretend I never said anything."

Kei Karuizawa hurriedly nodded along. Unless you were on the receiving end, you simply could not appreciate the terror of General Yamauchi. "Mm-hmm, true... this plan is nasty, but its destructive power is off the charts."

Kazami curled his lip. Tch. And here I thought you had such strong wills. You gave up that quickly.

The two girls who had led the fierce opposition to Kazami's plan switched sides at light speed. Only Yamauchi himself was deeply dissatisfied with their attitude. What was that supposed to mean? What exactly was wrong with General Yamauchi? "...Hey! Kazami, that's going too far! And you lot! You're going way too far too! Am I really that unbearable?"

Unfortunately, his protests were feeble and powerless, and nobody in the class paid him any attention. Everyone tacitly agreed that being persistently pursued by Yamauchi was psychological torment of the highest order. It qualified as torture, and nobody could withstand it. They also marveled that Kazami had managed to devise such a vicious plan and even put a useless resource like Yamauchi to work.

Even if it packed enough destructive power, this extortion scheme was far too outrageous, carried major risks, and could easily trigger a large-scale conflict between classes. In the end, the class, led by Hirata and Kushida, voted down Kazami's second plan anyway.

With two plans rejected in succession, Kazami was about to be driven off the podium when inspiration struck. Coming up with another brilliant idea, he raised a hand to stop them. "Wait, wait! I have another plan! This one is absolutely safe and feasible!"

Everyone exchanged glances, curious about what other crooked idea he could come up with.

"This time, Koenji gave me the inspiration," Kazami said seriously.

Rokusuke Koenji, who had been reclining in his seat and watching the show the entire time, finally took an interest. "Oh? Kazami boy, now that does interest me."

Kazami Saku spoke with complete confidence. "With his family's conglomerate backing him, Koenji can easily get upperclass girls to support him and feed him points without having to work hard at all. If someone else can do it, we can naturally replicate that approach!"

He looked at Yosuke Hirata, the gentle, popular boy with a thriving social life, and solemnly announced, "Next, I will deploy the most popular person in our class, our charming prince-Hirata-to provide emotional support to girls throughout the school and collect points in return!"

The moment he finished, Kei Karuizawa exploded, her face flushed with anger. "Kazami, you're such an asshole!"

"Why should Hirata have to do it? Why don't you make your boyfriend do it? That's blatantly working as a host!"

Looking innocent, Kazami Saku defended himself. "I don't have a boyfriend, and you shouldn't throw accusations around. We're not selling anything. We'd just be providing emotional support and gentle companionship."

Kei Karuizawa was so angry she laughed. "...What the hell does having a boyfriend have to do with it? That's not the point at all!" However he dressed it up in words, its nature would never change. Wouldn't people be pointing fingers at her afterward?

Seeing that Kei Karuizawa was about to explode with rage, Kazami Saku switched to comforting her. "Don't cry, Karuizawa. Your cuckold's cap will fall off."

Well, Hirata subsequently had to expend a great deal of effort to hold Karuizawa back. Otherwise, Karuizawa and Kazami would have launched into a duel that took them both down, and neither would have let it go until one of them fell that day.

After hearing the third plan, Haruki Yamauchi's eyes lit up, and he raised his hand to volunteer. "Wait! If Hirata doesn't want to, I can do this too. Providing emotional support is my specialty. I can do it."

Kazami Saku did not even look at Yamauchi as he delivered a merciless verbal blow on the spot. "Get lost. You'd be an eyesore even as a doorman, and you want to provide emotional support? We'd be lucky not to end up paying compensation."

Yamauchi's face flushed red with anger at Kazami's words, and he stood up to hit him. But when he saw Kazami starting to grab a chair again, he sat back down. He would not stoop to his level. It definitely was not because he could not beat him.

With all three plans rejected in succession, Kazami Saku sighed. There's no carrying these people. None at all. The class is already at zero points, and you're still fussing over this and that. If you don't belong in Class D, who does?

"You don't understand. A true comeback never follows the straight and narrow. Since none of those plans will work, I still have one last, ultimate-"

Before he could finish, he was dragged off the podium.

"Wait! Let go of me! I still have a plan! It really can turn things around! I'm a strategist with world-shaking wisdom!"

Held up and dragged away by his classmates, Kazami Saku's feet left the floor. He struggled desperately, flailing in midair and shouting at the top of his lungs.

"You treacherous rebels! How dare you imprison your future king!"

"A bunch of shortsighted fools! Your vision is narrow, and you understand nothing of grand strategy! I'm truly ashamed to be counted among you!"

His tragic roars echoed throughout the classroom. Kazami's rule over the class had been overthrown in less than fifteen minutes. His dynasty had ended.

Horikita sighed helplessly in her seat. As expected, he never disappointed-though in a negative sense.

Kushida fought back her amusement to keep from laughing aloud. You damned bastard. Serves you right. That's what you get for assigning me the role of a lowly foot soldier. Got kicked off the podium, didn't you?

Still fuming, Kazami Saku left the classroom outright. Those bastards. I racked my brains to come up with those plans. It was one thing not to accept them, but they even drove me off the podium.

They can forget about me looking out for the class ever again. If even someone as meritorious as me gets treated like this, Class D is doomed sooner or later.

At worst, I'll go solo from now on. Still, those twenty million points Chabashira-sensei mentioned are a problem.