Ryuuen's POV
The atmosphere in the classroom was abnormally frozen. The reason was apparent: I was using my intimidation while overlooking Class C.
Thinking about the previous exams, there have been several unusual things. I won't lie and say I'm not infuriated, but I'm amused by all this.
I could feel a grin creeping onto my face, "Based on what happened on the uninhabited island and at the sports festival, there appears to be a person in Class D who thinks like me."
"Someone like Ryuuen-kun? I don't think Class D has someone like that..." I stopped Ishizaki from speaking any further as I smiled at him.
"I used to think that too, but I need to face reality."
"Is this also related to the results of the uninhabited island exam and the sports festival?"
"That's it. But rest assured, I have a general idea of how the other side is doing things. Moving forward, we'll be looking to launch an all-out attack on Class D. I must take out the person running Class D from the shadows. Class A and B will have to be put aside for now."
"First, I thought I was the fairy-tale princess of Class D," I said.
My minions were looking at me with confusion, thinking I was crazy.
"I'm talking about Kagurazaka-kun."
It seemed they understood.
"But I decided to toss that to the side. I even heard a rumor about him not attending classes, and he might be getting expelled," I said.
Indeed, he's not going to class, but I told a small lie about him being expelled.
Let's see how they react because he talks to people in this class.
Oh! A few girls are showing interesting reactions about hearing this news. I can use this to my advantage, but I'll be patient and wait.
You've been added back to the suspects' list, fairy-tale princess.
"What's the point of telling us?" Ibuki asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Kuku. You're a big talker for someone who hasn't asked for permission. Haven't you already made a fool of yourself?"
She had no choice but to eat her words after embarrassing herself at the sports festival. She still glared at me, though.
"Are you one to talk? You failed to defeat Horikita at the sports festival. Did you manage to get the private points for the collection? Aren't you the same as me?"
"The same as you? Don't make jokes like that. The strategy I set up at the sports festival was perfect."
"What's up with that outcome? You don't even explain anything to us, and now you say another guy thinks like you in that class? Do you want us to accept that?"
"No, my plan was perfect," a wicked grin firmed, "The information was leaked, meaning we have a spy."
"The mysterious success of Class D is due to the mysterious existence of 'X,' who dares to draw and manipulate the Class C students at my command."
There was a little confusion in the classroom because of his remark. Ibuki's eyes blew open in surprise.
"Are you serious...?"
"This is a fact. My cohesiveness... no, it seems that authority was not enough. It truly is a pity."
A disaster had sprung for everyone in the class, not just those looking to get out of the room and attend club activities.
Everyone present began praying that this would be over soon.
"However, this noisy espionage will end here."
I slammed the podium with my palm and silenced the room's chaos. The scene sank into silence.
"First of all, I will try to ask honestly. The student who betrayed me raised your hand."
I'm slightly glad none raised their hands because they would look like a dumbass.
Some averted their eyes, others feigned ignorance, while the rest looked around to see whether anyone would come forward.
"Kukuku. You're making this entertaining," I said, "If you come forward, I'll forgive you."
"What are you saying? Are you tolerating traitors?"
"Ibuki... shut up. Your mouth is giving me a headache. Keep disturbing my fun, or I'll kill you," I could feel my anger rising.
"I've been trying not to make a big deal. Others may think I'm lying, but it's true. To put it simply, I've been slacking off."
Bam!
Bam!
I struck the podium twice, "Maybe that's a bad thing. After all, there is a traitor."
Bam!
I struck the podium as the timid students began to shake.
"All this means is that I'll have to play some games. It's nothing. It's not a big deal. It's a silly game where we find a spy trying to remain hidden. For most students present, this should be meaningless, so there's nothing to fear. It shouldn't take long; it'll take less than 30 minutes."
The atmosphere was filled with fear while I stayed calm.
"First, everyone, unlock your phone and place it on your desk. I'll check it myself. Are there any idiots who don't have their phones with them? If you don't, speak up immediately. That person is the culprit."
I flicked my head, signaling to Ishizaki to collect the phones. Everyone seemed to comply as they placed their phones on their desk.
It took a few minutes for Ishizaki to collect the phones and put labels on the back.
"Let's begin the investigation," a violent grin painted my voice.
"Are we checking the call histories?"
I scoffed, "Are you an idiot? Someone was trying to hide their identity. It would be incriminating if they were to call. Look at the email and the text messages. Even if it's a conversation with someone, look at all of it. We can't rule out the possibility they're interacting with each other under an alternative name."
"W-Wait a minute! There are lots of private messages on my phone, though!" Shouted one girl.
"Nishino. You don't want me to look at your phone?"
"Of course! Even if it's you, Ryuuen-kun, It's unacceptable!"
"Are you joking, Nishino? You gave your phone to Ryuuen-kun on the cruise ship. Why are you so concerned now?"
"This, this is different from that time! All he did then was do a confirmation check of my email from the school!"
During Nishino's appeal, I remained indifferent as I wasn't surprised. Previously, during the particular exam on the cruise ship, I had collected all the phones in Class C and verified their contents. However, as Nishino had complained, nothing personal was inspected then. It was just a confirmation of the messages received from the school. Although this was a similar event, the situations were different. If private messages were to be checked, information such as one's likes, dislikes, and other sensitive information would inevitably be exposed. Such information is usually something that people prefer to keep hidden from others.
"Of course," I answered, "You know that you will be suspected, Nishino."
"I... I will obey you, Ryuuen-kun, but some things cannot be accepted!"
Nishino wasn't the type who usually took a firm stance, but she didn't seem willing to back down.
It was as if she was broadcasting that she had something hidden that she didn't want to be seen.
"Nishino, was it you?"
Students in the class had begun to suspect Nishino.
One of them, Takumi Oda, had voiced their doubt.
"No! I am not the spy!"
"But you're hiding something and acting so suspicious..."
"I just want to protect my privacy!"
I wasn't interested in their dumb conversation. I reached out to one of the phones and grabbed it, "This is your cell phone, right, Nishino?"
"Hey!" She started to panic, but I passed her phone over to Ishizaki, "Give her phone back to her."
"Sh-should I? You didn't confirm the content."
"Did I stutter?" I looked at him.
Ishizaki promptly apologized to Ryūen and returned the phone to Nishino.
"It's not such an incredible thing. I judged you to be innocent; that's why I returned it to you. That's it. It's to be expected, right? It wasn't the traitor's cell phone. Looking at it would be a waste of time and energy."
"If you find this unacceptable like Nishino has, feel free to raise your hand. However, be prepared to be suspected much more than she was."
Four girls and two boys raised their hands despite their fears.
"There are six people who are defying Ryuuen-san... The spy is one of them! And the last one to raise his hand, Nomura, you aren't thinking of saving yourself by jumping on the bandwagon, are you?"
Ishizaki... You're an idiot.
"No, no! I wasn't going to do that!" Nomura denies it out of fear of being suspected.
"Gather their phones."
"Yes."
Ishizaki collected their six phones and handed them over to me.
"So, even if you are suspected, you don't want us to look at anything?"
They all gave different responses, but they all agreed with this statement.
"Nomura, you took quite some time before raising your hand. Don't tell me you were waiting for the right opportunity?"
"Eh! No, that..."
"Your eyes are exaggeratedly darting around the room, and you're sweating."
"What?!"
Nomura had a weak personality and appeared so distressed that he was about to faint. Seeing him in such a state, I couldn't help but laugh happily before turning to Ishizaki to give instructions.
"Ishizaki, these people are all 'innocent,' give them their phones back."
"Will you explain what's going on?"
"I'll explain it later," I refuse to answer Ibuki.
"As for the rest of the cell phones, let's thoroughly investigate. We'll start with Ibuki."
"Whatever you say."
The situation took about 20 minutes, and I spent less than a minute on each phone. It was impossible to feel as though I had thoroughly gone through all of them. Most of the students had their doubts, but none of them would dare speak up about it.
But for the spy, the tens of seconds that their mobile phone was being examined should have been very long and stressful.
"I see. It turns out that there is no information contained within these phones."
"Then Nishino or one of the others who were 'innocent' turned out to be the traitor after all..."
"That's not it," I denied Ibuki's idea.
"But you didn't find any spies, did you? I was hoping you could explain to me exactly what's going on here. Is there a spy here in the first place?"
Ever since I received the results of the uninhabited island test, I have believed that there might be an invisible presence working behind Horikita. However, there has been no conclusive evidence to prove the existence of such a puppet master 'X.'
Interestingly, other classes have started to pay attention to Suzune Horikita.
"Proof is stronger than theory. In that case, let me tell you something. I assume this is something everyone here already knows very well."
I played the audio file sent to him by 'X.' The voice on the recording was one that every student in Class C had heard before—the voice of me explaining my strategy for the sports festival to his classmates.
"This was sent to me when I was one step away from victory over a desperate Suzune. Thanks to this, I couldn't even see her kowtow to me, much less see any points. Do you understand now?"
"Wait a minute. Even if we assume that you didn't record that yourself, but instead, a spy recorded it, strange questions remain unanswered. We didn't discuss a detailed time for having Horikita kowtow to you. They managed to know the whole plan and the details we didn't speak of. There's no way."
"It was a coincidence, purely a matter of probability. The best time for him to make a move was after school after the sports festival was over. Besides, I don't believe the other party was interested in stopping Horikita's apology. Nothing is written in the message that came with the audio file."
"What's going on...?"
I analyzed the blank message I received that contained the audio file.
"X, the master of Class D, is very clearly telling me that he's aware of the strategy I came up with by sending me this audio file. Since he knew about my plans, he could have avoided the attacks I had targeted against Suzune at the sports festival. He should have been able to prevent Suzune from being defeated and being forced to apologize altogether. However, this X deliberately ignored these openings. Despite knowing my strategy, I was allowed to rout Suzune, and of course, she suffered due to this. She didn't expect that she would be hurt, and the results of the competition for Class D wouldn't improve. On top of all this, there's the guilt of hurting someone. Her mental state should be in a pretty bad place."
"By letting Ryuuen-shi carry out his strategy, did he not make the audio file into credible evidence?"
"How very smart of you, Kaneda. As long as we execute the strategy, the audio file has meaning. Then it could make sense as evidence."
"The plans made by this 'X' are ruthless. He knows harm will come to his partner, but he takes no steps to avoid it."
"Yes. This type of guy isn't interested in Suzune's apology. That's the reason why nothing was written in the message. This is to say, from his perspective, he doesn't hold any regard for Suzune's pride or the loss of pride that she will go through."
"I can't understand. Wouldn't it be better to prevent Horikita from getting hurt?"
Other students in the class seemed to share Ibuki's sentiments on the matter. It was evident that I aimed to single out Horikita, and X should have been able to prevent the situation from escalating before the sports festival even commenced. Several options were available, such as altering the participation chart based on Class C's tactics or sharing the audio file to thwart my plans in advance. Horikita would have been spared from getting hurt if they had taken any of these measures.
"What if X intended to submit the audio file to the school?"
"This naive way of fighting has saved us entirely by chance. Could it be said that he has not fully utilized his assets? He went out of his way to obtain this information but then acted passively. If Horikita-shi had paid the private points to Ryuuen-shi, we would have won, and it would have been X's defeat," Kaneda analyzed the situation and concluded.
Since X had learned of their strategy before the sports festival, it follows that he should have had a complete victory during the festival.
"That's not right. X had found a useful way to use the information by deliberately not using it. Even if Suzune had paid out the private points earlier to make amends, he could have easily used the sound file as evidence to retrieve them. He could have included a message such as 'If you do not return the private points, this matter will be made public.'"
"You mean he knows how to use threats but deliberately doesn't use them?"
"Yeah, and he even allowed me to force Suzune to kowtow. Unlike private points, Kowtowing is not something that has a numeric value. It's only there in the physical form. You can't undo or reverse it later, right?"
"That is to say, X welcomes the idea of playing with Suzune."
"This kind of situation... I don't understand. Class C was saved by X, who we don't even know."
"Kuku... that is, he does not intend to reveal himself."
We should get back to the main topic, "Well, we've gotten derailed, so let's get back to the point. I'm not sure what method he used, but the fact remains that 'X is someone who thinks like me,' and he has made someone in this class spy for him. Because otherwise, he couldn't have gotten his hands on the audio file. However, the premise is that X's true identity will remain hidden even if we find the spy. If the spy knew his identity, this game would end when I find them. Because of this, to be able to conduct espionage, mail or other exchanges of communication would be necessary. Although they can use old-fashioned letters to communicate, that method would be minimal and inefficient."
"But there was no evidence on anyone's cell phone. Are you sure you didn't skip over any details?"
"Of course. I looked at the phones as a matter of principle. It was only done for the sake of appearances."
"Huh? You said you'd know who the spy is if you just looked at the phones. Right?"
"Think about it carefully. If you were the spy, would you risk leaving a suspicious mail on your phone?"
"I... would not. Because of that, I thought checking the phones like this was a waste of time."
"Right. If you think about it, checking the class's cell phones is an obvious result of this. It's not incredibly difficult to destroy the evidence. Even if the spy didn't think to destroy it, X would have instructed them. In other words, the spy attempted to look innocent by willingly letting me look at their phone. It follows that those who refused to show me their cellphones are innocent, and the spy wouldn't have taken that chance."
"I'm going to ask the spy again."
Ryūen looked at each person's eyes and movements one by one.
"Are you afraid of the unknown X? Or of me? Ask yourself which one is truly terrible to make into an enemy. Are you making a mistake? Remember when the admissions ceremony was over? What happens to the people who resist me? Right, Ishizaki?"
"Y-Yes..."
Ishizaki slightly shivered after being mentioned. Albert, who always calmly stood at my side, also barely reacted. In the beginning, nobody consented to my orders. Both Ishizaki and Albert had initially protested against him, but in the end, they gave in to the 'violence' I exerted. Ishizaki had far more fighting experience, while Albert had superior physical strength.
However, these two men had fallen to the ground in the end.
"The strongest force in the world is 'violence' when it's fully committed. I will not succumb to authority. Even if the school tries to expel me, I'd be certain to kill the traitor before it happens. Do you understand what I mean? If I end up expelled because of this betrayal, I will stomp the life out of this spy like the insect they are."
"I will welcome the traitor's confession now, but this will be your last chance. If you are to confess now, I promise not to get caught up in this betrayal, and I vow to prevent your classmates from accusing you. As I had said initially, if you believe in and obey me, I will lead this class to Class A. As long as you follow me, I will protect you."
I stepped down from the podium and stood in front of the classroom, watching the eyes of my classmates, "Do you understand? What does it mean to offend me?"
I stared into the eyes of his classmates one by one. I found the traitor.
I walked over to a female student and stood before her. I figured you were the traitor from the very beginning.
"What's wrong? Can you not look into my eyes?"
"Ah...... A-A...... I......"
Her breathing was disorderly, and she had a face that was about to burst into tears.
"Kuku. It's you, Manabe, Class C's traitor."
Most students hadn't imagined it to be her and could not understand this unexpected revelation.
"Don't be so afraid, Manabe. You didn't take the initiative to report it to me, but I knew you were the spy. Your complexion has been bad from the start. There was no way for you to hide it."
I smoothed out her hair next to her ear and touched her face. Manabe began trembling as if she were exposed to the extreme cold.
"Please. Sorry, I'm sorry, I..."
"Don't worry, I'll forgive you. I'll handle this with kindness. So let's hear it. Tell me the true nature of X, who had you betray me."
I turned from Shiho Manabe and glanced at her friends Nanami Yabu and Saki Yamashita.
3rd POV
After holding the students in Class C hostage, Ryuuen finally allowed most of them to leave. Ryuuen remained in the classroom with Ishizaki, Kaneda, Ibuki, and the three traitors.
"Question: Do you know the identity of the guy who gave you instructions?"
Manabe and the others denied the question by shaking their heads from side to side.
"Well, next question: What are your reasons for betraying Class C? Explain it to me."
"That is..."
"There's no use in concealing it now. If you choose to hide it anyways, tomorrow is when your time as my classmates ends, and you'll be treated like nothing more than maggots."
In a situation where there is no longer any escape, Manabe would decide to come clean with the truth.
"Karuizawa of Class D, do you know...?"
"Just the name and her face, she's Hirata's woman, right?"
"That girl is acting strong right now... but I believe she was a victim of bullying in the past."
"Oh? Then?"
"Rika was treated terribly by Karuizawa, so we attempted to retaliate..."
Manabe, frightened yet resolute, narrated the events during the summer on the cruise ship. She disclosed how they were all part of the same group in the particular test, how they discovered her past with bullying and even the violent act of retribution in which they all played a part. She spoke candidly about everything. She also revealed that they were spying on the other group due to being threatened with incriminating evidence. Had the truth been unearthed, they would have been expelled from school or, worse, faced consequences from Ryuuen. She emphasized that the spying was necessary to avoid punishment from the school and Ryuuen.
"Indeed. You've been having a lot of fun."
"Are you an idiot? They're being threatened by a guy who they don't even know the identity of. Don't you know that things might get even worse from here?"
"Don't blame them, Ibuki. When humans are cornered, they turn into vulnerable creatures."
Ryūen had decided to forgive Manabe and didn't continue to accuse them.
"Here's the bottom line: Did anyone else witness the scene where you had bullied Karuizawa?"
Manabe nodded to the question and uttered the names.
"At that time, we were seen by two students from Class D. Yukimura-kun and Ayanokouji-kun."
The names of two students emerged.
"A picture was sent to us afterward. A photograph of when we were involved with Karuizawa."
"So that's how it is. I had expected there to be evidence since you were being threatened, but for the photograph to have been taken back then... What happened to this photo?"
"I deleted it. If somebody saw it... We would..."
"So the situation has reached its conclusion."
"So it's either Yukimura-shi or Ayanokouji-shi," Kaede said
He was one of the few people in Class C whom Ryuuen considered valuable.
"Wait a moment, Ryuuen. I don't know much about Yukimura, but I don't believe Ayanokouji is pulling the strings for Class D. I've had the chance to interact with him a few times, and he didn't strike me as that kind of guy."
"Yukimura does seem a little suspicious in that sense. He seems to be quite capable at academics," Ishizaki added.
"Isn't it impossible to conclude that? Ayanokouji-shi is always together with Horikita-shi. Besides, Ayanokōji-shi had been hiding his running ability at the sports festival. I think the more suspicious of the two would have to be him."
"I think the two of them are irrelevant. Ayanokouji has a quick foot, and Yukimura just has his grades, right? I think that there would be more to the mastermind."
"Who else could it be?"
"There are some competent guys in Class D. Someone like Hirata."
"That guy? I speak to him often and don't think he's that kind of person."
Ryuuen smiled slightly at his classmates, who had been speaking freely.
But in the next moment, his hand smashed down on the desk.
"Shut up a little."
Ryūen let out a small laugh as the room was instantly enveloped in silence and terror.
"Did I ask for even a single word of your opinions? I will find the guy who is manipulating Class D from the shadows. You all are my pawns for that goal. Small fry should act like small fry. Looking at the facts, only Ayanokouji or Yukimura could have taken the picture. However, concluding that one must be the mastermind is unreasonable. They may also be under the influence of someone."
"But, Ryuuen-shi. Especially regarding Ayanokouji-shi, shouldn't we be suspicious?"
Fully prepared to incur Ryuuen's anger, Kaneda dared to give some input because he believed it was necessary.
"That's right."
The relationship between Ayanokouji and Horikita Suzune made him appear suspicious to some. However, simply having a connection to Horikita was not enough evidence to support this suspicion. It seemed unfair to jump to conclusions so quickly. The thought that Ayanokouji, who had been close to Horikita, was the mastermind behind all the manipulations in Class D was unsettling. But if he intended to use Horikita from the outset, he would not have chosen this method.
~~~
Class D - 270 cp (-3)