Chapter 384: Maki – Spare Me
"Welcome everyone to Shuchiin Broadcast, this is the Media Club!!"
Sakurai Saki heard the announcement coming from the nearby speaker and began warming up on his own.
He didn't want to attract any attention.
Recently, when he had lunch with Hayasaka Ai in the central courtyard, there were always underclassmen watching them.
Since becoming a third-year student, his presence at Shuchiin had faded quite a bit. The first-year students were all newcomers, and their chances of caring about Sakurai were low—especially since Sakurai Saki had been behaving impeccably for over a month since the start of the school year, without doing any outrageous things like confessing through the broadcast system.
In this marathon, Sakurai Saki decided to hide his true abilities as much as possible!
Of course, he wouldn't deliberately run at the back of the group—doing so would look too fake and easily draw attention.
"Obviously it's already been five minutes, so why is the General Affairs member of the Student Council, the top candidate for the championship—Sakurai Saki—still warming up at the starting line?!"
Hearing the voice from the loudspeaker, Sakurai Saki almost wanted to rush straight to the broadcast room and punch her!
'If I delay any longer, I'll just attract more attention.'
Thinking that, Sakurai Saki stood up and started running.
"Is he doing that out of sheer confidence?"
"Exactly, I think it's quite likely. Sakurai Saki has the kind of confidence that even if he's five minutes behind, he can still catch up!"
"There's an anonymous letter from a student—hmm… who's most likely to win this time? Before we discuss that, let's talk about how the other top candidates fall short compared to Sakurai Saki."
"First, the crime of arrogance…"
Before the fixed broadcast segment even ended, Sakurai Saki had already dashed out of the school.
Nine o'clock in the morning, the sunlight wasn't too harsh yet.
For an ordinary student, running eight kilometers would take about an hour, right?
But students these days didn't have great stamina… many might stop midway.
As for the sports club members—especially the soccer team—they could probably finish within an hour.
Sakurai Saki planned to run at that pace.
After running about two kilometers, he noticed two students ahead walking.
He approached them.
"Maki-chan?"
"Saki-chan?"
The two looked at each other wide-eyed. At the same time, Shijo Mikado, who was beside Maki, quietly picked up his pace and quickly disappeared from Maki's sight.
Sakurai Saki felt like he was being played.
"Why aren't you running?"
"Tired already." Today, Shijo Maki had her hair tied in a single ponytail, giving off a sporty girl vibe.
But when she tied it into twin tails, she looked far more striking.
"You're fine!" Sakurai Saki gave her a thumbs up, then got ready to move on.
There was only a short distance left to the checkpoint.
"Don't go!"
Shijo Maki said between gasps, "My little brother ran off already, stay with me!"
What did she mean by wanting him to stay?
Did she want to drag him down with her?
Sakurai Saki couldn't understand.
But since he didn't want to attract attention, maybe that was fine too?
"Don't let yourself be bored, I'll tell you something interesting." Shijo Maki said in a tone like, 'you're about to get something good': "At first I wasn't planning to tell anyone, it's gossip."
"Gossip?"
"Umu."
Shijo Maki leaned close to Sakurai Saki's ear and whispered, "My little brother likes Shinomiya Kaguya."
After saying that, Maki grinned brightly. "How's that? Pretty juicy gossip, right? Surprised? He's liked her since they were little—faithfully devoted all this time."
"..."
Sakurai Saki froze.
He remembered clearly that, in a certain sense, Shijo Mikado was Kaguya's childhood friend.
Oh god, a childhood friend! If this were a light novel, Sakurai Saki wouldn't even know how to lose!
In manga and light novels, the childhood friend is always the loser!
And now, someone like that had become his rival!
That's insane!
'Hmph hmph.'
Seeing his expression, Maki felt utterly delighted.
So, she decided to reveal a huge secret: "My little brother's been saying lately that he wants to try rescuing Kaguya-hime from the Shinomiya household, to free her from her suffering."
"Rescue her how?"
"No idea. He's been acting all mysterious every day. Even when I ask, he won't tell me anything." Shijo Maki looked toward the nearby checkpoint.
She continued, "If he really wants to save Kaguya, then honestly, marrying her would be the best way."
"The Shinomiya and Shijo families have been at each other's throats lately—you must've seen it on TV too. If this keeps up, neither side will gain anything."
Sakurai Saki guessed, "So if a marriage proposal were made right now, it would basically be hard to refuse?"
"That's what you said, I'm not sure." Shijo Maki flicked her ponytail, turning her face toward him. "Come to think of it, you and Oba-sama, aside from both being Student Council members, don't have any other connection, right? …But your ex-girlfriend was her maid."
The moment she said that, she quickly covered her mouth, as if she had just spilled something she shouldn't have.
"I already knew."
A few seconds of silence.
Maki raised her voice a little: "You actually knew?"
"I found out after we started dating."
"The Shinomiya family's information management is really concerning, no wonder they keep losing to the Shijo family," Shijo Maki said with undisguised pride.
Back then, the Shijo family had been exiled from the country—so of course, now was the time for revenge.
The cause and effect of that day—after years of business abroad—the Shijo family had finally earned today's victory.
Conde de Monte Cristo! King Goujian! The Shawshank Redemption!
Maki felt that all these stories could perfectly apply to the Shijo family! Perfectly!
"Both sides suffered losses, and you still call that a string of victories?"
"For a newly risen family to fight the long-established Shinomiya family to this extent—don't you think that's impressive enough?"
"Impressive, impressive."
"You're saying that way too casually. But lately, things have been going almost too smoothly—and there's been infighting in the Shinomiya family too…"
Right, the head of the Shinomiya family had even been hospitalized—how could things be going smoothly?
It seemed Maki didn't know about those secret maneuvers.
At first, Sakurai Saki had wanted to test whether there was some supernatural power backing the Shijo family.
But now, it seemed she didn't know a thing.
...
The two of them arrived at the checkpoint.
The supervising teacher was Sakurai Saki's former homeroom teacher from the previous year.
Misaki Megumi saw the two staggering over; she handed them water while reminding them, "All the other students have gone far ahead already, you two better hurry up."
Shijo Maki took the clear water bottle and looked at Sakurai Saki, who was getting his card signed.
To pass the checkpoint, the teacher had to sign each student's participation card.
"Maki, why aren't you taking out your card?"
"I didn't register." Shijo Maki looked at him with a 'are you stupid?' expression.
Sakurai Saki: "?"
You didn't register, so why the hell are you running?
Is your brain broken?
"My little brother said I lacked exercise, so he forced me to run, and halfway through, he regretted it." Shijo Maki seemed rather proud of that.
"So I became the unlucky guy who's stuck carrying this 'dead weight' for you?" Sakurai Saki pointed at his own face.
"You've only been running for a few minutes; if you hurry now, you can still catch up, right?"
Shijo Maki said while covering her mouth, giggling quietly a few times.
She planned to rest at this checkpoint—the remaining distance, if she kept running, she might literally die!
"You're running too!"
Gritting his teeth, Sakurai Saki grabbed her hand directly and pulled her along.
"Wait! Don't pull me!! If I keep running, I'll die!!"
"Before we reach the next checkpoint, don't even think about stopping!"
"I know I was wrong! Spare me——!"
The pitiful wails of Shijo Maki echoed along the racecourse.
She deeply regretted teasing him!