Thanks to Ryunosuke's side successfully pulling some votes from Class 2-B—Fuka's class—totaling 8 votes, the situation changed. Previously the difference with Nagumo was 6 votes, but now Ryunosuke had caught up and was even ahead by 2 votes.
Moreover, Ryunosuke's side still had reserve votes from Class 3-D and 3-C that hadn't been used. Most likely those votes didn't need to be used anymore.
Now it was Nagumo's turn to be dizzy with confusion.
Where else could he find additional vote support? He had already swept up all the votes from Class 3-B by paying 20 million personal points. Meanwhile, the remaining Class 3-C and 3-D were nests of strange people who couldn't be bribed with points. Even if they could be bribed, he no longer had that many points.
"Haaah..."
Nagumo let out a long sigh; he was forced to think of another way.
Currently, all second-year vote support was with him, while first-year vote support was with Ryunosuke. Both parties ended in a tie, and although currently his opponent was ahead by two votes, for him that wasn't a big problem.
What made Nagumo dizzy was how to get votes from elsewhere. Class 3-A was clearly impossible; if they didn't help Ryunosuke he would already be very grateful. If Ryunosuke hadn't insisted on prohibiting help from Manabu's Class 3-A, Nagumo would have definitely lost badly from the start.
Nagumo clenched his fist full of vengeance and gritted his teeth. In his mouth there were still two teeth that had fallen out from Ryunosuke's punches. His hatred for that young man deepened.
"Damn it!"
Nagumo flipped the table roughly to the floor to vent his anger.
"I have to think of a way; otherwise, I really have no chance in this Student Council President election."
"Once I lose this power, then..."
Nagumo remembered the list of people he had oppressed and immediately shuddered in fear. Now he just remembered he had many enemies, but he had to immediately turn the situation around. Unfortunately, all the votes that could be pulled had already been collected; there were no more remaining votes.
Nagumo was momentarily stuck, but suddenly his eyes sparkled when he remembered a cunning plan.
"To win... I'm forced to justify any means."
Nagumo spread rumors within the school to bring down Ryunosuke's vote count. He didn't believe that opponent of his had no enemies. Actually, it wasn't entirely a false rumor, because the information was indeed true.
In the duel agreement between Nagumo and Ryunosuke, there was a point stating that whoever lost had to leave the school. Nagumo deliberately spread this information so that people who didn't like Ryunosuke could stab him from behind.
Moreover, now the vote difference was very thin, only two votes apart. If in their position, anyone would definitely take the opportunity to take revenge. Who knows it might succeed, right?
Sure enough. Not long after that message spread, the vote count changed. There were three votes that moved to Nagumo's side. The source of those three votes turned out to come from Ryunosuke's own Class 1-C.
The perpetrators were none other than the "Lucky Trio": Yamauchi, Ike, and Shimura.
Once they knew the difference was only two votes and the three of them could make Ryunosuke lose and then be kicked out of school, they immediately gave all their votes to Nagumo. They were of course very dissatisfied with him. Rarely was there an opportunity to step on him; of course they would step on him with all their might!
Ryunosuke, learning of this, didn't show an excessive reaction. After all, he still held an ace card in the form of votes from two classes that hadn't been used. To him, they were just a bunch of clown jumpers.
He would let them play around for a while. Ryunosuke chose to remain silent and not respond. The vote count successfully sided with Nagumo, ahead by one vote over him.
The Lucky Trio now walked with their chins raised high, looking at Ryunosuke with mocking gazes as if saying:
[Beg us, kneel down! Maybe we'll be kind enough to give our votes to you.]
That was roughly their thinking. Ryunosuke, feeling too lazy to deal with these three idiots, just walked past them and left the classroom.
However, Class 1-C became chaotic. Especially Yousuke, who asked with a gloomy face to the trio.
"Why did you do this? What benefit do you get?"
Yamauchi shouted. "I just don't like looking at him, so what?"
"Want us to give votes to him? Dream on! Maybe after this he'll be expelled from school." Yamauchi said with a mocking face.
Hirata's face was already as black as the bottom of a pan; he was on the verge of anger.
Meanwhile, Airi felt very worried and secretly called Ryunosuke.
The call was answered immediately. Ryunosuke told Airi that everything was fine. Even if he was really expelled, he could still use 20 million points to redeem himself back. So he asked Airi to relax because nothing would happen.
Airi breathed a sigh of relief. After knowing Ryunosuke was safe, she could finally be completely at ease.
On the other side, Ryunosuke had just closed the call. This was the second incoming call. The first was from Ai. Meanwhile, the rest—Hiyori, Arisu, and Megumi—were smart people who knew he had plenty of personal points to save himself, so they weren't worried.
The bet "whoever loses must leave school" between him and Nagumo was actually not very useful. After all, who didn't have tens of millions of points to save themselves? That would only be a wasteful action of points.
◆━⊰✿✧✿⊱━◆
Day after day passed, and soon the last day of the election arrived.
Nagumo sat in the Student Council office chair with his legs crossed arrogantly. Nazuna stood behind him with a gloomy look in her eyes. Meanwhile, in front of them sat Ryunosuke.
Their vote difference was only one point. Ryunosuke was one vote behind Nagumo, and the election time was almost up. Nagumo snapped his fingers and said elegantly.
"Akasaka-kun, it's still not too late to give up now."
"Just give me 10 million as compensation, then the bet between us can be considered void. You can save 10 million personal points."
What he meant was the cost of 20 million points to cancel expulsion from school. If Nagumo agreed to tear up that bet contract, then Ryunosuke didn't need to leave school and could save points. In return, Ryunosuke had to pay 10 million to Nagumo.
During this period, Nagumo had spent many points, so he wanted to recoup his capital. He intended to let Ryunosuke go because he felt there was no point fighting to the death against this kid. Not profitable at all.
Regarding the points that had to be surrendered entirely by the losing party, that could actually be avoided in a reasonable way. For example, giving all points to someone else first, then asking that person to use 20 million points to save them. That contract could be exploited with such loopholes, so it was impossible to absolutely win all the opponent's points.