Chapter 019: First Meeting with Sakayanagi Arisu!
The school cafeteria has three floors. The elevator goes directly to the top floor, where the decor exudes an unmistakable luxury; even the aroma of the food seems tainted with the scent of money.
Some familiar teaching staff can be seen dining here, along with a scattering of students—or more accurately, figures from the Student Council.
For instance, upon entering, one could see a proud-looking blonde upperclassman accompanied by his female companion.
Even without making a conscious effort to identify him, Hikigaya could confirm that the blonde was likely the wealthiest person among the second-year students: Nagumo Miyabi, who had led Class B to successfully promote to Class A at the end of the previous semester and had been invited into the Student Council by Horikita Manabu.
However, today's target was not Nagumo Miyabi.
To Hikigaya, visiting the third floor for the first time, even the air felt different. There was none of the noise or crowding of the lower cafeteria; the atmosphere was quiet, carrying a sense of deliberately crafted style. Naturally, the prices were equally striking.
His gaze swept quickly across the room, and a half-closed private booth door caught his attention. Sitting at the round table inside was a silver-haired girl whose features were so exquisite they seemed almost artificial.
Though she wore the same standard female uniform as everyone else, on her it possessed a strange, heart-pounding cuteness—especially the lines of her slightly plump thighs while seated, which looked a bit soft.
Furthermore.
Leaning quietly against the table was a pitch-black cane.
A cane, short silver-white hair, porcelain-pale delicate skin, and mobility issues—in this academy where the demands on students were nearly draconian, such an existence was almost unique. The answer was obvious.
In Hikigaya's mind, that name was practically on the tip of his tongue.
However, the girl noticed his stare first.
"That is quite a lewd gaze. What is your name?"
Her figure was small and petite, but her aura was the exact opposite; she opened her mouth with words that could end a friendship instantly, even though the two had likely never spoken before.
In this moment, however, Hikigaya felt as if he saw a shadow of Yukinoshita Yukino. Her words reminded him of the time he went to the clubroom and saw Yukinoshita dozing off; when she woke up, she greeted him with, "It's truly surprising—the moment I saw your face, my sleepiness vanished," which was incredibly irritating.
But Yukinoshita was not here.
The silver-haired girl laughed softly. Despite having the body of a young girl, she appeared unexpectedly enchanting.
"Hikigaya Hachiman." After considering it, Hikigaya provided his name.
"Hikigaya—"
However, this name seemed to have some impact on the silver-haired girl.
"Hikigaya...? You are Hikigaya Hachiman?"
The silver-haired girl's hand tightened on her cane. Her gaze shifted, carrying a hint of inquiry as she met Hikigaya's eyes. Then, she appeared to listen intently for something. While Hikigaya found this baffling, a look of displeasure flickered across the girl's face, followed by an expression of defeat, as if she had been bested by something.
But at this moment, Ryuen's voice reached them.
"You'd better not be lying to me. I've already ordered a private booth for 5,000 private points; the prices at this restaurant are indeed high. If your information is worth it, I can pay you another 10,000 points."
Ryuen, having noted the prices on the third floor at the counter, soon approached Hikigaya and noticed him seemingly talking to someone in a booth.
As soon as he arrived, he also saw the silver-haired girl sitting inside.
"Oh, I didn't realize you liked this type—
That's Sakayanagi from Class A. She's famous for being cute, but cute doesn't mean a damn thing." Ryuen's tone was full of disdain.
Is that so?
As expected of "Ryuen-boy," the one who could compete with the various heroines for the protagonist Ayanokouji in the original story; Ryuen was indeed special.
However, it was a mistake to underestimate Sakayanagi Arisu like that.
In the original story, Class A had two leaders, Katsuragi and Sakayanagi. Although Sakayanagi Arisu appeared sickly, she was far more troublesome than Katsuragi.
Because...
When Sakayanagi formulated an exam strategy, Katsuragi would prioritize the big picture and choose to follow her orders. But if Katsuragi formulated a strategy, Sakayanagi would not comply; before she seized total control of Class A, she would even help you strike at Katsuragi.
Therefore, if Class A had to choose one representative, Hikigaya, as the leader of Class B, hoped Katsuragi would win.
Only a divided Class A was a good Class A.
But there was no need to interact with a "small Tyrannosaurus" like Sakayanagi yet, so Hikigaya and Ryuen headed to their booth to plot.
Though it was a "plot," it was actually a very common operation in this school.
Namely, the buying and selling of information.
Despite not knowing the specific situation and being insulted earlier, Ryuen's choice to swallow his anger and actually spend points at the third-floor restaurant showed he did have a sense of the bigger picture.
However.
"You want 1.2 million points? You're crazy!" Ryuen refused immediately.
"Trying to extort me? Forty or fifty thousand points is about all you're getting."
Clearly, he initially only saw Hikigaya as a kindred spirit—a delinquent who happened to get some info and wanted to make a quick buck.
Hikigaya-kun withdrew his overly high evaluation of Ryuen.
The current Ryuen Kakeru was not yet the tyrant from the original story who formulated the nearly impossible plan to obtain 800 million points to promote the whole class; he was, at most, a gang leader.
His vision was still far from enough.
"It seems you truly understand nothing," Hikigaya said.
"Let me introduce myself. I am the current class representative of Class B. The students of Class B pay me 30% of their points as a leadership fee. Therefore, I need to put in some effort for their sake."
Saying this, Hikigaya tapped his phone to show his student ID, and Ryuen saw—to his utter disgust—a private account with 1.5 million points.
With that many points, unless the school had made a mistake, it was indeed possible that the Class B students had pooled 30% of their points for him.
So this dead-eyed delinquent boy was actually the one in charge of Class B.
"Oh?"
Ryuen's brow furrowed as he sat back down.
"I have an audio recording here." Hikigaya produced a snippet of the recording from his call to Horikita Manabu.
It included the conversation between him, Horikita Suzune, and Chabashira, but only the parts regarding the truth of the school and Chabashira-sensei valuing that information at 600,000 points.
"This is—" Ryuen listened with a frown.
"This is a portion of the record of my transaction with a Class D student. She bought the truth of the school from me; the current price for the answer to that question is 600,000 private points. Of course, the school will announce the truth at the end of the first month. The closer it gets to the end of the month, the lower its value becomes.
However, First-year Class A knew on the first day. We in Class B knew on the morning of the tenth day. Class D knew on the afternoon of the tenth day."
"And today is the eleventh day."
The eleventh day, yet Class C still knew nothing.
Ryuen: "..."
In other words, Class C had actually already fallen behind?