4.5

The next day, I decided to make a move, but rather unexpectedly, Sakura called for me. I decided to go talk to her.

“Looks like the test is over for the Cow group,” I said.

“Yeah...” she replied.

I checked the email that Sakura, along with the other students, had received from the school.

“The test has now ended for the Cow group. Those in the Cow group are no longer required to participate any further. Please be careful not to disturb the other students.”

It was exactly the same kind of email we got after the Monkey group finished. It was a brief message, devoid of context. Sakura looked at me with unease in her eyes.

“Have I done something wrong?” she asked.

“No, you haven’t. This just means that someone in the Cow group reported to the school who they think the VIP is.”

Leaving aside the time Kouenji got carried away and ended the test for his group, right now it seemed that people were betraying each other for two very different reasons. They were either betraying with certainty, or betraying because they felt impatient.

“Sakura, were you the VIP? Or was it someone else?”

Sakura quickly shook her head. “No, I’m not the VIP. But I’m not sure about Sudou-kun or, um, the others,” she answered. She didn’t seem to have any idea whatsoever.

“Don’t overthink it. I don’t know the identity of the VIP in my group, either.”

“Okay. Thank you, Ayanokouji-kun. I’m happy you told me that.”

“How are things with Class A? I heard rumors that none of them are participating in the discussions.”

“Yeah, it’s just like what the others have been saying. None of them have talked at all,” said Sakura.

Katsuragi had been rather thorough in carrying out his plan. If that was true, then Class C had to have been the ones to trigger this new turn of events. But I was still left with doubts. Ryuuen claimed he understood the school’s rules, and I had my own ideas. However, it was still impossible to know whether I was correct or not.

If I accidentally misread the rules, the class would self-destruct and take massive damage as a result. So far, the test hadn’t ended for anyone other than the Cow group—proof that Ryuuen still didn’t have a sure answer either. As we neared the end of this mysterious exam, many students were probably feeling perplexed.

“If there’s anything else, please let me know. You can talk to me anytime,” I told Sakura.

“Thank you, Ayanokouji-kun. See you later.”

I bid farewell to Sakura, who waved her hands adorably. Then I headed toward the ship’s lower levels. I proceeded down to the lowest level, where people didn’t generally go. Although we were prohibited from going there, the area wasn’t locked. The crew was probably using it. Although people could enter areas like the switchboard room if it was necessary, generally speaking, no one went in there.

There was no one to come if you called, no matter how loud you shouted. Including the regular entrance, there were only two ways in or out of the room. The other way was a door that led to the emergency staircase, but the workers didn’t appear to use that. Judging from the dust, I knew that it hadn’t been used in a long time. If I just kept an eye on the regular entrance, I could monitor the situation completely.

Another convenient thing was that phones had almost no reception here. Though you could occasionally get a little signal, sending emails or chatting was a pain in the neck, and it was next to impossible to make a call.

“All the pieces are in place,” I muttered.

All I had to do was make sure everything happened in the proper order. First, I would contact Hirata, and then he would call Karuizawa. Since I wanted to postpone things a little bit, I’d probably need to have him call Karuizawa an hour or so earlier. I returned to the upper decks to make the call.

After our conversation last night, I thought Hirata might be especially on his guard. But I knew if Hirata called Karuizawa and said he wanted to speak with her alone, she’d respond. Karuizawa had said she was breaking up with Hirata, but she’d be the one to suffer if that happened. With Manabe and her friends on the attack, Karuizawa absolutely needed Hirata to protect her at school.

I got a message from Hirata. I’ve promised to meet Karuizawa-san at 4:00 p.m. I’ll send you Manabe-san’s info.

As expected, Hirata had fulfilled his role admirably. As a bonus, he even had Manabe’s contact information, never mind that she was from another class. If he hadn’t known it, I would’ve had to risk asking Kushida. That saved me an extraordinary amount of trouble.

He sent me another message. I have to tell you, I don’t want to make Karuizawa-san sad.

“You don’t want to make her sad, huh?” If he knew what I was about to do, Hirata would’ve been furious. But that wasn’t my problem. Even if she were to break here, I’d be fine so long as he didn’t find out. This is a rather extreme example, but even if you committed murder, you couldn’t be convicted without proof.

I quickly typed a message and hit send.

Hey, you got a minute?

The message was short and sweet, completely harmless. As a rule, chat apps are one account per phone. However, there was a way around that. By creating another primary SNS account, your device could hold another. Of course, not many students split their account into a main and a sub. The benefits of switching between accounts were marginal at best. However, by creating a new account, I was able to contact a third party without revealing my identity.

I needed to proceed delicately. If I didn’t mess up, everything should be fine. Despite the fact that Manabe had received an anonymous message, she immediately responded.

Who is this?

Only natural she’d ask that question.

Is there anyone with you right now?

I’m alone, but who are you?

Don’t show this to anyone. For your own sake.

Look, who are you?

Let’s just say that I hate the same person you do.

Although I saw that she’d read my message, Manabe took some time to respond. Do you have the wrong number?

This isn’t a mistake, Manabe-san. I want to talk about Karuizawa-san, the person you hate. I thought I might be able to talk to you about it.

I don’t know what you’re talking about. Please stop sending me messages.

She seemed wary, as if she imagined I might be an enemy. That was natural. First, I needed to win her trust.

I’m a classmate of hers, and it’s been difficult dealing with her for a long time now. I want to get revenge on her, so I thought we could work together. Since I’m in Class D with her, I can’t go after Karuizawa-san directly. That’s why I want your help.

I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m going to ignore you.

Even though she was suspicious, she still hadn’t cut off contact. That proved how much Karuizawa made her blood boil. That was why she wanted revenge on behalf of her friend, Rika. From the way Manabe had dragged Karuizawa into the emergency stairwell, her hatred was clear.

Rika-chan is still scared of Karuizawa-san, even now. Don’t you want to help her? Your desire for revenge is written all over your face. But you couldn’t do it even if you wanted to, right? Karuizawa-san is really cautious after what happened yesterday. I’m sure she won’t leave Hirata-kun’s or Machida-kun’s side for a while. And she’ll always be with other girls, so she won’t be alone.

I don’t need your help. I just need Karuizawa-san to talk to Rika. Then we’ll know the truth.

I wonder if it’ll be that simple, though? I can’t imagine she’ll admit that she lied. On the contrary, it would probably just hurt Rika-chan if Karuizawa-san says something awful. Oh, and that’s not all. If Karuizawa-san’s holding a grudge, she might bully Rika further.

What should I do? Are you saying there’s a way?

Manabe’s intense desire to settle things was evident.

If you and I work together, we can safely get our revenge.

What guarantee do I have? It feels like you’re trying to lure me into a trap, and then you’ll tattle to the school. This smells like a sub account.

If you think I’m trying to sell you out, Manabe-san, then go ahead and show this chat log to the teachers. You can only register accounts on school phones. I’m risking being identified by saying I want revenge on Karuizawa-san. I’m the one risking my neck here. Am I wrong?

I’m sure Manabe understood. Even a sub account wasn’t perfectly safe. If I were exposed, I would obviously receive the harshest punishment.

So if I show this chat log to the school, what then? It’ll be all over for you.

I don’t think you’re the kind of person to do that, Manabe-san. You have to show trust to be trusted.

I understand. I’ll hear you out, at least.

After that, I repeated some familiar-sounding stories. Stuff about how much I hated Karuizawa. How I wanted to do something about it but couldn’t. How I’d heard about Manabe’s confrontation with Karuizawa by chance, and that I’d tried to make contact. I played the victim thoroughly.

Once we returned to land, it would be difficult for me to contact Karuizawa directly. The school buildings and dorms were equipped with security cameras. Even if you tried to bring her into a private area, it was still highly likely that someone would spot you. This ship gave Manabe the perfect opportunity. I made her understand that revenge was only possible while they were here. I slowly but surely roused her anger.

So, what should I do?

Now that Manabe understood, I finally started to reveal my plan. I’ll call Karuizawa-san. Then, you take your time talking with her, and settle things.

After I sent that message, I followed it up by sending a map of the ship’s lowest level.

Since you can’t get any reception down there, she can’t call for help. No one comes down there.

I see, I see. So since you’re her classmate, you can call Karuizawa-san?

I’d like you to tell me right now if you’re going along with my plan. After I call Karuizawa-san, you can decide whether you’ll take your revenge. There won’t be any problems that way, right?

She took a long time to respond, the longest for any response thus far.

Finally, I saw her response, and was sure that my plan would succeed. If my attempts to convince her via chat had failed, I had another plan prepared, just in case.

It would have been dangerous, but I would’ve made direct contact with Manabe in person. I had taken pictures when she was threatening Karuizawa in the emergency stairwell; I could’ve blackmailed her with those. However, the risks were great. I wanted to avoid drawing attention to myself as much as humanly possible.

“Now. Let’s see what Manabe and her friends are capable of.”

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***