I'm in a real religion, why are all the people who confess to me girls?

That was more than just a warning; it seemed that Ichinose was already prepared to treat her as an enemy.

If Amane accepts her confession, Ichinose might immediately turn back and cooperate with Horikita and Sakayanagi.

"I don't need you to emphasize this again, Ichinose-kun. I already understand the terrible consequences that might occur, so naturally I wouldn't be greedy for something that could drive someone crazy. But I'm curious about one thing, which is... what do you want from me, Ichinose-kun? I don't believe in free lunches in this world. You must have your own purpose in helping me. Can you satisfy my little curiosity before our first formal conversation? What exactly do you want?"

what do you want?

Of course, it's Tianyin's love.

How could someone be so stupid as to not see through her intentions at this point? Is Karuizawa truly naive, or is she deliberately feigning ignorance to play the fool and deceive others?

Despite her inner confusion about Karuizawa's seemingly obvious question, Ichinose was puzzled.

However, on the surface, Ichinose still intends to give an answer that is both acceptable to Karuizawa and plausible.

"What I want is very simple. You may know that I have done some less-than-honorable things in the past, but the reason I did that was closely related to my family situation. Getting into a good university is not a difficult thing for me, but I need some financial support. For this, I need a little 'love' from Amane. Can you accept me saying this, Karuizawa-kun?"

Ichinose continued to use a mix of truth and lies, and as expected, Karuizawa did not immediately show any dissatisfaction or doubt after hearing Ichinose's answer.

The reason is quite simple: Ichinose tells the truth most of what she says.

My initial approach to Tianyin was simply to build a good relationship with such a capable girl, so that I might need her help in the future.

Later, when Amane's strength far exceeded her expectations, Ichinose strengthened her relationship with Amane simply to find a reliable ally for herself.

After experiencing betrayals, both overt and covert, from Kanzaki, Shibata, and Ninomiya, Ichinose concluded that the foolish class could not possibly succeed.

So she turned her attention to Tianyin.

She desperately hoped to use Tianyin to help her fulfill her dream.

What kind of teammates are more important than Class A?

When they wanted to abandon Ichinose, they certainly didn't think about friendship or anything like that, did they?

Since they chose profit over friendship, it's no wonder she acted for her own benefit.

Ichinose never denied that she was a selfish person, because she had discovered that everyone here was selfish, and only selfish people could live better here.

In order to improve her family's situation, she needs to graduate from Class A and obtain a recommendation letter from a prestigious university or a large company, no matter what.

Ichinose originally planned to transfer to Class A, but after she accidentally learned about Amane's background, she wavered.

Is Class A important to Ichinose?

The answer is extremely important; it's almost fair to say that whether Ichinose Honami can graduate from Class A has determined her future fate.

She didn't want to go back to the impoverished life she had before after graduation.

Having grown accustomed to freely using points to buy anything she wanted, Ichinose no longer had the confidence to adapt to a life of poverty.

It's hard to go from extravagance to frugality; this is the most accurate description of Ichinose's current situation.

While maintaining the current standard of living seems simple, it is actually quite difficult.

Graduating from Class A isn't enough; you also need a certain amount of luck, or even to sacrifice your body, to achieve that.

Ichinose has always maintained this awareness throughout her journey. Originally, she planned to graduate from Class A first, but after getting to know Amane better, she realized that what she wanted was nothing more than that for Amane.

So she began to develop a closer relationship with Amane with a purpose, and when she felt the time was right, she personally planned to force Ninomiya to give up power.

This explains why Ninomiya, a girl with no prestige, was able to persuade a large number of Ichinose's confidants to participate in the coup by simply saying, "President Kiriyama supports us in doing this."

Even now, that poor wretch Ninomiya has no idea that she's just a pawn in Ichinose's game.

Ichinose's elaborate scheme was simple: to exploit Amane's sympathy and develop an unusual relationship with her.

Her plan proved to be very successful, and Tianyin accepted her. As for whether he liked her or not... Tianyin liked her appearance and body, as well as her absolute obedience.

All she wanted was to change her family's impoverished circumstances after graduation and to maintain her quality of life.

So, they hit it off and Ichinose decided that in order to achieve her goal, she needed to get more 'love' from Amane, and it would be even better if they could become lovers.

This is why Ichinose said that after becoming Amane's lover, she could accept that Horikita, Sakayanagi, and even Karuizawa maintained ambiguous relationships with Amane.

She doesn't have such a strong possessive streak, which is her biggest advantage in this battle for love.

Even Karuizawa would find it hard to accept that her lover maintains an ambiguous relationship with other girls, let alone live together.

So... is it wrong to fall in love with someone for personal gain?

Compared to love at first sight or childhood sweethearts, Ichinose dares to say that no one likes or loves Amane more than she does.

After all, the more she wanted to change her fate, the more she would develop an equally deep love for Tianyin.

A lie that is half true and half false may be exposed one day, but even the most discerning voice might not be able to distinguish between 99.9% truth and 0.1% falsehood.

This is why Ichinose dares to lie openly in front of Karuizawa without fear of Karuizawa seeing through her lie.

She only fell in love with Tianyin for her own benefit.

As for gaining support for further education... that's just a nice-sounding way of putting it.

Karuizawa pondered for a long time but couldn't find any flaws, just as Ichinose had predicted.

Karuizawa hadn't expected Ichinose to be so blunt. Although it sounded a bit different from what someone like her, who genuinely liked Amane, would do, if Ichinose was really only involved in this competition for financial support, then she was indeed the most suitable partner for him.

This means that if the two of them can defeat Horikita and Sakayanagi, Karuizawa Megumi will definitely be the one to take the lead in the end.

After all, one wants people, and the other wants profits.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"It's okay. I've completely let go of my past. I was just that kind of shameful girl who liked someone for personal gain. How could someone like me deserve Tianyin's love? All I want is for Tianyin to provide some financial support after I graduate. I never wanted to compete with you for Tianyin's attention. I never had the right to do so from the beginning."

Ichinose lowered her head, looking somewhat sad.

Karuizawa noticed that Ichinose seemed a little sad and didn't know what to say for a moment.

Having never experienced anything like this before, Karuizawa could only stand there helplessly.

"I'm really sorry for saying such discouraging things. I just wanted Karuizawa-kun to know that I'm not your enemy, that's all. We can discuss the rest in detail later. I won't bother you any longer."

After saying that, Ichinose turned around and quickly left the arcade without even saying goodbye.

Karuizawa felt a mix of emotions. She was starting to wonder how to face Amane and these competitors, each with their own agendas.

As soon as she left the arcade, Ichinose's sad expression vanished from her face like the first snow melting in spring.

"Sorry, this kind of battle is really not suitable for a naive contestant like you, Karuizawa. Considering how upset you were for me today, I'll let you off the hook if I'm lucky enough to succeed. It's only because I'm so magnanimous that if it were Sakayanagi or Horikita... hmph."

Ichinose muttered to herself while looking at the photo of herself and Amane on her phone screen.

……

"Phew~ It's been so long since I've felt this good. Hey? Where's Honami?"

Tenon arrived at the waiting area in Karuizawa, her brows covered in sweat. She looked around curiously and discovered that Ichinose, whom she had just seen, had vanished without a trace.

"Ichinose-san said she had some things to do and had to leave. You can't let her watch the two of us playing around forever, can you?"

Karuizawa handed the water to Amane, then thoughtfully took out a tissue to wipe the sweat from Amane's forehead.

"You're one to talk! I remember you were the one who suggested playing this game, but you backed out at the last minute, leaving me to control two machines all by myself, which almost killed me."

Tianyin puffed out one cheek to express her dissatisfaction.

"What?! I only resorted to this tactic to prevent Ichinose-kun from following us. Besides, I think Amane is enjoying it!"

Karuizawa reached out and gently pressed Amane's puffed-up cheeks back down.

To some extent, Karuizawa's words do make sense.

At first, she did try to get Ichinose to leave in other ways, but she didn't expect Ichinose to insist on following them, which led to Amane and Karuizawa being forced to actually play the dance machine.

Furthermore, after resting in Karuizawa, Amane played several more songs, clearly enjoying herself; otherwise, she wouldn't have been so exhausted and sweating profusely.

"So... Hui, do you want to continue?"

Amane grasped Karuizawa's hand, her expectant gaze making Karuizawa somewhat embarrassed as he turned his head away, trying to avoid Amane's intense gaze.

If Ichinose hadn't said those things to her, Karuizawa might be happily continuing her unfinished confession right now.

However, after Ichinose's explanation, Karuizawa decided to abandon this path that seemed to be a shortcut.

However, she still intends to try to salvage the situation, since Karuizawa is unwilling to let this shortcut be blocked so easily.

"Can I save this opportunity for later? Anyway, Tianyin, you said you would grant me any request."

Amane was well aware of Karuizawa's ulterior motives. If Karuizawa had made that request from the beginning, Amane might have agreed immediately. However, Karuizawa changed his mind after meeting Ichinose, so it's hard to say whether he was influenced by Ichinose.

After thinking for a moment, Tianyin shook her head.

"The promise I made to you is unfair to others. It only came about because I wanted to make up for the regret of not being able to celebrate your birthday yesterday. Since it's a birthday compensation, you only have one chance to make a wish. It will expire after today."

Amane refused Karuizawa's request, since it was unfair to others to do so. If there were no time limit, who knows what strange thing Karuizawa might wish for with this request one day.

What if one day Karuizawa wishes for Amane to expel Horikita Suzune from school? Would Amane agree to that? To prevent such an impossible wish from being fulfilled, Amane felt it necessary to impose some restrictions.

"I knew it... Well then, I'll give up. I don't want to win this way; it's not honorable at all. Besides, if I really took a shortcut, Horikita-san and Sakayanagi-san would probably want to kill me, right? Um... I have some things to do, so I'll take my leave now. Let's come here together again sometime!!"

"Eh?! Hui, you wait..."

Before Amane could finish speaking, Karuizawa turned and ran quickly away from the arcade.

Sure enough, she said she was giving up, but who knows what she was really thinking?

Instead of quickly catching up with Karuizawa, Amane stopped in front of an ordinary arcade game table.

"You have quite the nerve, daring to follow me. Even if Arisu ordered you to do it, I wouldn't show any mercy, Kamuro-kun."

Seeing that he had been discovered by Tenon, Kamuro, who had been hiding there for half a day, decided to stop hiding and came out from behind the arcade machine.

"I told you nothing good would come from running into you. Don't get me wrong, I didn't come here to stalk you. And surely no one in this school would be stupid enough to do something like that?"

Upon hearing this, Tenon raised an eyebrow. Seeing that Kamuro could calmly say that he hadn't come to follow her, Tenon became slightly interested.

"If it wasn't to follow me, then it was to follow Hui, wasn't it?"

"Huh? Who's interested in your little girlfriend? I only came because Sakayanagi ordered me to follow that Ichinose guy. If you hadn't been standing there refusing to leave, I would have already chased after him. If Sakayanagi blames me for not completing the mission, I'll definitely say it's your fault!!!"

P.S.: Happy Lunar New Year's Eve everyone!!! Because I need to help prepare the New Year's Eve dinner today, I might be taking a break tonight. I'll make up for the missed updates after the New Year! Thank you all for your continued support!! Happy New Year in advance! www

Chapter 195: You're not a lolicon, are you?

"Huh? Who's interested in your little girlfriend? I only came because Sakayanagi ordered me to follow that Ichinose guy. If you hadn't been standing there refusing to leave, I would have already chased after him. If Sakayanagi blames me for not completing the mission, I'll definitely say it's your fault!!!"

Kamuro immediately found someone she could shift the blame to, since even she didn't know if what she brought back would be useful to Sakayanagi.

Kamuro was also feeling a bit of a headache at this moment. Sakayanagi's orders were already very strange, and he didn't even tell her the real purpose.

She still vividly remembers the strange behavior of Sakayanagi that day.

"Huh? Track Ichinose? Aren't we supposed to be facing off against Class C? Why am I being asked to track Ichinose?"

Kamuro looked at Sakayanagi with a puzzled expression, who seemed somewhat gloomy compared to usual. In her memory, Sakayanagi was the kind of girl who always maintained a confident expression, no matter the situation.

Her gloomy expression at this moment was clearly inconsistent with the image she usually projected to the public.

"Masumi-kun, don't you think you're talking a bit too much?"

"Tsk."

Kamuro crossed her arms in dissatisfaction. What she hated most was Sakayanagi's attitude of not treating her like a human being at all. In fact, she knew very well that she had absolutely no talent in strategy. Compared to Sakayanagi, she was like heaven and earth, the difference between them was probably greater than the difference between a human and a dog.

Therefore, she had nothing to say about being used as a pawn by Sakayanagi. A smart person can command a stupid person, and even if a stupid person doesn't want to be commanded, they should still have the confidence to resist.

Unfortunately, her most crucial weakness was in Sakayanagi's hands. If it had been at the beginning of the semester, Kamuro wouldn't have been afraid of Sakayanagi reporting her weakness, because the only result would have been expulsion.

She didn't care about this boarding school.

However, after living here for a year, Kamuro had become accustomed to the hedonistic lifestyle. The fixed amount of points she received each month allowed her to buy whatever she wanted, things that she wouldn't have been able to afford even with a year's worth of pocket money.

This dreamlike life is so sweet that she's completely immersed in it, which makes her extremely afraid that Sakayanagi will use this as leverage to force her to drop out of school.

She didn't want to waste this year, nor did she want to lose her current carefree and high-quality lifestyle.

So she chose to become a pawn, or rather, an obedient and loyal dog.

"Your dissatisfaction is written all over your face, so all you need to do from the beginning is follow my orders. I will tell you what you need to know, and you don't need to know what I haven't told you, understand?"

Sakayanagi's rebuke made Kamuro frown. She was already reluctant to continue this topic, fearing that she might lose control of her anger if they kept talking.

"Hmph, I know. It's just about tracking Ichinose, right? What information do you need me to bring back?"

"All."

"Huh? All of them?"