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

"Liar!!!"

"Didn't we agree that no one was allowed to leave until the game was over? Why, why..."

Amane opened her other hand, revealing a chess piece that remained untouched until the very end. The reason she hesitated to make the move was that she feared Sakayanagi Arisu would disappear from her sight the moment she did.

But now...

Even though the chess piece was still in her hand, Sakayanagi Arisu still left.

"We will meet again, we definitely will."

……

"Tianyin? Tianyin?"

The familiar voice roused Tianyin from her reverie.

"Honestly, how come you're getting distracted while we're talking?"

Sitting opposite Amane, Sakayanagi pouted in dissatisfaction, complaining that Amane wasn't listening to her properly.

"Sorry, sorry~ Where were we?"

While sincerely apologizing, Tianyin reached out and touched the brooch pinned inside her school uniform.

When the old man asked her what she wanted as a token of their love, Tianyin chose the brooch without hesitation.

The outside is printed with the Miyako family's logo, while the back has been changed to a pattern that can be opened and used as a seal.

In addition, a name is engraved on the back of the brooch.

No, to be precise, there should be two, but due to a lack of space, Amane shortened the names of Miyako Amane and Sakayanagi Arisu to ———.

"Miyako o Arisu."

Chapter 199: Honami Ichinose's Ambition

"Hmph hmph hmph~~~"

Ichinose hummed a popular song as she carefully dried her hair with a hairdryer.

Because she is usually very clean, Ichinose didn't really need to take a shower today since she didn't exercise much. However, Ichinose has developed a habit of taking a shower whenever she comes back from going out.

Over time, even her hair smelled of shampoo. Ichinose herself didn't find it very pleasant, but judging from the reactions of those around her, it seemed that everyone liked the smell, so Ichinose never changed the brand of shampoo.

After confirming that her hair was dry, Ichinose carefully put away the hairdryer, then got up and sat down at the table.

It was already dinnertime, but Ichinose hadn't prepared anything delicious to treat herself. One of the main reasons she couldn't accumulate points when she was with her classmates in Class D was that after school, everyone would go to a restaurant or karaoke to maintain their class friendship.

While this is certainly helpful in deepening friendships, it is also quite expensive and takes up a considerable amount of personal time. Even if no one complains to her, Ichinose can guess that many people dislike such group activities.

Ichinose herself doesn't like it, but there are some things you have to do even if you don't like them, and that's probably what it feels like to be powerless.

Now that Ichinose has joined Class B, the atmosphere of group activities that Ichinose often found annoying has vanished without a trace.

This was a huge relief for her.

Thanks to the fact that no one asks her out after school, Ichinose has more personal time and saves a lot of points.

Ichinose's gaze fell on a piece of paper on the table covered with dense writing and various simple markings.

Even someone who doesn't know the purpose of this drawing can tell from the annotations Ichinose made with different colored pens that she must have spent a lot of time and effort making it look the way it does now.

Undoubtedly, this drawing is very important to Ichinose, because it records all the interpersonal relationships among the students in Class B, as well as each person's general personality and preferences.

It can be said that with this blueprint, one can have a clear understanding of all the information about Class B. If Ichinose were to sell this blueprint, even Class A would probably be willing to pay a very high price to buy it.

However, Ichinose has no intention of selling this information at the moment.

"The plan is underway. Kamuro-kun should have recorded what I said and sent it to Sakayanagi-kun, right? In that case..."

Ichinose casually picked up another blank sheet of paper and wrote down the names of Amane, Horikita, Karuizawa, Sakayanagi, and Kamuro on it.

Then an arrow was drawn from the name Kamuro pointing directly at Sakayanagi.

Ichinose had already noticed Kamuro's stalking behavior these past few days. If it were someone else, they would have confronted Kamuro or reported it to the teacher or the class leader because they were being followed.

However, Ichinose did not do that, because Ichinose was initially unsure of Kamuro's purpose in following her. After all, the two had no interaction during this special exam, and she was neither the commander nor the general in charge of one-on-one battles.

Kamuro had absolutely no reason to follow him.

If it was somewhat acceptable for Ichinose to think that the people from Class D were spying on her, then Kamuro's stalking was clearly something else entirely.

The thought that the person behind Kamuro was Sakayanagi Arisu made Ichinose gradually begin to speculate about Kamuro's motives.

To verify her suspicions, she deliberately hid a note with ambiguous information in a designated location the night before. Then, after school the next day, she pretended to communicate with someone through this very conservative method of communication. Ichinose would then pretend to check her surroundings before finally throwing the note into a nearby trash can.

After doing all this, Ichinose immediately hid in a secluded spot to spy on Kamuro, wanting to ascertain Kamuro's motives.

Therefore, Ichinose deliberately manipulated the content when testing Kamuro's reaction.

It was obvious that Kamuro was more interested in the note related to Amane; he even took a picture of the note with his phone.

By this point, Ichinose had fully realized Sakayanagi's purpose in having Kamuro follow her; he probably saw her as a rival in love.

Although Ichinose doesn't consider herself a rival in love, since Sakayanagi already thinks so, it's unrealistic to try to distance herself from the relationship. In that case... why not let her use a little trick to get Sakayanagi to do something more meaningful?

So Ichinose devised a plan to team up with Karuizawa against Horikita and Sakayanagi. As if the heavens were on her side to make her plan succeed, she just happened to witness Karuizawa confessing his love to Amane today.

Although Ichinose felt somewhat guilty for ruining Karuizawa's confession, the plan went much more smoothly than she had imagined. Karuizawa would not have sacrificed herself in vain!

A smile appeared on Ichinose's lips.

She could already foresee that after Kamuro told Sakayanagi about what happened today, Sakayanagi would have no choice but to contact Horikita to prevent her from getting involved. Perhaps Sakayanagi would even pretend to join forces with Horikita and then have Horikita fight against her and Karuizawa.

"What a pity... Horikita-san isn't someone who compromises easily, and she always seems to act like the 'mistress,' so she's bound to clash with Sakayanagi-san. In that case..."

In this way, Ichinose Honami merely released a false message that she wanted to join forces with Karuizawa, which both persuaded Karuizawa to give up her escape and worsened the relationship between Sakayanagi and Horikita, making it impossible for the two sides to cooperate again in the short term.

The biggest obstacle blocking Tianyin's path thus disappeared.

To allay Karuizawa's concerns, she lied and said that she didn't want to become Amane's lover, but only hoped to get Amane's financial support.

Now it seems like a lucky accident. It's precisely because Ichinose showed that she had no desire for that position that she was able to stand aside and watch this good show.

Ichinose simply used Amane as bait to release false information, which successfully threw those competitors who had designs on Amane into chaos. They abandoned their previous tacit understanding of peaceful coexistence and started fighting amongst themselves. In the end, Ichinose will most likely be the one to benefit. It has to be said that Ichinose's move was quite like the strategy of killing three warriors with two peaches.

"It would be great if the fight could be more intense."

Ichinose was not satisfied with the petty squabbles between Horikita and Sakayanagi. In her opinion, Amane usually ignored such minor squabbles and at most tried to mediate.

Before the two sides escalate their conflict, as long as Tianyin is present, both sides will maintain a certain degree of restraint, and with Tianyin's mediation, they will generally choose to settle things peacefully.

Is there a way to make the two fight to the death, so that she can take advantage of the situation?

Of course!

"Totsuka seems to be a pawn that Amane is giving up. Sakayanagi will probably abandon him in this special exam. Amane can also use the rule that this special exam does not allow the rescue of expelled students as an excuse to abandon Totsuka."

As she said this, Ichinose's eyes began to sparkle, and she quickly wrote down a name she had never considered before on the paper.

Katsuragi Yasuhei.

Amane's decision to abandon Totsuka, who was beyond saving, was perfectly reasonable. Even if Katsuragi was dissatisfied with the outcome, he couldn't find anything wrong with it.

Even if it were Katsuragi instead, he wouldn't be able to save his former friend.

Who will Katsuragi hold accountable for this?

Ichinose drew an arrow from next to Katsuragi directly to next to Sakayanagi Arisu, and then wrote the note "hostile".

Katsuragi, unable to forgive Sakayanagi, would naturally urge Class B to attack Class A, but that was far from enough.

Sakayanagi is an extremely intelligent girl, and Katsuragi is no match for her at all. This means that no matter how much Katsuragi jumps around, Sakayanagi only needs to ignore him.

"Tsk tsk, as expected of Sakayanagi-san. It seems that Horikita-san and Katsuragi-san alone are not enough to make you serious. How about... adding Kamuro-san as well?"

Ichinose simply drew a big X over Kamuro's name.

If Kamuro, Sakayanagi's right-hand man, were to drop out of school because of Class B, then... even if Sakayanagi didn't want to break ties with Class B, it would be impossible.

If Sakayanagi doesn't avenge Kamuro by then, the students in Class A will become restless, just like Class D did before.

The final result will be that a complete class gradually collapses.

No one understands better than Ichinose how painful it is to feel helpless when a class leader loses everyone's trust, and no one understands better than Ichinose how difficult it is to reunite a class when a leader who has lost everyone's trust has lost everyone's trust.

Sakayanagi is very smart, but the smarter she is, the more she can see the danger. In the end, it's no longer a question of whether she wants to clash with Horikita and Amane, but that she must stand up as the leader of Class A to avenge her classmates.

"That way, everyone will forget about fighting over the Heavenly Sound, and I can..."

Ichinose licked her slightly dry lips.

As long as her plan succeeds, no matter what kind of mistress, childhood sweetheart, or strange parasite she is, they will all be drawn into the struggle.

Being ignored by everyone, she was naturally free to do whatever she wanted.

Unlike Karuizawa, she wouldn't spit out an opportunity that was handed to her.

"Hey~ I really want to see what kind of expressions Horikita-san and the others will have after I take advantage of their vulnerability. Surprise? Despair? I'm such a bad woman, hehe..."

……

Amane's attempt with Sakayanagi was naturally fruitless; getting her to speak up for other girls in front of Sakayanagi was simply too difficult.

Furthermore, Amane recalled the moments she had spent with Sakayanagi, and being soft-hearted to begin with, she blurted out whatever came to mind.

Finally, after finishing her cocoa, Amane was kicked out by Sakayanagi, who said he wouldn't provide dinner that night.

The critical issue now is how to appease Horikita.

"This is really bad. If we really can't solve this, we'll just have to try to persuade Rinne to sleep with me, right?"

The minor incident between Sakayanagi and Horikita ultimately did not cause any significant disturbance; aside from Amane's somewhat listless state of mind, everything else remained the same as usual.

Although Horikita was unhappy with Amane's opportunistic behavior at the crucial moment, she knew that forcing Amane to make a choice now would carry a significant risk of failure.

Therefore, Horikita could only choose to swallow her anger for the time being and begin to shift her attention to this special exam.

Currently, the points difference between Class B and Class A is not significant. It can be said that the outcome of this match will determine who holds the title of Class A, while Class B's opponent happens to be the weakest class at present, Class D.

If she can win this time, she can naturally vent her anger on Sakayanagi.

Logically, the decision to discuss the plan should have been made by Koenji and Amane, since one is the commander and the other is a general. Amane is the leader of Class B, so she should at least participate.

but……

"call……"

Looking at Amane sleeping soundly beside her, Horikita decided to leave Amane alone for the time being.

"Koenji-kun, do you have such opinions about the events in this competition?"

Horikita looked at Koenji, who was standing to the side. Perhaps because he was also feeling the pressure of dropping out of school, Koenji had actually attended several discussion meetings in a row. Although he hardly spoke, he had made great progress compared to before.

The only drawback is...

Although Koenji was there, he kept looking in the mirror and didn't seem to be paying attention to what everyone was discussing.

It's hard to say what role Koenji played in the discussion.

"Isn't it enough that you all have a discussion? As an outstanding and successful person, I can easily win any competition, so you can prepare some more challenging ones without any problem."

Koenji's words and actions exuded an undeniable confidence.

Horikita simply nodded. In her opinion, Koenji did have the right to say that, but she couldn't possibly place all her hopes on Koenji, who was usually not very reliable.

What truly put Horikita at ease was the presence of Amane.

Both the commander and the general can intervene in the competition, but the general's intervention is a one-on-one duel.

Horikita was confident that in a one-on-one situation, as long as Amane got serious, no one could beat her in any competition, so Horikita didn't feel any pressure about this competition.

The only pity is that... even at this point, she still hasn't found an opportunity to prove herself.

Perhaps... relying on the power of Tianyin isn't something to be ashamed of.

Chapter 200: The Person You Like? Does Someone of the Same Sex Count?

Time always flies when preparing for special exams, and before you know it, it's the day before you have to submit your competition entry.

The school's choice of the day after White Valentine's Day as the deadline for the competition was rather wicked, and given Sakayanagi's recent focus on student council matters, it's possible that she deliberately set the date.

They wanted to do something together on White Valentine's Day, but they were worried about having to submit their competition project the next day, so they couldn't focus all their energy on it.

After all, the school will reject submissions of duplicate entries, entries with unclear rules, or entries that are too long due to venue limitations or other reasons.

According to the special exam instructions handbook issued by the school, once a competition item is returned, the class must fill in the missing competition item within one day, otherwise it will be considered as giving up the exam. Although everyone has some alternative competition items, who knows if the other party has prepared the same competition items without knowing the competition items submitted by the other party?