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

Even though there was a table separating the two of them, Tianze felt as if they were right next to each other.

Especially Sakayanagi's confident eyes, as if he were scrutinizing her from all angles.

Realizing he couldn't afford to make any more mistakes, Tenze immediately changed his casual sitting posture into a standard kneeling position. However, it was this seemingly overly serious and earnest posture that made Sakayanagi very satisfied.

In Sakayanagi's view, only girls who have mastered basic etiquette are qualified to follow Amane. Otherwise, if the girls Amane takes out are only beautiful and have good figures but do not know any manners or have any inner qualities, they will be laughed at by others.

In terms of etiquette, Tianze barely passes muster, but as for his personality...

Sakayanagi didn't think much of Amaze, believing that Amaze's personality needed further refinement before he could be of great use.

"By the way, Tianyin, you must be thirsty after going out for a while, right? Would you like something to drink?"

As Tenze was reflecting on his mistakes, he couldn't help but try to listen carefully to their conversation when he heard Sakayanagi ask the same question.

Although Tianyin answered 'water' when she was there, Tianze knew that Tianyin was in a hurry to invite her over and would definitely not want any troublesome drinks. So, under normal circumstances, what drink would Tianyin choose as her first choice?

Tenze plans to secretly learn a skill from Sakayanagi.

"I want to drink the black tea that Arisu brewed!"

Tianyin answered almost without hesitation.

Brewing black tea is one of Sakayanagi's specialties. When Amane moved into the Sakayanagi family's house temporarily, she suffered from tea fever for a period of time.

The tea craze led Amane to develop an almost fanatical love for black tea, which forced Sakayanagi, who only knew how to brew coffee, to learn how to brew black tea in order to satisfy Amane's preferences. Finally, after nearly a year of overcoming various difficulties, Sakayanagi finally mastered the skill of brewing black tea to a world-class level that was impeccable.

Tianyin has actually switched to drinking milk!!!

Fortunately, Sakayanagi's heart condition did not relapse due to the anger.

After arriving at this school, Amane developed an interest in tomato juice, which forced Sakayanagi to stock up on milk and juice that he never used in his dorm room.

The purpose was to ensure that when Tianyin suddenly visited, she wouldn't be unable to find a satisfactory drink in her refrigerator.

However, if we're talking about it, Amane has a special fondness for Sakayanagi's skill in brewing black tea, and she often asks Sakayanagi to brew her some.

black tea!

Tianze keenly noticed this drink that she hadn't paid much attention to before.

Sakayanagi, who had been observing Amaze from the side, naturally noticed the change in Amaze's gaze. She had originally planned to get up to help brew the black tea, but now she calmly sat back down in her seat.

"Excuse me, Tianze, I feel a little unwell from the strenuous activity. Could you please make Tianyin a pot of black tea? The tea leaves are in the cabinet above the kitchen counter; feel free to take them."

Sakayanagi's actions elicited a strange expression from Amasawa.

In all the etiquette and experiences she had gone through from childhood to university, she had never encountered a case like Sakayanagi's, where the host asked the guest to make tea.

Tenze wanted to decline, citing his poor tea-making skills as an excuse, but to his surprise, Tenon preemptively rejected Sakayanagi's suggestion.

"If you're not feeling well, Arisu, I'll just have something to drink..."

As she was speaking, Tenon suddenly felt a pain in her buttocks. With her extremely quick reflexes, Tenon immediately realized that Sakayanagi was telling her not to speak. Although Tenon didn't know why Sakayanagi wanted Tenon to make tea, she trusted Sakayanagi completely and chose to follow his instructions.

Seeing Tianyin's strange behavior, even the most foolish Tianze understood that he had no choice but to brew the tea today.

"Then I'll go. I accidentally injured President Sakayanagi because I was too impulsive. Let me make tea for you both as an apology."

Since there was no room for refusal, Tianze simply agreed and began to seriously brew tea.

As for other drinks, Tianze doesn't really know how to make them, but when it comes to brewing tea, it's an essential skill that almost everyone here knows a little bit about.

Not long after, Tianze placed the three cups of brewed black tea on the table.

He looked like a child waiting for the teacher to announce the answer, nervously twisting his fingers together.

Sakayanagi first sniffed the aroma of the tea, then gently blew on the steam rising from the tea, sniffed the aroma again, and then took a small sip.

The taste was just so-so. Even if Sakayanagi wanted to praise Tensawa's tea-making skills, he couldn't find anything particularly outstanding. Sakayanagi felt that Tensawa was just following a standardized process, but because the quality of the tea leaves was high enough, it didn't seem so bad.

Sakayanagi looked at Amane. Amane took a small sip of the black tea brewed by Amaze and then put down the teacup, clearly not very satisfied. However, since there was no obvious problem with the taste of the tea, Amane didn't know what to say. She could only look at Sakayanagi with a puzzled expression, seemingly confused by Sakayanagi's arrangement.

Sakayanagi simply smiled and didn't say anything more.

Even Amane probably didn't know that there was nothing in the entire school that was a secret to her. While Amane was looking for Amane, Sakayanagi had already quickly browsed through all the information related to Amane and the reports on her strange behavior.

According to intelligence reports, Tianze presents herself to outsiders as a seasoned and sexy woman.

Or perhaps this is her 'persona', but judging from her background, Tianze Yixia could never be a hot girl. Logically speaking, she should be from a top-tier conglomerate and have received a good education.

In order to determine what kind of Amaze is the real Amaze Ichika, Sakayanagi deliberately asked her to make tea. Making tea seems very simple, but every zaibatsu or large family will teach the girls in the family how to brew tea very seriously.

In other words... if Tianze's background were legitimate, he would never have brewed tea using such a systematic brewing method.

A 'fake' rich girl from a white house.

Just thinking about it makes Sakayanagi very interesting.

"Tianze's tea-making skills are quite good, I feel they are no less than those of tea masters. However... just sitting and drinking tea feels a bit strange. Since Tianze and I are not very familiar with each other, how about we play some games to liven up the atmosphere?"

Sakayanagi's suggestion was immediately accepted by Amane and Amane. Unlike Amane's unconditional acceptance of Sakayanagi's suggestion, Amane believed that a person's personality could be seen from the game. In addition, Sakayanagi did not say anything about forgiving her, so if they continued to chat, it would not be very optimistic for Amane in her current situation.

So even though Tianze felt that this confrontation with Sakayanagi had ended in failure, she couldn't go back empty-handed. At the very least, she had to obtain some valuable information so that she could plan ahead for dealing with Sakayanagi next time.

So Tianze, disregarding the slight awkwardness, agreed to play the mini-game.

"So what should we play? If there are three of us... how about drawing jokers? Everyone should have played that game before."

Tianyin then offered her suggestion: drawing jokers is a standard game type at any time, and there's no awkwardness even when playing with people of different ages. Plus, it's simple and convenient, and as the mainstream poker game in the country, the rules are widely known and easy to learn, perfectly meeting the different needs of the three players.

Upon hearing Tianyin's suggestion, Tianze said nothing but was quite satisfied with it. Her skill in drawing joker cards was not bad, and the game was not difficult for her.

However, it's clear that what Sakayanagi wanted to see wasn't such a serious game.

"Hey, we're so tired of playing Joker. How about we play a limited edition King's Game instead?"

Upon hearing that Sakayanagi had actually offered to play the King's Game, the expressions of the other two immediately changed.

"Yay!! I remember it's been so long since I played King's Game with you, Arisu! You can't cheat this time, Arisu~"

Amane clenched her fists happily, and winked meaningfully at Sakayanagi beside her.

Sakayanagi seemed to suddenly realize something, and her face turned bright red.

The last time she played the King's Game with Amane was when she, Amane, and Kaede were all together. Amane was the King, and Sakayanagi, who was still a bit reserved at the time, was asked to wear a strangely revealing outfit that Amane had somehow gotten her hands on. Forced into a corner, Sakayanagi decided to pretend to faint to avoid punishment. However, Kaede exposed her act by pinching her nose, which made Amane laugh at her for a long time.

This incident became an almost black mark on Sakayanagi's history, to the point that whenever Amane mentioned it, Sakayanagi would almost faint.

In stark contrast to the close relationship between Amane and Sakayanagi, Tenze was now frowning, already considering whether to give up the opportunity to play this King's Game together.

King's Game is a type of social game, and it's quite common. However, most people play this game with a kind of thought that's inconvenient to say openly.

Tianze knew very well that this was a challenge given to her by Banliu. If she backed down like this, she would be labeled as an unsociable person, and her relationship with Tianyin would most likely fall through completely.

However, if she agrees, that would be truly disastrous. It's obvious that Sakayanagi and Amane's level of understanding is far beyond what she can match, meaning that she will most likely not become the king. In that case, what's the point of playing this game?

In the end, she was simply manipulated by the conspiring Amane and Sakayanagi.

"I have no problem with the King's Game, but it probably wouldn't be very fun with three people, right? I think drawing the Joker would be a good alternative."

Instead of pointing out Sakayanagi's 'idea', Amasawa tried to reject the King's Game proposal by saying that there were too few people. At the same time as rejecting the King's Game, he also proposed to play the Joker game proposed by Amine.

In this way, perhaps out of consideration for Amane, Sakayanagi might abandon her idea and instead decide to play the Joker game as well.

Tianze's idea was wonderful, but unfortunately, Banyan had prepared this step for Tianze from the very beginning. Now that everything was ready, how could she let Tianze back out at the last minute?

"Tianze, don't worry, the three of us can still play the King's Game in a thrilling and exciting way. And I said it's a limited edition King's Game. The reason I say limited is because..."

"The whole game is a contest between you and me, and the king is always Tianyin. Tianyin will give the punishment to the loser between you and me... If you're scared, Tianze, we can play the Joker game, but Tianyin will probably be disappointed, right?"

After saying that, Sakayanagi's lips curled into a smug, beautiful smile.

Everything was under her control. Tianze Yixia? She was still too inexperienced.

Chapter 77: Take it off, Tianze!

Upon hearing Sakayanagi's explanation, Amasawa was both surprised and delighted. She was surprised that Sakayanagi Arisu, who came from a prestigious family, would play such a game with her, a game where it was obvious that she was going to be taken advantage of.

What pleased Tianze even more was that she was just thinking about how to turn the tide without letting Tianyin's impression of her suffer again, when Banliu brought her a pillow just as she was about to doze off.

If the three of them are playing the game without knowing who the 'King' is, then there's a concern that Amane might side with Sakayanagi. After all, even disregarding their close relationship, Sakayanagi seems like a delicate girl who constantly evokes others' protective instincts.

She comes with the label of "bad girl," a personality trait that is very appealing to boys. Coupled with her good looks, she can easily build relationships with boys and get help from them. However, this kind of persona doesn't seem to be very appealing to girls.

In other words, even disregarding Tianyin and the relationship between the two parties, it would be difficult for Tianze to gain help in a game where everyone is a girl.

However, Sakayanagi took the initiative to set the fixed rules for the king.

This means that, just as Sakayanagi said, this game was a one-on-one match between Tensawa and her. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Tensawa. After all, every game has rules for determining the winner, and no matter how biased Tenon is, she would not ignore the rules of the game and insist that Sakayanagi had won.

This also means that the game is indeed fair in some respects, so should we agree to it?

Tenze hesitated. If he let go of such a good opportunity, it would never come again. After all, Sakayanagi wasn't stupid. He wouldn't really give up his advantages to play a fair duel with Tenze.

The reason why Sakayanagi offered such favorable conditions to Amaze this time was that Sakayanagi wanted to take advantage of her initial victory and press her advantage, either to make Amaze lose face in front of her or to deliberately scare her away by making Amaze do something bad.

But as the only girl in her class at Shiroya who could be compared to Yagami, would she be afraid of Sakayanagi's provocation? Of course not. What made Amasawa hesitate was the pros and cons, not whether she was afraid or not.

Sakayanagi must have a reason for daring to do this. Most likely, she will suggest playing some less popular games or games that she is extremely good at. If that's the case, then I would have almost no chance of winning against an opponent like Sakayanagi who is of the same intelligence level and has a wealth of experience, given my lack of experience.

This wouldn't reveal Sakayanagi's true strength, and if he were to let Sakayanagi lose too badly... would Amane's impression of her change? This was the real reason why Amane wanted to back down despite such a huge opportunity.

Seemingly sensing that Tianze was hesitating, Sakayanagi cleared his throat and deliberately provoked Tianze with a defiant tone.

"It seems that Tianze is quite afraid to play this game with me. If that's the case, then forget it. After all, games are meant to bring joy, and Tianze is a guest. If he loses too badly, people will laugh at me for not being hospitable."

Tianze would never take such childish provocation seriously...

ha?

Tianze suddenly recalled the scene from the beginning, and the moment when she raised her hand to hit the cane of Hisaka Yanagi seemed to reappear before her eyes.

"You just fell for her provocation—what right do you have to look down on her?"

"Ichika, face your opponent squarely. She's a formidable foe, on par with or even surpassing you. How dare you underestimate such a powerful opponent? Have all the knowledge you've acquired gone to waste?"

Tianze took a deep breath and adjusted his state.

She admitted that she had fallen into Sakayanagi's rhythm from the moment she stepped into the room, but her pride prevented her from acknowledging that Sakayanagi was stronger than her.

Now that she has regained her composure, Tianze is determined to have a serious competition with Banyan. Even if she loses in the end, she wants to have a contest of strength with this person, whether as a love rival or as the unattainable student council president.

"President Sakayanagi is overthinking it. I'm not the kind of person who gets scared when playing a game. Since President Sakayanagi is interested, I'm willing to play with you. I'm just afraid that you won't accept the punishment for losing the game."

Seeing that Tianze had returned to his original mischievous self, Tianyin couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. She could also tell that Tianze had become much more reserved since entering the room, and his aura had been steadily suppressed by Banliu the whole time.

Logically speaking, she shouldn't have had the confidence or strength to compete with Sakayanagi, but Tianze showed a confident demeanor, indicating that she had broken free from Sakayanagi's suppression.

This ability to quickly adjust himself is enough for Tianze to be proud of, but unfortunately...

The gap in strength cannot be bridged by confidence. Tianze should know very well that Banyan is not as weak as she seems, so what is her reason for choosing to bite the bullet and go for it? Is it to avoid losing face in front of him?

Or……

Looking into Amaze's sparkling golden eyes, she recalled how Sakayanagi had challenged her back then, and how Amaze Ichika looked exactly the same now.

Was it the desire to challenge stronger opponents that ignited your competitive spirit and courage?

Sakayanagi surveyed Tensawa with satisfaction. She had thought that a girl who was willing to be treated like a 'pet' should be nothing more than this, even if she had some ability.

But unexpectedly, Tianze Yixia could bring her some surprises. The courage to fight against the strong is not something that can be done easily. The more intelligent a person is, the more things they consider, and the easier it is for them to lose the courage to go all in.

In order not to betray Amaze Ichika's courage, Sakayanagi decided to use his strongest strength to defeat Amaze head-on.

She has become even stronger than before in order to defeat Tianyin, but it's unknown how much of her strength Tianze will allow her to unleash.

"Tianze-kun, you're joking. I'm not a sore loser. I've lost enough to Tianyin, so please don't worry that winning will hurt my pride. Besides, the pride of the Sakayanagi family won't allow me to escape the punishment for losing a game. You can rest assured about that, Tianze-kun. However... given my physical condition, I can't play physical games if you want, Tianze-kun."

Sakayanagi picked up the teacup in front of him and took a small sip, but his gaze was fixed on Tensawa through the teacup.

"It would be a bit unfair to compete with President Sakayanagi in physical games. Besides, I'll play whatever game you want to play with me, President Sakayanagi."

Tianze Yixia revealed a rather cute expression while speaking, which was completely different from the cuteness she had deliberately put on for the sake of her previous persona.

"Is Tianze good at board games?"

"It's so-so. I haven't met anyone who can beat me in board games yet, so I'm not really sure about my own strength."

Amasawa Ichika's words made Sakayanagi chuckle; they were indeed the kind of things a child would say.

"How about checkers?"

"no problem."

Once the two had decided on the game, Amane went to prepare it. Sakayanagi had a fairly complete selection of board games, and Amane quickly prepared a game of checkers for the two to start playing.

"Tianze, do you want to use white? I can let you have it."