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

"But now that you know, you should at least call me aunt, right?"

Although she didn't particularly like the child, Fujiwara Rin knew very well that her aversion stemmed from her dislike of her father, while Amane was innocent. If anything, she might also feel a little jealous that Amane received more of the old man's favor than she did.

But putting all that aside, there's no doubt that Tianyin is the most outstanding young person in her family, and also the cutest.

Feeling the pressure from the hand stroking her hair, Tianyin weighed the pros and cons and decisively chose to speak.

"Auntie!~"

"That's more like it. It's a pity that I was originally supposed to protect you until graduation, but now the plan has changed and you'll probably have to walk your own path from now on."

Upon hearing this news, Amane's heart skipped a beat. From Fujiwara Rin's words, Amane understood the real reason why she could act recklessly at this school. It wasn't because those standing directors were her family's vassals, nor because most of the directors were representatives of sponsors who had friendly relations with the Miyako family, nor because the person who founded the school was her grandfather's political successor.

Instead, she has an aunt who is the chairperson of the board of directors. So no matter what happens to Amane or how big the trouble is, Fujiwara Rin, with the power of the chairperson, can almost instantly resolve these troubles that affect Amane's life at school.

Without Fujiwara Rin, she would have to be more careful in her actions, which made Amane, who was used to doing whatever she wanted, feel a little uncomfortable for a while. Speaking of which, if Amane remembered correctly, it seemed that Fujiwara Rin became the chairperson after the sports festival.

The term of office for the chairman of the board is usually four years. Now that Fujiwara Rin has only served as chairman for less than a year, is she going to be replaced by Gao Yu? If this happens, and her successor does not demonstrate sufficient strength, it will be hard not to spread rumors with a hint of conspiracy.

"But you don't need to worry too much. I wasn't dismissed. To be precise, my current position is acting chairman on an interim basis. This is because of the big trouble that a certain guy caused at the last sports festival..."

Fujiwara Rin glanced at Amane, who was blinking her big eyes at her like a good girl, and then continued talking.

"This led to Chairman Sakayanagi resigning, but in reality, Chairman Sakayanagi's term was only halfway through. It would be against regulations to change him abruptly. There are some things you know. Although the position of chairman is said to be elected by vote, according to the unspoken rule, each permanent director's family sends someone to serve as chairman in rotation for one term. The Sakayanagi family's term has not yet been completed. If we were to change to the next family abruptly, it might cause unnecessary trouble in the future. That's why I became the temporary chairman."

Having said that much, Amane understood what Fujiwara Rin meant. Fujiwara Rin was just someone who came up to take the blame for public opinion. Once the public opinion calmed down a bit, she would bring back Chairman Sakayanagi to finish his term.

"So, that means Sakayanagi will take office as chairman after the sports festival ends?"

"Yes, I've already spoken to Sakayanagi Narimori. He'll take better care of you. After all, most of the permanent directors are from the Miyako family, so it's impossible for him to remain neutral. However... you should still be more restrained. If you were to have another one like last year's sports festival, I'm afraid Sakayanagi's heart wouldn't be able to handle such a blow."

On the surface, last year's sports festival did not seem to have a big impact, but in reality, Gao Yu's dominance at the sports festival led to her extremely high popularity on the internet. Even though the Miyako family kept arranging for people to delete related comments and videos, there were always people who had saved them in advance and continued to spread them privately.

Gao Yu also earned many titles, such as Battle Royale Academy and Hot-Blooded High School. This made many of Gao Yu's sponsors quite apprehensive, fearing that it would have a negative impact on their brand. As a result, they reduced some of their additional investments. Although Gao Yu was badly hurt by Tian Yin's punch in the business world, fortunately, there were many outstanding students who were inspired by Tian Yin's video of his rampage and were determined to get into Gao Yu and compete with Tian Yin.

That's why almost all the first-year students in this year's class know Tianyin. Many people who are eager to fight Tianyin or admire Tianyin have signed up for Gaoyu, which has caused the number of applicants for Gaoyu to increase several times over. There are even calls in the council to expand the class quota to attract more children from wealthy families and powerful clans to bring more investment to Gaoyu.

This is the effect of Heavenly Sound.

It was Tianyin who, through her own efforts, raised all the directors' preconceived notions about the sons of wealthy families and powerful clans.

Amane breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that the successor was Chairman Sakayanagi. She was the woman entrusted to Arisu by Chairman Sakayanagi, so how could Chairman Sakayanagi not take care of her? Although Amane didn't think she needed Chairman Sakayanagi's care, she thought that she could probably get away with fines for things like accidentally damaging flowers, trees, or doorknobs by pulling some strings.

"Auntie, are you going back to the Fujiwara family after you step down from your post?"

"More or less. I have other things to do, and since it involves the Fujiwara family's arrangements, I can't tell you, little one. But Fujiwara Mayumi should be a permanent director. If you need anything... well, you can just go to the bakery to find her."

Fujiwara Rin originally thought that if there was anything, she could go to the permanent director's office to find Fujiwara Mayumi. However, she changed her mind and thought that given Fujiwara Mayumi's work attitude, she was already considered diligent if she worked only sporadically. She was probably at her bakery as a pastry chef again early in the morning. Therefore, it would be more reliable to have Amane go to the bakery to find Fujiwara Mayumi.

"Oh! Now Ms. Fujiwara finally has time to do what she likes, that's wonderful!"

Seeing Amane's happy expression, Fujiwara Rin shook her head helplessly. Fujiwara Mayumi... although she doesn't seem very reliable in many things, her skills in making pastries are undeniable, and she always gets along very well with children. Maybe this is really her talent.

But... no matter how talented you are, you can't skip work every day!!

As Fujiwara Rin started the car and prepared to continue driving towards the hospital, she seemed to suddenly remember something, a smile appearing on her lips as she looked at Amane.

"I almost forgot to tell you, although my mission to protect you has come to an end, it's not over yet. Someone will take over my job and continue to protect you from the shadows. Now you don't have to worry about your safety anymore..."

Fujiwara Rin glanced at Amane's muscular forearms, which she had inadvertently revealed, and then at her uneven belly, which clearly showed abs underneath her clothes. She fell into deep thought.

If Tianyin gets into a conflict with someone, it's more important to worry about the other person's safety than Tianyin's.

"Oh, so my mom is now in charge of my safety."

"That's right, it's your mom...wait, how did you know?!"

……

Inside the luxurious hospital room, Maple Flower, with her legs crossed and constantly munching on a plate of chilled fruit, leisurely scratched her back.

Is this really a hospital ward? The excellent treatment almost made her think she had arrived in heaven, much more comfortable than living in that doghouse at Gaoyu.

After picking up a small piece of watermelon and eating only the sweetest part in one bite, he casually threw the watermelon into the trash can where fruit peels were stored.

"Sigh, I wonder if Tianyin has been found yet. The thought of me enjoying the air conditioning while that idiot is baking in the sun makes my heart ache."

If it weren't for the wide grin that stretched from Kaede's lips to her ears, Hayasaka might have thought Kaede was worried about Amane. But now it seems Kaede is afraid that Amane will come back and take away her emperor-like treatment.

boom!

Before Fenghua could finish speaking, the door was violently flung open, and a white-haired creature strode angrily toward Fenghua.

"Oh? Isn't this Tianyin? Why are you back so early? Have you already met the person you wanted to see?"

Maple picked up the chilled orange juice next to her and took two big gulps, then took off her sunglasses and looked up at Tianyin, whose face was full of hostility.

In Feng Hua's opinion, she thought Tian Yin was sulking with the people who had brought her back.

After all, he was caught and brought back after only one day out. Anyone would be upset in that situation. But at least he stayed out overnight, so he should have seen everyone he was supposed to see.

"No."

"No? Then why did you come back?"

Maple was stunned for a moment, and then Tianyin pressed her down onto the recliner.

"Maple Flower!!! How dare you say that! Didn't I tell you when I was coming back? Why didn't you tell them? They thought I was missing and dragged me back first thing this morning. It's all Maple Flower's fault!!"

Tianyin first took a sip of Fenghua's juice, then drank two sips of the juice in Fenghua's hand, and then took a bite of the chilled banana that Fenghua had picked up.

"It's quite sweet."

"Wait a minute?! How can you blame me? Didn't you tell me not to tell them your whereabouts, Tianyin? I kept my mouth shut no matter how much they asked, so how can you blame me?"

Maple looked at the banana that Tianyin had bitten into, leaving only a small piece, and pouted in grievance. It was clearly Tianyin who told her not to tell the security personnel about her whereabouts, but in the end, she was the one who had to take the blame.

"I didn't tell you my whereabouts, but you could at least tell them when I'll be back so they can feel at ease. I just woke up this morning and heard that the Miyako family is looking for me all over the place and they're almost going crazy. Isn't this just making things difficult for them?"

Tianyin kissed Fenghua's cheek again.

"Um... is it possible that the time you came back is also included in your 'whereabouts'?"

"Huh?"

"You did it, didn't you! Tianyin, you idiot! It was clearly you who... Waaaaaah..."

Chapter 172: Our Own People

"I lost..."

Shiina looked at the chaotic mess in front of her and shook her head helplessly. She had tried her best, but she still couldn't answer Marina's question.

Marina and Shiina had already learned about each other's papers by exchanging coded messages on the first day.

To be honest, if Marina hadn't been certain that the collection of the paper slips was random, she would have thought that Fujiwara Rin had given her special treatment.

The reason is simple: Marina's paper had two questions and one answer, while Shiina's paper had one question and two answers. Such a coincidence is hard not to make people suspicious. At least Shiina began to suspect that her physical fitness test was arranged by the school to give Amane points.

Although she didn't have much of a chance against Tianyin, she didn't want to lose so inexplicably.

In order to prove to Shiina that she had not received any special treatment, Marina and Shiina made a deal to decide the winner by asking a special question, with Shiina deciding the content. In exchange, Marina could make a small request that Shiina could fulfill.

After much deliberation, Shiina agreed. She then took the initiative and used her only question slip. The staff member gave Marina a math problem. After answering the question, Marina used two question slips to gain the right to customize the question. She then gave Shiina the choice of the question content, and Shiina chose reasoning.

She was confident that she wouldn't lose too much to Marina in reasoning questions, especially since Marina was expected to come up with a logically sound reasoning problem on the spot, which Shiina thought was almost impossible.

Because reasoning questions are often complex, they are not simply tests of logic. They may involve various aspects of knowledge, such as mathematics, English, or even wordplay in Mandarin, which can all become key elements of reasoning questions.

The more complex the reasoning problem, the more careful you need to be. Otherwise, it is difficult to ensure that each step has a complete logic. Therefore, if you want to increase the difficulty of reasoning problems, you must make the content more complicated. And making the content more complicated also requires a lot of logical support. This is definitely not something that one person can do in twenty minutes.

If Marina chooses to use a well-known, high-difficulty mystery as a template, it would actually be easier for Shiina. She has read almost all mystery novels and other textual and graphic content, including e-books and other re-creations. The templates for reasoning are just a few. Even if you add other elements to the template, it will still be based on the same principle. It's like mastering the formula when solving math problems. As long as you substitute the formula, all the difficult problems will be solved.

Therefore, Shiina believed that she was second to none in this type of question, and even thought that if she and Amane were to compete in the field of reasoning that she was good at, her chances of winning would increase to at least 50%.

It all depends on whether Marina has the skill level of Amane.

To Shiina's utter surprise, Marina actually designed a reasoning problem based on a murder case within twenty minutes. All the clues, evidence, motives, and reasoning logic were very complete. After testing it for about an hour, the school staff repeatedly checked the answers and finally agreed to Marina's question. At the same time, the staff looked at Shiina with a hint of regret.

From that moment on, Shiina sensed that something might be wrong. The maximum time for answering questions was two hours, but the staff still spent about an hour checking the answers. This meant that the staff knew the answers but not the reasons behind them. In other words, the staff were able to solve some traps by answering the questions rather than by thinking for themselves. Even professionals might have a hard time solving such a reasoning question. Was Shiina Hiyori really okay?

That being said, is it really possible for a normal person to prepare such a difficult reasoning problem in twenty minutes?

With a mix of trepidation and excitement, Shiina began her confrontation with Marina. As expected, Shiina spent all her time only managing to solve one-third of the puzzle. Despite having all the clues and items laid out before her, she couldn't see the logic behind the puzzle. This alone demonstrated the vast difference between the puzzle setter and the puzzle solver.

"Then, Shiina-kun, please don't forget what you promised me."

Marina gave a faint smile.

Just thinking about the conditions she had agreed to with Marina made Shiina feel hot all over.

"I...I will try my best..."

"It's not about effort, it's about necessity; that's the agreement."

Marina gave Shiina no chance to escape.

Seeing that Marina had seen through his little scheme, Shiina could only nod with a bitter face.

"I will keep my promise."

"That's wonderful! I'll leave the sound to you that day."

"Um……"

……

The two-day physical fitness test quickly came to an end. Since this test was clearly intended to give academically gifted students an opportunity to enter the formal special exam, although a ranking was set up, there were no class points as a reward. After all, the physical fitness test included some competitions that had nothing to do with physical fitness, which already made students who were good at physical sports extremely dissatisfied. If the school were to involve class points as a reward, it might cause students to become dissatisfied with the school.

To appease students who were dissatisfied with the physical fitness test, the class points reward was cancelled. Instead, a surprisingly large amount of individual points was distributed to each student's account as a reward. In addition, students who started special challenges were also rewarded according to the rules.

Overall, we did gain something.

Horikita's face turned extremely grim after seeing the school's notice board ranking students by their class pass rates.

First place: Grade 2, Class B, 95% pass rate

Second place: Grade 2, Class D, with a pass rate of 84%.

Third place: Grade 2 Class A, 60% pass rate

Fourth place: Grade 2, Class C, with a pass rate of 58%.

Of course, many students in Class A were not so lucky as to be assigned to the same class as their classmates, so regardless of who won or lost, it would affect the pass rate.

The reason why Class A's pass rate was so much lower than the top two was that the score rate in the basic subjects was too low. You know, although randomly drawing slips of paper will inevitably lead to some extreme situations, there should usually be answers and questions, it's just a matter of how many.

However, answering questions only means that a person is qualified to participate in the game. The questions on the slip of paper are randomly selected by the school from a prepared question bank. Even if the questions are all questions that first-year students have learned, few students with average or below-average grades can answer them all, even if they are already second-year students. If the other person's academic ability is stronger than yours, your elimination is basically a foregone conclusion.

So what seems like a contest of luck is actually a competition of academic ability among the classes. It was because they suffered a great loss in overall academic ability and Class A's luck was not very good this time that they only managed to get third place.

Such results were like a humiliation for them, who were already in Class A. However, academic ability is not something that can be improved out of thin air. Compared with the first year, everyone's academic ability has improved slightly, and some have even risen from C to B. But for Class A, B level academic ability is just the most basic requirement.

"Ring sound..."

Seeing Horikita's face turn extremely pale after seeing the rankings announced by the school, Ichinose, standing beside her, called out Horikita's name with concern.

If Horikita, as the temporary leader of the class, becomes discouraged at this time, it will have a very serious impact on the class's upcoming written and physical fitness tests.

"I'm fine. I've been through this before, and I'm not that easily defeated. Fortunately, this physical fitness test doesn't involve any changes to the class's points, otherwise things would be very difficult to handle."

Horikita's next plan is destined to make Class A fail in the written test and physical fitness test. The purpose is, of course, to determine from these two tests whether someone took the test for Amane. However, the cost is that Class A will have to give up the battle for class points, which will undoubtedly shorten the already close gap between Class B and Class A.

Although the loss was significant, it was still within Horikita's acceptable range. Compared to those few dozen class points, Horikita cared more about whether Amane could successfully participate in the special exam in July.

It's important to understand that there's a world of difference between Class A with Amane and Class A without her. Although Class A currently has many outstanding talents, and even several decision-makers who can temporarily serve as class leaders, such as Horikita, Ichinose, Katsuragi, and even Hirata, their opponents this time are not classes like Ryuen or Kanzaki, which are far inferior to Class A in terms of both class members and unity.

Class A's enemy is the first-year students. What kind of star-studded lineup will the first-year students, who will unite all the classes, be able to field? Just the familiar names like Miyako Masahiko, Amasawa Ichika, Yagami Takuya, Hayasaka Miyabi, Utsunomiya Riku, Tsubaki Sakurako, Hosen Kazutomi, and Nanase Tsubasa are enough to make one's hair stand on end. Not to mention geniuses like Kuwahara Mai, whose names have never been heard of, but whose special talents can amaze everyone when they make a move.

How many more trump cards like Kuwahara are there among the first-year students? Horikita didn't know, nor could she judge who would become a threat to the second-year students based on the data from the OAA.

Because the true strength of the first-year students has been difficult to ascertain, the second-year students must ensure that Amane participates in the crucial special exam if they want to win. Only with Amane here will Class A and the other second-year students feel at ease trusting her. Otherwise, neither Ichinose nor Horikita would have been able to make someone like Ryuen submit to their orders.

"But that matter...won't it be met with opposition from everyone?"

Ichinose hesitated for a moment before speaking up to remind her.

Everyone understands the importance of Amane and is willing to sacrifice some class points to allow Amane to participate in the special exam, but they don't necessarily believe Horikita's judgment.

That's dozens of class points, which translates to thousands of individual points, and it's distributed monthly. Such benefits aren't something you can just give up. Horikita needs to provide enough evidence to prove that her judgment is correct.

If their actions prove that no one was taking the exam for Amane, and they lose the opportunity to gain dozens of important class points, how will Horikita resolve this?

"Ultimately, it's just a matter of not having enough prestige. People don't trust me the way they trust Tianyin. But... I'm the same way. There's no need to discuss this with the class. I'll just announce it on the day of the exam."

Horikita's actions were tantamount to acting first and informing later. It was foreseeable that her actions would cause dissatisfaction among everyone on the day of the exam. If someone objected, wouldn't Horikita be in an awkward position?

"Doing this is a bit too risky... Or do you think there are people in our class who are..."