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

Nanase faced Amane and solemnly lowered her forehead to the bed.

Amane looked at Nanase with great interest; she seemed to be getting more and more interested in this girl.

"Do you mean you want to end our one-night-long romantic relationship?"

Amane deliberately questioned Nanase in a cold and serious tone, while exuding an absolute aura that left no room for doubt.

Feeling the oppressive aura of majesty wash over her, Nanase shivered all over, but she remained kneeling there steadily, not daring to move.

"Yes... because in my opinion... a hasty confession is no different from deception, and I don't want to deceive anyone, including Senior Tianyin... If possible, I hope Senior Tianyin can give me a trial period. If, after getting to know me, Senior Tianyin feels that I am someone she can date, then it's not too late to accept my confession. At that time, I will confess to you solemnly again!!!"

Nanase's words left Amane speechless. She hadn't expected that Nanase was worried that she wasn't qualified to be Amane's lover, so she wanted a period of time for them to get to know each other.

Amane thought this approach was quite wise, but what Amane couldn't understand was why Nanase would agree that she had to date her.

The average high school girl's attitude towards dating is usually playful, and there are very few girls who are devoted to one person. Even if there are, most of them are more open to dating the opposite sex.

What exactly were Nanase's reasons for agreeing to a trial period of same-sex love with Amane?

The most direct and simple way to forcefully end her romantic relationship with Amane is by claiming that she can't date someone of the same sex. No one else would say anything if they knew. Only those who approached Amane with ulterior motives would think that Nanase's actions were simply stupid.

What was Nanase's motivation for doing this?

"What if I said... I agree with you taking back your confession, Yi? It wouldn't be impossible for us to go back to our senior-junior relationship, would it?"

Amane asked tentatively, her eyes never leaving Nanase's every move.

"There's no going back..."

Nanase gave a bitter laugh.

"You and I have had this kind of relationship... and we even kissed! My mother told me that I can only allow someone to kiss me when I'm determined to embark on a journey of marriage with that person, in other words..."

"I'm too old to get married!!!"

As Nanase spoke, she actually started crying.

This left Hui and Tianyin speechless.

After a long while, Hui was the first to react and reached out to tug at Tianyin's arm.

"What kind of old-fashioned high school girl is this?"

"I didn't know. Yi never told me she was so conservative before."

If Amane had known earlier what a conservative girl Nanase was, she would never have made a move on her so easily. But now that everything has been done, and Nanase has pulled this stunt, if Amane were to turn Nanase away...

"Tianyin, do you think you've done something really outrageous?"

Hui poked Tianyin's waist with a puff of puffs.

Making excessive advances towards a conservative girl is not something that can be resolved by simply bowing deeply. The fact that the other party didn't call the police or fight back is already considered restraint.

This seems like things have really gotten out of hand.

"Ahem, um... Yi, don't cry yet. I was just saying 'what if.' Actually, I quite like you, Yi. How about we consider a trial period?"

Chapter 202: Thoughts in Love

Early in the morning, the B base where the second-year students were located was already bustling with activity.

Early in the morning, people started waking up and coming out of their tents to move around. After washing up, they were assigned to different class leaders under Long Yuan's command to take on different tasks.

Given Long Yuan's personality, he would not allow anyone to slack off in front of him. After spending less than a day with Long Yuan, the others understood his personality and management style, so no one dared to disobey Long Yuan's orders.

After all, even the leaders of other classes were willing to obey Ryuen's command and arrangements. Personal dissatisfaction would not only have no effect, but would also make him look bad to his classmates and people from other classes. Under such pressure, naturally no one like Koenji, who liked to be unconventional, emerged.

"Ishizaki, take ten men, mostly boys, and go collect as much firewood and branches as possible. Ichinose said the firewood left over from yesterday is only enough for cooking this morning. Remember to bring them back to the camp for lunch at 8:00 sharp. After lunch, continue collecting. If you don't have enough near the camp, go to the woods down the mountain to collect some. If that's still not enough, cut down all the trees that are in the way. No matter what method you use, you must collect enough firewood for starting a fire and enough for lighting at night, understand?"

As soon as Ryuen finished washing up, he found Ishizaki and gave him the task of collecting firewood. This was not the first time Ishizaki had done this kind of work, and he was quite familiar with it. However, Ishizaki was completely confused by the order given by Ryuen.

"Didn't everyone gather a lot yesterday? It's only enough for one day? This consumption is a bit too much. If we're going to stay here for a month, we'll probably have to cut down a lot of trees..."

Ishizaki remembered that yesterday, a full thirty or forty people helped collect flammable materials such as branches. He didn't expect that they would use them all up in just one day. If the consumption was this exaggerated every day, not only would the mountain be bald, but the trees at the foot of the mountain would also be reduced by a dozen or so. But can these trees really be cut down?

Ishizaki had seen the timber in the school's purchasing manual, which indicated that the school wanted students to use points to buy ready-made timber. Ishizaki was a little worried that the school would punish Ryuen for cutting down trees without warning.

"You don't need to worry about any of that. Just follow my orders."

"Yes!! I'll find someone to go with me to find some flammable branches."

Ryuen patted Ishizaki on the shoulder with satisfaction, then inspected the cooking area that Horikita was in charge of.

Ryuen was well aware of the school's thoughts, but he also kept a close eye on things. Before the special exam, he had asked Principal Fujiwara whether the natural resources around the camp could be used freely. Principal Fujiwara's answer was "Of course." So, he couldn't be blamed for damaging the environment; his actions were simply the reasonable use of natural resources.

After arranging for someone to collect the branches, Ryuen found Hirata helping to peel potatoes in the area where the cooking was being done. Since Ryuen had entrusted the important task of cooking to Horikita the day before, Horikita had asked Hirata to bring the boys from Class A to help with the food preparation.

As for cooking and food preparation, the students at the forest school, who had already experienced it twice, were quite adept at it. They had even prepared breakfast for hundreds of people, so naturally, it was much easier to handle the meals for seventy-odd people.

However, cooking for his own grade and classmates was not something he could do with the same careless attitude he had at the forest school, where he just prepared meals with the thought that "as long as no one dies, it's fine." Therefore, Horikita's menus for all three meals were prepared quite formally.

Because of the upgraded quality of the dishes, there were more ingredients to process. Ryuen assigned five girls to Horikita, but they were definitely not enough to handle the workload, so Horikita asked Hirata to come and help out as well.

However, Ryuen now has a more important task to hand over to Hirata.

"Hey, Hirata, are you helping Horikita out here? Where did Horikita go?"

Longyuan looked around and found that there were only four girls making sandwiches, jam, rice balls and distributing the milk they had bought in the morning.

I didn't see Horikita anywhere around. I entrusted the cooking to Horikita, but she handed the work over to Hirata and disappeared.

However, Ryuen thought for a moment that something might be wrong with Horikita, so he casually asked Hirata. Hirata's influence in Class A had gradually decreased to the point of obedience, so it was normal for Horikita not to tell Hirata what was going on or what plans she had.

But what Ryuen didn't expect was that Hirata actually knew Horikita's whereabouts.

"Horikita-san is preparing breakfast over there. I heard it's specially made for Amane-san. Ryuen-san, is there something you need to talk to Horikita-san about?"

Was this specially prepared for Tianyin?

Miyako Tenon went all night and didn't send back any news. If he hadn't gotten information from the staff in charge of transporting and purchasing supplies in the morning that he saw a lot of first-year students being eliminated and that the class teachers were arranging to send these first-year students back to school, Longyuan would have suspected that Tenon was unlucky enough to be eliminated.

We haven't even seen a glimpse of her yet, and Horikita is already busy giving her special lessons...

However, Longyuan didn't intend to say anything. They were a couple, and who could stop someone from preparing a loving breakfast for their lover?

Moreover, Tianyin has probably already caused a major upheaval in the first-year students' world this time, so rewarding her wouldn't be a bad idea. If Tianyin can eliminate all those damned first-year students, Longyuan would be more than willing to throw Tianyin directly into the warehouse and let her eat as much as she wants until she throws up.

"No, I have something to discuss with you, Hirata."

"Looking for me? Ryuen-kun, is there something you want to give me?"

Hirata put down the potato he was peeling and handed it to Airi next to him so she could mash it into mashed potatoes. Then he wiped the dirt off his hands and looked at Ryuen.

"That's right. There are more than seventy people living in the camp. The daily drinking water and domestic water consumption is a huge amount that requires someone to be in charge."

Besides the necessary drinking water, the daily water consumption for washing food, bathing, and other daily activities is quite staggering. Fortunately, the mountain is next to a river, and the school has built a simple water-fetching facility on the mountaintop. Buckets or other water-holding items can be lowered down the mountain via a simple elevator, and then people at the foot of the mountain are responsible for filling them with water and then raising them back up.

This requires a considerable amount of manpower. Originally, this task was to be handled by the students in the observation cabin at the foot of the mountain. However, the guardian that Amane arranged there was Karuizawa Megumi. As a result, Ryuen could not rely on Karuizawa to help with the physical work of fetching water. Therefore, they had to ask Hirata to lead people to cooperate at the top and bottom of the mountain to transport the river water from the bottom to the top.

"Yes, drinking water and domestic water are indeed quite important. So, Longyuan, how many spots are you planning to give me?"

Seventy-odd people may seem like a lot, but in reality, there aren't many people available. Kanzaki and Katsuragi, who are in charge of guard duty, have the most people. They work in shifts, with two shifts, one for daytime and one for nighttime, rotating once a week. Twenty boys are used just for guard duty.

Ten boys were also sent from Ishizaki's side. In addition to the students responsible for guarding the warehouse, cleaning the toilets, taking out the trash, and cooking, Ryuen could give Hirata about eight students, including a certain number of girls.

"I'll give you eight people, four men and four women. You can decide the rest yourself."

The two simple elevators require exactly four people to operate, and at least two more at the foot of the mountain. Logically, six boys would be the optimal configuration. Longyuan couldn't possibly be unaware of this, yet he still gave him half of the girls, clearly indicating that he was indeed short-handed.

"No problem, leave the water to me, but what about Horikita-kun..."

"I'll have Hiyori come and help."

"Miyako-kun is back!!!"

Long Yuan had just finished speaking when he was drawn to shouts coming from inside the camp.

"Tianyin is back?"

A joyful exclamation came from not far away. Horikita appeared out of nowhere, casually gave all the rice balls in her hand to Airi, and then strode towards the camp entrance.

"Eh eh eh..."

Airi hurriedly caught the rice ball that Horikita threw at her, which was twice the size of a ball, and then watched Horikita's departing figure with a hint of envy.

If it were Horikita Suzune, she would definitely rush into Amane's arms and act all cute and affectionate upon seeing her, but as for her...

Ugh.

"What? Aren't you going to see Miyako?"

Ryuen noticed Airi's expression, and with just a glance, he guessed Airi's little secret, recalling the conversation between Airi and Horikita during special training.

Without a doubt, this girl named Sakura Airi probably also likes Miyako Amane, and if I remember correctly... back then, Miyako did everything she could to save her, right? Does that mean I can start with her?

Cross-grade joint exams are merely a temporary alliance between different classes for their own benefit, and such cross-grade joint exams cannot happen every time.

In other words, their enemy has never changed from beginning to end.

Even though Miyako Amane's Class A has already taken the lead in the second year of high school, anyone who is unwilling to submit to Miyako Amane must do something, otherwise their fate will be to be crushed like ants by the increasingly stronger Class A in future special exams.

"With Horikita and Ichinose around, Amane probably won't be able to pay attention to me for a while. They'll probably have a lot to say to each other, and I don't know what to say even if I force my way in..."

'Looks like I was right, this guy is indeed one of the competitors among those girls. How should I use him?'

Ryuen gave Airi a deep look, noticing the faint wariness in her eyes. Although Airi tried her best to appear unguarded, Ryuen found her performance utterly clumsy.

Since Airi has already become wary, it would be quite difficult for him to plant a seed or induce her behavior. She might even report it to Tianyin, which would be like alerting her.

"What a coincidence! I just met a girl yesterday who said something similar to me. By the way, she seems to be one of Miyako Amane's admirers. Of course, like you, she doesn't belong to Horikita Suzune's circle."

Ryuen's half-truthful remarks indeed caught Airi's attention.

"Huh? Are there other people troubled by Amane's situation? Well, it's normal for Amane to be so outstanding and have many fans. But since she was able to confide in you, Ryuen-kun, she must be a girl from Class C, right?"

By using the topic of romance to make Airi guess the other person's identity, and then smoothly introducing another person to Airi, a bridge is built between them.

This operational model is something that Longyuan is very familiar with.

"It's definitely only people who are close to each other who would discuss such private matters. Unfortunately, I can't give her much advice on this. If it's about how boys and girls should interact, I might have some insights, but the crush between girls, well, that's a bit beyond my level."

While Ryuen smiled insincerely, his eyes were observing Airi's expression. When Airi heard Ryuen mention the word "troubled," she nodded as if she could feel the same way.

Upon seeing this, Long Yuan knew that things were about to get interesting.

Do you know Hitoshi Shiina?

"Shiina-san? I think I've heard she and Amane are quite close... I didn't expect her to be like that too..."

"You can go and have a good chat with her when you have time. She's a very kind and easy-going girl with no ulterior motives. I think you two will probably get along well because you have common topics to talk about."

Taking advantage of Airi's momentary lapse in guard, Ryuen recommended Shiina Hiyori, who shared the same goal, to her. No one can ever have too many helpers.

Gradually, Ryuen conceived another plan that sounded incredibly improbable but was surprisingly insightful. Instead of joining forces with the other classes to besiege Class A, why not consider dismantling Class A from within? Class A's internal structure was practically impregnable. With Katsuragi and Hirata in charge of the boys' side, Ichinose and Horikita managing the girls' side, and Amane overseeing the overall situation, it was practically an unassailable position.

but!

If this internal strife is caused by Tianyin's private affairs, which are beyond the reach of others, what should those guys do?

For example, if Shiina challenges Horikita with the support of the entire Class C, would Ichinose and Karuizawa really side with Horikita? People like Hirata wouldn't even have the right to speak in a situation like this.

Most importantly, Ryuen knew better than anyone else about Amane's perverse tastes. Amane was well aware of the girls' private squabbles, but she never intervened. In fact, she would sometimes deliberately escalate the conflict, all for her own selfish desires. Amane might even be hoping that Shiina and Hori Hokuto would fight even more fiercely. Only heaven knows how colorful Amane's daily life would be.

Thinking of this, even Longyuan couldn't help but envy Tianyin's extravagant life, but compared to lust, Longyuan was obviously more interested in conquest and power.

"In that case, I'll visit Shiina-kun when I have time."

"That would be wonderful. I was just worried about her situation. I'll have to trouble you, Sakura-san. I need to go see Miyako-kun, so I'll take my leave now."

"Goodbye, Longyuan."

Long Yuan nodded in response and then walked toward the direction where the shouts were getting louder.

Is it really necessary to make such a big fuss just to welcome the heavenly music?

Could it be that……

Long Yuan's eyes lit up, and he quickened his pace.

Tianyin's return would certainly cause quite a stir, but it would be impossible to create a commotion that would shock the entire camp, unless—Tianyin had performed a great service! And a service so great that it could pierce the sky.

"What's all the noise about? Get out of my way!"

In his haste, Long Yuan forcefully pushed aside the dense crowd blocking his way, which immediately drew complaints.

But Long Yuan paid no attention to the complaints of those people. After he squeezed into the crowd, the first thing he saw was the flag that symbolized Class D of the first year. Long Yuan's face immediately lit up with joy.

One of the conditions for victory is to capture the opponent's four flags to end the special exam early. Now, on the first day, those idiots in the first year have already lost one flag. Do they even have a chance to play anymore?