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

"The voting results show that there were 3 votes in favor and 35 votes against, failing to reach a unanimous decision. We will now take a break."

The two sides, who were originally evenly matched, suddenly became the ones with Sakayanagi overwhelmingly crushing Hashimoto in votes.

The scenario that Hashimoto's third plan envisioned—that neutral students and his supporters would do everything in their power to vote for him, thereby restraining Sakayanagi and putting pressure on her—did not materialize.

The previously balanced situation was completely shattered after Sakayanagi appeared, and now it has become a one-sided situation. Anyone with eyes can see that Hashimoto has almost no chance of turning the tide.

"Hashimoto-kun, are you satisfied with the gift I gave you?"

Sakayanagi swept his hand across the students in Class B, then smiled and asked.

Ultimately, Sakayanagi's appeal was much stronger than Hashimoto's. However, he was a neutral student, and even many of Hashimoto's supporters switched sides at the last minute...

No, perhaps it wasn't that they switched sides at the last minute, but rather that Sakayanagi and his group deliberately approached Hashimoto from the very beginning.

Hashimoto chuckled self-deprecatingly a few times and then shrugged.

"It is indeed a big surprise. I never expected that Her Highness the Princess would go to such lengths to prepare such a generous gift for me. I am truly flattered."

Although Hashimoto said he was flattered, his expression remained calm.

This time, it was Sakayanagi who noticed something was wrong.

"Judging from your expression, Hashimoto-kun, you must have prepared a big gift for me all along, right? Speaking of which, I'm really curious to know what kind of gift you've prepared for me. Now that things have come to this, it shouldn't be unreasonable for me to see it, right?"

Sakayanagi wanted to test Hashimoto's intentions with words. If Hashimoto's counterattack was something she could use at any time, she wouldn't be too afraid, since she currently held such a significant advantage that the probability of being overturned was almost zero. On the contrary, the kind of 'hidden danger' that could be used later had to be eliminated now. She wanted to find an opportunity to have a serious contest with Amane later. If Amane discovered and seized upon that hidden danger, Sakayanagi's chances of winning would immediately plummet. The reason was simple: in a battle between experts, victory or defeat often hinges on a single moment. Any tiny flaw could become a deadly weapon in the opponent's hands.

Not to mention that her opponent would be Tianyin.

"Your Highness is really impatient. I originally didn't plan to use this, but since you've pushed me to this point, let's just perish together."

"To die together? Can you—do that?"

Hashimoto did not respond to Sakayanagi's provocation, but instead took out his phone, opened a recording, and played it.

"...There is an age gap between Miyako and me, and I will be graduating next year, so I don't have time to think about things like dating anymore."

"Asahina-senpai, you're overthinking it. Amane isn't the kind of girl who cares about age. She's only interested in a girl's appearance and body. Everything else can wait. Besides, it seems like you didn't confess to Nagumo-senpai back then because you couldn't accept that he had ambiguous relationships with many girls. In the end, you missed the chance to express your feelings to each other. Now, senpai, you've finally overcome this psychological barrier, but are you planning to be a coward again?"

"Even if you say that, Sakayanagi, it's still a little embarrassing for me to take the initiative..."

Faced with Sakayanagi's patient persuasion, Asahina's voice seemed to indicate some interest, but she was also afraid of being rejected by Amane and felt somewhat embarrassed about taking the initiative to confess to her junior as a senior.

"Don't worry about that. There's a magical thing called alcohol. It can embolden people while also lowering their guard. As long as you can get Tianyin to drink too, then pretend to be drunk and trick her into going back to the dorm..."

drop.

Hashimoto turned off the recording.

All the students present, including the teachers, looked at Sakayanagi with shocked expressions after listening to the recording of the conversation between Sakayanagi and Asahina.

"As the student council president, you not only persuaded student council officers to drink, but you also instructed them to seduce lower-grade students and have relationships with them. Sakayanagi Arisu, you're quite the student council president!"

Hashimoto chuckled coldly a few times and then placed the phone, which he presented as evidence, in front of Majima-sensei.

In this way, Sakayanagi lost his means of destroying evidence.

For the first time, Sakayanagi Arisu felt angry, her face darkening.

"I never expected Asahina-senpai to have such ulterior motives. No wonder she was chosen by Nagumo-senpai last year. After this special exam, I'll repay her kindness properly. As for you, Hashimoto-kun, this gift has truly broadened my horizons. I admit it, Hashimoto Masayoshi, you're worthy of being my rival. I originally intended to just teach you a lesson, but now it seems… dropping out is the best outcome for you, Hashimoto-kun!!!"

……

"The results of this vote were 36 votes in favor and 1 vote against, failing to reach a unanimous decision. We will now take a break."

After Chabashira-sensei announced the results, Sato collapsed into his seat, panting heavily.

Compared to his previous confident demeanor when he wanted to negotiate with Amane, Sato is now incredibly pathetic and wasted his time.

Since her identity was exposed, Sato has had no room for error. In order to avoid entering the second round of designating dropouts, Sato must find a way to make herself and Amane and the others have a different result in the first round, whether they accept or not someone dropping out. Only in this way can Sato continue to stall for time. If she can drag Class A to the edge of running out of time, she will still have a chance to negotiate with Amane.

Besides this, Sato has no other means to turn the tide. In order to avoid making a choice in advance and having Amane or anyone else see the options, Sato must vote in the last second of the countdown. If he is slow, has a network delay, or is simply unlucky, the special exam will end immediately.

Therefore, Sato was under immense pressure at this moment. She had to fight against the entire class led by Amane all by herself, while also enduring the psychological pressure from the personal attacks of insults and condemnation. Sato felt that she was about to break down under the pressure. However, after touching her still sore cheek, Sato had no choice but to cheer up and continue to fight against Amane.

As for her face, she slapped Kushida in anger after he had provoked her, and before Kushida could retaliate, Amane slapped him back.

The thought that Amane was willing to help that bitch Kushida hit her filled Sato with resentment. Although her slap to Kushida was carried with anger, she still held back to some extent. However, Amane's counterattack was so fast that Sato didn't even see how Amane attacked before she was slapped to the ground. If Hirata hadn't seen Sato's mouth bleeding and her heartbreaking cries and hadn't softened and stepped in to stop Amane, Amane might have planned to hit her again.

Sato looked at her own disheveled appearance on her phone—with swollen eyes and a clear handprint on her face—and couldn't help but feel a pang of grievance. Back when they broke up, whenever she cried, someone would come to comfort her and speak up for her. But just now, she sat there crying for six or seven minutes and not a single person came up to comfort her.

They were all trying to calm Amane down, and some even comforted Kushida, telling him not to hold it against her.

Being mocked and even fighting back is wrong; this class doesn't deserve a good result at all!!

Sato glared resentfully at Amane, who was coldly looking down at her from the podium. She no longer wanted to negotiate with Amane; at this moment, Sato's mother had only one thought in her mind.

That means dragging it out until the time limit is exceeded, causing Class A to lose 300 class points. Only in this way can her resentment be appeased. As for being expelled?

So what if she drops out of school? Nobody cares anyway.

Ayanokouji suddenly stopped on his way back to his dormitory, a sudden, inexplicable feeling of unease causing him to furrow his brow.

"Ayanokouji-san, what's wrong? If you don't hurry, it's going to rain."

"I have a... bad feeling."

Chapter 242: The Transaction

drop.

Hearing the notification sound from the tablet indicating that the question review phase had begun, Sato Tsuyoshi perked up and focused intently on the question on the screen, while simultaneously considering whether he should accept or reject it this time.

Fortunately, because the design was intended to prevent others from judging other respondents' choices by their hand gestures, the position of the answer options was set to change randomly each time. It is almost impossible to judge the other party's choice by visual means, and it is precisely because of this reason that Sato has been able to maintain the stalemate until now.

Seeing that Sato had dodged the attacks three times in a row, Horikita couldn't help but feel a little anxious. However, her attention was entirely on Hirata, so she could only trust Amane's judgment. More than whether Amane could defeat Sato, Horikita was worried that Amane's desperate attempt to expel Sato would definitely cause Hirata to object. In that case, the class might fall into a vortex of conflicting opinions again, and in the end, it was highly likely that the time would be exhausted by the special exam, resulting in a situation where everyone was a loser.

Horikita doesn't want to see that kind of ending, but judging from the current situation, it's probably heading straight for that outcome.

After watching the end of the question review phase on the screen and entering the answer phase, Amane didn't rush to choose an answer. Through several observations, Amane knew that Sato wanted to use the rules and the special protection mechanism of this special exam to compete with her. However, this was not a big problem for Amane, because while they couldn't see Sato's options, Sato also couldn't predict what Amane and the others would choose. Therefore, the key to victory was in the last few seconds.

Amane would preemptively make a gesture to guide everyone to vote on a certain option, and Sato could then make the opposite choice based on Amane's guidance. In this way, she could maintain her advantage in the stalemate with Amane.

However, Sato himself is probably gradually overlooking a problem: why did Amane make such an obvious move to give her a chance to react? And after seeing that the first few attempts were ineffective, he should have changed his strategy instead of spending half an hour fighting her to the death.

If Sato were in a stable emotional state, he might have noticed something was wrong, but right now, Sato's mind was filled with nothing but resentment and he had no ability to think. The last bit of rationality he had was used up by Sato to observe Amane's gestures and choose the opposite option.

Thus, without Sato even realizing it, a habitual way of thinking formed: 'Do the opposite of Amane's gestures.' After achieving success several times, Sato became even more convinced that as long as she kept doing this, she could drag it out until Class A's special exam ran out of time, and in the end, everyone would fall to Class B.

This was her last resort to get revenge on the class and those who weren't on her side.

Amane noticed Sato's resentful gaze, glanced at her, and then raised her left hand. The number on her left hand was '1'. According to Sato's observation, this was a code for Amane to have the class choose 'not accept'. Thinking of this, Sato quickly stretched out her finger and touched the 'accept' button on the screen.

After casting her vote, Sato tossed the tablet aside. It was time for a break, and she wanted to see if Amane would get impatient if she kept dragging this out.

What surprised Sato was that this time, Chabashira Sae didn't announce the vote count but kept her eyes fixed on the tablet.

Could it be that……

Sato frantically grabbed the tablet, which clearly showed that the second round of voting had begun.

5. ② Do you agree to let Maya Sato drop out of school?

(1) Agree (2) Disagree

"How could this be? I clearly saw—"

"Keep quiet! The exam is still on!"

Teacher Chabashira interrupted Sato's surprised voice with a firm tone, saying that as long as everyone could unite and vote in favor of Sato this time, all of this would be over.

Although Chabashira was deeply saddened by the loss of her classmates, Sato's dropping out of school was nothing compared to making up for her past regrets and saving the future of the entire class!

Please, everyone, vote in favor!

This was the first time that Chabashira, as a teacher, desperately wanted her student to drop out of school. From the perspective of the teaching profession, Chabashira Sae was not a good teacher at all, and it was even hard to say whether she was competent. With her selfish and self-serving heart, she should not have been in the ranks of teachers in the first place.

However, anyone who has climbed from Class D to the top should be able to understand Chabashira Sae's feelings at this moment.

No one wants to abandon a companion who has gone through countless special exams together, but when she loses her mind and becomes a beast venting her resentment and anger, morality, friendship, and compassion should all be abandoned here, and she should pick up those weapons called selfishness, baseness, and cold-bloodedness to defend everything she has.

This special exam is not a game of make-believe where you just vote and move on. It is a special exam that can determine everyone's fate. If they are dragged out of time and lose 300 class points, thus being surpassed by Class B, then their future will be in question again.

No one would question Tianyin's strength, and no one would think that Tianyin couldn't lead them to become Class A again.

but……

Why should they face an uncertain future? Why should they let a mentally unstable person manipulate their fate?

The fact that things have developed to this point, with the elimination of Sato Maya, is no longer the result of a personal grudge between Amane and Sato, but rather a consensus reached by all the students in Class A. Only by eliminating Sato can they obtain the future they desire! What does selfishness matter when it comes to their own future and dreams?

It was by exploiting the psychology of shared hatred against a common enemy that Tenon was able to make everyone act in unison, thus perfectly deceiving Sato.

However, no joy appeared on Tenon's face. Even though Sato's frantic tapping of the screen and the warning that it could not be operated seemed to pronounce Sato's fate, Tenon still calmly looked at her tablet.

Will this vote really force Sato to drop out of school?

The voting ended quickly, but the system did not proceed to the third step.

According to the rules of the special exam, to expel someone from school, a vote must first be held to select 'accept' or 'disaccept' someone from school. Only when everyone selects 'accept' someone from school will the second step be taken, which is to select a list of people to be expelled. In this step, the selected people cannot vote. As long as the remaining people unanimously 'agree' for the selected people to be expelled, the third step will be taken.

The third step is to confirm the results of the previous votes and decide whether to agree to withdraw Maya Sato from school in exchange for 200 class points.

Compared to the first two steps, which must be consistent, the third step is much more lenient; as long as there are 20 votes in favor, the result will take effect immediately.

In other words, the real key step is the second step. Once the second step is passed, there is basically no chance of turning the tide in the third step.

Normally, the second step is quite simple, because as long as the class agrees, they can immediately move on to the third step. After all, the second step can only select one person to vote for, and the person being voted for cannot do anything in this step. It can be said that the second step is a vote that cannot be saved.

You can only look at how popular you are with other people, or how useful you are to the class.

But having come this far, it's almost impossible for anyone to risk antagonizing the entire class by stepping forward to save someone.

Teacher Chabashira's face turned deathly pale as he looked at the voting results.

She was all too familiar with this scene. Back then, to save him, Chabashira risked being ostracized by the entire class by casting that dissenting vote, which led to an uncontrollable situation. In the end, not only did the class lose the crucial 300 class points needed to become Class A, but her boyfriend, who had planned to drop out of school to earn those points, also chose to break up with her after the exam. A relationship that lasted less than 24 hours was thus shattered.

If it were just a romantic setback, that would be one thing. Even though the other person didn't appreciate it, at least Chashu herself had a clear conscience. But in the end, the whole class couldn't achieve their dreams because of this. Although Chashu got into the school she wanted through her own efforts, none of the classmates who had spent three years of campus life with her were willing to contact her again.

Love, friendship, glory, the future... she risked everything and cast that dissenting vote that changed everyone's fate.

In the end, they lost so miserably.

Even though she had already corrected her future through her own abilities, she still had to return to the campus that was like a nightmare to her and become a professional teacher, something she had never imagined.

Then, year after year, she waited in this cage of unfulfilled dreams, waiting for the people who could help her realize her dreams and make up for her regrets to appear.

Now that her dream has come true, someone else has done the same thing again.

This left Chabashira Sae momentarily dazed, and she subconsciously looked at the student who had cast the dissenting vote—Hirata Yosuke.

The idea of ​​having to do everything in one's power to protect a lover... that kind of thing won't happen to Hirata and Sato.

why?

Why did Hirata go to protect that guy?!

Why?!

In an instant, Chabashira Sae seemed to be hallucinating, and Hirata's figure gradually overlapped with Chabashira Sae's figure from eleven years ago.

That damn dissenting vote!!

"Tea Pillar Teacher, you... you look terrible, do you need to rest?"

Even the proctor noticed the problem with Chabashira-sensei's terrible expression, so how could the students below not notice?

Before Chabashira-sensei could even answer, she stumbled and fell heavily to the ground.

"Tea Pillar Teacher!"

Chabashira struggled to look at the students below the podium. Through his increasingly blurred vision, he saw Sato's tearful expression of joy and Hirata's silent self-reproach...

Everything is over.

Chabashira Sae closed her eyes in despair and then fell into a deep sleep.

"Tea Hashira-sensei has a fever, and it's quite high. I'm taking her to the infirmary to see Hoshinomiya-sensei."

Ichinose touched Chabashira-sensei's forehead and immediately made a decisive judgment. Then, Ichinose tried to carry Chabashira-sensei on his back, but he couldn't do it after several attempts. The proctor and the boys wanted to help, but Ichinose politely refused. In the end, Amane couldn't stand it anymore and took the initiative to pick up Chabashira-sensei.

"I'll take Teacher Chashu to the infirmary. Honami, you guys try to persuade Hirata first."

After quickly finishing her sentence, Amane picked up Chabashira Sae and ran towards the infirmary. Ichinose watched Amane's departing figure with a wry smile on his face.

If only she had practiced more regularly, why ask her to persuade Hirata at this crucial moment? Amane has truly given her an incredibly difficult task.

Since Chabashira Sae collapsed before the voting results were announced, no one knew the outcome. However, this did not prevent people from speculating. Chabashira Sae's deteriorating condition, Amane's direct naming of Hirata, and Sato's smug smile, which seemed even happier than during the New Year, all these signs pointed to something.