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

However, because Shiina knew nothing about Amane's role as a challenger, she was almost the same as usual, which made her feel somewhat insecure.

"Of course I saw Hiyori! How could I possibly miss someone as cute as Hiyori? But... I didn't expect you to be in the tea ceremony club... Yes! I was a little surprised to see you suddenly on the tea ceremony stage."

Tianyin deliberately used a lame excuse to explain.

Shiina couldn't help but smile as she listened to Amane's explanation.

"Next time, Tianyin, you'd better not look around when you're lying to other girls, otherwise a girl like me will see right through you~ That way, you won't be able to fool any girls."

Just as Shiina was about to make a joke to tease Amane, Amane suddenly grabbed Shiina's small hand.

"No, because I only lie to you and Hiyori, hehe~"

"Huh? Why do you only lie to me, Tianyin?"

Shiina pouted, feeling wronged. In her memory, she didn't seem to have offended Amane. Why did Amane only lie to her when she was lying?

"Because... I want to trick you into my hands!"

Amane held Hiyori's hand and waved it in front of her.

Upon hearing Amane's words, Shiina's face immediately flushed red.

"I won't be fooled by you! Don't think that just because I'm not as good as Sakayanagi, Horikita, and Ichinose, you can fool me. It'll be very difficult."

Shiina, who is proficient in reasoning, is undoubtedly second only to Amane among the girls in terms of logical thinking and reaction ability. Arisu may also be able to solve those reasoning problems, but she is still slightly inferior to Shiina, who specializes in this field and integrates her talent into reasoning.

Therefore, Shiina was confident that she could see through Amane's sweet talk and all sorts of lies.

It can even deduce Tianyin's inner thoughts...

What were his thoughts? What was Tianyin's motive for trying to trick her into his arms that day...?

Suddenly, Shiina's face turned bright red, a sudden change that startled even Amane, who was standing right next to him.

"And your complexion..."

"No problem..."

"Are you sure everything's okay?"

"Really! Since you've stepped onto my stage, Tianyin, let me settle this with you!"

Amane glanced at Shiina, who seemed fierce but whose overly cute appearance and flushed face made her feel no intimidation whatsoever, and curled her lips in disapproval.

They're already this shy, do they really still want to compete?

"What will we compete in on this arena that day?"

Tenon glanced at Shiina's arena, where there was only a small stove, a kettle for boiling water, a tea set, and some tea leaves. It couldn't be a competition of who could brew better tea, could it?

Treating tea tasting as a competition is a bit of a mood killer, especially when the teaware, tea leaves, and water used are all the same. The key to the outcome depends more on the judges' evaluations.

In other words, the judges' subjective evaluation is the key to determining the winner.

"The tea ceremony competition is of course about making tea, but it's a pity that this challenge can't be held in the tea room, which makes it a little imperfect."

Tianyin nodded in agreement.

Since the competition event was decided to be tea brewing, Tianyin intended to take the competition seriously.

Shiina chose the more traditional matcha ceremony. The matcha ceremony pays great attention to etiquette, and it is a more appealing option for the judges, both in terms of appearance and traditional taste. In particular, watching a beautiful girl grind tea powder is a real treat.

What? Why not grind the tea leaves? If you grind the tea leaves, the judges probably won't be able to drink a single sip of hot tea by dark.

Soon, Shiina's every move was broadcast live on the school's big screen, and her elegant and classical demeanor made the old-fashioned people in the stands nod in praise.

"I never expected that this girl named Shiina would have such a high level of skill in the tea ceremony at such a young age. Perhaps her understanding of the tea ceremony is still lacking, but her tea-making process alone is in no way inferior to those tea masters."

An elderly man who was quite knowledgeable about the tea ceremony couldn't help but praise Shiina, which immediately drew agreement from the others.

Although Tianyin's performance in the previous arenas was perfect, the arena challenge chosen by the school this time cannot be won by just having a pair of fists.

It was surprising enough that Amane could pass the cheerleading club's and the Go club's arenas so easily. However, everyone thought that Amane might have known about cheerleading beforehand, which is why she passed the arenas so easily. As for Go, it goes without saying that she knew even more about it.

Tenon's Go skills are quite well-known among second-year students, so they weren't too surprised by Tenon's speedrun in the Go club's arena.

I was just slightly shocked by Tianyin's speed in clearing the game.

However, the tea ceremony is different from all the previous competitions. The tea ceremony is not about 'tea' but about 'the way'. In other words, what others want to see is not whether your tea tastes good or not, but how you understand the tea ceremony and whether your interests are in accordance with the norms. For families with a long history, the tea ceremony is even a compulsory course in etiquette.

Therefore, while everyone was praising Shiina, only Onishima kept his eyes glued to Amane on the big screen.

As a member of the Miyako family, there's no reason why Amane shouldn't be able to beat a high school girl in the tea ceremony, especially since this girl is the granddaughter of Miyako Kuninobu, who is obsessed with both tea ceremony and Go. Onishima imagines that Amane must have an overwhelming advantage in both tea ceremony knowledge and etiquette to win.

Therefore, Onishima was looking forward to seeing just how skilled the future heir of the Miyako family was in the art of tea.

Tianyin finally started to move. Her first step was to pick and choose among the tea leaves. Watching Tianyin's professional movements, and even distinguishing the types of tea by their aroma, Guidao nodded with a smile.

That's more like her grandfather...

Before Ghost Island could react, Tianyin casually picked out a tea bag and placed it in the teacup.

Everyone who witnessed this scene seemed to have had a silencing button pressed, and the entire playground fell silent in an instant.

Everyone knows that Shiina deliberately chose the matcha ceremony to showcase her skillful techniques and techniques, but even if Amane wasn't going to demonstrate her skills and techniques, she shouldn't have just grabbed a tea bag to get by, right?

Using tea bags instead of tea leaves and tea powder is considered the lowest level of the tea hierarchy in this country, even below milk tea.

Tianyin was not affected by the others at all. She started brewing tea with hot water, took a sip, and after finding the taste acceptable, she simply put the teacup down, seemingly intending to submit it as the final product to the judges for evaluation.

Just as Tianyin was carrying her teacup toward the judges, she suddenly seemed to remember something and added some honey to it!

This move made Guidao sigh and rub his forehead. He couldn't understand why Tianyin, who had performed almost perfectly in every scene, was so perfunctory in the most important tea selection and brewing process. Wasn't this obviously handing over the victory to another girl?

Before Onishima could even voice his doubts, a commotion seemed to break out on the judges' panel. The panel, which originally consisted of two tea ceremony students, a tea ceremony manager, and a student council member, all stood up and left their seats as Amane approached them with her teacup.

Then, while everyone was looking at each other, wondering what the school was up to, Sakayanagi, supported by Matsushita, slowly walked from the stage to the judges' seat of the tea ceremony club.

"Because of Miyako's outstanding performance, I, as the student council president, will personally serve as a judge this time."

Sakayanagi deliberately explained something into the microphone and then turned it off. She then sat there with a serious expression and a slight smile, waiting for Tenon to serve her tea.

result……

Tenon brought over a teacup and casually placed it in front of Arisu, then looked Arisu up and down with an expression of anticipation.

Even if you look at me like that, I won't side with you just because of our personal relationship.

Seeing that Amane was watching her, Arisu mistakenly thought that Amane wanted her to go easy on her, so she spoke up in advance to state her position.

"I didn't say I wanted you to be biased, Arisu. Anyway, try it first. I just added some honey, so it should taste pretty good."

Tenon pushed the teacup toward Arisu. Seeing that Tenon was unwilling to chat with her for even a few more minutes and was only focused on urging her to drink the tea, Arisu rolled her eyes at Tenon and then picked up the teacup, beginning to examine it carefully.

"Wow! As expected of the student council president of Kao Yu High School, he's even taking seriously the step of appreciating tea utensils, which young people would never have the patience to do. It seems that the traditional tea ceremony culture hasn't declined after all..."

Voices of praise came from the stands, but Arisu was too far away to hear them. Even if she did hear them, she would probably just look at the person with a disdainful gaze.

Because Arisu wasn't admiring the tea set at all; he was looking for the spot where Tenon had just taken a bite.

"found it……"

Arisu picked up her teacup and took a sip from the same spot as Amane, just like she had done.

"The tea is too sweet, the flavor is so-so, and the water is a bit too cold. Overall, it's not very good... Tianyin, what are you laughing at?"

Just as Arisu began to comment on the tea, she saw Amane smiling very happily and couldn't help but ask.

"I knew Arisu, you wouldn't let anyone else taste the tea I've drunk."

"What? You did this on purpose?! How could you be such an idiot like Tianyin! To actually scheme like this in a competition! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!! Hmph, just wait till I get back and see how I deal with you..."

After saying that, Arisu blushed and glared at Amane. Then she picked up the teacup and drank the tea in a very inelegant manner, and wrote "extreme" on the review.

Chapter 274: The old man likes girls who know tea ceremony

Not long after, Shiina carefully placed her brewed matcha on the table in front of Arisu.

Because she was so focused on grinding tea powder, Shiina only just realized that Amane actually used tea bags to brew tea. Shiina quickly recalled that the black tea bag was probably something she asked the shop assistant to give her a little of each type of tea when she bought the tea to make the tea box look less shabby.

The tea bags should undoubtedly be from the cheapest batch. They might even be defective or scraps of tea given to students as samples. Is there some reason why Tianyin uses this quality tea to brew tea?

It's understandable that Shiina was overthinking it. It's really rare to see a judge in a tea ceremony competition drink all the tea. Unless the judge is really thirsty, most people will only take a sip. If they drink about a third of the tea, it means the tea is well brewed.

So when Shiina saw the empty teacup in front of Arisu, with only a tea bag left, she was completely dumbfounded. She didn't know if Arisu had been waiting for her for too long and was so thirsty that she drank all the tea, or if Amane could brew such delicious tea even with a tea bag.

"It looks like your tea must taste pretty good."

Just by looking at the fine layer of matcha powder residue, Amane knew that Shiina had put in a lot of effort this time and had absolutely no intention of holding back. However…

This victory will surely be hers; it's just a bit unfair to Shiina for putting so much effort into preparing for this tea ceremony.

"Of course! I'm quite confident in my skills. Please try it quickly, Sakayanagi-san, or you'll miss the best taste if it gets cold!"

Upon hearing this, Arisu picked up the teacup and gently swirled the tea along the rim. When Arisu saw that the matcha powder was completely free of any particles, she knew that the tea was made to a very high standard.

Arisu began to regret her decision. She had given the highest praise to the perfunctory tea brewed by Amane, leaving her with no room for maneuver and also pushing Amane into the spotlight.

If Shiina's tea, which is so perfect just to look at, is still inferior to Amane's tea brewed with a tea bag, then someone will definitely stand up and question the fairness of her evaluation. After all, everyone's eyes aren't blind; Shiina's every move was seen by those present. If such a high level of tea ceremony could lose to Amane, then no one would believe there wasn't some behind-the-scenes manipulation, although Arisu did indeed intend to pull some strings.

On the other hand, Arisu cannot be lenient and give Shiina and Amane the same evaluation. In other industries, a tie might be understandable, but in the tea ceremony, there is no such thing as a tie.

Because the two people have completely different methods of preparing tea, different types of tea leaves, and different water temperatures, it is absolutely impossible for them to taste the same. In other words, if Sakayanagi Arisu gives Shiina the same evaluation, resulting in a tie between Amane and Shiina, then the problem must lie with Arisu, who is a judge. Others will definitely say that Arisu does not understand the tea ceremony or cannot taste the difference, thus questioning Arisu's fairness and professionalism.

As the student council president, she naturally cannot be questioned, especially not in such an important setting where her professionalism is questioned. This is something that Arisu Sakayanagi's pride cannot accept.

She is not Nagumo.

Arisu took a small sip, and then a look of surprise appeared on her face.

Seeing Arisu's satisfied expression, Shiina immediately waved her arms happily.

I think I've got this battle in the bag, right?

Unlike the cheerful Shiina, Amane's expression remained unchanged throughout, as if the outcome of everything was predetermined from the start.

"Shiina-kun truly lives up to her reputation as a professional tea ceremony student. From the taste of the tea and the delicate matcha to the water temperature and the etiquette of brewing, everything was perfectly controlled to the point of being impeccable. It can definitely be called the best entry in this competition, but..."

My heart immediately jumped when I heard it was only Shiina.

"But what? Is there something I did wrong?"

Faced with Shiina's persistent questioning, Arisu looked troubled, and finally sighed and earnestly explained to Shiina.

"If this were a tea ceremony competition, then Shiina-kun would undoubtedly be the winner today. However, we are only holding a tea brewing competition today, so our scoring criteria are taste and brewing speed."

Sakayanagi paused for a moment, then pointed to the teacup in his hand and spoke again with a hint of regret.

"Your tea brewing is inferior to Miyako's in both speed and taste. Although matcha tastes very good, not everyone can accept it. In terms of tea selection, Miyako's choice of tea bags is more widely accepted. So... unfortunately, although your tea deserves to win this competition, according to the scoring criteria, the winner of this tea ceremony club competition is Miyako Tenon!"

The audience erupted in uproar after Arisu announced the results.

Shiina stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

"How...how could this happen...Sakayanagi-san, you didn't tell me beforehand that the scoring criteria would be taste and speed..."

Shiina staggered back a few steps, looking dejected, and lowered her head.

Meanwhile, Tianyin, standing beside her, raised her arms and enjoyed the scattered applause.

At this point, anyone whose eyes and brain are functioning normally can tell that there's something wrong with this competition.

Ibuki even walked out of the queue and questioned Arisu's result.

"Hey! Your scoring method is completely unfair! The tea ceremony club doesn't compete in tea ceremony, but in tea-making speed. If that's the case, then I'm a tea ceremony master too! I think you deliberately gave the victory to Miyako Amane, who's closer to you! You're shameless enough to cheat so blatantly in the sports festival. I'm embarrassed for you!"

As soon as Ibuki raised this question, voices of doubt immediately rose up in the audience.

“What Ibuki said makes a lot of sense. I remember that Sakayanagi and Miyako are a couple, right? So she’ll definitely side with her lover.”

"Just by soaking a tea bag in water, he can become the champion of a tea ceremony competition? Is this what Gao Yu's philosophy of prioritizing strength is all about?"

"You know what, it's quite something that our student council president could insist on calling such a terrible cup of tea the best, hahaha."

"Isn't this blatant bullying of our C...D class?!"

Just as Ishizaki was about to speak up for Shiina, Ryuen stopped him from acting rashly.

“Come back here! Although I’m a little unwilling for Shiina to lose the match this way, she lost and that’s it. Arguing with her now will only make things worse. You don’t really think that woman Sakayanagi would announce that Miyako is the winner without any preparation, do you? Don’t be so naive. That woman is just as cunning as Miyako.”

Ryuen took a deep look at Arisu, who was standing silently in the center of the field, and then turned back to the team.

Ishizaki could only glare resentfully at Arisu's figure and also gave up the idea of ​​going forward to argue for Shiina.

The students watching were so outraged that they claimed the competition results were rigged and unfair, and the commotion was so great that even the foreign guests noticed the situation.

After Sakayanagi announced that Amane was the victor, these shrewd individuals immediately understood what had happened. However, in the current situation, it was inconvenient to say many things too directly. In addition, Onishima and Amane had an unusual relationship, and there was also that even more influential old man whose name made their legs tremble just thinking about him...