Wednesday, lunchtime. The school cafeteria was filled with the aroma of food. A boy from Second-Year Class D was nervously wringing his hands, his eyes darting around. "Um... Ryuen-san, thank you so much for treating us to lunch... but..." His voice grew smaller. "...I really don't have anything to tell you..."
Kakeru Ryuen leaned back in his chair, his long fingers tapping lightly on the table, looking at him with a nonchalant expression. Before he could speak, the burly Daichi Ishizaki beside him slammed his hand on the table with a loud thud.
"Hey!" Ishizaki grabbed the other's collar, the veins on his muscular arm bulging. "Are you planning to eat for free!" His roar drew the attention of the surrounding students. "And now you're telling me you have no intel?"
"I... I didn't ask for this! You guys were the ones who approached me!" the second-year senior retorted, trying to sound tough, but his eyes unconsciously darted to the surveillance camera in the corner of the ceiling. "Let go! There are cameras here! You dare to lay a hand on me?"
Ishizaki's knuckles cracked, his fist ready to fly.
"Ishizaki, calm down," Ryuen's lazy voice cut in at the right moment. He stood up slowly and gently placed a hand on Ishizaki's shoulder. "After all... he's our 'senpai'." He deliberately stressed the word "senpai," a chilling smile on his lips. "But you know..." Ryuen suddenly leaned close to the other's ear, his voice low. "I can stop him once, but that doesn't mean I can stop him every time. There are cameras in the cafeteria, that's true..." His gaze meaningfully swept to the empty hallway outside the cafeteria. "...but there are always places the cameras can't see, right?"
"That's right!" Ishizaki suddenly let go of the senior's collar and sneered. "You think you can just get away with eating for free? Even if it means getting a disciplinary mark, I'm going to teach you a lesson today!"
The senior's face instantly turned pale. "Are you guys really from Class C? This is even worse than Class D... Or is it! Because your points have been deducted to zero, you have nothing to fear?" His voice trembled, and he added in a small voice, "It's not that I don't want to tell you... If that person finds out... I'll never get a letter of recommendation for college!"
"You bastard—" Ishizaki lunged again, his fist already raised.
"Stop, Ishizaki," Ryuen firmly gripped his wrist this time, his grip so strong that even Ishizaki winced in pain. Ryuen turned back to the senior, a creepy, gentle smile on his face. "Let's each take a step back. I understand your difficulties, senpai..." His voice suddenly dropped, carrying a seductive tone. "Just tell me who the man you're afraid of is, and then give me a few key pieces of intel, and I'll transfer 50,000 points to you. A fair transaction, isn't it?"
The senior's eyes darted around. After a long half-minute of silence, he finally spoke. "...It's Vice President Nagumo. Class A gets the best teachers, and the other classes can only transfer or graduate with nothing! All four classes are rivals!" He suddenly realized he had said too much and quickly covered his mouth. "Um, that's all I can say! S-so, where are my 50,000 points?!"
Kakeru Ryuen suddenly broke into a mocking smile and slowly adjusted his cuffs. "Who said I was going to give you 50,000 points?" He tilted his head, looking at Ishizaki with feigned confusion. "Ishizaki, did I say that?"
Ishizaki immediately understood and laughed along. "Hahaha, you must be hearing things, senpai!"
"You... you guys!" The senior was shaking with anger, his finger trembling as he pointed at Ryuen.
Ryuen's smile suddenly vanished, his eyes turning dangerous. "Get lost while I'm still in a good mood! For this bit of half-baked intel... I'm already being merciful by not making you puke up the food you ate."
The senior opened his mouth to argue, but after seeing Ryuen's sinister gaze, he shivered and quickly scurried out of the cafeteria.
Ishizaki watched the senior flee and scratched his head. "Ryuen, didn't that 'kind person' already tell us this info on the second day of school?"
Ryuen sneered. "He's just a piece of trash from Second-Year Class D. Squeezing this much out of him is already the limit." His fingers tapped lightly on the table, and he suddenly changed the subject. "The Vice President Nagumo I had you look into, any progress?"
Ishizaki's expression immediately became serious. "I only know his full name is Nagumo Miyabi. But..." he lowered his voice, "every time I ask a second-year, as soon as I mention his name, their faces turn pale. So besides his name, I couldn't get anything else."
Ryuen narrowed his eyes, looking thoughtfully out the cafeteria window. "To make the entire second year go silent... he must be an interesting opponent. But it's too early to challenge the second years now... I need to figure out the rules and crush the other classes first."
(What kind of game is this school hiding?)
From the first day he had stepped into the school, Ryuen had keenly sensed that something was off. Whether it was the rule that "points can buy anything" or the meaningful hints from his homeroom teacher, Sakagami Kazuma, he was certain that the school was deliberately hiding key information. However, after days of investigation, all he had managed to piece together from those timid upperclassmen was a few fragmented truths: this school did divide classes based on merit, and the four classes were competitors. That was it. The second years were on complete lockdown under Vice President Nagumo's iron fist. And when he had tried to approach a senior from Third-Year Class D, he had been sharply warned by a student council member who had suddenly appeared. The entire upper grade seemed to be covered by an invisible net, and everyone was tight-lipped about the truth.
...
Kakeru Ryuen strode through the cafeteria with Daichi Ishizaki. Just as he was about to step out the door, his peripheral vision suddenly caught a flash of striking silver-white. At a table by the window, a silver-haired girl with a delicate cane was elegantly eating her food. As if sensing his gaze, the girl slowly lifted her eyes, her pupils locking onto his from across the noisy crowd.
Their eyes met mid-air. The corner of the girl's mouth curved into a half-smile, like a chess player sizing up a disobedient piece.
"Ryuen? What's wrong?" Ishizaki asked, confused, following his gaze.
"...Nothing," Ryuen looked away, his voice dangerously calm. That condescending gaze should have been his patent, the weapon he used to scrutinize his prey. Now, it was being returned to him by the girl with the cane, and with even greater arrogance.
(Is she one of those self-important Class A elites? Heh, a frail girl like that... If I punched her, she'd probably cry for a long time.)
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