Closing the diary in her hands, Arisu Sakayanagi frowned.
Once again, that guy had written down his itinerary in the diary.
But was it a smokescreen?
Or a real record?
And how much of it was actually true?
She still couldn't see through it.
Because of the earlier "dating declaration" he had written, she had spent a great deal of effort investigating couples who had recently started dating.
In the end, she found nothing.
Yes, there were quite a few couples in this school.
The most famous one was the pair from Class D—Kei Karuizawa and Yōsuke Hirata.
People came and went, got together and broke up, enjoying the fast-food style romance that went by the name of "youth."
Sakayanagi had no particular comment about that.
Even though this casual attitude toward romance made her investigation harder, she eventually confirmed something.
Around the time the diary entry had been written—
No new couples had formed at all.
The reason was simple.
Because they were in the middle of midterm exams.
Even students who normally didn't care about studying would put in at least some effort under the pressure of expulsion for failing.
As for the students who already cared about their studies…
Confessions and romance obviously weren't on their agenda.
Of course, maybe that wasn't the only reason.
But in any case, during that time period, not a single couple had started dating.
Unless she somehow missed it.
But Sakayanagi didn't believe her investigation had any loopholes.
Which meant—
The romance.
The kissing.
Even the ridiculous thing about using fingers to imitate lips.
All of it was completely made up by that guy.
Therefore, when today's diary—one week later—suddenly declared something equally shocking:
"I left the school."
Sakayanagi couldn't help but feel suspicious.
—Was this guy planning to mess with her again?
Write something that seemed like it might expose his identity…
Lure her into running around like a fly trying to verify it…
Then hide in the shadows like a rat and laugh at her while she got played.
Yes.
That had to be it.
But what if it was real?
If he had truly snuck out of the school, then not only would it be the best opportunity to track down his identity, it would also be the perfect chance to get him expelled for violating school rules.
So after hesitating for a long time—
Sakayanagi finally made a phone call.
"..."
It was time to make fair use of her connections.
Ah, don't misunderstand.
She wasn't planning to ask her father—the chairman—to bend the rules for her.
This was simply a legitimate report.
After all, if a student secretly left the completely closed campus of Advanced Nurturing High School—
That would be an unbelievably serious violation.
Of course, Sakayanagi had already considered the possibility that the diary might be lying again.
So she had prepared a certain amount of personal points in advance.
If this turned out to be a false report, she could simply pay the penalty.
She didn't need—and wouldn't—rely on her father's authority.
Even now, the little princess still felt bitter about that certain someone claiming she had entered Class A thanks to her father's influence.
Investigating whether a student had left the school was actually quite simple.
First, check location data.
Then review security cameras.
Student terminals could easily track everyone's location.
Who went where, and when.
However, any student bold enough to secretly leave the campus would obviously not bring a device that tracked their location.
And indeed, there had been no location data showing anyone leaving campus recently.
Which meant the key investigation area became the cameras.
Advanced Nurturing High School had an extremely dense surveillance network covering the entire campus.
Except for a few intentionally left blind spots, cameras monitored almost every corner.
Unless someone could fly or tunnel underground, leaving campus without being seen was impossible.
So the result was obvious.
"…Yes. I understand. Mm. Five hundred thousand, right? I see. Please deduct it."
A hefty 500,000 personal points were deducted from her account.
Sakayanagi's expression didn't look very good.
She had been fooled again.
When the points were deducted, and half a day passed for her to calm down, Sakayanagi's emotions gradually settled.
She quickly realized that she had acted somewhat emotionally.
Every time the diary wrote something, she immediately investigated.
She always chased the bait someone else threw out.
Reflect.
There was still plenty of time.
Over these three years, she could play this game with him slowly.
Consider this 500,000 points a lesson.
It wasn't devastating, but it was still a considerable amount—points she had painstakingly squeezed out of upperclassmen.
"Who was on the phone?"
Seeing that she had finished the call, Masumi Kamuro lazily walked over and asked casually.
Shooting her a glance, Sakayanagi poked her lightly in the waist with a finger and said with a small huff:
"Don't be overly curious about your master's communication partners."
Her tone, movements, expression—
A faint trace of resentment radiated from her entire body.
Even Kamuro could clearly feel her irritation.
"…Did you get a boyfriend?"
Kamuro suddenly voiced her guess.
"Huh?"
Sakayanagi showed an extremely absurd expression.
"What nonsense are you talking about?"
"Eh? Isn't that it?"
Kamuro shrugged calmly.
"I thought you'd fallen in love and gotten a boyfriend."
Otherwise—
Why had you suddenly asked me about kissing before?
"Don't joke around."
Sakayanagi laughed in disbelief.
"Me? A boyfriend?"
Did Kamuro seriously think she was investigating the diary writer because she liked him?
That was the most ridiculous joke she had ever heard.
But…
Were her emotions really that obvious?
She frowned.
"That's enough. Stop there, Kamuro."
She slightly raised her chin and looked up at Kamuro, who was a little taller than her.
"Please don't bring up such foolish nonsense in front of me again."
"I feel like you've recently begun forgetting your place."
Had she been too respectful toward her?
"..."
Kamuro fell silent for a moment.
Then lowered her head slightly.
"I never said I'd serve you as my master from the beginning, did I?"
Sakayanagi fell silent.
"..."
For the first time, she suddenly found the normally very convenient Kamuro to be annoying.
This girl had become… somewhat inconvenient.
Had she been too tolerant?
Perhaps it was time to give her a little reminder.
"Is that so?"
The cane in Sakayanagi's hand shifted direction.
She lightly rested it on Kamuro's shoulder.
"Kamuro, don't forget."
"You've always been in the palm of my hand."
Ah.
She had originally thought—
They might become friends.
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