Chapter 5 : Game Changer

ON THURSDAY morning, the day before the special exam, we were granted a special day off.

Typically, falling asleep wasn't an issue, but I, Hashimoto, had an unusually sleepless night.

"Lack of sleep really is bad for you... So sleepy..."

As I lifted my body, I saw that there was a message from Kitō on my phone.

[It seems that the princess has finally decided on a policy.]

"Although it's already the day before the exam, it seemed that they were finally going to gather the class leaders for a discussion.

However, even though it was a discussion, they probably wouldn't give detailed information about the strategy.

Sakayanagi always thought and acted independently.

She only communicated necessary information to the students she used as her tools.

"Tsk..."

In addition to Kitō's message, I noticed that I had received dozens of messages. These were from the girl I was currently dating.

The night before, I remembered exchanging messages with her until fairly late, but I had given up halfway through because the conversation went on and on with no sign of ending.

'Where are we going next?'

'I want to eat this, I want that.'

'What do you like, dislike?'

'I want to see you, I'm lonely.'

It was all such trivial stuff.

[Sorry, I fell asleep. I'll make it up to you next time.]

With a cute emote, I sent back that emotionless reply.

I figured that it would satisfy her.

If she was persistent, I just needed to dump her, but there was still some information I wanted to gather.

No matter which class or how trivial, there was never too much information.

Let's forget about that woman for now and talk about the issue concerning Sakayanagi.

The issue that was directly connected to the reason why I wasn't able to sleep yesterday.

The issue of how we should fight in the special exam.

And before that, what we should do.

As the end-of-year exams were approaching, my anxiety was growing day by day.

The future where I might lose to Ryūen in a direct showdown with a significant amount of class points on the line.

This was something I absolutely had to avoid.

I have to do everything I can to prevent that, don't I?