Chapter 60

Chapter 60

Lelouch's POV

"Come oooooon, Lelouch-kun, just play one game!"

The pleading voice of a girl rang out across the partying beach. I felt my purple eyes widen a fraction as I was assaulted by a barrage of requests to participate in a volleyball game.

"Uh, I can't do that. Really, I'm not very good at sports at all." I replied, panicked.

"Hmm, I'm sure that Lelouch-kun is just being humble. I bet he's really amazing at sports as well as academics!"

Not good. If I go out there and give a miserable performance under these expectations, I'll never be able to live it down!

"N-no, I'm pretty mediocre at things like that. Honestly!"

"But Kururugi-kun also said he was pretty average too, but look at him!"

The girl, Takeko Nishino, pointed her finger towards the volleyball game currently being played. From my position, relaxed in a seaside chair, I averted my purple eyes over to where she was pointing. I landed my gaze on that bastard, Suzaku Kururugi, nonchalantly dominating even the most athletic of Class C students.

"Kururugi-kun is so cool!"

Another girl, Nanami Yabu, exclaimed with sparkles in her eyes as she stared at Suzaku's muscular body clad in a swimsuit. Who knew that merely being good at something stupid like volleyball could garner this much attention?

"You should go and face off against him, Lelouch-kun! I bet you'd win!"

Are these girls trying to get me killed?

"Yeah, Lelouch, why don't you go and play? I'll even make an exception and join you myself," a deep, mocking voice sounded from behind me.

I glanced over my shoulder at Ryūen Kakeru, who was clearly amused by my predicament. He gave me a big smile, flashing his white teeth contemptuously. What a pain. As if I didn't already have enough problems on my hands.

"I'll tell you what, Ryūen. If you go up there and beat Suzaku, then I'll step up and play against you."

Suzaku would never lose to the likes of Ryūen, and Ryūen would arrogantly accept the challenge for the sake of protecting his pride. That's what I'd thought, anyway, until...

"Kuku, don't be stupid. That guy would kick my ass both on and off the court. You're only saying that to get out of playing yourself." Ryūen laughed at me, and took a big mouthful of water from the bottle in his hand.

"Lelouch-kun, you aren't really scared of playing against Ryūen-kun, are you?"

The girls looked at me expectantly. Apparently, being popular also meant that people expected you to be exceptional at literally everything. How bothersome.

But seriously, at this rate I'm going to end up a laughing stock. If only someone would come and—

"Hey, Lelouch!"

A boy's voice called out semi-distantly. Everybody turned to look at the source, and there stood three boys. Light, Ryuzaki and Ayanokōji. At that moment, I felt that I was the luckiest person on the planet.

Swiftly taking advantage of my classmates' appearances, I pounced on the opportunity to escape. "Oh, what a shame! I would've loved to play against you, Ryūen, but it seems that my classmates are calling for me."

"Kukuku, aren't you blessed with good luck?" He laughed haughtily at me, but didn't press any further.

I shot him once last glance with my amethyst eyes, before turning my attention to the approaching trio.

"Light, Ryuzaki, Ayanokōji. How nice to see you." I waved with a smile, causing some of my followers to blush.

The others, however...

"Yagami-kun!"

I wasn't the only chick-magnet in Class D, apparently. Half of my harem was stolen away by the good-looking honour student standing before me.

"Ah, Manabe, Yamashita..." Light greeted them warmly.

It wasn't all bad. The more people that gushed over Light, the less troublesome my situation would become after all.

"Oh? What are more guinea pigs doing here? Does your entire class intend to migrate?" Ryūen asked provocatively.

"Migrate? Don't be foolish," Ryuzaki retorted. "Who would migrate to a class that's already used all 300 points?"

"Someone who wants to enjoy their vacation, perhaps?" Ryūen suggested ambiguously.

"Yeah right," Light scoffed at him as he walked to my side. "Besides, we're already enjoying our vacation. Right, Lelouch?"

It looked like Light was asking me to agree. It didn't exactly make sense to me, though, since I'd actually spent more time at Class C's camp during this exam than our own.

"Well, I certainly am enjoying my vacation, with access to all of these luxuries free of charge," I smirked at him in response.

"Well, that'll probably end by tomorrow. Right, Ryūen?"

After being asked that by Light, Ryūen grinned widely. "Kuku, what makes you say that?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Ayanokōji interjected, speaking flatly as always. "Your dwindling resources are apparent. You won't be able to make it through another day after this one with what you have left. You intend to have the whole of Class C drop out today, right?"

It looked like Ayanokōji came to the same conclusion as me regarding Ryūen's strategy. Back when I met with the rest of my class during the roll calls, I didn't say anything about my thoughts, I merely gave an objective analysis of the situation regarding Class C. I was interested in seeing what conclusions everyone else would come to.

"Well, everybody except you and your merry band of spies, of course." Ryuzaki added to everyone's surprise.

I felt my own eyes widen in shock as well. Was he an idiot? Why the hell would any sane human being reveal the fact that we know he has spies? What was the point?

I glanced around. Light looked surprised, similarly to me, while Ayanokōji remained as stoic as ever. I noticed Ryūen's composure crack slightly, but he showed no signs of panic.

"Kukuku, so that silly girl got discovered after all? I knew it was a mistake to let her have her way." Ryūen clicked his tongue, as if his strategy being uncovered was just a mild inconvenience.

"Does it not make you disconcerted that we know your leader, Ryūen?" I asked smugly.

Ryūen, however, simply laughed at me. "You know our leader? That's a good one. Unfortunately, your bluff won't work on me."

A bluff, huh? Perhaps that's what it was. Honestly, even I wasn't sure at that moment.

"Hmm, so if I say 'Ryūen Kakeru is the leader of Class C,' you won't be panicked at all?" I continued condescendingly.

Ryūen, however, showed no outward reaction to it, and just carried on grinning. He was clearly amused by the situation.

"As I said, such a stupid bluff would never work on me. Just because you've figured out that I'll remain on the island, that doesn't mean I'm the leader." Ryūen retorted scornfully. "Isn't it obvious that I'd need to stay on the island to give my orders to these incompetent idiots?"

Ryūen waved his arm in a gesture towards the rest of his classmates. Well, he wasn't exactly wrong. We probably could've predicted he'd stay on the island even before the exam began.

"You're quite a good actor, Ryūen," surprisingly, Light complimented Ryūen. "If you really weren't the leader, you probably would've pretended to be shocked and panicked just now, in order to misdirect us into believing that you actually are. The fact that you didn't do this indicates that you needed to remain flippant, in order to deceive us into thinking that you aren't the leader because of your confident reaction."

Ryūen merely smirked as Light explained his thought process. After he finished, he spoke condescendingly. "So, you're saying I'm the leader based off that? Kuku."

"However," Light continued, narrowing his brown eyes. "There's also the possibility that you thought this far. If you'd predicted that we'd make the previous assumptions, there's also the chance that you bluffed by actually acting intentionally unconcerned, predicting that we'd use that to wrongly deduce that you are the leader. If that's the case, then that means you based your entire tactic around believing in our talent. That's quite bold, for someone like you."

Ryūen Kakeru was an enigmatic figure, to say the least. When I first encountered him, I'd profiled him as nothing but a muscle-headed dictator. However, the strategy he'd employed for this exam was clever, one that took advantage of a loophole in the rules. It was something that most people would never even think of.

Additionally, he was apt at mind games. Even the combination of me, Light, Ryuzaki and Ayanokōji, a collection of the biggest teenage geniuses in the country, weren't able to read him with confidence. At this stage, there was no way for us to be sure whether Ryūen was the leader or not.

"Kukuku, don't you ever think that you might be giving me too much credit?" Ryūen laughed haughtily.

"I know better than to underestimate my enemy." Light retorted.

"Hah! You should know, it's not wise to overestimate them either."