After less than a second of thought, Saiki confirmed his answer in his heart.
He really wanted to directly speak the truth, to tell Ayanokoji that everything Chabashira Sae said was a lie.
If he did that, Ayanokoji probably wouldn't continue aiming to reach Class A, and the amount of trouble he caused would probably decrease a bit.
However, after all, although Ayanokoji showed a part of his ability, he did not reveal all of his background, so Saiki could only say some ambiguous words.
"Chabashira-sensei is a person who likes to bluff. On the surface she seems not to care about Class A, but in reality she should possess a very strong desire for it."
"She should be someone who will stop at nothing to achieve this goal, even able to fabricate a series of lies for it."
"Bluffing, huh?" Ayanokoji narrowed his eyes slightly.
[Saiki is good at analyzing other people's psychological activities. Chabashira-sensei really is such a person. For now, the information she provided me is very likely lies fabricated just to gain my assistance.]
'That's right, exactly so.' Saiki answered in his heart.
[But it's only a possibility, not the confirmed truth. If I act rashly, it will instead be easy to expose my flaws. I should observe for a while first.]
'Then what's the point of you asking me now?'
"I understand." Ayanokoji nodded.
"Then, Saiki, how do you plan to arrange things for this exam?"
"Let it take its natural course." Saiki said slowly.
After a brief exchange, Saiki returned to his own room to rest. Too many things had happened in one day.
'Seriously, what kind of weirdos are in this school...'
Saiki sighed a little helplessly, but not long after he lay down, he heard a sound coming from his phone.
[Karuizawa Kei: Do you have time?]
Simple and direct, with no more words.
Saiki was of course preparing to refuse, since he no longer wanted to get involved in more trouble.
But just as he had edited out the two words "no time," a new message immediately popped up.
[Karuizawa Kei: I'll treat you to dessert.]
[Saiki: Okay. Now?]
Saiki immediately got out of bed and headed to the place agreed upon with Karuizawa Kei.
———
[Dessert Area]
Karuizawa Kei was sitting at a certain booth seat, smiling and waving at Saiki.
"Saiki-kun!"
'Yare yare, this definitely can't be anything good.'
Seeing a girl like Karuizawa Kei, who was relatively hard to deal with, suddenly greeting him with extreme enthusiasm, Saiki immediately had a bad premonition.
'I was only thinking of making up for accidentally saying your name earlier and preventing any unexpected situations from happening, absolutely not because you're treating me to dessert that I came.'
[Saiki... He's now in the same group as me. In the class, aside from Hirata, only he is a normal person left.]
'Although it feels a bit strange, your judgment isn't wrong.'
[Right now there's no one I can rely on. Saiki is the most suitable "host."]
'May I refuse?'
[I'll just take action directly later... My looks and figure should both be okay... A boy like Saiki shouldn't have a reason to refuse, right... But when the time comes, Sakura-san might get angry...]
'Why did it suddenly get dragged to Sakura again?'
Saiki sat in the seat opposite Karuizawa Kei,
'Yare yare, let's hurry and finish eating first, and then no matter what she says, just refuse directly.'
"Saiki-kun, thank you for what happened earlier!"
A bright smile was on Karuizawa Kei's face, and her amber eyes sparkled with light.
"Whatever you want to eat, order freely."
"Oh? Then I won't be polite."
Saiki casually ordered quite a number of desserts; the total price wasn't low.
[Saiki... is actually so obsessed with desserts? And he really is not polite at all...]
Previously, Karuizawa Kei had been spending points extravagantly to buy clothes. Although there was still some left now, it wasn't much, and the already not-wealthy points were even more strained.
'Yare yare, this way she should develop a dislike for me. Give up on the related idea sooner.' Saiki thought this in his heart.
[But since I've already invested this much... I absolutely can't give up! I must successfully win Saiki over.]
'In the end did it backfire? Forget it, I'll talk about it later.'
Very soon, the staff brought plate after plate of desserts to the two of them. Saiki was also not polite; he directly picked up the small spoon and began enjoying the desserts in front of him.
Karuizawa Kei's eyes opened slightly wider. It was the first time she had seen someone reveal such an intoxicated expression while eating dessert.
[Normally, when an ordinary boy is alone with me, his attention should be on me, right... But Saiki's attention, from beginning to end, is on the food...]
Karuizawa Kei knew that her looks were an advantage, but she never expected that they would have no effect at all on Saiki.
"Saiki-kun..."
"Mm."
"Um... Thank you very much for today. If it weren't for you, Manabe and the others would definitely have kept making things hard for me."
"Mm."
[Why is it still just "mm"... Say something, won't you?]
Karuizawa Kei felt a little anxious inside. She had never seen a boy of Saiki's type.
[Damn... Do I have to use my ultimate move? I'll just confess directly! Saiki shouldn't be able to refuse!]
'Yare yare, I don't want such an extremely awkward scene to occur.'
While thinking this, Saiki was also striving to think of countermeasures in his heart and began to put them into action.
"Saiki-kun... Actually, from the time of enrollment, I had already been paying attention to you..."
Karuizawa Kei lowered her head, pretending to be very shy.
'Yare yare, clearly for several months after the opening of school you didn't even know what I was called, right.'
"Saiki-kun, actually I like..."
"Saiki-kun? Have you already arrived?"
At this moment, a familiar voice rang out beside them.
Shiina Hiyori.
'This person... who is she?'
Looking at Shiina's face, Karuizawa Kei felt a bit puzzled. Without a doubt, Shiina was also a top-tier great beauty, quiet and gentle, completely the opposite of the persona Karuizawa Kei worked hard to play.
Because of Shiina's appearance, Karuizawa Kei's "confession" was directly cut off, and she had no choice but to swallow those words back down.
All of this was exactly Saiki's doing.
Just now while eating dessert, Saiki used telepathy to catch that Shiina was in the nearby library, so he secretly used his psychic ability to control his own phone to send Shiina a message, asking her to help borrow a few novels and deliver them to the café.
"The novels you wanted, I brought them!"
Shiina said with a smile to Saiki, then handed the few novels in her hands to Saiki.
"Thank you very much."
Saiki took the books and then nodded to Shiina.
[Saiki-kun is alone with another girl? Not the girl from last time...]
[This girl, I feel like I've seen her somewhere... Wait, she seems to be Karuizawa Kei, right?]
[I've heard the rumors about Karuizawa. Her temper isn't considered good, but she looks very familiar with Saiki-kun...]
[Saiki usually doesn't take the initiative to send me any messages, but this time he had me borrow books for him, and specifically deliver them to the dessert stand here... I see... Looks like Saiki-kun called me over to avoid some awkward situation.]
'As expected of you, Shiina!' Saiki praised Shiina in his heart. Sure enough, she instantly guessed his purpose.
[Since that's the case, I'll help Saiki-kun a little.]
As Shiina spoke, she also sat down, "Saiki, are you interested in other novels of this type?"
"Mm." Saiki immediately nodded.
Shiina then began introducing various different novels. On the one hand, it was to help Saiki resolve trouble; on the other hand, these were books she had originally very much wanted to recommend to Saiki. Once the topic came up, Shiina became a bit eloquent and unending.
[Wait, she's just sitting down like this?]
[What exactly are the two of them talking about?]
[What "method," what "locked room"? Are the two of them even speaking a language from Earth?]
Karuizawa Kei was completely unable to join the two people's topic. She didn't even know when she should say "mm." She only felt incomparable awkwardness, and she was drowsy.
Finally, after an unknown amount of time, Shiina finally finished talking through the list of books in her heart, and the desserts on the table were basically already finished.
"In that case, I should take my leave! I accidentally talked too much!"
Shiina stood up from her seat and said to Saiki with a smile.
"It's fine, these are exactly what I want to read." Saiki replied.
Although he hadn't expected Shiina to be able to talk for so long, at least it avoided letting Karuizawa Kei directly say those extremely awkward words.
Shiina then left, and Saiki also stood up, "Thank you, Karuizawa-san. The food is all finished, so I'll head off first."
"Oh, okay!"
Karuizawa Kei felt a sense of release in her heart, and then she also prepared to stand up and leave.
[Wait! I've already forgotten my goal!]
[I need to find a host!]
[The points have already been spent, they absolutely can't be wasted!]
"Saiki-kun!"
Karuizawa Kei hurriedly called out to Saiki, and was somewhat surprised to find that in less than a second Saiki had already run five meters away.
'Yare yare, it seems I still couldn't escape?'
Saiki felt somewhat helpless yin, but since the other party had already called his name, he could only stop his steps and return to stand in front of Karuizawa Kei.
'Who should I call over next? Yamauchi is nearby. But I really don't want to call him. However, if...'
"Saiki-kun, there is something I must tell you..."
At this moment, Karuizawa Kei's expression gradually became solemn.
"Mm."
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