"What are you talking about?" Arai started sweating profusely.
Got him.
"…"
"Hey answer me!!!"
"I know that he assaults students, and I have a testimony."
"Idiot, if you release it then you're as good as dead," Arai chuckled.
He's that violent, huh? Or is he that he has power? I doubt he can act like this with only violence.
"Why do you care?" I asked.
"Huh? It's cuz we're both—"
"Don't lie, why do you actually care?"
"That's what I'm trying to say."
"I suppose I should make it clearer. The reason why I'm wondering why you care is because I'm confused. Why care when this is all your fault?"
"Huh?" Both him and Ito were surprised, it was reminiscent of yesterday when I said somewhat the same thing to Shimizu.
"How is it my fault?"
"You lied to your classmates that the mastermind told you to do this plan when it was self-orchestrated."
"…Just who are you?"
I figured it out yesterday as I was thinking more about it. If the mastermind of Class Beta could control the entire class, then why does this plan have so many holes in it?
While him not knowing me was a possibility, I wasn't that big of a factor that he couldn't easily plan against.
Then I came up with the theory that it wasn't by him but by another, maybe one trying to prove something.
A student wanting to suspend everyone in Class Epsilon, however, the reason why, was still a mystery.
"…"
"What do I do now? If 'he' finds out then I'm as good as dead," Arai fell on his knees, writhing his despair.
"…I have a proposition if you wanna hear."
"…"
"If you don't want it then don't worry," I turned around and started to walk away.
"…Wait."
"I'm listening."
"What is the proposition?"
"Well, it's a compromise."
"…Go on."
"First, get on your feet."
"…Ok now what's the compromise?" He stood up.
"Arai Shidou, let's make a compromise; let both parties withdraw the case. That way it can be like it never even happened."
"…"
"Do we have a deal?"
(There's supposed to be an illustration here, but I don't have an illustrator. Basically, Nakamura is stretching his right hand with a smirk on his face. (It's similar to that smirk that Sakanayagi Arisu does.))
"... We do," he reluctantly shook my hand.
He and Ito walked off to end the case and I walked back to the dormitory.
Damn. Originally, I wanted Ito to call him and leave so I could talk to Arai alone.
I wanted our compromise to be different—I wanted him to tell me the identity of the mastermind of Class Beta.
Helping Class Epsilon wasn't part of the plan but I changed my mind because I wanted to remove the despair from Ito's eyes.
Though maybe I shouldn't have done that because I revealed a little too much about myself to him.
However, that doesn't matter for now, because I got something way more important than the name of the mastermind.
I got a–
No, not yet.
On the way I got thirsty and got a soda, I sat down on a bench and began thinking about what happened today.
Anyway, if Arai hadn't come now, then this wouldn't have worked. If he were just a little calmer he could have called my bluff.
I noticed that he was calm at the first hearing. Even calming down Shimizu, but a trait of calm people is that most of them bottle their emotions, so the smallest dent releases a huge wave of emotions.
The dent was of course the fear of the involvement of the student council.
My orchestration of that dent was decent, I suppose, though I left some tracks.
But this student council is something else, I wonder how scary they really are.
***
Author's Note:
Me too Nakamura, me too. Anyway, one more major chapter left.
Not much to say so…Remember to comment, leave a review, and share.
Thanks for reading the chapter and see you in the next one.