"You came here for Ichinose's matter?"
Sakayanagi's expression visibly grew strange.
Amane nodded cautiously. Even if Sakayanagi told Amane she was involved, Amane had no intention of blaming Sakayanagi. If Sakayanagi had made a move, it was highly likely she felt it was necessary to do so.
In that case, all Amane could do was understand the reason and see if she could minimize the impact on Ichinose.
However, judging by Sakayanagi's expression... it didn't seem to be the case.
"Oh, Amane, are you an idiot? There's absolutely no benefit for me to take action against Ichinose at this time. Besides, something like that should clearly have come from someone very close to Ichinose."
Sakayanagi picked up her coffee, took a small sip to moisten her throat, and the next second, the overwhelming sweetness made her quickly cover her mouth.
Sakayanagi immediately glared at Amane, who was looking up... at the ceiling with a docile expression.
Putting the cup down helplessly, Sakayanagi still didn't know when Amane had managed to add sugar and milk to her drink.
Setting aside these minor matters, Sakayanagi continued.
"Moreover, if I'm not mistaken, you definitely didn't just put me on your suspect list. Let me guess who else..."
Sakayanagi pursed her lips and then began to rattle off a long list of names that Amane was all too familiar with.
"If I'm not mistaken, Nagumo, Shibata, Horikita, Katsuragi, Shiina, Ryuuen... Oh, right, and Kanzaki. All of them are on your suspect list, aren't they? Then who's left? Judging by your expression... you've already checked everyone who could possibly be involved, haven't you?"
Sakayanagi leaned in close to Amane, adopting an expression that seemed to say, 'No one understands you better than I do.'
But to her surprise, Amane shook his head.
"What? I'm not the last one? Then who is? Katsuragi?"
If the strongest Class A was considered the main course, and there was still one person left, it would most likely be Katsuragi, whom Amane hadn't met yet.
Knowing Amane's methods, she naturally understood that Amane would save the investigation subject closest to the truth for last.
This 'closest to the truth' didn't refer to the most easily suspected person, but rather those inconspicuous individuals with the greatest potential.
"I plan to go see Hiyori next."
"Shiina? With all due respect, the probability of her doing something like this is almost zero. A person can create another personality through disguise, but it's clear that Shiina doesn't possess such advanced disguise techniques. Many of her actions are spontaneous, so it's hard to imagine her doing something that would tarnish someone else's reputation."
When Sakayanagi heard that Amane was considering Shiina as the main suspect, she immediately felt that Amane's intuition might be failing him this time.
In Sakayanagi's view, the instigator of this inexplicable rumor spread must be one of the three: Shibata, Kanzaki, or Nagumo. Anyone else involved would merely be an enabler.
And Shiina was the type who wasn't even qualified to be suspected of fanning the flames.
"I just think she might give me some inspiration."
Amane's words made Sakayanagi vaguely suspicious, but she didn't show it. Her relationship with Shiina was merely a passing acquaintance, and she didn't understand Shiina as well as Amane did. Therefore, since Amane valued Shiina so much, it indicated that Shiina must have some extraordinary qualities.
After leaving Sakayanagi, Amane checked the time. It was almost dinner. More than that, Amane was interested in how the school planned to announce the favored person's information.
Going to find Shiina at this time would be too conspicuous.
So, Amane decided to go later in the evening. That way, even if they were seen, people would most likely assume they were discussing matters related to the favored person.
Just as Amane was about to head to the cafeteria for dinner, his phone suddenly rang.
Amane quickly pulled out his phone and saw that it was Horikita calling.
A call from Horikita at this time likely meant something urgent, so Amane quickly answered.
Only an urgent sentence came from the other end.
"The favored person has been chosen."
"What? How did the school inform the favored person? It couldn't be an email, could it?"
Amane was a little surprised to hear Horikita's news. Why would the school choose this time to contact the favored person?
Was it to allow all classes to prepare in advance?
"That's right, I've already sent you the details. Remember to check it when you have time, and if you find anything unusual, be sure to tell me."
Horikita urged him, feeling uneasy. This was her first time truly appearing on the stage of such a large-scale special exam. Even with a bad start, she had to at least ensure Class D maintained its current position. By the time school started, they would have moved up to Class B.
If any unexpected event caused their class ranking to drop, rebuilding trust would be a long process. Besides that, she noticed that the usually quiet and seemingly forgotten Kushida had started to become active at some point.
She was secretly contacting Shibata to trade the numbers of Class D classmates.
If she was in financial difficulty and sold her own numbers, Horikita, although disapproving, could understand her motives.
But Kushida was going too far. She was secretly coordinating dozens of male and female students to trade numbers through unofficial channels.
To prevent Shibata from quickly deciphering the favored person's secret, Horikita had issued a strict order forbidding the trading of one's poker card numbers.
However, she overlooked a very realistic problem: her points, after the initial 100,000 points ran out, were always taken from Amane. With Amane's vast and unknown total points supporting her, Horikita naturally wouldn't face financial difficulties.
The poor students of Class D were different. Even the very frugal Yukimura and Wang Meiyu had already used up most of their points.
Perhaps Horikita would be puzzled. How could they survive with a few thousand points a month initially, but then face hardship with over 20,000 points a month later?
The reason was simple: everyone was eating the 'Mountain Vegetable Set Meal' to save money. Horikita alone spent about 60,000 personal points a month on food ingredients, daily necessities, and drinks. Of course, Amane's food expenses accounted for a large portion, but for Horikita, she gradually lost concept of personal points; for her, personal points were just numbers.
Even with over 20,000 personal points, most people couldn't save much by cutting back on expenses until the end of the month.
Most of Class D lived such a meager life, so it was difficult for anyone to refuse Shibata's offer of 50,000 personal points for one number. Everyone, of course, knew that these numbers were related to the favored person, but they always held onto a wishful thinking, believing that they surely weren't the favored person. Even if Horikita was displeased, with so many people selling numbers, Horikita couldn't possibly punish everyone.
Not to mention that the school tacitly approved of such things.
Horikita, without Amane's help, was a bit flustered in the afternoon after hearing that over 95% of Class D had sold their poker card numbers to Shibata. She began to hope that Amane could give her some hints to lead her to victory.
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