After hanging up the phone, Amane scrolled through the message Horikita had sent him.
One person from Class D had already sent their favored person information to Horikita, meaning that, including Horikita, the known number of favored persons was two.
The school, it must be said, was truly bold, directly contacting the favored person via text message.
In that case... it's not hard to imagine that some groups would definitely try some more extreme methods to obtain the identity of the favored person within their group.
Just as Amane was still thinking, a broadcast suddenly came on.
"The Horse Group's exam has ended. Students of the Horse Group no longer need to participate in the exam. Please proceed with caution and do not disturb other students."
The Horse Group's exam ended?
Amane's emotions only rippled slightly before returning to calm. Besides Class B, no other class could launch an offensive at this time.
However, Class B's offensive was not limited to this.
"The Rat Group's exam has ended. Students of the Rat Group no longer need to participate in the exam. Please proceed with caution and do not disturb other students."
"The Ox Group's exam has ended. Students of the Ox Group no longer need to participate in the exam. Please proceed with caution and do not disturb other students."
"The Tiger Group's exam has ended. Students of the Tiger Group no longer need to participate in the exam. Please proceed with caution and do not disturb other students."
"The Dog Group's exam has ended. Students of the Dog Group no longer need to participate in the exam. Please proceed with caution and do not disturb other students."
A long string of exam completion announcements stunned most people.
Even Sakayanagi, who was mentally prepared, couldn't help but get up and have Kamuro and Hashimoto start collecting information on Class A's favored person.
Amane, meanwhile, opened his phone's notepad and quietly recorded.
The favored person groups that had already been eliminated were the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Dragon, Horse, Monkey, and Dog groups—seven groups in total.
The remaining groups were the Rabbit Group, snake group, sheep group, chicken group, and pig group.
Amane already had an idea about the snake group's favored person, and could basically pinpoint someone.
This meant that among the remaining five groups, three contained Class B's favored persons, while the other two groups were those where Shibata failed to acquire the crucial poker card numbers.
Amane re-checked the information sent by Horikita.
The favored person from Class D was on the transaction list provided by Kushida, which meant she also participated in the transaction. Her group, the Horse Group, had indeed concluded this special exam.
This was enough to show that the end of this large-scale exam had a very strong purpose.
Class B acted quite decisively, but unfortunately... Amane's lips curled into a mocking smile. Just then, the broadcast sounded again, and Amane couldn't help but stop.
If any of the remaining groups had another unexpected turn, then the problem would probably be serious.
"Urgent announcement: Student Ichinose of Class 1-B has withdrawn from this special exam due to health reasons and has returned to school early. Given her special circumstances, her class will not be penalized, but she will be fined 100,000 personal points. Additionally, the sheep group, due to a member's withdrawal, will re-select a favored person in two hours. For the inconvenience caused to all members of the group, the school will compensate each member of the sheep group with 10,000 personal points. The ghost card holder will receive an additional 50,000 personal points as compensation and will be provided with corresponding favored person information again."
This news caused even more of a stir.
Ichinose's withdrawal from the exam was understandable, after all, public opinion was still fermenting, and the school couldn't completely block it all at once. Rather than the awkwardness of constantly seeing each other, it was better for her to go back and rest well.
But Amane saw more. Ichinose's return to school was normally approved, which meant this would be the last special exam during the summer vacation. After tomorrow, there would probably be less than half a month left to enjoy the rest of the summer break.
On the other hand, what did Ichinose's withdrawal have to do with the sheep group?
If Ichinose wasn't the favored person, then there would be no need for the school to offer additional compensation to the ghost card holder and re-provide favored person information.
Because their favored person information would no longer be accurate.
Only this answer could explain why the school would compensate the sheep group.
So, who from Class D was in the sheep group?
Amane opened the group assignments Horikita had sent him earlier and was surprised to find that Matsushita was in the sheep group and was also the holder of the small ghost card.
In this way, Matsushita could be considered to have narrowly missed victory, but she received 60,000 points in compensation and subsequent information compensation. With a bit of luck, she might even profit from it.
Tonight was probably destined to be a night of various parties vying for power.
However, at this point, it had nothing to do with Amane. He had done everything he could. He wasn't Class D's guardian deity and had no obligation to protect Class D and help them ascend to Class A. He would only play this game with Horikita if she wanted to.
Now, Horikita already had the ability to be a player, and with Amane arranging Ayanokoji as her assistant, such a lineup was already enough to reach Class A.
His life should return to its normal track.
Before that, he still had to talk to Shiina. He still vaguely felt that something was off about Ichinose's situation. Even if Ichinose had already adopted an evasive attitude, even the biggest public outcry couldn't harm Ichinose all at once. But the impenetrable mist surrounding this matter made Amane somewhat annoyed.
When Amane found Shiina, Shiina was enjoying dinner with Ibuki, chatting and laughing.
As soon as Ibuki saw Amane, her smiling face immediately stiffened, as if Amane owed her millions of personal points.
"I'm so sorry, I hope I'm not interrupting your meal?"
Amane's polite greeting was immediately rebuffed by Ibuki.
"You are interrupting. If you don't have anything important to say, I hope you can leave as soon as possible. Just seeing you standing there makes me lose my appetite."
"Ibuki-san..."
Shiina stood up, somewhat worried. Amane knew that Shiina was afraid Amane would get angry and scold Ibuki in public.
Well, had he truly become a complete brute in other people's eyes? But that was fine too; a strong image could reduce a lot of unnecessary trouble.
"It's alright, I forgive her rudeness."
Then, to Ibuki's disbelief, Amane sat down next to her.
This action completely enraged Ibuki.
"Who needs your forgiveness—"
Ibuki's angry voice suddenly cut off.
Because Amane had put his finger to his lips, making a shushing gesture.
Shiina felt a throbbing in her head. If this continued, the two of them would definitely start a heated argument.
But what Shiina didn't expect was that Ibuki actually closed her mouth obediently and lowered her head, eating the food on her plate.
This made Shiina curious as to how Amane had managed to calm Ibuki down so quickly.
Seeing the dispute dissipate, Shiina relievedly patted her ample chest to calm herself. However, the moment she sat down, she thought she saw Amane withdrawing his hand from Ibuki's waist... She must have seen wrong, right?
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