Shinomiya Kaguya.
The eldest daughter of the Shinomiya Group, the well-known "Ice Princess" of Shuchiin Academy. Always ranked first academically, excellent in sports, nearly flawless in every way—an ideal figure in almost everyone's eyes.
Logically speaking, someone like this shouldn't have any worries.
And yet, for the past month, she had been extremely irritated.
"…Not writing again."
The reason lay in the diary she was holding.
A month ago, it had appeared out of nowhere.
Invisible to others.
Sticking to her like gum on a shoe.
No matter whether she was waking up, eating, attending class, commuting—whenever she reached out her hand, that diary would inexplicably appear in it.
At first, she thought she was sick.
That these were hallucinations.
But after repeated tests, she realized it wasn't an illusion.
It was some kind of incomprehensible supernatural phenomenon.
After hesitating for a long time, she finally decided to open the diary.
And then she saw what was written inside…
…Nonsense?
Chaotic ramblings.
Shouting at students from the same school.
And the target of those shouts was apparently… Advanced Nurturing High School?
Of course, Kaguya knew about Advanced Nurturing High.
As a school meant to cultivate "human resources" for those in power, it had some reputation among elites.
But obviously, no true noble would personally go there to study alongside people destined to become subordinates.
…Unless it was like the Kouenji Group, deliberately sending heirs there to build closer ties with the politicians behind the school.
Otherwise, Kaguya couldn't imagine why people like them would choose that school over Shuchiin.
Meaningless "privileges" versus networks everywhere—anyone could tell which mattered more.
At least among the major families she knew, almost none would send their heirs to that high school.
Although Advanced Nurturing had nothing to do with her directly, out of curiosity and basic respect for supernatural phenomena, she still read the diary carefully for several days.
Most of the content revolved around people inside that school.
Without being there, it was hard to understand.
Especially since, aside from what seemed like targeted exposés of certain people's dark histories, the diary was filled with bizarre, incomprehensible nonsense.
After three days of reading—
No additional strange reactions.
Destroying the diary didn't work.
Reading it didn't affect her body or mind.
She gained no special powers.
She began to think the diary really was just what it claimed to be: a tool for exposing things.
Then she saw the fourth day's entry.
"Young Miss Shinomiya's words 'I want to become a photographer' still haunt me to this day."
"…?"
Who?
Young Miss Shinomiya?
Young Miss Shinomiya…
Isn't that me?!
Everyone knew that Shinomiya Gan'an had three sons.
But there was only one "young miss."
Her.
Shinomiya Kaguya.
She had never imagined that a diary from Advanced Nurturing would suddenly mention her.
Let alone write something that instantly sparked her curiosity.
"Photographer"…?
What on earth was that supposed to mean?!
She wanted to shout.
She wanted to question it.
But the diary gave her no response.
That was something she had already confirmed.
The only "feedback" it ever gave was the cold voice in her ear after she finished reading:
"Reading points +1."
She couldn't satisfy her curiosity.
Normally, the simplest way to do that would be to storm into Advanced Nurturing, find the diary's owner, grab him, and interrogate him.
Whether the owner was really a first-year student there aside—
The real problem was…
She couldn't.
Even as the Shinomiya family's young miss…
She had no real authority.
Like a perfectly packaged doll—spoiled endlessly, yet only spoiled.
Though she often looked down on Advanced Nurturing in words, she had no way to interfere with it.
The only thing she could do was send out the only person she could rely on.
Her super maid.
Hayasaka Ai.
"Milady, you're not seriously expecting me to pull off something impossible, are you? I'm a maid, not Doraemon."
She said that expressionlessly.
Yet in the end, Hayasaka still brought her a list of this year's incoming students at Advanced Nurturing.
She knew it.
Hayasaka was reliable!
Breaking into the school was unrealistic.
Asking Hayasaka to secretly infiltrate and track down someone who left no clues wasn't a mission—it was torture.
But with the list, Kaguya believed she could deduce the culprit's identity from future diary slips.
Yes.
She would join the hide-and-seek game he declared on day one.
As an outsider.
Kaguya's fighting spirit ignited.
Day one: full of confidence.
Day two: slightly discouraged.
Day three: brain crash.
Ever since the third day, when he mentioned her once and said he would "lie low for a while," the diary suddenly calmed down.
It became lazy and perfunctory.
For more than ten days straight:
"Nothing happened today."
"I want to touch legs."
"What should I eat tomorrow?"
"Should I get a late-night snack?"
All stupid nonsense.
Not a trace of the grand, provocative tone from the beginning.
…There was no way anyone could identify him from this.
The more she read, the more she realized—
Finding his identity was impossible.
So she changed strategies.
As a Shinomiya, she shouldn't waste so much energy on meaningless things.
Instead of waiting for him to slip up,
She might as well hope he'd suddenly lose his mind and write out the full story of "I want to become a photographer."
So today, once again, Kaguya was eagerly waiting for the diary to mention her.
…No, wait.
That wasn't it.
She was troubled by something else.
"Why—won't it let me leave a comment?!"
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