"Pardon the intrusion~"
Naturally, Ibuki and Ishizaki were surprised upon seeing the visitor who had appeared before us.
They had probably never imagined that they would meet this person here.
"Seriously…?"
"Woah."
"Oh! I definitely thought there might've been someone else here too… Good evening."
"G-good evening."
For some reason, Ishizaki had become a little flustered.
The person who had come to my room was none other than Ichinose Honami.
And currently, she was sitting together with Ibuki and Ishizaki from Class D.
Having seen Ichinose, Ibuki finally seemed to understand the big picture of what was going on.
"We've got matching interests, don't we Ichinose?"
"It sure looks like it, Ibuki-san."
"Huh? What do you mean, Ibuki?"
Ishizaki tilted his head to the side, still unable to put all the pieces together.
"Ishizaki. Nobody's crazy enough to actually want to save Ryūen. Even if, hypothetically speaking, someone were to show up and say they'd help vote for him, there's no way to know whether they'd really stick to their word or not. Although… There are exceptions to that…"
"I-Is that so… Then, does that mean Ichinose and everyone in Class B are gonna…!?"
Finally, everything clicked, and Ishizaki seemed to understand what was about to happen.
"Yup. I'll appeal to everyone in Class B and ask them to cast every single one of our forty praise votes for Ryūen-kun. In return, Ibuki-san will cover the private points we're missing."
It was a sure-fire strategy that could only be used once.
There was Ichinose, who had the intuition to stockpile her classmate's private points ever since the first day of school, and there was Ryūen, who had continued to hoard private points because of the contract he had made with Class A.
It was the ultimate power play that could only be put into action because of the circumstances surrounding these two specific people.
"If you two joined forces, no one will be expelled from Class B and Ryūen won't have to leave Class D."
No matter what, Ryūen would only end up with a maximum of thirty-nine censure votes.
With the protection of Class B, that outcome would be eliminated completely thanks to the praise votes he would get.
Ibuki and Ichinose looked each other in the eye.
When two people aren't usually involved with one another, there's no reason for them to enter into a relationship built on trust like this.
However, by facing each other eye to eye, it's possible to determine whether or not they're trustworthy, at least to a certain extent.
After a moment, Ichinose shifted her gaze away from Ibuki and looked at me.
"With twenty million points, I'll save one of my classmates… Right?"
Leaving me with that question, she then turned her gaze back to Ibuki.
"What will you do, Ichinose? It's up to you to decide whether you accept it or not."
I spoke up, responding to her uncertainty. She had the right to choose the outcome for herself.
After all, she still had the option to reject Ibuki's proposal and borrow the points from Nagumo instead.
"I've made up my mind. As long as Ibuki-san and Ishizaki-kun are alright with it, I'm willing to do what I can."
"Are you really fine with that?"
"Yes. I've been able to make sure that their sincerity is real."
"You're an idiot, aren't you Ichinose?"
"Eh!? Ibuki-san!?"
"Even though all sorts of cruel rumors were going around about you, you still chose to save up all those points. I can't believe you're gonna throw 'em all away for something like this."
"Well, I can just save up the points all over again. It's clearly not impossible to accumulate close to twenty million points in just a year. Besides, I don't think you're in any position to say that, Ibuki-san. You could just pocket those five million points for yourself right now, but you've decided to use them all for Ryūen-kun's sake instead."
Ibuki quietly looked away without giving her a direct answer to that.
"You and I are different. Besides, someone else's gonna end up bawling their eyes out as they pack their bags in Ryūen's place. In fact, that person could just as well end up being me."
"But you're still saving Ryūen-kun, aren't you?"
"It… It just pisses me off that he's running away before I can pay him back for this stupid loan I took from him, that's all there is to it."
Ibuki would provide salvation to Ichinose, fully prepared to face the potential disdain from her classmates.
And just like that, Ibuki transferred the predetermined amount of private points to Ichinose.
"Confirm everything on your end."
"Will do."
Ichinose immediately took a look at her points, checking to make sure she had received the points.
"Thank you. It arrived beautifully."
She showed the number on her phone, proving to all of us that she had exactly twenty million points in her account.
"I'll be acting as a witness to this negotiation. I'll have you all know now that I've also been recording the contents of this conversation."
Out of the interest of fairness, I took out my cell phone.
"Ibuki is offering about four million points. In return, Ichinose and the rest of her classmates will cast their praise vote for Ryūen, for a total of forty votes. If there is a breach of this agreement…"
"I wouldn't have fulfilled my end of the deal, so I'd take the initiative and drop out school myself."
Of course, none of us actually thought that something like that would happen.
In practice, the school would also take record of any transactions that consisted of a large number of points, so if Ichinose went against her word, it wouldn't be surprising if the transaction was determined to be fraudulent with that alone.
However, Ibuki and Ishizaki knew they were making a deal with none other than Ichinose Honami herself, so they probably felt like they could entrust it to her safely.
This was the story of the events that had taken place between Ishizaki, Ibuki, Ichinose, and myself.