A small barracks hut had been quietly built on the school grounds.
It was located underground.
Here, all sorts of gambling take place.
It's a game center specially made for wealthy school students.
The rich love this sort of thing no matter where they are in the world.
There are two main sources of income here:
We facilitate bets between players and collect a percentage of the profits as the house fee, which is where we make our money.
Secondly, we embezzle school property to generate funds and use that as seed money for our rigged roulette, poker, and baccarat games.
I entered the VIP room and peered into the gambling hall through a magic mirror.
Gentlemen and ladies in masquerade masks were feverishly betting.
"Hahaha. Those who are consumed by the power of money. How pitiful."
After a while, a group of people wearing eye masks saluted and entered the VIP room.
They welcomed me.
"Is everything going smoothly?"
"As smoothly as possible."
"Good. Then please take care of the funds."
"Fetch that over there!"
Kakko and his subordinates ordered Pigeon to fetch something.
After a while, many items were laid out on the table where I was sitting.
"Hmm. This is impressive..."
In front of me were stacks of bills, as well as various precious metals and items.
"So, what's the total value?"
"That's the question, isn't it?"
Pigeon cleared his throat and said, "If we were to convert all of these to cash, it would be at least a billion."
Seriously!?
We haven't even been running the casino for that long.
This is amazing.
I can't help but grin.
No, poker face.
"....is wonderful."
I calmly clapped my hands, and continued, "Casinos may be profitable, but they won't be able to escape from being exposed eventually. We can't keep everyone's mouths shut, after all. So let's intentionally let the student council members handle the crackdown. We'll even give them a bouquet of flowers. Let's start our next business venture."
"Ooh!"
The kakko team was excited.
"What's that?" Kakko asked me hesitantly.
"We're going to start a loan sharking business."
"What...?!?" Kakko exclaimed in shock.
"Plan out how we can transition into the loan sharking business," I ordered everyone in the room.
"What interest rate should we charge?" Kakko asked me.
Hmm, what should we do? Should we use that manga as reference? But I'm worried that 50% in 10 days might be too risky. Let's just try to bluff for now.
"50% in one day," I said, spreading my hands and making a "5" gesture.
I wanted to make it 50% per hour, but that seemed like an astronomical number, so I stopped.
"What?! That's outrageous!" Kakko was surprised.
Is it really that crazy? Well, never mind.
"Anyway, calm down. We still have more to discuss. But before that, let's talk about the end of the casino. There's a great opportunity for profit there. Do you understand?" I asked Kakko.
"I am sorry. I have no idea."
"It's the class battle before the midterm exams."
"!!?"
All 10 members of the Kakko unit present here looked surprised.
"I'm going to make a fortune here. I'll pluck every last hair from those rich brats' asses.
Let me tell you all my plan.
"Please go ahead."
I nodded with great dignity.
"First, we'll have them bet a large amount of money on the class battle.
Then, we'll make them suffer a crushing defeat.
We'll seize all the assets of the royal family, nobles, and big corporations.
This is only the first step.
Then comes the most important part of this plan. No, it's the next business discussion.
The second step.
We'll make those rich brats become prey for loan sharks.
We'll lend them money without hesitation, even after they've shorted their assets in the class battle.
Make them owe us.
Then, we'll pluck every last penny from them until their allowance can't keep up.
When the allowance arrives, collect the debts.
If they're two days late, double the debt with interest.
When the allowance arrives again, collect the debts.
First, only collect the interest.
Then give them a short period of rest.
Say that they have already paid back the debts.
Give them the hope of relief, then crush it with the despair that they haven't paid back everything yet.
The important thing is to control their hearts, minds, and souls.
Make them shrink completely.
Drive the wedge that they cannot resist deeper into their hearts.
Control them with the reins of fear.
If they say they can't pay back, threaten to expose everything that happened here.
Threaten to reveal all the misdeeds.
That's why we'll deliberately expose this casino to the student council.
The elite, with their sense of superiority, abhor blemishes.
Don't miss the gaps in their hearts.
Exploit their weaknesses.
Thoroughly collect all the weaknesses, faults, shame, and depravity.
That's your role, Kakko.
"And finally," Kakko said, "we need to come up with ways to ensure that the principal doesn't get his hands on our loan principal too easily."
"Can you do it?" I asked.
"We'll need to engage in both sabotage and information gathering," Kakko replied.
"Sounds easy enough," I said, nodding.
Kakko lowered his head.
"Heh heh heh," he chuckled.
"I'm going to milk this school for all it's worth until my life becomes irreparable. And those bastards will taste despair, too."
"As for betting on the results of the class competition," Kakko continued, "there's one issue. I know you understand this," he said, nodding to me.
I snapped my fingers and requested a glass of tomato juice.
"Hurry up and bring me a drink," I ordered.
The Kakko Squad hurried to fetch my tomato juice, which they promptly placed before me.
"What's the issue?" I asked.
"The fact that we don't know how the competition will turn out," Kakko said.
"Of course, there will be teams that are favored to win. In that case, there's no point in betting on them. Especially since classes with members of the student council will have lower odds and won't be able to afford to lose. Everyone wants to be on the winning side. We need a system like a public gambling arena, where the house always wins. For example, a system where we take a certain margin from the pooled bets as revenue, and distribute the remaining pooled bets to the winners. But that won't work. We'd only make pennies if we were the house."
"You're right," I agreed.
"That's why we need to focus on just the second-year class I'm in," Kakko said.
"What do you have in mind?" I asked.
"Our class will win the competition," Kakko said.
"But before that, we need to engage in agitprop and information manipulation, starting with labeling our class as weak through name-calling. That's essential. Then, we need to convince the other classes to jump on the bandwagon of our opponents, even if we lose. We need to make our opponents appear stronger than they really are, and make our own class look like pushovers. This will make the odds against D class all the more frightening. Got it? Don't mess this up."
I finished my tomato juice, set the glass on the table with a resounding thud, and said,
"Understood."
.
.
.
On the way home.
I was thinking on my way home in the dimly lit path.
What is the difference between discrimination and distinction?
It's just playing with words.
In this world...
No, even in the world I used to live in.
People are naturally inclined to exclude things that are different.
Whether in a good or bad sense.
They try to eliminate those who are different from themselves or the group.
And intelligent beings have an organ that oppresses foreign objects.
In this school, beast people are discriminated against in the shadows for the sake of satisfying the selfish desires of stupid and arrogant fools.
No, they are bullied.
That might be the closest expression.
Masaka Izuna's sister.
One of the Megashuva heroines.
"Masaka Inori" is a beast person.
There is also a hidden purpose of liberating her.
To rescue her from those shitty guys.
By becoming the loan shark Amachi-kun, I will indirectly interfere with the Inori route.
Events triggered by discrimination against beast people.
Kazane questions the school caste system held by the students and the self-proclaimed elite, and the gears of the story start to turn.
That is the Inori route.
In other words, by putting those stupid and arrogant fools under the control of the loan shark Amachi-kun, the "history" will automatically be compiled.
In short, we can take the simple story structure of knocking down one of the "Maniacs, the insane ones" who plays the demonic role in the Inori route.
Kazane.
I will be the one preparing the stage for you.
This world is not simply structured for saving one heroine and reaching the ending.
All the heroines' issues are happening in parallel on the same timeline.
To handle multiple cases at the same time, it's best to destroy the cause and effect.
I can do that because I have the perspective of a god.
Hahaha.
But, that's not all.
"... It's not just that."
Chosen main characters and non-chosen mob characters.
Izuna and Inori are both main characters who were chosen.
They may be saved sooner or later by the hands of the protagonist.
That's because they are chosen main characters.
But what about the non-chosen mob characters?
When will they be in the spotlight?
When will they be saved?
Will they be cut off as supporting roles?
Will thousands of mob characters, who were not depicted in the story, be saved or exterminated in just one line?
"No, that's wrong."
That's escaping.
Giving up on thinking.
What I realized after coming to this world is that even the non-chosen mob characters have emotions and a heart.
The world is created and operated by the mob characters.