21. Meeting Kouenji Rokusuke!
"Year 1 Class D's Horikita Suzune, and the student council president, Horikita Manabu."
"So I'm being antagonized because I made her brother lose face?"
Horikita Manabu's speech had ended.
Everyone was free to find and join clubs they were interested in, while Aragaki Shun had just learned the name of that black-long-straight-haired girl from Ichinose Honami.
He didn't know Horikita Suzune, and the only thing he had done before that might have provoked her hostility was interrupting Horikita Manabu's performance.
Judging from their surnames and respective grades, she should be Horikita Manabu's younger sister, right?
"So why is the student council president's younger sister in Class D?"
Aragaki Shun was puzzled for a moment, then quickly dismissed such an unimportant matter from his mind.
There were plenty of people who held malice towards him.
If it weren't for the fact that this malice originated from Year 1 Class D, a class he had no contact with whatsoever, he really might not have cared who else was unhappy with him.
Now that he had a basic understanding of the various clubs in the gymnasium, he could easily find targets when he went to challenge them later.
He checked his phone again; the time he had arranged with a certain person was also approaching.
So Aragaki Shun called out to Kanzaki and directly began to bid farewell to his classmates.
"Ichinose, the classmates are in your hands. Kanzaki and I are going to deal with a hidden danger."
"I understand. Aragaki-kun, if you have something to do, go ahead. Everyone in the class will take care of themselves."
Detaching from the first gymnasium with the silent Kanzaki Ryuuji, the two headed purposefully towards a certain high-end restaurant in the commercial street.
After explaining the situation to the waiter, the staff politely led the two to a private room where someone was already waiting.
It was a burly, blond-haired man, exuding an air of unrestrained freedom.
Even when Aragaki Shun and Kanzaki Ryuuji entered, he merely glanced up before continuing, as if no one else were present, to comb his hair while admiring his own reflection in a mirror.
"First meeting, the only son of the Kouenji conglomerate. So this is your personality?"
Aragaki Shun sized up Kouenji Rokusuke with a strange expression.
He had always been confident in his own looks, but he had never been like the other party, constantly taking out a mirror to admire himself outside.
"My beauty is unique in this world. If I don't take meticulous care of it and let it be stained with dust, it would be an irreparable loss in the history of world art."
"Are you two in agreement, respected Gentlemen?"
Kouenji Rokusuke briefly showed a princely smile.
After seeing Aragaki Shun and Kanzaki Ryuuji both sit down, he didn't continue to be arrogant, but instead called the waiter to bring the menu, signaling that they could order first.
"Quite narcissistic indeed." Aragaki Shun didn't even know how to describe the other person's personality.
But forget it, such things were unimportant.
After taking the menu and casually ordering a few dishes, while waiting for the food to arrive, Aragaki Shun got straight to the point and stated the reason for inviting Kouenji this time.
"Let's get straight to business, Kouenji Rokusuke. I want to apply to the Advanced Nurturing High School board of directors to limit Chairman Sakayanagi's authority over the first-year new student assessments. Can I trouble you to co-sign?"
"Oh, the reason?" Kouenji Rokusuke was somewhat curious.
"Why do such a thankless task? Offending their chairman at Advanced Nurturing High School is not a fun thing to do."
The Kouenji conglomerate was a powerful capital group with strong influence throughout Japanese, capable of monopolizing certain financial sectors.
For ordinary people, it was a behemoth that could, with a slight flick of its finger, send them to heaven or hell in an instant.
But on one hand, Kouenji Rokusuke was currently only qualified as an heir to the conglomerate, not yet truly in control of the Kouenji conglomerate.
The conglomerate resources he could mobilize were ultimately limited.
On the other hand, don't look at Advanced Nurturing High School as just a school, seemingly inconspicuous.
But strictly speaking, the network of connections gathered here over the years, organized, could be called the Advanced Nurturing High clique without exaggeration.
Every year, forty Class A graduates, with government support, could freely choose any prestigious school or enterprise.
After more than ten years, the graduates of Advanced Nurturing High had already covered various industries.
Furthermore, among the students who had graduated from Advanced Nurturing High in the past, there was no shortage of those with profound backgrounds like Aragaki Shun, Kanzaki Ryuuji, and Kouenji Rokusuke.
For example, the girl of the Kiryuuin family in the second year.
This vast network of connections, when assembled, would definitely not be weaker than the conglomerate power of Kouenji Rokusuke's family.
If one were to also count the political background supporting Advanced Nurturing High as a political achievement, a young man who had not yet inherited a conglomerate might not necessarily be specially valued by the chairman of Advanced Nurturing High.
For instance, just look at how the school carelessly threw Kouenji Rokusuke into the Class D trash heap.
One could tell that the group of people responsible for assigning classes definitely hadn't considered Kouenji Rokusuke's feelings.
"It is indeed a thankless task. If there were a choice, I wouldn't want to offend the chairman of Advanced Nurturing High for no reason either."
Aragaki Shun nodded; he actually just wanted to attend school peacefully.
"But there's no choice. The chairman made the first move for his daughter, so we can't just let him arrange things as he pleases, can we?"
Amidst Kouenji Rokusuke's somewhat perplexed expression, Aragaki Shun briefly explained the hidden rules such as class points, personal points, Class A competition, and information about Sakayanagi Arisu of Year 1 Class A.
With Kouenji Rokusuke's status, these things couldn't be hidden from him for long.
And looking at his previous self-absorbed demeanor, he didn't seem to care about the students in Year 1 Class D, so it was fine to directly reveal the information.
Sure enough, Kouenji Rokusuke was only pensive throughout, not surprised by the school truth Aragaki Shun provided.
"The chairman's actions are truly not beautiful. To so disregard my beauty, throwing me into a filthy garbage heap, indeed requires a response."
Kouenji Rokusuke was somewhat dissatisfied!
He didn't care if he was assigned to Class A or Class D.
The future promised by the school held no attraction for a conglomerate heir, and the interviewer's evaluation meant nothing to him at all.
But to place him in the mire filled with idiots, this was a desecration of his beauty.
If he had the chance, he wouldn't mind repaying the chairman's arrangement.
"Previously, I checked the student list for Year 1 Class C, guessing I might find one or two surprises, but I didn't find any familiar names or surnames."
Aragaki Shun said with some regret.
If Class C also had people with backgrounds similar to theirs, then Aragaki Shun could understand the school's arrangement.
It would be nothing more than letting these children of dignitaries each occupy a side, so no one could use their status to suppress others.
But it wasn't!
Then he could only suspect that Chairman Sakayanagi was secretly favoring his own daughter.
It couldn't be that the three of them had greater flaws than Sakayanagi Arisu, right?
...