Chapter 227: The Bet

Just then, Ashikaga Miwa entered the Student Council room.

After closing the door behind her, she looked at Asagiri and smiled. Her eyes were filled with unmistakable appreciation and admiration.

"Utsunomiya, congratulations on winning the election."

Ashikaga Miwa had already expected Asagiri to win the Student Council election, but even she had not expected his abilities to be this outstanding. Not only had he won, he had also made nearly every student in Shuchiin Academy start looking forward to the day they would stand beside him and rebuild the academy’s title as the strongest.

In this situation, if Oko dared to make any move against Asagiri and prevented him from fulfilling the promise he had made in his speech, he would instantly incur the anger of the entire student body.

On top of that, the current Student Council contained two especially troublesome figures, Iwanaga Kotoko and Fujiwara Chika. Their stance had already been made crystal clear. If Oko Shinomiya chose to target Asagiri, they would never sit back and do nothing.

And then there was Ashikaga Miwa herself, a board member second only to the chairman, and someone bold enough to openly defy Oko in a meeting.

Compared to that lineup, Oko, and even the Shinomiya Group behind him, suddenly seemed a little lacking.

Hearing Ashikaga Miwa’s words, Asagiri merely shook his head and said calmly,

"Winning the election was inevitable. This is only the beginning. Oko will keep getting in our way."

"Exactly. That guy is way too annoying."

Fujiwara Chika puffed up her cheeks and waved her fists in a cute fit of indignation. As Kaguya Shinomiya’s longtime best friend, she clearly had no good feelings toward Oko, who constantly targeted Kaguya and still carried those rotten, outdated ideas like some fossil from another era.

"How about..."

Fujiwara Chika glanced at Asagiri, Kaguya Shinomiya, Yuuki Asuna, Iwanaga Kotoko, and Ashikaga Miwa one by one. Finally, she turned toward Kaguya and said something shocking.

"How about we just get rid of Oko?"

"Get rid of?"

Seeing Yuuki Asuna’s slightly complicated expression, Fujiwara Chika immediately waved her hands and hurriedly explained, thinking Asuna had taken it the wrong way.

"No, no, that’s not what I mean. I’m not saying kill him. I mean we should find some way to turn him into a vegetable or make him seriously disabled or something. That way he’d be forced to step down as chairman and wouldn’t be able to bother us anymore..."

Halfway through, Fujiwara Chika noticed the looks on everyone’s faces.

Asagiri, Kaguya Shinomiya, Yuuki Asuna, Iwanaga Kotoko, and even Ashikaga Miwa were all staring at her with slightly strange expressions, as though they were doing their best not to laugh.

She blinked in confusion.

"Huh? Why is everyone looking at me like that? Am I the only one here who thinks that since he’s obstructing us as a Player, the only effective solution is violence?"

Fujiwara Chika suddenly felt isolated and helpless. She turned toward Asagiri with a pleading look.

"Utsunomiya, you understand me, right? Say something."

Asagiri did not answer her immediately. Instead, he first looked toward Kaguya Shinomiya and asked with a smile,

"Shinomiya, you never told her about what we discussed that day?"

"No. Her involvement wasn’t necessary, so I thought it was better to avoid extra complications."

Listening to the exchange between Kaguya and Asagiri, Fujiwara Chika froze for a moment. Then realization hit her, and her bright blue eyes widened in shock.

"You... did you two already plan to get rid of Oko Shinomiya a long time ago?"

Kaguya Shinomiya first looked at Asagiri for confirmation. After seeing him give a slight nod, she finally answered Fujiwara Chika.

"That’s right. Utsunomiya plans to kill Oko Shinomiya."

"Huh?!"

Fujiwara Chika’s expression changed at once. Then she frowned in displeasure and puffed up her cheeks.

"Kaguya, we’re best friends. Why didn’t you tell me? Don’t you trust me?"

"No. I trust you."

"Then why...?"

"The one I can’t fully trust is someone else."

Fujiwara Chika was not stupid. She understood Kaguya’s meaning almost immediately and muttered,

"You mean Hayasaka... but she grew up with you. How could that be...?"

Before Kaguya Shinomiya could speak, Asagiri said indifferently,

"Hayasaka Ai is a spy Oko Shinomiya planted by Kaguya’s side."

"Huh?"

Kaguya Shinomiya was startled by that and looked at him in surprise.

"How did you know?"

"Hmph. Don’t underestimate Shadow-sama’s intelligence network."

Asagiri struck a profound and mysterious pose. But before the atmosphere could hold, his usual abstract nature came right back out.

"Not only do I know she’s a spy, I also know that those full, perky breasts of hers are fake. She’s using padding. Just like you, she’s flat chested."

"What?!"

The one with the biggest reaction was Iwanaga Kotoko.

After all, she had met Hayasaka Ai once in a Dungeon and had never realized that the hot girl’s chest was nothing more than enhanced scientific ninja tools.

The next instant, Iwanaga Kotoko pointed at the innocent looking Fujiwara Chika with hope shining in her eyes and turned to Asagiri.

"What about her? Her absurdly large chest that completely defies common sense must be fake too, right?"

"Oh, Fujiwara’s is real."

"Ah..."

Listening to Asagiri and Iwanaga Kotoko drag the conversation completely off the rails, Yuuki Asuna could not help rolling her eyes and snapping,

"Can the two of you please be serious for once? We’re discussing something important."

But her attempt to stop them was utterly useless.

Iwanaga Kotoko immediately ran over to Fujiwara Chika, pointed at her chest, then looked down at her own, then looked back up again. A tragic expression appeared on her cute face, like she wanted to cry but had no tears left.

"Is this reasonable? Is this really reasonable?! Why? Just why?!"

Under the influence of this utterly ridiculous atmosphere, the gloom that had appeared on Kaguya Shinomiya’s face after the topic of Hayasaka Ai came up gradually faded.

She walked over to Asagiri, pressed her lips together, and softly said,

"Although I sensed something was off with Hayasaka some time ago, judging from all the signs so far... she hasn’t told Oko about Players. She hasn’t exposed my and Chika’s identities, and she hasn’t exposed yours either. So now... I honestly don’t know what attitude I should take toward her."

"Do you even need to think about it?"

Asagiri sat down on the sofa in the Student Council room, looked up at Kaguya Shinomiya, whose expression still held a trace of conflict, and said with a light smile,

"Given your personality, the fact that you’re still hesitating after finding out already means your heart has given you the answer, doesn’t it?"

Hearing those words, the confusion and indecision in Kaguya Shinomiya’s heart seemed to shatter all at once. Determination gradually surfaced in her red eyes.

"Yes. I understand. I’ll give her one last chance. If she passes the test, then I’ll let the past go. But if she chooses to betray me... then that will be the end."

"As for your personal matters, handle them yourself."

Asagiri rose to his feet, smiled, and left the Student Council room together with Ashikaga Miwa.

Before killing Oko, there was still one last thing to do.

He had to crush him completely in the combat match and let Oko serve one final purpose, becoming the stepping stone that would push Ashikaga Miwa’s reputation even higher.

...

A little later that night, inside an office building in downtown Tokyo. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"So they’ve arrived..."

Standing in the spacious first floor lobby was Oko, protected by more than a dozen bodyguards. The moment he saw Ashikaga Miwa walk in, a fierce glint flashed through his eyes. Then his gaze shifted toward the person standing beside her.

A black mask that revealed only the eyes.

A black long sleeved tracksuit.

Black sweatpants.

Ordinary sneakers.

And pure black gloves on both hands.

From appearance alone, Oko Shinomiya could only gather a few pieces of information. This person was over 1.8 meters tall and had black hair and black eyes.

Yet the moment he saw that body shape, that eye color, that hair color, a certain face immediately rose in his mind.

The student who had made him feel the greatest humiliation of his life earlier that very day.

Utsunomiya Asagiri.

This mysterious person’s physique was extremely similar to Asagiri’s. Even the hair and eye color matched perfectly.

Oko frowned.

Could it really be as he had suspected? Was Utsunomiya Asagiri actually a Player? Was his relationship with Ashikaga Miwa not one of teacher and student, but a cooperation between a major figure in the real world and a Player?

But if that was the case, why would Ashikaga Miwa reveal such a trump card now? And although body shape could not easily be changed, disguises like contact lenses and hair dye were trivial. Why not use them?

The flaw was too obvious.

And because it was so obvious, Oko became less certain whether the masked person before him really was Utsunomiya Asagiri.

"Chairman."

Ashikaga Miwa glanced around the lobby. In addition to the usual referees sent to supervise combat matches, there were also dozens of prominent figures from business and political circles quietly seated in the distance.

Logically, this was only a private combat match. It should not have drawn this much attention.

But both Ashikaga Miwa and Oko had unusual identities.

The former was a descendant of a samurai noble house, a genuine tycoon, and a veteran organizer with longstanding prestige in the fighting world.

The latter was the eldest son of the Shinomiya Family, widely considered the person with the highest chance of inheriting the Shinomiya Group.

A match between these two naturally attracted many important spectators.

"Ashikaga-sensei."

Oko withdrew his gaze from the masked figure and looked directly at Ashikaga Miwa instead, smiling in a way that felt malicious and false.

"Don’t you think the wager we agreed on beforehand feels a little childish in front of so many guests? How about we raise the stakes?"

Ashikaga Miwa crossed her arms and replied coolly,

"What stakes do you want to add?"

"Nothing too extreme."

Oko smiled.

"How about two billion yen?"

Ashikaga Miwa did not hesitate for even a second. She looked straight into the face she found utterly disgusting and answered flatly,

"Fine."

.....

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