CHAPTER 7
It’s a promise.
“Alisa Kujou.”
“…?”
Alisa turned around in response to someone calling her name during lunch the next day. Standing behind her was a girl with perfectly straight, almost shoulder-length black hair who gave off an intellectual vibe. Alisa didn’t recognize the voice when she first heard it…and she didn’t recognize the girl’s face, either, but she could tell she was in the same grade due to the color of the ribbon she was wearing. And yet despite having never met before, the gaze behind the girl’s glasses wasn’t the least bit friendly.
“…What?” Alisa responded, her guard up.
“I’m Sayaka Taniyama from Class F. I know this is sudden, and I apologize for that, but do you have a moment to talk?” the girl asked in a sharp tone as she firmly resettled her glasses. She gestured with her eyes to the inner court outside the hallway. While her words were polite, there was still nothing friendly about the way she was speaking. Normally, Alisa would ask what exactly she wanted, but there was something about the girl’s name that sounded familiar to her, and she furrowed her brow.
Sayaka Taniyama…? Isn’t that the name of the girl who fought against Yuki in the election in middle school?
Alisa had heard all about her the other day from Masachika, especially about how she was a candidate Alisa had to watch out for other than Yuki. Sayaka Taniyama—she was the daughter of the CEO of Taniyama Heavy Industries, one of the leading shipbuilding companies in the country, so she came from an extremely wealthy family, making her one of the elites at Seiren Academy. Sayaka herself was incredibly talented as well. Her test scores were always within the top ten in her grade, and she worked as the class officer every year, so all the teachers knew her. What was most impressive, however, was how she’d defeated the candidates for president and vice president from Class 3 at the debate in middle school. She crushed more rivals in the race than anyone else, including Yuki. That was why she was the candidate Masachika was most worried about other than his sister.
And that person, a future potential rival, was asking Alisa to meet her outside to talk. There was no way she could say no.
“…Sure.”
“Thank you very much,” Sayaka replied without a hint of gratitude in her voice before walking into the inner court from the edge of the hallway. Alisa followed after Sayaka, and they stopped underneath a large tree in the middle of the courtyard.
“First, I would like to confirm one thing: Do you really plan on running with Kuze in the election?”
“…Yes. Why?” Alisa said, although she wondered where Sayaka had heard that. A furrow appeared in Sayaka’s brow, and she continued with obvious malice in her voice:
“How sleazy of you. Are you not ashamed of yourself?”
“…Excuse me?”
Alisa was more dumbfounded than angry by the sudden insult hurled at her.
“You stole him away because you knew Yuki wanted to run with him. Were you trying to provoke her? What you did was low, even as a joke.”
“E-excuse me?!”
Alisa couldn’t take the verbal abuse any longer, though.
“How dare you accuse me of such a thing! Who do you think you are anyway? You don’t even know me!”
Alisa’s shouting gathered the eyes of the students in the surrounding buildings, so she fell silent. Sayaka, on the other hand, continued indifferently as though she didn’t care in the least:
“If anything, I should be angry with you for trying to tarnish our academy’s sacred election when you are not serious about this.”
“What? You make it sound like I used some cheap trick to get Kuze on my side.”
“Are you claiming you didn’t? I do not know what you did, but there is only one reason you would pick an imbecile like that to be your partner: to provoke Yuki.”
“No—”
“Alya? Sayaka?”
Alisa turned around to find Masachika rushing over from the hallway after hearing them arguing. He stood in between them, looking back and forth at them with a worried, alarmed gaze.
“What’s going on?” he asked Alisa.
“I don’t know. She suddenly told me she wanted to talk, then she started accusing me of stealing you from Yuki.”
“The hell? Where’d that come from?” Masachika asked as he curiously shifted his gaze to Sayaka. “Uh… Sayaka? I don’t know where you heard that, but running with Alya was my decision. She didn’t steal me from anyone.”
Sayaka frowned sternly, then slowly adjusted her glasses and replied:
“I find that hard to believe. What would make an imbecile like you want to run with a transfer student?”
“‘Imbecile’? …Yeah, I guess I can’t deny that, but it was still my decision. There were no dirty tricks involved. I already told Yuki, and she’s fine with it, too. Whatever you thought happened didn’t. It’s all in your mind. So do you think you could apologize to Alya for the rude things you said?”
Masachika was trying to solve the situation as peacefully as possible until he suddenly felt a wave of rage coming from Sayaka, who looked at him darkly, and he gulped.
“I see… So you are the one who needs to be punished,” Sayaka grunted in a low voice before stomping over and glaring right up at him. Her eyes were terrifying, brimming with malice and resentment, and Masachika instinctively stepped back.
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