“Wha—huh…? No, hold on, I told you that’s wrong. Why? I wasn’t acting suspicious or anything, was… Wait, no, hold on. Huh? If I remember right, if someone’s declared the traitor, they get expelled, right? Huh? What? I’m not wrong, am I? That’s not what’s going to happen now, is it?” stammered Maezono.
It was understandable that Maezono was upset. If the traitor hid their identity and was declared to be the traitor by the representative, then serious punishment from the school awaited them: expulsion. Therefore, lying wasn’t something that they could do lightly. The representative, if they wanted to protect their classmates, absolutely could not do something like conclude that one of their fellow students was suspicious, so this was all a bit of a contradiction. There were appealing rewards available for the traitor, and there was still the desire to lie.
Therefore, it was to the traitor’s advantage to lie if they knew that they absolutely wouldn’t be declared as such. That rule was a “major flaw” that could be said to be based on the assumption of the belief that human nature is fundamentally good. If you wanted to abuse that, you could use it for unjust and fiendish means.
“Don’t worry. You’re not wrong. Your expulsion has now been made definite,” I replied.
Stopping and looking back at me, Maezono was instantly overwhelmed with emotion.
“Wh-what?! This doesn’t make any sense! I only lied for the sake of the class, because you said that you didn’t suspect me, Ayanokouji-kun! Don’t you get that?! You said you wouldn’t declare I was the traitor in the first place!” shouted Maezono.
“Participants are given the prior right to confess whether they are the traitor or not and make that determination. The representatives then must choose whether to declare that they are the traitor or innocent. Those are the rules of the dialogue,” I replied.
It didn’t matter what I said before Maezono confessed.
“Huh? What? Huh? What? O-okay. Then, I’ll confess!” said Maezono.
“There’s no point in confessing now. Examiner, could you please escort Maezono from the room?” I asked.
I urged the examiner, who was left too dumbstruck to take action, but instead, he said something unexpected.
“Are you really sure you’re okay with this? Do you realize that if you continue, your classmate is going to be expelled? This special exam was suddenly modified in order to prevent such a thing happening in the first place, and—”
The examiner, who by all accounts wasn’t supposed to have been allowed to interject, let his protests slip before restraining himself. Distraught like a child, he covered his mouth and seemed to be struggling desperately to hold back the rest of what he had to say. The examiner glanced over at the camera installed in the room and bowed his head as if to apologize for his impoliteness. Judging from the way he panicked, I figured that the way I used this system was unexpected.
Also, considering that bit of information that he had let slip like an idiot, I wondered if there were any special circumstances involved in this End-of-Year Special Exam. There was the fact that the rules were not disclosed to the students until the very last minute, as well as the complete isolation between representatives and participants and the lack of information sharing. Moreover, what stuck out to me was the fact that it was a lenient system, one where no one would get expelled if they did things normally.
Well, let’s just shelve that issue for now, I thought to myself. I needed to proceed with the matter before me.
“We will confirm with you once more, Ayanokouji-kun. Are you sure you do not wish to have Maezono-san do her confession over again?”
Surprisingly enough, the school was apparently willing to give her a chance to do it over again. How kind.
“I see. All right, then, would you return to your seat, Maezono? It would seem that I can decide whether or not to give you the right to confess again, so in that case, we can consider starting over,” I remarked.
Though Maezono was angry, she hurried back to her chair and sat down. She turned to look at me, her anger-filled eyes seemingly saying, “What the hell are you playing at? I’m going to kill you!” She didn’t appear to be upset with herself about lying without thinking about the matter too deeply. If it had been either Ryuuen or Sakayanagi sitting in front of her instead of me, I’m sure she probably would’ve confessed no matter what anyone said.
“To tell you the truth, there actually is a reason I want to have you expelled, Maezono. I had told my fellow classmates in advance that I was going to take part in this special exam as the general of the representatives, but I had asked you all not to leak that information outside. However, it turned out that that information, which should have been kept secret, had reached Ichinose’s class. How do you think that happened?” I asked.
“W-well, that’s…” she stammered.
“It was because someone leaked that information. And it was you, Maezono. Wasn’t it?” I asked.
There was absolutely no benefit in lying here. It was clear as day that if she displeased me, she would not be given the right to confess again.
“Well, yes, it’s true that…I probably…did leak…it. B-but I didn’t think that it would get all the way to Ichinose-san’s class! Really!” wailed Maezono.
“Who did you leak it to?” I asked.
“That’s—!” she squeaked.
“You want me to tell you the name of the person that you leaked it to? Class 2-A’s—”
After realizing that I had already identified the specific class that the person was from, Maezono exclaimed the name, like she was resigned to her fate.
“M-Masayoshi! I told Masayoshi!” she shouted.
“I see. Hashimoto. It doesn’t matter who you choose to date. But as long as you’re in different classes, there are lines you shouldn’t cross, even if your significant other asks you. Am I wrong?” I asked.
“I-I get that… But, but, it wasn’t like it was a major piece of info in this case! Besides, I have absolutely no idea why Masayoshi would’ve leaked it to them!” she exclaimed.
From Hashimoto’s point of view, if someone were to ask him whether he’d prefer that Horikita’s class were to win or lose, then naturally he’d hope for her to lose. In the unlikely event that Horikita had broken through and made it to Class A, then that would mean Hashimoto would simply have a new obstacle even if he did manage to knock Sakayanagi off her pedestal, and he’d likely determined that the chances of me transferring to another class would go down as well. I’m sure that Hashimoto must have managed to successfully get in touch with students from Class D and told them the news, so that they wouldn’t be too shaken on the day of the exam when I came forward as a representative. There wouldn’t be any harm for Hashimoto in doing at least that much.
“You aren’t the one who gets to decide whether it’s major or not, or what the value of that information is. At the very least, I’m sure that Horikita must have conveyed that it was extremely important information,” I replied.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Maezono wailed. “I won’t do it again! It was just one time! I didn’t know!”
“You think this is your first offense?” I countered. “So, you’re saying that you didn’t ever go out of your way to gather a select few of our classmates and spread disturbing information about me to confuse them, and that you didn’t pass the information you gained from that to Hashimoto? You’re saying that’s not true?”
“Wha—”
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