499 E.1

Rewinding time a little from my commute to school with Horikita and the exchange meeting.

It was when Hashimoto came to my room asking for help shortly before the exchange meeting began.

Why did Hashimoto commit this seemingly reckless act of betrayal?

Why did he take the risk at that time?

The circumstances were explained in detail by the person himself.

"...Before I tell you what's next, there's something I really need to confirm with you."

Hashimoto must've had an extraordinary determination to make such a decision.

What he wanted to confirm.

It was how much information I had at the moment.

That was an important factor that this man couldn't miss.

"I've been tempted to betray Ryūen since before the previous special exam. Not just temporarily teaming up, but moving classes based on that premise."

It was obvious, but there was no merit for Hashimoto, who was in Class A, to move to Ryūen's class.

Except for cases like Katsuragi who lost his place, if you were to look at it from a while ago, Class A should've established a more stable position than its current status.

"Of course, I didn't take such an invitation seriously at first. However, right after that, I heard from Ryūen that if I didn't move classes, I'd definitely regret it at the end of the school year."

"Regret? Is it because Ryūen himself is confident that he'll win?"

"It seems that even you don't know about the content of the bet that Ryūen and Sakayanagi agreed on."

"A bet, huh? I don't know if it applies, but I've heard a little about the exchange in the last deserted island exam. Unfortunately, I don't know the details."

After I told him what I knew, Hashimoto rubbed his fingers together and made a sound, as if to prove that this was what he wanted to confirm in advance.

"I'm glad. Then there was a reason for me to come here."

Accepting that the key points of the story matched, Hashimoto slightly raised the corners of his mouth and smiled.

Afterward, Hashimoto detailed the bet that the two made.

"When I first heard about it, I thought it was a joke, but it turns out it's serious."

"I see. So you had a reason to betray them during the survival and elimination special exam."

It was clear that it wasn't a spur-of-the-moment idea at that point.

"It's not unreasonable to doubt the bet itself, right? No matter how you look at it, Sakayanagi is at a disadvantage."

"That's true. However, Sakayanagi wouldn't choose to reject the bet just because of the disadvantage."

She was the type who, like Ryūen, believed in her ultimate victory without a doubt.

<Illustration >

"Do you think Sakayanagi simply conceded or were there certain conditions set?"

Hashimoto, unable to suppress his overflowing emotions, leaned forward and asked.

"Both are possible, but the details of the bet will eventually come to light. Considering that, it must be the latter. She must've allowed Ryūen to accumulate private points."

"Nice. That's fast. Yes, if that's the case, there's plenty of room to maneuver."

"Who else knows about this bet besides you and the parties involved?"

"Unless Ryūen was lying, no one. You're the fourth. Well, both would hate to lose the bet by having it leaked."

That speculation was probably correct. It would be preferable to make it public after everything had been confirmed.

The only one Ryūen leaked it to was Hashimoto, but that must've been a considerable risk.

If it was around the time the deserted island exam ended, about half a year had passed since then.

"It took a while... for this day to come."

Having kept the secret hidden, Hashimoto had been worrying alone.

"Whether Sakayanagi wins or Ryūen wins, honestly, I couldn't make a judgment... No, I was kinda thinking that Sakayanagi might win."

As if he had momentarily lied, Hashimoto immediately corrected himself.

"But even then, it's like 55 to 45. Seriously, it's not decisive, is it?"

I agreed.

Unless it was a nine to one chance or at worst a seven to three chance, you couldn't tell which way a match would go.

"So I've been looking for a decisive factor, and what I thought that would be was—"

Slowly, Hashimoto's gaze turned to me.

"Me?"

"If you were to follow Sakayanagi, I would've been ready to die with my current class without hesitation. That's why I advised Sakayanagi... to recruit you as an ally."

And Sakayanagi refused.

So he decided to betray them...?

While it seemed to make sense, it was still unclear at its core.

I understood that the outcome of the confrontation between Sakayanagi and Ryūen was unpredictable.

I understood that he thought Sakayanagi could win if I joined.

But that didn't change the fact that it was too reckless.

"I will make Ryūen win. No matter what the content of the end-of-year special exam is, I will thoroughly assist them. If I miss this opportunity, I will most likely be the one to disappear."

Of course, Sakayanagi would be on high alert against Hashimoto and wouldn't share any information.

But if there was a confirmed traitor within the class, it would inevitably be a handicap.

If the class's accumulated exam scores were to determine the outcome, it would be a tough situation if Hashimoto intentionally scored zero.

"If Sakayanagi had followed my instructions, whether that would be before or after I betrayed her in the previous special exam, I was planning to betray Ryūen and join her at the end of the year."

He spoke with a lot of determination, but I wasn't sure how much of what he was saying was true.

Right now, the only thing I could be sure of was that everything he said was ambiguous.

"It's fine if you want to make Ryūen win, but did you propose the same thing to him as you did to Sakayanagi?"

"You mean about recruiting you? Yes, of course. The answer was the same as Sakayanagi's, but there was a condition. If we could defeat Sakayanagi in the end-of-year exam, he would recruit the both of us to his class."

Ryūen said that?

Considering the past, Ryūen was the same as Sakayanagi.

It was clear that he wasn't the kind of person who would try to win by recruiting me.

And it would take a whopping 40 million to recruit two students from different classes.

Did Ryūen's shallow lie fool Hashimoto?

No—that probably wasn't it.

Hashimoto wasn't telling the whole truth.

If I were Hashimoto, I'd make sure to have a safety net in place for my reckless betrayal. I wouldn't decide to betray solely based on the possibility that Ayanokōji Kiyotaka might move to the class I had in mind.

It'd be strange if the reward for betraying Sakayanagi wasn't enormous.

The contract to transfer 20 million private points—

That would make sense.

If he helped defeat Sakayanagi in the end-of-year exam and took the credit, he'd gain that privilege from Ryūen.

That would make the challenge worth it, even at the cost of betrayal.

Even if Ryūen couldn't immediately prepare that large sum, he could collect the private points that come into the class every month, and it would be enough to pay by graduation.

In the end, it didn't really matter to Hashimoto which class won or where I was. As long as he had the privilege to be part of Class A, that would be Hashimoto's victory.

Everything was for himself.

It was the answer he chose based on the patterns he had mentally simulated.

By betraying the class in the survival and elimination special exam, Hashimoto confirmed Sakayanagi's true intentions.

If she decided to accept me there, things would be simple. If she collected private points from each of her classmates, there was a high possibility that she could easily reach 20 million points. If I accepted the class change, Hashimoto would've chosen to fight alongside me and Sakayanagi as the two main players.

If he was rejected, he could make a secret agreement with Ryūen and get 20 million private points. However, though the latter had an advantage in terms of graduating from Class A, he couldn't avoid risking expulsion due to his betrayal. Not only would Sakayanagi become an enemy, but he would also be at risk of being targeted by a third party.

The reason he approached me and told me the details of the betrayal was all for himself.

"What do you want from me?"

When I asked, Hashimoto smiled nervously.