Chapter 58

Chapter 58

"Not really. We sorted out all of that stuff on the first day." Light informed her nonchalantly.

"R-really?! We still have so much stuff to do! Like we need to find food constantly to reduce costs, we need to find more wood to burn for when it gets cold at night, then there's the situation of convincing people to drink river water, the boys are all unhappy about sleeping outside, and—"

"Okay, I think we get the picture now." I cut in, saving the conversation.

"Hmm, but I still don't understand how the boys can be unhappy about sleeping outside?" Karuizawa remarked quizzically.

"Well, how would you feel if you were made to sleep in the open wilderness with no bedding?" I retorted.

"It'd be gross."

"So you can understand why the boys are unhappy, then." Light affirmed.

"Hmm, but out of the girls and the boys, the boys deserve to endure the harsher conditions, right?"

Hirata, Ryuzaki and Light visibly cringed at that, while the smile subtly disappeared from Kushida's eyes. Personally, I found Karuizawa's outlook to be incomprehensible.

"If a similar situation happened with the sexes reversed, whoever said that line would be labelled a misogynist" Ryuzaki complained with an exasperated sigh.

Well, I couldn't blame him. If all the boys banded together and forced the girls into undesirable circumstances, there'd be an uproar. There was a definite double standard when it came to things like that, and it was especially prominent among high schoolers.

"I don't think that anybody wants to sleep on the open ground, no matter what sex they are." Hirata said, taking the most neutral viewpoint, as usual.

Karuizawa pouted at him in dissatisfaction. "Don't you think that it's a man's duty to carry such burdens so that the women don't have to?"

"Perhaps. But it's irritating that the same women who say such things are also the ones so desperately preaching about 'equality.'" Ryuzaki interjected once more.

In an ideal world, sex would not even be considered for such things – it would be a completely irrelevant factor. But alas, real life is not that simple, and it certainly isn't kind.

"My my, if it isn't the so-called genius-boys."

A condescending voice sounded out from behind us. I turned around and pointed my gaze in the direction of the voice; there stood Kōenji, stepping out of the trees and into the camp with an assortment of harvested foodstuffs in his arms.

I found myself a little surprised. I didn't expect Kōenji of all people to actually help Class E for this exam, even if it is just collecting resources.

"Kōenji..." Light narrowed his eyes skeptically. "What are you doing here?"

"Whatever do you mean, Yagami-boy? I am merely returning with a bountiful harvest, as expected of a perfect human being such as myself." Kōenji answered with a laugh.

"Right..."

Even for my classmates, dealing with Kōenji seemed to be excessively tiring. I doubted that even Lelouch or Sora would be able to stay around him for long.

"So, what are you doing here, genius-kuns?"

"We're just taking a look around, that's all." Ryuzaki replied as Kōenji walked over to us. "By the way, I can't help but notice that your class has decided to shelter a student from another class."

Ryuzaki pointed over to the blue-haired girl, who was still sitting on the ground against a tree. Kōenji followed his finger and, upon landing his gaze on the girl, let out a chuckle.

"Oh, are you referring to Spy-girl? Yes, it appears my classmates made the decision to house her." Kōenji said in a bemused tone.

"Kōenji-kun, can you please stop baselessly accusing Ibuki-san? There's no reason to think that she's a spy." Hirata voiced his displeasure.

Apparently, the girl was called Ibuki. Good to know. Us in Class D knew that she was a spy for definite, and Kōenji seemed to have assumed the same, but the rest of his class didn't buy it.

"Whatever, Hirata-boy. I'll stop saying it as long as you keep your sickening words of trust and friendship to yourself too."

"Sorry, Hirata, but I think I'll have to agree with Kōenji on this one." Light said, causing shock to appear on Hirata's face. "This isn't just a normal exam at a normal school. This is, for all intents and purposes, a battle. You don't trust the enemy, not if you want to win."

"I don't want to think like that." Hirata responded resolutely.

Funnily enough, it appeared that Kōenji was the only student in Class E that was prepared to do what was required to win. Everybody else was willing to sacrifice their own victory for the sake of being kind. Well, everyone else except her.

My eyes drifted over to the lone girl with long black hair and piercing red eyes. She was sitting by herself some distance away, occasionally rubbing her arm. I suspected that she was ill.

"So, what would you do if you were in our place? Would you leave her with nowhere to go?" Kushida asked uncertainly.

"What would we do if a potential spy turned up at our camp, huh..." Ryuzaki pondered out loud. "Well, luckily that hasn't happened, so we don't have to worry about making such a decision. However, if we did, I suspect that we'd end up turning them away."

Light narrowed his eyes slightly, perplexed at what Ryuzaki was trying to do. He purposely gave Class E misinformation, saying that nobody had turned up at our camp even though Shiina had. What was he trying to do? Did he want to cause Class E to take damage specifically?

No, thinking logically, Ryuzaki would never go out of his way just to target Class E. No, it's more likely that he judged that Class E being beaten by Class C would be more favourable than Class E figuring out that Ibuki is a spy.

Yesterday, when the Class C boys invited us to Ryūen's camp, they made it obvious that they'd spent a lot of points. What's more, every day, Class C would be bleeding thirty points from missed roll calls due to their spies. What this all points to is the idea that Class C have already spent all 300 of their points, in order to negate the losses.

This means that Ryūen intends to win the exam by guessing the leaders of all the other classes. You gain fifty points for guessing a leader correctly, and you lose fifty if you guess wrong. Class C will most likely guess the leaders of Class B and Class E correctly but, even then, that shouldn't be enough.

Us in Class D will be able to guess Class C's leader by the end of the exam, which will cause Ryūen to take a fifty-point hit. Furthermore, Ryūen will undoubtedly guess Class D's leader incorrectly, which will cause Class C to fall all the way back down to zero even after guessing two leaders correctly.

Either way, whether Class C guess Class E's leader or not, they will have zero points by the end of this exam. What this means is that, the choice of whether to help Class E by making them aware of the spies will only effect whether they lose points or not – it won't help Ryūen even if we keep them in the dark.

Ryuzaki must've realized this and come to the conclusion that giving them misinformation deliberately is a way for us to make them lose points without indirectly assisting any other class. In other words, Ryuzaki's tactic was a completely safe attack with no possible negative consequences.

I had to commend Ryuzaki. He truly was a genius to be able to think of all of that on the spot. It was also impressive how he managed to slip it subtly into the conversation in a manner that didn't cause any suspicion. Even Light and I, who knew all the facts, weren't able to immediately pinpoint what he was doing.

"Isn't it too cruel to force someone to live on an island alone for a whole week?" Karuizawa said accusingly.

"Not really. They can always just go and retire to the ship." Ryuzaki nodded in the direction of Speranza.

As he said that, Hirata froze. We all turned to stare at him and, after a few seconds, he snapped out of it and buried his head in his hands.

"How did nobody in Class E think of that?" He muttered in disbelief.

"Oho, don't worry, Hirata-boy. I thought of it." Kōenji informed him happily.

"Then why didn't you say anything, Kōenji-kun?!" Kushida queried, her voice slightly louder than usual.

"Oh please, Pretty Girl. Do you really think anyone would've listened to me even if I did say something? Besides, it's much more amusing to watch you all run around cluelessly." Kōenji answered.

Kōenji, being Kōenji, seemed to care more about amusing himself than actually trying to win the exam. I suppose it was only expected of him, though.

"How are things going for you guys?" Hirata asked, clearly trying to shift the topic away from Kōenji's mockery.

"Pretty well. We've already found the identities of every class' leader." Light lied.

As he said that Hirata, Kushida and Karuizawa visibly tensed. Kōenji's demeanour didn't falter at all.

"B-by that you mean classes A, B, and C, right, Yagami-kun?" Hirata asked nervously.

"No. We know Class E's leader too." I said, going along with Light's plan.

It seemed that Light took some inspiration from Ryuzaki's misinformation strategy, as he decided to take it up to even the next level. Light's idea wouldn't provide us any advantage on paper, however, Class E's morale would certainly drop after learning that we know their leader, which would cause them to be more reckless and, ironically, make it easier for us to actually find their leader.

"Oh my, Hirata-boy, it seems your identity has been discovered already! I warned you that such an obvious bluff wouldn't work." Kōenji laughed unfazed.

Hirata, Kushida and Karuizawa all looked down at the ground dejectedly.

"How did you find out?" Kushida asked solemnly.

"Now now, why would we tell an enemy where their weakness is?" Ryuzaki asked rhetorically.

There would be no merit in us aiding Class E in this exam. That was a consensus shared by everybody in Class D.

"Well, we should get going now. We can't stick around here forever, after all." Light said, intending to move on to our next destination.

"Right. Well, I'll see you later Yagami-kun, Ayanokōji-kun, Ryuzaki-kun." Hirata bid us farewell in a sad tone.

After exchanging goodbyes, we set off up the river. Once we were a reasonable distance away from Class E, we began a discussion as we followed the river to Class B's camp.

"That Kōenji sure is interesting," Light remarked, breaking the silence.

Ryuzaki raised his thumb and put it to his lips before talking in a slightly muffled voice. "Mhm. He seemed to know that we don't actually know the Class E leader, but he bluffed by calling Hirata the leader anyway. He could've kept silent and let nothing on, but instead he deliberately chose to play a mind game with us."

Was he seriously trying to subtly help his class, or was he just doing whatever amused him at the time? I found myself unable to get a read on Kōenji Rokusuke.

"Do you think that Hirata is actually the leader?" Light asked an interesting question.

"I think that Class E has a pretty easy-to-read thought process," I answered. "Putting their actual class representative as the leader is quite the bold bluff and, while I could maybe see them doing it, it seems like a stretch to me. No, I think they'd think something like 'we need to choose someone who has a low-profile but is still reliable.'"

"I think you're right about that, Ayanokōji. Hirata, Karuizawa and Kushida all stand out among Class E. Designating one of those as the leader is too bold a strategy for them to employ. It seems like something that someone like Ryūen would do, not Hirata." Ryuzaki agreed with me.

"Following that logic, the leader is likely to be... someone like Horikita or Yukimura, then?" Light speculated.

"Yukimura? Who is that? And how do you know him?" Ryuzaki questioned.

"He's one of the few academically gifted students in Class E. He's outwardly reserved, which gives people a reliable impression of him. As for how I know him... you shouldn't underestimate the power of the social network