Chapter 93

Chapter 93

Lelouch's POV

"Sorry for keeping you waiting~," I hummed as I burst through the door to the Dragon room.

It looked like I was the last one to arrive – there were thirteen people other than me, all seated on chairs that were set out in a circular formation. I made my way confidently over to the only vacant seat, which was located in between Katsuragi and Hirata.

Apart from the irrelevant idiots that followed Katsuragi and Ryūen around, I pretty much knew everybody in the room. I had a strange feeling that this collection of people would be very troublesome to deal with.

Before anyone could speak, a voice came through the ship's loudspeakers.

"The first group discussion begins now."

A short, concise announcement. Naturally, no one was taking the lead.

An awkward pall hung over the room. Then Kushida Kikyō cracked a small smile and stood up.

"Can I have your attention for a second, please? While I know a lot of people here, I think it'd be best for everyone to introduce themselves, so that everybody feels comfortable talking to each other," she said.

"Now why the hell would I do that, Kikyō?"

Ryūen, who rudely used the first name of girls without their permission, immediately retorted against what Kushida had said.

Her smile almost faltered, but she managed to keep it unshaken. "Ryūen-kun? Don't you think it's beneficial to everyone if we can all comfortably speak to each other? How will we cooperate if not?"

It looked like she intended to ignore Ryūen's blatant addressing of her, and focused on maintaining an amicable atmosphere. Somehow, I got the impression that it wasn't going to work.

"I'll be the one talking on behalf of Class C, and I alone. As it stands, I have no issues speaking to any of you idiots, so I'll say what I need to say and that'll be it. I have no reason to help you and your little friends be all buddy-buddy."

Ryūen folded his arms and laughed in defiance at the face of Kushida, who dejectedly sat down with a bitter smile.

Hirata, who was sitting to my left, in an attempt to console her, spoke up against Ryūen, who had quickly become the focus of disdain.

"Ryūen-kun, isn't it okay to introduce yourself? There's no harm in it. Also, what if there's a microphone or something installed in the room to record our discussions? Our whole group could take the blame if we don't properly introduce ourselves."

After being silent for what seemed like so long, I decided to finally say my piece.

"That's idiotic," I said with a mocking laugh, drawing the attention of everybody in the room. "Nowhere in the rules did it say that you receive a penalty for not introducing yourself."

"It could have not been written in the rules."

"So like a secret rule? Hah! Don't be ridiculous. It wouldn't be an exam at all if there were such arbitrary rules that nobody was told about."

"Looks like we agree on something, Lelouch," Ryūen spoke once more. "Don't take this the wrong way, though. That doesn't make us all buddy-buddy, either."

"Who the hell would want to be 'buddy-buddy' with you anyway?" I asked sarcastically.

"Kuku, I'll shut that mouth of yours in due time, don't worry."

Then, the resident Class E bitch, Horikita Suzune, stood up and coldly glared at me and Ryūen. One could almost go as far as to call it killing intent.

"Why are you insufferable fools in my group? Can you just stop acting like children and introduce yourselves so we can get on with it already?" The bitch snapped at us aggressively.

"Heh, calm down Suzune. We have plenty of time left, no need to get so riled up," Ryūen's grin grew wider. "Wait, don't tell me. Could it be that time of the month?"

Somehow, Horikita's glare because even more terrifyingly icy as she averted her deathly gaze over to Ryūen, seemingly piercing straight through him.

As expected, however, Ryūen was completely unfazed by even that magnitude of aggression, and maintained his smug look.

"Ryūen, it won't do to say stuff like that to a girl," interjected a voice.

Glancing over, I recognised it as that of Kanzaki Ryūji, who appeared to be one of Ichinose's most trusted confidants. I briefly wondered why Ichinose herself wasn't here, but brushed the thought away.

"I'm surprised you can function on your own, Kanzaki, seeing as you're always hanging off Honami's ass."

It didn't look like Ryūen was going to spare anyone from his vulgar insults if they spoke up to him. I sighed loudly in dissatisfaction. How boring.

"All right, whatever. Who the hell cares? Can we just get a move on?" I said, making my irritation clear in my voice.

"Oh, look, it seems like even Lelouch is getting—" Ryūen started, but I cut off his words.

"Shut up, Ryūen."

Horikita snorted in amusement as Ryūen fell silent and narrowed his eyes at me.

"Okay, can we finally begin the proper discussion?"

Kanzaki asked on behalf of the group, ultimately deciding to skip the pleasantries and introductions and get straight down to business. Receiving no objections, he continued.

"For the purposes of this exam, I'd like everybody to work together to clear this exam. In other words, I want to know if you think our best option is to pursue Outcome #1."

That was strange. Kanzaki, if he had any intelligence at all, should already know for a fact that my best option is not Outcome #1. Is he just stupid and optimistic, like most the people in Class B? Or could it be that he's trying to see how I intend to play this out with that question?

Of course, he'd also probably want to know the opinions of Classes A, C and E, since they were also big factors of this exam.

"Isn't it obvious that Outcome #1 is the preferred result?" Katsuragi responded stoically.

With that question, a hierarchy formed within the group. The dam had burst. Hirata and Kushida from Class E agreed with Katsuragi that they obviously wanted to cooperate. If everyone wished for it, we'd all pass the test with Outcome #1. A natural thing to say.

In response, Ryūen prompted his classmates, who also spoke up in favour of cooperation. Surprisingly, it seemed that Ryūen actually intended to work with the group for the purposes of this exam.

Smirking slightly as I watched this harmonious atmosphere grow, I decided to jump in. "Of course not. Outcome #1 makes no sense for me to pursue."

Immediately, the cooperative air crumbled away as everybody's mood dropped. Everybody looked at me in silence, as if asking for an elaboration.

"Isn't it obvious?" I continued. "For Class D, which only has one student in this group, the private points gained from Outcome #1 is no different to that of any of the others. As such, there is no merit in me helping you people."

Hirata let out a depressed sigh. "So that's how it is, huh..."

"I hope you can understand. From Class D's perspective, the logical choice is to go for the extra 50 class points from Outcome #3."

There was no point keeping my mouth zipped about this – it was likely that all the relevant figures in this room had already known I would say this anyway. I might as well drop the pretence early.

I've never been one for formalities anyway.

"While we're at it, I'd also like you to consider Class A as being out of all discussions," said Katsuragi, drawing in wide-eyed stares from students of the other classes.

"K-Katsuragi-kun?! What are you saying?"

For the first time, Horikita showed some hint of panic on that pretty face of hers. It seemed that she'd been quite shaken up by the fact that 40 percent of the classes had already declared their refusal to cooperate.

"The four of us here will not be partaking in any discussion for the duration of this exam," Katsuragi asserted once more.

"Aren't you worried that suspicion will arise on Class A this way? The only reason why anybody would refuse to discuss is if they were the VIP, and wanted to make sure not to leak anything." Kushida asked with confusion clear on her expression.

"Perhaps. But that is of no concern to me."

Katsuragi seemed firm in his stance, and rightly so.

Even if we could narrow down the VIP to Class A, there were still four Class A students in the Dragon group – it would be far too risky to make a guess in that case, and it was unreasonable to expect Outcome #1 under such circumstances either.

Additionally, if the VIP is not in Class A, then a good cover is provided for them to hide beneath. Suspicion being drawn toward Class A would inevitably pull suspicion away from everybody else.

"Kukuku, would you mind explaining your reasoning to little old me, Katsuragi? I'm afraid I just can't understand at all," Ryūen asked, flashing his white teeth.

"It's simple. The worst possible outcome is that in which somebody discovers the VIP and betrays the group. Such an event occurring would be our downfall. However, this can be avoided if everybody just keeps silent."

Katsuragi explained his reasoning, which was sound enough.

At least, on the surface.

Before I could speak, however, Kanzaki's voice spoke up. "I'm afraid I'll have to disagree with you there."

Katsuragi raised his eyebrow, as if prompting Kanzaki to elaborate.

"Unless the VIP is in your group, Outcomes #3 and #4 do not incur any negative penalties – you simply gain nothing and lose nothing. As such, unless the VIP is a Class A student, there is no sense in you taking such a stance."

Hmm? What's this? This Kanzaki guy isn't too bad. Of course, he has ways to go, but his logic and reasoning was clearly above that of an average student. Is that why he was allotted to the Dragon group in the first place?

There's one thing he missed, though. Say Class A played this exam normally, and then employed this strategy in the groups they had a VIP in; the other classes would quickly catch on and realise which groups have Class A VIPs.

In other words, for this total-defense strategy to work, Class A must execute it in every single group, in order to disguise where their VIPs are. With this method, Class A would incur no losses from this exam, and would simply breeze by with no worries.