The classroom instantly fell silent.
The PE committee member’s fist froze in midair, and the anger on his face turned into embarrassment.
The study committee member was no longer angry either.
He stood there in a daze.
The girl he had liked since childhood had actually confessed to someone else in class.
[Sorrow] began floating above his head.
Ayanokouji Ren crooked his finger and plucked it down.
Although it could not be used for prize draws, it could still be used for upgrades.
Then he looked toward Shinomiya Kaguya.
Her cold expression had not changed, but her eyes looked a little blank.
It seemed she had also been stunned by Hayasaka Ai’s sudden confession.
After a short silence, whispers began again.
Everyone looked at Hayasaka Ai with helpless sympathy.
“So she was rejected after confessing…”
“That really is pitiful.”
“But…
fiancée?
Ayanokouji already has a fiancée?”
“Who is it?”
Because they had not formally gotten engaged, and it was only a verbal agreement between both mothers, not everyone knew about the marriage arrangement between Ren and Shijou Maki.
Most likely, only Maki’s close friends and the hostile Shinomiya family knew about it.
However, to Ren, it did not really matter if it became public.
At most, it would become a slight obstacle when he tried attracting girls at school in the future.
But wouldn’t that make it even more exciting?
Their emotions would definitely explode!
For example, Hayasaka Ai’s mind was already exploding right now, and her eyes had gone blank too.
Wait.
When did I confess?
Fine, the words “I just wanted to get to know you” could be interpreted as a confession if one stretched them far enough.
But wasn’t that stretching it too far?
Ayanokouji Ren couldn’t possibly be that narcissistic, right?
After all, no matter what, he was still…
Fine.
He really did have the capital to be narcissistic.
Hayasaka Ai bit her lip.
As Shinomiya Kaguya’s intelligence chief, she knew more about Ren than anyone else present.
In terms of background, he came from the Ayanokouji Zaibatsu, one of Japan’s four great zaibatsu on par with the Shinomiya family.
Their industries covered finance, technology, heavy industry, and even the military sector.
The currently hottest AI field was being dominated by their family.
And Ayanokouji Ren was the sole heir to this enormous entity.
After all, she had heard his uncle had failed to have a son.
Damn patriarchal feudalism!
But perhaps his grandfather had chosen him as the heir because of his commercial talent.
He had started participating in family investments when he was just over ten years old.
In his first year testing the waters, he had withdrawn from American tech stocks three months before the crash, then immediately poured the funds into rare earth futures, making a net profit of thirty billion yen. Get faster updates on novelping.com.
After that, their family advanced smoothly and aggressively, pushing the Ayanokouji Group past the trillion-yen enterprise threshold.
During the economic crisis, they had even shorted the stocks of a Shinomiya Group subsidiary directly, forcing the Shinomiya main family to cut off three percent of their core shares to stop the bleeding.
And based on what Hayasaka Ai knew, the entire Shinomiya family’s stake in the Shinomiya Group was only around thirty-five percent!
So the reason he had not attended Shuchiin during middle school was because of that.
He had spent the whole time accompanying his grandfather in stock trading!
In terms of appearance, that face was also flawless.
Blond hair and golden eyes.
Mixed-blood genes like hers.
Even her mother had privately commented, “He looks like a delicate German doll.
I can’t even imagine how beautiful the children he and Ai would have together would be.”
Who wants to have children with him?!
In terms of academics, he had ranked second in the entrance exam, second only to her mistress, Shinomiya Kaguya.
However, according to the inside information Hayasaka Ai had gathered, Ren had not written the process for the final major math problem.
He had only written the answer.
So the teachers had assumed he guessed it and did not give him full marks.
If those points were added, surpassing Shinomiya Kaguya would have been more than easy.
In terms of physical ability, he had achieved full marks in every item on the entrance fitness test.
He had done fifty-eight pull-ups.
According to the PE teacher, that was the highest record for a new student fitness test since the school was founded.
Hayasaka Ai also trained, so she knew how impressive that was.
His abs could absolutely be used as a washboard!
Good family background, good grades, good athletic ability, and good looks.
Although his personality was terrible, judging from what he said, he was also very devoted when it came to relationships…
Hayasaka Ai had no choice but to admit that someone like him did have the right to treat “I just wanted to get to know you” as a trashy pickup line.
And the fiancée he mentioned was also real.
Shijou Maki.
Although she belonged to a branch family, she and her mistress, Shinomiya Kaguya, both carried the bloodline of the Shinomiya family.
Their status within Shuchiin was essentially equal.
She was also a talented girl with both beauty and ability, just like Shinomiya Kaguya.
So they were a naturally matched pair of talent and beauty…
And she had become the clown.
Hayasaka Ai’s expression was rarely awkward.
Although she had not meant to confess, in essence, it really had become something similar to a confession, followed by a harsh rejection.
And it had happened in front of the whole class.
“Hayasaka-san…”
Karen suddenly handed her a tissue with concern.
“You should go to the infirmary.
Your face is so pale.”
It’s already showing on my face?!
Hayasaka Ai hurriedly covered her face.
“Ah, I’m fine…”
“You are not fine!”
Karen looked as if she understood completely and began pushing Hayasaka Ai toward the infirmary.
A public confession being rejected was, in manga, at least a major climactic scene.
The person involved would usually cry like their world had ended.
They might even harm themselves or jump off a building.
Ren suddenly spoke again.
“I’m sorry I can’t escort you there.”
“After all, it wouldn’t be good if my fiancée saw it.”
He was still adding fuel to the fire!
But…
He was so devoted!
Two or three girls stood up and helped Karen escort Hayasaka Ai away with complicated feelings.
After watching them disappear from the classroom, Ren turned his gaze back to the group of boys.
Everyone had no particular reaction.
They simply exchanged glances and returned to their seats.
They all thought that the matter had probably ended there.
But Ren pulled their nerves taut again.
“Now then, Hayasaka-san has left.
Shouldn’t we talk about what happened earlier?”
Ren spoke.
Although Shuchiin Academy’s classroom was large, the aftereffects of the earlier incident had not completely faded.
So it was very quiet.
“What happened?”
Someone muttered softly.
“Do I need to remind you?”
Ren’s gaze swept over the faces of everyone he had memorized earlier.
“You said, ‘A mere stinking external student dares to be so arrogant…'”
“I want to ask, who gave your brains permission to say something like that?”
The students were stunned by the question.
It was true that Shuchiin’s mixed-in external students could not be arrogant.
Although there was no explicit rule saying so, within this school, it had almost become an unspoken consensus in everyone’s hearts.
“I know what all of you are thinking.”
Ren continued.
He walked up to the podium and stood there with both hands in his pockets.
“I won’t deny that most external students are ordinary students who can barely enter this school by relying on scholarships.”
“But before you say those words in front of me, can you open your dog eyes wide and see clearly…”
“Who do you think you’re acting arrogant toward?”
Everyone below the podium froze.
Thinking about it carefully, that did seem to be true.
Ayanokouji Ren was not an ordinary external student at all.
Even in Shuchiin Academy, where nearly everyone came from wealth or status, his background was at least ranked among the very first tier.
“Tap.
Tap.
Tap.”
“Don’t lose focus.”
Ren lightly tapped the podium with his fingers.
“Next, I’m going to call names one by one.”
“?”
Before anyone could react to what he meant by calling names, it began.