Kaedehara Tetsu did not rely on inflammatory rhetoric.
He merely laid out the technical discrepancies of the forged video with surgical precision, stating the objective facts without a single wasted breath.
The Student Council office sank into a suffocating silence.
Yamauchi Haruki sat frozen in his chair.
His jaw hung slack, the remaining color draining from his cheeks until his complexion resembled dirty parchment.
His thoughts fractured into a chaotic, buzzing mess.
‘How could this happen?
How could the video be fake?’Beside him, Kamuro Masumi finally lifted her head.
Her gaze drifted toward Tetsu’s profile.
She studied his focused, serious expression, captivated by a face that radiated absolute, untouchable confidence.’Framing…
how is this possible?
How could the video be fake?’
Yamauchi’s brain finally rebooted just enough to process his impending doom.
Sheer terror ripped a raw, desperate shout from his throat.
“President, don’t listen to him!” he roared, jabbing a trembling finger at Tetsu.
“He’s lying about everything!
That’s right…
he just spun these ghost stories to trick you so he could cover for Kamuro!”
Horikita Manabu did not speak.
He merely leveled a freezing glare at the boy.
That single, heavy look was enough to choke the clamor right out of Yamauchi’s throat.
“No…
wait, that’s not right!” Yamauchi pivoted, pointing his finger inches from Tetsu’s face.
“This video…
he gave me this video!
Kaedehara Tetsu gave it to me!
He told me to use it to threaten Kamuro, to extort her for points.
He planned the whole thing!”
Finally.
Like a cornered dog snapping at shadows, Yamauchi spat out the exact words Tetsu had been patiently waiting to hear.
Time inside the office ground to a halt.
The sharp scratching of Tachibana Akane’s pen ceased mid-stroke as she looked up in sheer shock.
Every eye in the room snapped toward Tetsu.
Manabu’s piercing gaze followed suit, analyzing the Class A student’s reaction.
Tetsu arranged his features into a mask of mild surprise, letting a faint trace of innocent amusement bleed into his voice.
“Yamauchi-san, you can eat carelessly, but you cannot speak carelessly.
I understand you are highly agitated right now, but falsely accusing a classmate carries a severe penalty.
You claim I gave you the video.
Where is your evidence?”
“I…
I have evidence!
“He sent it to me, I swear to God!”
“Oaths are not evidence.”
Tetsu did not give the boy a single second to breathe.
He stood up smoothly, walked straight to Manabu’s desk, and placed his personal terminal on the polished wood.
“I don’t know why Yamauchi-san insists on throwing mud at me.
Perhaps his lies were exposed and he simply wants to drag someone down with him.” Tetsu’s voice remained perfectly level, yet it carried clearly across the quiet room.
“My phone is right here.
It runs on the school’s unified official system.
I, Kaedehara Tetsu of Class A, hereby authorize the Student Council to conduct a thorough investigation of all data on this device.
Call logs, text messages, application chat histories, and file transfer records—search it all, solely to prove my innocence.”
His declaration rang with absolute certainty.
Of course he was confident.
His terminal had been wiped spotless long before he ever set foot in this room, courtesy of a specialized formatting program redeemed from the System shop., the forged video and the transaction record for the fifty thousand Personal Points he had wired to Yamauchi were securely locked inside a hidden phantom account, another convenient purchase from the System.
The school’s technical department could search until the end of time; they would never find a single trace.
Manabu studied Tetsu’s unblinking eyes for a long moment.
Then, he reached out and took the phone.
“Tachibana,” Manabu said, his tone devoid of any inflection.
“Contact the technical department.
In the name of the Student Council, authorize a full data extraction and investigation of this device.”
“Right away, President.” Tachibana immediately picked up the landline on her desk and began relaying the orders.
The next fifteen minutes stretched into a psychological hell for Yamauchi.
He squirmed in his seat, cold sweat dripping down his jawline and soaking his collar.
He darted frantic glances at Tetsu, but the Class A student did not even spare him a passing glance.
Yamauchi could not fathom it.
How could the mastermind sit there so peacefully, acting as if he were merely a spectator to someone else’s tragedy?
Kamuro felt a similar disbelief, though her emotions were tangled in a far more complicated knot.
She stared at Tetsu’s relaxed posture, her chest tight with unanswered questions.
He had explicitly told her he copied Yamauchi’s video.
Could that file really have vanished from his device?
The sharp trill of the desk phone shattered the silence.
Manabu picked up the receiver.
The muffled, rapid voice of a technician filtered through the earpiece.
Manabu offered only concise acknowledgments.
“Mm.
Understood.
Alright.”
He hung up.
Picking up Tetsu’s terminal, Manabu set it gently back on the desk and slid it across the polished surface.
Then, he shifted his cold gaze to the trembling, pale mess that was Yamauchi Haruki.
“Within Kaedehara Tetsu’s terminal, no records related to the video file were found.
His account activity is normal, his transaction history is clear, and there is no anomalous data.
Simply put, his phone is clean.”
Kamuro’s breath hitched.
No records.
There really was nothing on his phone.
Did the copy he used to threaten her just vanish into thin air?
She stared at Tetsu, the dark confusion in her eyes deepening into something akin to fear.
“No…
impossible…
that’s impossible!” Yamauchi completely broke.
He slumped back in his chair, staring at the ceiling as he muttered in a broken loop.
“He gave it to me…
why couldn’t they find it…
why…”
“Yamauchi Haruki.” Manabu ignored the pathetic display, his voice cutting through the air like a guillotine blade to deliver the final verdict.
“Upon verification, the video evidence you submitted has been deemed a forgery, and your accusation against Classmate Kaedehara Tetsu of Class A is entirely groundless.
Your actions constitute a malicious false accusation against a fellow student.
According to the school regulations, you are hereby expelled.
This incident will be permanently recorded in your personal file.
Do you have anything else to say in your defense?”
Yamauchi sat paralyzed.
His eyes were vacant, his mouth hanging open, but his vocal cords refused to produce a single sound.
His entire world had just shattered into pieces.
Manabu finally turned his attention to Kamuro.
“Kamuro-san, the false accusation against you has been cleared.
On behalf of the Student Council, I apologize for the trouble and unfair treatment you endured during the initial review stage of this incident.
You are dismissed.”
Kamuro swayed slightly in her seat.
She had to grip the edge of the desk to steady her trembling hands.
‘Is it really over?’
The one being expelled wasn’t her.
It was Yamauchi.
She remained frozen in a daze until she felt a light, reassuring pat on her shoulder.
“Kamuro-san,” Tetsu said, his voice smooth and pleasant.
“Don’t just sit there.
We can go.”
[Inorin’s Note:
Hey guys, hope you’re enjoying the novel!
Hate waiting for updates and cliffhangers?