Faced with Sakayanagi’s question, Naruse shrugged and answered indifferently.
“I don’t mind, really.
You could ask Morishita for her opinion.”
As he spoke, he turned his gaze toward Ai Morishita, who sat across from him.
At that very moment, Ai Morishita was frozen in a rather awkward pose—her right hand held a pair of chopsticks, and the tips of those chopsticks were reaching straight into Hikaru Naruse’s bowl.
A thin slice of beef was still pinched between them, suspended in midair.
Clearly, she hadn’t anticipated that Arisu Sakayanagi would show up at this exact moment.
“…”
The two girls exchanged a glance, neither of them speaking first.
After roughly two seconds of silence like that, Ai Morishita withdrew her chopsticks on her own, then steadily tucked that piece of beef into her mouth and chewed slowly a couple of times.
Only after finishing that motion did the girl pick up a napkin, dab at the corner of her mouth, and respond to Sakayanagi in a flat tone.
“If Naruse doesn’t mind, then I don’t mind either.”
Watching this scene unfold, a meaningful glint flashed through Arisu Sakayanagi’s beautiful violet eyes.
“The two of you really do get along well—and yet today is only the second day of school.”
The remark sounded like nothing more than a casual observation, but Hikaru Naruse could sense the faint trace of probing hidden within it.
“We’re just friends.”
Hikaru Naruse didn’t offer much of a reply to her comment.
He merely smiled faintly, then made a gesture inviting her to sit.
Arisu Sakayanagi settled down on the other side of the dining table.
She handed her cane to Masumi Kamuro standing behind her, then adjusted her posture so that she sat both comfortably and without losing an ounce of poise.
After taking the cane, Masumi Kamuro stood quietly behind Sakayanagi, like a loyal assistant.
Once she was seated, the silver-haired girl skipped the pleasantries and went straight to the point.
“Naruse-kun.”
Her violet eyes stared directly into Hikaru Naruse’s, the smile still hanging at the corner of her lips, but her tone had grown a shade more serious.
“There’s a question I’d like to ask you.”
Hikaru Naruse set down the chopsticks in his hand, lifted his cup of green tea for a sip, then said calmly.
“No need to be so formal about asking.
Sakayanagi-san, just ask whatever you want directly.”
Arisu Sakayanagi gave a slight nod, then got straight to the heart of the matter.
“If I’m not mistaken, you’d actually already gotten hold of a great deal of information about this school by yesterday, hadn’t you?”
“So where exactly did you obtain all this information about the school?”
The question Arisu Sakayanagi posed was somewhat abrupt, but Hikaru Naruse wasn’t intimidated by her presence.
He simply smiled and said,
“Sakayanagi-san, hasn’t our class’s leader already been chosen?
Why are you still fixating on this matter now?”
“Because I’m curious.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.”
Their back-and-forth was rapid, quick enough that even Morishita beside them couldn’t help but cast a sidelong glance.
“And what if I’m not willing to answer you?”
“Then there’s nothing I can do about it,” Arisu Sakayanagi sighed.
“The me right now is nothing but a loser, without any supporters left at my side.”
The words came out sounding pitiful, and paired with that delicate, fragile face of hers, they really did carry a bit of a bewitching quality.
But Naruse wasn’t about to buy into her nonsense.
Instead, he simply raised his hand and pointed toward Masumi Kamuro beside her.
“Then who’s this?”
“Masumi-san is my friend.
She volunteered to look after me.”
“Is that so?”
Before Naruse could say anything more, Morishita beside him suddenly seemed to catch on to something, and her expression shifted slightly.
Friend?
Do friends address each other by first name just like that?
While she was mulling over this question, Naruse had already thought of something else, and decided to cast his line one more time.
In the original story, this girl had come here to defeat Ayanokōji Kiyotaka.
If she really dared to voice that answer aloud, it would leave a “trace.”
At some future moment, if she did something that harmed Class A’s interests in order to face off against Ayanokōji Kiyotaka, he would have a bargaining chip he could use to keep her in check.
“Here’s what we’ll do, Sakayanagi-san—let’s make a trade.”
“What kind of trade?”
Naruse smiled faintly, his expression gentle.
“I can tell you where I got my information, but you also have to answer a question of mine.”
“We’ll answer questions with questions—how does that sound?”
Arisu Sakayanagi arched an eyebrow slightly, a glint of curiosity flashing through her violet eyes.
“That’s fine.”
Hikaru Naruse smiled faintly, his tone relaxed.
“Then ladies first.”
He spread his hands a little, making a gesture of “please.”
“Just like the information-sharing during today’s homeroom, Sakayanagi-san will answer my question first.”
“Heh heh, Naruse-kun, you really are a gentleman.”
Sakayanagi bit down lightly on her pearly teeth, a hint of mockery in her tone.
“Thank you for the compliment.”
Hikaru Naruse raised his eyebrows and said matter-of-factly, “Then I’ll go ahead and ask first.”
“Go ahead.”
“Sakayanagi-san, what is your goal in coming to this school?”
To this question, Arisu Sakayanagi didn’t show any excessive surprise.
She merely lowered her head to think for a moment, then answered calmly.
“I came here to destroy someone.”
Interesting.
She really did say it out loud.
This little lady had quite some nerve.
Hearing this, Hikaru Naruse deliberately put on a thoughtful expression, then spoke in a tone of disbelief.
“Destroy someone—could it be…
could it be you’re talking about Katsuragi-kun?!”
“…”
Watching his deliberately dumbfounded expression, the corner of Sakayanagi’s mouth twitched slightly.
“Of course not.”
Her tone was flat and clipped, flatly denying the guess.
“I’ve already given you my answer, Naruse-kun.
Now it’s your turn to answer my question.”
“Fine, fine.”
Hikaru Naruse lifted the green tea in front of him and took a sip, then set the cup back down on the table.
Then, his expression turned serious.
Ai Morishita, seated across from him, noticed the change in his expression, and her eyes drifted involuntarily toward the side of his face; and Masumi Kamuro, who had been standing silently behind Sakayanagi all this time, cast her gaze over as well.
Together with Sakayanagi’s stare, the eyes of all three girls were now focused entirely on Hikaru Naruse alone.
Hikaru Naruse drew in a deep breath, then slowly began to speak.
“Alright, here’s how it actually is…”
“Before enrolling, I had a dream.
In that dream, a man appeared before me, and he told me that I’m actually a character in a novel.”
“The stage where I take an active role is this very school.
Then he told me all sorts of rules about this school.
After coming here, I set about verifying it all with a half-believing, half-doubting attitude—and it turned out it was all real.”
“…I might really be the protagonist of a novel.”
The moment that last sentence left his mouth, the surroundings instantly sank into a deathly silence.
The expressions of the three girls collapsed at almost exactly the same instant.
The muscles of Ai Morishita’s face twitched slightly, an extremely obvious look of shock surfacing on that aloof face of hers, while Masumi Kamuro, standing behind Sakayanagi, wore a clear expression of distaste.
This guy is this handsome, and it turns out he’s just a fool who loves to fantasize?
As for Arisu Sakayanagi…
her eyes narrowed slightly, and a chill crept into her voice.
“Naruse-kun…
this is cheating on your part!”
Hikaru Naruse spread his hands helplessly, his expression as innocent as a good man who’d been wrongly accused.
“Everything I said is the honest truth.
Will no one believe the truth even when I tell it?”
“…”
Arisu Sakayanagi understood that she’d been played today.
“Well then, I understand.
Since I’ve gotten the answer I wanted, I’ll take my leave for now.”
“Take care, Sakayanagi-san.”
Hikaru Naruse watched the direction in which they departed, a faint smile curving at the corner of his lips.
It was at that moment that Ai Morishita’s voice suddenly sounded from beside him.
“Naruse, so you’re the type of person who fantasizes about being the protagonist of a novel?”
“What, is that not allowed?” Hikaru Naruse raised an eyebrow slightly.
Ai Morishita shook her head, then said very seriously.
“I’ll remember that.”
“You’ll remember it?” Naruse was a little puzzled.
“And then what do you plan to do?”
Ai Morishita fell silent for a while, then said very solemnly.
“I’m going to give myself a character setting from a novel too, so that I’ll be just like you.”
“?”
Hikaru Naruse looked at that earnest, somewhat adorable face of hers and couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh.
“Then I have a proposal.”
“What proposal?”
“Why don’t you play the little sidekick beside the male lead in this story I’m fantasizing about—helping the male lead with his homework and running errands every day.
How’s that?”
“Not good at all.”
Ai Morishita reached out with her chopsticks again, plucking the last piece of beef from Naruse’s bowl, and said slowly.
“I want to become the male lead’s best friend.”
“Fine then.
But if you want to become the male lead’s best friend, you’ll have to pass a test.”
“I can take the test!”
“Good, then.”
Naruse looked at the girl before him, and he realized she was actually smiling.
“Morishita, you’re smiling.”
“Am I?”
The girl took a sip of water, and her expression settled back into calm once more.
P.S.: Please keep reading and following the series—the numbers during a new book’s launch period are really important.
Thank you all for your support!!!
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👻🔥+40 ch: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Naruto: Is it reasonable to beat up an Otsutsuki with Hamon, right?
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