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Volume 5, Chapter 5: Raising the Curtains Part 10

The morning half of the sports festival ended with Class D in dire straits, and we entered the lunch break. There were those who had their lunch at the cafeteria, some who ate on the grounds, since we were notified that we could move about freely. Especially during the sports festival where a sense of solidarity could be strongly felt, regardless of whether you\'re a boy or a girl, there\'s plenty of opportunity to have lunch together with senior students. More so than usual. Unlike the usual, our classrooms are currently off limits and so the places where we could eat were limited.

If we\'re talking about the main charms of the sports festival, then lunch would be one of them. There\'s a huge mound of catered bento boxes piled up on the grounds. It appears today\'s lunch was not made at the school\'s cafeteria but rather luxury bentos ordered from the outside. There\'s only one variety but there\'s also the fact that it\'s free so most of the students will likely opt for it.

On the other hand, a portion of the students left the grounds without laying their hands on the bentos. One of them is Horikita. Perhaps my words finally reached her, since there\'s a high probability she\'s heading out to look for Sudou.

And Kushida is yet another one. Telling the girls she\'s close to that she\'s heading out to look for Sudou, she ran off.

"Guah---I\'m beat! Why do I have to do this?".

"Because you lost".

To avoid congestion, Yamauchi headed off to get everyone\'s portion after losing at rock-paper-scissors.

"I\'m starving, let\'s hurry up and dig in".

Ike and Yamauchi weren\'t showing much interest towards the fact that Sudou had withdrawn. In the first place, they\'ve been hanging out with Sudou ever since a while after enrollment, so they know his personality well.

Besides, in this case, even if he doesn\'t participate in the contests, he won\'t be hounded on the matter. At most, he\'ll only lose his private points. Of course, it\'ll be a loss for the Red Team, but subtract that and it may have been better to be rid of Sudou\'s tyranny.

Most of the girls have witnessed Hirata getting hit. As a result, Sudou\'s reputation (leaving aside the matter of if he had one to begin with) plummeted and it\'s probably forfeit.

To see very little change despite losing the ace in this sports festival is also eerie, in a sense.

"For now, let\'s just find someplace to eat".

As the three of us decided to move elsewhere, Hirata appeared with a few boys and girls in tow.

"Can we tag along too?".

He called out to Ike and Yamauchi like that. Ike and Yamauchi were momentarily startled by that. That\'s understandable, there\'s no way they wouldn\'t feel startled if Hirata approached them despite them not being particularly close. But since the girls would also be sitting alongside them here, during this sports festival, the two of them couldn\'t find any reason to turn him down.

"Of course that\'s ok".

When he answered like that, a group of boys and girls numbering about 10 was established.

Then, occupying a suitable spot, we began having our lunch. We enjoyed our lunch for a while but eventually, people finished eating here and there and with that, Hirata and Karuizawa came over.

In a place like this where fellow classmates gather, it wouldn\'t be odd or unnatural for this trio including me to be formed.

"As expected, it seems Ryuuen-kun\'s made his move".

Hirata cut in with that admist the ruckus. Karuizawa then opened her mouth and interjected as though she had been waiting for this.

"So? Who\'s the traitor? You know right, Yousuke-kun?".

Karuizawa asked that but Hirata gently shook his head.

"There are several things I don\'t understand myself. I wonder if we could clear up those questions?".

"That\'s right. However, I cannot answer the question of who the traitor is".

"Huh? I don\'t get it, why?".

"Because if we aggravate the situation now, it\'ll only cause the class to plunge into further chaos. There\'ll be problems if we don\'t deal with the traitor quietly and calmly".

".....I understand. I won\'t interrogate you on that. But why did you submit the participation table as it is to the school despite knowing a traitor will appear? Couldn\'t we have sneakily adjusted the participation table on our own? If we had done so, we wouldn\'t be facing this much adversity. Not even that, we could have turned the tables and gained an advantage beyond even Class C.....".

"That\'s right".

What I had wanted was for Horikita to discern the presence of the spy and have the ability to deal with it accordingly.

"It seems like someone else\'s problem. And the traitor might be somewhere around us too right? It may even be that they\'re among us....is this sort of carefreeness ok?".

Karuizawa looks around. She appears to see even the few students here as suspects. Traitors are certainly troublesome and depending on the circumstances, it may be more convenient to just leave them be. Besides, even if we had used a strategy like what Hirata had suggested, it probably wouldn\'t have worked on Ryuuen.

Even so, it would be difficult to make them understand even if I told Hirata and the others of this reason.

"I\'ve measured the traitor\'s moral sense. Something like that".

Saying that, I deceived them.

"Moral sense?".

"I thought I wanted them to reform themselves without needing to pursue them ourselves".

Hirata, who had been listening, intently stared at me.

"All of this is according to Horikita-san\'s orders, is how it is right, Ayanokouji-kun?".

Hirata, who had already begun harboring his suspicions, may have already reached a point where he no longer trusts me but even so, I need him to believe me even if it\'s only for appearance\'s sake.

"Yeah. It\'s all as Horikita ordered".

Hirata did not interrogate me any further and nodding once, he appeared to have been convinced.

"So where is that Horikita-san and what is she doing right now?".

"She\'s currently doing something only she can do. Or at least it\'d be good if she were".

"Could it be about Sudou-kun?".

Hirata, who possessed a keen intuition, looked around, and confirmed once again that the two of them weren\'t anywhere to be seen.

"It\'s not easy to win in the second half without Sudou, right?".

"That\'s right.....as far as we\'re concerned, we\'re dependent on Sudou-kun".

Karuizawa seemed slightly dissatisfied with having to depend on Sudou but she understands that it is a fact. The outcome of this sports festival rests on Horikita\'s actions.

If my words did not reach her, Sudou won\'t return and it\'ll be game over.