I have a life simulator.

"Is...is that so? But if Ryo says so, then the clothes are indeed still here, still in my room."

Suddenly approached by Kitagawa Ryo, who seemed to have mustered the courage to make this request, she was momentarily stunned. One of the three great illusions of life flashed through Chabashira Sae's mind: Could it be that he likes me?

In the past twenty years, apart from her first love which lasted for less than twenty-four hours, Chabashira Sae has never had any feelings related to romance. The thought of returning to Class A has spread like wildfire through her mind, completely sealing off her heart.

Under this ideal, which can be said to be the guiding principle of life, everything else is insignificant and can be discarded. Moreover, the nightmares of the past have been replaced by everything that is fresh happening in reality. This time, Chabashira Sae has chosen to deal with Kitagawa Ryo, this new nightmare, by more actively throwing herself into it, and with even more obsession and madness, making him a part of herself, and correcting this world that has been off track and running erroneously for ten years.

Because if she didn't do this, then her life up to this point would have absolutely no meaning left.

Thus, the moment this thought arose, Chabashira Sae completely lost any sense of responsibility or professional awareness as a teacher, even though these two qualities were already scarce in her past teaching career.

This might be what she's pursuing.

If this is used as a means, Kitagawa Ryo will be able to truly join her class more quickly.

Then, she went to fulfill her long-cherished wish, which had changed from what it was ten years ago but remained essentially the same.

Chapter 367: A New Page in the Encyclopedia of Love

Totsuka Yahiko has been feeling very anxious lately.

After all, in a sense, every day that passes until December 21st means one less day he can stay at Tokyo Advanced Educational High School. All he can do now is to try his best to find the spy hiding in the class before the countdown to dropping out, which is like the sword of Damocles, reaches its final moment. He needs to prove his abilities to all the students who look down on him and think that he will not only fail to create any value but will also be a burden if he stays. Only in this way can he have a chance to continue to stay in this school.

Class 1-C has been investigating spies within the class for quite some time now. As Katsuragi Kohei's loyal follower, Totsuka Yahiko has been working with him to find a solution since the summer after the special exam on the deserted island. They have devoted a lot of time and energy to this, and even incurred the resentment of many classmates, but in the end, they have come up empty-handed and the matter has remained unresolved until today.

Frankly speaking, they don't even know how many spies are in the class, or whether they are male or female. After all, Katsuragi Kohei's personality wouldn't allow him to do something like searching all the students' phones and chat messages like Ryuen Sho did at the drop of a hat. They initially tried to persuade the spy in the class to confess by talking to him one-on-one, trying to reason with him and appeal to his emotions. Of course, that didn't work out.

Of course, it wouldn't be accurate to say that he and Katsuragi Kohei found nothing. At least judging from the leaks during the special exam on the deserted island, the leaker must have held a high position in the class and had many friends; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to reveal so much dirt on so many students in one go.

In fact, from this point of view alone, the suspicion surrounding Kamuro Masumi has been greatly reduced. After all, although she cannot be said to be a complete loner in the class, her social circle is quite narrow. Even if she were to make up a story on the spot, she would not have enough material in her mind to leak the complex interpersonal relationships within Class C.

However, not long ago, in front of the whole class, he made a bold statement that Kamuro Masumi was a spy in the class and that he would definitely find out the evidence. Totsuka Yahiko had no choice but to bite the bullet and investigate Kamuro. Apart from discovering that Kamuro had been getting close to Morishita Ai in the class recently, he found nothing.

When Totsuka Yahiko wanted to find out more about whether the other person had done anything noteworthy in the past, he found that he had no way of doing so. In the end, he could only ask Kushida Kikyo, the only designated little angel in Class C, who had the best attitude towards him in the whole class besides Katsuragi Kohei.

"Well, although Kamuro is indeed rather withdrawn in class and doesn't have many friends, I personally don't think she's a spy sent from another class. Besides, she was in a group with me, Katsuragi, and Hirata during the special exam on the deserted island."

When faced with Totsuka Yahiko's request for help, Kushida Kikyo, though already annoyed with this classmate who would likely be expelled in twenty days, still responded gently with a standard business smile out of humanitarian concern and for the sake of her persona.

"So, Little Kikyo, who do you think this spy is in the class? You're the girl with the most friends in our class, and everyone gets along very well with you. You should have noticed—no, Little Kikyo, do you already know who that guy is, but you haven't said anything because you're afraid of offending your classmates and the other person will be expelled from school? Right? That must be it, right?"

Like grasping at a last straw, Totsuka Yahiko, who was almost on the verge of tears, looked at Kushida Kikyo with such earnest eyes:

"Little Kikyo, please tell me, otherwise I'm really going to be voted out of school by the class. I... I don't want to be expelled like this. Little Kikyo, you can't bear to see me being expelled by my classmates so confused, right?"

Although she had witnessed the diversity of the human species over the past few years through her own way of dealing with people, Kikyo Kushida still couldn't help but feel a little tired in this situation.

Putting aside the fact that she herself is one of the spies they are looking for, even if she didn't do these things, it's impossible for her to say the name of any student in the class now. After all, the persona she has painstakingly cultivated from the beginning does not allow her to do such a thing. Just like Kikyo Kushida, although she was also a little unhappy with Masumi Kamuro's avoidance of the last school festival, she still spoke up for her earlier. This was actually a hint.

How come you can't understand anything at all?

"Hmm... I think that since our class has been searching for information about spies for so long without any results, we might need to look at this issue from a different perspective. Maybe we'll make some new discoveries."

Carefully choosing her words and uttering as many useless platitudes as possible, Kikyo Kushida quickly came up with a good reason to get rid of Totsuka Yahiko once and for all.

"A different perspective? What does Kikyo mean?"

Totsuka Yahiko continued blinking his not-so-clear but certainly foolish eyes, signaling to Kushida Kikyo to be a little clearer about what he was saying.

"Exactly, sometimes I think the reason we can't find the spy in the class is because we're too close to the situation to see clearly. After all, we're all classmates, so even if we notice something strange, we'll probably just assume it's nothing and ignore it. So, Totsuka, why don't you try asking Chabashira-sensei? She's our class advisor, so she might see things more clearly than we students do."

"Tea Pillar Teacher? That makes sense. I'll ask her about it in the next couple of days."

After hearing Kikyo Kushida's words, Yahiko Totsuka nodded thoughtfully, but then, unwilling to give up, he pressed on with another question:

"But, doesn't Little Kikyo really have anyone she suspects? I promise I won't tell anyone else that you told me."

At this point, Kikyo Kushida could hardly maintain her sweet smile, but she still had to keep her tone of voice carefully controlled:

"How about this... if I notice or remember anything in the next couple of days, I'll tell you, Totsuka?"

"Thank you so much, little kissop!"

Seeing Totsuka Yahiko looking as if he had received great comfort, Kushida Kikyo asked with some confusion:

"Speaking of which, what about Katsuragi-kun? He probably won't just sit by and watch you get voted out of school, will he?"

"Katsuragi-kun has been busy with the student council and this special exam lately, and I don't want to bother him anymore. I want to use this to prove to him that Totsuka Yahiko and I have stood behind him on our own merits."

So you can bother me now, right?

And why are you suddenly so full of fighting spirit?

After silently making a couple more subtle comments in her mind, Kikyo Kushida finally saw off Totsuka Yahiko, who had come to visit, and ended the conversation.

She herself wasn't particularly interested in whether Totsuka Yahiko would be expelled. In fact, at first, Kushida Kikyo was a little nervous that Totsuka Yahiko would bring up the old matter again and thoroughly investigate the spy in the class. However, after paying attention for only two days, she put her heart back on track.

If Totsuka Yahiko were to actually find out anything, that would be truly a miracle.

-------------------------------------

If a poll were to be held among the first-year students to gauge their favorability towards each class's homeroom teacher, Hoshinomiya Chie and Chabashira Sae would undoubtedly take the top two spots. As for who would win the crown, it would simply depend on which of the two personalities the first-year students preferred: aloofness or friendliness.

There's no way around it; for high school students whose hormones are raging, looks and physique are absolute justice. This is true for Class B, where Hoshinomiya Chie is, and it's also true for Class C, where Chabashira Sae is.

Moreover, no student would suspect their homeroom teacher of doing anything detrimental to them or the class without a valid reason.

It is precisely for these reasons that even though Chabashira Sae has been making some bizarre moves since the special exam on the deserted island, most of the students in Class 1-C just laugh it off. Even at the recent cultural festival, although their own homeroom teacher once again stole most of the business from their project, the prevailing opinion in the class was that the other side was too cunning and had seized the loopholes in the rules to steal their homeroom teacher's business. Chabashira-sensei was definitely the victim in this matter.

And to be honest, the fact that she was able to snatch more than half of the business from the maid cafe in our class is due to her own genuine skills. She was so good that many students in Class C would drop their jobs and rush over to see what was going on.

Just as Totsuka Yahiko was hesitating about whether to go directly to his class advisor's office to ask about espionage, an anonymous message was suddenly sent to his phone's inbox.

"Chabashira Sae is a spy from Class C."

Totsuka Yahiko merely tilted his head in confusion. These words, which would be like a bolt from the blue or a thunderclap to others, flew through his smooth, wrinkle-free cerebral cortex in just one and a half seconds, without producing any thought or reaction whatsoever.

"You're the spy from Class C, you idiot."

After casually replying to the sender with this message, Totsuka Yahiko deftly put his phone back in his pocket, mentally reviewed his prepared remarks, and only after fully gathering his emotions did he knock on the office door and tiptoe inside.

Not far behind him, Kiyotaka Ayanokouji also looked at the reply on his phone, "You're the C-class spy, you idiot," somewhat speechlessly. He felt that he had overestimated Totsuka Yahiko's abilities, and that Totsuka Yahiko was so worthless that he was practically useless even if he were used.

In that case... I feel that Katsuragi Kohei still needs to intervene.

Having been each other's followers for more than half a year, Kiyotaka Ayanokouji was well aware of Katsuragi Kohei's influence on Totsuka Yahiko. However, the idea that the class leader was a spy for his class advisor was still somewhat abstract, and Katsuragi Kohei himself might not be willing to do so. He still harbored the idea of ​​wanting to save Totsuka Yahiko.

However, Kiyotaka Ayanokouji was also well aware that even if Yahiko Totsuka actually believed the message he sent, and even if he managed to find some evidence and present it to the whole class, it would most likely be defined as something fabricated by a desperate dog in order to stay, and he would continue to be voted out by the students in the class.

This is also something new that Kiyotaka Ayanokouji learned after leaving the White Room: compared to the simple relationship between the 'instructors' and 'test subjects' in the White Room, which had no other connection or feelings besides the transmission of knowledge, the normal relationship between students and teachers is still habitually placed in a hierarchical hierarchy, and students will not easily take the initiative to be hostile to their teachers, especially for teachers who are already very popular among students.

Therefore, even though he was fully aware that if the class wanted to return to Class A, the homeroom teacher would have to be replaced, Kiyotaka Ayanokouji still maintained considerable patience. From the beginning, he did not intend to take this opportunity to truly drive away Sae Chabashira, but rather to gradually plant the seed of this possibility in the hearts of the students in the class. After all, it was only the end of the second semester of the first year, and there was still plenty of time.

Moreover, he is now equally curious about the reasons why Chabashira Sae betrayed the class and her relationship with Kitagawa Ryo. As the saying goes, the class needs to work hard to advance, and Kitagawa Ryo's learning process as a love encyclopedia cannot be neglected.

Thinking about this, the legendary observer Kiyotaka Ayanokoji also began to recall and think about some of the information he had witnessed or investigated.

In psychology or sociology books, teacher-student relationships are usually defined as a negative relationship that violates social norms and public order. Once such news is disclosed, the teacher involved will almost certainly be dismissed by the school and will face unanimous condemnation from public opinion.

The main reason for this lies in the distinct differences that Kiyotaka Ayanokouji has come to realize: older, more financially secure, more experienced, and more mature teachers are more likely to take the lead in a relationship, which can easily cause physical, psychological, and emotional harm to underage students.

However, this theory does not seem to apply to the relationship between Kitagawa Ryo and Chabashira Sae.

Kiyotaka Ayanokoji lowered his eyes thoughtfully.

From any perspective, it's Chabashira Saeko's side that should be in a more humble position.

What puzzled him even more was...

It was Chabashira Sae who deliberately and gradually pushed herself down.

Chapter 368: Don't Let Him Down

"You want me to reveal to Yahiko that our homeroom teacher, Chabashira, is a spy for Class C?"

After listening to Ayanokouji Kiyotaka's calm explanation, Katsuragi Kohei subconsciously frowned and asked in confusion:

“I have always trusted you, Ayanokouji, so of course I am willing to believe what you said. But the other students in the class, including Yahiko, may not. Putting aside whether we can really get evidence that Chahashi-sensei betrayed the class, even if we do find it, Chahashi-sensei has plenty of room to defend himself, and there may even be more than one reason.”

"Didn't we already see that during this cultural festival? As long as she keeps saying that Kitagawa has some leverage over her and that what she did was against her will, or if she just openly says that she did it to get Kitagawa to transfer to our class, then the class's opinion will definitely be on her side."

As he spoke, Katsuragi Kohei shook his head decisively in denial:

"Even if we manage to replace Mr. Chabashira as our homeroom teacher, the situation in the class won't improve. After all, you and I both know that there are definitely other spies hiding in the class besides Mr. Chabashira. If we can't eliminate all the spies at once, it's better not to alert them."

After listening to Katsuragi Kohei's long list of ideas, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka also shook his head slightly, and unusually bluntly asked in return:

"If you, Katsuragi, don't even have the courage to replace Chabashira as your homeroom teacher, and the confidence to smoothly transition through the chaotic period that follows, what if the next spy to be discovered is the even more troublesome Kushida? Are you just going to keep waiting, thinking that doing nothing will prevent you from making the same mistake again?"

Rather than directly answering Ayanokouji Kiyotaka's question, Katsuragi Kohei first noticed Kushida Kikyo in the other's words, and with a serious expression, crossed his arms and asked him further:

"Why are you bringing up Kushida again? Did you discover that she has a problem too, Ayanokouji?"

As the class leader, he knew very well that if Kikyo Kushida was indeed a hidden spy in Class C, then her actual lethality and destructive power would be even greater than that of their homeroom teacher, Sae Chabashira, to the point that even Kohei Katsuragi would find it a headache to even consider the possibility.

It's no exaggeration to say that if Chabashira Sae and Kushida Kikyo really betrayed the class together, then Class C would have been essentially unnecessary. It would have been like a Truman Show unfolding from the very beginning of their enrollment, enough to make most of the students in the class question their very existence.

"It's just a speculation. Besides, didn't you already suspect the other party when you were on the cruise ship?"

"With so much private information being leaked, my first thought would definitely be Kushida, who has the best interpersonal relationships in the class. But after thinking about it, I still think it's impossible. She's not the kind of person who would casually reveal other people's secrets. Many other students in the class have also told me about this."

As he spoke, Katsuragi Kohei stroked his chin thoughtfully and added:

"Actually, compared to starting with the clue of who knows so many details of interpersonal relationships, I prefer what you later told me about thinking about the motives, that is, why would a spy betray the class. I remember you said that it felt more likely that it was an interaction before entering the school. After all, as you said, if it was for the benefit, the other party would have no reason to betray the class when they were already in Class A. So it can only be for emotional reasons."

As if suddenly remembering something, Katsuragi Kohei added another compelling argument:

"Take romantic relationships for example? Look, hasn't Hashimoto recently been using these techniques to repeatedly induce girls in Class B and Class A to directly or indirectly betray their classes? According to what you said, Chabashira-sensei is in a similar situation, so the hidden spy might be doing the same thing."

"If we extrapolate from this perspective, Kushida's chances do increase. After all, she hasn't publicly dated anyone yet, and she attended the same school as Kitagawa from Class A in junior high, and they were even members of the drama club."

The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Katsuragi Kohei continued to reason based on the information at hand:

"They've known each other since middle school, but when Kitagawa reorganized the drama club at the beginning of the school year, he didn't include Kushida. It definitely has nothing to do with their class. Karuizawa from Class B joined, didn't she? It's almost as if he's deliberately avoiding suspicion and distancing himself from her."

Faced with Katsuragi Yasuhira's sudden and ingenious idea, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka simply and decisively returned the other party's previous argument in its entirety:

"So what? Of course I'm willing to believe what you said, Katsuragi, but the other students in the class might not feel the same way. Besides, let's take a step back and say..."

"Stop, stop, stop, okay, I get what you mean."

Katsuragi Kohei quickly waved his hand, somewhat helplessly stopping Ayanokouji Kiyotaka's repetition:

"Compared to Kushida, Chabashira-sensei is indeed a better target to deal with, but I really think now is not the time."

As he spoke, Katsuragi Kohei slapped his bald head again:

"Oh right, I forgot to tell you, yesterday Nagumo again used that debt as an excuse to try to get me to use all the criticism votes from our class to target Class A. The targets are not fixed. According to him, as long as it's not Sakayanagi Arisu or Amasawa Ichika, it's fine."

Speaking of this matter, Katsuragi Kohei himself was also somewhat exhausted:

"Sakayanagi is one thing, but why did they suddenly add Amasawa? I have no idea what our student council president is thinking."

"Did you agree?"

"It was a barely passable excuse. After all, if we did that, wouldn't it be equivalent to giving up all the possibilities for Class 4 to work together to get through this special exam? But dragging it out like this isn't a solution either. Anyway, Nan Yun's point is that if I don't agree, the students in Class A will have to live on air for the next few months, which will definitely be a major blow to the class's morale."

At this point, Katsuragi Kohei, much like Nobita rushing home after school to find Doraemon, looked eagerly at Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, hoping the other could offer a solution.

He knew that Ayanokouji Kiyotaka was not as simple as he seemed, and that he even had a rather mysterious connection with third-year students in private.

“If it were before, with personal points, I could certainly find some ways to achieve that, but things are different now.”

Faced with Katsuragi Kohei, who was eagerly awaiting his answer, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka shook his head quite bluntly, but immediately added:

"Ge Cheng, do you remember when we last met with Long Yuan, he said he could sell the class's praise and criticism votes to outsiders for 100,000 personal points each?"

"Huh? You didn't actually make this deal with them privately, did you? Where did you get so many personal points?"

Seeing the shocked expression on Katsuragi Kohei's face, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka remained completely calm, speaking as if to himself:

"It's just a verbal agreement. Long Yuan's explanation is that he still needs to deal with the hidden dangers and troublemakers in the class, and the deal will be temporarily shelved until he can personally control all the votes."

Just as Kitagawa Ryo had predicted, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka did indeed want to try to get the special reward protection points for first place this time. However, the threat did not come entirely from Ayanokouji Atsuomi, but from the freshman named Ishigami Kyo.

During their brief time together at the end of the cultural festival, Kiyotaka Ayanokouji could clearly sense Ishigami's attitude. Ishigami was indeed a staunch supporter of Atsuomi Ayanokouji, even more intolerant of any failure than Ishigami himself. However, the White Room project and his masterpiece, the White Room, were unequivocally defined as failures in Ishigami's eyes.

Moreover, unlike all the other new students, Ishigami Kyo really does have the position and background to replace him.

Kiyotaka Ayanokouji knew very well that the bet between him and Ryo Kitagawa was, in essence, a silent contest between the Naoe faction and the Onishima faction in the political arena, centered around the field of education. Kyo Ishigami's father was also a member of the Naoe faction, which was why Atsuomi Ayanokouji had a question mark after the recipient's name on the note he had been given during the cultural festival.

If Ishigami Kyo manages to defeat him by underdog after enrolling next year, then Ayanokoji Atsuomi's entire political legacy and the contents of this bet will naturally be inherited by the other party, and his position will be pushed to the opposite side of Kitagawa Ryo.

Atsuomi Ayanokouji was certainly aware of this, but he still tacitly approved of the incident because he was also dissatisfied with Kiyotaka Ayanokouji's performance in the past six months since he enrolled. From his perspective, Kyō Ishigami seemed more like someone he had deliberately sent to Tokyo Advanced Educational High School to put more pressure on Kiyotaka Ayanokouji.

In a sense, Kitagawa Ryo, his rival, probably didn't have a stronger desire to drop out than Ishigami, so it was natural to prepare in advance.

"Could it be that Ayanokouji bought the ticket to Ryuen Garden to save Yahiko? I knew it, even though you two often argue, actually..."