Hayasaka Ai, Class 2-A of Shuchiin High School.
She was a blonde beauty with a quarter Irish bloodline, and on the surface she looked like a gyaru girl who cared about her appearance and worked hard at part-time jobs.
But in truth, her real identity was something else entirely.
"It’s time for bed, Kaguya-sama."
For more than ten years, she had worked as a maid under Shinomiya Kaguya. That was Hayasaka Ai’s true identity.
As the longest-serving member of the Shinomiya household, she handled and supported nearly everything inside and outside Kaguya’s life.
Her schedule was already packed, but there was one thing that made it even harder.
"Good. Hayasaka, it’s about time you got started too."
She had to take charge of supporting her mistress’s so-called "whatever-it-is" plans.
The "operation" Kaguya had come up with today might have been fine for the person ordering it, but Hayasaka, the one who actually had to carry it out, looked anything but pleased.
"Do I really have to? Even I can’t just infiltrate Shuchiin Academy at this hour..."
"So you can’t do it?"
She wanted to say it would be difficult, but when she saw Kaguya smiling sweetly and asking back, Hayasaka realized there was no room to back out and let out a long sigh.
"...If you don’t treat me a little more carefully, you’re going to be punished by heaven."
"Fufu. Go on, then."
**
Wearing a bodysuit and night-vision goggles, dressed for infiltration, Hayasaka Ai slipped into Shuchiin Academy through a window.
When she turned on the goggles, infrared sensors installed all over the academy came into view.
Even if she could see them, dodging that dense forest of sensors would clearly be no easy task, but—
"...Hoo."
With acrobatic movements, Hayasaka passed through every single infrared sensor. She carefully opened the student council room door and stepped inside.
Approaching the lower shelf where the original coffee container had been placed, she quickly confirmed the location.
"Here it is."
All she wanted was to finish quickly and get back, so Hayasaka reached for the coffee container she had brought with her. At that moment—
Clink
The sound of the container striking something and ringing out.
"...Someone’s here!"
The moment Hayasaka sensed another presence, she spun and unleashed a powerful back kick.
Whoosh
"He dodged...?!"
He should not have been able to see clearly, and yet the intruder evaded her kick with a nimble movement.
As she lowered the night-vision goggles she had half-raised over her head while attacking, she could finally identify him.
"Suzuki Hotaro...?"
Student council secretary, Shirogane’s friend, sports scholarship student. A flood of details about him came to mind.
Why he was here was one thing, but there was something else she couldn’t understand at all.
"There’s no way he should even be able to see this, so how is he blocking it...?"
To protect her mistress, Kaguya, in an emergency, she had never neglected martial arts training during her ten years at the Shinomiya residence and had reached a black-belt level of skill.
But her opponent was the boy who was widely rumored to have been admitted as a sports scholarship student through connections. If the rumors were true, he should have been weak when it came to physical combat.
And yet he was blocking her attack—an attack that could easily overwhelm most skilled fighters one-on-one—even while accepting the handicap of limited vision. Hayasaka’s anxiety began to grow.
"—Damn it!"
Had he read that tiny opening? Hotaro immediately closed in on her. Alarm bells rang in her head, warning her that this was dangerous, but—
".................!!!"
What he did after closing the distance was rub his face against Hayasaka’s chest, and for someone with no immunity to that sort of thing, all kinds of thoughts flashed through her mind in that instant.
"This perverted, lust-crazed beast of a trash human being who needs to be eliminated right now—"
—was the thought she compressed into a short, blunt utterance.
"...Die."
She grabbed Hotaro by the collar with both hands and slammed him with a fierce shoulder throw.
If he went over as intended, it would deal a serious amount of damage—
"...He didn’t go over?!"
Sliding smoothly to her right along her back, Hotaro stamped his foot down halfway through the throw and held his ground.
There was only one thing that meant.
"A counter...!"
Still bracing himself, Hotaro grabbed Hayasaka’s unguarded waist and—
Bang!
"...Kgh!"
slammed her straight into the floor.
The damage Hayasaka took was impossible to ignore, and this fight could practically be considered over right here.
**
Hayasaka had been completely subdued, unable to move at all. And now Hotaro’s hand was reaching toward her.
"N-no...!"
"Stay still."
With his rough hands, Hotaro removed Hayasaka’s ###.
Then he spoke in a sinister voice.
"...Oh? Hayasaka Ai of Class A?"
Chilling!
She’d been found out. He gave a sly smile, and then...
"Open your mouth."
"Mmph...!"
He forced %% into her resisting mouth.
Afraid that refusing would only make things worse, she had no choice but to open up.
"Mmph, hah... hah..."
The bitter taste lingered in her mouth for a long time thanks to the %% that had been pushed in. She frowned.
He had buried his face in her chest while fighting,
yanked off her ### without permission,
subdued her so she couldn’t move, found out who she was, and then shoved an unwanted %% into her mouth.
"What’s going to happen to me...?"
Hayasaka was dyed in fear as she imagined the future ahead.
**
"I really almost died there..."
If the enemy’s outfit hadn’t been a bodysuit, I would’ve gone over cleanly and the game would’ve been over.
Thanks to the slick material, I managed to slip sideways and hold my ground, which let me land a counter.
Just as expected, the enemy was wearing night-vision goggles. With my left hand I pinned both of her hands and tried to pull the goggles off her face to identify her.
She resisted a little, clearly not wanting her identity exposed.
"N-no...!"
"Stay still."
But since I was on top, taking the goggles off wasn’t difficult, and I shone the light straight at her face.
"...Hayasaka Ai of Class A?"
"..........!"
That was a look of utter dismay. We had never been in the same class, but we had taken a few classes together during mixed-subject periods.
I wasn’t the type to remember people just because I’d seen them in class a few times, but Hayasaka was honestly pretty much my type, so she had stuck in my memory.
Still, right now she was nothing more than a thief who had broken into the student council room. I had no intention of treating her kindly until I knew the truth.
First I needed to know why she had broken in, and what she had been trying to do.
"Why did you come in here in the middle of the night?"
"..............."
"What were you trying to do?"
"..............."
Not a single answer. Asking her directly was useless.
To my right were the coffee container that had been knocked over and the pair of coffee beans. At a glance, the two containers looked identical, but I had heard from Miyuki before.
Apparently they were pretty expensive. So she had gone to the trouble of preparing another highly detailed coffee container just to swap out the contents? Why?
If the goal was sabotage, there was no need to go to all that trouble. She could have just mixed something harmful into the original contents.
Still, there was no need to test its safety on my own body.
I grabbed a handful of beans and held them out to Hayasaka.
"I won’t ask any more, so open your mouth."
"...Mm."
She seemed reluctant, but she obediently opened her mouth.
Apparently she understood that stubbornly refusing to prove the beans weren’t harmful would only hurt her own position.
She took the beans into her mouth and chewed them, frowning briefly at the bitterness.
All right. If she was willing to eat them, then this probably wasn’t sabotage.
So who was it?
Who had the money to prepare an expensive coffee container for something like this and hire a professional,
who had a reason to send someone into the student council room in the middle of the night to swap out the beans,
and who would benefit most if someone were affected by the changed beans?
No matter how I thought about it, there was only one answer.
I stood up from on top of her and walked slowly to the president’s seat.
Hayasaka looked at me in a daze as I suddenly let her go. I clicked the desk lamp on with a sharp sound and said,
"Did Shinomiya send you?"
"..........!"
For just a split second, Hayasaka’s face twitched.
She recovered her poker face almost immediately, but that tiny reaction was basically an admission that I’d gotten it right.
Well, if it wasn’t Shinomiya, who else would do something like this?
In the romantic mind games between Miyuki and Shinomiya, where every possible trick was being used, swapping out the coffee container wasn’t exactly difficult.
As for Miyuki and coffee... well, they’d probably replaced it with decaf or something.
"...I have no idea what you’re talking about."
Hayasaka finally took a stand, but that denial, which she hadn’t made once until now, was even more suspicious.
"It’s true, isn’t it? Shinomiya Kaguya ordered you to do this."
"Quit spouting nonsense. This was my own personal doing."
Hmm. So that’s how you want to play it.
"Sorry. That was my mistake."
"...?"
Hayasaka looked at me like she was wondering what I was plotting when I suddenly apologized.
"It would definitely be insulting to think you work under some woman like that."
"...What?"
Hayasaka’s pupils shook violently as she stared at me.
"Shinomiya Kaguya is just an empty shell of a woman with nothing to her name but her family and her face. If you misunderstood and thought you were serving someone that creepy, even I’d feel disgusted..."
"...What the hell do you know, talking like that!!"
Hayasaka shouted at me, her face red with fury.
"...!"
"How much do you really know about Kaguya-sama’s true self, acting all high and mighty—!!"
After that, she launched into about a minute of furious rebuttal.
It seemed to be mostly about Shinomiya Kaguya’s loneliness, her pain, and yet the warmth she still possessed... things like that.
After pouring everything out, she was breathing hard. The sharp glare she aimed at me was pretty intimidating.
I took a small step forward and bowed at nearly a right angle.
"I’m sorry."
"..............."
"I apologize for speaking carelessly. As you said, I don’t know even half of Shinomiya. So, in that case..."
"...?"
Walking slowly behind the president’s desk, I pulled out the chair and sat down. Then I looked up at her and said,
"Can you tell me the rest of that ‘true self’?"
"..."
Hayasaka stared blankly for a moment, then her face turned bright red.
She had basically admitted that she’d come here on Shinomiya’s orders.
"...Ugh!"
That expression of "I’ve been had!" was cuter than I expected.
Surprisingly expressive, too.
**
"..."
"..."
We sat across from each other in silence, separated by Miyuki’s president’s desk.
After about five minutes of silence, I spoke first.
"Shinomiya wants to get a confession from Miyuki, right?"
"...!"
That startled look flashed across her face again. She quickly returned to her poker face, though.
From her perspective, it made sense to be shocked. All that had been revealed so far was that Shinomiya had given the order. There was no way she’d expect me to jump straight from that to Miyuki and a confession.
"Don’t be ridiculous. There’s no way Kaguya-sama would want a confession from some commoner like him..."
"Could you at least put some saliva on that lie before you say it? Anyway, the reason I know is—"
"...?"
"I’m helping him too. Miyuki, I mean."
"...What?"
"I’m helping him while watching that frustrating, headache-inducing mess right next to him."
I didn’t use the direct wording just in case, but by now she should understand.
We were both in the position of supporting cowards who wanted to be confessed to.
Hayasaka brightened for a moment as if she understood, then her face darkened again.
"...Then you’re going to use today against us, aren’t you? You can put Kaguya-sama in a difficult position and make things work in your favor."
Hayasaka looked tense. I immediately shook my head.
If I told Miyuki straight out that Shinomiya had pulled a stunt like this, would he be happy?
Unless she had actually done something bad, I had no intention of shattering the illusion my friend held.
"If I did something like that, the whole board would collapse, advantage or not. I’ll pretend today never happened, but in exchange..."
"...In exchange?"
"I’m going to make you an offer you can’t refuse."
I lowered my voice as much as I could to make it sound weighty.
Whether it actually sounded that way or not, I had no idea.
"...Go on."
Hayasaka seemed to think for a moment before asking what my offer was.
"My offer is..."
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