After leaving the conference room, Ryūen led Ishizaki and Yamada to the entrance of a tea house they had agreed upon with a certain someone.
"Welcome, sir. Do you have a reservation?"
As Ryūen walked in, a waitress greeted him with a practiced smile.
"Yes. Bamboo Elegance room." Checking the room name on his phone, Ryūen felt a surge of speechlessness.
Once she confirmed the info, the waitress bowed and led the three of them. "Right this way, please."
Entering the private room, Ryūen immediately spotted Ren sitting in a chair, leisurely brewing tea with an air of complete indifference.
"Sit."
Seeing the guests arrive, Ren poured three cups of tea and gestured for them to take a seat before talking.
Ryūen sat across from Ren without an ounce of politeness, the gloom in his eyes completely undisguised. Yamada and Ishizaki, knowing their place, didn't sit; they stood behind Ryūen like bodyguards.
On paper, it was three against one. Ren didn't flinch. He poured himself a cup and sipped it slowly.
"Ren, you think you've got me cornered?" Ryūen didn't understand tea ceremonies and had no desire to look at Ren's face for a second longer than necessary. He cut straight to the chase.
Yes, the USB drive in the conference room and the video regarding Sudō had all been given to him by Ren—handed over through Ryūji Kanzaki.
That was exactly why Ryūen had been so aggressive toward Suzune and the others in the meeting, and why he had suddenly changed his demands to jack up the price.
If Class D had just swallowed it, the matter would have ended there. But Suzune insisted on fighting for three days to find "evidence" for that brainless gorilla Sudō, like she could overturn the case.
Laughable.
Those three days of "investigation" didn't give Suzune an opening—they gave one to Ren.
The original USB drive contained two files. One of them was a deleted video that clearly recorded Ishizaki's group only having a verbal spat with Sudō…and it included the moment Ryūen himself beat Ishizaki bloody.
And that was where Ren stepped in.
The message was clear: either let him take a cut from Class D, or he'd help Class D take a cut out of Class C.
Ryūen even suspected that if Ren hadn't known Class C was already bled dry, he would've gone straight to Class D first and negotiated how to use that video to wreck Class C.
Ren, in a decent mood, didn't bother dragging things out. He spoke plainly. "Isn't it obvious, Ryūen?"
Clench. Ryūen's fist tightened.
He seriously considered punching Ren in the face right now. He couldn't win one-on-one, but with Yamada and Ishizaki—three against one—maybe they could put him down.
At that thought, Ryūen was ready to move.
"There are cameras in this room. And you can't beat me. If you lift a finger, I don't mind calling it self-defense."
Ren finished his tea and spoke with unhurried calm, like he'd already seen it coming.
With his intent exposed, Ryūen didn't even blink. "How much do you want?"
"300,000 points."
"Impossible! I only squeezed 550,000 out of them this time!" At Ren's price, Ryūen stood up in a rage and slammed his hands on the table, trying to pressure Ren with height and noise.
A boring trick. The kind of display men use when they don't have real leverage.
Ren ignored him and poured more tea into his empty cup, letting Ryūen stay in that posture. Behind Ryūen, Ishizaki was the first to lose his temper, opening his mouth to defend his boss. "Dammit, Boss, I—"
"Ishizaki, shut up." Ryūen used the opening Ishizaki gave him to sit back down.
"Ryūen, I'm just taking back what belongs to me, right?"
Ren placed his phone on the table, displaying the transfer record he had sent to Kushida earlier.
Ryūen's mouth twitched. This bastard is playing both sides.
He lent the points to Kushida, then turned around and took those same points back from Ryūen.
Cold.
The rage in Ryūen's chest eased slightly. People were like that—once there was a bigger loser on the board, your tolerance for your own losses went up.
Just then, a message from Kushida popped up on Ren's phone.
Kushida: Katsuragi-kun, I'm so sorry... the 300,000 you lent me, I might not be able to pay it back for a long time.
Kushida: I'm really sorry... but no one in Class D has many points... using what you lent me was the only way I could think of...
Kushida: I'm so sad about what happened to Sudō-kun... I don't know why Class C is targeting Class D like this...
Kushida: o(╥﹏╥)o
Ren noticed it was from her but didn't pull the phone away. He let Ryūen see it clearly.
"…"
Ryūen went silent. His silence was deafening.
If he remembered correctly, hadn't he been planning to drop the Sudō angle entirely before this?
"Ren, you win. 300,000 it is. If you get anything else like this in the future, consider Class C first."
Ryūen pulled the USB drive from his pocket and returned it to Ren. That was his admission of defeat. He decided on the spot: until he was strong enough, he needed to avoid getting targeted by this guy.
As for Kikyō Kushida?
Not my problem.
"Pleasure doing business with you." Ren raised his teacup.
"Pleasure…" Ryūen forced a smile and clinked his cup against Ren's, even as he cursed him internally.
Back at the villa, Ren spent some time petting his cats, satisfying his daily craving for them. Afterward, he went into his study, turned on his computer, and accessed the school's surveillance system.
He began reviewing Ayanokōji's movements since his arrival at the school.
Arrogance was one thing, but Ren didn't underestimate opponents. He could look down on Ayanokōji on the surface, but when it came time to act, Ren made sure he understood what he was dealing with.
A "pseudo-human." Or rather, an emotionless monster wearing human skin. That was the profile Ren wrote after watching him.
From the start of school up until he was called to Chabashira's office, the boy had done almost nothing, trying to blend in as an ordinary student. But the disguise was sloppy; it was only because Class D was packed with misfits that he didn't stand out.
After that, most of his actions centered around guiding Suzune.
Is he polishing a tool?
He clearly didn't want attention, yet after that office visit, he began steering Suzune. It looked like Chabashira had said something that forced his hand.
White Room… pretending to be ordinary… staying in the shadows while influencing things…
The odds were high that Chabashira used expulsion as leverage to make him contribute, and since he still didn't want to lead openly, he chose Suzune as his proxy.
On a sheet of paper already half-covered in notes, Ren continued writing his deductions about Ayanokōji.
"Huh?"
Late at night, Ayanokōji appeared outside the dorms on one of the feeds. Ren's interest sparked. He started hopping cameras to track him.
Ren left the study and went to the entryway to change his shoes, planning to take the cats out for a walk.
"Koharu,. It's been a while. Let's go."