“Fufu, you didn’t run away and actually came.”

On the day the game was about to be settled― Aria smiled triumphantly when Kirara and I arrived at the appointed place. 

Next to her, Alice-san is giving off a languid vibe, and the woman who was there before, her escort, is standing at a distance from Alice-san and the others.

“There’s no way I’m running away.”

Kirara, who was walking beside me, glared at Aria as she said this.

“Hmm~… So, who’s that guy?”

Aria pointed at me and gave me a dubious look.

She had seen me before, but my hairstyle was different back then than it is right now.

I’m using the hairstyle I usually use right now, with bangs covering my eyes.

I didn’t think it was necessary to set my hair, so I left it as it was.

“Kai…”

“Eh!? He’s the guy from the shopping mall before!? No way!?”

When Alice-san mumbled my name, Aria looked at her with a surprised look.

Is it really that surprising…?

Well, I don’t care about that.

Rather, I want to hear the results as soon as possible.

The reason why I showed up here, even though I didn’t want anyone to notice KAI’s involvement, is because I have things to do here too.

Besides, I met Aria in that shopping mall.

And since I mistakenly called out to Alice, who was dressed similarly to Kirara, there’s a slight possibility that Aria is aware that Kirara and I know each other, or rather, that we’ve been hanging out together.

If Aria knew, she would be suspicious of me as well.

In fact, not showing up here might strengthen her suspicion.

That’s why I showed up here.

“What should I do then? Well, I don’t think I need to go to the trouble of checking the results. Because I’m going to win anyway.”

Aria smiles, confident that she has won.

This girl… she has been raising a lot of flags for a while now…

I thought so when I saw how confident Aria was.

“Well then, let’s find out the results from you.”

Kirara is confident and asks Aria to show the results.

“Fufu, then I’ll give you a quick beheading. Here―this is my result.”

Aria said, showing me the screen of her phone.

When she said beheading, she probably meant ending Kirara’s life with this.

She really is an irredeemable idiot.

Aria’s phone showed the number “304,000 yen”.

This is the total amount of stock Aria currently owns.

This amount will not change today.

She said she didn’t know anything about stocks, but in just a couple of weeks, she had increased it by a little over 200,000 yen.

“Y-you said you don’t know anything about stocks― so why did it increase this much!?”

As Kirara exclaimed in confusion, Aria began to speak with pride.

“Fufu, that’s right, I don’t know anything about stocks. So I decided to leave it all to someone who knows about them. However, I don’t know much about our employees, so I let my Onee-chan’s assistant choose the people for me. Then I heard that there was a man at one of the companies affiliated with the Byodoin Faction who boasted that he made a lot of money from stocks, so I decided to put him in charge. I told him that I would give him all the money he made from stocks, and he was very happy to accept.”

Aria tells me this in a bland manner.

Probably― Or rather, most likely that is a lie.

There is no way this woman would trust such a stranger.

For sure, she would have instructed him to act on her own.

“What kind of stock did you buy?

“You can tell by looking at it, right? It’s from Byodoin Systems.”

Aria said the name of the company that she runs.

No matter how you look at it―

“That’s insider trading! Do you even know that’s illegal?”

―Yes, what Aria did was clearly insider trading.

Inside trading refers to the buying and selling of stocks by people who know information inside of a company before the information about important facts is made public.

It doesn’t matter if you gain or lose from the action itself, so even if you lose money from insider trading, it still falls under this category, and even if you’re not from the company itself, it still falls under this category if you were told about the content of the transaction before you bought it.

So even if the man was buying on Aria’s behalf, it would still be insider trading.

It’s just that― it’s not absolute.

And there is no doubt that Aria is following that loophole.

This can be seen from Aria’s words earlier.

“What are you talking about? This is not insider trading, okay?”

Naturally, Aria said that and snapped out of it.

“Haa~!? What are you talking about? Byodoin Systems is your company, right? It’s definitely insider trading by any stretch of the imagination!”

“Hahaha, I told you before, didn’t I? I just told you that I put another man in charge of the company and left everything to him. It would be insider trading if I had told him about the world’s first AI-powered anti-virus software, which is now the talk of the town. But I’m not directly involved with the guy, okay? Of course I’ve never talked to him, and I don’t even know him.”

Aria looked down at Kirara as she spoke happily.

“You think you can use that excuse? I’m pretty sure you made him buy shares in the Byodoin Systems!”

“What’s the basis for that?”

Aria was very confident that she had the evidence to prove that it was not insider trading.

―Well, that’s true, I suppose.

“That’s because if you didn’t know any better, you wouldn’t be buying shares of Byodoin Systems in a bet! Because normally you wouldn’t buy those expensive stocks because they’re hard to profit from!”

“Well, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Perhaps you just got the information from somewhere else.”

“Shameless…!”

Kirara makes a clenched fist in response to Aria’s blatant disregard.

It’s no use, Kirara.

What’s more, she even has proof that it’s not insider trading.

I didn’t tell Kirara about it.

I don’t tell her because if I do, I’ll have to tell her what I’ve been doing behind her back.

…Even so, that’s as far as it goes, so there’s no need to hide it…

“And also, this account doesn’t belong to me, it belongs to the guy.

“What!?”

Aria’s words caused Kirara to raise an eyebrow.

“If I was given the stock by the guy, it would be totally insider trading. That’s why I presented the total amount of shares on the account of the guy who made me buy the shares. Of course, I made him create a new account, and the money was transferred from my account to the account of the woman I selected, and from her to the account of the man who acted as her agent. I can prove that, too. I didn’t make any restriction that the money can’t be presented using the agent’s account or anything like that.”

Aria said, and pulled out two more phones to prove the movement of the money.

Probably from the address of the device that logged into the account, the man had used his own phone to present the amount of money so that it would not be used as evidence to prove that it was insider trading that Aria had instructed the man to do.

Despite her appearance and behavior, she is a cautious woman.

Kirara would have noticed that Aria’s phone had changed, but she might have taken it as a change of model and not reacted.

And this is the reason why Aria took the trouble to clarify the bindings.

Even if Aria could get a proxy to buy it, she couldn’t put the shares back into her account.

That’s because doing so would be insider trading.

That’s why Aria went out of her way to make sure that only the amount of money was quoted on the man’s account.

And since it is not part of the binding that the amount should not be presented using a separate account, it is valid to present the amount on the agent’s account.

“A really dirty one…!”

Kirara gritted her teeth and glared hatefully at Aria.

Her beautiful face has been twisted into an ugly mess.

Aria gazes happily at her, and then opens her mouth again.

“And you have proof that I didn’t come into contact with the man?”

Aria then took out a voice recorder from her pocket and started to play it back.

『Kimura Yuichiro-san, isn’t it?』

The first thing I heard was the voice of a kind-looking woman.

It was probably the voice of the kind woman who had been entrusted with selecting the man, and who was currently watching us from a distance.

『Yes…? That’s right but… who are you…?』

The next thing I heard was a man’s voice answering in a confused manner.

『I work for a different company, but I’m a member of the Byodoin Faction just like you.』

As the woman said this, I heard some rustling sounds.

And from the sound of the man’s voice, he was probably exchanging business cards.

『So, the reason I’m calling you this time is because I have a special favor to ask you.』

『What you want to ask…?』

『Yes, actually―』

Then the woman began to explain.

It was a request for a man to act as a proxy for Aria, who was playing a stock game with an anonymous opponent whose name she did not want to reveal, because of her lack of knowledge. 

That’s all.

And as Aria had said, she was going to give the man all the money from the stock and the money she made.

The man continued to listen to the woman’s explanation, sounding puzzled.

One of them was to offer a special reward, which was not included in what Aria had said earlier.

In the end, the man happily agreed and seemed to have written his signature.

“See, do you understand now?”

Aria smiled at Kirara as the voice recorder finished playing.

“D-Don’t screw around with me! This is insufficient evidence!”

Kirara told her that this voice-only exchange could not be accepted as evidence.

It is true that it is impossible to tell whether or not the man who is doing the talking is really the deputy.

There is a possibility that he may have only done this kind of exchange with another person and had him sign the document later.

However, Aria did not cut any corners there.

This is a genuine exchange between the surrogate man and the woman who contacted him on Aria’s behalf.

So if you match the wavelength of the voice on the voice recorder with the wavelength of the voice of the man who acted as a substitute ― Yuichiro Kimura, it will match.

The man’s bewilderment and happiness would have become more believable.

That’s not to say that there are no holes.

However, as long as this voice recorder was in place, Aria’s claim would not be overturned.

After all, the other side not only has the power of Aria herself, but is also backed by the Byodoin Faction.

On the other hand, Kirara has no power and can’t ask the Saijo Faction for support.

In other words, she is not strong enough to overturn Aria’s claim.

Kirara is well aware of this.

So she bit her lower lip in frustration.

Seeing Kirara’s frustrated expression, Aria showed her delighted amusement.

Now the game is over.

Since it only looks like that from the side, Aria’s original conviction just became a reality.

But this is the end of Kirara― She must be enjoying the situation.

Alice-san just continued to watch Aria with no expression on her face.

I wondered what she was thinking.

It’s rare to find someone who can’t understand emotions to this extent.

Except when she’s smiling, I really don’t know what she’s thinking.

Honestly speaking, from my point of view, Aria is already a helpless person.

She’s not going to change at all if we defeat her half-heartedly.

If we’re going to do this, we need to push her to the limit.

…How far does Alice-san want me to go with this?

If you told me to crush her instead of beat her, did you expect me to do that?

I don’t know…

The only thing I can say for sure is that I hate Aria.

She’s exactly the type of person that I hate.

The type of person who preys on others and sees others as tools for their own advancement.

That’s the kind of rotten people I’ve seen in my life.

The world today― or rather, the people I’ve come into contact with as KAI are all like that.

And all of them are executives of their companies.

In other words, the people who are running the world today are probably all like this.

I especially don’t like the top three biggest executives of Japan.

President Byodoin used me as a publicity stunt and was one step away from blowing me out of the water, forcing other companies to do unreasonable things and thinking only of making a profit for his own company.

President Shinomiya, just like President Byodoin, is forcing other companies to do the same absurd demands.

And President Saijo― I will never forgive him.

To be honest, I thought President Saijo was a decent person.

I hadn’t met him before, but all I had heard about him was that he was a good president who was kind and cared about his employees.

That’s why, when Kirara explained to me for the first time why she came to this school, I thought that President Saijo was thinking of Kirara and gave her a test to prepare her for the future.

The people at the top of this world are all people who see people as food, so he wanted to raise her to be able to compete with such people.

That said, I had my doubts about the content of the ordeal.

However, I knew very well how rotten the world was that Kirara had to enter, so I agreed that it was unavoidable.

In reality, however, he just kicked Kirara out of the house after Aria and Alice-san had set him up and sent him back home.

And he had driven her to the point of distorting her personality.

I don’t mean to pursue what Kirara did to SakiHime.

It’s the same with Aria and Alice-san.

Regardless of the reason, it was Kirara who had done all that to SakiHime, not anyone else.

And it was not because she was ordered to do so by anyone, but because she did it on her own initiative.

That’s why I’m going to make her pay for it with her whole life.

There is no need for anyone else to be involved.

As I said earlier, what is so unforgivable is the fact that they drove her to the point where she changed her personality.

I just can’t get over the fact that he brushed away Kirara’s hand when he was trying to save her.

Just thinking about how she must have felt at the time when she was rejected makes my heart ache.

At some point, I want to make her regret throwing Kirara out.

And the feelings I have for President Saijo and Aria are completely different.

Aria was in a position to do so, and she probably did it as a decision for her own survival.

I don’t like the way she did it or the way she thought about it, but I can imagine that it was her way of making her presence felt so that she would not be outdone by Alice-san.

I honestly respected the fact that she was trying to fight against the difference in talent and the environment surrounding her, instead of just lamenting and doing pessimism.

That’s why I disliked her and felt sorry for her at the same time.

If her parents and the people around her had treated Aria differently, she could have become a great person.

To be honest, I don’t think Alice-san taught Aria the wisdom of setting up Kirara.

This is because I knew her back then.

She was pretty smart, and she was a few steps ahead of me in terms of the future.

But I couldn’t believe that she didn’t understand what would happen if she got all the students involved and caught up with Kirara. 

That’s why I don’t think she would have told Aria such a thing.

What I can think of is that Alice-san is protecting Aria.

In other words, when I lost my temper with Aria, I might have distributed my anger to myself so that I wouldn’t overdo it.

I don’t know if it’s because she’s her sister by blood, or if there’s some other reason.

But I can sympathize with the idea of making my sister a decent person.

That’s why I’ll help them.

But it’s my way of doing things.

I feel sorry for Aria, and I want to make her a decent person again.

And I want Aria to feel what Kirara felt.

That’s why I’m going to push Aria into a corner and make her feel despair.

“―Now that you know, let’s see what you’ve got. I’m sure you’ve just been diligently buying stocks, right?”

Aria then snatched the phone from Kirara, which was probably already displaying the results.

And then – the moment she sees the display on the screen, Aria’s face turns into a shocked expression and Kirara grins.

The screen of the phone that Aria saw― “313,500 yen” was displayed on the screen.

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like