<h4>Chapter 161 Meritocracy - Part 2</h4>


    Sitting quietly in the dimly lit library room, Matsuoka waited for my response. To bepletely honest, I didn''t really have much attachment to Akihiko. She was somewhat useful but not enough to really be worth an extraordinarilyrge number of points. Having a decent supply of points would certainly be helpful in the long term.


    Anyway, I had begun to realise that getting her to do things effectively was a little harder than I had initially suspected. Despite following my instructions pretty obediently, it was hard to give her tasks which were precise enough to really benefit me.


    After all, many of these jobs were things that I''d be able to do on my own—likely to a better degree than she could.


    "I''ll do 85,000 points."


    Matsuoka smiled a little.


    "Going down the bargaining route, are you? I thought someone like you would try something more elegant than this."


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about."


    "Aha, alright then."


    She took out her phone.


    "I assume you won''t go back on your word, Mizuhara-senpai."


    "I won''t."


    She tapped on her phone.


    I received a notification on mine.


    "I assume it''s gone through."


    "It has."


    I guess she wasn''t nning on trying to get the price any lower. It seemed that she had some pretty important reason for wanting Akihiko, or maybe she was just testing me. Whatever the case, I was satisfied with the deal.


    I guess I''ll have to notify Akihiko about thister.


    "Well, that''s this done. Mizuhara-senpai, do you have something that you want to do?"


    "Not particrly."


    She sighed. She looked at a gathering of people outside the room. It seemed that there was a bit of amotion beginning to happen in a nearby library room. Arge number of people were alling together.


    "Is that your ss, Mizuhara-senpai?"


    The students did appear to be from 2-C.


    I guess I''ll be expecting a message soon, at this rate.


    A few momentster, my assumption was fulfilled.


    My phone vibrated.


    -


    To: 2-C


    From: Kaoru Hiroto


    We will be having an urgent ss vote in library room 08. Every single student from ss 2-C is expected to attend. If you do not, the future of the ss may be jeopardised. I am personally calling for each one of you toe.


    Please, the ss depends on this.


    -


    Ah, Kaoru-san seemed to be quite distressed. This message confirmed what I thought was happening. Furukawa must be making a move to take over leadership.


    Still, I was somewhat surprised by how poorly this was all turning out for Kaoru. She was unconditionally crushed by Furukawa despite her reliable leadership for all those weeks. I guess her mental state was weaker than I had previously imagined.


    "Is there some political discourse in your ss?"


    I looked over at Matsuoka.


    "I suppose you could say that."


    Sheughed a little.


    "Ah, even 2-C seems to be struggling. And I was here thinking that you had the most unified ss in the entire school."


    It seemed that Matsuoka knew about the system that we had as well.


    "Something like this was always destined to fail."


    Matsuoka got out of her seat.


    The raucous outside had made this quiet sanctuary a little lessfortable. Since Matsuoka-san appeared to be leaving, I decided to do the same. It''d be interesting to see what''s going on with the rest of ss 2-C anyway.


    "You can leave first, Mizuhara-senpai. I assume you don''t want other people getting suspicious of our rtionship, do you?"


    "I don''t care that much. But I guess it''d be helpful if we left at different times."


    Sheughed a little andid back in her seat.


    ...


    With that, I left the room and joined up with the rest of ss 2-C.


    At first, the group didn''t notice me until Hamasaki turned around and saw my presence at the back of the pack. I was a little confused as to why they weren''t entering the room.


    "Mizuhara! Apparently, Furukawa and Kaoru are arguing inside right now."


    "Oh. Is that why everyone''s waiting outside."


    "Yeah, the door''s locked anyways; we have to wait for them to let us in."


    There was frantic chatter throughout the group. I assumed that the librarian woulde over and give them a stern talking-to soon enough, although the library was rtively empty, so they might just let it pass.


    This was a school of freedom, after all.


    ...


    A few momentster, the door was unlocked, and students quickly flooded inside.


    I followed in the back, entering along with everyone else.


    "...What''s going on?"


    "...Did Karou and Furukawa have a fight?"


    The first one inside was Itsuki, Furukawa''s most loyal friend—or maybe girlfriend. It took a little while for everyone to get seated and for the chatter to die down.


    But finally, everyone gathered around the table and looked anxiously at Karou and Furukawa.


    She began to talk.


    "Alright, everyone, Furukawa and I have decided that we''re going to do this the right way."


    She took a breath.


    "The future of this ss will be decided by you guys, as I have always wanted."


    Kobayashi was the next to speak up.


    "But Kaoru! We can''t just decide something like this on a whim!"


    "If Furukawa loses the vote, he will transfer down a ss. That''s the negotiation I made with him."


    "But still!"


    Karou lifted her hand and gestured for Kobayashi-san to stop. At this point, all it was doing was hurting Karou''s honour. In a ss of such discipline, even the slightest sense of disorder at the top would be enough to destroy everyone''s trust in the system. I suppose this was Kaoru''s way ofbatting this.


    Still, she had no way of assuring her own victory. It was a very big risk for her.


    The room suddenly went silent.


    Kaoru reluctantly spoke once again.


    "Alright, let''s have this vote. It will be very simple, whoever has more votes will be the new leader of the ss."


    ...