The discussion, initiated by Morishita's surprise attack, had reached the five-minute mark, and it was moving on to the representatives' nominations.
"The discussion turned quite tumultuous from the start, didn't it?"
"Looks like it."
Both Sakayanagi and Ryūen, after carefully watching the discussions, chose first to share their impressions.
"So… what will you do, Ryūen-kun? There were a few hints that seemed promising."
Just like when taking the initiative by using the traitor rights, Sakayanagi made a move here first.
In the earlier discussion, several pieces of information, possibly serving as leads, had already emerged.
Komiya and Takanashi exchanged glances as mentioned in Tamiya's testimony. And it was Tamiya and Nakaizumi who pointed out those glances. It's quite possible that one of these sides could very well be the pair of honor students.
However, of course, there were no guarantees. It would be quite risky to start from the first round, given that there were only a few hints given, no more nor less than that.
But if Ryūen decided to pass here, at the end of the first round, Sakayanagi would automatically receive information about a random participant due to the traitor role's effect. To prevent this, he had to initiate an interrogation to eliminate the traitor. Moreover, even if Ryūen were to forcefully make a nomination, he absolutely must avoid the traitor. A wrong accusation would cost him two lives, and the traitor rights would be restored to Sakayanagi.
That would inevitably make it difficult to nominate students from his own class.
Ryūen reflected on the earlier discussion without uttering a single word.
Who was lying, and who was telling the truth.
For the past two years, though he had temporarily stepped down, he continued to reign as the king of his class.
Now, his true worth was being tested.
Having used all the given time to make his nomination, the time to check his answers had finally arrived.
'Ryūen-kun has made an incorrect nomination and will lose one life.'
While Sakayanagi chose to pass, Ryūen chose to nominate, knowing the risks, and appointed Tamiya as the honor student. However, he didn't consider it a setback, treating it as a necessary expense instead.
Since the opponent had made a move with the traitor's rights, he had to go onto the offensive.
"Unfortunately, it seems you missed."
"It's no big deal. But for someone acting all high and mighty, you ended up on the back foot too, didn't you?"
"Hehe, maybe so. Haste makes waste, after all."
Sakayanagi nodded honestly without denying his claim, but she felt no sense of urgency.
Rather, she even thought it was a waste to guess the participants' roles prematurely.
In that sense, it was undesirable for the discussion to progress too quickly.
However, in the first round, two possible honor student pairs had unexpectedly emerged. If an honor student was identified at that point, another would likely be targeted in the next round, making a draw very possible. Considering that her traitor rights were used up, an early nomination didn't seem worthwhile.
On the other hand, Ryūen wanted to either reset the discussion as soon as possible or find the traitor.
And how he'd exercise the right to an interrogation was also a pressing question.
It was natural for Sakayanagi to choose to wait, aiming to increase the opportunities to think and torment Ryūen.
'Ryūen-kun will now temporarily leave the room for interrogation.'
Ryūen, having chosen to initiate an interrogation without a delay, immediately took action to expose the traitor.
"Best of luck to you."
If Ryūen made a wrong judgment here, he could lose even more lives.
Sakayanagi had chosen Takarajima Miko as the traitor, and Ryūen had chosen Nakaizumi for the interrogation. At this point, the search for the traitor in the current round was bound to fail. Ryūen returned to the classroom just two minutes after leaving.
Just asking 'Are you the traitor?' was enough to get an answer.
If you were to lie to Ryūen here, there was a risk of getting expelled on the spot.
For such a risk, there were no private points or class points worth protecting.
Since he declared that the participant wasn't the traitor, he didn't lose a life, remaining steadily at nine lives. Although an honor student was supposed to nominate someone to leave the room, the teacher was able to successfully block it, and it was reported that there were no dismissals. Afterward, Sakayanagi, who still had the traitor in the discussion, was given information about one participant's role.
Sakayanagi's tablet displayed that Morishita Ai was a graduate. The discussion was making progress, but this revelation was good news. If the capable Morishita continued to use her abilities carelessly, the discussion might progress too quickly, requiring an urgent nomination.
As the second round began, Morishita's pursuit started again. The monitor couldn't show who she investigated, but actions indicating that she was searching for new roles were beginning to show.
When the time for the representative nominations came, Sakayanagi unhesitatingly nominated Morishita as a graduate, deciding to eliminate her this turn. Ryūen also nominated Morishita, but only declared that she wasn't an honor student, avoiding unnecessary risks.
'Morishita-san has successfully been identified by Ryūen-kun as an executive role, and by Sakayanagi-san as a graduate, so Ryūen-kun will lose one life.'
Both had identified her, but Ryūen's lives slowly decreased to eight as he had not identified her specific role.
Sakayanagi, who wouldn't touch the Class C students where the traitor lurks, and the Ryūen who couldn't touch his class due to the dangers of the traitor.
Next, Ryūen called Kaneda out for the interrogation, returning after a similar amount of time had passed. Unable to eliminate the traitor, the roles ability revealed to Sakayanagi that Shimazaki was an underclassman.
Here, Sakayanagi took a moment to reorganize her approach. While the traitor provided useful information, she wanted to have Ryūen find them before all honor students or ordinary students were eliminated. If the traitor survived, he could gain a substantial amount of private points or a non-negligible amount of class points.
At this point, the dismissals thus far included Tamiya, whom Ryūen had failed to nominate correctly, and Morishita, who had been a graduate, leaving behind only 12 people. Ryūen would undoubtedly make a nomination in the next, third round.
His insight was accurate, and he nominated Class A's Shimazaki as having an executive role. Sakayanagi also nominated Shimazaki as an underclassman. By nominating the same student, a strategy that prevented an honor student from eliminating another participant was successfully implemented.
'Shimazaki-kun has been successfully identified by Ryūen-kun as an executive role, and by Sakayanagi-san as an underclassman, so Sakayanagi-san will gain one life.'
Since Sakayanagi realized who the underclassman was, she should've recovered two lives, but since Ryūen had also succeeded in his executive role nomination, balancing out, Sakayanagi's lives had only increased by one. As a result, she was back to having ten lives as Shimazaki left the room.
From there, Ryūen nominated Suminokura for the next interrogation. Another miss.
The next role revealed to Sakayanagi was that Kaneda was an upperclassman.
In the fourth round, Sakayanagi thought this was a critical turning point and nominated Kaneda as an upperclassman. On the other hand, Ryūen had made his move again, nominating Takanashi, who had been suspicious from the start, as an honor student.++
'Ryūen-kun has successfully identified Takanashi-san as an honor student. Additionally, Sakayanagi-san has successfully identified Kaneda-kun as an upperclassman. Therefore, Sakayanagi-san will lose two lives and two new roles will be randomly disclosed to her.'
Although her lives had decreased to just eight, the information about the new roles were immediately reflected on her tablet, disclosing the roles of the two participants.
It was revealed that Komiya and Toba were both ordinary students. Following the previous announcement, this made their lives now eight to eight.
In the fourth interrogation, Ryūen finally called Takarajima out and successfully identified the traitor.
Among the remaining participants, Sakayanagi narrowed down the identity of the remaining honor student, and in the fifth round, nominated Yanagibashi as an honor student. Meanwhile, Ryūen chose Ishida as having an executive role, resulting in zero honor students and ending the discussion.
It was fair to say that Sakayanagi's preemptive attack yielded some results.
It left Ryūen with six remaining lives, while Sakayangi had eight.
Considering the start, it meant she had turned the tables and taken the lead.
During the discussion, there was almost no conversation between the representatives, and both sides fought a battle of silent nominations.
"In the next discussion, you should definitely use the traitor rights. It would be a shame to let it go to waste like this."
"Well, let's see."
Of course, the traitor rights was a system used to give an advantage to its user, but Ryūen had a reason why he couldn't use it, even if he wanted to. He wasn't keeping it as a trump card; for a certain reason, he had decided to impose a restraint on himself and seal it away.
In the next discussion, where Sakayanagi would no longer have the traitor rights, she would have to compete on equal or better terms.
[Second Discussion]
Participants:
2nd Year A Class
Shimizu Naoki, Machida Kōji, Yoshida Kenta, Fukuyama Shinobu, Motodoi Chikako, Yano Koharu, Rokkaku Momoe
2nd Year C Class
Kondō Reon, Suzuki Hidetoshi, Tokitō Hiroya. Nomura Yūji, Asagaya Mai, Shiina Hiyori, Fujisaki Rinna
The group containing Shiina, which Ryūen deliberately chose not to represent to gain an advantage, was selected.
Along with his selection, he had also desired for it to change his unfavorable situation
Contrary to those expectations, Sakayanagi smiled upon seeing that selection of students from Class C.
It was unclear how things would turn out, but the chance to detonate the bomb she had planted had come.