During the break for lunch, I asked Horikita for a little bit of her time and led her out into the corridor.
"The answer was a red panda, okay?"
"That's not what I mean. There was something that bothered me about the test."
I hadn't expected her to hit me with what just happened so quickly.
"Just kidding. But I didn't think you would call me out. Did you have some advice for me?"
"Not exactly advice, but have you noticed the pattern in the order of the names when the attackers designated five names this time?"
"I wonder if there was such a pattern... I honestly didn't pay attention to the order. It wasn't in alphabetical order, or boys first and then girls either, was it?"
"I can't say for sure unless I ask the attackers from other classes, but there was no consistent pattern on the five people you named. In other words, they show in the same order as the leader voices them."
"I see. That might be true. So?"
"What caught my attention was Sakayanagi's naming order from the second to the fourth turn. At that time, Kōenji was targeted three times in a row, and he was first each time."
"In other words, she had decided to target Kōenji-kun by the second round, and continued to target him first until he got it right...? And during the second round, wasn't Yukimura-kun also wrong?"
"Yes, Kōenji would be a threat if you look at his pure ability, but Keisei is definitely more of a hassle in terms of overall ability. Yet, Sakayanagi didn't even nominate Keisei, who had made a mistake, in the third round."
"I thought she had simply read me wrong. She might have decided that I would protect him because I deemed Yukimura-kun important, right?"
"Indeed, she might have excluded Keisei as an attack target for that reason. But Kōenji's explanation doesn't add up. He was wrong twice in a row in the second and third rounds, but after he got it right in the fourth round, his name didn't show up at all in the first half of the battle from the fifth round onwards. It makes sense if he was protected, but he got the answer right in the fourth round on his own. So the other side should know that we didn't protect him even once."
"Sakayanagi-san had Kōenji-kun on her radar early on. Even though he made two mistakes and was on edge, she stopped attacking him as soon as he got one right. That seems unnatural."
It was better to create as many eliminations as possible. She should have continued to attack since he had a high chance of not being protected.
"Was she wary of his knowledge?"
"If that were the case, she wouldn't have had to make the effort to target Kōenji from the start. That doesn't explain why she nominated him three times in a row."
"...Does Sakayanagi-san know about the promise I made with Kōenji-kun?"
"That's a natural assumption. Given that there's a promise, Kōenji most likely wouldn't take it seriously, and you wouldn't protect him until he fails twice—she must have taken that into account."
Of course, there was also a chance that Kōenji would seriously answer the question or that Horikita would protect him from the start. But in that case, she should've quickly excluded Kōenji as an attack target from the third round onwards.
"But then, why did she not target him after the fifth round? I chose not to protect him with the protection slot, didn't I?"
"That choice is exactly why. When her aim to force you to use up one protection slot on Kōenji fell through, she saw no benefit in eliminating Kōenji. Rather, she decided it would be a loss."
"Even though she can get us to lose a point with each elimination?"
"Yes. You said before the test that you had a way to keep the damage to a minimum in case we ended up at the bottom. That choice was to eliminate Kōenji, wasn't it?"
"...You knew, huh?"
"The promise with Kōenji was not to 'expel' him, but to 'let him do as he pleases.' Since you didn't impose any restrictions on Kōenji in this special exam, it goes without saying that you kept the promise to let him do as he pleases. The other promise was to not let him be expelled. Even if Kōenji ended up being the only one eliminated, the expulsion could be avoided by coughing up the Protection Point."
Kōenji had won a Protection Point with his victory in the deserted island exam, thus giving him the right to prevent his own expulsion.
"That's right. I never promised to protect Kōenji-kun's Protection Point. As long as he isn't expelled, my promise holds. There is no reason to hold a grudge."
Even if we lost one point due to elimination, all we needed to do was use up Kōenji's Protection Point when others were eliminated. This meant there was no risk of someone being expelled due to the class coming in last place.
"However, I suppose I made everyone in class anxious by not protecting him."
"If you explain, Kōenji will realize your intention."
"Exactly. Still, it seems like he realized that I wasn't guarding him really quickly. It would've been easier to manage the second half of the battle if he had been eliminated early."
So, Kōenji got the answer right on his own.
He thought it was too much of a hassle to have his Protection Point stripped from him.
"It's reasonable to assume that Sakayanagi, given her personality, didn't want to relieve the pressure of 'a possible expulsion' against our class," I said.
"Yes, her personality is reflected in every action she takes. But why didn't Kōenji-kun aim to answer correctly from the first question?"
"I can't answer that. He might have thought that it wasn't too late to start from the third question. Anyway, what I want to say is that there may be students in the class who are leaking information to the other classes."
I decided to tell her, judging that this was for the sake of not only the current exam but for future ones as well.
"Thank you. I will be careful about that from now on."
"Let's end the discussion here. What are you going to do for lunch?"
"I didn't have time to make a boxed lunch, so maybe I should go to the cafeteria. How about you?"
"Well, I might as well. Kei is probably having a staring contest with her phone."
As I answered her, turning towards the classroom, Horikita nodded as if she understood.
In the first half, Kei was not nominated by Sakayanagi and got through unscathed.
But of course, that didn't mean she was safe. She could be eliminated in a minimum of three questions.
She wanted to cram knowledge into her head, even if just barely, to avoid that.