SWNOVELXO Chapter 129
Chapter 129: The Sudden Change
The next two days happened to be the weekend. Due to student council and club activities, Hikigaya had very little rest time. Although it was supposed to be a break, he basically spent the entire day on campus, essentially becoming a school workhorse!
However, there was a bit of a pleasant surprise. He and Tachibana got an opportunity to leave the school, albeit only for two hours and just as supervisors for their club, but it was enough to excite Hikigaya for quite a while.
As for the Sudo dispute, the deliberation was scheduled for Monday afternoon after school.
Hikigaya handed over the injury assessment report to Horikita. If C-Class stubbornly refused to accept the reconciliation conditions, this report would play a key role. He trusted that Horikita would know how to use this to negotiate with C-Class.
On Monday morning, when Hikigaya saw Horikita, her face looked awful.
“Did the negotiation with C-Class go poorly?” Hikigaya asked.
Horikita sighed and nodded. “C-Class refused to negotiate.”
Just as Hikigaya had anticipated, C-Class was not going to accept reconciliation easily. However, what Horikita said next left Hikigaya feeling deeply puzzled.
“C-Class somehow found out that we don’t have a ‘witness,’ so they refused to even meet with us.”
Horikita sighed again. “Looks like it will all depend on the meeting later.”
Her words made Hikigaya tense up, a vague sense of unease creeping in.
After school in the afternoon, Hikigaya arrived at the student conference room. C-Class’s Ishizaki and others, along with their class adviser, Sakagami-sensei, were already inside waiting. It wasn’t long before Horikita and Sudo arrived as well.
In addition to the defendant Sudo, Horikita had come as a defense witness. At this moment, Horikita seemed to be looking for someone, her expression full of dissatisfaction.
Hikigaya checked the time and walked over to Horikita, reminding her, “It’s almost time.”
Horikita was clearly irritated that Ayanokouji had yet to arrive. Just as she spoke, Ayanokouji finally showed up, albeit a little late.
“Ayanokouji, where have you been…” Horikita started to say, but she suddenly noticed the teacher, Chabashira-sensei, walking in with… a girl behind her!
“Sakura?” Hikigaya asked, shocked to see Sakura here. He instinctively asked, “Why are you here?”
“Ah, um, Horikita-san said that Hikigaya-kun was in trouble and that this dispute required me as a witness to testify, so I came. Also, um, about the camera…”
Sakura seemed a bit flustered as she trailed off, looking uncertain about what to say.
Hikigaya turned sharply to look at Horikita, but to his surprise, Horikita appeared equally confused. Meanwhile, Sudo, looking overjoyed, rushed over and hugged Ayanokouji, shouting, “This is great! Ayanokouji, you really found the witness! Now I’m saved!”
Ayanokouji expressionlessly pushed Sudo away, appearing completely uninterested, and quickly said, “You misunderstood. It was actually Horikita. She found the witness; I was just the messenger.”
“Ah, I see now! As expected, Horikita, you didn’t give up on me!”
Upon hearing Ayanokouji’s words, Sudo looked at Horikita with gratitude.
“Hey, Ayanokouji, what did you do? Why…”
At this moment, Horikita’s face was full of confusion, as though she had no idea what was going on with the series of events. Just as she was about to ask Ayanokouji, suddenly, Horikita seemed to realize something. She quickly turned and glanced at Hikigaya, who was standing nearby. His expression was so dark that it was downright terrifying.
“Hikigaya, I…”
Horikita was about to step forward and explain, but at that moment, Tachibana walked out of the meeting room and urged everyone that the deliberation was about to begin. Left with no choice, Horikita had to swallow the words she was about to say.
“Hikigaya-kun, did I… did I do something wrong?”
Sakura also noticed Hikigaya’s expression wasn’t right and quietly asked, her voice full of anxiety.
Hikigaya took a deep breath, forcing a smile to reassure her. “It’s nothing. Sakura, just tell them what you saw, nothing else matters.”
“Mm-hmm!”
Encouraged by Hikigaya’s words, Sakura also took a deep breath and nodded firmly, as if trying to motivate herself, before entering the meeting room.
At this point, the hallway was left with only Hikigaya. If anyone had been watching, they would have seen the cold and terrifying expression on his face.
Hikigaya had done so much before, not only because of a certain cold yet warm-hearted brother but also because he didn’t want Sakura to get involved. But in the end, the result was that the girl was dragged into it.
According to what Sakura just said, it was “Horikita” who found her, using the excuse that Hikigaya was in trouble or something else, and Sakura believed it, successfully luring her out as a witness to testify.
However, based on Horikita’s expression earlier, this matter was highly suspicious. And… he had previously reached an understanding with Horikita not to leak that Sakura was the witness, so he didn’t believe that Horikita would be someone who would break their trust and stab him in the back.
The only people who knew Sakura was the witness, apart from Hikigaya, were three people—so that left just two others.
Kushida was a possibility, but it was unlikely unless she was already prepared to go all the way against him. Given her current situation, that didn’t seem likely. That left only Ayanokouji!
As for which one it was, Hikigaya had a rough idea in his mind.
“Ayanokouji!!”
Hikigaya couldn’t help but clench his fists. He had roughly figured out the situation. Ayanokouji had probably used Horikita’s name to find Sakura, and then used some kind of wording or ambiguous information to manipulate Sakura into coming forward as a witness!
Unfortunately, Ayanokouji didn’t know about the understanding Horikita and he had privately reached. Otherwise, he would never have used Horikita’s name. And Hikigaya had already guessed who had leaked the information to C-Class and prevented the negotiation with them!
After all, there were only a few people in the room at the time!
Hikigaya also had a rough idea of Ayanokouji’s purpose: for Sudo! His initial intention of cutting off the witness route was to corner Sudo, but Ayanokouji had done something underhanded to turn the tables!
At this thought, a surge of anger rose within Hikigaya!
He wasn’t angry that his plan was disrupted, nor was he ashamed or enraged from being backstabbed. What truly angered him, what made him furious, was that in order to achieve his goal, Ayanokouji had dragged Sakura into this mess!
And on top of that, Ayanokouji had even used Horikita’s name, attempting to hide his own involvement?!
Did he really think I was a fool?!