Ryunosuke arrived at the Chairman's office, took a deep breath, then pushed the door and stepped inside.
"What do you need from me, Chairman?"
He understood this might be related to Ayanokouji's father, but he still acted as if he didn't know anything.
Narumori pointed to the sofa beside him, signaling him to sit. Ryunosuke walked closer without hesitation, but just as he was about to land his bottom on the sofa, Narumori's words were heard.
"Can I entrust Arisu... for you to watch over for a while?"
Ryunosuke's hands immediately gripped the sofa armrest tightly, holding his body back from sitting down. Very draining because he had to support his entire body weight with his hands, clearly showing he didn't want to accept this task.
Because he felt once he sat down, he would have no choice but to agree.
Narumori looked at him with a somewhat resigned expression; seeing the young man struggling to keep himself from sitting on the sofa felt quite amusing to him.
"Do you have to be that hyperbolic? My daughter shouldn't be that troublesome..."
"Very troublesome, you know!!!" Ryunosuke replied loudly, then prepared to get up to leave.
As if having anticipated this, Narumori adjusted his glasses and said in a pretend-thinking tone.
"How about 20 million personal points?"
Ryunosuke's movement to open the door stopped. He was clearly tempted, but didn't immediately agree. He was weighing the pros and cons.
Narumori didn't rush him, just looked at him calmly.
A long time later, Ryunosuke let out a long breath and gave his answer.
"Can you give me time to consider it? I can't make a decision right now..."
Narumori signaled it was fine; he could wait. Along with that, he threw a new phone to him.
Ryunosuke caught it with both hands and asked in confusion.
"What's this?"
"You might need it later, just keep it for now." Narumori answered enigmatically without explaining the phone's function, then waved his hand as a signal to leave.
Ryunosuke felt strange, but he didn't say anything more. He pocketed the new phone and left the Chairman's office.
Watching his departure, Narumori sighed softly. "Consider this a backup plan. If something undesirable happens on my end, I can only entrust Arisu to him."
He took a stack of documents and returned to his routine tasks.
◆━⊰✿✧✿⊱━◆
Not long after, shocking news spread that Chairman Sakayanagi was allegedly involved in a corruption case and was under investigation.
The first person to feel anxious was of course Arisu; she didn't believe her father was involved in corruption. There was clearly something wrong behind this.
The reality was indeed so. Atsuomi deliberately framed Narumori so his son could be forced out of school. He mobilized the investigation department to examine Narumori. During this investigation period, Narumori's position as Chairman would be suspended.
And the person he had prepared, Tsukishiro, would become the Acting Chairman. That way, Atsuomi could intervene in school affairs.
Narumori accepted the investigation cooperatively. However, even though he was truly clean, the investigation process alone took three months, and clearing his name and clarification would take another three months. Back and forth this process would take half a year.
And that was Atsuomi's main goal: to use this half year to get his son expelled from school!
The night before Narumori officially underwent examination, he invited Ryunosuke to meet again. This time they arranged to meet at a movie theater.
Narumori looked much thinner; one could imagine how much pressure he was experiencing.
The reason he was reported was due to accusations of admitting many students to Advanced Nurturing High School through the "back door." In short, he was suspected of accepting money from parents to admit them to this national elite school.
This was a serious problem that couldn't be taken lightly. Added to that, some time ago Narumori had indeed accepted a group of new students, so the accusation felt very timely. It was difficult for him to explain, so he was forced to accept the investigation.
Currently, the parents of the newly transferred students were being interrogated, and their bank fund flows were being checked to see the possibility of bribery.
Narumori sat in the movie theater, holding a bucket of popcorn and a can of beer in his other hand. Eating popcorn while drinking beer apparently gave a unique taste sensation.
Ryunosuke appeared from behind, sat down, and directly took Narumori's popcorn without hesitation.
Narumori didn't show any arrogance of a leader at all; he actually offered his popcorn bucket.
"Take as much as you want."
Ryunosuke grabbed the entire popcorn bucket into his embrace and began eating without courtesy.
Narumori smiled resignedly.
Ryunosuke finally spoke up. "Popcorn mixed with beer, only you would think of an idea like this. Aren't you afraid your stomach will hurt?"
Narumori knew the other party was actually worrying about him, so he chuckled softly. "I didn't expect you to be a good child who respects elders."
However, Ryunosuke refuted. "Don't misunderstand. If you die, who else can I collect money from?"
"Oh?" Narumori's hand movement holding the can stopped, he looked at him strangely. "So you agree?"
"Is there any other choice? You old man won't be here, and your daughter's leg is having problems. If I don't help watch over her, then who else?!"
Ryunosuke extended his hand. "Give me the points! Money upfront, then work."
Narumori laughed heartily. This was the first time he met such an interesting child. He immediately transferred all his points.
The total was 28.64 million personal points.
Ryunosuke furrowed his brow deeper. "Wasn't the initial promise 20 million? What do you mean giving more?"
Narumori waved his hand casually. "That's all the points I have, take them."
"It's not certain I can return, those points won't be useful to me."
That wasn't what Ryunosuke was concerned about, but rather the amount of points. He looked at him strangely. "You're the Chairman of a big school, but your points are only 20-something million?"
Narumori drank his beer and rolled his eyes. "How many points were you expecting an honest official who doesn't do corruption to have? Besides, points are only important to be enough to spend, I don't save much."
"True enough..." Ryunosuke abandoned his intention to do additional extortion, while clicking his tongue internally.
(Why aren't you just a corrupt official? That way I could extort you without mental burden. Like this I feel bad, even feel like I'm evil and want to slap my own face...)
In the end, he agreed to Narumori's request to watch over his daughter.