92 - Now—this is Hikigaya Hachiman's stage!
At this moment, Shimotsukiuriuri Ouri slowly raised her head and asked:
"I've already finished reading the rules."
"But there's still the most important rule you haven't mentioned."
"You're asking how the outcome will be decided among the five of us, right?"
Ougatou Naoko saw through her doubt and clapped her hands as she spoke:
"Since, aside from Shimotsukiuri-san, the rest of us are grouped in pairs—"
"Then, we'll define the fourth and fifth place as the losers, and the first place as the winner."
"According to our wager, the losers not only have to compensate the winner with 1 billion yen, but also must publicly announce their defeat over the school's broadcast system."
"On top of that, the losers must become the winner's exclusive livestock. The master-slave relationship will be bound until the end of their lives—even after leaving the school, it cannot be nullified."
"No matter how bold or obscene the master's wishes are, the exclusive livestock cannot go against their will~"
"So then, does anyone have any objections to this?"
Ougatou Naoko looked around at everyone.
Saotome Mary was drenched in cold sweat, but at this point, there was no room for retreat. Clenching her teeth, she said:
"No objections!"
Hikigaya Hachiman gave a slight nod.
This was a gamble that none of the three could afford to lose.
Their future freedom was at stake!
"Then, I declare that the [Hidden Rules] officially begin!"
...
"Well then, I'll go first and take the upper seat." Naoko, the head of the old woman's group, stepped forward first and casually drew three cards from the rule card pool.
She carelessly ran her fingers across the cards one by one, finally stopping on the one in the middle.
"This will be my rule card~"
She placed the card face down on the table in front of her and then revealed a playing card from her hand.
A 3 of Spades was thrown onto the center of the table.
"I'm playing the 3 of Spades. This card complies with the rule. Next, it's your turn, Saotome-san."
Saotome Mary took a deep breath.
In truth, there wasn't much tacit understanding between her and Hikigaya Hachiman, but fortunately, they had prepared no less than three kinds of secret signals before the game began.
After the wristwatch signal was discovered, they had no choice but to rely on the simplest and most unassuming body language signals.
'This gamble uses a standard deck of playing cards—this is the best-case scenario, all our signals can be used!'
'As long as I'm in sync with Hikigaya-kun, we can win this gamble!'
'Hikigaya-kun's skills surpass mine, so I must pass him as many clues as possible!'
With that in mind, Saotome Mary didn't hesitate too long and casually drew a card from her hand, tossing it onto the table.
"2 of Hearts!"
"Too bad, it doesn't comply," Naoko said with feigned regret, shaking her head. "Next is you, Houko-chan."
"Hmm… then I'll go with the 6 of Clubs."
"Bingo! As expected of my little sister. Houko gets one point!"
Soon after, Hikigaya Hachiman's [3 of Hearts] and Shimotsukiuri Ouri's [2 of Spades] also failed to meet the rule.
After the round ended, Hikigaya Hachiman fell into thought.
'So far, the only cards that meet the rule are [3 of Spades] and [6 of Clubs].'
"Then I'll play this card. The [Queen of Hearts] complies with the rule!"
Saotome Mary's brows furrowed even deeper. She stuck her thumb into her mouth and bit it with her white teeth to calm herself.
'As it stands now, the pattern seems to be a doubling of the numbers: 3, 6, 12. But the highest number in poker is only up to 12.'
'Could it be a cycle? After 12, does it go back to 3…?'
Saotome Mary held her forehead, cold sweat dripping, and decided to trust her judgment. She slowly played a [3 of Clubs].
"Doesn't comply!"
"5 of Hearts!"
"Doesn't comply! Jeez, Houko-chan, what are you doing!"
Just like that, the seemingly pressure-free sisters began to playfully mess around in front of everyone, as if nothing was going on.
The pressure shifted once again to Hikigaya Hachiman.
The sisters wore expressions of complete confidence, not even bothering to acknowledge Hikigaya Hachiman as a threat.
To deduce the correct rule from the scant clues and among fifty possible rules—it was practically impossible. Even for the sisters themselves, they needed one person in the upper seat to pass on clues through signals to determine the right rule.
This is a rule of medium to high difficulty that was specially selected by Naoko Unfortunately for them…
They were facing Hikigaya Hachiman.
A reliable mystery novelist.
Hikigaya Hachiman's lips curled into a confident smile. Based on the clues given by the eight rounds of card play, Hikigaya had already deduced the correct rule.
'How arrogant... those Ougatou sisters…'
'Even though they could've used their signals to gain points early on, they let their guard down so brazenly.'
'Looks like they haven't realized what kind of gamble this really is… they don't know what it means to become a target of someone like me, Hikigaya.'
Hikigaya Hachiman had no intention of showing mercy. He rapped his fingers hard on the table, drawing everyone's attention:
"If my deduction is correct—"
The still-playing sisters suddenly stopped, stunned, and looked toward Hikigaya Hachiman in disbelief.
'No way… how could this guy be so fast…'
Shimotsukiuri Ouri silently raised her gaze, her eyes flashing with an icy gleam, her thoughts unknown.
Saotome Mary, on the other hand, let out a huge sigh of relief, feeling immensely grateful.
She remembered—Hikigaya Hachiman was… a guy with freakish powers of observation! On the very first day of school, he'd used nothing but the tactile feeling of drawing cards to pick out the winning card and defeat her. And his mind was unbelievably sharp.
With this guy around, there was no way they could lose a deduction-based gamble!
"The rule is: [Play multiples of 3 in the order of Spades → Clubs → Hearts → Spades]," Hikigaya Hachiman declared with absolute certainty, his eyes blazing as he stared down the frozen sisters of the Ougatou group.
In truth, even with pure deductive reasoning, not even someone like Hikigaya Hachiman could have arrived at the answer so quickly.
It wasn't just his reasoning ability—he had to mentally review all fifty rule cards he had just seen and combine them.
When Hikigaya Hachiman closed his eyes, he submerged himself into his inner world.
In the boundless palace of memory, rules cards were suspended in the air, arranged in perfect order by difficulty—constructed by Hikigaya himself.
His incredibly powerful deductive reasoning combined with near-instantaneous recall formed a perfect synergy—Hikigaya Hachiman's unbeatable strategy.
With the [Hidden Rule] format, as long as no cheating was involved, Hikigaya could confidently declare—no one could defeat him.
He didn't even need to collect information mid-game and pull a last-minute reversal like he used to.
This was his gamble—
[Hikigaya Hachiman's Rule].