Morning came, but Mikage Kou's desk remained untouched. The student council executive office on the first floor of Suikoudo. White fluorescent lights hung from the ceiling, casting a quiet glow across the room. Outside the window, morning had begun at Suirei Academy, and the sound of water drifted from the Rendezvous Fountain in the courtyard. Just another morning. Nothing out of place. It should have been just another ordinary morning. Kou sat in his chair, staring at a stack of documents. Or rather, he wasn't staring. His eyes were pointed at them, but nothing registered. His silver hair, cut short in front, was slightly disheveled, and strands of his usually perfect bangs fell across his forehead. His sharp blue eyes pierced through the papers in his hands, seeing somewhere else entirely. The vice president, a female student, entered the room just after eight in the morning. She approached Kou's desk and gently reached toward the documents. Kou didn't notice. The papers were upside down. The stack of documents he hadn't processed a single sheet of since last night sat there completely inverted. The vice president quietly turned them right-side up and checked Kou's face once. He was still staring into the void. She left without a word. Just before closing the door, she whispered toward the hallway in the smallest voice possible. "……The president is done for." The words never reached Kou's ears. Inside Kou's head, the same processing had been repeating at high speed since yesterday morning. ——I heard a voice in the hallway. A shout: "I like you." When I turned around, a dark-haired ojou-sama was standing there. Deep crimson eyes looking straight at me. ——Was that a confession to me? ——No. She said it herself. "I meant to tell my childhood friend Shiina Rui that I like him. I mistook you for him." ——So it wasn't a confession to me. ——But she shouted it at me. ——Then how am I supposed to process this? ——Do I need to process it? ——"You're not the one," she said. ——That should be the end of it. It should be the end, but—— "……Why won't it leave my head?" Kou spoke quietly to the empty room. His normally logical, polite tone was slightly frayed. The wrinkle between his brows was deeper than usual. In his entire life, there had never been a situation he couldn't process. His grades were near the top, and as student council president of Suirei Academy——a super-elite school attended by the children of the three major Tourin financial clans, with approximately twenty-four hundred students——he had judged dozens of issues on campus. As the second son of the Mikage family, he understood the meaning of not showing emotion on his face. And yet. Sanjou Shion. That name had been blinking in the corner of his mind since last night. Kou exhaled deeply. His eyes fell to the documents on his desk. Budget application for the Reijoufest. Equipment list for the athletic festival. Supplementary documents for scholarship review. All of it needed to be processed. None of it had progressed even a millimeter since last night. (Work. Just work, Mikage Kou. That's all.) Telling himself this, Kou picked up his pen. He held the pen and stopped again. "…………" He didn't notice the documents had flipped upside down again. --- At the same time, in the corner room on the top floor of the Winter Wing of the Four Seasons Dormitory at Suirei Academy, Sanjou Shion had a small notebook open. The room was spacious. A special suite three times the normal size, allocated as a result of negotiations between the Sanjou family and the academy. The morning view of Suirei City from the window was quiet, with the roofs of buildings lined along the hillside catching the morning sun and glowing. Shion sat on the edge of her bed in her uniform, writing something in the notebook. The cover read in neat handwriting: "Honesty Strategy—Records." On yesterday's page, it was written: "Phase One—Executed. Expressed emotions honestly. Misidentified target. Told 'I like you' to unknown silver-haired male instead of Rui. → Evaluated as partial success. Vocalization achieved. Zero points for honesty execution. Issue: Target confirmation." Shion opened a new page. (What should Phase Two be?) Her deep crimson eyes considered quietly. Her expression was completely blank. Perfectly blank, yet utterly serious. She had decided yesterday, upon turning twenty, to break the Sanjou family precept—the Seimen-ritsu, the "Law of Expressionless Face," a rule passed down for one hundred forty years that "showing emotion on one's face is a loss of dignity"——but she didn't expect it to be perfected in a day. She had no choice but to proceed steadily. (Expressing honest opinions. That will be Phase Two.) Shion wrote in her notebook: "Phase Two: State cooking opinions honestly. To be implemented at Hyakumirou during lunch. Motivation: Properly conveying gratitude and evaluation is fundamental to honesty. Execution time: Lunch period." She closed the notebook. (Good.) With perfect blankness, Shion gave a small nod. Preparations were complete. All that remained was to proceed according to plan. In the distance, the bell signaling the start of classes at Suirei Academy rang. --- Lunch period. Hyakumirou, the academy's student cafeteria——a two-story building with three hundred eighty seats, the first floor a general dining area serving daily set meals for six hundred fifty Rin——bustled with its usual energy. The clatter of dishes, voices, the aroma of spices drifting from the kitchen. Students lined up with trays. Today's special was curry. The sign read in handwriting: "Today's Recommendation: Head Chef's Special Curry." Shion lined up and received a tray of curry. Six hundred fifty Rin. Shion's monthly allowance was three million Rin, but that was irrelevant now. Today's objective was "to state opinions honestly." She sat by the window. Set down the tray. Picked up a spoon. Took one bite. Something began spinning at high speed in Shion's mind. In her twenty years growing up in the Sanjou family, she had eaten food of the highest standard at every meal. The kitchen in the Glass Palace was staffed by six people, including a head chef, with everything from ingredient selection to heat management meticulously controlled. That palate was now analyzing the curry. The spice blend was slightly different today. A bit too much coriander. The roux's viscosity was higher than optimal——well, Shion had never been here before, so she didn't know yesterday's taste, but she could sense the deviation from perfection. Seafood stock was used, but the heat distribution was uneven. Overall, it wasn't bad. Actually, it was delicious by normal standards. Just not perfect. Shion set down her spoon. She remembered the notebook. "State cooking opinions honestly." Honestly was the key word. She looked toward the cooking counter. A solidly built man in white chef's whites was working. Shiodata Mamoru——a veteran with thirty years of service, the legendary curry chef that Suirei Academy alumni fondly remembered as "Shiodata's curry"——though Shion didn't know this. It didn't matter. Shion stood up. She walked toward the counter. A few steps. Shiodata looked up. Shion, without a trace of hesitation, malice, or emotional disturbance on her face, spoke quietly. "This curry is terrible." Hyakumirou froze. A student carrying a tray stopped mid-step. Voices cut off. The sound of dishes ceased. The air of three hundred eighty seats solidified in an instant. Shiodata didn't move. Shion didn't move either. The expression of someone who had accomplished their task. Or rather, the expressionless face of someone who had accomplished it. Honesty Strategy Phase Two, execution complete. Five seconds passed. Ten seconds passed. The edge of Shiodata's apron, held in his white chef's whites, began to dampen quietly. "……Thirty years." A low voice. Deep and penetrating. A voice that carried to the far end of the cafeteria, quiet yet unmistakably clear. "For thirty years, I have……this curry……" Someone whispered somewhere. "The Sanjou ojou-sama just……did that……" Someone else answered. "Should we call the student council president……?" "Maybe we need an ambulance……" Voices rippled outward. One person stood up and ran toward the exit. Shion remained motionless throughout. She returned to her seat with the tray and took out her Honesty Strategy notebook. She began writing: "Phase Two—Execution complete. Successfully executed honesty precisely. Conveyed curry opinion directly to cooking staff." Her composure only deepened the cafeteria's panic. The surrounding students gradually shifted toward "what kind of expressionless ojou-sama is that?" Several had already lost their appetite. --- Kou burst into Hyakumirou at full sprint three minutes later. Upon receiving the report that "the head chef is crying in the cafeteria" and "the Sanjou ojou-sama is apparently responsible," Kou had abandoned his documents——or rather, thrown them——and started running. His silver hair was disheveled, his usually perfectly controlled breathing slightly ragged. He opened the cafeteria doors. Three hundred eighty seats turned to look at him all at once. Kou assessed the situation in three seconds. The head chef on the verge of tears. The ojou-sama writing something in a notebook. The mass of students maintaining silence. He headed first toward the head chef. He stood before the counter, meeting his eyes directly. "Shiodata-san." The head chef looked up. "Today's curry won the Best Cooking Award at last year's Reijoufest." Kou's voice was calm, yet unshakeable. The student council president mode was fully activated. "Thirty years of accumulation created today's flavor. It is the pride of Suirei Academy. Your cooking is genuine." Shiodata's shoulders relaxed slightly. He clenched his jaw as if holding something back and nodded silently. His eyes were still red. But he held on. Kou turned around without hesitation. The problem ojou-sama was there. Sanjou Shion. Jet-black semi-long bob. Deep crimson eyes. Wearing the Suirei Academy uniform perfectly, holding her Honesty Strategy notebook, looking at Kou. Kou opened his mouth to speak to Shion. In that instant, something detonated in Shion's mind. ——Yesterday's hallway. When I turned around, it was this person. Silver hair. Blue eyes. The face that received my shout of "I like you." A faint blush crept across Shion's cheeks. In her twenty years of life, her face had never grown warm from another person's gaze. The ojou-sama of the Sanjou family, raised under the Seimen-ritsu, was turning red right there in the middle of Hyakumirou. Kou noticed. At the same time, something stirred in Kou's chest. The image that had been looping all night began playing at high speed again. "I like you." "You're not the one." "You're not the one."—— (Calm down. This is business. Restoring order in the cafeteria comes first.) Kou forced his expression into perfect control. His sharp blue eyes fixed on Shion. "Sanjou-san." "……Yes." Shion's voice was slightly different from usual. She noticed it herself. Why did her throat feel strange in front of this person? She didn't know. But she didn't know, so this situation should be recorded. "In the future, could you please consider the place and audience for your remarks? Conveying cooking evaluations directly to the cooking staff——" "I judged that stating opinions honestly was part of honesty." Kou stopped. "……Honesty?" "Yes. I am currently in training to become honest. Stating opinions truthfully is part of that." Shion was utterly serious. Not a hint of jest. Her crimson eyes looked straight at Kou. Kou paused for a moment, about to say something, then stopped. (Training to become honest……why would she……no, that's not the issue right now.) "Stating opinions is fine, but you should also consider the other person's feelings and circumstances——"