Parameter Supremacy: The Man Who Seizes a Harem Through Sheer Effort. - Chapter 82.

Episode 82: Two-Timing Bastard.

Sagara Ryuuji’s POV.

I directed my gaze forward.

“Everyone, I need a little of your time. There’s something I want to talk about regarding the rumors between me and Isshiki.”

The moment the final class ended, I stepped up to the front of the classroom and spoke loud enough for every classmate to hear, almost like a teacher about to begin a lesson.

I swept my eyes across the entire class. Every single gaze pierced into me.

Shiina and Matsuri-chan both wore serious expressions.

Moe had a somewhat entranced look on her face.

Satou… looked slightly shocked. That was only natural. After all, the person at the center of the rumor he himself had spread was now stepping forward to address it. It must have made him uneasy.

“Is everyone free right now? I’ll keep it short, so I’d appreciate it if you could stick around.”

I asked the class.

No one voiced any objections. Most classmates simply exchanged glances with their friends, clearly wondering what was about to happen. Even the few students who had been lazily scrolling through their phones put them away and turned their attention to me.

“Looks like no one has any plans. Sorry about this, but please bear with me for a bit.”

I spoke as confidently as I could, determined to take control of the situation.

Thanks to the daily parameter grinding I’d been doing, I had grown far more self-assured. A situation like this no longer rattled my heart or caused me to panic.

“First off, about the rumor that’s been going around—supposedly, even though I’m dating Shiina, I’m also having an affair with Isshiki. That’s the gist of it, right? Does anyone have any objections or corrections?”

I looked around the room. No one spoke up. When my gaze landed on them, they all uniformly shook their heads.

“Then I’ll continue.”

“The content of the rumor has shifted slightly since it first started circulating. The actual rumor goes like this: even though I’m dating Shiina, someone saw me leaving Isshiki’s house together with her. Therefore, I’m cheating. In simple terms, that’s it. Has anyone heard the rumor in exactly those terms?”

When I scanned the room, one female student raised her hand. She sat next to Kakki—Kakki’s neighbor. I was pretty sure her name was Sekiguchi.

“Thank you, Sekiguchi. Have you heard this rumor?”

“Yeah. What I heard was exactly what Ryuuji-kun just said. Someone saw the two of you coming out of Isshiki-san’s house, so you’re cheating. That’s what I remember.”

“Thanks. By the way, when was this?”

“First week of September.”

“Appreciate it. We’re currently in the third week of September, so it makes sense that the early version of the rumor claimed, ‘I saw Ryuuji coming out of Isshiki’s house, so he’s cheating.’”

The atmosphere in the room wasn’t bad. From where I stood, I could see several students nodding properly as they listened.

“First, let me be clear: it’s true that I went to Isshiki’s house.”

Instantly, the classroom stirred. “I knew it,” “So it was real,”—a mix of disappointment and curiosity at the rumor turning out to be partially true. That was the kind of reaction I expected. Which is why I told the truth.

“But there was a proper reason for it.”

The buzzing classroom gradually fell silent as everyone shifted into a posture of listening.

“Moe? Is it okay?”

I checked with Moe, and she gave me a firm nod.

“I think most of you know I was hospitalized at the end of July. That was because I got injured while protecting Isshiki from a thug who attacked her.”

I rolled up the sleeve of my uniform and showed them the raw, vivid scar on my right arm. The classroom stirred again. I thought I even heard a small shriek from one of the girls at the sight of the scar.

“It took four weeks to fully heal.”

“I’m originally an orphan who grew up in a facility, and right now I live alone. Isshiki’s mother felt sorry for me and kindly invited me to stay and recuperate at their house for those four weeks until I recovered. At the time, I couldn’t use my right hand, so I gratefully accepted. If you think I’m lying, you can ask Isshiki’s parents. Of course, Shiina already knows about this.”

Shiina nodded vigorously and said, “Yeah,” in a loud voice.

The classmates who saw that exchanged glances and silently urged me to continue. It seemed they had each spotted the discrepancies between the circulating rumor and reality.

“During that recovery period, at some point, the person who spread the rumor must have seen me leaving Isshiki’s house together with her.”

I turned my gaze toward Satou. He awkwardly averted his eyes. That subtle reaction made it feel like he was practically announcing he was the culprit.

“As for the rumor that Isshiki is my affair partner—that is completely groundless. Yes, I was staying at her house, but it was a fully approved recuperation by both families. Naturally, my guardian also gave consent. So? Does that clear things up?”

My classmates nodded as if they were convinced. Both Moe’s and my guardians, as well as Shiina—who had been seen as the victim—were all fully aware of the situation. That alone made the truth of the rumor obvious.

For now, I had achieved my main objective. In a few days, today’s conversation would become the new rumor and naturally restore Moe’s reputation.

Satisfied, I began to step down from the platform.

That was when—

***

“Then what about your relationship with Shiina? And what exactly is your relationship with Moe?”

The classroom fell deathly silent once more. Satou Minato directed a dark, sharp glare at me as he asked the question. Shiina, Moe, and Matsuri-chan all shot him stern looks upon hearing his words.

“…”

“Why are you staying quiet? Got something to hide?”

Honestly, I had expected a question like this. I already had an answer prepared.

However, while it was fine to state the facts, the current state of my relationship with Moe was still extremely ambiguous. It wouldn’t be strange if it was interpreted as cheating.

If I handled this poorly, everything I had said so far would become meaningless. Time to steel myself.

I made up my mind and stepped back in front of the lectern.

“May I make one correction first?”

Satou nodded silently in response. His gaze remained sharp.

“It seems I’ve been rumored around school as a cheating scumbag. Sorry, but I’m going to correct that.”

Even the classmates who had been whispering “two-timer” and “cheater” behind my back swallowed hard and waited for my next words.

“I’m not a cheating scumbag… I’m a two-timing bastard.”

Upon hearing my bold declaration, my classmates looked at me with bewildered expressions. The girls’ stares stung a little, but there was no turning back now.

Shiina and Matsuri-chan were clearly holding back laughter.

Moe… why the hell are you crying?

“What do you mean by that?”

Satou still didn’t seem to understand the meaning behind my words. If I explained it, he would probably taste utter despair. But that was fine with me, wasn’t it?

Alright.

“It means exactly what it sounds like. I’m dating both Shiina and Moe. Both of them are my girlfriends.”

“Wha—!?”

Satou’s face looked like that of a criminal who had just received a death sentence. He was at a complete loss for words.

“Get it? Both of them are my girlfriends. So I’m not cheating on anyone, and Moe isn’t secretly having an affair with me behind Shiina’s back. It’s all mutually approved. Right?”

I prompted Shiina and Moe for confirmation.

“Y-Yeah! Ryuuji and I are properly dating as lovers! And Moe and Ryuuji are lovers too!”

Shiina seemed a little flustered, but she firmly affirmed our relationship.

“I’m also Ryuuji-kun’s girlfriend. Shi-chan has accepted it, and now both of us are Ryuuji-kun’s lovers.”

In that instant, the classroom erupted.

With tears of joy glistening in her eyes, Moe affirmed my impromptu lie. No—it was probably no longer a lie. The time had finally come to move our relationship forward. That was what I thought.

Matsuri-chan was cackling while watching Satou’s expression.

The reactions from the rest of the class were varied. Some looked shocked, some girls shot me looks of contempt, others were making a commotion, and a few idiot guys were even praising me for managing to get two girlfriends.

At any rate, the rumor had now been overwritten with something far more sensational.

Even if new rumors started spreading after this, they would probably paint me as either a flashy scumbag who was two-timing or a bastard who stole two childhood friends from Satou.

Yeah. Not bad at all. Both were technically true, and at this point, such rumors wouldn’t shake me anymore.

Just before stepping down from the platform, I took one last look at Satou’s face.

In the end, I couldn’t see his expression properly—it was hidden behind his bangs. Satou simply stared down at his desk, hands clenched and trembling.

My condolences.

I’m not handing Shiina or Moe over to you anymore.

Sorry about that, protagonist.

***

Satou Minato’s POV.

I dashed into the boys’ bathroom at school.

“Ugh… blegh… geh… haa… haa… haa…”

I threw up everything I had eaten for lunch—the katsudon from the cafeteria. There was nothing left but gastric juices now. It felt disgusting.

And it was all Sagara’s fault. Damn it, damn it, damn it.

Click, click, click, click.

“Huh?”

A faint, nostalgic, pleasant scent suddenly wafted over me.

Something cold touched the nape of my neck while I was crouched in front of the toilet bowl. Then it pricked my skin just a little.

“Cold!”

“If you move, I’ll stab you.”

Who was it? Someone was pressing a blade against my neck…? Huh? Who?

“Hello, Minato-kun.”

I recognized that voice. It was the gentle, slightly lispy, sweet voice I had heard every day until a few months ago. There was no way I could mistake it.

“…Moe, what the hell are you doing?”

Was she really pressing a blade against my neck?

“Fufufu, as expected of my childhood friend. You recognized me from my voice alone~”

Her tone was the same as always—the voice of the timid Moe. Yet there wasn’t even a trace of timidity in the way she spoke.

“What, did you become Sagara’s woman just to come laugh at me?”

“Nope. I came today to say thank you~”

“…Thank you? …Then put that blade away already.”

“No can do~ To be honest, I was planning to do something really nasty to you.”

“Something nasty?”

“Yup. By the way, what exactly I was planning to do is a secret~ Fufufu.”

“…What the hell are you?”

“I already told you, didn’t I? I came to say thank you. Thanks to the boring rumor you spread, it looks like I’ll be able to start dating Ryuuji-kun. Thank you~”

“…You knew about the rumor… Aren’t you angry with me?”

“I was angry. Angry enough to want to kill you. But something nice happened today, so I’ll let it slide.”

A chill ran down my spine at the affectionate tone coming from Moe, and I shivered.

“I see… Are you really okay with this?”

“Huh? With what?”

“Betraying your childhood friend… Becoming Sagara’s woman. Are you seriously fine with that?”

“Yeah. I’m happy about it, but why do you ask?”

“Because… once you become his girlfriend, he’ll probably demand all sorts of things, right? Surely…”

“Ah, you mean sex?”

“S-Sex, well… yeah, that kind of thing.”

“It’s fine because we’re dating~ Minato-kun, you’re so slow.”

“Tch, what the hell… You’re acting completely different from your usual character…”

“Am I? Fufu. As thanks for today, I’ll tell you something good, Minato-kun.”

“…What?”

I could feel Moe, standing behind me, leaning closer. Her hair brushed teasingly against my shoulder.

The sweet scent of my childhood friend grew thicker, invading my nostrils.

Her breath tickled my right ear. A shiver ran through me. My lower body twitched slightly in response.

In a hushed whisper, as if revealing a precious secret only to me, she said:

“Shi-chan… isn’t a virgin anymore.”

“Gah—!?”

“Fufufu, what a nice voice. That’s the sound of a childhood friend who just had his girl stolen.”

My brain felt like it was burning.

“Oh, right. Here, you dropped this. See you later~”

Clatter.

The blade pressed against my neck fell to the floor. When I looked closely, it was just an aluminum ruler. The one that should have been in my pencil case.

Footsteps receded into the distance.

Moe’s sweet lingering scent slowly faded away.

Damn it… damn it… damn it, damn it, damn it… Damn iiiiiit…!

“Gah… ah… ah… hic… aaah… aaaaah… AAAAAAAAAAAHH… AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH…!!”

My roar echoed uselessly through the boys’ bathroom.