When I read the heart of the never-smiling princess, for some reason she had already fallen head over heels in love for me.

Chapter 25 : The Suspicious Princess

The way things are going, it’s definitely not good. Panicked, I stepped back from her and brought up a different topic.

“C–come to think about it, it was kind of amazing how you figured it out. The fact that something was hidden over there”

It was a bit awkward, but it was also something I wanted to ask.

How was Minami-san able to figure out the hiding spot? Even though unlike us, she hadn’t even searched.

It was less suspicion and more pure curiosity. Minami-san is the school’s top genius, and she’s done things before that we couldn’t even imagine. Even the other student council members probably just assumed, “It’s Minami-san, so of course she pulled it off,” and didn’t bother asking about it without doubt.

‘Mou, you’re always jumping to serious stuff already.’

Her cute, sulky voice made my heart skip a beat yet again.

‘Your that part is really, really something, you know that?’

Letting out a small sigh, Minami-san said in a theatrical tone, “It’s just a simple deduction, my dear Watson.”

Getting to hear the reasoning of a beautiful detective up close? Now that’s quite the treat I tell you.

“The club members were already constantly fidgety and some managed to glance at one specific spot. And that specific spot was the cardboard box, so I figured something was up there.”

“So you didn’t know what was inside?”

“Yeap. I only found out when you started walking towards that, Takaaki-kun.”

I see. But Minami-san’s observational skills are terrifying.

“And you figured out they were hiding it from the advisor at that moment too?”

“Yes. If their clubroom was that clean, it just makes it more suspicious when they overreact to a simple surprise inspection like this. Their concern was not about the club budget assessment, maybe, but more so it must be something else they’re afraid of. I had a more or less good grasp of the club teachers’ info, so I deduced they were scared of the advisor.”

She figured all that out in the split second after the mahjong set was discovered?

Minami-san is incredible.

—Or so I thought.

(Can someone really do that?)

From the moment I showed her the mahjong set to when she started explaining, maybe two or three minutes had passed at most. And she didn’t even know what was hidden.

Could she really deduce a gambling mahjong scheme in such a short time, when she is acting like she was completely blind about that beforehand?

…Maybe I should probe a bit more.

“Come to think of it, Minami-san, you even put pressure on the club president, didn’t you? When he asked if you’d report to the advisor, you acted like you knew everything to scare him into confessing.”

“That’s an evil way to put it. But, yes.”

“You were bold to push like that with just circumstantial evidence.”

“More like, that’s when I became all the more certain. I had deduced they didn’t want the teacher to find out, but there was a chance I was wrong. Given his reaction, I confirmed that I was on the right track though.”

So she put a trap to test him. Well given the circumstances, it makes sense.

But something still feels off.

Minami-san could probably hide any uncertainty behind a poker face, but even so, she was just too confident about it.

Almost like she knew about the truth beforehand.

The reason for this doubt, her actions overall, the seed of all traces back to from her suspicious behavior in the past.

Sometimes, Minami-san seems to know things I haven’t told her or even shows insight into my personality that I haven’t revealed. Like my part-time job—she knew about it even though I never told anyone about it.

She probably—no, definitely—has a secret no one else has noticed.

And with this present incident, I’ve started to think it as true more and more.

(…Now’s my chance to set a trap.)

Being alone with her at this distance is a rare opportunity.

Pushing past my hesitation, I stepped closer, entering the range of my ability’s effect.

“You realized the baseball team was gambling with mahjong in that short time? That’s really amazing.”

“Nope, that’s not such big of a deal.”

‘Ah, crap.’

After that strange inner voice, Minami-san immediately spun on her heel.

“TakaakiIDENTALly forgot—we’re getting left behind by Nozomi and the others. We have more inspections remaining, so let’s hurry.”

“Hey, wait—”

I tried to stop her, but Minami-san jogged off, leaving me behind.

No inner voice came through during the one-minute duration of my ability, as if she wasn’t thinking anything at all.

(“Crap,” is it?)

In this situation, it could be interpreted as she panicked because Saeki and the others were out of sight.

But is that really it?

It could also fit in as if she panicked about something else.

Like, say, realizing I was trying to get her real self and motivations out somehow.

(This is just a ridiculous idea. But…)

While I was filled with an uneasy feeling, I chased after her.

The surprise inspections are meant to be finished off in a single day. Otherwise, students might catch wind of the commotion and hide incriminating items and clean up their rooms.

So, even after the baseball team’s inspection, we continued storming into other clubrooms one after the other.

“Nooo! Please, anything but that! I’m begging you!”

“I’ll definitely take it back home, I promise! Don’t! Please don’t read it!”

From behind the door Jiro and I were guarding, we kept hearing screams—or something like it—nonstop.

The room beyond us was used by the literature club, which only had female members. Out of consideration, Minami-san had led an all-female team to raid it.

When we heard some alarming noises, Jiro and I debated peeking inside, but Minami-san poked her head out at just the right moment and declared, “No boys allowed.”

Because of that, we had no way of knowing was happening in there.

“…No boys allowed, she says?”

“Seems like it.”

“Wanna know what’s going on?”

“You value your life?”

“Fair enough.”

As Jiro and I exchanged wry smiles, the door suddenly slid open.

As I and Jiro moved towards the window pane, Minami-san emerged, looking as calm as ever. While Saeki and Hoshino, following her, had bright tomato red faces and were staring at the floor in embarrassment.

Jiro raised an eyebrow, glancing at them before asking Minami-san.

“J–just what happened?”

“There were quite a lot of personal items, so we asked them to take those back home. Otherwise, the room was used cleanly.”

“Personal items?”

“Don’t ask!”

The one who screamed was Saeki.

As Jiro blinked in confusion, Saeki’s cheeks flushed even harder, as she groaned, “Uuuu.”

“I can’t … it was just too… intense…”

“…Ish-wazz-wildddd.”

Hoshino nodded vigorously. Just what the heck happened? Minami-san’s completely unfazed though.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Saeki pressed a hand to her chest and smiled at Minami-san.

“But still seriously, Minami, you’re amazing. Finding something hidden in a place like that?”