After receiving the message from Yagami, Ryunosuke found himself in a bit of a dilemma.
He glanced toward Atsuomi, who sat right in front of him. The two of them actually shared no blood relation or any kind of bond whatsoever. Should he really step in to help Ichika?
Not long after, Ichika finally arrived at the principal's office. However, the cheerful expression that usually adorned her face had now vanished without a trace. Her face was replaced by a look of deep dread; she hung her head, her hands tightly gripping the hem of her skirt, and her body could not stop trembling from tension.
Seeing Ichika in this state, Ryunosuke did not know what to say. He should have left this place immediately, yet he chose to stay behind to monitor the situation.
Seeing Ryunosuke remain in the room, Atsuomi did not protest. He treated the man as if he were non-existent, then continued his sentence to Ichika:
"Amasawa, follow me back to the White Room."
"I don't want to!" For the first time, Ichika learned to rebel, but that would also be her last time.
Reflexively, she looked toward Ryunosuke. The gaze pleading for help was so distinct, forcing him to let out a long sigh in his heart and prepare to meddle in this business.
Atsuomi spoke once more with an expressionless face.
"Follow me back to the White Room!"
Because Ichika had received deep-level psychological suggestions during her time in the White Room, she was completely powerless to oppose Atsuomi's orders. Her body began to step forward beyond her own control, and in an instant, she would soon arrive in front of Atsuomi to leave with him.
Narumori did not take any action to block her either. He knew very well about this kind of deep suggestion method, which was a mandatory tactic for rulers to keep those below them obedient.
Furthermore, Ichika was someone belonging to his teacher, so he possessed no right to interfere.
If not for that reason, would Yagami and Ayanokouji—who clearly possessed adequate capabilities to flee elsewhere—choose to remain at Advanced Nurturing High School?
The reason was very simple. Because no matter where they fled, they would never be able to escape the clutches of Atsuomi's hands.
Meanwhile, this school was built using government funds, making Atsuomi's hands unable to reach this place freely yet. For that reason, this school became the best sanctuary for them.
*TAP!*
Ryunosuke suddenly took a step and stood blocking the path of Ichika, who had almost reached Atsuomi's side. Wearing an innocent, guiltless face, he scratched his hair and then spoke in a hesitant tone.
"I am very sorry. Ichika is my girlfriend. If you take her away just like that without permission, it will be very difficult for me."
Ichika's face instantly flushed fully ripe in a split second.
Narumori himself did not think anything untoward, because he could tell right away that this was merely a tactic and an excuse made by Ryunosuke for the sake of protecting Ichika.
Ichika certainly realized that fact. However, given the perverted nature of her mind, she still could not restrain herself from fantasizing in that direction. Furthermore, in the deepest recesses of her heart, she did possess those feelings. She actually quite liked Ryunosuke, so she took advantage of this opportunity to satisfy her heart's desire as well.
Ichika's heart could not stop beating furiously. She cupped both hands in front of her chest and then lowered her head, trying hard to pretend as though nothing had happened.
Atsuomi could certainly catch that underlying meaning. He knew the man in front of him was trying to prevent him from taking Ichika, no matter what the purpose was. He then straight away delivered a warning sentence.
"I am the legal guardian of Amasawa. All her adoption papers are in my hands; you possess no legal right whatsoever to interfere."
Ichika was indeed adopted by Atsuomi from an orphanage. Actually, the majority of the members in the White Room were children abandoned by their parents, or children from wealthy families who gave birth to two sons but had to sacrifice one of them due to inheritance disputes, who were then handed over to Atsuomi. This, of course, greatly facilitated his White Room experiments.
Do not consider this matter too exaggerated.
In front of big bosses who possessed wealth worth tens to hundreds of billions, having two heirs would instead become a very headache-inducing problem.
The two children would certainly fight each other for the sake of scrambling over the inheritance, and when that time arrived, who else would care about sibling bonds?
Therefore, for the sake of preventing this kind of situation from happening, wealthy and powerful people in general would only raise a single son. An example was the case that occurred with Koenji Rokusuke.
Koenji also knew very well that even if he did not exert any hard effort, all the wealth, family assets, and social status would in the end still fall into his hands. That was why he chose to live life in a relaxed and lazy manner.
In addition, he himself was indeed a genius since birth; he only needed to wait for his father to grow old and die naturally, then he could straight away inherit the family throne smoothly after learning the ins and outs of the family business.
However, of course, there were a few exceptional cases. For instance, like the existence of an illegitimate child out of wedlock. For the sake of preventing that child from seizing the inheritance from the legitimate child born by the lawful wife, the father would usually cast the illegitimate child far away, such as giving him a large amount of money and then telling him to leave.
If that illegitimate child still did not know his place and still intended to seize the inheritance, then the family party would be forced to use special means. For instance, like eliminating him..... or sending him into the White Room to rot there.
As for Ichika's case, the situation was slightly different.
Her biological father was currently still alive and well, and had absolutely never intended to abandon her. The reason why Atsuomi specifically bound that man's only daughter to his side was for the sake of controlling Tsukishiro so that he would be willing to work for him, while simultaneously making her an enforcement tool.
The girl's father, namely Tsukishiro, served as the Director of the Education Bureau, who possessed full authority to interfere in the affairs at Advanced Nurturing High School.
For that reason, Atsuomi chose to cooperate with him in order to be able to intervene in the school's internal affairs.
Very unfortunately, the former Acting Principal Tsukishiro had previously made a lot of messes for the sake of ousting Ryunosuke from the school, which culminated in the exposure of the dirty actions he performed to the higher-ups.
Even though all those actions were actually direct orders from Atsuomi.
For the sake of preventing that problem from turning back to attack himself, Atsuomi immediately cut off total ties with Tsukishiro, and used Ichika's safety as a threat so that the man would be willing to shoulder all the blame entirely alone.
Therefore, for Atsuomi, Ichika was a highly crucial chess piece to control Tsukishiro.
In any case, Tsukishiro knew all the illegal actions he had performed. That man only did not dare to act rashly because his daughter was within Atsuomi's grasp.
Actually, that matter was no longer very important now because the girl's father had already fallen from his position. This chess piece's status was now optional. However, if he could exchange her for a new chess piece that was far more useful to him.
Atsuomi reflexively shifted his gaze toward Ryunosuke, implying a meaning that was already very perfectly clear.
He wanted this particular chess piece.
If giving Ichika to the man in front of him could be exchanged for full assistance from Ryunosuke, then that was not a bad choice.
Ryunosuke felt a bit of a chill from being stared at so intensely like that, but he still stood tall protecting Ichika behind his back. The intent of his action was no less clear: he would not back down a single step.
Seeing both sides equally stubborn and refusing to yield, Narumori did not know what to do and chose not to get involved in that argument.
The atmosphere inside the room consequently became tense and deadlocked; no one wanted to give in.
Atsuomi took advantage of this moment to throw out a question in order to test the situation. "You say you are Ichika's girlfriend, do you have the proof?"
Ryunosuke straight away gripped Ichika's hand tightly, then raised it high in front of the man while asking back. "What other proof does a relationship like this even need? Do I need to practice the baby-making process right in front of your eyes? You absolute fool!"
"Huh?!" Ichika's brain instantly experienced an overload and failed to process the situation when her hand was suddenly taken in a tight hold by Ryunosuke.
In addition, after hearing that unbelievably blunt, perverted sentence, her face immediately flushed dark crimson like the color of a pig's liver. With mixed feelings of embarrassment and annoyance, she stamped her foot on the floor and then took advantage of that moment to kick Ryunosuke's leg, looking completely exactly like a pair of lovers who were drunk on love.