Ryuen's plan came with risks.
"Since there's a special test every month, there will be lots of written exams too."
"This kind of score manipulation looks suspicious."
"But since it's the first time, the school will probably let it go," Ryuen said. "Sakagami-sensei said before that this school allows some unusual moves that wouldn't be accepted normally."
In other words, even though Ryuen's plan was about controlling the scores of the entire class and looked a bit extreme, there's still a chance the school might accept it.
If the whole class gets the same score, then no one would fail.
But…
For that to work, the whole class needs to cooperate and not doubt each other. Right now, Ryuen's class can actually pull that off.
Otherwise, if someone doesn't follow the plan or purposely gets a high score, it could mess everything up. For example, if everyone scores 5 points but five top students get 80, the average would go up to 14, and the passing score would rise to 7. Then, most of the students who only got 5 would end up being expelled.
So this test is really about trust and unity.
Then Shirogane took out his notebook and said:
"Your plan could work, but there's probably a better way."
No one argued with that. After all, Ryuen's plan was basically to pick all A's on the multiple-choice questions. If you're lucky, maybe you'll get 10 points per subject. Even if you get 20, it's still far from the 70-point average needed to get the full reward from the school.
So the plan only makes sure no one gets expelled — it doesn't try to win the big reward.
"I've gotten some information about this special exam,"
Shirogane said.
"This time it's the 'usual written test.' Since it's called usual, we can guess it's like the first month's behavior rules test for new students."
"It follows a pattern. That means we can prepare for it."
He paused for a moment, but Ryuen had already understood.
"You mean the test might be the same as the one from the first month's behavior rules assessment?"
"So then, is the second month always a written test too?"
"And since the first month's behavior test hasn't changed in years and we can get info from upperclassmen, are you saying the second month's test is also fixed — not just in format but maybe even in content?" Ryuen asked.
"But would the school really do that?" he added. "What's the point for them?"
"If it's an old test from more than ten years ago, then even someone like Shiina would struggle to get 70 points with what we know today."
Even though he said that, he had a feeling Shirogane might be telling the truth.
Because it does sound like something this school would allow — or maybe even set up on purpose.
"We can check this to be sure."
"But I think it's probably true," Shirogane said.
He had come to this conclusion after watching a video from Kamuro.
First, it's clear that Chabashira-sensei broke the rules and will lose points for the next three months. She most likely leaked some kind of information.
If you listen closely to how she explained the exam rules to her class…
There's something different from what was said in Ryuen's class.
Their teacher, Sakagami-sensei, never mentioned anything about a "usual written test."
Usual. Usual.
Shirogane also remembered the huge number of old textbooks he saw when borrowing materials from the library.
If the first month's behavior rules test hasn't changed for over ten years, then what about the second month's written test? Could it also be the same as the one from back then?
If that's the case, then this might be a good place to start.
That's what Shirogane was thinking, as he recalled what he saw in the video.
Should we say Class D is lucky… or unlucky?
Luckily, their homeroom teacher kept breaking the rules to help them improve their grades, which gave them more information than the other classes.
But the unlucky part was that the teacher was forcing her own personal goals onto them.
So—
The last part of Kamuro's recording showed Chabashira-sensei getting ready to leave and calling for Ayanokouji.
But Shirogane didn't believe Chabashira-sensei was just randomly picking a student to talk to.
After all—
Chabashira-sensei had already broken the rules at the start of the school year by asking Horikita to investigate the school.
Now the class was in a mess. There was no way they could rise up by depending on Horikita anymore. Class D's evaluation score was way too low, and even if they got the highest reward in the next test, it would only raise their class score by 100 points. On top of that, the fear of being expelled was spreading among the students. If things didn't change, a lot of students might drop out just from this one test. Class D was in a real crisis now, so the only choice was to activate their secret weapon—Ayanokouji.
But that also meant Chabashira-sensei had given up on Horikita.
Being asked to help out for no clear reason, failing to complete the task, then being tossed aside—Horikita really was in a sad situation.
"What are you thinking about?" Ryuen suddenly asked.
Shirogane answered without thinking. "Horikita Suzune from Class D, maybe."
"..."
The air went quiet for a moment.
"Cough, cough," Ishizaki pretended to clear his throat, his face slightly red. "Horikita from Class D really is super pretty. You've got good taste, Shirogane."
Even though he acted like a tough guy, Ishizaki was probably just a regular teen at heart.
"But I think Ichinose from Class C is like an angel. If I could date her... Oh wait, I really shouldn't be thinking about stuff like that," Ishizaki said. "I can't even imagine what kind of guy Ichinose would like. Just thinking about it makes me feel kind of sad."
Clearly—
After the second month started, Ryuen had dropped the rule about not talking to or contacting students from other classes. On one hand, it was too hard to control everyone, and on the other, he wanted his classmates to gather information from the other classes.
But from the looks of it, Ishizaki had probably already been pumped for all the info he had.
Still, Shirogane felt like Ishizaki wasn't totally wrong.
Ichinose really did seem like an angel.
Her hand felt soft and warm when you held it.
But thinking about dating her, or wondering who she might like, somehow felt impossible.
Because it was hard to imagine someone like an angel falling in love with just anyone.
"Girls are so pointless," Ryuen said. "They just get in the way."
"Ryuen!" two of the girls in the group spoke up in protest.
"Heh, I'm just telling it like it is."
"And you know, dating at this school is probably the dumbest thing you can do," Ryuen added.
Even though his words sounded like something a typical blunt guy would say, Shirogane didn't think he was actually like that.
Sure enough—
Ryuen continued.
"Romance during puberty makes people lose their ability to think straight. That makes it easy to become a traitor to your class. And since most of our classmates are idiots, they'll be the ones spilling secrets without even realizing it."
"But if the relationship stays inside the class, it's probably fine," Ryuen added.
In other words, Ryuen was completely focused on class competition.
Even though he's always used force to pressure others, his desire to reach Class A is burning strong.
"I've only met Horikita twice," Shirogane said right away. "And I'm not thinking about anything like that right now."
After all, he's someone who's only good at studying—he doesn't want romance getting in the way of his future.
Besides...
Horikita, huh.
Even though he does feel a bit sorry for her, Shirogane hasn't developed feelings for anyone yet.
So he's not hoping for love.
All he wants is to graduate from Class A, get into the college he wants, and hopefully earn some money at school to help his family out.
…
"By the way,"
Shiina suddenly seemed to remember something.
"Ryuen is planning to collect points from the class."
"He's taking 25% of everyone's points. Kind of like protection money," she said. Ryuen, who was sitting across from her, picked up the topic.
"I'm splitting that 25% into three parts."
"First off, you all know what kind of mess this class is."
"There aren't many students who can even sit here and talk about how to handle special exams like this."
"So when we win rewards for class points from those exams, do we really have to split them with everyone?"
"They're just following along."
"I don't think they deserve that much."
"If," Ryuen said, "we don't graduate from Class A, all our hard work will go to waste."
"So."
Ryuen paused, then said, "Each month, I'll take 25% of everyone's points. I'll keep 10% for myself, and give 5% to this special exam planning group. The last 10%, Shirogane Miyuki, you can take it if you want. If not, it'll go back to the planning group."
There's no guarantee they'll make it to Class A. If they do, great.
But if they don't, Ryuen wants to at least make sure he gets paid for his efforts.
It's a cold, practical way to do things.
After all,