Classroom of the Elite: Houtarou Oreki Chapter 21

He was just listening. Listening to his classmates' conversations.

But that also counted as a way of gathering information.

He more or less understood Horikita Suzune's situation in Class D.

It was just like what he had seen when he first went to Class D.

She was a lone wolf.

"Sounds like that's the case."

"However, I have a different view." Oreki said. "You saw the second-years' bulletin board, right?"

"Yeah."

The bulletin board displayed the class evaluation scores of the four second-year classes.

Class A: 1900 Points

Class B: 1100 Points

Class C: 1000 Points

Class D: 900 Points.

Horikita Suzune also knew the school's rules and understood that these were the second-years' class evaluation scores.

"Don't you think those numbers are absurd? Like they were manufactured."

"And I don't think the students of second-year Class D could be so outstanding that they could maintain a class evaluation score of 900 Points after an entire year," Oreki said. "For someone to create data like this, second-year Class A most likely found the secret to wealth and got the entire grade to follow their arrangements."

"Then what do you mean?"

"Obviously, we should look for the second-years' secret." Oreki said. "Look, there's a girl coming down from the building."

"How good are you at striking up conversations with people?" Oreki asked.

"Not at all. I don't have any friends," Horikita Suzune said bluntly.

Figures.

Oreki thought so too.

At a time like this, it would have been nice to have someone who was good at socializing.

Instead of having to do it himself.

Thinking that, Oreki walked toward the upperclassman coming down from the school building. She had long orange hair and a sunflower hairpin as her trademark.

Inviting Kushida to Join Them! Part One

The girl was very pretty, with well-proportioned features.

But she seemed quite approachable.

And the sunflower hairpin made him think of Kamuro.

"A new face—"

"A first-year?"

"This isn't really your activity area, you know~"

This upperclassman seemed rather approachable.

"But you're pretty handsome. Can I take a picture? Everyone's quite interested in the new students," the upperclassman said.

While he was looking at the upperclassman, she was also looking at him.

Indeed.

Houtarou Oreki was good-looking.

Yeah.

His appearance was not bad at all. It was easy for him to attract girls' attention.

After all, when you saw a handsome guy, who wouldn't want to look a little longer?

Just taking a photo.

Girls in his class had already taken pictures of him, so Oreki did not mind.

Rather, this could be a way to build rapport. After all, he was not good at interacting with girls.

Click—

Oreki also noticed that the upperclassman had not spent Points to remove her phone's camera sound and flash.

"Since you took a photo of me, can I ask you two questions?"

"Consider it an equal exchange," Oreki said.

"Hmm?"

The upperclassman had not expected him to make a request, but Oreki's looks were quite good, so she was not angry.

Besides.

Students from other grades rarely came to the second-year area.

The school seemed to have deliberately separated the students of the three grades, assigning one school building to each grade.

However, the school was not completely closed off. There were still public spaces where all students could interact, such as the various clubs.

Still, a first-year who had come all the way to the second-year area on his own initiative struck her as interesting.

After all, she was already a second-year and had learned the school rules she needed to know.

The first-years, on the other hand, had only just enrolled. They were newbies.

So this freshman's behavior felt rather novel to her.

"I have club activities to attend later, so I don't have that much time," she said.

"It won't take long," Oreki said. "I'd like to know whether you're a student of second-year Class A."

"Mm-hm? I am. My name is Nazuna Asahina." The upperclassman nodded. "And you're a first-year from Class A, right?"

"Houtarou Oreki," Oreki said. "That was the first question. For the second one, I hope you'll answer seriously."

"Oh? What question is it?" The upperclassman smiled and blinked.

"After the second-years accumulated a large amount of Points, what did they do at school?" Oreki asked.

Almost as soon as Oreki said that, Asahina's eyes widened slightly.

Because.

She had considered that Oreki might ask about the school rules, or say that he had noticed something strange or unsettling about the school.

Yeah.

Questions on that level, basically.

But what was this guy asking?

The second-years accumulated Points, or rather, did he already know that much?

Wasn't he a new student?

What was with him?

Ten minutes later.

After exchanging phone numbers with Asahina, Oreki returned to Horikita's side.

"Didn't you say you weren't good at communicating with others?" Horikita seemed somewhat surprised.

She had been standing at a distance, but Oreki and the upperclassman had appeared to converse quite amicably.

The atmosphere had even seemed pretty good.

She had also seen them both take out their phones. Clearly, they had exchanged phone numbers.

That was not how someone who was bad at interacting with people behaved.

"I was just acting," Oreki said. "I simply thought it would make it easier to get information. After all, if I couldn't get information from that upperclassman, I'd have to find another one."

"That wouldn't be energy-efficient at all."

Oh.

Although Horikita did not completely understand, she vaguely realized that Oreki was probably the sort of person who liked doing things efficiently.

That was probably why he said he did not carry a schoolbag and simply absorbed everything he learned during class.

"Then..." Horikita seemed somewhat hesitant, wanting to know what Oreki had found out.

"The second-years are pretty interesting," Oreki said. "They pooled the entire grade's Points together. Then they opened a Milk Tea Shop."

"They opened a store at school?" Horikita froze for a moment.

"Yes. They opened a store." Oreki nodded. "That store can bring them profits."

"The school does not allow students to work part-time, so they stepped outside the role of students and became store owners. That makes them investors, not employees."

"The person who proposed the idea was their leader, the current Student Council Vice President, Nagumo Miyabi."

"Last year, he led second-year Class B to rise into Class A, then gained the Student Council President's recognition and became Vice President." Oreki introduced a new name: Vice President Nagumo.

"Oh." Horikita nodded.

But she did not react much.

"..."

Forget it.

He had told Horikita this information because he wanted to remind her that Nagumo Miyabi was probably why Manabu Horikita had worked so hard to entice him into the Student Council with promises of future benefits.

Manabu Horikita claimed to put ability above all else, so naturally, he recognized ability.

That was why, after Oreki photographed him, he transferred 1 million Points to Oreki.

It was a form of recognition.

At the same time, it revealed Manabu Horikita's way of thinking: he recognized people with ability.

But he could not control people with ability.

Then Manabu Horikita brought Nagumo Miyabi into the Student Council and gave him the position of Vice President.

That was reasonable.

But.

Very quickly, President Horikita discovered that he could not control Nagumo.

Nagumo controlled an entire grade by himself. If he became Student Council President, he definitely would not be content with being an ordinary president. And with control over an entire grade as well as a huge number of Points, he could swiftly corrupt and buy off the other members of the Student Council.

Therefore.

Nagumo had his own ambitions, and they ran contrary to Manabu Horikita's.

Thus, Manabu Horikita was working hard to eliminate Nagumo's influence.

But Horikita Suzune seemed not to have realized any of this at all.

And the Student Council was such a hassle...

Better make money first.

"Now that we have the information, we can take action," Oreki said.

"So how do you plan to make money?" Horikita Suzune followed up. "Open a store?"

Open a store.

Yeah.

Horikita Suzune meant directly using the second-years' successful example.

After all, they had succeeded.