Classroom of the Elite: Houtarou Oreki

But she seemed rather introverted and did not like walking around with the other students.

Like when Manabe had invited her to join the shop-opening plan before, she had not wanted to take part.

And now—

She had actually... transferred 50,000 Points directly to Ryuuen?

And Ryuuen knew it.

Their small team could add another member.

Shiina Hiyori was not merely beautiful—or rather, Ryuuen came from a delinquent background and had no interest in beauty. What he trusted was strength and fists.

But now, it seemed there was only one reason he wanted to invite Shiina Hiyori into the small team.

He believed Shiina possessed wisdom.

Meanwhile—

Oreki returned home.

He climbed back under the covers.

"Use Precognitive Dream?"

Yes!

He had obtained the ability Precognitive Dream. It was a superpower, and compared with Teleportation—

It had its benefits for him as well.

For example, he could predict when his sister, who was away at university, would come home.

Then he could avoid her...

After all, not every younger brother wanted to be teased by his older sister.

As he thought this—

A scene appeared in his mind.

[I think the only thing someone like me can do is marry Houtarou.]

??

Kei Karuizawa's Past! The Connection Between Them!

She wanted to marry Houtarou.

And for Oreki, there had only ever been one person who called him Houtarou from birth until now.

That was himself.

So this was a Precognitive Dream?

Oreki did not know what to say.

So he continued to experience it.

[Because I was cute from a young age, it was a good thing for others, but for me, it was despair.]

[Because none of the people around me were good people.]

[Everyone only spoke viciously to me.]

[Jealousy.]

[Isolation.]

[They even wanted to bully me.]

This...

Oreki realized something.

A Precognitive Dream was supposed to predict the future, but what he was dreaming now was perhaps... someone's future monologue.

[Elementary school passed, and then I entered middle school. I had hoped that changing environments would bring something good.]

[But when I saw the looks in the eyes of the girls in my class, I knew. These people wanted to bully me, didn't they?]

At the same time, Oreki seemed to understand.

He understood who this person was.

And the answer was quickly revealed.

[But it was completely different. I met someone who could change me.]

[Someone had written "slut" and "fake cute" on my desk, and put thumbtacks and frogs inside it.]

[That person appeared—Houtarou Oreki.]

[In the most forceful way, he directly flipped over the desk. At the same time, with lightning speed, he frightened the people who wanted to bully me, then flung out the thumbtacks and pinned down the ones trying to run away.]

[He found the people who wanted to bully me.]

[Everyone was scared.]

[So I was protected so well because of Oreki.]

"..." Oreki fell silent.

So that was how it was.

Would he really be that direct?

No.

Perhaps he would.

Because when facing bullying, the choices were to help the person being bullied, or to make the bullies stop bullying others.

And if he were in that situation, he would probably choose to make bullying cease to exist outright.

So if a method was sufficiently intimidating, he would use it immediately.

It fit his energy-saving approach.

And the Precognitive Dream continued.

[So I was very grateful to him. Of course, that was only the beginning.]

[The opportunity that made me realize I liked him was... when I came to High School of Advanced Education. I never expected to reunite with him here.]

"Then after you started dating, did anything happy happen?"

"It is not that I want to learn about him. Someone asked me to do this."

Another voice spoke.

And that voice sounded somewhat familiar. It seemed to be Kamuro's voice.

Was Kamuro also someone forced to obey orders and do work in the Precognitive Dream?

"..." Oreki fell silent.

Fine.

There was no need to keep watching.

Also, in this Precognitive Dream, Karuizawa was explaining her relationship history to someone else.

Oreki was a little troubled.

He had come to school to study, not to date—much less to have a relationship that would lead to marriage.

But did that not mean there was some sort of temporal paradox or fate involved in his coming to this school?

Because according to the girl's account in this Precognitive Dream, their contact had happened during middle school.

But Oreki was already a high school student.

In other words, if he wanted to have any connection with her in middle school, ordinary means would be impossible.

Therefore—

It really was a superpower.

And it was only after coming here that he had awakened the Superpower System.

For a moment, his feelings were rather complicated.

Besides—

Would he fall in love in the future??

Oreki found that he could no longer sleep.

Meanwhile—

While Oreki continued sleeping, Class 1-C erupted into chaos.

As far as Ryuuen was concerned—

Though it had taken some time—

He had already gathered the class under his control. This school was unique: it valued ability above all else, and every month there would be special exams.

Through granting or deducting Points, and even expelling students, it drove and urged students forward, making them develop in the direction it wanted.

At the beginning, Class 1-C had also possessed 1,000 Class Points.

Ryuuen did not care what the school wanted.

What he wanted was to collect as many Points as possible, reach Class A, and then graduate from Class A.

It was... a highly challenging undertaking.

And that made it interesting to him.

But—

They had run into trouble right from the start.

First—

They had learned the truth about this school far too late.

That meant their 1,000 Class Points had probably already been reduced by 200 to 300 Points.

So they had to protect the remaining Class Points.

Then the Points they could receive next month would be relatively few.

So while everyone still had plenty of Points, they needed to collect some first.

And Ryuuen's demand was 50,000.

Forty students, 50,000 each.

That would allow them to collect 2 million Points.

With 2 million, doing anything would be much more convenient.

However—

"You're saying..."

"You can't hand over 50,000 Points?"

After confirming that Shiina Hiyori could join his small team and become its strategist, Ryuuen had not even had time to relax before he went numb.

Because—

Looking at the Student ID Card Daichi Ishizaki had opened, he saw only 22,000 Points.

Everyone had received 100,000 Points when they enrolled. It had only been twelve days since school started, and they were already broke?

"Um..."

Daichi Ishizaki seemed somewhat afraid of Ryuuen.

"Actually, we took part in an investment."