Classroom of the Elite: Houtarou Oreki

"Then..."

"There's definitely something to be made here."

Oh.

Ryuuen quickly grabbed Ishizaki and learned what had happened.

Then—

"This really is quite a sight."

A student from another class passing by remarked.

Over in Class C, a whole bunch of boys were crouching in the corner, being punished by Ryuuen.

And Ryuuen's insults were especially vicious.

Arisu Sakayanagi: Marriage Is the Grave of Love!

Ryuuen's insults were vicious.

"Are you idiots?"

"I seriously give up on you. I asked you for 50,000 Points, and every last one of you refused. Yet the moment someone else said something, you all signed up."

"And everyone who joined happened to be everyone who hates me."

"Heh..."

"Fuck!"

"S-So what do we do now?"

Daichi Ishizaki crouched on the ground with his hands clasped over his head.

Ryuuen was still somewhat considerate toward girls. He only treated the boys this way; the girls remained in the classroom.

Although Ishizaki was being punished, Ryuuen felt that investing their Points like this was a bad idea.

But Ishizaki did not think it was a big deal.

If Ryuuen had not been so forceful, then once the shop opened, they would still have had something to gain.

It was just that Ryuuen was in the middle of a rage, so Ishizaki did not dare talk back.

Because Ryuuen had even said that he wanted to terminate the contract with Classmate Oreki.

Hey, hey, hey.

Was he kidding?

If they terminated the contract, that meant the 50,000 they had already paid would be gone, and they would have to pay another 10,000 Points.

That was a direct loss of 60,000 Points per person.

Did Ryuuen even know how to do math?

"..." Ryuuen fell silent.

"You're hopeless." Ryuuen seemed to have grown tired of cursing.

"Shiina, what do you think?"

Ryuuen looked toward Shiina Hiyori.

Because he was quite disappointed.

Out of the entire class of forty, only he, Albert Yamada, Ibuki, and Shiina Hiyori had not joined.

According to everyone else's testimony, only nine people had initially been tempted. Then Ishizaki, that idiot, had gathered the others because he was dissatisfied with Ryuuen. Even if Ryuuen ruled them through violence, they wanted a way out.

So every other student had joined Houtarou Oreki of Class A's shop-opening plan.

That meant 50,000 per person—no, another 10,000 for terminating the contract.

So 36 × 50,000, or 1.8 million Points in total, had to be paid to Houtarou Oreki.

It looked like a huge loss.

But there was no point in continuing like this.

Because the class would not have many Points next month.

And how many Points would they have the month after that?

Handing over their Points for twelve consecutive months in a place where Points and ability reigned supreme was simply... foolish!

"There is no other choice." Shiina, who looked like a literary girl, raised her head from her book. "If we want to climb higher, we can probably only sacrifice the cart to save the horse."

"..." Ryuuen was silent.

Yeah.

That was what he thought too.

But he was still furious.

He had gone to tremendous lengths, even throwing away his pride, to win Albert over and beat everyone else into submission.

And yet...

The fruits of his class's victory had been plucked away from the very beginning.

Monday.

Classmate Oreki used Teleportation at his usual time and returned to the school dormitory.

But the moment he arrived, he found that someone had slipped a note through the entrance.

At the same time, several messages had arrived on the phone he kept in the dorm.

[Houtarou Oreki, you XX]

[You've got the nerve to rob people but not the nerve to open the door?!]

[Open the door!]

It was like a shrew screaming curses in the street.

Oreki roughly understood that Class C's tyrant, Kakeru Ryuuen, had begun to act.

"Good morning, Classmate Oreki—"

When Oreki arrived in class, his classmates greeted him.

It was now the third week since enrollment.

And over the past two weeks, everyone had performed very well.

The steady Classmate Katsuragi believed they had lost fewer than twenty Points over the two weeks.

Their performance had been excellent.

At the same time, Classmate Katsuragi announced some good news.

Their Homeroom Teacher, Teacher Majima, had revealed that because they had obtained the school's rules on the first day, the school had specially awarded them 200 class evaluation Points.

However—

"You seem somewhat tired." Oreki noticed that Little Princess Yanagi had greeted him.

Sakayanagi's little princess.

Sakayanagi Arisu.

After two weeks, Class A had split into three factions.

One was the Katsuragi Faction, one was the Sakanagi Faction, and the last was Houtarou Oreki's Energy-Saving Faction.

However, Oreki had not made many moves, so the classmates who wanted to support him had merely sent him messages.

Classmate Sakayanagi, on the other hand, had made another move.

She had started tutoring sessions.

Apparently, after learning the rules of this school, she had used Points or arranged for someone to gather information.

Then she had obtained the direction of next month's exam.

A written exam, perhaps.

Because of this, Kamuro had worn a long face for several days in a row.

Everyone's grades were already very good. They were top students, and if they improved further, the passing score Kamuro needed to reach would become even higher.

But there was one advantage as well: she continued studying under Sakayanagi.

Before, she could only memorize a few words at a time. Now, she could memorize twenty to thirty.

It seemed that Classmate Sakayanagi had a talent for teaching people too.

That was also why Oreki had handed Kamuro over to her.

Because teaching was troublesome and time-consuming.

"By the way, what does Classmate Sakayanagi think about love and marriage?" Oreki asked.

"Love?"

Little Princess Yanagi probably had not expected to be asked that.

But she revealed a sweet smile. "Then marriage is probably the grave of love."

That was certainly a rather unique perspective.

Oreki thought to himself.

"Who is Houtarou Oreki?!"

However, at that moment, the door to Class A's classroom was suddenly kicked hard.

A tall man with center-parted red hair appeared in the doorway of Class A's classroom.

This person was Class C's representative, Kakeru Ryuuen.

Kakeru Ryuuen Comes Knocking—Classmate Ryuuen, Do You Want Your Class to Lose 100 Points?

Kakeru Ryuuen.

A tall man with center-parted red hair.

The school required uniforms, but it did not mandate the color of the uniform shirt, so everyone could choose from several colors.

White, pink, orange, blue, and black were among the options.

Kakeru Ryuuen was rather distinctive. He wore black.

But that had nothing to do with his clothing.

Right now, he had marched straight to Class A's classroom door.

"Who is Houtarou Oreki?!" Ryuuen shouted from the doorway.

Almost instantly, the Class A students reacted.

Some students looked in Oreki's direction, while others spontaneously walked to the classroom door and confronted Ryuuen.

Ryuuen had not come alone. He had brought Daichi Ishizaki and Albert Yamada with him.

Ishizaki's face was still bandaged, while Albert was exceptionally tall.

Although they looked like lackeys, they were still quite intimidating.

The three of them gave off the impression that they had come with ill intent, while also making people feel as if they had finally found an opportunity.

That was right.

This was Class A.

And when a rather famous student from their class was suddenly being called out so aggressively, of course they would react.