Classroom of the Elite: Houtarou Oreki

Manabu Horikita was still in the Student Council, but even President Horikita's authority within the Student Council had been eroded by Nagumo.

So it was hard to imagine what things would become after Manabu Horikita graduated.

With no one to restrain Nagumo... things would probably get terrible.

Would he purge a large number of male students, or even establish an entirely female Student Council?

Although the school seemed both fond of and resentful toward Nagumo, it still had to handle matters according to its own rules.

So it could probably only create various special exams to restrain him, or arrange for Manabu Horikita to deal with him.

But Horikita's Brother was in a difficult position.

Then the school...

Special exams alone were completely ineffective.

Because Nagumo had many exemptions. After all, the entire second year stood behind him; the second-years were all his pieces.

That made things difficult for the school as well.

Looking at it this way, it was trouble from every direction.

So, Nagumo really was not someone people could feel at ease letting become Student Council President.

As he thought this,

Oreki looked toward Nagumo Miyabi.

He disliked troublesome matters, but if this trouble was going to remain, he might as well deal with it first.

Beep!

At that moment, he heard a mechanical voice.

[Congratulations, Host, for triggering the Hidden Quest—Protecting Flowers.]

[Protecting Flowers: Protect cute girls from the harassment of pests.]

[Quest Requirement: Extinguish Nagumo Miyabi's arrogance and earn 5 million Points within three days.]

[Quest Duration: Three days.]

[Quest Reward: Invisibility.]

[Quest Penalty: None.]

[Note: Invisibility: Can be used an unlimited number of times every day to become directly invisible, but the effect will be lost upon contact with another person.]

A pest... was that it?

It talked about protecting girls from pests, yet the actual quest was to crush Nagumo's arrogance.

In other words, even the system had decided... that Nagumo Miyabi was a pest.

"..."

Oreki had no objection to this quest.

So after merely checking the reward, Oreki accepted it.

But.

Akane Tachibana was still there.

"Open a store?"

She still seemed to be in the dark. "Are you opening a store, Oreki?"

"He wants to, but he doesn't have permission to open one."

"And I spent 2 million Points buying out the rights here, so selling them to him for 4 million isn't expensive."

"After all, this school is closed off. The staff and students are all potential customers, so as long as you open a store, you definitely won't lose money," Nagumo Miyabi said.

"I see—"

Akane Tachibana seemed to nod lightly.

But that was not how it was at all.

Opening a store had been proposed and carried out by Nagumo Miyabi three months ago.

He had been the first to do it.

He had understood the rule that Points could buy anything.

After deliberation, the Student Council Board ultimately decided that since it was unprecedented, Nagumo Miyabi could buy permission to open a store for only 1 million Points.

They also allowed him to spend 2 million to buy out that privilege.

Any student who wanted to open a store had to receive his consent.

It was astonishing.

At the same time, everyone realized that this could actually be done.

Nagumo Miyabi was someone whose thinking broke through conventional restraints.

And because of that, the president had brought Nagumo into the Student Council.

The result was raising a tiger only to court disaster.

Because Nagumo made money from his store, it was especially easy for him to corrupt others.

There was practically no one left in the Student Council whom Nagumo had not bought off.

It left people with complicated feelings.

Only.

Now.

Chapter 45: In a School Where Points Reigned Supreme, I Want to Earn 5 Million Today!

Akane Tachibana looked toward Oreki.

As the president's right-hand woman, Akane Tachibana was grateful to Horikita for leading their class forward.

It could be said that if not for Horikita turning the tide, their class might have fallen long ago.

Rather than being far in the lead as it was now.

Yet the Student Council faced a crisis born from raising a tiger only to court disaster.

Manabu Horikita had mentioned this before, saying that things had not reached the point of despair because he had discovered a freshman named Houtarou Oreki.

He would do his best to bring him into the Student Council.

If Oreki was there, then after he graduated, perhaps he could continue opposing Nagumo.

That was what the president had said.

That was why Akane Tachibana had taken the initiative to speak to him today.

Still.

It was terrifying.

Because.

Nagumo had already been enrolled for nine months and had gone through many school exams, deepening his understanding of the school's rules and breaking through the limits of his thinking.

Yet.

Wasn't Oreki a freshman? Could a freshman really be this strong?

She also knew about Class 1-A. Since they had understood the school's rules on the first day, the Student Council Board had decided to award them an extra 200 Class Points.

It could be said that this had never happened before.

Not even for her class.

So this year's Class A was outstanding.

But now that she looked at it,

it was Oreki who was outstanding, wasn't it?

Perhaps only someone like him could oppose someone like Nagumo.

Akane Tachibana thought to herself.

But she also felt some regret.

Because the store-opening rights were in Nagumo's hands, anyone who wanted to open one could only accept his exorbitant price.

Akane Tachibana sighed softly.

Yet the next moment, she heard Oreki's voice.

"Open a store?"

"I don't want to open a store," Oreki said. "Because the risk is too great."

"This school's expulsion rate is fairly high, so if someone rashly borrows money to open a store, they might get expelled before paying off the store's debts, or just after paying them off."

"Then it would feel like they had worked for nothing."

Nagumo Miyabi froze at those words.

Because.

What terrifying thing were you saying? What did you mean, getting expelled before the store's debts were repaid?

Who were you implying?

Indeed.

He had borrowed the 15 million Points used to open his store.

That also included the 1 million for permission to open it and the 2 million to buy out the rights.

So the Milk Tea Shop had cost 18 million Points.

When he entered the school, he had only been a Class B student. He had spent considerable effort and money pushing his class upward.

So in the end, the Points his class could gather amounted to only around 8 million. He had taken out 4 million as class funds and used another 4 million to open the store.

That was definitely not enough.

So he had borrowed the remainder.

He borrowed from other classes and from teachers.

At a high price.

In other words, every month was repayment day.

But in roughly seven or eight months, he would be able to pay everything off.

Then he could sit back and collect 50 percent of the store's revenue.

But what terrifying thing was Houtarou Oreki saying now?

If he paid off the money and then got expelled, wouldn't that mean he had worked for nothing?

Having suddenly been informed of this risk, Nagumo Miyabi's mood worsened.

"If you're not opening a store, what are you collecting so many Points for?" Nagumo asked with a grim face.

He felt Oreki was here to disgust him, so he would disgust Oreki in return.

"It's simple. Naturally, I'll take them and put them in my account," Oreki said.

"Because my class saw through the school's rules in advance."

"So we knew Points were important, and that collecting them early was important."

"We were all freshmen. Everyone had 100,000 Points, and they couldn't spend all of them in the first month."

"So I suggested opening a store."

"I signed agreements with them and continuously obtained Points from them."

"And that was an information war."