Classroom of the Elite: Houtarou Oreki — The First Month Concludes

As for the first-years, that was a bit unfortunate.

Class A had spent most of its points buying rules on the first day.

So they could only look on helplessly at the 100,000-point part-time work permits.

The Class C students had been harvested by Oreki and had no money either.

Class B had also been harvested to some extent, but not too badly. Their students could have pooled enough money together, but they seemed relatively conservative and had not participated.

And Class D.

Forget it. A large portion of Class D's students still did not even know the forum existed.

And now, all the students who had not participated felt the same way.

They felt...

Like they had suffered a huge loss.

Over the course of a single Lunch Break, everyone learned that the school had banned the part-time work permits, but had also compensated every participant with 50,000 points.

"That's a little disappointing." By the time Oreki returned to the classroom, more than half the class had already come back.

Katsuragi Kohei remained in his seat.

Several of his supporters were nearby.

Everyone sighed a little.

Katsuragi spoke directly.

"At first, I thought it would be great if we could obtain the part-time work permits, but the school might intervene."

"So I didn't participate."

"But looking at things now..."

If he had participated, he could have received 50,000 points in compensation for free just by joining.

In other words.

He had wanted to buy the Student Council secretary position worth one million points from Classmate Oreki. Now, he could have scraped together the money for it.

He had merely been a little too cautious and missed the opportunity.

Thinking that.

He looked in one direction, where an exceptionally adorable silver-haired girl sat.

Her health was poor, and she needed to carry a cane.

Yet she was sweet-faced and lovely, small and delicate.

She was Sakayanagi Arisu.

The class was now divided into three factions: the Conservative Faction represented by Katsuragi, the aggressive Sakayanagi Faction that excelled at taking the initiative and possessed tremendous offensive power.

And the Oreki Faction, which seemed not to take the initiative.

Since his Conservative Faction had not participated, did that mean the aggressive Sakayanagi Arisu had joined this part-time work permit scheme and fleeced the school?

Houtarou Oreki sat down.

The students around him looked over with indescribable... envy and admiration.

It could be said that Classmate Oreki was a breath of fresh air in Class A.

Everyone knew that Classmate Oreki possessed keen insight.

But how much profit could one person's ability bring?

Everyone now understood.

The students who participated in the part-time work permit scheme received compensation, so what about Classmate Oreki, who had proposed and sold the permits?

He had probably made a killing.

After Oreki sat down, a figure appeared beside his desk.

The person hurried past and placed a note on his desk, then returned to their seat.

"..." Oreki was speechless.

This was a classroom. Did she really have to act like a secret agent?

Classmate Kamuro.

After she had been discovered following him last time, Classmate Kamuro seemed to have been "disciplined" by Sakayanagi Arisu and had reduced her contact with him.

Still, Oreki unfolded the note.

[Congratulations on becoming a multimillionaire.] — Sakayanagi Arisu. [You are less than five million points away from twenty million now.]

It was Sakayanagi Arisu's handwriting.

Oreki took out his phone.

And sent her a reply.

"Then congratulations to you too, Classmate Sakayanagi."

"How many points did you get this time?"

After entering the message, Oreki saw the super-cute silver-haired girl sitting in the center of the classroom turn around and smile sweetly in his direction.

He had seen it many times already, so he was not as shaken this time.

Oreki thought.

And Classmate Sakayanagi could still smile.

That meant she had also... made her moves.

As expected of the little Tyrannosaurus with such offensive power.

Oreki lived by the principle of not doing what did not need to be done, and keeping everything that had to be done as simple as possible.

He kept things as simple as possible.

But in this incident, there had been two ways to earn points the school was giving away for free.

One was the simplest method Oreki had chosen.

As the owner of the part-time work permits, he showed goodwill and waited for the school to reward him. That was all.

The other, more troublesome method was to arrange for a large number of students to participate while he was selling the permits. Those students would also receive compensation when the permits were terminated.

By predicting that outcome, one could negotiate with those students and split the proceeds on the spot.

That was right.

Students liked part-time work, but the price started at 100,000 points.

That was still somewhat burdensome for many students.

From the time Oreki posted about selling the part-time work permits until he received the school's notice at 23:00 that night, Classmate Horikita had counted a total of 151 students who had participated.

On the second-year side, some people requested refunds midway through, leaving only 40 successful purchases in the end.

That meant the remaining 111 were all third-years.

But could so many third-years have participated in such a short time?

Therefore, someone had fanned the flames in this part-time work permit incident.

In other words, that person had also predicted that the school would definitely stop the part-time work permits and that they could receive compensation from the school for free.

So they had arranged for third-years to join simply to make up the numbers.

Then that person had to be someone who knew what the Chairman was like.

So it could be confirmed that it was Sakayanagi Arisu.

But.

Classmate Sakayanagi, was it really polite to squeeze money from Chairman Sakayanagi like this?

And it all went back to after Oreki had gone to the Student Council, finally met Manabu Horikita, and received the chance to visit the school's upper management in the Chairman's Office.

The First Month Concludes, Classmate Kushida, You're Quite Stubborn Too!

And it all went back to after Oreki had gone to the Student Council, finally met Manabu Horikita, and headed to the school's upper management—the Chairman's Office.

Oreki had thought of the part-time work permits because of Nagumo Miyabi's shop-opening permit.

The part-time work permits had to be purchased from the school's upper management, namely the Student Council Board.

The Student Council did not have authority in that regard.

So he needed Manabu Horikita's introduction.

Normally, buying part-time work permits would not be allowed, as it would directly undermine the school's control over its students.

But since Classmate Sakayanagi had said the Chairman was a highly tolerant person, that meant he was willing to delegate power to students.

So he might give this plan the green light.

That made the part-time work permits worth buying.

But.

That created a problem.

When Oreki had first discovered Classmate Kamuro following him, he had only wanted Sakayanagi to help gather information about the Chairman.

But Classmate Sakayanagi had directly given him an assessment of what kind of person the Chairman was.

That had surprised him somewhat.

Because to evaluate a person, one had to at least know and understand them.

So even then, he had thought that Sakayanagi Arisu might know the Chairman.

Then.

"This is Chairman Sakayanagi's office," Manabu Horikita said.

He did not go inside and waited at the door.

The moment Oreki heard the name Sakayanagi, he understood somewhat.

Sakayanagi Arisu did not merely know the Chairman.

Then Oreki met the man with the highest authority in the school—Chairman Sakayanagi, a middle-aged man with the same hair color as Sakayanagi Arisu in his class.

So, returning to the present.

Chairman Sakayanagi and Sakayanagi Arisu.

Judging from their surname, appearance, and looks.

There was a strong possibility that Sakayanagi Arisu was the Chairman's daughter.

As his daughter, she naturally understood what kind of person her father was.

So she could immediately reply to him.

Still.

As his daughter, joining him in exploiting the school run by that generous Chairman... wasn't that somewhat, well, embarrassing?

But it was perfectly reasonable too.

Because.

This school placed ability above all else. As a student, if there was a way to farm points—and one the school would permit—there was no reason not to do it.

So.

Oreki chose to wait for the school's reward.

Meanwhile, Sakayanagi Arisu took the more troublesome route of gathering student information and getting them aboard the train that the school would compensate.