Classroom of the Elite: Houtarou Oreki

He seemed to be trying to help steer the conversation away from topics like romance.

Yeah.

This Hirata seemed fairly dependable.

But Oreki was not a Class D student, so there was no need for him to feel favorably toward Hirata.

Besides, Oreki had no romantic feelings for Horikita. Rather, he had never even considered the possibility of falling in love.

After all, school was a place for studying. Why think about pointless things?

He merely felt that this Horikita resembled Student Council President Manabu Horikita by about sixty percent.

Both had black hair and black eyes.

Their facial features were somewhat alike.

They were probably siblings or something.

And now that her surname was also Horikita, he could basically confirm that she was the Student Council President's younger sister.

It was just that the Student Council President stood at the top of the school's food chain in Class A, while his sister had been assigned to Class D?

From the time Oreki appeared at the back door until he waited for the Class D students to return, Horikita Suzune had maintained an indifferent expression as she read.

It was not an act.

In other words, she gave the impression of being academically capable.

And her physical abilities probably were not bad either.

So why had she been assigned to Class D?

Or rather, did being assigned to Class D mean one had some major flaw or defect?

Some of the Class D students who had dispersed earlier had also returned.

Others had already reached the Shopping District and could not return, or simply did not want to return because they were testing whether the Points on their Student ID Cards could really be spent as money.

Counting them up, there were roughly thirty-three people.

Thirty-three people. That was about enough.

Oreki wanted 200,000 Points, so if each person paid 10,000, he only needed twenty people.

But judging from the R-size ranking he had heard about earlier, he felt that things were a little... risky.

"I'm Houtarou Oreki."

"And she's Masumi Kamuro."

Oreki said, "We're both students from Class A."

"We came to Class D this time only to sell information."

"Our class paid a price of two million for this information."

"And now, we're selling it to you at a discount."

"After all, it's the beginning of a new term, and there's still some time until the school deposits next month's money. Everyone's spending is relatively high."

"And your Homeroom Teacher probably told you as well, right? At this school, you can use the 100,000 Points on your Student ID Card as money," Oreki said.

"Yes."

A girl took over.

She had short blonde hair.

Her features were well-proportioned, and she was the type of girl who looked like an adorable little angel.

She had a friendly air about her.

She seemed like the type who was very good at interacting with others.

But directly revealing information about her own class was not very smart.

It showed that the Class D students currently did not consider this school to be anything extraordinary.

And from the gentle Hirata, Oreki also learned her name—Kikyo Kushida.

"We won't ask for much. Anyone who wants to hear the information only needs to pay 10,000 Points."

Oreki said, "Then I can sell you information about this school."

"And I can also tell you about the information concerning the seven million Points your class will lose because of the boys' discussion just now."

After Oreki said that, the boys who had been discussing the R-size rankings earlier avoided his gaze.

Several girls who had just returned to the classroom looked completely baffled.

Why had they returned only to hear that their class... was about to lose seven million Points?

Seven million Private Points?

Right now, each person only had 100,000 Points. Even with forty people combined, that was only four million Points.

So if seven million Points were deducted, would they have zero Points next month?

Then, apparently after getting the information from the girls who had remained in the classroom, those girls looked at the other boys as though they were trash.

Among the returning girls was one with long blue hair, a rather generous figure, and a beauty mark near the corner of her eye.

She was probably Hasebe, who had come up in the boys' earlier discussion.

There was also the petite, cute black-haired girl with twin tails, Meiyu Wang.

As well as the orange-haired Chiaki Matsushita and the other girls...

Yeah.

This Class D was indeed quite remarkable.

It was remarkable how many high-quality girls had gathered here.

Of course.

The few students who were absent should have included the incredibly cute girl with the blonde ponytail Oreki had seen at the beginning, along with other girls dressed like gyarus.

"Quite interesting."

"But I don't want it." At that moment, a tall boy with blond hair stood up.

"My money should be spent on important things. I don't want to spend it on something like this."

"And besides..." He took out a small mirror and examined his face. "I think listening to it would probably be meaningless anyway."

With that, he picked up his bag and walked out.

"Kōenji, what's wrong with listening to someone speak!"

The tall, athletic boy with short red hair sitting behind him immediately spoke up.

But he was not speaking up to help. He simply found Kōenji annoying.

"Do we really have to spend money?"

"Points can be used as money, right!"

Seeing Kōenji leave, Yamauchi, who had participated in the R-size ranking contest earlier, became somewhat intimidated.

It was not so much that he did not want to spend the money as that he was a little scared.

The looks the girls were giving him felt painful.

"Yes, Oreki, does everyone who wants to hear the information have to pay?"

"Or rather..."

Hirata seemed to want to bargain. "If we pay 100,000 or 150,000 Points all at once—"

But as he thought about it, he shook his head.

Because if they did that, they would have to collect everyone's Points.

And no one could be forced to do that. Everyone had a choice.

Still.

Though gentle, he was not stupid. He also felt that... being accepted into this school with tuition waived, then receiving 100,000 Points every month to spend as money, was a little unbelievable.

So he felt uneasy.

If he could spend 10,000 Points to learn the truth, he still felt it would be worth it.

"Make your choice. Those who stay need to pay me 10,000 Points."

"And what I have here is information about this school that students from my class bought."

Oreki took out his phone.

He played a recording.

It was a man's voice.

[The two million Points have indeed been received. Since you've set a precedent, I'll only collect these Points for now. Then, this school—Beep!]

The recording was stopped.

But the Class D students already understood that the recording had captured a teacher's voice.

And Class A really had spent two million Points to obtain the information.

The surrounding students exchanged looks.

"Then, Ike, I'll leave it to you!"

Yamauchi abruptly stood up. "Just tell me the details afterward."

In a flash, Yamauchi ran off after Kōenji left.

Seeing this, some of the others suddenly recalled what Oreki had said earlier about their R-size rankings causing their class to lose seven million Points...

Did that not mean they would receive no Points next month?

So... they suddenly became reluctant to spend money.

With someone setting the precedent, the thirty-three people steadily began to dwindle.

And seeing so many boys run away, the number of girls began to decrease as well.

After all, if they would have zero Points next month, then even 10,000 Points were precious right now.

"Everyone—"

Hirata looked very troubled.

So he could only look toward Oreki.

"At least guarantee twenty people," Oreki said. "My bottom line is 200,000 Points. Without 200,000 Points, the transaction cannot be completed."

"But..."

There were only eleven people left in the classroom now.

Six girls and five boys.

"If it's 200,000 Points, I'll make up the difference."

At that moment, Horikita Suzune, the black-haired, fox-eyed girl who had been sitting by the window in the corner, stood up.

"I'll make up the missing 90,000 Points."

"Oh, no, Horikita. If you make up 90,000 Points, you'll have zero Points left."

"Then... I'll contribute 10,000 Points." Kikyo Kushida, with her little-angel-like face, said.

"No need," Horikita Suzune said. "I want to learn this school's rules."

Horikita did not respond to her.

But this also exposed the reason she had been assigned to Class D.