Chapter Summaries

Oreki helped Class A win the Red and White Competition while concealing how fast he could really run, and Manabu Horikita recognized that he had held back. The classes celebrated their results, while Shibata remained distraught over the points his fall had cost his class.

• The Red Group's score rose to 17,985 points, and Oreki reached the finish line where Sakayanagi gave him a towel.
• Manabu Horikita confronted Oreki about maintaining one pace throughout the race, acknowledged his defeat, and asked him to tell Suzune she could stay at school and should work on her relationships.
• Sakayanagi realized Oreki had held back, then questioned how close he and Suzune had become; Oreki dodged the subject by praising Kamuro's performance.
• Katsuragi and Class A's students thanked Oreki for the points, while Sudou and his classmates celebrated Class C's strong results.
• Ryuuen had Kaneda distribute monthly living funds to Class D, and their classmates considered withdrawing the right choice.
• Shibata cried on the track over his mistake, as Kanzaki and the other students tried to comfort him.

Class A won the Sports Festival and extended its lead over Class B, while Oreki learned that Ayanokouji was a White Room product. The chapter ended with Oreki doubting Ayanokouji’s supposed genius because he had shown no talent at school.

• Class A finished first in the Sports Festival, raising its class points to 2001, while Class B fell to 870 and Class C to 580.
• Manabu Horikita began the closing ceremony, and Class A later celebrated its victory at a campus karaoke room.
• Sakayanagi Arisu said fourteen classmates had left both faction group chats, leaving the class divided between her faction, Katsuragi’s, and Oreki’s supporters.
• Sakayanagi Arisu told Oreki that a powerful figure had created the White Room to train children and that Ayanokouji was its successful product.
• Oreki said he had little interest in challenging Ayanokouji and questioned why Ayanokouji had shown no talent in Class C.

After the Sports Festival, Oreki considered how Ayanokouji's father might disrupt the school and collected his share of the Points from Horikita. He then returned to his dormitory for a planned meeting with Kikyou Kushida and found her messages sounded like she was arranging a date.

• Oreki and Sakayanagi Arisu discussed the Principal's retirement and the likelihood that Ayanokouji's father would complicate life at the academy.
• Oreki reviewed the Sports Festival results, received the Equivalent Exchange ability for defeating Nagumo, and worried that finishing second had drawn unwanted romantic attention.
• Oreki encountered Sae Chabashira in the Shopping District before meeting Horikita Suzune to distribute the Points from the Sports Festival.
• Oreki returned to his dormitory on Sunday morning for his planned meeting with Kikyou Kushida and found her messages asking about shops and movies to visit together.

Kikyou Kushida invited Houtarou Oreki to the shopping district to find out whether he would retaliate for her role in injuring Horikita Suzune during the Sports Festival. Oreki reassured her that he would not pursue the matter, and Kushida left relieved after accepting his increased punishment.

• Kikyou Kushida arrived at Oreki’s dorm and invited him on a date after he had stopped replying to her messages.
• Kushida politely rejected a male student who approached her, then revealed her contempt for him once she and Oreki were alone at an outdoor café.
• Kushida asked whether Oreki planned to pursue her involvement with Ryuuen in the attack on Horikita Suzune.
• Oreki told Kushida he would not retaliate and increased her weekly punishment from once to twice, which she accepted with relief.
• Oreki asked Kushida about her relationship with Kamuro.

After Class A’s evaluation score rose, Oreki received the usual monthly transfer from Sugar Senior, along with a message arranging a possible confession. Teacher Majima announced the Final exam’s new paired-team rules, leaving students to consider how the shared passing threshold would affect their choices.

• Oreki checked his account and saw his Class A monthly transfer, as well as one Private Point and a note from Sugar Senior saying she would no longer support him.
• Sakayanagi noticed Kei’s message inviting Oreki to meet a girl who wanted to confess, and Oreki said he would refuse a relationship.
• Teacher Majima announced that the Final exam would take place at the end of the month and that students would set the exam papers themselves.
• Teacher Majima explained that students had to form two-person teams and pass each of eight subjects with a combined score of at least 60, or both partners would be expelled.

Oreki analyzed the paired expulsion exam and realized that students could pass safely by cooperating with the class they challenged and exchanging answers. He identified Ichinose’s Class B as the most trustworthy partner, while Sakayanagi remained distracted and unaware of the rules.

• Teacher Majima announced that pairs would take an eight-subject exam and both students would be expelled if their combined score fell below 700 Points.
• Oreki learned that the classes would create questions for one another, compete for 50 class evaluation Points, and face school review if their questions were too tricky.
• Katsuragi asked whether classes could set obscure questions, and Teacher Majima explained that the school would replace invalid questions with easy reserve questions.
• Oreki concluded that classes could exchange their questions and answers to help both sides pass, but warned that Ryuuen might betray a partner.
• Oreki judged Ichinose’s Class B trustworthy and decided that challenging them first was the best way to secure cooperation.

Houtarou Oreki weighed how to protect Class C from the Pairing Exam and considered using the new rules to negotiate with other classes. Meanwhile, Ryuuen's class discussed its own response, with Hiyori urging him to declare war on Class 1-C to protect their pass rate.

• Oreki considered ending Class A's agreement with Class C and charging Class C a mediation fee, while worrying that Sakura and other Class C students might be at risk of failing.
• Oreki asked Karuizawa about her grades, then asked Teacher Majima whether Class A could declare war on Class C; Majima said the request would be processed immediately.
• After Suma Bando explained the Pairing Exam rules, Ryuuen's classmates called on him to find a way to avoid expulsions.
• Ryuuen realized that the classes could exchange their self-written exam questions and considered approaching Class C.
• Hiyori advised Ryuuen to declare war on Class 1-C quickly so they could maintain their class's pass rate and reduce their debt to Oreki.

Oreki agreed to Class A declaring war on Class C to end their monthly supply payments, then went to meet Maya Sato after Kei told him she planned to confess. Sato asked whether he was dating anyone, while Kei, Kushida, and other Class C girls secretly watched; Oreki suspected the confession was part of a game.

• Ryuuen learned that Class A had already declared war on Class C, leaving him to consider declaring war on Class B and sacrificing Class B's supply agreement for its test papers.
• Oreki explained to Sakayanagi that targeting Class C could remove Class A's monthly 800,000-Point payment and that Class C would struggle to earn perfect scores even with the test papers.
• Kei told Oreki that Maya Sato wanted to confess to him and that several girls planned to watch, but she refused to turn Sato down for him.
• Oreki met Sato in the teaching building and noticed Kei, Kushida, and other Class C girls hiding nearby.
• Sato asked Oreki whether he was dating anyone, and Oreki suspected the confession was part of a punishment game.

Oreki accepted Sato's request to date him, believing her confession was a punishment game, while the girls watching were shocked by his answer. Sato insisted her feelings were genuine, leaving Oreki's misunderstanding unresolved.

• Oreki suspected Sato had approached him as part of a punishment game, but exchanged phone numbers with her when she asked to become friends.
• Karuizawa, Kushida, Matsushita, Wang, Hasebe, and others watched Oreki and Sato from a distance, while Karuizawa worried about his growing closeness with Sato.
• Sato told Oreki she found him handsome, dependable, and attractive because of his athletic ability, and Oreki said he would choose someone like her to date.
• Airi Sakura arrived and reacted in shock as Sato asked Oreki to date her.
• Oreki agreed, then revealed he thought Sato was playing a punishment game, but Sato insisted that she genuinely liked him.

After Sato confessed to Oreki and was rejected, her classmates tried to comfort her by guessing whom Oreki liked. Horikita’s explanation that he considered dating a waste of time ended the speculation, while Sato remained heartbroken.

• Sato confessed her feelings to Oreki, and he rejected her because he liked someone else.
• Hasebe, Matsushita, Wang, and the others tried to comfort Sato by guessing that Oreki liked Horikita, Sakayanagi, Kamuro, or Kushida.
• Kushida stopped Wang from revealing that she had seen Kushida and Oreki together, then suggested Oreki might have named someone as a polite excuse.
• Horikita returned and said Oreki had told her he wanted to focus on studying and considered dating a waste of time.
• The class concluded that Oreki would reject anyone who confessed, and they stopped discussing Sato’s confession.

After rejecting Sato's confession, Oreki struggled to settle his feelings and considered seeking advice. Meanwhile, Katsuragi asked Oreki and Sakayanagi to write exam questions for Class C, but they persuaded him to handle the task himself.

• Oreki returned to the cafeteria and told Sakayanagi that he felt uneasy after rejecting a girl's confession.
• Hiyori overheard their conversation and mistakenly concluded that Oreki had a girlfriend.
• Oreki remained distracted after class and considered visiting the library or asking Ichinose for advice about handling a confession.
• Katsuragi asked Oreki and Sakayanagi to prepare questions for an exam paper intended to be leaked to Class C.
• Oreki and Sakayanagi shifted the exam-writing task back to Katsuragi, who reluctantly agreed.

Oreki met Ichinose in the library while looking for advice about staying friends after a confession, and learned that Class B was preparing for the upcoming exam against Ryuuen’s class. He explained that Ichinose could use the exam’s rules to put Ryuuen’s class at risk, leaving her to consider whether to trust his strategy.

• Oreki searched romance books in the library but found no advice about remaining friends after a confession.
• Oreki encountered Ichinose, who had gathered different editions of third-year middle school textbooks to prepare Class B for its exam against Ryuuen’s class.
• Ichinose explained that Class B feared Ryuuen’s betrayal and planned to study the textbooks instead of exchanging exam papers.
• Oreki told Ichinose that Ryuuen could not afford to deceive Class B because fake papers could lead to mass expulsions in his class.
• Oreki advised Ichinose to refuse a paper exchange and use Class B’s stronger students to help weaker classmates, while Ryuuen’s class would struggle to form safe teams.

Oreki helped Ichinose recognize that the exam could let her class eliminate Ryuuen's class, then asked her for advice after rejecting Sato. Ichinose tested his feelings by confessing to him herself, leaving Oreki unsure how to answer her questions about their friendship.

• Oreki explained that Ichinose's class could use different textbook editions to make the exam much harder for Ryuuen's struggling class and potentially eliminate them.
• Ichinose asked why Oreki had helped her, and he told her that Sato had confessed to him and he wanted to know how to preserve their relationship after rejecting her.
• Oreki said he worried that seeing Sato again would feel uncomfortable, and Ichinose suggested his hesitation might mean his heart had been stirred.
• Ichinose asked Oreki to sit down, ran back to him, and confessed that she liked him as a test.
• Oreki immediately rejected Ichinose, who asked whether he would avoid her afterward, while Oreki appeared stumped and edged back from her.

Oreki and Ichinose overheard Ryuuen preparing his class for an exam against Class B and urging them to study. Ryuuen then blamed Oreki for the class’s losses, but Ibuki challenged his account and defended Oreki.

• Ichinose concluded that Oreki had worried about Sato’s feelings rather than being moved by her confession, and Oreki decided to ask Kikyou Kushida to confess to him for practice.
• While returning books with Ichinose, Oreki heard Ryuuen order his class to seek a test-paper trade with Class B and begin nightly study sessions.
• Ryuuen told his classmates to remember Oreki as the person blocking their rise and taking their Points.
• Ibuki disputed Ryuuen’s accusations, saying Oreki was honest and that Ryuuen’s own actions had caused the class’s losses.
• Ryuuen admitted he had made mistakes at the Sports Festival but insisted Oreki was a liar who had fooled Ichinose’s class.

Ryuuen tried to convince Ibuki and Ishizaki that Oreki had deceived them, while Oreki reassured Ichinose that he had honored their investment agreement. Ichinose trusted his explanation but showed that she understood he had originally hoped to profit from Class B’s contract.

• Ryuuen told Ibuki that Oreki had deliberately sent her to Ichinose during the Deserted Island exam and persuaded her that she had been used as a spy.
• Ichinose messaged Oreki her suspicions that he had known Ibuki was a spy and had used the shop proposal to deceive Class B.
• Oreki told Ichinose that Ryuuen was trying to unite his class by inventing a common enemy, then later waited for her after school to explain the shop plan.
• Oreki showed Ichinose his transfer records and explained that he had returned the promised interest to the fifteen Class B students who invested, despite the shop never opening.
• Ichinose accepted Oreki’s explanation but asked whether he had initially hoped Class B would cancel the contract so he could keep their points.

Oreki admitted to Ichinose that he had exploited her class’s kindness and explained how he identified Ibuki as a spy. After Class B and Class D agreed to exchange exam papers, Oreki and Yanagi independently predicted that Class D would eventually graduate as Class A.

• Oreki confessed that he had intended to keep the money and described how he inferred that Ibuki and the others were spying for Ryuuen.
• Oreki argued that Ichinose’s kindness prevented her class from abandoning Ibuki and Kaneda or using a ruthless strategy against Ryuuen’s class.
• Ichinose revealed that she had acted cute to test Oreki after noticing where he looked, and Oreki later made Kushida confess to him and walk back and forth.
• Oreki learned that Ichinose’s class had agreed to exchange exam papers with Ryuuen Class, securing an IOU worth 3 million Points and ending agreements with fifteen students in her class.
• Oreki and Yanagi separately wrote down the class they thought could graduate as Class A without their interference or the school’s, and both chose Class D.

Oreki mediated negotiations between Class A and Class C over their monthly Points agreement and the Pairing Exam. He proposed a wager that could halve Class A’s payments to Class C or cancel them entirely, leaving Class C with a strong incentive to study.

• Oreki judged the classes’ strengths and weaknesses, then learned that Sakayanagi had been considering dropping out during their second year.
• Horikita asked Oreki to mediate between Class A and Class C, and offered three million Points collected from her classmates.
• Hirata asked Katsuragi to preserve half of Class A’s monthly 800,000-Point payment to Class C, but Katsuragi refused to keep the full agreement.
• Horikita and Kōenji offered to write Class C’s test papers, prompting Oreki to propose a wager based on Class C’s Pairing Exam reward Points.
• Oreki said Class A’s monthly payment would fall to 400,000 Points if Class C earned at least fifty class evaluation points, but the agreement would be void if it did not.

Horikita arranged for Kōenji to tutor the struggling students, and a Precognitive Dream showed Oreki that Kōenji eventually became a teacher for problem students. After Sato mistook Oreki accepting her friend request for renewed interest, he agreed to meet her, while Sakayanagi asked him about his zodiac sign.

• Horikita told Oreki to have Hirata organize study groups and let Kōenji tutor the students who struggled academically.
• Kōenji agreed to teach the class, and the students began studying from elementary-school material.
• Oreki dreamed of a future postcard from Kōenji, who had become a special teacher for problem students.
• Sato messaged Oreki asking him to study with her, and Oreki asked Kushida whether accepting her friend request had sent the wrong signal.
• Oreki agreed to meet Sato after school the next day, then Sakayanagi asked him what his zodiac sign was.

Oreki met Sato in the library after she messaged him, and realized her request for math help was not the only reason she wanted to see him. Sato began to bring up her earlier confession, leaving Oreki waiting to hear what she would say.

• Sakayanagi asked Oreki about his birthday and told him his horoscope predicted good luck in love, while Oreki planned to visit his cat Hayate that evening.
• Oreki received a blank message from Karuizawa and then spent the school day studying.
• After school, Sakayanagi asked Kamuro to return a borrowed astrology book, and Kamuro went to attend Kōenji's tutoring session.
• Oreki went to the library and met Sato, who brought her math exercises and explained why she did not attend Kōenji's study group.
• Sato told Oreki she would not have come to the library without him, then blushed as she began talking about her earlier confession.

Oreki received an anonymous million-point birthday gift from the mysterious Sugar Senior, prompting Sato to leave and Karuizawa to explain why she felt unable to compete with that arrangement. While Oreki and Karuizawa talked at a bookstore, they noticed a silver-haired girl watching them.

• Oreki received one million points from an unknown sender along with an early birthday message, and Sato left after seeing the notification.
• Karuizawa told Oreki that Sato probably gave up because the Sugar Senior's million-point payments made Oreki seem too expensive to date.
• Karuizawa met Oreki at Aoyama Bookstore, spoke about being happy to attend the school, and Oreki said he did not plan to date anyone while studying.
• Oreki offered Karuizawa 200,000 points, but she declined because she had enough points from the VIP Exam and other repayments.
• Karuizawa pointed out that a cute silver-haired girl with purple eyes and black butterfly hair clips had repeatedly watched them.