"Bai Lan put himself on the edge of danger, using himself as the red line for his classmates.
"By taking advantage of his classmates' aversion to him, he made them keep their distance from him—and from the red line at the same time.
"As long as his classmates didn't cross the red line he had drawn, they could avoid suffering severe punishment.
"Although I hate to say it, there are people in our class who might actually skip school more than three times in a month. This information is simply too important!"
"Probably."
"No! It must be that way!"
Hirata suddenly moved right in front of Ayanokoji, placed both hands on his shoulders, and squeezed hard before shaking him back and forth with all his strength. "Ayanokoji! Everything Bai Lan did was absolutely for the class! He must love this class very much. He must really want the class to improve. He's just bad at expressing himself and interacting with people. There's no doubt about it!"
"You have to believe me, Ayanokoji!"
Hirata shook him faster and faster, his grip growing stronger by the second.
Under Hirata's violent shaking, Ayanokoji's tongue slapped against his upper and lower jaws, making his mouth produce a rapid "blelelelele" sound.
Soon, Ayanokoji suddenly remembered the books he had bought at the bookstore that afternoon.
His main purpose in buying them was to supplement his general knowledge and learn about ordinary people's thoughts and behavioral patterns.
Ayanokoji felt the strength on his shoulders. Given his physical constitution and tolerance for pain, he didn't find it particularly uncomfortable. But he figured that if an ordinary person had their shoulders squeezed with that kind of force, they would probably be screaming and begging for mercy by now.
So...
"Yamete~ Hirata, you're hurting me... Yamete, yamete, ah, ah, ah, stop it, please stop~"
Ayanokoji kept a blank expression and "begged for mercy" in a calm voice.
At the sound of that voice, Hirata, whose emotions had been out of control, shuddered as if dozens of ice cubes had suddenly been stuffed down his collar. He instantly regained his composure.
Hirata released him.
A few seconds later, Hirata's passion flared up again. "Bai Lan sacrificed so much for the class, yet he isn't understood. The people he helped even regarded him as a target for bullying... No! I have to protect Bai Lan! I have to let everyone know how hard he's working for us!"
"Oh?"
Hirata: "However, I don't think this alone will be enough to convince everyone."
"Is that so?"
Hirata: "So, Ayanokoji, please analyze with me the points our classmates might question. Let's think of how to respond in advance."
Ayanokoji thought, Is this never going to end?
But he still said aloud, "O-okay."
18, Hirata: We All Misunderstood Bai Lan!
Every student at Advanced Nurturing High School was provided with a private dormitory room.
It wasn't very large. Including the bathroom, it measured eight tatami mats—or four tsubo, as they would say in Japan. Converted into international units, that came to about thirteen square meters.
But at the very least, it was a private space.
After lunch, Bai Lan planned to spend the afternoon and evening surveying the school grounds.
This place seemed to be a blind spot for the surveillance cameras?
He memorized it.
That way, if he accidentally committed misconduct here that could get him expelled, there would be no footage to prove it.
Oh! This place was pretty good!
If something happened here, it could even affect the school's normal operations. That would mean an even harsher punishment!
Bai Lan walked along, marking important spots on his phone while trying to memorize them.
A little after nine that night, Bai Lan returned to his private dormitory after a hard day's work.
He took a shower.
Then he played for a while.
After that, he went to sleep.
Before falling asleep, Bai Lan reviewed everything he had done that day to get himself expelled.
He had provoked the entire class and drawn everyone's hatred.
He had used Chaos Strike to draw the hatred of the entire year.
He had bullied the class beauty in front of everyone and drawn the hatred of her admirers.
He had laid the groundwork for his future expulsion...
All in all, it had been an extremely fulfilling day.
At this rate, he would soon be kicked out of school for fighting and being targeted by the entire year, right?
With beautiful expectations for the future, Bai Lan fell peacefully asleep.
And so, his first day at school came to an end.
The next day.
Class D's classroom.
The first class on the first official day of lessons still wasn't an actual lesson.
Instead, Teacher Chazhu arranged for the textbooks to be handed out.
After the textbooks had been distributed, there was still some time left in the period.
At that moment, Hirata suddenly made a request to Teacher Chazhu. "Teacher Chazhu, I'd like to say a few words to everyone."
Teacher Chazhu nodded, assuming that Hirata simply wanted to add a self-introduction session for the class.
Hirata then walked to the edge of the podium. "Since we have this opportunity, I'd like to say something—something very important..."
Hirata truly was one of the class's central figures.
After Hirata gave his opening remarks, the entire class quieted down cooperatively and turned their attention toward him.
Then Hirata began to speak.
Even before he started, he had already become emotional. After working himself up for a moment, he finally said:
"We all misunderstood Bai Lan! You have no idea how much he sacrificed for this class, or how much he endured..."
Hirata then began explaining the conclusions he and Ayanokoji had reached after discussing and analyzing the matter the previous day.
However, at Ayanokoji's insistence, Hirata played down Ayanokoji's involvement.
At first, Hirata hadn't wanted to do that. He felt Ayanokoji should take this opportunity to show off his abilities a little, since it would make it easier for him to make friends.
However, Ayanokoji's reasoning had been too convincing. He had said, "I have no standing in the class. The more involved I am in this matter, the less credible the conclusion will seem. So, to accomplish your goal, it's best to downplay my involvement. Ideally, don't mention me at all."
Although Hirata felt this would take away the "credit" Ayanokoji deserved, his immediate priority was to ease the conflict between Bai Lan and the class. Thus, he could only "wrong" Ayanokoji for the time being.
Ayanokoji: I'm not wronged. I'm not wronged at all.
To put Hirata's speech simply, there were several main points:
First, Bai Lan's Japanese was poor, and cultural differences made his words sound unpleasant to them. He had no intention of disrespecting them. Everyone should get used to it and learn to extract the important content for themselves instead of paying attention to his wording and tone.
Second, although Bai Lan's way of speaking was unpleasant, he had genuinely pointed out a way for Class D to preserve—or even increase—their living allowance.
Third, in order to unite everyone and preserve their living allowance, Bai Lan had made himself the target of the entire class and personally served as the "warning line" for the number of violations.
Fourth, based on Bai Lan's purchase of information for 50,000 points and his suggestion of two absences and one early departure as possible forms of misconduct, Bai Lan was trying to tell them that once an individual's violations accumulated to the equivalent of more than "two absences and one early departure," the class might suffer some extremely severe punishment!
Teacher Chazhu was the only person in the class who knew the truth about this special exam.
She simply listened from the side.
When she heard Hirata say that the class would receive severe punishment if violations greatly exceeded two absences and one early departure, she hurriedly lowered her head and used the newly distributed textbook to cover her face, lest her expression reveal information about the exam or undermine Hirata.
After Hirata finished, the students indeed began questioning him.
Hirata answered their questions one by one.
To prepare for this question-and-answer session, Hirata had asked Ayanokoji to "simulate" Bai Lan's thoughts. With Ayanokoji's assistance, he had prepared responses in advance to all sorts of questions the students might ask.
The question-and-answer session began.
"Why are absences and early departures being used as the units of measurement?"
Hirata: "Because absences, early departures, and tardiness are among the few forms of misconduct that can be committed without affecting other people, are moderate in severity, are suitable for measuring the punishment standard, and are easy for everyone in the class to notice!
"He wanted to use misconduct to warn everyone, yet he tried to choose forms of violation that would harm only himself as much as possible.
"This proves that Bai Lan is gentle and kind by nature!"
"What did he mean by 'idiots and mutes'?"
Hirata: "An idiot is someone who can't control their words and actions, doesn't think things through, and acts impulsively. A mute is someone with too many thoughts who is afraid of trouble and unwilling to take the initiative in important class matters."
Relying on the responses he had prepared in advance with Ayanokoji's assistance the previous day, Hirata continuously dispelled the students' doubts about Bai Lan's "true intentions" as they came up with them.
While answering the questions, Hirata kept paying attention to one person.
It was a tall male student with golden hair that reached his shoulders.
Hirata felt that the other boy's gaze was filled with amusement and confidence, giving the impression that he had seen through something.
This put Hirata under some pressure. He was afraid the boy might do something beyond his control.
In truth, Hirata had to admit that he wasn't certain what he had said was the "truth."
However, in order to achieve his goal, the only method he could think of at the moment was to believe that the "truth" really was the truth, and then find a way to make everyone else believe it too. Even if they didn't believe it, they at least had to accept it on the surface.
As long as everyone believed it, whether the "truth" was actually true no longer mattered.
After all, what Hirata had been pursuing from the very beginning was not the truth...
However, to Hirata's surprise, the person who truly caused things to slip beyond his control was not the blond-haired boy, but someone else.
Before you continue