This gave Chabashira a tremendous glimmer of hope that Class D could rise to Class A!
Instead, Bai Lan turned around and cursed out the entire class, then led everyone in violating the rules, earning their first penalty points since enrollment.
Chabashira: Disappointed!
At that moment, someone pointed out the contradictions in Bai Lan's behavior and wondered whether there was some deeper meaning behind it.
Chabashira: Hope!
Chabashira even spent half the day seriously analyzing the matter of Bai Lan having some deeper meaning.
After returning, she went out of her way to look up Bai Lan's enrollment records, full of hope.
But after reading his records...
Chabashira: Disappointed!
Just look at those written-exam scores that seemed like a joke, and his interview records.
Got it!
Chabashira figured this guy probably just thought it was fun.
He was the kind of person who enjoyed himself without caring whether anyone else lived or died, right?
Just as Chabashira decided to give up on Bai Lan as a source of hope,
Hirata suddenly stepped forward the next day and cleared Bai Lan's name.
Although Hirata's explanation conflicted somewhat with what Chabashira knew, the final result was tremendously helpful to the class.
Under Hirata's explanation, the rift between the class and Bai Lan was repaired. In fact, it went beyond mere repair—Hirata's defense earned both him and Bai Lan immense prestige and influence within the class!
At the same time, Hirata's speech also gave Class D a serious "threat."
They seemed to have believed things like "being absent three times is equivalent to severe punishment"!
In Chabashira's view, under the threat of that mysterious "severe punishment," the students of Class D probably wouldn't dare slack off too much.
After a month, Class D would definitely get off to a decent start and wouldn't fall too far behind Class A.
This could apparently be understood as some kind of tactic. Perhaps Bai Lan and Hirata were working together, with one playing the bad cop and the other the good cop, joining forces to guide the class's behavior or something.
Could this be Bai Lan's real plan?
Chabashira: Hope!
Then, that very afternoon, Bai Lan used his self-introduction speech as an opportunity to curse out the entire class again.
Chabashira: Disappointed?
After school, Chabashira didn't leave. She waited outside the Class D classroom, and sure enough, Hirata held a second meeting to clear Bai Lan's name.
Chabashira listened to the commotion inside Class D from outside the classroom.
Bai Lan's name was cleared successfully once again.
So they really were working together?
Chabashira: Hope?
And then there was what happened just now.
It was only the third day of school!
First, he spent 50,000 points on information that looked somewhat useful about "the penalties for being late, leaving early, and skipping class."
Now he had spent another 10,000 on a "complete delivery menu" that was obviously useless even without looking at it.
And that was without counting his daily expenses over these three days.
Now he had less than 40,000 points left!
With the Delivery Menu, was he planning to order takeout too?
In Japan, the delivery and service fees alone were enough to cover an ordinary high school student's expenses for a day!
How many meals could he possibly order?
Was he ready to eat the free wild-vegetable set?
After seeing the way Bai Lan spent his points, Chabashira once again proposed the opinion she had originally abandoned: Bai Lan was probably really just playing around!
Chabashira felt certain this time.
Chabashira: Disappointed!
Kid, you've really got some nerve!
Chabashira wondered whether Bai Lan knew something and was deliberately messing with her by acting so erratically.
This infuriated Chabashira.
It was the middle of the day, and the April weather had already warmed up, yet she was standing there shivering.
From anger!
"I don't think this kid wants to stay at this school properly at all!" After completing the transaction with Bai Lan on the school's behalf and going through such extreme emotional swings, Chabashira finally couldn't hold it in anymore.
"Huh? Sazae, why did you suddenly get angry after making a phone call? Did you have a fight with your boyfriend? I think I heard something about delivery? Eh~ could that be some kind of code? Did your boyfriend order that kind of... 'delivery'?"
A soft, limp voice came from behind Chabashira.
54, Conservation of Smiles, Investigation Results
Chabashira knew who it was without turning around.
The person was her closest friend.
Chie Hoshinomiya.
"Don't say things like that. He's just a student."
"What? Your boyfriend is just a student?"
Chabashira silently glared at her.
Hoshinomiya began acting pitiful. "All right, all right~ I was just teasing you because you looked unhappy, trying to cheer you up."
"Yeah, the only one having fun is you, right?"
"Eh? We're friends who share one heart and one mind. If I'm happy, doesn't that make you happy too?"
"Hmph~"
"Come on, tell me what happened."
Chabashira hadn't wanted to say anything, but she felt like she would burst if she didn't. Unable to hold back, she told Hoshinomiya about Bai Lan.
After explaining everything, Chabashira began complaining. "It's only the third day, and this kid has less than 40,000 points left. He spent 10,000 of them on the 'Delivery Menu,' and with so little money left, he still dares to order takeout!"
"Exactly! That's outrageous. If he dares order takeout today, tomorrow he'll dare order the Honnoji Incident! But..."
Hoshinomiya seemed to notice something. "What did you say his name was?"
Hoshinomiya: "What did you say his name was?"
Chabashira: "Bai Lan."
Hoshinomiya froze for a moment, then punched her palm with sudden realization. "Bai Lan?! If it's him, he might really be wealthy enough to order takeout."
Chabashira: ???
Hoshinomiya: "You didn't know? On the very first day of school, before the orientation was even over, Bai Lan came to our class to sell information. He didn't manage to sell any to Class B for certain reasons, but I can't say the same for the other classes..."
"He came to our class to sell information too."
A man's voice rang out.
Chabashira turned her head.
There was only one speaker, but Chabashira saw two men.
They were:
Class A's homeroom teacher—Tomoya Mashima.
Class C's homeroom teacher—Kazuma Sakagami.
The person who had spoken just now was Sakagami from Class C.
Everyone then instinctively looked toward Mashima from Class A.
Mashima had originally intended to keep it a secret for Class A.
Let us review this once more: "A certain group obtained some important information." That news itself was also important information.
However, under the circumstances, Mashima knew he couldn't hide it anymore.
He could only silently curse Sakagami in his heart—That big-mouthed idiot—before nodding and admitting, "Our class did too."
Chabashira: ???
So, you homeroom teachers from the other classes knew about something involving my own student, but didn't tell me, and I had no idea?
I was the one who got here first...
Seeing how freely Bai Lan spent his money, Chabashira felt that he must have earned quite a lot.
For a moment, Chabashira felt an urge to spend some points and have the school's system investigate Bai Lan's account.
The more he had earned, the more valuable his information was.
If the information was valuable and he could sell it, that meant it was very useful.
Could he have been selling the things he mentioned in class?
He had taken such useful information out and sold it. Wasn't that strengthening the enemy?
She had originally wanted to use this information gap to close the distance with Class A a little, but...
Not only had he strengthened his teammates, he'd casually strengthened the enemy too!
According to relativity, if everyone was strengthened, then no one had been strengthened at all.
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