"Y-yes!" Sakura nodded hard, clutching the document folder like it held a little hope and courage.
Toudou Shizuka didn't linger. He rose and left.
As he walked out of the Periodical Section, the afternoon sunlight streamed through the tall glass windows and fell across him.
Behind him was Sakura Airi's grateful gaze; ahead lay Class B's midterm battlefield, standing ready for war.
He pushed up his glasses, his gaze calm and deep behind the lenses.
Helping Sakura had been a kindness within his personal ability, and he had nothing to reproach himself for.
Now, he needed to devote all his energy to the fight to protect Class B's collective interests.
The "ammunition" Miyazaki Miyabi had provided was loaded, and their training results had been confirmed in the mock exam.
The real Midterm Exam would be the ultimate stage: a test of this gamble that had cost three hundred thousand points, of Class B's unity and strategy, and of Toudou Shizuka's own abilities.
The final forty-eight hours before the Midterm Exam were like a bowstring pulled taut.
The air in Class B was thick with the smell of ink and caffeine, while piles of notes and workbooks on the desks formed miniature fortifications.
Toudou Shizuka sat by the window, idly twirling a pen between his fingers as his gaze swept over the sparse figures on the athletic field.
Thanks to the [Energy Recovery] talent, the days of intense studying hadn't left him looking too worn out.
Under the guidance of [Efficient Learning Method A-rank], his thoughts were unusually clear. The key points in Miyazaki Miyabi's materials, the core question types he had compiled, and the weak spots Shibata Satou and the others might have all formed a precise, three-dimensional battle map in his mind.
Yet a faint intuition born of [Danger