Hoshinomiya's Regret

Not long after Amasawa Yuto left, 1.5 million points really did arrive in Hoshinomiya's account.

Hoshinomiya sighed, unable to help but feel deep concern for the future of her class. As things stood, Honami and Ryuji were nowhere near the level of Amasawa Yuto.

Still, at least she had managed to make Class A bleed, and her own students would benefit from knowing the truth about the school in advance.

She sent an email to Amasawa Yuto, telling him to come to the infirmary to find her; per school regulations, she could only relay the information verbally.

A moment later, a knock sounded at the door. However, the person who pushed it open wasn't Amasawa Yuto, but Ichinose Honami.

"Eh, Hoshinomiya-sensei? Is Amasawa-kun here?"

"Little Honami, why are you here? Where is Amasawa-kun?"

The teacher and student stared at each other, both completely bewildered.

Just then, Hoshinomiya's phone received an email from Amasawa Yuto.

[Just tell the rules to Ichinose Honami. That is Class B's information; I am not worthy of hearing it.]

Hoshinomiya felt as if her brain had been struck by a heavy blow. It felt as though several clues were finally connecting.

"Honami, what did Amasawa-kun tell you?" Hoshinomiya kept her tone as gentle as possible, matching her usual kind persona.

Ichinose Honami looked a bit awkward. "Well... Amasawa-kun said this school has deeper rules, and that students might even be expelled. He said that as long as we paid points, we could learn all the rules."

Hoshinomiya felt the world go dark before her eyes. "You agreed?"

"Yes... Actually, Kanzaki-kun and I had also sensed that something was off, like the free supplies. But we were afraid of causing panic, so we didn't dare tell everyone. When Amasawa-kun approached us, we agreed."

Hoshinomiya was so angry she nearly fainted. The 1.5 million she had received wasn't from Class A at all—it was from her own class! And Amasawa had intentionally haggled with her just to pocket the difference from Class B!

"You... why didn't you come and ask a teacher first?" If they had just asked a teacher, they wouldn't have been scammed like this.

"How many points did he ask you for?"

"Ah..." Honami lowered her head, her fingertips unconsciously picking at the pleats of her skirt. She could likely sense the shift in Hoshinomiya-sensei's mood.

Seeing Honami so hesitant, Hoshinomiya confirmed her suspicions. She never imagined that in the very first week of school, her own class would be played by Class A—

"We gave Amasawa-kun 1.5 million," Ichinose said in a small voice, pursing her lips.

"I knew it, he earned it from you—eh? How much did you give him?" Hoshinomiya, who had been on the verge of losing her mind, stopped abruptly.

Did she hear that wrong?

"1.5 million." Ichinose repeated it, looking at Hoshinomiya with some unease.

This time, it was Hoshinomiya's turn to stand frozen in place.

1.5 million? Why? Amasawa didn't earn a single point? What was he aiming for?

"Actually... Amasawa-kun took us to ask Mashima-sensei from Class A, so we originally thought we needed to scrape together two million points."

"For the sake of everyone in the class, we started pooling our points. Just then, Amasawa-kun contacted us again, saying that if we left it to him, it would only cost 1.5 million points. That's why we gave him the points and even signed a written agreement."

Hoshinomiya processed the massive amount of information. She hadn't expected so much to have happened right under her nose.

But she still didn't understand: what was Amasawa Yuto's motive for doing this? He hadn't extracted a single bit of profit from it; objectively speaking, he had even saved Class B 500,000 points.

Otherwise, Class B might have truly scraped together 2 million points before coming to see her.

Furthermore, with this, Class B's points when the first month's results were announced would also be significantly higher.

Amasawa Yuto's image shifted instantly from a despicable, shameless scalper to a noble, righteous saint.

The drastic change left Hoshinomiya unable to react for a moment.

"Eh, anyway, thank you to Amasawa-kun this time. Now, Honami-chan, let me explain the rules to you. There's no need to worry about Class A; they didn't pay any points, so they probably won't be coming."

"Then... Sensei, since this information is being shared with all the students in Class B, could you please explain it to everyone in the classroom? After all, it was points that everyone contributed."

Seeing Honami like this, Hoshinomiya felt very gratified.

Although this class didn't have a genius like Amasawa Yuto, they had their own strengths: unity. Class A couldn't even manage to pool their money together, yet Class B had already managed to mobilize their students to come up with 1.5 million at this stage.

Thinking of this, Hoshinomiya felt that her students were simple and adorable.

As their homeroom teacher, she should believe in them and unearth their potential.

"You're right, Honami-chan. Since it's points that the students contributed together, everyone has the right to hear it. Let's go to the classroom."

"Yes!" Ichinose nodded happily.

In the library, after sending the email, Amasawa Yuto shifted his attention back to the chess game with Arisu Sakayanagi.

"My business is taken care of. Let's continue, Sakayanagi."

"Yuto-kun seems to have made some interesting transactions with Class B."

"Not at all."

"No transactions?"

"Nothing interesting about it."

"Hehe," Sakayanagi let out a soft laugh. "Yuto-kun knows how to joke, too."

She picked up her white queen. "So, that means you played the role of a pushover for Class B, Amasawa-yuto?"

"Did Hashimoto tell you that?"

Hashimoto Masayoshi, a sharp-looking boy with dyed yellow hair tied in a small braid, was currently a core member of the Sakayanagi faction.

He seemed to be responsible for intelligence gathering.

"Yes, he did. That's why, at first, I thought you were trying to intimidate Class B right at the start of the school year."

"Sakayanagi, you understand the rules of this school well. You should know the importance of private points."

"That's true, which is exactly why I'm so curious as to why you would help Class B."

"Sakayanagi, where do you think our points come from?"

"Isn't it through competition between classes?"

"That's merely redistribution. The source of our points is the school—this Advanced Nurturing High School. In the shopping mall, in the residential areas, there are so many staff members and teachers; there is a massive flow of points far exceeding what exists between the classes."

Sakayanagi's hand, holding the chess piece, froze in mid-air. The smile vanished from her face—a sign that she was deep in thought.

"Are you saying we should be earning points from the school itself?"

"If we compare this to a casino, the students are the gamblers, and the school is the house. There may be competition among the gamblers, but everyone has a common enemy: the house."

"So, are you planning to unite the four classes and declare war on the school?"

"Not at all. As a beneficiary of the established rules, there is no reason for me to break them."

"You say you won't break the rules, but you didn't say you wouldn't exploit them."

"Points don't necessarily have to be used for competition between grade levels. Based on projections, Class D's points this year will be unprecedentedly low. If we don't do something, we might find ourselves at a disadvantage in terms of total points should there be any inter-grade confrontations later on."

Sakayanagi stared blankly at Amasawa Yuto's face. She had only been thinking about the victory or defeat between classes, yet Amasawa Yuto's perspective was entirely different.

Is that why he reached out to Class B? Not just because Class B could scrape together the money, but because if support in points were ever needed in the future, only the saintly Ichinose Honami of Class B would use her points without hesitation to save her classmates.

This school is a microcosm of society.

She recalled, once again, the outside world's assessment of Advanced Nurturing High School. One could glimpse a person's attitude toward society as a whole by how they viewed this institution.

Perhaps this mindset of Amasawa Yuto's was exactly what the school intended to cultivate in its students.