Test Results Announced

"Also, here are the results of yesterday's quiz. I'll put them up now."

In Class A, Teacher Mashima projected everyone's scores:

First Place Amasawa Yuto 100 (Grade: 1)

Second Place Sakayanagi Arisu 95 (Grade: 3)

Third Place Shimazaki Ikkei 90 (Grade: 6)

Quite a few students cast surprised looks at Amasawa Yuto. After all, not many people knew that he'd gotten a perfect score in every subject when he first enrolled.

Amasawa Yuto felt both admiration and resentment directed at him.

Sakayanagi Arisu, seated beside him, smiled. "As expected of you."

Sakayanagi's score was already quite impressive. A 95 meant she'd solved two of the final three difficult questions.

Amasawa Yuto remembered Shimazaki Ikkei. He was the study fanatic who'd been reviewing in the library on the first day of school, so this result didn't surprise him.

Shimazaki, seated in the front row, happened to turn around. His gaze met Amasawa Yuto's, but he quickly looked away.

Yuki should be second in the grade, and Ichinose Honami and Horikita Suzune should be fourth and fifth.

The resentful looks came from the Katsuragi Faction's members, especially his right-hand man, Totsuka Yahiko, who glared daggers at him and Sakayanagi.

Katsuragi ranked sixth in the class and tenth in the grade. That was a respectable result for a student, but a little questionable for a leader.

Of course, there was no rule that a leader had to be good at studying. After all, there was Ryuen from Class C.

As for Totsuka Yahiko, he ranked 40th in the class—in other words, dead last in Class A.

Even Kito Hayato, who looked like Class A's resident muscle, had scored better than him?

How had this guy even gotten into Class A?

It seemed that when they sorted students into classes, they'd also considered balance, allowing some people to benefit from the process and end up in Class A.

"Everyone did very well. You're all excellent students, after all, and your class average is the highest of the four classes." Teacher Mashima smiled as he spoke, then wrote a number at the bottom of the score sheet: 41. He drew a line after it.

"This is the passing score for this test. No one failed!"

Yuto did a quick calculation in his head. Class A's average score should be 81.925, so the passing score was apparently half the average.

"Well, aren't you impressive? You really are a bunch of 'honor students' who've opened your teacher's eyes!" Chabashira Sae displayed the quiz results on the screen. "Nine of you failed this ridiculously easy test. Your Class D is truly unprecedented!"

The class fell silent, intimidated by Chabashira Sae's imposing presence. Ike in particular had joked earlier that day, when he saw her enter with a stern expression, and loudly asked if she was on her period.

"Teacher, please tell us how to earn Class Points!" Yosuke Hirata stood up, trying to put everyone's question to their teacher and find a solution. They couldn't really go a whole month without receiving any points, could they?

"There's no way at present. Your class is getting zero points this month. It's not as if you'll starve. The cafeteria has free mountain vegetable set meals, doesn't it?" Chabashira's expression was icy and utterly devoid of emotion.

"How could this happen!" The class wailed in unison, especially the group of girls led by Kei Karuizawa. They'd rather die than eat that kind of food.

Chabashira Sae gazed at the motley crew and let out an almost imperceptible sigh.

She hadn't managed to get Amasawa Yuto into her class, but she'd thought that at least she'd gotten two powerful assets during class assignments: Koenji Rokusuke and Tsubaki Yuki. Finally, she'd had a chance to move up a class.

But Class D's shortcomings had still exceeded her expectations.

She'd thought that after years of biding her time, this would finally be her chance to redeem herself. Instead, she'd found this batch of students even more hopeless than the last.

When Amasawa Yuto had asked her about the purchase rules, she'd thought she could give Class D a little extra help and let them learn the rules too. But he hadn't come back to ask about them.

Considering how unusually high Class B's scores were, Hoshinomiya had probably reached some kind of deal with Amasawa.

Her gaze returned to her class. They were a bunch of lunatics, making her head spin.

She'd never seen a class use up all its points within a month of starting school. Even the worst Class D in previous years had managed to keep over a hundred.

And now they were still worrying about their personal points?

"If this had been an official exam, nine of you would have been expelled!" she warned sternly.

"No way, Chabashira-sensei! The questions were too hard!" Ike wailed. He'd switched back to calling her "Chabashira-sensei" instead of "Sae."

"Hard?" Chabashira Sae nearly had a vein bulging on her forehead. Seventy percent of the questions were at middle-school level. Even a middle-schooler could've answered them.

And with questions that easy, Ken Sudō had scored 9, Kanji Ike 12, and Haruki Yamauchi 15.

The three of them hadn't even scored more points combined than her shoe size, and they were blaming the test for being too hard?!

They should go home, wash up, and go to bed!

"Don't mind them, teacher. They're just a pack of strays yapping." The speaker was Koenji. Even now, he had his feet propped up on the desk and his arms crossed, looking completely at ease.

"What did you say, Koenji? You jerk!" Sudo's temper flared again. "Hmph, you probably failed too, didn't you?"

"Then open your dog eyes wide and admire my beautiful score." Koenji glanced at him and gave a scornful laugh. "Loser."

"What are you talking about? You only got—wait, where's Koenji's name?"

Ike's gaze moved up from the bottom of the list until he spotted Koenji's name in third place.

Third Place Koenji Rokusuke 90 (Grade: 6)

That was an excellent score. It meant he'd solved one of the difficult questions.

"This guy... How could he possibly score so high?"

"That's why I say you're a bunch of idiots who can't even answer questions this easy!"

"Koenji, you just called me an idiot, didn't you?"

"Everyone, please stop! I don't want to see this!" Yosuke Hirata intervened in time, preventing the worst-case scenario: Sudo and Koenji getting into a fight in front of their teacher.

"Sudo, don't be so impulsive. Koenji, don't provoke people so much, either. After all, none of us are getting any points this month, so everyone's having a hard time."

"Exactly! You act so high and mighty, but you got placed in Class D just like us!" Kanji Ike's words hit the sore spot everyone most wanted to avoid.

He might have been too focused on mocking Koenji to notice, but his comment made the already low opinion his classmates had of him drop even further.

"Hmph! I don't care which class I'm in." Koenji somehow produced a small mirror and began combing his hair while looking into it. "Let me tell you: my family is the Koenji Conglomerate, and I was chosen as the next company president long ago. I don't care about that little graduation privilege. Ah, I'm beautiful!"

Koenji was so absorbed in his own world that everyone fell silent.

He was incredibly rich and could afford not to care what class he was in. But what about everyone else?

If they couldn't graduate from Class A, if they'd entered this school only to be treated as disposable pawns, wouldn't they have wasted three years of their lives here for nothing?