Bringing Trouble on Himself

I hadn't expected cultivation to be fake. Another day wasted.

"Everyone, listen up. There's a good chance the exam paper I'm holding is the actual paper for the upcoming midterms."

At the morning class meeting, Kanzaki Ryuji stood beside Hoshinomiya-sensei and raised the paper in his hand.

"No way!"

"They have actual exam papers?"

"If that's the case, this school is way more complicated than I thought."

"As expected of Kanzaki!"

The class made no effort to hide their astonishment.

Would any normal school have something like this? If things worked like that, what was the point of exams? To see who was better at memorizing answers?

"There's one more thing." Kanzaki Ryuji smiled faintly. As soon as he spoke, everyone in the class quieted down, waiting to hear what he would say next. But Makoto sensed malice in his smile.

"This exam paper didn't come from me. Honestly, I never expected this sort of thing to happen at this school either. Isn't that right, Miyano?"

At Kanzaki Ryuji's pointed call-out, everyone's eyes turned to Makoto in an instant.

"Uh... yeah, that's right."

Their gazes seemed to weigh on him, and Makoto felt a little pressure.

Couldn't Kanzaki Ryuji cut him some slack?

QAQ

Because the class still remembered Makoto's perceptive remark on the first day of school, not a single person doubted him.

"I see."

"That explains it."

Some students nodded as if they'd suddenly understood.

"As expected of Miyano!"

Hey, hey, he'd heard that. That line sounded awfully familiar.

Makoto sneaked a glance at the person who'd said, "As expected of [name]." If he remembered correctly, her name was Amikura Mako—the very person who'd questioned whether he could really be childhood friends with a beautiful girl.

"If that's the case, why did Miyano have Kanzaki come up and tell us? Wouldn't everyone trust him more if he'd told us himself?"

One student had spotted the key point.

"Yeah, exactly. At the start of the year, I thought Miyano wanted to be our class representative or something. But after that, he went quiet and became practically invisible. He's barely been coming to class, and Hoshinomiya-sensei has approved all his absence slips. It's ridiculous."

The student had said quite a lot. It seemed they'd been curious about Makoto for some time.

"And if Miyano doesn't want that role anymore, why did Kanzaki still bring him up? I want to know why."

A student turned to Kanzaki Ryuji at the podium.

"As for that, I believe Class B can't rise to Class A without Miyano's help, so I'd like to seek his support as much as possible," Kanzaki Ryuji explained. If he could, he still wanted to give it a try.

"Uh... if I remember right, isn't Miyano's girlfriend in Class A?"

Thank you!

Makoto looked gratefully at the student who'd said that: Shibata Sou. Good brother for life—in his heart, anyway.

He'd helped say what Makoto wanted to say.

"That's exactly it, so I'm in a bit of a difficult position," Makoto said with a wry smile. Of course, he was putting it on.

If he wanted to leave, the path was right beneath his feet.

His twenty million personal points had paved that road, but now wasn't the time.

There were things he still had to do, and being in Class B would help him a lot.

"Regardless, Miyano provided us with this exam paper, so we should thank him for his efforts," Hamaguchi Tetsuya said, getting to the heart of the matter. However...

"Actually, Class A and Class D have this exam paper too."

Kanzaki Ryuji wore a strange expression. He'd been a little stunned when he first heard about it, too.

So the whole thing was an open-book exam, then?

"..."

"Are we the last ones to find out?"

Beppu Ryota asked timidly. It was something many of the students were concerned about.

"Not exactly. Revealing the exam paper too early would do more harm than good, since we want everyone in the class to study hard during this period. So each class should have been told within the past couple of days."

Kanzaki Ryuji already knew quite a lot, and as the heir to a financial conglomerate, he'd had to develop his speaking skills.

As he spoke confidently at the podium, he even seemed to carry a little of the bearing of someone from a great family.

"...Did he just not mention Class C?"

Another student had spotted the key point.

"Now that you mention it, he didn't."

Hearing that, more and more students caught on, and everyone couldn't help smiling.

When only one class knew, they'd all kept it secret from the outside. Now three classes knew while one didn't, and they were just as in sync about keeping the exam paper from that class.

It was like The Truman Show, with Class C playing Truman.

They couldn't wait to see the expressions on the Class C students' faces when the exam results came out.

That was what everyone was thinking right now.

Makoto was no exception.

"Anyway, Miyano, I hope you'll keep doing your best from now on!"

Kanzaki Ryuji came down from the podium and returned to his seat, meeting Makoto's resentful gaze along the way.

Hoshinomiya-sensei gave Makoto a playful look, as if to say, "What's going on, kid?"

"Mm~ I came to tell you all about this Friday's midterms, but it looks like I don't need to say much. You're all such good students!"

Hoshinomiya-sensei blinked, gave everyone a cute smile, waved, and left the classroom.

She could go happily slack off in the Infirmary again.

"You've really gotten me into a mess."

With some time left before class, Makoto complained to Kanzaki Ryuji.

"How many times have I told you? I don't want to do this! And you went and did it anyway!"

"Come on, I helped you out before. Just do me this one favor!" Kanzaki Ryuji smiled. He was referring to the time he'd pretended to be Makoto's friend.

Of course, he really did consider Makoto a friend. Seeing Makoto's resentful expression, and knowing he'd react like this if teased a little, was...

Pretty cute.

"All right, but you said it."

Makoto decided he'd get a little revenge on Kanzaki Ryuji sometime in the future.

"You're not thinking of anything bad, are you?"

To Makoto's surprise, Kanzaki Ryuji seemed to have a spider sense, and shot him a suspicious look.

"No, absolutely not."

Kanzaki Ryuji withdrew his gaze, only half convinced. After all, the feeling had come out of nowhere, and he had no evidence.

"Today, we'll pick up where we left off yesterday."

As Mashima-sensei stepped into the classroom, Makoto felt a little relieved.