The Real Meaning of Switching Classes, and Why You Were Assigned to Class C

Shinroku Sato hesitated.

When he had proposed handing his personal points over to Manabu Horikita for safekeeping, he had trusted Manabu's character.

But after Dokuho Kouya said that Manabu might use his authority as student council president to prohibit such an arrangement, he became uncertain.

Although he had known Manabu as a rival for three years, Shinroku Sato's understanding of him was only partial.

He really couldn't guarantee whether Manabu would raise an objection with the school after learning about this.

"Kouya, there's something I'm curious about."

Shinroku Sato furrowed his brow. "I read your contract. You stand to gain nothing from this. Why are you still so eager to get involved?"

He was going to such lengths to do something that brought him no benefit.

It was downright bizarre.

Shinroku Sato couldn't help feeling uneasy.

"Senpai, you're being a little too suspicious."

Dokuho Kouya sat comfortably on the sofa and said calmly, "Well, let me tell you a little about what I think."

This was a lie he'd come up with to create a certain image of himself.

"Senpai, what do you think is the deeper meaning behind the statement that two hundred million personal points can get you into Class A?" Dokuho Kouya asked.

"Huh?" Shinroku Sato froze for a moment. "Isn't it... just what the words themselves mean?"

Dokuho Kouya shook his head. "The real meaning is that you can transfer someone to another class for two hundred million points, as long as that person agrees, of course."

Shinroku Sato's expression turned strange. "What's the difference?"

"The difference is huge," Dokuho Kouya said. "If you look at it that way, Class A, Class B, and Class C can all spend two hundred million personal points to bring a strong student over from a lower-ranked class and bolster their own."

"Senpai, you should have noticed that every class has students who don't belong in it."

"Lower-ranked classes have outstanding students, while higher-ranked classes also have their share of lousy ones. As a class leader, I imagine you understand this better than I do."

Shinroku Sato nodded, his expression growing serious.

It was true. Some students were completely out of place in their classes. Even Class D, which was full of trash, had students with exceptional abilities.

Although the school claimed that everyone assigned to Class D was a defective product, some of those defective products had demonstrated greater ability than certain Class A students.

By rights, those outstanding students should all have been assigned to Class A.

Well, even Shinroku Sato should have been assigned to Class A.

"Even for a class, two hundred million personal points is an awfully steep price to pay for one person."

Shinroku Sato shook his head. "Sometimes one of our classmates gets expelled, and then we'd need two hundred million personal points to cancel the expulsion penalty."

"Uh..."

Shinroku Sato froze, his eyes widening in disbelief.

After Dokuho Kouya's explanation, his understanding of the claim that two hundred million points could get you into Class A had shifted: two hundred million points could be used to bring in an outstanding student.

Did both switching classes and canceling an expulsion penalty really cost two hundred million personal points by coincidence?

"Are you saying the school's idea is for us to cast aside useless students in our class, then spend two hundred million points to bring in talented students from other classes?"

Shinroku Sato broke into a slight sweat.

If that was really the case, then Class C of the Third Year—and perhaps the entire third year—had been going about things all wrong at Advanced Nurturing.

If a student was useless, they could just get rid of them.

The important thing was to save up money and bring in talented students from other classes to strengthen their own.

For example, if Class B of the Third Year had started saving up over the past two years, they should have been able to make one transfer, bringing in an outstanding student from Class C or Class D.

That would have given them a better chance of reaching Class A.

The same went for Class A of the Third Year. They had the most points, so they could even make two transfers and bring in two outstanding students to cement their position.

"Senpai seems to have understood the school's intentions. But let's get back to the point."

Dokuho Kouya spoke in an even tone. "Even if two hundred million points is a hefty price for a class to pay, you'd need to demonstrate outstanding ability to convince a higher-ranked class to put up that amount."

Shinroku Sato understood. "You want to use this plan to prove your ability to Class A of the First Year?"

Dokuho Kouya chuckled. "If you were the leader of Class A of the First Year and saw someone from your year spend two hundred million points to help an upperclassman transfer classes, without knowing what had happened, wouldn't you think that person was very capable?"

Everyone involved in the plan had to keep it secret.

They couldn't tell anyone—not even students from Class A of the Third Year, let alone lower-year students.

The only information outsiders would get was that Dokuho Kouya had spent two hundred million personal points to transfer an upperclassman into Class A.

Shinroku Sato lowered his head and thought it over, trying to put himself in the shoes of the leader of Class A of the First Year.

With only the information available, he really would think that Dokuho Kouya was a very capable person.

"But even if Class A realizes you're capable, that doesn't mean they'll spend two hundred million personal points to recruit you."

Shinroku Sato said, "If it were me, I might deliberately target you and force you to drop out."

"Looks like there was a reason Senpai was assigned to Class C."

Dokuho Kouya stopped halfway through his sentence.

It was fine to be cryptic once in a while.

People could figure it out for themselves.

"This is the reason I was assigned to Class C?"

Shinroku Sato didn't argue. Instead, he furrowed his brow and searched for the reason himself.

If it had been that guy Manabu Horikita...

Faced with this situation, he probably wouldn't deliberately target such a talented person.

He might actually call on the entire class to pool two hundred million personal points and recruit Dokuho Kouya, strengthening Class A in the process.

Two hundred million points was a lot.

But graduating from Class A was what mattered most.

Sato's original idea had been to weaken the competition, while the Manabu Horikita in his imagination would focus on strengthening his own class.

If Shinroku Sato's approach were followed, then during the Special Exam, the class would focus all its energy on forcing Dokuho Kouya to drop out.

Naturally, their Special Exam results would suffer.

If they managed to get him expelled in one go, that would be fine.

But if they failed, the class he led would perform poorly in the Special Exam and be overtaken by the other classes.

But if they did the opposite—participating actively in the exams from the very beginning, saving up enough points, and then recruiting someone—

They would not only preserve Class A's position, but also strengthen their class and weaken the others. It would be killing several birds with one stone.

"So this is the difference between me and the leader of Class A." Shinroku Sato had truly realized the truth.

Though it was a misunderstanding of the truth.

"Kouya, I understand your idea now."

Shinroku Sato stood up from the sofa. "I'll tell the others in my class about this, but I can't promise how many of them will take part."

"If possible, I hope you'll bring it up with the leaders of Class B and Class D too," Dokuho Kouya said. "This is something that can only be done with all three classes working together."