She Was Quite Eager to See for Herself

First, the students in Class B weren't that bad. If he'd been in Class D, he probably really wouldn't have dared to do this. Second... how could they blackmail him with morality when he didn't have any?

Third, "friends" were the best source of information. Whether the information was true or false, he could still pick up a few tidbits from their idle chatter.

Just like now.

"Tell me more." Asakusa Toru dragged over his chair and joined the group of classmates chatting idly in front of him without hesitation.

Then he pieced together most of the story.

"..."

And so Asakusa Toru fell silent.

...Wait, I wrote my diary so obviously in a man's voice. How could Xiao Mei still be the one they went after?!

Sakayanagi Arisu's track record was certainly pretty awful, but at least in the original setup, she was supposed to be a genius, right?

She was a genius, wasn't she? She definitely was, right?

Why had she reached a completely wrong conclusion all on her own, without noticing anything was wrong?

Could being love-struck really affect someone's brain that much?

Asakusa Toru didn't understand.

Still, this ought to count as good news.

After Horikita Suzune, the second person to step forward and read the Diary was Sakayanagi Arisu.

...Of course, it was also possible that it was Kamuro Masumi.

But thinking it over, with Miss Kamuro's brains, she probably couldn't come up with a trick that would make her master take center stage on her behalf.

More importantly, stand-ins were usually unimportant people whom no one would mind seeing assassinated. Who would use their own master as a stand-in?

If Kamuro really was the holder of the Diary Copy, he couldn't think of any dark history of hers that would be worth exposing.

Apart from Miaoshou Kongkong, there really didn't seem to be anything.

If he had to say... she might have a bit of a masochistic streak.

Or maybe she liked the feeling of someone threatening her with something they had on her.

But everyone was free to have their own kinks. Even if something like that was written in a diary, it didn't seem all that remarkable.

So, after all, Sakayanagi Arisu was the more fun one.

A pure, hopelessly studious straight arrow like Horikita Suzune, or an arrogant, love-struck brain who was supposed to be top-tier in every way, like Sakayanagi Arisu—no matter how he looked at it, messing with them would be more fun than messing with anyone else.

Still, he wouldn't rush to mock her in tonight's diary.

He'd let her hold on to her answer and raise her proud chin in satisfaction for a while. Later, he'd mock her mercilessly.

...All right, he admitted it. The reason he wasn't planning to mock her to her face was that today's Plot Index was terrible.

That's right. Today's Plot Index was even worse than yesterday's.

'E'

He admitted that there really hadn't been any plot on the third day of school. In the original story, apart from the first two days of school and the first swimming lesson, the first month had basically been skipped over with the words "a dreamlike life."

But wasn't E a little too much?

Asakusa Toru had reason to suspect that he'd stepped on the toes of the capitalists.

I'd worked so hard, racking my brains to figure out what to write in my diary each day, only to get a Plot Index like this?

Capitalists, you win.

Chapter 26: She Was Quite Eager to See for Herself

With such a low Plot Index, Asakusa Toru felt listless all over.

But he still had to write today's diary. After all, he'd already decided that he would make one final attempt, no matter how low today's Plot Index was.

So... what exactly should he write about?

Since he'd already spoiled this Special Exam, and the later plot seemed too far off to be relevant, Asakusa Toru thought it over and decided he should pick someone to grill.

However, he was having a little trouble choosing whom to grill.

He'd leave Sakayanagi Arisu alone for now, give Horikita Suzune some time to cool off, and he'd already talked about Kushida Kikyo at the beginning.

He'd picked on a God-man in Class D twice and the Little Princess in Class A once. If he wanted to keep things balanced, this time he should definitely talk about someone from Class B or Class C.

Everyone in Class B might be little angels, but... if he thought carefully, there were still plenty of things he could talk about.

Like the princely Kanzaki, who was practically the embodiment of a God-man; the mysterious Lady Himeno, whose purpose he couldn't quite figure out; Miss Shiranami, whose lilies were blooming; and Watanabe, who seemed to have plenty of scenes later on, but whose personality he couldn't actually picture at all when he thought back on it.

Class C went without saying. Ryuen was the biggest source of entertainment.

He'd decided. He'd talk about Ryuen and that great traitor of his, who would suddenly show up later for no apparent reason.

Of course, before that... he still had class.

He fulfilled his duties as a student and took on the first month's Behavioral Norms Exam, the one that would record every little detail.

Student Council.

Time ticked by. Although the Student Council had announced its recruitment drive yesterday, after Asakusa Toru's little scene, most of those who knew their own abilities had given up on joining.

Now, with the Student Council's work period nearly over, only Katsuragi Kohei from Class A had come forward to express his desire to join.

They'd interviewed him on the spot, but unfortunately, although he was a Class A student, he wasn't quite what the current Student Council president, Horikita Manabu, was looking for.

"...That guy from yesterday didn't come?"

Horikita Manabu glanced up at the clock, which was almost at "quitting time," and suddenly asked Tachibana Akane beside him.

Tachibana Akane shook her head gently. "He didn't."

No matter how many times he asked, the result wouldn't change. The quiet door had never opened, while the clock's hands kept turning on the wall.

Everything was telling Horikita Manabu one thing.

—He'd stood him up.

...No, thinking it over, "stood him up" might not be quite accurate.

Asakusa Toru had said he would come by the Student Council Office "next time."

But he hadn't said when "next time" would be.

"..." Horikita Manabu fell silent.

He watched the clock reach the end of the hour, finished the little work he had left, and stood up.

He shouldn't keep fooling himself. The guy had stood him up.

There was no point quibbling over the meaning of "next time." The fact was, he hadn't come.

"Um... President." Seeing him get up, Tachibana Akane hurriedly gathered the documents on the desk, then asked quietly, "The secretary position is still vacant..."

There had been too few interviewees.

If no one had come to the Student Council for an interview on the first day, it would probably be difficult to find students willing to join later, either.

"Better to have no one than the wrong person," Horikita Manabu said calmly. "If no one meets the requirements, then let the position stay vacant."

The Student Council welcomed only those with ambition.

He thought he'd said that yesterday.

Class A hadn't changed much compared to the previous two days, and Ryuen in Class C was still trying to bring Yamada Albert to heel.

As for Class D...

They should have realized by now.

Sakayanagi Arisu's arrival and departure hadn't changed anything. For the students in Class D, it was just a minor interlude.

Although they were speculating quite a bit about the relationship between Sakayanagi Arisu and Wang Meiyu, what mattered more to them right now was the exam information they'd bought from Chabashira Sae for two hundred thousand points.

"Behavioral Norms Exam."

Any inappropriate behavior would result in a deduction, and by this point they might already have lost over a hundred points.

It sounded nerve-racking. It sounded frightening.

Exams were something that naturally made students shrink back, let alone an exam conducted in secret, quietly and without anyone noticing.

"U-um, Teacher, what happens if we lose too many points?" A girl swallowed and raised her hand. "Will our parents be notified?"

After nine years as students, they already knew all too well what happened if they failed an exam.

Other than notifying their parents, not much would happen.

Among the students in Class D, those who had never failed were few and far between. There were even some who had passed just as rarely.

Still, Advanced Nurturing seemed different from the schools they'd attended in the past.

"Notify your parents? No, your parents won't be notified." Chabashira Sae raised her brows.

They'd lose money.

Still, the two hundred thousand points had only bought an explanation of the Special Exam's rules.

The meaning behind the deductions wasn't something she needed to explain.

They shouldn't blame her for being harsh. If they wanted to rise to Class A, this was the bare minimum.

Right now, the lowest amount of Private Points Class D could offer was two hundred thousand.

Any more than that would exceed their expectations and make them refuse to pay.

But even on the third day, when information had already lost much of its value, it would take at least five hundred thousand Private Points to lay everything out clearly for them.

That was a sum they would absolutely never pay.

So, in a sense, Chabashira Sae felt she'd done everything she could.

She'd reduced the cost from five hundred thousand to two hundred thousand, while also cutting some expensive but unnecessary information to lessen the burden on them.

Even if they didn't know that the exam results affected their Class Points, now that they knew the exam existed, they ought to have acted with restraint.

Although she'd observed Class D for three days and gotten a rough sense of their habits, Chabashira Sae still didn't think they were so rotten that they'd behave recklessly despite knowing they were being tested.

In all her years teaching at Advanced Nurturing, she'd never seen a defective product of that degree.

If there really was one, she'd quite like to see for herself.

"Your parents won't be notified, and you won't be expelled. The only thing that will change... is the school's 'evaluation' of you."

Looking down at the students, Chabashira Sae spoke softly.

Chapter 27: She Was Quite Eager to See for Herself

The moment the word "evaluation" came up, the tense atmosphere in Class D collapsed.

Still, everyone had their own interpretation of the result.

Broadly speaking, there were three groups.

Those who thought, "We're already at rock bottom. No matter which way we go, we can only go up."

Those who thought, "We don't know what'll happen, but if we fail, won't that be bad?"

And those who thought, "Good. Looks like there's still time."

The first group was the Yamauchi Group, the middle group was the Gal Group, and the last was Horikita Suzune.

"Phew, it's only our evaluation that'll change. It's not a big deal, really." Yamauchi Haruki let out a sigh of relief and waved his hand. "The school already said we're all trash, didn't it? Losing a few more points won't matter."

"Besides, we won't be expelled."

It didn't sound like a test scored out of a hundred, either. They'd already lost over a hundred points, so a few more wouldn't make much difference.

At most, he'd be a little more careful.

But if something unavoidable happened and he couldn't help being late, then there was nothing he could do about it, right?