Classroom of the Elite, but It's a Diary Style

Her memory was quite decent; she could recall events from a month ago with great clarity.

"It's me. Sakayanagi wants to see you," Kamuro Masumi said, her expression blank. "Come to Palette after school."

Palette was a cafe in the shopping mall that was quite popular among the students; both its coffee and desserts were excellent.

"Eh? Wh-why does she want to see me?" Wang Meiyu was at a loss.

Kamuro Masumi did not answer, merely saying calmly, "You'll have to ask Sakayanagi that. I'm just delivering a message."

"Since you know now, I'll be heading back."

The atmosphere in Class D was strange—not that it smelled odd, but the vibe was incredibly subtle.

There was a clear and distinct air of collapse hanging over it.

She didn't particularly like this kind of atmosphere.

Since her task of delivering the message was complete, she should head back.

She really didn't know what kind of nerve Sakayanagi was striking this time.

She had assumed coming to Class D at the start of the month was just a whim, but now that she was looking for Wang Meiyu this month as well, what exactly had she been doing before?

When it came down to it, other than not being Japanese, what was so special about Wang Meiyu?

"I, Sakayanagi-san, you..." Wang Meiyu was momentarily at a loss for words.

She suddenly realized she didn't even know Kamuro Masumi's name.

Failing to seize the opportunity to refuse, she could only watch helplessly as Kamuro Masumi turned and walked away.

Her hands instinctively pressed against the desk, but she couldn't bring herself to stand up and chase after her.

Because Chabashira Sae had arrived.

The more you struggle, the deeper you sink.

The bell for class rang, and Chabashira Sae walked in slowly, carrying a poster tube in her hand.

Her expression remained cold, but this time, compared to her usual look—which resembled someone mourning a death in the family—there seemed to be an added layer of severity.

"Teacher, don't tell me your period didn't come—?"

Ike Kanji shouted out a piece of stupidity perfectly in line with his character, loud enough for everyone to hear, though no one paid him any mind.

"We will now begin the morning assembly," Chabashira Sae said, ignoring Ike Kanji's idiocy with practiced ease. "Before that, if anyone has any questions, ask them now."

When Chabashira Sae made this announcement, the noisy chatter below erupted into the same repeated question.

'Where is the money?'

Wasn't it promised that we would get 100,000 per month?

Wasn't it promised that it would be deposited on the 1st without fail?

Why hadn't they received a single point by now?

But no matter how they asked, they only received the same answer from Chabashira Sae:

"The points have already been deposited."

The students lowered their heads, looking at the unchanged numbers on their terminals, then looked back up at the unassailable words of Chabashira Sae.

They fell into confusion.

"But, um, there's just nothing there..." a student named Hondo said, at a loss.

"Sigh..." With a faint sigh, Horikita Suzune, who had been slumped over her desk, finally couldn't take it anymore. "What was supposed to be issued has already been issued."

"It's not because Class D was left behind, nor is it because the school made a mistake."

She turned her head to the side, letting out a breath, and used a listless voice to put an end to this increasingly painful farce.

"It's simply because, based on our evaluation, we didn't earn a single cent."

After saying this, she buried her head back into her arms.

"..."

"..."

"..."

As Horikita Suzune's voice faded, Class D was met with a deathly silence.

"Hey, hey, hey... you're joking, right?" Ike Kanji said in a trembling voice.

Yamauchi Haruki was even more frantic; he stood up abruptly and shouted at Chabashira Sae, "Teacher Chabashira, say something! Tell everyone that Horikita is wrong, that it's not like that, and that the school just delayed the point distribution!"

"How is that possible? How could it be possible to have zero..."

If there weren't 100,000 points this month...

"...Is it because of the Behavioral Norms Exam?" Hirata Yosuke rested his wrists on the desk, his fingers interlaced tightly; one could faintly see how much force he was using.

Raising her eyebrows slightly, Chabashira Sae nodded quite bluntly:

"Yes."

"Hahaha, evaluation, what a truly pathetic trick." With unbridled arrogance, Koenji Rokusuke propped his legs up on the desk, raised an eyebrow, and stared straight at Chabashira Sae: "In other words, Teacher, you deceived us, didn't you?"

A trick.

Deception.

This was the inevitable conclusion reached after learning today's information.

Chabashira Sae had deceived them.

"You took our money, yet you deliberately withheld the truth regarding the most critical information, using 'evaluation' to cover up the true cost of the special exam." He wagged his index finger and said: "That's not very nice."

The spearhead was organized by Koenji at this moment, then pointed cleanly and decisively at Chabashira Sae.

As if guided by a backbone, the bewildered students in the class immediately followed in Koenji's footsteps.

"Yeah, yeah, didn't you take our money, little Sae?!"

"Why didn't you just tell us directly? Why say it would only affect our evaluation?"

"I don't accept this, I want to protest, give me my money back!"

Noisy voices erupted one after another. Matters concerning their own interests caused them to suppress their respect for the teacher's status, turning it instead into a pursuit of their own benefits.

They wanted to protect their own interests.

"I should have stated clearly on the day of the entrance ceremony that this school measures students by their ability." Chabashira Sae sneered and spread her hands: "And this time, you received an evaluation of 'zero'."

"That is all."

"I should have already told you quite clearly that the content of the special exam was a Behavioral Norms Exam, right?"

"I should have also told you quite clearly that the point deductions from the special exam would affect your evaluation, right?"

With a slap, she stuck the paper listing the class points for all four classes onto the blackboard, her face full of confusion:

"Why were the other classes able to figure it out, yet you remain so indulgent?"

She truly could not understand, nor could she comprehend, why this year's Class D was so unimaginably incompetent.

When she first received the 'zero' result from the school, she hadn't believed it; she would have preferred to think there had been some mistake.

One had to realize they had already spent two hundred thousand points to confirm the existence of the special exam and were aware that the content was behavioral norms.

How could they possibly still receive an evaluation of zero points?

Therefore, she had raised a challenge.

And then, she saw the results.

The itemized list of deductions was laid bare, and the actions captured under the surveillance cameras were perfectly reflected on the screen.

She could not dispute it.

The facts proved that Class D was indeed at 0 points.

...That was exactly why she was so furious.

How could they be so pathetic?

"It's truly impressive; you've managed to set the worst record for Class D in history. I am truly honored to be your homeroom teacher." Chabashira Sae raised her hands high and then uttered words of extreme mockery.

"--" Most of the students in the class were left speechless.

"..." Looking at Chabashira Sae on the podium and listening to everything she said, Sato Maya finally seemed to understand what the last sentence Asakusa Toru had left behind really meant.

She whispered, repeating his words:

"Among those dragged into the water, how many are truly innocent..."

Innocent or not... that was just too much.

Of course, she didn't want to be labeled as trash with a D evaluation either.

To say such things while being in Class D herself.

Her upper teeth bit down on her lower lip.

A feeling of unwillingness welled up in her heart, something she hadn't felt in a long time.

As for whether she was innocent or not, she certainly wasn't completely innocent either.

Talking in class, arriving late, leaving early, playing on her phone... she had also committed the very infractions that Chabashira Sae had mentioned regarding the Behavioral Norms Exam.

But who could blame her when everyone else in the class was doing it?

If you want to fit in, you can't exactly refuse, right?

Acting like a model student like Horikita Suzune would only lead to being ostracized, right?

What else could she do?

Deep in the mire, the more one struggles, the deeper one sinks.

"I cannot accept this, Chabashira-sensei." Hirata Yosuke took a deep breath: "Regardless of anything else, the fact remains that you used 'evaluation' to cover up the fact that it would ultimately affect the distribution of points."

Chapter 56: Chaos

Hirata Yosuke, of course, knew they were in the wrong.

At the end of the day, every action that led to the point deductions was their own doing.

Chabashira Sae had not failed to explain the exam, nor had she failed to provide warnings, yet they had continued to go their own way without changing.

However, the problem could not be viewed in such a simple light.

If he were a student from another class, perhaps he wouldn't have said anything, but he was a student of Class D.

Therefore, he could only—he had to—seize upon the one issue with Chabashira Sae and launch an attack.

Otherwise, they would truly have no choice but to accept the result of zero points and drown at the very bottom of the rankings.

"I don't believe I need to explain this same issue over and over again, do I?" Letting out a weary sigh, Chabashira Sae pressed her fingers to her temples.

She had a headache.

"In this school, there is nothing that cannot be bought with points." Her hand tapped irritably against the surface of the podium, and as she conveyed her frustration to everyone through the rhythmic thumping, she continued:

"The value of ten thousand points is simply to receive a 'yes' or 'no' answer from my lips. By that same logic, on that day, the third day after school started, the value of two hundred thousand points was merely for the explanation of the 'special exam' itself."

"I have no obligation to tell you that the school distributes points based on the 'evaluations' of you."

"This..." Hirata Yosuke was left speechless.

"Hey, Koenji, say something! Aren't you the best at talking?!" Seeing that Hirata seemed to be of no use, Yamauchi Haruki, feeling very anxious, began to clamor and urge someone else to take the lead.

"Boring. I have my own will; I don't need to act based on your instructions." Koenji did not take his legs down, but instead pulled out a nail clipper and began to file his nails.

There was no counting on Koenji.

Yamauchi Haruki gritted his teeth and looked left and right at the others in the class.

Hirata Yosuke had been defeated, Koenji Rokusuke could not be ordered around, and Kushida Kikyo was absent... Wait, wasn't there still Horikita Suzune?!