Dating Costs Money / Kamuro Is Curious

[Class 1-A + The protagonist won't be abandoned]

At night in the student dormitory, a girl had come to ask Aoyama Shiki for help, but changed her mind when she heard the price. He gave her a malicious grin.

"Since you came to me, you're paying whether I do it or not."

"Come up even a little short, and I'll destroy the thing you care about most."

This is purely Classroom of the Elite, but you don't need to have read the books to enjoy it. The school rules will be explained, so nothing will come out of nowhere.

The story has already reached the end of the second year.

Volume: One

Making Friends Costs Money

Advanced Nurturing High School.

A high school that claimed its graduates could choose whatever job they wanted or attend whichever university they pleased.

And if you didn't want to work or go to university, the school could also provide a substantial interest-free loan, with no collateral required.

There were conditions, of course.

On the first floor of the Advanced Nurturing High School's main building, a short-haired boy with sharply defined features sat in the back corner of Class 1-A. Resting his cheek on his left hand, he gazed at the bright blue sky.

It was April 1, the first day of school. After seeing his classmates, the man reborn as Aoyama Shiki realized that making money by collecting private points wouldn't be too difficult.

Kamuro Masumi, Sakayanagi Arisu, Yamamura Miki, Katsuragi Kōhei—these classmates were both familiar and unfamiliar to him.

They were characters from a novel he'd read in his previous life. In other words, he had foreknowledge.

And in this special school, backed by the government and founded on the principle of meritocracy, foreknowledge was an unparalleled advantage.

"Ten thousand private points are equivalent to ten thousand yen?" A green-haired boy named Totsuka Yahiko exclaimed, visibly taken aback.

The homeroom teacher, Mashima Tomoya, had just explained the school's rules as they appeared on the surface. He'd mentioned that the school would give students one hundred thousand private points on the first of every month, and that one private point could be used like one yen.

Before enrolling, they'd all been told that they wouldn't be allowed to leave the school or contact the outside world for three years, and that the school would cover all their living expenses.

For an ordinary student, one hundred thousand yen was a huge sum. It was more than enough, even as living expenses.

"Isn't one hundred thousand private points a month too much for students, Mr. Mashima?"

A bald boy with a build more robust than most adults raised his hand to speak. He had a stern expression, and Aoyama Shiki remembered that Katsuragi Kōhei had a condition that caused him to have no hair.

Perhaps because his family was poor, Katsuragi was more sensitive to money than ordinary students.

It was only natural that he'd be skeptical about receiving the enormous sum of one hundred thousand private points each month.

In response to Katsuragi's skepticism, Mashima Tomoya smiled meaningfully. "Based on the school's assessment of your value, one hundred thousand private points is an appropriate amount."

"The school's assessment of our value? That's an interesting way to put it."

During the exchange between Katsuragi and Mashima, a confident female voice rang out. Most of the students in Class 1-A couldn't help turning toward its owner.

Her lustrous silver hair fell just past her shoulders, and she looked much smaller than other girls her age. Her beautiful face was even more delicate than a doll's, and her deep purple eyes were bright and expressive.

A beautiful, elegant classmate, like a little princess.

That was Class 1-A's first impression of Sakayanagi Arisu.

She might not have been the prettiest girl in Class 1-A, but she was certainly the cutest.

"That's about all you need to know." Mashima glanced at Sakayanagi but didn't respond to her comment.

After telling the students that the opening ceremony would be held in the gymnasium in half an hour, their stern-faced homeroom teacher left the classroom. His expression was just as serious as his student Katsuragi Kōhei's.

Not long after the homeroom teacher left, Katsuragi stepped up to the lectern.

After introducing himself, he suggested that everyone introduce themselves in seating order. That way, they could get to know their classmates faster and make friends more efficiently.

The students quickly approved the idea. Before long, Katsuragi had quietly become the center of the class.

After one introduction after another, some long and some short, it was the turn of Aoyama Shiki, who sat in the last seat in the back row. He stood and smiled gently at his classmates' curious faces.

"Aoyama Shiki. I like money. If you need my help with anything, just pay me."

With a single sentence, he put an end to any thoughts the girls might have had about approaching him after class.

Saying out loud that you liked money would only make people dislike and look down on you, especially when you were a student.

If he weren't a handsome guy, Aoyama Shiki figured someone might have mocked him by now. There was no doubt that he'd made a poor first impression on his classmates.

But that was exactly what he'd intended. Making friends cost money, after all.

Good people couldn't make money as quickly as bad ones. Besides, thanks to the villain-type cheat he'd gotten at birth, if he wanted anything good, he needed to keep his morals flexible.

No time like the present. He'd better find a student he could extort.

Just as he'd expected, no one spoke to him. After glancing around at the little groups of classmates who'd started chatting, Aoyama Shiki left the classroom.

Advanced Nurturing High School had only four classes per year. He passed the classrooms of Class 1-B and Class 1-C and reached the corridor outside Class 1-D, just as several students came out.

One of the girls was stunningly beautiful. She had a heart-shaped face and cheeks like peach blossoms, and her lustrous black hair fell to her waist.

The only flaw was the chilly air she gave off, as if she were keeping everyone at arm's length.

It wasn't a good time to approach her yet.

After admiring her impossibly cute looks, Aoyama Shiki watched Horikita Suzune leave, then leaned against the corridor wall.

His first target was still in the classroom, probably introducing herself.

Advanced Nurturing High School was very unusual: the students in its four first-year classes weren't equally capable. Overall, Class A had the strongest students, far ahead of those in Class D.

In other words, Class D had a lot of problem students, especially among those who were academically talented but had still been placed there.

The special reward the school offered its graduating students wasn't an empty promise. The catch was that they had to graduate from Class A. The essence of its so-called meritocracy was competition—the competition between the four classes.

Throughout the school's history, the many problem students in Class 1-D had never managed to turn things around. This class might be different, though, because the protagonist of the novel was here.

His first target was one of the people who secretly helped the protagonist control the class.

A girl with a history of being bullied, who disguised herself as a gyaru and became the leader of the largest group of girls shortly after school began.

Karuizawa Kei.

When the students of Class 1-D poured out of the classroom in a crowd, Aoyama Shiki quickly spotted his target. She had honey-blond hair tied in a side ponytail. As far as he knew, there was only one girl in Class 1-D who looked like that.

At the moment, two girls were gathered around Karuizawa Kei. She looked a little reluctant, but she followed them anyway.

"Here's my number. Call me after school this afternoon. I have something to talk to you about, Karuizawa."

Meeting Karuizawa's puzzled gaze, Aoyama Shiki approached and held out a small piece of paper. The two girls beside her looked envious.

He wasn't bragging, but at 181 centimeters tall, with his sharply defined features, he had a pretty striking appearance. Calling him handsome was no exaggeration.

"See you, then."

As if she'd thought of something, Karuizawa's body trembled slightly. Then, with an arrogant expression, she accepted the note and left with the girls beside her.

They'd only just started school, so she shouldn't have known her name. But Karuizawa didn't ask a thing.

Curious Kamuro

The opening ceremony.

Hundreds of students stood in class rows beneath the stage in the spacious, spotless gymnasium.

After Chairman Sakayanagi finished his kind-hearted speech, the Student Council President took his place. He was Horikita Manabu, a student from Third-Year Class A.

His back was straight, and his short black hair was neat and tidy.

Calm, confident, and serious—that was Aoyama Shiki's first impression of the Student Council President. Even with glasses, Horikita Manabu's gaze still felt sharp.

Third-Year Class A. Third-Year Class A. Third-Year Class A.

Repeating Horikita Manabu's class in his mind, he stopped focusing on the stage and began looking around.

Starting with Third-Year Class A and going all the way to Second-Year Class D, he counted the students in each of the eight classes.

Only one class had as many students as the first-year classes: forty. It was Third-Year Class A, the Student Council President's class.

The other seven classes all had fewer than forty students. The smallest had only a little over thirty.

Your brother's impressive.

Aoyama Shiki glanced at Horikita Suzune, who stood in Class 1-D, staring at the stage and happily watching her older brother. He thought to himself.

To give a simple example, if you graduated from Class A at Advanced Nurturing High School, you could easily get into University of Tokyo, the country's most prestigious university. That was an enormous advantage.

But, just as light came with darkness, attending Advanced Nurturing High School also had its drawbacks.

Special Exams were the most important part of a student's life at the school. When a class failed an exam, one or two students would usually be punished with expulsion.

After surviving the battles of his first and second years, Horikita Manabu had kept his class in Class A and ensured that none of its students were expelled. He was frighteningly capable.

"What are you looking around for?"

A woman's voice, lowered in volume, sounded beside him. Aoyama Shiki turned his head. The girl speaking to him was Kamuro Masumi, who stood with him at the back of the line. She was tall, and her waterfall of purple hair fell past her waist.

Her features were exquisite, and her eyes beneath her bangs had a curious look in them.

"Looking at something interesting."

"Could you be more specific?" Kamuro looked a little disdainful.

"It's a long story. I'll tell you over lunch. My treat."

Maybe it was because Kamuro was beautiful, but Aoyama Shiki didn't mind her disdainful expression. In fact, he even invited her to lunch.

Kamuro was one of the more capable girls in Class 1-A.

She had the best athletic ability among the girls, and her mindset was more mature than that of her peers. She could lie without batting an eye, making her an excellent tool.

If possible, he wanted to bring her under his control.

"...Okay."

Kamuro hesitated for a moment, then nodded. Aoyama smiled at the sight.

Everything had to start somewhere. So did becoming friends.

After the opening ceremony, they returned to the classroom and attended a few lessons. Before long, it was lunchtime.

The teacher at the front of the room left before the bell had even finished ringing. There was no dragging out the lesson here.

"You said we'd eat together. Let's go." Ignoring the strange looks from their classmates, Kamuro walked over to Aoyama's desk.

"Before that, please let me invite one more person."

Aoyama got up and walked over to a girl with a side ponytail. Beneath her slate-blue see-through bangs, she looked down at the classmates chatting with one another, her eyes filled with envy.

When she noticed him approaching, the girl shrank back slightly, looking flustered.

She gave the impression of a timid little rabbit.

"Why don't you join us for lunch, Yamamura?" Aoyama forced a smile and looked warmly at Yamamura Miki.

Like Kamuro Masumi, Yamamura Miki was one of the more capable girls in Class 1-A. And, in Aoyama's opinion, she was the student in Class 1-A who could be of the most use to him.

Her defining trait was her low-key presence.

Thanks to her exceptionally faint presence, she could do many things other people couldn't, like follow people around and take photos of them.

"Are you sure you want me to come?"

Yamamura glanced at Kamuro, whose air was so haughty, then nervously lowered her gaze.

Being overlooked so often because of her faint presence had made her insecure. As far as Aoyama knew, Yamamura had never had any friends, from childhood to the present.

"If I didn't want you to come, I wouldn't have invited you." Leaning casually against Yamamura's desk, he looked like he wouldn't leave until she agreed.

It took less than three seconds for Yamamura, who wasn't good at refusing people, to nod.

"Do you want us to wait for you, Yamamura?" On the way to the school cafeteria, Aoyama smiled at the timid Yamamura and asked her to walk beside them instead of trailing half a step behind like a follower.

Since he was going to do something bad to Yamamura, he wanted to help her become more confident, out of a sense of guilt.