Aoyama Matters More Than the Class

Just as Shiina was about to seek the answer to her doubts, the newly appointed homeroom teacher of Class 1-A, Sakagami Kazuma, walked into the classroom with a boy, looking rather grim.

Like Shiina, Ryuen also realized this fact.

He knew that Sakagami really wanted Class A to graduate because it would bring him a huge bonus. With a monster student like Ayanokoji Kiyotaka joining, it would be strange if Sakagami wasn't laughing, so why was he still keeping a straight face?

"First, this is a new student who transferred to our class, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka." Sakagami's tone on the podium did not show any joy.

Then, amidst the chatter of the students in Class A, he turned to Ayanokoji and continued speaking.

"You can sit in either of the two empty seats in the classroom if you like."

Two empty seats, anyone can sit here?? What does Sakagami mean by this?! Where are the original owners of these seats?

Aoyama wouldn't be that ruthless, would he? Is he crazy?

Ryuen stood up uncontrollably, and quickly looked around the classroom. He soon knew which two students were absent.

Okabe Fuyu is a top student in the class.

Kinoshita Minori an elite athlete and also excels academically in her class.

The second talent in sports is alright, after all, there are quite a few elite athletes in Class C, but Okabe's loss made Ryuen furious, even to the point of wanting to go crazy.

There are only a few good students in Class C, and he would feel bad if even one of them were missing.

"Did they transfer to another class or drop out, Sakagami?" Ryuen's eyes were full of malice as she bluntly asked Sakagami to confirm the facts.

Dropping out of school would be better, but transferring to another class would make him even more upset.

Without showing any anger, Sakagami adjusted his glasses and said, "This is the second piece of news: Okabe Fuyu and Kinoshita Minori have transferred to Class 1-B, which is the class where the Student Council President is."

"You bastard, is he sick in the head?"

No sooner Sakagami Ryuen couldn't help but curse. Forty million personal points, and that bastard Aoyama just used them like that.

He felt it couldn't be that bad, really not.

Ryuen felt it was irrational for Aoyama to retaliate even at the cost of fifty Class Points, as he had only slightly tricked Aoyama.

With 40 million personal points, he believed that this was absolutely all of Aoyama's wealth.

He felt like he'd been screwed over; how could he be so unlucky?

"The exam has begun. Everyone, sit down and be quiet."

The moment the bell rang, Sakagami the blackboard, stopping the increasingly loud whispers in Class A.

Next, he handed over the final exam paper he had brought, a test paper prepared by Class 1-C of Hoshinomiya, to the students sitting in the first row.

"Huh??!"

"Um??!"

"Ha??!"

Many students who received the exam papers let out surprised exclamations, their voices filled with shock.

When Ryuen was sitting in the back row, received the test paper, he understood why there were so many surprised exclamations. He also understood that he had been completely defeated by Aoyama in this Special Exam.

The questions on the exam paper were completely different from what the Amikura had given him!

Regardless of the difficulty level, given the current situation, if Ishizaki Daichi, who was paired with Okabe Fuyu and is now taking the exam alone, is 100% likely to drop out of school.

Although he had followed Shiina's advice and organized the struggling students in his class to study hard for more than a month, only giving them the answers two days before the exam, Ishizaki Daichi was the worst of the worst students, and he would have been doomed without Okabe's help.

Even if you take the test alone without a partner, what difference does it make if your score is doubled? Ishizaki, who can't even get 30 points, would probably need to multiply by 3 to reach the minimum score of 60.

It's over, it's all over.

Slamming his fist on the table in anger, Ryuen, Sakagami's warning, began to ponder how to break the deadlock.

If nothing is done, the number of students dropping out of Class A this final exam will not be just one or two.

On the other side, most of the students in Class 1-C, like the students in Class A, showed expressions of shock and confusion.

Similarly, they also discovered that the test papers that were put down were different from the ones they had memorized, and the difficulty level was also relatively high, so they estimated that their scores would be lower than usual.

Is it that bastard Ryuen? How dare he? Even Ayanokoji was tricked by him!

The most surprised student in Class C was Kanzaki Ryuji. He was the one who facilitated the collaboration between Class A and Class D, so he deserves some credit for it.

Now, it's estimated that Class C will only be able to beat Class D in this Special Exam, and then lose to Class A of Ryuen, achieving a draw.

After frowning deeply, Kanzaki began to concentrate on the test paper, hoping to get a high score to make up for any shortcomings.

That's so satisfying! Horikita finally did something decent.

Unlike the gloomy faces of the students in Class A and Class C, the atmosphere in Class D was not too good, but not too bad either, because they finished the multiple-choice questions on the test paper in less than half a minute.

Multiple-choice questions alone are enough to get them more than 30 points.

This is all because Horikita Suzune's answers were all correct if you simply chose A.

Having learned from Yukimura's experience, they were quite surprised by Ayanokoji's transfer, but not too upset. After all, once is never enough, and they could understand Ayanokoji.

A class with no Class Points can't even afford to eat every month.

If they lose to Class B and Class C this time, their Class Points will be reset to zero, and they'll be forced to eat meager, subpar relief meals.

If they could change jobs, they would want to; they also want to eat well and not feel inferior when they say what class they are in.

Chapter 268 Aoyama Are More Important Than Classrooms

Why are these damn questions so hard?

While working on the test paper, Ryuen felt terrible, and even had murderous thoughts.

Considering that academic ability is also a part of one's strength in this special school, being unbalanced in one's subjects will only become a weakness.

After becoming a class leader, he secretly studied hard and could easily score in the sixties on tests.

But now, he estimated that he could only get a score of forty-something on this test paper at most. If nothing unexpected happened, this was the hellish test paper that Aoyama had mentioned, which had been produced at great expense.

Even with the best-case scenario, at least two groups of students will drop out of school this final exam.

With the two students transferring classes, Ishizaki inevitably dropping out, and two or three groups of students dropping out, Aoyama dealt him a heavy blow, nearly wiping out a quarter of his class's student population.

How can we play if we don't fix this?

"Albert, Ishizaki, Shiina, Yamashita, Yajima, Morofuji... Suzuki, come with me to Class C to plead with Amikura."

The bell rang, signaling the end of the exam. After collecting the papers, Ryuen immediately stood up, gave a solemn order, and headed straight for Class C's classroom.

With twenty minutes left before the next exam, and only one exam having been taken, Class A still has a chance to mitigate their losses if they can get the exam answers from Class C.

"You bunch of bastards from Ryuen, how dare you even show your faces here?"

When Kanzaki saw Ryuen leading a group of people into Class C's classroom, he assumed they were there to cause trouble and immediately flew into a rage.

He hasn't even questioned them yet, Ryuen still has the nerve to cause trouble.

"I'm not here to see you, Amikura."

After Albert stopped Kanzaki, Ryuen led a group of people to surround Amikura and Ichinose, who was with her at the time.

Time waits for no one; memorizing answers also takes time.

"We admit defeat this time, Amikura." Ryuen said in a voice loud enough for the students in the classroom to hear, "The test paper your class set was far too difficult. If there weren't any answers, at least eight students in our class would have to drop out."

"Name your terms, I just want to protect my comrades."

Exaggerating and playing the emotional card, knowing what would work on the students in Class C, Ryuen dropped bombshells right from the start.

At his signal, Shiina immediately took the lead, leading Ishizaki and his group in pleading with each other, telling them how much they didn't want to drop out of school.

"I have an 80-year-old grandmother and a newborn brother who is crying for milk. My family is very poor. If I drop out of school, I really won't be able to continue my education."

With his hands clasped together, Ishizaki, desperate to avoid expulsion, abandoned all sense of shame and began to tell lies without hesitation.

The others might have a chance of survival, but without a partner, he was 100% certain to die.

"I..."

Amikura was completely overwhelmed by the farmer from Ryuen's three punches, and for a moment she didn't know what to say. If she could, she wouldn't want so many students to drop out of school.

Judging from the expressions of the classmates, they clearly thought the same thing.

But she couldn't do it.

"If possible, we'd love to help Ryuen." Ichinose, with an apologetic expression, took Amikura's arm. "But unfortunately, we don't have the answer key either."

The Amikura didn't hide its transactions from Aoyama; Aoyama told her about it on Saturday night when he stayed overnight at her dormitory.

That same night, she learned that Ryuen would definitely ask Amikura for the answers, and that Aoyama, in order not to make things difficult for Amikura, had asked Amikura to deliver the exam paper to Hoshinomiya without the answers.

"Let's go to Class B."

Stopping his plan to force Ishizaki to kneel and demand answers from Amikura, Ryuen made a decisive move and left with his men, gritting his teeth.

The time between their appearance and departure was only a few minutes, leaving many students in Class C still in a daze.

After Ryuen left, they immediately surrounded Amikura and Ichinose, asking them what had happened.

"It's all up to you now, Shiina." Ryuen said softly as soon as they left Class C classroom.

Aoyama threw away 40 million personal points without batting an eye. He felt that he could never make up for Aoyama's loss, but he couldn't just sit idly by and watch a large number of students in his class drop out.

If kneeling would get him some answer from Aoyama, he wouldn't mind kneeling for an hour; he could always win it back later.

But this didn't work on Aoyama; Aoyama wasn't the naive and innocent type like Amikura.

"No, I won't say a word about asking Aoyama for mercy." Shiina shook her head. "Public matters are public matters, and private matters are private matters. The class is not as important to me as Aoyama."

She didn't want so many students to drop out of the class, but she wouldn't try to appeal to Aoyama's emotions or beg Aoyama to be lenient.

A class is a class, Aoyama are Aoyama.

She wouldn't make Aoyama unhappy for the sake of the class, nor would she betray the class's interests for Aoyama's sake.

Ishizaki was somewhat dissatisfied, feeling that Shiina was speaking without thinking, "We're classmates, what's wrong with saying a few words? You and Aoyama are the only ones who are close here."

"No means no."

After frowning slightly, Shiina followed Ryuen into Class B classroom. Soon she saw Aoyama surrounded by Kinoshita and Okabe, two former students of Ryuen's class.

Upon seeing Ryuen, Kinoshita looked somewhat panicked, while Okabe stared at Ryuen without changing his expression.

"Name your terms, you know what I want." Ignoring Kinoshita and Okabe, Ryuen walked straight up to Aoyama.

Whether there are dates or not, he'll take the shot. He knew the probability of Aoyama agreeing was extremely small, but he never considered not coming, because their class couldn't become the next Second-Year Class B.

When a class has a very small number of students, there's nothing that can be done.

"You can go back to your seats now."

Patting Okabe on the shoulder, Aoyama told the two to leave first, before turning his attention back to the group at Ryuen.

After giving Shiina a slight smile, he finally looked directly at Ryuen.

"I can pay a very high price," Ryuen continued.

"How tall? Is it as tall as 45 million?"

"The day Nagumo dropped out of school, he offered me 45 million yen to keep me from dropping out." Aoyama spoke calmly, as if it were a trivial matter, "But I still forced him to drop out, and he left with great resentment."

Personal points are no longer that important to him.

Ryuen wants war, so he gives Ryuen war.

"No room for maneuver at all? So you're just going to Shiina?" Knowing that it might provoke an even fiercer retaliation from Aoyama, Ryuen still gave way half a step, putting Shiina on the hot seat.

"Do you think the friends left behind by the dropout will extend their hatred to Shiina?"

Even if Shiina did nothing wrong, she was a friend of Aoyama, the culprit, and didn't even plead for him. That was Shiina's sin. With a little guidance, Shiina would end up in the same situation as Sakayanagi from Class B.

"You underestimate Shiina, Ryuen." Aoyama looked at Shiina gently, his face, which was always adorable, remaining calm.

"The Shiina I admire wouldn't care about such trivial matters and would be able to protect herself well."

Shiina may be physically weak, but he's never been weak in spirit.

Aoyama was very happy that Shiina didn't try to appeal to the emotions of the class.

"However, although Shiina is good at protecting herself, let me say this first."

With a serious look in his Class A, Aoyama continued speaking.

"Anyone who dares to bully Shiina is going against me."