Chapter Fifteen: The Most Hated Girl in Class D / Chapter Sixteen: Forcefully Splitting Mount Hua

"Awesome!"

To celebrate, Aoyama took a can of cola from the fridge and happily gulped it down.

His mood was just like the one in a soda commercial: icy cool, spirits soaring.

[Take me along on your run tonight.]

Wanting to share his excitement with someone, Aoyama thought of Kamuro first.

Karuizawa, who had just stolen the spotlight, was probably surrounded by her friends, while Yamamura was usually studying around this time.

The only person he knew who was both free and not much of a studious type—and who had no other friends—was Kamuro.

Kamuro Masumi: [Huh? Isn't tonight your usual study time?]

Just as Aoyama knew Kamuro went running at night, Kamuro knew Aoyama usually stayed in his dorm room to study.

Aoyama Shiki: [For the adorable Kamuro, study? Not a chance in hell!]

Kamuro Masumi: [Save that line for Yamamura. And I'm not interested.]

Aoyama Shiki: [Not even the slightest chance?]

After replying to Kamuro, Aoyama waited for a while, but when no response came, he realized his invitation to share his joy with her had fallen through.

Then he could test the effects of the Stamina Potion, his white-tier reward.

Without feeling too disappointed, Aoyama began doing bodyweight exercises in his dorm room. He used an hour as his cutoff and compared the potion's effects.

The results showed that his stamina recovered about twice as fast as normal.

For a white-tier reward, that was already a pretty good effect.

After he finished testing the potion, it had been dark outside for quite some time, so Aoyama washed up and climbed into bed.

April 9. Class 1-D.

The bell for the first period had already rung, and their homeroom teacher, Chabashira Sae, was standing at the lectern.

Yet one student's seat below remained empty.

"Class dismissed."

As soon as the dismissal bell rang, Chabashira, dressed in a black office suit, left the classroom.

The late student who entered through the back door halfway through class was like air to her, just as before.

"Sudo, you're late again. Didn't Kushida and the others tell you this would cost us Class Points?"

"Class Points determine how many Personal Points we get next month."

It seemed he'd been holding it in for a while. Kanji Ike, a friend of the tardy student, Ken Sudo, immediately went over to complain.

Before, he hadn't known that being late would cost them Class Points, so he'd ignored Sudo's behavior just like Chabashira. But that wasn't an option anymore.

This affected his own interests.

"Huh? Are you lecturing me? I overslept. What was I supposed to do? Haruki was messing around on his phone during class just now, too."

Since losing Class Points harmed every student, one after another, the students who were unhappy with Sudo's lateness turned their eyes toward him.

The large group of openly hostile stares made the hot-tempered Sudo angry, but also a little anxious.

Not wanting to become everyone's target, he promptly dragged one of his two friends, Haruki Yamauchi, who had been playing on his phone during class, into it.

"Huh?? I was covering myself properly so the cameras couldn't see. There's no way I'll lose points." Faced with Sudo's accusation, Yamauchi stood up and loudly defended himself. "Besides, Ike, you were doing it last week, too. You even left your phone on the desk."

Anyone with more than a walnut for a brain understood that whoever caused the class to lose Class Points would be hated by their classmates.

"You can't be sure you blocked the cameras completely. And you don't think the teacher at the front of the room is just there for decoration, do you?"

"What does Yamauchi playing on his phone have to do with you being late to class?"

Because of their many problems, the other students had once dubbed the three of them the Three Idiots. As they blamed one another and tried to shift responsibility, a cold voice rang out in Class D's classroom.

Her words criticized not only the thoroughly ordinary-looking Yamauchi, but also Sudo, who stood over 180 centimeters tall, had dyed his hair red, and was clearly a delinquent.

"Don't think I won't hit you just because you're a girl."

Already struggling to save face, Sudo flew into a rage. He glared viciously at Horikita Suzune, who had just spoken.

"Go ahead and try."

The cool beauty, her long black hair falling down her back, brushed a lock behind her ear and stood up from her seat.

She, Horikita Suzune, would never yield to violence.

Chapter Fifteen: The Most Hated Girl in Class D

"We're all classmates. We can talk things out. We can't fight."

"Kushida, don't you agree?"

At the back of the classroom, where the air was thick with tension, Hirata Yosuke saw that things were taking a bad turn and hurriedly stood in front of Horikita, cutting off the hostile stares between her and Sudo.

Knowing that Sudo probably didn't like him much, he immediately called over the universally beloved Kushida Kikyo.

"Hirata's right. Sudo, don't be so impulsive. Fighting is bad, you know." Wearing a smile that made people feel at ease, Kushida arrived a little late and went to stand beside Sudo.

Normally, Kushida, whose seat was closer to theirs, should have stepped in before Hirata.

"But this woman's so infuriating. She doesn't know how to talk to people at all."

"Horikita can be a little harsh, but fighting would probably cost us a lot of Class Points. Could you try to hold back a little, Sudo?"

Kushida put her hands together in a pleading gesture.

Being gently asked by a cute, popular girl—and knowing that if he really fought, his classmates would hate him even more—Sudo gave up on the idea of teaching Horikita a lesson.

"If this keeps going, we'll only lose more Class Points." Just as Kushida knew how to use both soft and firm words to reason with the hot-tempered Sudo, Hirata knew how to talk the self-assured Horikita down.

With Hirata and Kushida working together, a confrontation with no clear way to end it dissolved into nothing.

But the root of the conflict hadn't been addressed at all.

If Sudo kept doing whatever he wanted and continued showing up late, Class D would eventually be in serious trouble.

"Hmph. Just keep muddling through, then."

Horikita gave a cold snort and left the classroom for the teachers' office.

After Hirata had pestered her like a walking bandage, she had joined the class group chat, too.

The previous night, she'd noticed that there seemed to be too many messages, so she'd clicked into the class group chat—and discovered a fact she couldn't accept.

If what Karuizawa, Hirata, and the others had said was true, then why had she been placed in Class D?

The worst class of the four.

"Is it true that the best students are placed in Class A when they enroll, and the worst in Class D, Chabashira-sensei?" As soon as she entered the teachers' office, Horikita questioned her homeroom teacher.

"I can answer that. It's true."

Faced with Horikita's pointed question, Chabashira's face filled with deep mockery. Just as Horikita was about to blow her top, a mild male voice answered her.

"Class 1-A. Aoyama Shiki."

"This is a hidden rule for first-years. Teachers aren't allowed to tell students before May 1, but that's no longer clear-cut, since students from three classes already know."

Aoyama hadn't expected that after his homeroom teacher called him to the office during first period, he would run into Horikita Suzune, the student council president's younger sister, while she was questioning her homeroom teacher about being placed in Class D.

With those exquisite eyes, full of confusion, fixed on him, he explained after introducing himself.

"That's fine, isn't it, Mashima?" Chabashira looked toward Mashima, who wore a stern expression, and smiled teasingly.

Sakagami Kazuma, the homeroom teacher of Class C, naturally hadn't kept what happened in the guidance room from his colleagues. Word that Class 1-A had produced an extraordinary talent soon spread through the teachers' circle.

But the other teachers weren't especially envious of the homeroom teacher of Class 1-A.

After all, Aoyama Shiki, who had given the school's rivals an advantage, was obviously a defiant troublemaker.

Mashima sighed. "Do as you like."

As the person responsible for first-year affairs, Mashima knew there was no point hiding the rule from students in Classes B, C, and D anymore.

From his conversation with Aoyama before Horikita arrived, he'd confirmed that Aoyama had genuinely figured out the rules, rather than reaching the right answer without really understanding them.

"Horikita, the school made no mistake in placing you in Class D. Are you as outstanding as Aoyama?"

"On the very first day of school, he suspected there was something strange about the school. In just one week, he had uncovered its secrets."

Seemingly in the mood to tease her, Chabashira dragged Aoyama, an outsider, into it as well.

"I don't believe every student in Class 1-A is as outstanding as he is." Horikita didn't let Chabashira sidetrack her.

If every student in Class 1-A was like Aoyama, then Class D might as well go home and sell sweet potatoes.

Compete with Class A? Compete with who?!

"I don't think I made any mistakes in my entrance interview. I got almost every question right on the written test, and not many girls outperformed me in the physical tests."

"Who says the school only considers academic ability and physical strength when assigning classes? Take Aoyama, for example. His physical ability scored much lower than yours in the enrollment assessment, yet he was still placed in Class A." Chabashira looked at Horikita with a cold smile.

"There's no doubt the school made no mistake in assigning the classes. If you can't accept it, you can apply to drop out right now."

"I... I won't accept the school's judgment. I'll prove it wrong." Horikita wavered for a moment, then her gaze became firm. Knowing that changing classes wasn't an option, she stopped pressing Chabashira.

Chabashira had neither the ability nor the desire to help her transfer. Wasting time was wasting life.

"Could I leave now, too, Teacher Mashima? Class is about to start."

After watching Horikita's graceful figure leave the teachers' office, Aoyama had no intention of sticking around either.

In their earlier conversation, he had hinted again and again to Mashima that his goal was to secure victory with Twenty Million Personal Points. Helping the class was the sort of thing best left to Katsuragi, who had a strong sense of responsibility.

"Go on, then."

"Next time, try not to come to me about things like this, Teacher Mashima."

Aoyama smiled at Mashima's helpless expression and headed for the classroom door. As soon as he stepped outside, he spotted Horikita Suzune standing in the corridor, looking as if she were waiting for him.

Her shapely calves were covered in over-the-knee black stockings, and the strip of skin between them and her white pleated skirt was fair as snow.

If Kamuro wore over-the-knee black stockings, her absolute territory would look great.

Using his new ability to memorize everything at a glance, Aoyama recorded the beautiful view of Horikita's absolute territory, then thought of Kamuro, who was a little taller than Horikita.

"You figured out the class assignment rules?"

"Didn't I introduce myself in the teachers' office, Horikita Suzune?"

A faint smile tugged at Aoyama's lips as he returned Horikita's rudeness in kind.

Chabashira had kept bringing him up in the office, so it was only natural that Horikita might hold a grudge against him. But understanding that didn't mean he had to accept her attitude.

"How do you know my name?" Horikita's expression tightened slightly.

Chabashira hadn't mentioned her name in the office, and she had no connection with any students in Class 1-A.

Had this person investigated her? And why would he investigate her? Was it because her brother was the student council president?

"Don't overthink it. I just heard about you from my childhood friend, Karuizawa."

Thinking of what he was about to say, Aoyama couldn't keep the corners of his mouth from lifting.

"The most hated girl in Class D is named Horikita Suzune. Nobody likes her."

"I think that's why you were placed in Class D."

Chapter Sixteen: Forcefully Splitting Mount Hua

"I don't think there's anything about my behavior that would make people hate me."

Horikita Suzune's expression grew colder, and her voice was as icy as her face.

Ever since entering Kouiku, she'd believed that everything she did was correct. If people disliked her, then the problem was with the people who disliked her.

If people hated her out of jealousy, then that couldn't be helped. It wasn't her fault.

"Even if what you said is true, the school won't care what you think."

"If you go and question them, all you'll get is something like, 'I don't care what you think. I'll decide what I think.'"

Aoyama thought of the domineering-boss quotes that had been popular once.