Scheming in the real world? I can also do a little.

She felt like she might have said something wrong again.

A girl's heart is truly hard to guess.

"Um... Horikita-san..."

"I'm going to the restroom."

Horikita Suzune stood up and left the classroom immediately. After watching her leave, Matsushita turned her gaze toward Ayanokoji: "I finally understand why Kushida-san said you're like a little princess."

"?"

Ayanokoji looked at Matsushita in confusion, not understanding why she would say that.

Her naive, sheltered appearance was truly... to put it nicely, innocent; to put it bluntly, she really lacked emotional intelligence.

If she weren't a little princess who had been kept away from the world, she wouldn't have developed such a personality.

From childhood to adulthood, social interaction in Japan required reading the air, but she couldn't read anything at all.

"Sorry, Matsushita-san, I guess I'm just not cut out for socializing."

Ayanokoji said softly. From Matsushita's perspective, Ayanokoji looked a bit dejected.

Good heavens, why are there so many strange existences in Class D?

This forced Matsushita to start coaxing Ayanokoji, and in her flustered state, she even had to ask Kushida to come over and help, which left Kushida with black lines on her forehead.

She knew it; Hoya Chukai would only bring her all sorts of trouble.

"Achoo."

Hoya Chukai, unaware that he was being talked about, suddenly sneezed. He rubbed his nose and walked out of the restroom.

Very good, Ryuen Shoko was very quiet today and didn't pin him to the desk for another round of friction; this life was truly not bad.

"Tsk."

A very noticeable sound came from beside him. He turned his head to look, and it was Horikita Suzune.

That sound she made just now seemed to be directed at him.

"Crazy."

Muttering a curse under his breath, Hoya Chukai walked toward the classroom.

Heaven knows what that stinky woman is up to again.

Returning to the classroom and seeing his classmates quietly doing their own things, Hoya Chukai couldn't help but nod.

It was quite nice; much better than a noisy classroom.

"Albert, can you come out for a moment?"

"Me?"

Albert pointed at himself, not quite understanding why Hoya Chukai was calling him.

Could it be that he was going to talk about that plan?

Walking out of the classroom, he looked at Hoya Chukai, who was a head shorter than him: "Do you have any instructions, Chukai-kun?"

"Instructions is a strong word. I've found a friend for you; this is part of the plan, but it's not limited to just the plan."

Hoya Chukai said, looking down at his phone to check his messages. There was still no new message from Ichinose.

"Our Class C and Class B are allies now, but just forming an alliance with words isn't effective, so I need someone who can truly get along with them. I looked around and decided you were the most suitable."

"Me? But I'm not good at communicating with people."

"That's fine. It's precisely because of that appearance of yours that I feel at ease. After all, the people in Class B are very easy to talk to, and I just need someone without any ulterior motives."

Hoya Chukai patted Albert on the shoulder. He really trusted Albert.

Albert, a loyal guard and bodyguard. Compared to himself, Albert's loyalty was extremely high; in the Three Kingdoms, he would be at the level of Dian Wei or Xu Chu. And since he wasn't good with words, this personality actually made it harder for him to mess things up. This plan required him.

This plan required him.

Chapter 51: What's the Cutest Height Difference (Mist)

"Ah, Hoya-kun, over here, over here."

Ichinose also walked out of the classroom, and beside her was a little pudding; without a doubt, he was Shibata Sou.

Of course, "little pudding" was only relative; standing next to Albert, he really didn't look that tall.

When Shibata Sou saw that the classmate Ichinose was meeting was Hoya Chukai, his expression became somewhat subtle.

You ask why? Because he always saw various girls entering Hoya Chukai's dormitory.

Yes, he was Hoya Chukai's neighbor directly across the hall, the boy who had peeked and seen many girls entering Hoya Chukai's room.

"Yeah, then I'll leave it to you, Ichinose-san. To be honest, it's hard for me to communicate with Albert given his personality. I think you'll have much richer experience, after all, Ayanokoji was also entrusted to you. I feel quite bad about always troubling you."

"It's fine, it's fine. Nothing is better than being able to help a classmate."

As expected of a little angel, she was the best person to find when you needed help. She was happy to help her classmates; as long as she could see their smiles, that was the greatest reward for her.

"Then, I'll leave Albert to you two?"

"Rest assured, Hoya, we will definitely take good care of Yamada."

"Heh, if you're handling it, I'm not worried."

After handing Albert over to Ichinose, Hoya Chukai returned to his class to continue slacking off.

He hoped that Albert would hit it off with Class B—and not in the physical sense. His personality might not be appealing to the average person, but in the "little angel" class that was Class B, he would be very easy to influence.

Hoya was right; an alliance between two countries requires an ambassador, and among the whole class, he was indeed the most suitable candidate. Beneath his tough exterior lay a tender heart, and his lack of guile made it easiest for him to bond with the people of Class B.

Class B might be full of little angels, but that didn't mean they lacked smart people. Kanzaki Ryuji was one such person. If they had sent someone cunning, it would have been easy for him to see through the ruse and sour the relationship. Albert, however, was different.

He was truly special.

His unwavering loyalty meant he could be trusted to carry out a plan without needing to be told the details beforehand. Since he didn't know the specifics, it was easy for him to just hang out with Class B. Once the initial icy period passed and his gentle heart was revealed, that would be the moment to reap the rewards.

"Is everything progressing smoothly?"

Ryuen Shoko, who was sitting at her desk with her legs crossed, filing her nails, asked calmly. Hoya chuckled, "The third step is being executed perfectly. By the way, how is the second step going?"

His plan was indeed divided into several steps; aside from the final one, the preceding ones were all just laying the groundwork. However, these steps weren't executed sequentially, but concurrently.

"The second step is proceeding smoothly. After today, they should all know that our Class C doesn't want to stir up trouble. Sigh, when is the fourth step being executed?"

"No rush, the timing isn't ripe yet. Let's say next week. We can start the fourth step next Monday, and get things moving by Wednesday."

"And the fifth step?"

"On the day of the incident, of course. Guess why I chose Wednesday? Because that's when Mashima-sensei has class. Wouldn't it be the most ridiculous scene if he ended up being our witness?"

Hoya squinted and smiled, particularly looking forward to the expressions on the faces of the Class A students at that moment.

He figured they would all be left wondering, 'Your Majesty, why did you surrender first?'

But there was no helping it; who told them Mashima-sensei was a man with such a strong sense of justice? He wouldn't be able to lie at that critical juncture.

Originally, Hoya had targeted Hoshinomiya-sensei, but after a brief exchange with her yesterday, he felt that getting her to cooperate with his group's actions wouldn't be simple—at the very least, it would require Chabashira to make a move first.

And right now, Chabashira hadn't discovered the uniqueness of Ayanokoji, so naturally, she wouldn't act... Wait, if I help Ayanokoji appear even more like an ordinary person... would Chabashira fail to uncover Ayanokoji's traits?

Heh, now that would be interesting, wouldn't it?

Rubbing his chin, Hoya began to ponder how to handle this.

However, he was overthinking that point. Because Chabashira had long since sensed the issue with Ayanokoji.

"Hmm... no matter how I look at it, this existence is very problematic."

Looking at the grade report in her hand, Chabashira Sae frowned.

Ayanokoji Kiyohime—this student's scores were all exactly 51 points. Was it a coincidence?

No, it wasn't. She had specifically gone to the student affairs office yesterday to get the test papers from that exam. She had gotten some simple questions wrong, yet answered the difficult ones correctly. Clearly, she was doing it on purpose.

Then... shall I test her?

Yes, let's test her.

When the second period ended, Chabashira Sae used her phone to summon Ayanokoji to her office.

"Sensei, did you call for me?"

"Yes, I have a few questions here. Why don't you try solving them?"

Chabashira Sae said, handing her a sheet with ten multiple-choice questions, asking her to fill it out.

"Is that all?"

"Just get this done first. The questions aren't hard; they're all things a middle schooler should know."

"Oh, okay."

Taking the pen, Ayanokoji began to answer the questions. In less than five minutes, she was finished.

"Sensei, I'm done."

"Hmm, let me see."

Chabashira Sae said, taking the paper. Just as she was about to look at it, she heard a knock on the door.

"Knock, knock, knock." "Chabashira-sensei, are you in your office?"

It was Horikita's voice.

Chabashira Sae frowned slightly and whispered to Ayanokoji, "You, go stay in the side room. Don't make a sound, understand?"

Although she didn't know why Chabashira Sae was giving such instructions, Ayanokoji nodded and walked into the small room to the side.

It was a pantry; it wasn't very big, but it was more than enough to hide a person.

Watching Ayanokoji close the door to the small room, Chabashira Sae finally said, "Come in."

As she spoke, she picked up the answer key to check the ten questions.

Hmm, completely correct. All ten questions were right.

As expected, this Ayanokoji was problematic.

Chabashira Sae had lied to Ayanokoji; in reality, not all ten questions were middle school level—some were difficult enough that even a third-year high school student would struggle to solve them.

As expected, she had been hiding her true abilities. But why would she do that?

Chabashira Sae began to feel curious about Ayanokoji.

"Teacher, I would like to ask, why did I end up in Class D?"

Horikita had no idea what was going through Chabashira Sae's mind; she got straight to the point, asking the question she had been unable to figure out for days.

She, a student with such excellent academic results, why would she be placed in Class D?

Chapter 52: Is This All You've Got to Challenge Me With?

Good academic results, why would that lead to Class D?

This was something Horikita could not understand.

Listening to Horikita's words, Chabashira Sae, acting as her teacher, let out a scoff: "Do you really think classes are assigned based on academic performance?"

"..."

Chabashira Sae's words left Horikita silent.

She seemed to have discovered the reason.

"To be honest, I happen to have a transcript right here. Your grades are tied for third in the grade, and the gap between you and the top two is minimal. But as for why you ended up in Class D, can you really not think of a single reason?"

Chabashira Sae tossed the transcript from her desk forward so that Horikita could see it clearly: "If this school only selected students based on academic performance, then why do you think a student like Sudo was able to get in?"

"Because... of his athletic performance?"

"Correct, athletic performance. His athletics are extremely outstanding. I recall there were self-introductions in class, right? Most people were actually able to state one or two of their own strong points. If Class D is like this, then there is no need to even mention what A, B, and C are like, is there?"

As she spoke, Chabashira Sae tossed another sheet of paper to Horikita: "Here, there are ten questions. Try answering them."

Ten questions?

Horikita took the ten questions and quickly scanned through them.

Her brow immediately furrowed: "Teacher, some of these questions are beyond the first-year high school level, aren't they?"