He hadn't expected the real estate agent to have already learned so much about the situation. It seemed he'd been running around all last night.
Kazuma Sakagami, mistakenly assuming that the real estate agent had spent last night gathering information, silently raised his estimation of him a little.
Well, if he'd known that the real estate agent had not only brought a girl back to the dorm last night but that they'd both gotten drunk, he might not have thought that...
Chapter 16: A Useful Jester? Maybe
"Ahem. I think everyone heard what Hoya said. He's absolutely right. Everything you do will cost the entire class points, and those points will determine which class you belong to."
After coughing twice, Kazuma Sakagami summed up Hoya's words. He'd clearly said nothing wrong, and his words had caught everyone's attention.
If some students had previously seen Hoya as a clown or jester, then perhaps he could now be called a "useful" one, too.
Yes, a useful clown and jester. Without a doubt.
What Hoya feared wasn't anything else; he feared having no money to spend. He'd been poor for too long, and was terrified that Class C would end up dirt-poor like it had in the original story, or even fall to Class D.
Class C was the most likely to fall to Class D, and in all the fanfiction, Class C always ended up in a sorry state. As long as the protagonist was in Class D, they wouldn't be far from becoming Class D themselves.
"All right, let's begin class. Now that you understand S-Points, I hope you know how seriously you should pay attention. Even if you don't understand the lesson, you still can't bow your heads to play on your phones, sleep, or eat. Understood?"
"Understood."
The response was neither loud nor particularly enthusiastic.
But Kazuma Sakagami hadn't expected to get any positive feedback from them. He'd always been results-oriented. What did the process matter?
Even if they were a bunch of kids who weren't very united, he'd be satisfied as long as they got good results in the end.
The morning classes passed quickly. When the lunch break arrived, Hoya was ready to go get something to eat.
He still remembered that he hadn't hung up the clothes in the laundry room.
Unfortunately, reality didn't live up to his expectations. He'd only just stood up and started toward the door when he felt someone tugging at his clothes.
Who else could it be? It could only be Ryuen Shoko.
"Hey, you're staying. I've got something to talk to you about."
Ryuen Shoko grabbed Hoya to stop him from leaving, then looked at the other students in the class. "What are you looking at? It's lunchtime. Aren't you going to eat? Get out of here and go eat."
"Shiina, could you stay a moment, too?"
Hoya waved a hand to indicate that Shiina Hiyori should stay as well.
"Hm?"
Hoya could feel Ryuen Shoko gripping him more tightly, as if asking why he wanted Shiina Hiyori to stay.
"Ahem, my queen, she..."
"Call me Big Sis. All that 'queen' stuff is too much of a hassle."
"Of course, Big Sis."
Although Ryuen Shoko wanted to be some kind of tyrant or overlord, as just a high school girl, she still preferred the title "Big Sis."
Hearing Hoya call her Big Sis, she nodded.
Yes, this felt right. Much better.
"Big Sis, the others don't matter, but Shiina is no ordinary student. Her intelligence and perceptiveness are better than mine. I think we need to manage our risks."
"Manage risks?"
"Yeah, hedge our risks. The two of us can charge into battle, but we'll need someone handling the logistics. You can trust her completely with that kind of work."
"Really?"
Hoya's enthusiastic recommendation made her a little curious about Shiina Hiyori. "She's that smart and perceptive?"
"Well... I'm not really."
Under Ryuen Shoko's gaze, Shiina Hiyori's eyes drifted slightly toward the floor.
"Aren't you afraid of me?"
"Why should I be afraid of you?"
Shiina Hiyori's voice was always so soft and sweet, like a fluffy marshmallow, with hardly any force behind it.
But while her voice might have sounded weak, her answer was enough to make Ryuen Shoko frown.
"What, is it because I didn't beat anyone half to death today?"
"As long as you don't defy you, you don't hit people for no reason, do you? Even the punishment you gave him this morning wasn't as harsh as the way you beat the others."
"Ha ha ha."
Shiina Hiyori lightly pointed at Hoya. Her answer had surprised Ryuen Shoko, but she couldn't help laughing.
Yes, that was the stuff. Just like a Big Sis.
Hearing Ryuen's laughter, Hoya silently gave her a thumbs-up. Yes, keep that up. That was how Class C's Big Sis should act.
Just don't do anything brainless.
"All right, you do seem pretty smart. Fine, you can listen in."
Ignoring Shiina Hiyori for now, Ryuen Shoko turned her attention back to Hoya. "Go on, tell me about the S-Points."
"What about them?"
"Heh. Yesterday, you told me we should join forces with Class B to take on Classes A and D. And the way to fight them is to start with S-Points, isn't it?"
"Right, that's true."
Hoya nodded at Ryuen Shoko's words. "After I told Ichinose about S-Points yesterday, she'd definitely tell her classmates. That means the gap between our two classes, B and C, and Class A won't be too big by the end of the month."
"What about Class D?"
"Class D, huh... Heh."
At the mention of Class D, Hoya gave a quiet scoff. "I snuck a few glances at them during class. I'd guess they won't even reach two hundred points by the end of the month."
Forget two hundred points. They wouldn't even have one.
Though he knew what had really happened from the original story, he couldn't make absolute claims. On the one hand, this world might not follow the story's script; on the other, he was only making a guess. Speaking too confidently could make people suspicious, so he was better off being vague from the start.
"Mm. Go on."
"So we can just keep things up like this and wait until there's an event that lets us earn points. But I don't think Big Sis can wait that long."
"Isn't that obvious? The midterms are the first chance to earn points. How could I possibly wait that long?"
She slapped the desk. Just thinking about what Kazuma Sakagami had said made her itch to fight.
The midterms? By then, the day would be over. What was there to talk about?
"Then what do you mean?"
"Strike first while Class A still doesn't fully understand S-Points."
"Mm... I don't think that'll work."
But Hoya shook his head and rejected the suggestion. "I need to make one thing clear: yesterday, I really was only gathering information with Kamuro from Class A. So now I'm going to tell you what I found out."
"Go ahead."
When it came to serious matters, Ryuen Shoko naturally stopped messing around with Hoya and listened to what he'd learned.
"There's a student in Class A named Sakayanagi Arisu."
"So?"
"So? Haven't you noticed? Guess the surname of our school's chairman."
"Are you saying...?"
"That's right. The chairman's surname is Sakayanagi. He's Sakayanagi Arisu's father. Do you think she knows about S-Points?"
Chapter 17: She Never Abandoned Me, So I'll Stand by Her, Even unto Death
"Yikes... Is it really that troublesome?"
The news left Ryuen Shoko looking extremely troubled.
She really couldn't understand why someone like that would be in Class A. Was this what they meant by... connections?
"Fortunately, things aren't quite that troublesome yet."
Hoya then turned things around, and Ryuen Shoko let out a breath of relief. "Right now, Sakayanagi Arisu isn't the one calling the shots in Class A. It's Katsuragi Kohei."
Katsuragi Kohei, the bald guy—if he had one defining trait, it was that he was conservative.
Being conservative was a good thing at other schools, but at this school... it wasn't necessarily a good thing.
To be honest, Hoya knew that Katsuragi Kohei and Sakayanagi Arisu were currently fighting for influence. This was the perfect time to stir up trouble.
But he couldn't take things too far. Otherwise, if Katsuragi Kohei lost to Sakayanagi Arisu, there'd be a serious problem.
Not stir up trouble? That was impossible. If they didn't target Class A while it was at its weakest, how could they expect to beat them once they grew stronger?
So how should they handle it? They needed to slap them once, then give them a date. They had to be like mosquitoes, not lions.
A lion's bite could certainly cause Class A serious problems, but Katsuragi Kohei would lose. Hoya didn't want him to lose so easily, so they needed to act like mosquitoes.
One bite would leave a welt. It might be big or small, but there'd be a welt all the same.
Class A might get angry about the welt and try to scratch it, but they couldn't do anything about the mosquito. And Katsuragi Kohei wouldn't be forced out so quickly as a result.
How could they support Katsuragi Kohei? It was simple: help him personally, while undermining Class A as a whole. If one went up and the other went down, then, by comparison, Katsuragi Kohei would stay where he was.
What about Sakayanagi Arisu?
"Then shouldn't we strike first now?"
"Hold on. Let me make sure I understand. Big Sis, what do you mean by striking first?"
Seeing that Ryuen Shoko was still planning to stir up trouble, Hoya asked again.
He thought he'd better find out what she had in mind. Otherwise, he worried that one day she'd suddenly lead her underlings off to pick a fight.
"Obviously, start trouble. Get them to make the first move, so they'll get punished more severely than us. What do you think?"
Ah, so she really did have the same idea as in the original story.
Hoya couldn't help sighing.
He wasn't the only one. Shiina Hiyori beside him sighed as well.
"Hey, what's with you two?"
"Big Sis, why do we have to lose eight hundred to hurt them by a thousand?"
Hoya just couldn't understand Ryuen Shoko's way of thinking.
Why had she ended up in such a miserable state in the original story? It was because her reasoning was so ridiculous that Hoya couldn't believe she was even in Class B. He'd believe she belonged in Class C.
Lose eight hundred points to hurt the enemy by a thousand, then let the unharmed ones reap the benefits?
This wasn't a one-on-one fight. It was a four-class free-for-all. There was no future in doing things that way.
"Then what do you plan to do?"
Ryuen Shoko folded her arms and looked at Hoya, curious to hear what brilliant idea he could come up with.
And she had to admit, folding her arms made her chest look quite full.
But Hoya didn't dare look for long right now. He just smiled and continued discussing the matter.
"You know that the four classes are competing against one another, right? You've already thought of losing eight hundred points to hurt them by a thousand. So why should we be the ones who lose those eight hundred?"
"What do you mean?"
"Borrow a knife to kill."
Hoya was smiling, but both Ryuen Shoko and Shiina Hiyori seemed able to see nine white tails behind him.
What he'd said was genuinely frightening.
"Besides, your idea isn't unusable, but the risk is too great. We can only use it once. And I can guarantee that we'll only need to sacrifice a hundred points."
"You mean?"
"This method will take some effort from you. At the very least... we need someone willing to die for the cause."
Hoya's gaze drifted to Yamada Albert's seat. "Lure them into our trap, borrow a knife to kill. Just two moves will be enough to keep Class A down for a while."
Before you continue