Two Legends / The Exam Ends

"Take it easy. After all, we still have two more years to go in ANHS. If we're already so anxious now, I don't even want to think about what will happen when we graduate in our third year."

After offering a brief word of comfort to Ken Sudō, Kitagawa Ryo said no more. After all, he had never been a babysitter for any class, especially after being comforted by Karuizawa Kei after transferring classes, which gave him a more open-minded perspective on such matters.

"Um."

After nodding, Ken Sudō looked intently at Kitagawa Ryo:

"But could you give me a heads-up?"

"If one day our class gathers Twenty Million Personal Points and is willing to use them for your transfer to Beichuan's class, would you still be willing to come back?"

"... I will come back."

Kitagawa Ryo had heard the news countless times that they would gather Twenty Million Personal Points for him to transfer to another class. He couldn't help but chuckle, but seeing Ken Sudō's serious and earnest expression, he suppressed his smile and gave him a positive answer.

"I understand. Sigh, I hope that day comes soon."

Kitagawa Ryo chatted casually with Ken Sudō about their respective classes and the Special Exam. After some time, he finally caught a glimpse of Watanabe Norihito from his group running towards him with the baton in hand. There were still no other students behind him, which meant that their Third Group was still in first place.

After saying goodbye to Ken Sudō, Kitagawa Ryo quickly got into position to receive the baton. The process went smoothly, and the baton was steadily passed from Watanabe Norihito to him.

In the next instant, he burst forth with astonishing speed like a cheetah on the grassland. Judging from the beginning, one might even think he was running a 100-meter sprint instead of 3.6 kilometers.

Unlike the rugged terrain near the turnaround point initially chosen by Kitagawa Ryo, this section of the journey to the Forest School was quite flat.

Following the route that Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had recently run, Kitagawa Ryo faced the wind and embarked on the final leg of his journey home. As he approached the finish line and saw Ayanokoji waiting there, the lyrics "I've felt the evening breeze you've felt" inexplicably popped into his mind.

The next second, he leaped across the finish line, representing the Third Group and winning first place in the grade for this Road Relay Race.

The members of the Third Group, who had been brought back ahead of time, rushed up to him, some giving him high-fives, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka hesitated for a moment, but still chose to be swept up by the crowd and gave Kitagawa Ryo a stiff, not-so-crisp, high-five.

In that instant, he even felt that the outcome of their battle had become irrelevant.

Unlike the past fifteen years in the White Room.

Unlike countless times where victory was achieved through competition, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka experienced for the first time the feeling of winning through cooperation.

He couldn't quite put his finger on the feeling.

Because he couldn't determine whether this feeling stemmed from cooperation or from victory, or from the victory achieved through cooperation or from the victory gained through working with him.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka suddenly recalled the conversation he had overheard between Ryuen Kakeru and Hashimoto Masayoshi the night before, and the thought he had before going to sleep became even clearer.

At this moment, Kitagawa Ryo, who was in Class 1-B, was still unaware of that fact.

Ken Sudō from Class 1-A, Ryuen Kakeru from Class 1-C, and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka from Class 1-D all began to unconsciously move in the same direction.

Etc...

Hey, firefly!

Is something wrong with our dating simulator version?

Touching the day at the beginning of the month

It's customary to touch the ground for a day at the beginning of the month.

I never expected that the Classroom of the Elite of the First Year anime would actually get a fourth season, the second-year episodes. I hope the production quality will be better, since the original novels are quite popular in Japan. However, the quality of the first three seasons of the anime was really not up to par. I wish it could have the production quality of this season's "Too Many Loser Heroines." Sigh.


Chapter 439: Two Myths

Since individual scores, group scores, and overall group scores can only be viewed after all four exam subjects are completed, Kitagawa Ryo wasn't entirely sure who would win between him and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. After all, they weren't actually competing side-by-side. However, he estimated that the final difference between them would be very small, so it wouldn't be surprising who won or lost.

Of course, even if he couldn't pull away from Ayanokoji Kiyotaka in the Road Relay Race, there was still the final test: a speech.

However, for the First Year students, the more important thing right now is obviously to eat. After all, they haven't had a proper lunch yet. After running around all morning and covering several kilometers, they are starving. Under these circumstances, even if they wanted to give a powerful and eloquent speech, their physical condition wouldn't allow it. Therefore, the school has thoughtfully given the First Year a time to eat and rest before the speech test will be held in the afternoon.

Because the time it took for each group to complete the Road Relay Race was different, and Kitagawa Ryo and his Third Group were the first group among the First Year, and the second and third-year students' meal times were different from theirs, on the last day of this Mixed Training Camp Special Exam, they enjoyed the privilege of having the entire Student Cafeteria to themselves, and for the first time sat down around the same table as a group.

"Anyway, there's only one subject left. I hope everyone can do their best."

Thinking about it carefully, this really seems to be the first time Kitagawa Ryo has sat down to eat with the boys in the Student Cafeteria at the Forest School. Because he was really exhausted in the morning, and he had run the last 3.6 kilometers at full speed without holding back, he immediately started eating after saying this. The other students were in similar condition, except for Yukimura Teruhiko and Sotomura Hideo, who tactically gave up on the Road Relay Race and seemed to be in a slightly better state.

It has to be said that perhaps it was because their Third Group was indeed ahead of the competition, or perhaps it was because the boys were eating so fast, that the rest of the First Year groups only arrived at the restaurant one after another after Kitagawa Ryo and his group had almost finished their lunch.

Before long, Kitagawa Ryo learned the final results of the Road Relay Race from their casual conversation. After their Third Group secured first place with a commanding lead, the competition among the remaining groups was quite intense, especially in the final sprint. The duel between Ken Sudō and Shibata Sō felt like a return to last year's Sports Festival. In the end, Sudo prevailed thanks to his advantage in the earlier legs, leading the First Group to second place in the race. If nothing unexpected happens, their group should also be second in the overall score for the entire grade, only behind Kitagawa Ryo's Third Group.

After lunch, there was a short rest period, but it wasn't long. The school didn't even allow the First Year students to return to their dormitories. Instead, they were asked to rest temporarily in the Student Cafeteria while waiting for their last speech exam in the afternoon. After all, they still had to return to Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School today, so time was a bit tight.

Fortunately, the students do seem to have a natural talent for sleeping soundly even while lying on their desks. Kitagawa Ryo himself put his arms on the desk, rested his head on it, and took a nap. Before he knew it, he heard the reminder bell coming from the loudspeaker. The First Year's break time was over, and the last part of the Mixed Training Camp Special Exam was about to begin.

Actually, what Kitagawa Ryo is most curious about now is what kind of speech Ayanokoji Kiyotaka has prepared for him.

The First Year's topic for this speech was his experience and thoughts on his ANHS at Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School, a school that is quite unique. For Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, this topic was essentially asking him about his views and understanding of the world outside the White Room.

In the past year, Kitagawa Ryo was genuinely curious about what knowledge the other party had learned that would never have been known in the White Room, and whether or not they had written it into this speech.

Although there were only a few judges scoring the final speech exam, Kitagawa Ryo had become quite familiar with Oki Masashi, their professor, over the past few days of classes. He could ask him about it after the exam.

With this in mind, Kitagawa Ryo, along with a group of First Year students, followed the school staff to the location of the final exam.

Due to the large number of students, the speech exam was conducted simultaneously in three venues. Oki Masashi served as the chief judge and inspected the venues. Each venue had five judges. If there was a significant difference in scores, the judges from other venues would re-score the speeches via video recording. The whole process was quite rigorous and fair.

Like job applicants going to an interview, the First Year boys were scattered in the corridor, some sitting and some leaning against the wall, waiting for their numbers to be called every few minutes. Then they would walk into the classroom with either nervousness or composure, and then walk out with either relief or worry.

After this process was repeated several times, it was soon Kitagawa Ryo's turn.

To be honest, there's not much to say about this exam. The only thing that left a slight impression on Kitagawa Ryo was the winking and smug look on Oki Masashi's face as he looked at the other judges after his speech.

As with the training over the past week, the exams for boys and girls were conducted separately. Apart from a brief encounter at the Road Relay Race, Kitagawa Ryo didn't see any girls again until he finished all the exams for the day.

Students who finished their exams first were allowed to return to their dormitories to pack their belongings, but with a desire for a complete and satisfying experience, Kitagawa Ryo chose to wait until the very end. Only after Ayanokoji Kiyotaka Hirata Yosuke, the last two members of his group to be called upon, finished all their exams for the day did he call all the students in the Third Group to return to their dormitories with him.

How are you feeling?

On the way back, Kitagawa Ryo deliberately slowed his pace and strolled over to Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, casually asking him this question.

"I have no experience with this kind of exam, so I don't know how I would have performed according to the school's grading criteria."

The others, naturally unaware of Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's past experiences, observed his cryptic demeanor and remarked that this was likely the way a top student humbly admitted to failing an exam. Ishizaki Daichi himself even chimed in, adding:

"That won't do. Ayanokoji, you're a member of the Student Council. If you run for Student Council in the future, you'll definitely need to be good at public speaking. You should practice now."

As soon as Ishizaki Daichi said those words, Kitagawa Ryo's eyes flickered.

After two days of speculation, the rumor that Miyabi Nagumo was going to be dismissed from the Student Council has become widely known, as evidenced by the fact that even Ishizaki Daichi, who usually doesn't care about such matters, knows about it.

If the First Year students in the past didn't have a deep understanding of the Student Council of Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School, now even the students who don't care about this aspect can realize how important the Student Council is in the class competition within the grade. However, the members of this year's Student Council have been completely determined, and the next recruitment will not be until April next year. Therefore, the four First Year members, including Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, are particularly eye-catching.

After all, if Miyabi Nagumo is indeed removed from her position as Student Council because of this Special Exam, then the next Student Council President can only be one of the four of them. Even though Sakayanagi Arisu and Horikita Suzune have already occupied the two vice president positions, before the results are announced, no one can say for sure that Ayanokoji Kiyotaka and Katsuragi Kohei have no chance at all.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka himself did not respond to Ishizaki Daichi's question, but since Ishizaki Daichi had always been aloof in his public persona, he didn't pay much attention to it and soon went back to Yukimura Teruhiko to thank him for successfully predicting the exam questions.

While Kitagawa Ryo and his friends returned to their dormitory and leisurely packed their bags to await the final exam results, chatting about the day's exam content, a certain Acting Chairman of Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School was watching a video that had just been sent from the Forest School with a rather amused expression.

That was a recording of a speech given by Kitagawa Ryo and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka a few tens of minutes ago.

The former's performance was not unexpected. In fact, in Tsukishiro's opinion, if it weren't for that bizarre and tortuous background that would be considered a drama or light novel, Kitagawa Ryo would definitely have become famous as a theatrical Actor in the future.

That was a supermodel performance that was completely out of the scope of a high school student. Rather than a speech, it was more like he had turned that area into his personal stage in those few minutes. Every judge's mind was being led by his every move and word, and they had completely lost their ability to think independently.

Judging solely from the persuasiveness of the speech, Tsukishiro even believed that the other party possessed the top qualities to become a politician.

In contrast to Kitagawa Ryo, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's speech was undoubtedly much more awkward. Tsukishiro knew very well that this was the Masterpiece of the White Room and had also seen some of the records he left in the White Room. The other party was not a genius who was born with knowledge. Instead, he was more like the type who mastered knowledge through hard work. What often happened was that he performed averagely when he first started, but got better and better later, and finally reached the top at an astonishing speed.

This was his first time giving a speech.

That is why, compared to the other party's posture, volume, and tone, Tsukishiro more interested in the content of Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's speech.

Although the theme was supposed to be a summary of the year's campus life, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's opening was a well-known Greek mythology.

Greek mythology has always been excellent material for various dramas, after all, it contains too many stories containing humanity, hatred, and jealousy. Just like Horikita Manabu, the former Student Council President of ANHS, Tsukishiro has also read Kitagawa Ryo's most famous Oedipus Rex.

However, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka tells the story of Icarus's Wings.

The story's outline is very simple:

—Once upon a time, there was a great inventor in Greece named Daedalus.

Daedalus, under the orders of King Minos, built a labyrinth to Minotaur. However, he was later abandoned by King Minos and imprisoned in the tower along with his son Icarus.

To escape the tower, Daedalus and his companions collected bird feathers and created enormous wings. The large feathers were bound together with thread, while the smaller ones were secured with wax. When they finally completed their wings and prepared to take flight in pursuit of freedom, Daedalus, as their father, gave his sons this advice:

"If you fly too high, the wax holding your wings in place will melt in the sun, so be careful."

Having received such advice, Icarus took off from the tower with his father.

Having escaped the labyrinth, they were finally free. However, Icarus suddenly became arrogant and forgot his father's advice, flying high towards the sun.

The fake angel wings he made melted away in the blink of an eye when exposed to the sun.

Soon after, the False Wings were completely burned away, and Icarus fell into the sea and died.

From a positive perspective, Icarus can be seen as someone who bravely flies into the sky in order to gain freedom.

On the other hand, he might just be an arrogant person who overestimates his own power and believes he can even reach the sun.

Then, the second myth narrated by Ayanokoji Kiyotaka is the story of Phaethon.

Phaethon, who also disobeyed his father Helios's orders, drove his sun chariot without permission. The out-of-control chariot burned the earth and rivers, and then buried him in them.

This is yet another myth similar to that of Icarus.

Just as there are a thousand Hamlet in a thousand readers' eyes, the interpretation of the same myth may be completely different for everyone.

However, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka neither praised their courage nor mocked their arrogance, and he did not discuss topics related to freedom and patriarchy. He simply stated his own thoughts in a calm manner.

During my three years at this school.

He will create a pair of wings for himself that will not melt in the sun.

Then--

Go and grab the reins of that sun chariot with your own hands, hold them tight, and steer it.

Chapter 440: The Exam Ends (5k5)

After watching the recorded speeches by Kitagawa Ryo and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, Tsukishiro leaned back lazily in his office chair and casually asked his secretary:

What were their final scores on this exam?

"Kitagawa got full marks, Ayanokoji scored a bit lower, around 70 points. The judges felt his speech was somewhat off-topic, and his demeanor and volume were also rather average. However, he didn't show any stage fright or forget his lines due to nervousness, so he was ultimately given a total of 70 points."

After hearing the secretary's answer, Tsukishiro nodded, lay down, squinted his eyes and thought for a moment, then continued to ask:

"If the speech subject is scored out of 100 or 70, what would their total scores be across the four subjects in the Final Exam?"

"Kitagawa Ryo is in the lead. He and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka both scored full marks in meditation and the Written Exam, and he's leading by a hair's breadth in the Road Relay Race. If the final score for the speech exam is determined in this way, then he will undoubtedly win."

"Hmm... So you mean that even if Ayanokoji gets a perfect score on the last exam, the speech subject, her final score won't surpass Kitagawa's, right?"

"That's right, especially since there was already a score difference between the two before the Final Exam even started."

"Good."

Upon hearing this, Tsukishiro nodded and then casually waved his hand:

"Backstage, change Ayanokoji's score in the public speaking category to a perfect score, the same as Kitagawa's."

Although he didn't quite understand Tsukishiro's intentions, the secretary wisely refrained from asking further questions, nodded, and left the Chairman's Office. After all, the Forest School was about to tally all the students' scores and announce the results of this Special Exam, and time was quite tight if someone's score needed to be changed at the last minute.

After the secretary left the office, Tsukishiro sat up straight in his office chair and pulled the progress bar of the video in front of him back to the beginning, staring at Ayanokoji Kiyotaka on the screen with great interest.

To be honest, as someone who was involved in some of the affairs of the White Room project from its early stages, Tsukishiro didn't really believe that such a facility could actually cultivate any geniuses who could change the future of the country. He just thought it was another useless project to swindle funding from above. However, the appearance of Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was indeed an accident, and what's more, this masterpiece of an accident was also bearing the surname Ayanokoji.

However, even so, for a long time, Tsukishiro Ayanokoji Kiyotaka could fulfill his father Ayanokoji Atsuomi wish. Although Ayanokoji Atsuomi, as the previous generation, had laid a certain foundation for him, so that he would at least not have to accumulate the initial funds and connections to enter politics by working as a male host like his father, then on the other hand, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, who was nurtured by the White Room, was not suitable for entering politics from the beginning.

At least Tsukishiro couldn't imagine the other person giving a public speech or engaging in enthusiastic social interactions with celebrities. If Tsukishiro really had to think of one of the other person's strengths that would make him a politician, it would probably be that he could react faster than the bodyguard next to him when he was shot by an assassin, and maybe even perform a somersault to dodge the gun with his bare hands, thus avoiding the fate of being described as magnanimous.

But today's speech video gave Tsukishiro a different feeling, because he rarely saw a certain quality in Ayanokoji Kiyotaka that he had never shown before, or rather, had never displayed. Whether it was ambition or a desire for change, as long as this emotion appeared in Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, then his value in Tsukishiro's eyes increased even more.

If his past attitude towards Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was largely due to his father's influence, then from today onwards, his investment focus may shift more towards the man himself.

It's like adding that crucial number one to the very beginning of a long and infinite series of zeros. If that one is indeed added later in life, then the long string of zeros that follows, encompassing learning ability, knowledge level, physical fitness, and so on, will truly reveal their value.

The other person has a full two more years to go at this school.

Tsukishiro was happy to witness this process.

Witness whether the other party can truly and forcefully take the reins of the sun chariot from their father, or whether all their embellishments will melt away under the sun's rays, causing them to fall high from the sky.

"Since we need to register and calculate all students' scores and rankings for this Special Exam, it may take a long time. Please be patient. Also, the lottery for the last day has started. You can go to the corresponding page to draw a card. This draw guarantees a minimum of a 0.5x boost card."

Even after the students in the Third Group had finished packing their belongings, the final exam results were still not announced. The tablets only displayed a notification from the school, which greatly disappointed everyone. However, they were quickly drawn to the now-open card-drawing feature.