At the lectern.
Dragon Garden wore a cold expression.
Many people thought he was brainless, that all he knew was violence.
But in reality,
Dragon Garden had brains—and plenty of them.
Even if he didn't know the phrase "combine kindness with威," he'd at least heard of pairing a big stick with a sweet date. Dragon Garden naturally understood this basic way of controlling his subordinates.
It was just that
he preferred offering a sweet date first, then bringing down the big stick.
That way, the people beneath him understood that his favors didn't come cheap—and learned to fear him.
"An order?"
Hearing Dragon Garden's words,
Kaneda, seated in the front row, shook his head disdainfully and looked up to meet Dragon Garden's gaze.
"Ridiculous. Who do you think you are? You've figured out a little about the school's rules, and now you think you're so impressive?"
"Get over yourself!"
Kaneda scoffed and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
"I figured this out ages ago. And I can tell you that we're students, so the school's talk about ability must mean our academic performance and daily conduct."
"Those things will probably affect our Private Points next month."
With that,
Kaneda shook his head disdainfully.
He'd figured all this out ages ago.
But
why tell anyone else?
As long as he performed well, he'd get more Private Points next month.
What did he care what happened to anyone else?
It was only because Dragon Garden was acting so smug over such a cheap little insight that Kaneda found it laughable and decided to put him in his place.
Smack!
A sharp slap rang out.
Kaneda's head jerked to the side, and his cheek burned with pain.
Huh?
He'd been hit?
"You..."
Kaneda sprang to his feet.
One hand clutched his stinging cheek, while the other pointed at Dragon Garden in front of him.
"You... you... you hit me..."
Kaneda stared in shock.
He seemed unable to understand why the little punk standing in front of him had dared to hit him.
Ishizaki and several other boys also jumped to their feet. They couldn't believe Dragon Garden had actually hit someone, but with the teacher watching, they didn't dare interfere.
Smack.
Another slap rang out.
Clutching his cheek, Kaneda finally came to his senses and hurriedly turned to his homeroom teacher, Sakagami.
"Mr. Sakagami, he... he... he hit me!"
"..."
Just then,
Kazuma Sakagami took off his glasses,
pulled a glasses cloth from his jacket pocket, and began wiping the lenses.
"Hm? What is it? Someone hit you? What's this about hitting someone? Give me a moment. I can't see clearly."
"???"
Kaneda was stunned.
What the hell?
He'd been hit first, and only then had the teacher taken off his glasses.
How could he not see?
Right.
This had to be a teacher who didn't care about his responsibilities.
Kaneda had seen teachers like that at Kaneda Middle School, too. They were usually afraid of trouble and turned a blind eye to bullying, terrified of getting involved.
"Heh."
At the thought, Kaneda laughed in anger.
Forget it.
There were plenty of teachers like that.
But back in middle school, nobody had ever dared bully him. That was because he had good grades.
For students,
good grades were justice!
No matter how afraid of trouble a teacher was, they couldn't ignore a student with good grades. Their bonuses depended on it, after all.
That was why
those little punks never dared bully a top student like him.
Mr. Sakagami must have
forgotten his grades!
"Mr. Sakagami... I ranked tenth in the entrance exam. If I hadn't been off my game, I could've placed in the top five."
Kaneda puffed out his chest and shot Dragon Garden a smug look.
Who did the little punk think he'd hit?
The class's top student, who'd ranked second in the year!
Dragon Garden was about to regret this!
However,
"Yes, I know. Kaneda was always top of his year in middle school. Very impressive."
Although he said that,
Kazuma Sakagami kept wiping his glasses. Anyway, he couldn't see. The real question was whether Dragon Garden could handle things.
Smack.
Another sharp slap rang out.
Dragon Garden slapped Kaneda across the face and said coldly,
"You idiot. If you could figure that much out, why didn't you think about why we were assigned to the same class?"
"Huh?"
Kaneda clutched his cheek and stared blankly.
The school was made up of classes. Wasn't that only natural?
"Use that pig's brain of yours and think."
Dragon Garden sneered. "One hundred thousand a month for each student. The school built an island. That's almost six hundred million a year in expenses. Do you think they did all that just so you could study in peace?"
"..."
Kaneda clutched his cheek and said nothing.
If all you wanted was to study, you could go to any school outside.
"If the school emphasizes ability, then it must have something to do with competition. If the competition were within each class, like you think, would the school need to hide the rules?"
"It's definitely competition between classes!"
As he spoke,
Dragon Garden walked up to Kazuma Sakagami, hands in his pockets as he studied the homeroom teacher's expression.
"If I'm right, the school's promise of a hundred-percent employment rate and support for students pursuing their dreams must come with certain conditions, too. Right, Sakagami?"
"I can't comment on that right now."
Sakagami smiled with satisfaction and put his glasses back on.
That was practically an answer already. There had to be conditions for the school to help them achieve their dreams.
"Well, top student?"
Dragon Garden returned to Kaneda, pleased with himself, and draped an arm around his shoulders as he leaned down.
His tone was mocking.
"Looks like not everyone can achieve their dreams. Judging by how Sakagami ignored you, he doesn't seem to want you making a big deal out of this, either."
"Going by your own theory, ability must involve things like academic performance and conduct. If there's a violent incident, it could affect everyone's dreams."
"You don't want to be the reason the rest of us lose our chance, do you?"
"..."
Kaneda's face flushed red.
He couldn't win in a fight, and after getting beaten, he couldn't even vent his anger.
It was humiliating.
But
reason told him that Dragon Garden was probably right.
Sakagami didn't want him to make a big deal out of this.
This probably had something to do with the school's promise of freedom to choose a career.
Kaneda didn't care about anyone else's dreams, but he still hoped to use the school's resources to get into Todai Science III.
After thinking it over,
Kaneda decided to be the bigger man and let the matter go, his face still flushed.
Meanwhile,
in the window at the back of the classroom,
Prince Ganlongdao, pretending to be asleep, was a little surprised.
As he silently observed the class, he could see quite a lot.
Leaving Kaneda aside for now,
Dragon Garden seemed more useful than he'd expected.
Actually,
based on the information they had so far,
Dragon Garden couldn't be sure that the freedom to choose a career had anything to do with competition between classes.
He'd simply decided on his own that there was class competition, then asked Sakagami a question he couldn't answer, making Kaneda believe that class competition was tied to his dream.
Of course,
Prince Ganlongdao's judgment matched Dragon Garden's.
If the school were only for good students to study,
it would be cheaper to hire private tutors than to pay for all this. So there had to be some kind of special competition.
"Alright."
Dragon Garden patted Kaneda on the shoulder. He couldn't be bothered to argue with a bookworm like him, either.
He turned to the others and said coldly,
"You all heard what we just said. If you don't want to suffer, then from now on, do as I say. I'll lead you useless losers. Got it?"
"Fuck!"
At that,
the students below erupted in anger.
Dragon Garden was obviously trying to provoke them. And he was doing it on purpose—he wanted to weed out some useful pawns.
Seeing this,
Prince Ganlongdao naturally chose to sit back and wait. All he had to do was claim the fruits of Dragon Garden's labor in the end.
As for how to claim them?
For him, it couldn't be easier.
Before you continue