Elsewhere.
Class 1-D.
A young female teacher stood at the front of the classroom.
She wore a black women's business suit on top, paired with a pencil skirt, black stockings, and black high heels. Her fitted professional attire accentuated her elegant curves.
Her stunning face, however, was touched with a hint of coolness.
Like Horikita Suzune, she seemed like a flower on a lofty peak, giving people the sense that they should keep their distance.
A perfect, aloof female teacher.
She was probably the dream girl of many students.
She was none other than Class 1-D's homeroom teacher—
Chabashira Sae.
After making the announcement,
she left the classroom in her black high heels.
If Class C was the worst class Kazuma Sakagami had ever taught, that was at least understandable. After all, one of its students had skipped classes for an entire month.
But Class D was the worst class Chabashira Sae had ever taught.
That was simply a fact.
Students with poor self-discipline
would become unrestrained without the school keeping them in check.
It was only natural for them to lose some Class Points.
But to attend school as usual and still lose all their points was truly absurd.
It really was the worst class.
Fortunately,
"It's just like Chabashira-sensei said."
"To squander a thousand Class Points in a month, this class really is full of hopeless people."
Horikita Suzune gazed at the trash in her class with her cool, beautiful eyes. Beside her, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was a little speechless.
"Um... you haven't forgotten that you and I are both in this class, have you?"
"Don't lump me in with you. I'm definitely going to make it to Class A."
A hint of determination flashed in Horikita Suzune's beautiful eyes.
"But luckily, that class with the delinquent you thought so highly of also lost all its Class Points. This class should be able to move up to Class C before long, too."
"Are you making fun of my judgment? People make mistakes, after all. It's normal to misjudge someone."
Ayanokoji was just as bewildered.
After all,
apart from Ichinose Honami, the leader of Class B, he knew nothing about the other classes.
Prince Ganlongdao had clearly united his entire class in just two days.
So how had they still ended up with zero Class Points?
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka found it truly absurd.
Judging by Prince Ganlongdao's performance at the club information session, his assessment shouldn't have been wrong. Even if Class C's strength had been somewhat overstated, Prince Ganlongdao shouldn't have been this bad.
Compared to the White Room,
the outside world really was rather strange.
There were all sorts of people, and they truly opened Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's eyes.
Still,
only those who graduated from Class A would have the freedom to choose their careers.
Ichinose Honami, Prince Ganlongdao, and...
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka turned to look at the girl beside him.
Horikita Suzune.
And the leader of Class A—which of them would come out on top in the end?
Would it be the king assigned to Class A from the start, Ichinose Honami, the outstanding leader who was trusted by so many, or Horikita Suzune, who had plenty of room to grow?
Or perhaps—
Prince Ganlongdao, who had defied his expectations?
It seemed like it would be quite nice to see how things turned out.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka thought to himself.
Elsewhere.
After Kazuma Sakagami left,
quite a few people followed Kaneda toward the back of the classroom.
Before they got close,
they heard Prince Ganlongdao mutter from where he was slouched in his chair.
"Boring..."
Prince Ganlongdao genuinely found it dull.
He'd thought this school would be impressive. The S System, the points, Class A—all that flashy nonsense, only for them to tell him that it came down to exam scores?
Were they kidding?
Maybe there were other projects later on.
But Prince Ganlongdao just couldn't muster any interest in this Midterm Exam.
It was less fun than playing around with Ryuen Kakeru.
Even playing around with Shiho Manabe would be more entertaining than this Midterm Exam.
"Prince..."
After a brief hesitation,
Kaneda walked right up to Prince Ganlongdao without holding back.
Smack.
A book flew straight into his face.
Prince Ganlongdao said coldly,
"Call me Prince Brother. Why don't you ever learn?"
"..."
Kaneda lowered his head, his gaze venomous. After a moment's hesitation, he said,
"Prince Brother, according to the contract, I'd like to check the class funds. I'm sure everyone agrees."
"Mm..."
The people behind him nodded repeatedly.
What they meant was that they wanted to withdraw some of the class funds to cover next month's living expenses.
However,
smack.
Another book flew into Kaneda's face.
This guy really wasn't afraid of anyone. He was the sort who never learned his lesson, so he needed to be trained little by little.
Prince Ganlongdao said coldly,
"According to the contract? You think you're in a position to make demands? Do you think you can speak for everyone else?"
"..."
Kaneda repressed his anger.
His strengths were that he was more capable than Ishizaki and the others, and sensible enough to endure what ordinary people couldn't. As long as he could accomplish his goal, he could put up with anything.
Pain and pride meant nothing to Kaneda.
Actually,
if he stopped acting like some elite who thought he was better than everyone else, Kaneda could get things done.
After hesitating for a while,
Kaneda still kept his voice low as he said,
"Prince Brother... I'd like to see the class funds. Would that be all right?"
"That's more like it."
Only then was Prince Ganlongdao satisfied.
But he still didn't take out his phone to show them the state of the class funds.
He merely said,
"I'll allocate thirty thousand Private Points from the class funds to each of you tonight for your living expenses. We'll decide what to do with the remaining Private Points later."
"I told you, anything you earn above thirty thousand a month has to be handed over to the class as class funds. If you earn less than thirty thousand, I won't take a single point extra from you. Understand?"
"Thank you, Prince Brother!"
At those words,
quite a few people behind him sighed with relief.
Even though those Private Points belonged to them, they had to thank him when they wanted them back.
That was the effect of controlling the distribution of resources.
They'd thought it would take some effort to get Prince Ganlongdao to hand over the class funds. They'd at least need to explain the pros and cons, then point out that this was what a majority of the class wanted.
They hadn't expected it to be so easy.
Most importantly, Prince Ganlongdao really hadn't misused those points.
Of course,
Prince Ganlongdao wasn't going to take out his student ID
to prove how the class funds had been used.
He also wouldn't care about the rule that required the agreement of half the class before the funds could be used.
They were all just a pretense!
If he wanted total control,
he had to make people believe he possessed the power to do anything!
Otherwise,
why would anyone listen to him?
As long as he could use the class funds to benefit the class, no one would care about any breach of contract. No one would turn down money—at least, Prince Ganlongdao had never met anyone like that.
"Um... there's one more thing..."
The others had nothing else to discuss. Kaneda was the one who needed to bring up the real matter.
"Prince Brother... the Midterm Exam..."
"We'll talk about that later. I've got something to do, so I'm leaving. If you don't want to be expelled, figure it out yourselves."
Prince Ganlongdao waved a hand casually and stood up.
He really had no interest in the Midterm Exam.
He'd rather spend the time playing around with Ryuen.
A month had passed.
Surely Ryuen was curious by now about how things had changed on the outside.
Before you continue