Cultivating a Partner in Advance? A Timely Nudge! Horikita Suzune's Shock and Recognition?!

Akiyama Shin and Horikita Suzune walked silently along the tree-lined path leading to the cafeteria.

Afternoon sunlight filtered through the gaps between the cherry blossoms, casting dappled shadows over them.

They drew an astonishing number of glances.

Akiyama Shin was tall, with black hair, red eyes, and strikingly handsome features, yet an icy aura that kept strangers at bay surrounded him.

Horikita Suzune's black hair cascaded down her back, her features were delicate, and her posture upright. She, too, radiated a coldness that kept people at a distance.

They walked side by side without a word.

Yet their similar auras blended together strangely, creating a tension like two alphas facing off. Passing students kept looking their way and whispering among themselves.

"Look over there..."

"Wow! They look so good together..."

"What a powerful presence!"

"They look like a pair of protagonists who stepped right out of a manga..."

"But they seem so hard to approach..."

The surrounding whispers did not affect either of them in the slightest. Akiyama Shin simply did not care about others' opinions, while Horikita Suzune was already accustomed to shutting out external distractions.

Although she could feel those gazes, most of her attention remained on the black-haired boy ahead of her.

She had to admit that, based on appearance and presence alone, Akiyama Shin certainly had what it took to draw attention.

However, as she currently understood things, aside from perhaps his accumulated academic knowledge, Akiyama Shin seemed to have pulled ahead of her in other areas—insight, decisiveness, his ability to make use of rules, and even that unfathomable calmness. The gap was not impossible to overcome, but it undeniably existed.

The two entered the spacious, brightly lit student cafeteria one after the other. Quite a few students had already gathered inside.

Lines had formed at each counter, and the air was filled with the aroma of food and the noise of conversation.

When choosing lunch, they both headed, without prior agreement, toward the counter offering inexpensive set meals.

Horikita Suzune had developed rational spending habits through the elite education she had received since childhood. To her, food only needed to be nutritionally balanced, clean, hygienic, and suited to her tastes.

She did not pursue luxury.

As for Akiyama Shin, his family's past financial circumstances had long since made frugality a habit.

Although he had just obtained what could be called a huge sum of 2.8 million points, the imprint poverty had left deep within him was not something that could be easily erased. The points system might have blurred the tangible sense of money, making him seem somewhat calm when receiving that massive payment from Class B, but that did not mean he did not value those points.

He knew very well that these points were one of his most important cards in this special environment.

He could afford not to care about how they were spent.

But he could never afford to be without them.

Spend rationally.

Using resources where they mattered most was instinctive to him.

They each ordered a simple boxed meal, then chose a quiet two-person table in the corner of the cafeteria. Sitting across from one another, they began eating in silence.

During a pause in the meal, Akiyama Shin's gaze casually swept across the cafeteria's various counters before lingering for a moment on one that was relatively deserted.

A clear sign hung above it: Free Basic Nutritional Set Meal.

Most of those lining up to receive them were upperclassmen who looked somewhat weary.

The time had come.

Akiyama Shin's thoughts stirred slightly.

This was the perfect opportunity to wake Horikita Suzune up. He could guide her into discovering traces of the rules herself, and that would help her grow far more than simply telling her outright.

Before he could begin guiding her, Horikita Suzune, seated across from him, broke the silence first.

She set down her chopsticks, raised her cool eyes to look directly at Akiyama Shin, and asked a question.

"Your deal with Class B..."

She paused.

"How did you make the trade? With... points?"

It was not strange that she had realized points could be used for transactions. Chabashira Sae had explicitly said that points could buy anything. But with her relatively uncomplicated mindset, having yet to experience much darkness, she probably still found it difficult to imagine just how enormous a role points could play in the school's gray areas and under certain rules.

She had likely only thought of the most straightforward kind of intelligence trading.

Akiyama Shin did not deny it. He swallowed the food in his mouth, wiped the corner of his lips with a napkin, and answered calmly.

"Yeah."

"2.8 million."

As he spoke, he operated his Terminal and turned the screen toward Horikita Suzune. It clearly displayed his Personal Points balance: 2,799,500 points.

That was after deducting the cost of lunch.

Shock clearly appeared in Horikita Suzune's usually unruffled eyes.

2.8 million?!

That number far exceeded her expectations.

Her mind rapidly began calculating.

Class B had forty people...

That meant every one of them had to contribute seventy thousand points!

This meant that the intelligence Akiyama Shin had provided must have been valuable enough to persuade every student in Class B to willingly hand over most of their points.

This was not merely a matter of the intelligence's value...

It also reflected Akiyama Shin's persuasive ability or skill in negotiating to some extent, enough to bring the entire Class B to a consensus.

How... had he managed it?

With nothing but words?

Or was that intelligence truly important enough to warrant it?

Horikita Suzune realized that she could no longer simply define Akiyama Shin through luck or clever tricks.

Getting an entire class to collectively make such a major decision was not an easy thing in itself.

Subconsciously, she began placing Akiyama Shin in a position that required reassessment. Though doubts still remained in her heart—for example, what were the exact terms of the contract? Did they pay first and receive the intelligence afterward, or was it the other way around? The level of trust and difficulty involved would be entirely different...

This could perfectly verify whether Akiyama Shin's personal ability truly matched those results.

But there was no denying that this enormous sum itself was proof that could not be ignored.

Akiyama Shin took in her shock, doubt, and the contempt that had begun to waver.

He knew the timing was about right.

It was time for the next step of guidance.

He put away his Terminal, looked once more toward the free counter, and spoke in a slightly puzzled tone, as though he had only just noticed it. It sounded like he was talking to himself, yet also like he was speaking to her.

"Come to think of it..."

"The cafeteria seems to offer free meals too..."

"If one hundred thousand points are issued every month..."

"Then there doesn't seem to be much need for the school to specifically set up a free counter like that, does there?"

It sounded like an ordinary student's casual muttering, full of confusion.

Hearing this, Horikita Suzune instinctively followed his gaze toward the free counter. Almost without thinking, she gave what seemed like a reasonable explanation based on her past understanding.

"Perhaps... it is meant to help students who spend without planning and use up all their points ahead of time?"

"Some kind of... safeguard by the school?"

However.

The moment the words left her mouth, she abruptly stopped.

No...

A powerful sense of dissonance instantly welled up within her.

How shallow and presumptuous her answer had been.

Akiyama Shin, the man who had just swept 2.8 million points from Class B and whose mind was frighteningly meticulous—how could he possibly ask such an obvious question for no reason, like some naive new student? He had said before that by following him, she could observe things she could not notice alone...

He's trying to wake me up!

The thought flashed through Horikita Suzune's mind like lightning, and everything instantly became clear.

She looked again at the free counter and at the upperclassmen standing in line. Her thoughts suddenly opened up.

What if...

The one hundred thousand points issued every month were not fixed?

What if the distribution of points was tied to some kind of evaluation system, while class competition results directly affected that evaluation, causing points to increase, decrease, or even be reduced to zero?

Then... the existence of that free counter...

Was not simply aid at all!

It was a survival guarantee established for students whose points had sharply decreased or even been wiped out after losing class competitions!

Class competition... affecting point distribution...

The deduction sent a slight chill down her back.

If that was true, then the school's Meritocracy was far more realistic and brutal than she had imagined!

She abruptly raised her head and looked at Akiyama Shin across from her. He had already resumed eating quietly, as though nothing had happened.

Those dark red eyes remained calm and undisturbed, but when she looked at them now, she sensed an unfathomable wisdom and ability to guide others. He had not said much. With only a seemingly casual reminder, he had led her to deduce a crucial possibility.

He had already thought of it... and perhaps had thought even further ahead...

At that moment, Horikita Suzune's assessment of Akiyama Shin underwent a qualitative leap.

The initial contempt she had felt completely vanished.

In its place was a mixture of shock, wariness, and preliminary recognition.

What she was curious about now was no longer merely the truth behind the points system, but Akiyama Shin himself.

How had he, in such a short time...

Through observation and deduction alone...

Touched upon the core of the rules governing this school?

Meanwhile, Akiyama Shin continued eating the last of the food on his plate, completely ignoring Horikita Suzune's probing gaze.

He knew the seed had already been planted. All that remained was to wait for it to take root and sprout on its own.