First Meeting with Chabashira

"Yawn..."

Sakamoto yawned lazily.

He had stayed up late last night studying the system's abilities and was still a little tired.

But whenever he thought about the system, Sakamoto felt troubled. Ever since it activated, it had shown no response no matter what he did, aside from booting up. If not for the new things that appeared last night, he would have thought it was defective too.

There was merely an additional unknown [Achievement Tab]—

[Classroom of the Elite Achievement Unlock Guide]

[It's Decided, Pikachu: Tame a yellow creature (Completed 1/1)]

[You Are the True Challenger: You seem to have some misunderstanding (Completed)]

He had no idea what these strange achievements were for, and their names were quite "trendy." Could this wooden system actually have a brain?

Although he had stayed up late, this little bit of fatigue barely affected him.

After all, classes were far too easy for Sakamoto, no different from one plus one. He had long since mastered all this knowledge completely.

Throughout the morning, he was in even better shape than the most diligent students in the front row. During the third-period math class, the teacher wrote down an advanced problem with great interest. Sakamoto saw through it at a glance and came up with more than ten possible solutions.

While his classmates racked their brains over the problem, Sakamoto had already closed his eyes and rested leisurely.

Once the morning classes were over, Sakamoto was even more energetic than he had been in the morning.

Ah, too easy. It was all too easy. There was no need to waste any effort in class. Since he had not brought along any interesting books this morning,

Sakamoto could only begin meditating, and the results were even more obvious than sleeping.

Meanwhile, on the other side—no, the other two sides—

Gloomy gazes occasionally fell from the front rows onto the back.

That intermittent chill made the boys in the back think it was already late autumn, and that the cherry blossoms in their hometowns were about to fall.

Because they were far away and Sakamoto was focused on meditating, he did not notice the creepy chill at all. Or rather, even if he did notice it, he would not care.

A sigma man was not influenced by women. (doge)

Until a soft sensation wrapped around his arm—

"Sakamoto-kun."

The uninvited guest was none other than Kushida Kikyo.

"Hurry up, Sakamoto-kun. Sae-sensei is waiting for us in the office." Kushida still looked as lovable as ever. At an angle no one else could see, her fair, slender fingers tightly gripped Sakamoto's clothes, while both hands wrapped around his arm, leaving him no room to break free.

Her meaning was obvious. She would not feel at ease until they had the teacher witness the contract, so she had sought out Chabashira Sae early.

This girl would probably help count the money after being sold off.

Sakamoto readily agreed.

As a well-known first-year student, Kushida had already formed friendships with quite a few other first-years.

Every classmate who saw Kushida happily greeted her.

Although she wanted to complete the contract quickly, Kushida patiently responded to each of them when the other students held her up.

"Hey, Kushida-chan, what do you need Sakamoto-kun for?"

"No, it's not that. Sae-sensei is looking for us."

The classmates appeared to be chatting among themselves, but when Kushida approached Sakamoto, every one of them pricked up their ears.

They wanted to go over and join in, especially since it concerned Sakamoto, but his calm demeanor made them all too embarrassed to approach him directly. Once Kushida responded, several nosy girls naturally refused to miss the opportunity and bombarded her with questions.

But Kushida was also a master of social interaction. She easily defused their questions while subtly ending the conversation, making them too embarrassed to continue prying. Her refreshing smile and sweet voice left every classmate who greeted her feeling delighted.

Yet inwardly, no one knew how Kushida was cursing those troublesome people.

At that moment, the owner of one of those gloomy gazes wore an even more disgusted expression.

Hmph, frivolous man.

It had not been long at all, yet he was already entangled with a girl from Class D. Being toyed with by a playboy like that was exactly what annoyed her the most.

And Sakayanagi too. Based on what she knew about the little princess, she had deliberately waited so long only to be stood up. Though she showed no emotion on the surface, she had surely marked Sakamoto down heavily already. Kamuro Masumi, the owner of that gaze, looked toward Sakayanagi Arisu in the front row.

The white-haired little princess sat properly in her seat, speaking amicably with several classmates, as though she was not paying the slightest attention to the back rows.

Keep pretending. I caught you secretly looking back...

The playboy responsible for all this, Boss Sakayanagi who neglected her duties, and Kushida Kikyo, who was unexpectedly upset about something.

Why was this whole pile of trouble being dumped on Kamuro? Kamuro Masumi was so annoyed she felt like her hair was about to fall out.

At that moment, Kamuro really wanted to say to Sakayanagi, I quit. Do whatever the hell you want.

Ignoring Kamuro Masumi, who lay on her desk pretending to scratch at her ears and cheeks.

Sakamoto and Kushida left Class A and headed for the office where Chabashira Sae was waiting.

Ikusei's classrooms apparently did not have separate offices, so Chabashira was in an office area shared by four teachers.

However, Kushida had specifically arranged to meet Chabashira at noon to avoid that situation. It had to be said that Kushida was exceptionally skilled at dealing with people.

The office door was slightly ajar. Kushida gave it a gentle push and opened it.

In one corner of the office area,

Chabashira, dressed in formal attire with a stern expression but an exceptionally voluptuous figure, had her head lowered as she carefully read the documents in her hands.

Only after hearing the door open did she raise her head.

What she saw was Kushida's smile, along with a greeting.

She gave a slight nod in acknowledgment.

Only then did Chabashira notice Sakamoto beside Kushida.

At the same time, Sakamoto was also watching Chabashira.

Chabashira Sae, the homeroom teacher of first-year Class D. To put it bluntly, she bore a great deal of responsibility for Class D's poor performance in its early days.

During the early stages of the Classroom of the Elite game, Chasuke had an extremely indifferent teaching attitude toward Class D. Students were late, distracted in class, or skipped school, and she remained entirely unmoved. Compared with the homeroom teachers of the other three classes, perhaps school regulations prevented teachers from proactively informing students of certain matters, but Chasuke Sae's baffling attitude was the real key.

Judging solely from her attitude toward students, she truly fit the principle of "meritocracy above all." The strong could fear nothing, while the weak should be eliminated.

The midterm exam of the first semester was one example. Chabashira gave them an incorrect exam scope. Only after Horikita pointed it out did she remember that the scope had changed and mark the key topics again. By then, it was already very late, with only one week left before the midterms...

Letting Class D fall to zero points might also have been because that way, even if someone was expelled or dropped out, the class points could not fall any lower. Of course, that was a somewhat extreme interpretation.

Looking at the outcome, having their points reset to zero made most of Class D recognize their situation and begin taking action to change it.

Well, it could be considered a special trial designed specifically for Class D.

If Chasuke saw the potential for them to rise to Class A, then she would become a conscientious and responsible teacher as well.

And if she could not see it? Then she would give up and wait for the next class to see whether there were students with greater potential.

((The above is purely for plot purposes and reflects the author's subjective opinion.))