Failing Grade

While everyone's attention was on Hirata,

Sakamoto and the other left Class D.

Having gotten their answer, the Three Stooges left Class D as well.

The exhausted Hirata could not help but sigh.

"If they get eliminated by the exam, then from one perspective, that might be a good thing."

Watching the farce come to an end, Horikita calmly voiced her opinion.

"No. I won't give up on any of my classmates."

Hirata's attitude was unusually intense.

Horikita said nothing more and turned to Ayanokoji.

"You had some thoughts just now, didn't you, Ayanokoji?"

Ayanokoji glanced at Kushida and shook his head.

This was an open scheme.

Whether they bought the answers or not, Sakamoto had achieved his goal.

And unlike Sakayanagi's little game driven by curiosity, this open scheme followed the Baiting Immortal's principle—those willing to take the bait would hang themselves.

If the Three Stooges had never learned that answers existed, they would have eventually started studying hard in order to do their best to ensure they could pass the exam.

But once they learned that such a thing as answer sheets existed, they would inevitably try to get their hands on them. They would lose all motivation to study, return to their carefree lifestyle from before, and waste all the effort they had put into the study group.

Just a few days before the swimming competition, Kushida had finally managed to persuade the Three Stooges to return to the study group.

Sudo had also stopped fooling around and begun reviewing seriously. They had thought the most crucial problem had been solved, but the Three Stooges really were the Three Stooges.

The moment there was temptation, they would bite.

After today, everything would return to square one.

Everyone present was intelligent. Seeing Ayanokoji shake his head,

they more or less understood that nothing could be done.

"Since the outcome has already been decided, we can only wait."

Horikita had decided to think it over carefully again and wait until she came up with a better solution.

"Horikita, are you just going to stop your study group like this?"

The good-natured Hirata sounded unlike his usual self. He truly did not want to abandon anyone in Class D.

Although he had invited Sudo and the others to join the study group he had established, how could the Three Stooges submit to someone else?

I refuse! (*3)

"If they still fail after getting the answers this time, then expelling them would be the right choice for Class D."

Class D currently had fewer than a hundred class points. Even if all three were expelled, it would not be much of a loss. It was precisely because of this

that Horikita held thoughts similar to Chasuke's. A small part of it was also because she truly felt they were beyond saving.

Hirata, who wanted the entire class to stay together, and Horikita, who planned to abandon Yamauchi and the others, began arguing over their differing views.

Beside them, Kushida wore a smile on the surface while inwardly bursting with joy.

Since she could not make a move against Horikita, seeing Horikita suffer a setback was already one of her rare pleasures.

As she thought this, she casually turned her gaze outside. With that glance,

she saw a listless girl in thick glasses standing at the doorway.

"It's Sakura! Where did you go? I didn't see you at all."

Kushida put on a delighted expression, ran over, and grabbed Sakura's arm in an embrace.

,

For some reason, Kushida had suddenly begun getting close to Sakura. Though she had failed to open Sakura's heart, they were much closer than Sakura was with the other students in class.

Caught in such an intimate embrace so suddenly, Sakura felt a little awkward, but all her attention was on Kushida's question.

"I just went out for a bit."

"Huh? You went to Class A, right?"

Kushida wore a mischievous grin as though she had seen right through her. She had personally witnessed the intimate interaction between Sakamoto and Sakura.

This unremarkable girl turned out to be a stunning beauty upon closer inspection. Perhaps Kushida could learn some information about Sakamoto through her as well.

"I just went out for a bit."

"Really?"

"R-Really..."

Seeing Airi's reddened ears, Kushida felt like she was teasing the little girl next door. She leaned close to Airi's ear.

"Sakamoto came here earlier too."

"!"

Airi's surprise lasted only an instant before turning into disappointment, then understanding.

She had accidentally missed the chance to see Sakamoto. No wonder she had not found him in the Class A classroom.

Class A. The moment Sakamoto returned from Class D, he spotted a box on his desk.

"Oh, a girl from Class D brought that over. Her name seemed to be Sakura..." a classmate who had seen it reminded Sakamoto.

Sakamoto froze.

He looked at the pink cookie box on his desk, opened the lid, picked up a financier, and took a bite.

The taste was not particularly outstanding, and the technique was a little lacking. It was probably her first time trying to make something like this.

Still, he had not expected Airi to specifically learn how to make such labor-intensive cookies.

Carefully packaging them and delivering them here had also been a major challenge for her.

She had put a lot of thought into it.

"They're delicious."

Sakamoto ate every cookie, one after another.

"So unfair. You didn't give me even one."

Watching the cookies disappear into someone's stomach, Hashimoto protested jealously.

"Of course not. These are exclusively mine. If you want some, you can find someone who'll make cookies for you too."

"Aaaah!"

Hashimoto clutched his head and let out a piercing scream.

Wasn't that asking the impossible of an overworked corporate slave like him?

Forget it. Compared to something like that, continuing to work was more interesting.

This man had decided to live for his future work!!

"Hey, Sakamoto, what are you planning to do about Class D next?"

"Well..."

The corners of Sakamoto's lips rose.

"Watch the show."

A week later, during the midterm exams,

because answer sheets existed,

the average scores of every class rose considerably.

In order to earn more class points, the students of all four classes competed against one another in the exams.

They practically wanted to memorize the entire test paper.

This made things difficult for the Three Stooges of Class D, who planned to cram at the last minute.

They had not put much effort into memorizing the answers in the first place.

Their actual academic ability was close to that of elementary school students.

So naturally,

the plot from the original game unfolded.

Sudo failed English!