Naturally, the students he wanted to win over were from Class A.
But approaching the new students without a good reason would make him stand out. If he contacted them on official business, though, there was no problem. He could even use this opportunity to exchange contact information, which would make things easier later.
That was why Miyabi Nagumo had appeared at the door of First-Year Class A's classroom.
It was a shame, though. He hadn't seen the super-cute silver-haired girl he'd run into outside the Student Council Office.
Nagumo felt a little disappointed.
"Can I help you?" a boy from Class A suddenly struck up a conversation with Nagumo.
Nagumo looked over and saw a tall, muscular boy with no hair. Despite his appearance, the boy gave off an intelligent air.
"I'm Miyabi Nagumo, the Student Council Vice President," Nagumo said. "I used to represent Class 2-B, but our class moved up to Class A two months ago."
Oh.
Wasn't that a strange thing to say?
The people around him were all new first-year students, complete rookies. And now he'd suddenly told them his class used to be Class B and had successfully moved up. Was he saying that classes at this school could change rank?
Nagumo knew perfectly well that he'd be punished for revealing that information. At this school, points could buy anything. As long as you had enough, you could even use them to avoid a punishment.
So although he hadn't revealed much, he'd probably have to pay 300,000 points in penalties.
You could say that spending 300,000 points on a single sentence was enough to make anyone wince.
But if he wanted to secure the votes of the First-Year Class A students, he needed to get them to pay attention to him.
Then, once those underclassmen failed to think carefully about the information he'd let slip and eventually lost points, they'd realize how helpful he'd been.
Of course, they might instead latch onto the information he'd given them and make it through the month without a hitch. In that case, they'd remember him fondly, too.
Looked at that way, spending only 300,000 points to build a good relationship with First-Year Class A was practically perfect.
Only...
What bothered Nagumo was that, even though he'd let slip some information, the first-years around him weren't reacting the way he'd expected.
They weren't confused or pondering what he'd said. Instead, they looked... a little delighted.
That was right.
Delighted.
Nagumo couldn't figure out what he'd said that could possibly delight them.
Shouldn't they be wondering how Class B had become Class A?
Shouldn't they be worried that they might also be demoted to another class?
"So, what brings you here? Has something happened in our class that requires the Student Council to intervene?" asked the tall, bald boy who'd spoken to Nagumo. "I'm Katsuragi Kohei. If something's happened, you can tell me."
"..." Nagumo.
Nagumo found it hard to believe.
He'd meant to make the Class A underclassmen remember him. Had he ended up remembering the underclassman named Katsuragi Kohei instead?
This wasn't his stage anymore.
It was no wonder Senior Nagumo found the situation so baffling. There really was something unusual about this class.
And "unusual" was putting it mildly. At lunchtime yesterday, Sakayanagi Arisu had sent a file to the class group chat.
She'd also said she'd paid 1.2 million points to get the information from a senior in Class 3-D.
Some of it was about how the school really worked.
The rest was about the conduct-based point-deduction test the new students would face during their first month.
That was right. Points would be deducted.
Every class started with a base score of 1,000 points, but points would be deducted during the first month for bad conduct.
That score would be the sole basis for the class rankings.
And in the end, only students in Class A at graduation would receive the rewards the school advertised.
But if only the graduating Class A received those rewards, they had to hold on to their Class A position.
And now, all four classes started with the same base score of 1,000. In other words, they were all starting from the same point.
So...
There was certainly a sense of urgency.
Still, there was no way to know yet whether Sakayanagi's information was completely trustworthy.
But when Senior Nagumo revealed that his class had risen from Class B to Class A, the eyes of the Class A students around him lit up.
In other words, what Senior Nagumo had told them hadn't swayed them. Instead, it made them even more certain that the information Sakayanagi had obtained was real.
As a result...
A few more students put their faith in Sakayanagi.
Katsuragi was under some pressure, too. He was a cautious person. Sakayanagi's performance was outstanding and worthy of praise, but her decision to ask the class to spend points to buy information from their homeroom teacher had been too bold.
With his cautious nature, he couldn't trust Sakayanagi completely.
The class had also split over the issue.
One faction supported his cautious approach, while the other backed Sakayanagi's more aggressive methods.
"Yesterday, a student submitted an SD card. It contained evidence that an employee in the Shopping District had been taking pictures of customers. The school has dismissed the employee involved."
"The person who initially obtained the SD card was actually a student in your class."
As he spoke, Nagumo finally stepped into the Class A classroom and headed straight for a tall girl with purple hair.
She was sitting on a desk with a stony expression. She was attractive, but she gave off a strong don't-come-near-me vibe.
"The school is rewarding the student who made this contribution."
"This anonymous Point Card is the school's reward for the student who helped."
"It contains 30,000 Private Points."
Nagumo stopped in front of the purple-haired girl. He took a special card from his pocket. It looked like a phone card, except that it had a QR code on it. It seemed reusable.
"This is the reward you deserve, Kamuro Masumi," Nagumo said with a smile, holding out the Point Card to the purple-haired girl.
"I didn't do it. You've got the wrong person." The purple-haired girl sitting at her desk cut him off before he could finish. She looked at him as if she were annoyed. "And you're blocking my view."
"..." Nagumo.
Huh?
"Sorry for the trouble. A regular chapter is 2,000 words, but I keep going over and writing 2,600 to 2,800. Mixed feelings."
"Kamuro, what exactly are you hiding?"
You've got the wrong person.
You're in my way.
The purple-haired girl, Kamuro Masumi, said it without the slightest courtesy.
"..." Nagumo.
It was safe to say that from the moment he'd entered the classroom until now, Vice President Nagumo hadn't had a single good moment.
What was with this class? What was with these students?
As he wondered that—
"Sakayanagi's here."
Someone seemed to call out. Then Miyabi Nagumo saw several students enter the classroom.
More precisely, a frail-looking girl came in with a cane in her left hand. Three students walked ahead of her, clearing the way, while another three followed behind, escorting her.
It was as if Sakayanagi Arisu were the center of attention.
Sakayanagi Arisu looked cute and adorable. She was the cutest girl Nagumo had ever seen.
But...
Why did she have more of a presence than him, the Student Council Vice President?
She was only a new student in First-Year Class A, after all.
"Oh, my. Looks like we have a guest in class," Sakayanagi said.
Her voice was lovely, too.
Oh.
Nagumo's sour mood seemed to lift a little.
"However, you're standing where I sit. Would you mind moving?" Sakayanagi asked.
So she'd spoken to him because he was standing in her seat?
And she thought he was in the way, too.
Damn it.
The First-Year Class A students watched as the Student Council Vice President, who'd entered with such confidence and grace, left with an air as cold as frost.
However...
"Kamuro, did the Student Council Vice President mistake you for someone else?"
Sakayanagi sat down and looked with interest at the girl behind her.
Kamuro Masumi was quite tall. She looked as if she'd trained before, and her physical fitness was excellent.
However, she kept to herself and didn't socialize in groups. She was the solitary type.
"I didn't do anything like that," Kamuro said, her face stony.
She hadn't stood out much in class before, but suddenly everyone was looking at her. And even after Student Council Vice President Nagumo left, the students around her still seemed curious.
That was the last thing she wanted. She didn't like being the center of attention.
"And I've never even been to the Electronics Store," Kamuro added.
Uh.
So the Student Council had gotten the wrong person.
But...
That was obviously a lie.
Sakayanagi had printed out the full roster of the first-year students yesterday. In fact, as soon as Classmate Shirogane mentioned a purple-haired girl with two hair clips, Sakayanagi had realized he was probably talking about Kamuro.
So Kamuro was deliberately denying it.
And she'd given herself away completely. From what the Student Council Vice President had said, someone had reported an employee in the Shopping District for misconduct.
He hadn't said which store the employee worked at, but Kamuro Masumi had immediately named the Electronics Store.
Perhaps Kamuro wasn't as clever as she thought, either.
"Well, that's a shame," Sakayanagi said, as if summing up the matter. "If you were the one who did it, Kamuro, you might have earned points for our class."
The possibility of earning points?
Katsuragi had already sat down, but he couldn't help thinking about that.
As new students, they'd assumed they could only lose points during their first month. But now it seemed they might actually be able to earn them?
And if it hadn't been Kamuro, then some other student had reported the employee's misconduct to the school. That meant a student in another class might earn points instead.
Still, the most important thing was how Kamuro herself reacted.
Katsuragi looked over at her, but Kamuro seemed unmoved by Sakayanagi's suggestion that she might have earned points.
Before you continue