"But you can't quite put it that way, can you? I heard Class C is pretty strong this year. Sakagami, one of your students reported a shopkeeper in the Shopping District for breaking the rules, and it seems the school is planning to reward them. That might earn your class some extra points." Hoshinomiya continued.
"Yes." Called by name, Teacher Sakagami stood up. He looked somewhat proud. "Classmate Shirogane has distinguished himself. The school hasn't told us how many points we'll gain yet, but we may be the only class ever to earn extra points in the first month after new students enroll. And my class is starting to pull together, too."
"Oh!" Hoshinomiya nodded. "Then I wish you luck."
Sakagami was Class C's homeroom teacher, while Hoshinomiya was Class B's. If Class C overtook them, Class B would fall behind.
But Sakagami noticed that Hoshinomiya seemed rather disinterested. It seemed she didn't care much about the class rankings.
And if she looked closely, she would see that Class C had only lost fifty more points than Class B.
But she didn't seem to care at all.
"By the way, what do you think, Chabashira?" Class B's homeroom teacher, Hoshinomiya Chie, suddenly asked.
Everyone turned to look at the ponytailed teacher.
The homeroom teacher of First-Year Class B, Chabashira Sae, was extremely beautiful and exuded a cool, distant air. She was completely different from Hoshinomiya, but she was also very popular with the male teachers.
Now, though, everyone was looking at her.
Everyone knew that Class B's one thousand points had already dropped by six hundred. They had lost six out of every ten points, and in only half a month.
It was terrifying.
The Class B homeroom teacher, Teacher Chabashira, knew that everyone around her was watching.
Her full name was Chabashira Sae. Just as Shirogane had once learned from an upperclassman, although she was now Class B's homeroom teacher, she had once been a student at this school. She had also been in Class B, and her class had eventually risen to Class A.
By any standard, that was an outstanding achievement.
But...
She clearly didn't see it that way. She had a long-held wish. No student wanted to graduate from anywhere but Class A, and she had wanted the same. Failing to graduate from Class A had become her greatest regret.
So, after going round in circles, going to university and then coming back, she had become lost.
Still, once she had taken on the role of Class B's homeroom teacher, she had her own ambition. If she couldn't accomplish it herself, then she would have her students do it for her.
But the gap between the students' backgrounds was too great. An ordinary Class B couldn't climb the rankings, and didn't have a chance to.
But given the current situation...
It wasn't as if there was no hope.
From the information she had gathered, Class B had a boss, as well as several students who seemed different from the rest.
If those students could be brought together, they might become a sharp blade capable of cutting their way upward.
Still, the students in the other classes this year seemed unusual, too.
Though everyone thought she wasn't interested in the class competition, she was keeping a close eye on the changes in all four classes' evaluation scores.
Class A hadn't lost many points this year. Class B's losses weren't much different from last year's, but Class C's score was strange. Two weeks had passed, and Class C had lost around two or three hundred points, but most of that had happened in the first week. And what had happened during the first week?
There had been fights in Ryuen Class and students had broken the rules.
Starting on the sixth day of the first week, they had lost very few points. In the second week, the entire class had lost only ten points.
That was terrifying.
Just think: a whole class had lost only ten points.
Was it ironclad self-discipline, or absolute coercion?
Ironclad self-discipline could more or less be ruled out. That left coercion.
But who could make something like that happen?
"Classes are about to start." With the other teachers still watching her, she simply picked up her books and prepared to leave.
She looked as if she had no intention of joining in the conversation.
"That's no fun." Teacher Sakagami was Class C's homeroom teacher, and Class B was right below them. Yet, from what he could see, neither the students nor the teachers in Class B were much of a rival.
The morning classes soon passed, and lunch break arrived.
The students started heading to the Shopping District or the cafeteria to grab some food.
Classmate Shirogane had brought his own lunch.
That was unusual in Class C. After all, most of the students were delinquents. Back in middle school, their parents might have made lunch for them, but they would never prepare it themselves.
And the lunch Shirogane had made looked delicious.
But Classmate Ryuen usually left Classmate Shirogane alone, and Shirogane looked pretty intimidating, too, so the students nearby didn't go out of their way to bother him.
"That looks great."
Noticing that Classmate Shirogane had taken out his lunch behind her, Classmate Shiina stood up and said.
She could cook, too, but she couldn't get up an hour or two early to prepare lunch, so she was among those who went to the cafeteria at the usual time.
"Actually, I'm going to the cafeteria today, too." Classmate Shirogane stood up with his lunchbox.
"Hm?"
Hiyori blinked softly.
She knew very well that Classmate Shirogane studied hard and was very frugal. His lunches looked delicious, but he made them to save points.
So why was he going to the cafeteria today?
"I want to look into a few people," Classmate Shirogane said briefly.
Oh.
Classmate Shiina nodded.
For the past two days, students had been talking about people from other classes showing up nearby, apparently trying to find something out.
They were probably students from Class A.
That could make the class uneasy. And Classmate Shirogane was different from ordinary students, more far-sighted than most, so it made sense that he wanted to investigate students from the other classes.
"Then I'll head off first," Classmate Shiina said. "I ran into Classmate Kushida from Class B last night, and she invited me to eat with her."
"Okay."
Shirogane nodded.
The Classmate Kushida she meant was Kushida Kikyo, the girl Shirogane had met in the elevator.
A little angel with short blonde hair.
She was popular and good at socializing. Even though Shiina had suspected that students from Class A had ulterior motives for approaching Class C, she was still going to meet up with Classmate Kushida.
That meant Classmate Kushida seemed able to blur the boundaries between herself and others, quickly making them feel like she was one of their own.
Shirogane suddenly thought of Classmate Ichinose from First-Year Class B.
Which of them was better at socializing, Classmate Ichinose or Classmate Kushida?
As he thought about it,
Shirogane took his lunch and started toward the cafeteria.
But after only a few steps, he noticed that one of his shoelaces had come undone. He was about to crouch down when something warm suddenly bumped into him from behind.
"Sorry."
The other person quickly apologized.
Shirogane looked over and saw a stern-looking woman with a ponytail, dressed in business attire.
She looked to be around twenty-five or twenty-six, and she was tall. She wore black high heels and black stockings, the kind of charm that only came with adulthood.
Her long, straight legs looked beautiful beneath the stockings.
Of course,
he shouldn't be staring there.
"It's fine." Shirogane figured she might have something on her mind, so he didn't make an issue of it. She brushed past him without another word.
"You're Shirogane Miyuki from Class C, aren't you?" But after only two steps, she suddenly turned around and asked.
At first, he'd thought she had simply been distracted and bumped into him.
But now Shirogane looked at her.
"I'm Shirogane Miyuki. And you are?" Shirogane asked.
"..." The woman.
But the ponytailed teacher suddenly fell silent. "You probably don't know me."
With that, she walked away again.
Shirogane had met plenty of students at this school, and he had also found quite a few strange students in Class B.
Could this strange-looking teacher be from Class B as well?
As he wondered,
Shirogane realized there was no voice in his head. That meant the Narration System wasn't around right now.
That was something he had learned from spending these past few days with her.
Shirogane's guess was that she came from the future and knew a lot about Ikusei High School, and even the students there. But she wasn't available all the time. She seemed to have a private tutor arranged by her parents, and every night she made a point of spending time making sure he studied. How hard she worked.
But she didn't seem to mean him any harm, so he could keep her around for a while, like a pet.
But he absolutely couldn't say that out loud.
So Classmate Shirogane raised his phone, took a picture, and sent it to Classmate Shiina.
A moment later,
[...That's Chabashira Sae, the homeroom teacher of First-Year Class B. But why did Classmate Shirogane take a picture of Teacher Chabashira? Most boys mature late, but Classmate Shirogane, please don't go astray.]
Classmate Shiina sent back a message. Then she quickly added another.
[Classmate Kushida saw the picture you just took and recognized the person in it. She's her homeroom teacher, but apparently their homeroom teacher is very laid-back.]
Before you continue