At first, I thought our class's lineup was different from the others, with two bosses, no less. But over the past month, neither of them seemed to have accomplished anything.
One of them, Koenji Rokusuke, had completely let himself go and was simply enjoying life. Given how clever he was, he should have been able to figure out how this school really worked, yet he hadn't warned the class or done anything at all.
He'd even cost the class 100 points all by himself during the Behavioral Standards Exam.
"..."
The other boss, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, was sitting beside Horikita Suzune now. But he didn't draw much attention, and even at this point, his expression remained calm.
Chabashira had checked his points. He'd started with 100,000 and still had 80,000 left.
In other words, he'd spent only 20,000 points last month.
That was incredibly difficult for a student, especially when new students had to buy all kinds of things after enrolling. In other words, Ayanokoji had discovered that the school offered assistance in the form of free, discounted items nearing their expiration dates.
So he'd chosen those things.
And he'd eaten the free meals, even though they tasted awful.
But he still hadn't done anything or offered any warnings.
So Chabashira had been forced to settle for Horikita.
The Student Council President's younger sister. Chabashira had risked punishment to leak information to her, but unfortunately, that information hadn't paid off.
Horikita had failed.
Otherwise, the class wouldn't have ended up like this. It was safe to say that Horikita had no way of pulling them out of this situation.
"You really are a bunch of idiots!"
Looking down at her students' faces, Chabashira finally said something no teacher should say.
Over the past month, she'd never kept them late after class. She'd rarely called on them, never said anything too harsh, and hadn't singled anyone out.
And yet now—
She was insulting every single one of them.
But they were all idiots? What gave her the right?
Teacher Chabashira said coldly,
"In the past month, you've been late or absent more than 108 times. You've chatted during class and secretly played with your phones 631 times. In just one month, you've done whatever you pleased!"
"It's true that being selected for this school was already extraordinary."
"But have you ever seriously thought about it? Is there really such a thing as a free lunch?"
"Tuition is free."
"The school also provides living expenses, but how much you receive depends on your own abilities."
"The school evaluates each class based on your conduct and your results in the monthly Special Exam. We call this standard the Class Evaluation Score."
"The classes are ranked solely according to their Class Evaluation Scores. Only those who graduate from Class A can claim the rewards promised by the school. Don't say the school has treated you unfairly."
"When you enrolled, every class started with a Class Evaluation Score of 1,000. Your living expenses are based on that score, multiplied by 100. The amount accumulates, and the same goes for next month. But you..."
"In just one short month, you've managed to lose every last one of your points. Which means..."
"This month, your Private Points allowance is zero."
The teacher said the word "zero" quietly, but it still made everyone jump.
Then their scalps began to tingle.
"So you're saying we'll be penniless from now on?"
"Th-this can't be real... We never heard anything about this."
Wasn't this basically a death sentence?
Yamauchi and Ike had only two-digit balances. That meant they wouldn't get any living expenses this month!
But Chabashira had moved from disappointment to despair.
She'd had high hopes for them, but all she'd gotten in return was despair.
She'd never heard of a class scoring zero in its very first month. It was a record even for this school.
They'd set a new low for Class D.
"Did you think that, just because you're high school students, you could spend 100,000 points every month? Then you still don't understand this school. This school truly is a meritocracy. Why didn't you investigate? Why did you keep slacking off? I told you on the day school started that students are judged by their abilities here. In other words..."
As Chabashira spoke, she looked toward Horikita.
Horikita's face had gone pale as well.
She'd been sure the school wouldn't provide students with unlimited living expenses. Now the teacher's explanation had confirmed it, and the school was distributing those expenses according to the principle of meritocracy.
If the class had a high Class Evaluation Score, its ranking could rise. And if they could maintain a place in Class A until graduation, they'd receive everything the school had promised.
But...
"Then, Teacher, what are the Class Evaluation Scores of the four classes right now?" Horikita stood and asked.
"That's a good question."
Chabashira nodded. But Horikita, what was the point of getting worried now?
She couldn't control this situation anymore.
Unless...
Chabashira looked at the two bosses in the class.
No class had ever lost all 1,000 of its Class Evaluation Score points in its first month.
Even in Chabashira's own year, her class had been left with 440 points after the first month, which counted as an excellent result. Usually, a Class D had only 200 points left at the end of its first month.
Her class had seized its opportunity. They hadn't been eliminated in the first month, and they'd been able to take advantage of opportunities in the Special Exams that followed and climb the ranks.
But Class D was starting from hell. Horikita clearly couldn't handle it.
Still...
Unfortunately, Chabashira saw no reaction from either Koenji or Ayanokoji when she looked their way.
However...
Chabashira also noticed that Kushida, sitting in the front row, seemed to have changed her expression slightly.
She seemed a little nervous.
In fact, she was nervous.
What was Teacher Chabashira saying? The class rankings could change, so they needed to climb. Their living expenses were tied to the Class Evaluation Score, and there would be a Special Exam every month from now on.
They'd compete against other classes as a group.
But...
It seemed she'd betrayed her class before the competition had even begun.
That was right.
Kushida was thinking about the three sets of materials she'd given to Shirogane Miyuki, Classmate Shiina, and Horikita.
It was one thing to hand over information on Classes A and B, since they were in other classes. But Horikita had asked her for information about their own class, then taken it and traded it to Shirogane and the others.
So did that make Horikita Suzune the traitor in their class?
As soon as the thought occurred to Kushida, she suddenly felt a little calmer.
"..." Chabashira.
Chabashira, who was keeping an eye on Kushida, noticed that her emotions seemed to be shifting strangely.
Still, Chabashira answered Horikita's question.
"Here are the current Class Evaluation Scores for the four classes."
Teacher Chabashira wrote the scores on the blackboard: Class A had 924 points, Class B had 560, Class C had 735, and Class D had... zero.
"I truly admire you. You managed to lose all your points in a single month."
"So you won't receive any living expenses this month."
"Every class starts with a base score of 1,000, and it accumulates from the first day of school. In other words, if you could avoid losing points, you'd receive 100,000 Private Points in living expenses every month. But if you lost 500 points at the start, you'd only get 50,000 next month. If you kept losing points after that, you'd get even less.
"That's why the Class Evaluation Score matters so much. You can't afford to lose points carelessly.
"Yet Class 1-D had lost every last point by May 1."
"And you are the most outrageous and worst class in the history of this school," Chabashira Sae declared, as though passing judgment.
Many students turned pale and began murmuring, asking how this could happen.
Chabashira continued,
"By tradition, new students take a Behavioral Standards Exam during their first month. It's nothing difficult; it simply tests whether you're a well-behaved high school student."
"Being late, leaving early, using your phone during class, fighting, behaving rudely... Those are all grounds for losing points."
Uh...
The students below, who'd just been stunned to learn they had no living expenses this month and that their 1,000 Class Evaluation Score points had been reduced to zero, stared blankly.
"So you're saying our class lost all its points just by being tested on whether we behaved like proper students?" A girl with a blonde ponytail stood up.
She was very cute, and she was the leader of the Gal Clique formed by several girls in the class—Karuizawa Kei.
Her question also reflected what some of the other students were wondering.
How could their points have been so easy to lose? How could they have lost all 1,000 points just for failing to act like proper students? The other classes hadn't lost all of theirs.
"Didn't the other classes have different things to be tested on? How else could they still have so many points?"
Another Class D student asked.
She was a short-haired girl who usually hung out with Karuizawa. Her name was Shinohara Satsuki.
Compared to Horikita, Chabashira had also once placed her hopes in Hirata Yosuke. His student profile looked excellent, and he was outstanding in every way. However, his record showed a troubled past in middle school, which was why he'd been assigned to Class D. At first, Chabashira had assumed Hirata was a delinquent, but after he came to the school, he treated the students around him kindly, as though he wanted to start over.
So at the time, Chabashira had actually valued Hirata more than Horikita.
But Hirata hadn't been able to shoulder the responsibility of leading Class D. Over the past month, all he'd done was smooth out the relationships between the students around him.
"The school applies the same standards to everyone."
"Every class took the exam, and the questions were exactly the same. There was no unfairness or cheating," Chabashira said.
She was lying, actually.
After the second week, she'd spoken to Horikita alone and hinted that she should investigate how the school really worked. In other words, Class D had actually been given an unfair advantage over the other classes—but it hadn't worked. Horikita hadn't managed to uncover the truth about the school.
So Chabashira had leaked information for nothing.
"..." Chabashira.
"Then how did the other classes manage to lose so few points? Could it be—" Hirata finally stood up. "Did the other classes investigate and prepare seriously?"
"More or less. That's the difference between you and the other classes," Chabashira said. "Take the former Class C, for example. Once they'd obtained information through their investigation, they immediately took action. To prevent students from using their phones in class, the first thing every student did each day was hand in their phone. They only got them back during lunch break and after school."
Uh...
Hirata suddenly felt the pressure.
If he hadn't been able to accept it when Teacher Chabashira suddenly called them garbage, he now realized that the other three classes had all gathered information ahead of time and prepared seriously. Their own class really did have... problems.
"Teacher Chabashira," Horikita began. "According to what you've said, only Class A can receive the rewards the school advertised. Does that mean Class A is especially important?"
"Yes," Chabashira said. "And when you graduate in your third year, only the students who graduate from Class A will be recognized by the school. Students from Classes B, C, and D will graduate under the names of other second-rate high schools."
"In other words, if you don't graduate from Class A, you won't receive a diploma from Ikusei High School," Chabashira said.
"How can this be?!" the students cried in unison.
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