At Classroom of the Elite, My Future Daughter Gives Me a Helping Hand: Chapter 45

Ichinose Honami was a really good person, but she was way too easy to fool.

Fool?

That was a pretty harsh word.

Still, Classmate Shirogane couldn't deny it.

Because he really was fooling Classmate Ichinose.

He had just invited Ichinose to join forces with him against Senior Nagumo and the like, but that was only half of it. The other half was that he wasn't a Student Council vice president right now, so he needed to get his class to Class A first.

In other words.

If Ichinose wanted to form an alliance with him, she'd have to wait until his class had reached Class A once.

Did that mean that, at some crucial moment, Ichinose's class might even need to cooperate and let his class climb up a rank?

So.

It looked like an alliance, but he'd actually secured the help of Ichinose's class for free.

That was why the Narration System said Classmate Ichinose had been fooled by him.

Still, girls' hands really were something else. When he held hers, he could feel the warmth of her skin. And a girl's hand was so soft.

"..." Classmate Shirogane felt a little unsettled.

After all, he'd rarely held a girl's hand before. It was hard to stay calm.

But even though Classmate Shirogane felt shaken inside, his face showed no surprise at all.

He looked composed and calm.

For a moment, Classmate Shirogane thought he might have a talent for acting.

[Once again, Classmate Sakayanagi has lost.] The Narration System suddenly murmured.

"What?"

Classmate Shirogane had already pulled his hand away and was free again, so he took out his notebook.

[Nothing. I didn't say anything.] The Narration System quickly replied.

Meanwhile.

After Shirogane and Ichinose left, the Student Council President didn't turn his attention to the files he hadn't finished processing.

He said to Tachibana Akane,

"Finish processing Ichinose and Shirogane's Student Council membership paperwork today. Bring it to me later."

"Then, President, are you approving Junior Kiriyama's application to join the Student Council?" Tachibana Akane recalled another new member who was joining the Student Council.

That morning, the President had met with Kiriyama, who then submitted an application to join the Student Council.

Kiriyama was the class representative of Second-Year Class B, formerly Second-Year Class A. They had been overtaken by Nagumo and dropped in rank.

"Change Kiriyama's position," Horikita Manabu said. "Nagumo and I have completely different values and views."

"If we don't intervene, then he'll be the only possible choice for the next Student Council President."

"And just as Shirogane discovered, there was something wrong with the results of last month's Special Exam for the second-years."

"I can't say for certain that he cheated, but if Nagumo really is using the Student Council's authority to rule the second-years, I think we need to intervene."

"The school sometimes turns a blind eye to certain things, but if he becomes Student Council President, it's hard to imagine what the students here will have to face in the future."

Horikita Manabu spoke.

A Student Council appointment document lay on his desk.

It appointed Kiriyama Ikuto of Second-Year Class B to the position of Student Council Vice President.

But a red X had been marked across the document just seconds earlier.

"Eh? So you're planning to give up on Junior Kiriyama?" Tachibana Akane saw that the appointment document for Junior Kiriyama had been voided.

Tachibana Akane was Horikita Manabu's secretary and classmate. She had assisted him ever since their first year, so after Horikita Manabu became Student Council President, he brought her onto the council.

He valued her ability to assist him.

And because they were a well-coordinated team—a president and secretary who were also classmates—Tachibana Akane knew quite a lot.

For example.

Horikita Manabu had already realized that his principles were different from Nagumo's. Horikita Manabu upheld the school's longstanding ideals and supported competition between classes, whereas Nagumo was entirely different. He wanted to give individual students more opportunities, so if he took office, he would grant individual students more authority. He might even relax the rules around things like fighting and violence.

As for students with poor abilities, he supported expelling them.

The Student Council President had the authority to expel students, though only one.

He also had the authority to interfere with Special Exams.

He couldn't learn the exam questions in advance, but he could see the results before anyone else. He could also influence the rewards and penalties applied to class evaluation points after each exam.

Under those circumstances, a Student Council President who insisted on expelling students who failed or heavily penalizing classes that fell behind would be allowed to do so.

So if Nagumo took office, it would be a disaster for students who weren't strong enough.

There would be a large number of expulsions.

Horikita Manabu was already a third-year student. He couldn't stay at the school after this year, so he had to make sure he left things in order.

His original plan was to give Nagumo the position of vice president and let him use that opportunity to abuse his power. Then he would give Kiriyama, the class representative of the former Second-Year Class A, the same authority.

So Horikita Manabu had originally intended to groom Kiriyama to oppose Nagumo.

Kiriyama was an excellent candidate to develop. He had originally been in Second-Year Class A, but Nagumo had overtaken him, so Kiriyama could be expected to oppose Nagumo on his own once he had the authority.

But now, Horikita Manabu had crossed out that plan.

He'd originally planned to support Kiriyama against Nagumo, but now Horikita Manabu had changed his mind.

"Give Kiriyama the position of secretary first," Horikita Manabu said. "If he can use that position to stand up to Nagumo and overcome the disadvantage of having three classes against his one, then we can consider making him vice president."

Besides.

There was something else Horikita Manabu hadn't said aloud.

Compared to Kiriyama, Shirogane had his own advantages. Shirogane Miyuki was a junior, and he had probably known for a long time that Horikita Manabu and Horikita Suzune were siblings.

If Shirogane wanted to challenge him, he would need a convincing bargaining chip.

Horikita Manabu had said he was surprised Shirogane had brought up reporting Nagumo for cheating.

Because Shirogane could also have used the fact that he was Suzune's older brother as leverage.

A younger sister in Class D, and an older brother in Class A who was also Student Council President.

That could have become a weapon to use against him.

Although the third-year Class A that Horikita Manabu was in was in a stable position, he hadn't graduated yet, so nothing was certain.

That meant Horikita Manabu had a weakness, too.

So.

Shirogane hadn't brought it up, which had raised Horikita Manabu's opinion of him.

And if he chose Kiriyama, Kiriyama had a reason to oppose Nagumo. If he chose Shirogane Miyuki, Shirogane was clever and already knew he needed to oppose Nagumo. He had even reported Nagumo himself. The moment that news got out, Shirogane would be directly at odds with Nagumo.

So Junior Shirogane had already chosen a side of his own accord.

That put him in the same position as Kiriyama.

So now Horikita Manabu had another candidate in front of him who could keep Nagumo in check.

Choosing Kiriyama as vice president would indeed be a stopgap measure, but Kiriyama belonged to a defeated class and was being squeezed from both sides. In principle, he shouldn't have been able to join the Student Council.

Compared to him, there was less need to rush into choosing Kiriyama as vice president.

Meanwhile.

Classmate Katsuragi and Yahiko had left the Student Council and walked over to the athletic field.

There was a large electronic bulletin board by the field, and several students were gathered around it, apparently checking the posted information.

Classmate Katsuragi had originally been taking Classmate Totsuka with him to leave, but after walking a couple of steps, he turned back.

They had noticed three familiar faces looking at the bulletin board. One was the petite and adorable Sakayanagi Arisu, holding a cane. Classmate Kamuro, a tall girl with long purple hair, stood beside her like a bodyguard.

The other was a tall, blond boy dressed like he was on his way to a club activity.

That boy was the class representative of Second-Year Class A, Miyabi Nagumo.

This senior had once come to their Class A and asked whether Classmate Kamuro was an accomplice whom Shirogane-kun had reported.

Senior Nagumo seemed to be talking to Classmate Kamuro.

Classmate Kamuro kept a stern face. She answered his questions, but since they'd been classmates for a month, Classmate Katsuragi could tell she was quite unhappy with Nagumo.

They were classmates, and although they represented different factions, Classmate Katsuragi couldn't just stand by and watch.

But Classmate Kamuro's... no, Classmate Kamuro's leader, Classmate Sakayanagi, was focused entirely on the bulletin board.

Was she reading the information posted there?

There was certainly something worth paying attention to.

The school had announced the rewards and penalties.

The rewards.

Shirogane Miyuki, formerly of First-Year Class C and now in Class B, had reported that a Shopping District employee had broken the rules. After investigating, the school confirmed that the employee had indeed violated them.

The school had specially rewarded Shirogane Miyuki with 30,000 Private Points and an anonymous Point Card.

Shirogane's class had also received a bonus of 50 class evaluation points.

Everyone already knew about that. Classmate Katsuragi also understood why Ryuen's class had managed to close the gap: Shirogane's class had received 50 points outright.

But what caught their attention was the list of punishments.

It wasn't just students who had been punished. Teachers had been punished, too.

As for the teachers.

Former First-Year Class B: Hoshinomiya Chie, deduction of 100,000 Private Points.

Former First-Year Class C: Kazuma Sakagami, deduction of 500,000 Private Points.

First-Year Class D: Chabashira Sae, deduction of 1,500,000 Private Points, plus three months' salary for May, June, and July.

"..."

That was a little strange.

All three of them were first-year homeroom teachers.

So.

What had the homeroom teachers of those three classes done?

Why had they all had Private Points deducted? And the penalty for Class D was the most outrageous by far.

If the teachers had broken the rules, could they suspect that the Class D teacher had given her students information last month, since her class had been penalized the most?

But.

First-Year Class D had zero class evaluation points.

That result was hard to wrap one's head around.

Kazuma Sakagami, the homeroom teacher of former First-Year Class C, had lost 500,000 Private Points. That didn't seem like very much, so he probably hadn't committed many violations.

But Hoshinomiya-sensei, the homeroom teacher of Ichinose's class, had also broken the rules.

Looking at it this way, the Class A homeroom teacher seemed the most reliable.

However.

Looking further down, they could also see information about students who had broken the rules.

One of them was Miyabi Nagumo of Second-Year Class A, who had 300,000 Private Points deducted.