Before the Exam

What is the only lesson humanity has ever learned from history? The answer is that they have learned nothing at all.

"Don't you find this boring? This is already the thirty-sixth round." Sawahara looked at the person across from him, whose face was covered in paper strips.

"Hmph, I'll definitely win this round." Ryuen's mouth curled into a sinister grin, though it looked particularly ridiculous since his face was obscured by the paper strips.

"Sometimes I really admire your confidence, Ryuen." Sawahara sighed; losing thirty-six rounds in a row and still believing he could win was exactly the same as during that duel at the start of the school year.

"Stop with the useless chatter." Ryuen shook his head, the paper strips rustling with the movement. "Hurry up and reveal your cards."

"I fold." Sawahara laid his cards face down, conceded the round, and immediately turned to leave, not giving Ryuen a chance to speak.

"Heh, I'm the one who had the last laugh after all." Ryuen tore the paper strips off his face, smiled confidently, and flipped over Sawahara's hand. But the moment he looked at them, the smile on his face vanished.

Among those four cards, there were two Aces of Hearts.

"This guy cheated!"

Casually tossing the remaining half-deck of cards he had hidden on his person into a trash can, Sawahara walked out onto the deck.

In the past, he had seen a gambler who had his hand chopped off for cheating. At the time, he had asked that gambler why he would cheat when he knew he would get his hand cut off if caught.

The answer the other party gave was:

"It's only cheating if you get caught; if you don't get caught, it's not cheating. He wasn't having his hand cut off because he cheated, but because he was caught."

"Sorry, Ryuen-kun. Even though we agreed not to cheat, as that person said, if you aren't caught, it doesn't count as cheating."

After apologizing to Ryuen in his heart, Sawahara leaned against the ship's railing to admire the beautiful scenery on the sea.

The time had reached sunset. The sun was slowly sinking into the sea, and the afterglow of the setting sun illuminated the churning surface of the water, dyeing it a layer of orange-yellow.

The sea and the sky met, a single expanse of color.

His original impression of those words was a blue like the sky, but now he realized that perhaps this fire-like orange was their true essence.

Click—

A shutter sound rang out. Sawahara followed the noise and saw a girl with pink hair holding a camera, recording the beautiful scenery on the sea.

The girl didn't look particularly pretty, and her thick-rimmed glasses made her look a bit dowdy, but her figure was quite good; she was well-endowed in all the right places.

Perhaps noticing Sawahara's gaze, the girl turned her head and locked eyes with him, then immediately stepped back, causing the camera to slip from her hands.

"..." Do I look like some kind of terrifying beast? Sawahara touched his cheek, feeling puzzled. He took two steps forward, intending to ask if she could send him a copy of the photo.

Then... she just ran away, leaving the camera behind.

Picking up the camera she had dropped, Sawahara returned to his room after finishing his dinner.

"Ryuen, does my face look scary?"

"No, it just makes people feel disgusted," Ryuen commented 'objectively.'

The two days of rest ended quickly, and Sawahara called all the students in his class together.

"Big Brother Sawahara, did you call us all here for something?" Ishizaki scratched his head and voiced the confusion shared by most of the class.

"I called you here because..." Sawahara was just about to speak when he heard the familiar voice of Mashima-sensei coming over the loudspeaker.

At the same time, the mobile phones of everyone in the class began to emit various ringtones.

"This is a notice for all students. The school has just sent an email to all students containing contact information. Please check your phones individually and follow the instructions. Additionally, if you have not received an email, please submit a request to a nearby faculty member. The content of the email is very important, so please ensure you do not miss it. I repeat..."

The voice echoed from the broadcast.

"Ah, it looks like it's starting." Sawahara took out his phone and scrolled through the message. "This is the reason I called you here. The second special exam is about to take place on this ship."

The school is actually using this method to convey information for this exam, so then...

"Eh, something like this again?"

"No way, again?"

"This school is so troublesome."

The students in the class couldn't help but complain to each other; it sounded as if their previous exam had been very grueling.

Tap—tap—tap—

He tapped his fingers on the table a few times, and the chaotic noise in the class vanished.

"To prevent everyone from not having a good time over these two days, I didn't reveal the news about the second exam to you earlier," Sawahara said calmly. "But now that we've had our two days of fun, we must face the exam seriously."

He first had everyone in the class look at the information sent by the school; this was the most direct clue regarding the exam, so it had to be utilized fully.

'The special exam is about to begin. Students, please gather in your designated rooms at the designated times. Those who are more than ten minutes late will be penalized. Please gather at Room 203 on the second floor before 8:40 PM tonight. The required time is twenty minutes. Please use the restroom and set your mobile phones to vibrate mode or power them off before arriving at the gathering point.'

This was the message Sawahara had received, and the same went for Ryuen, Suzuki Eishun, and Oda Takumi.

Everyone else's messages were similar, though the times differed.

"The earliest group is at 5:30 PM?" Sawahara organized the information he had gathered so far.

There were twelve groups in total, with three to four people in each group. Why was it necessary to divide them into groups for the explanation? Does that mean the information available to each group might be different? Since it is an exam, there must be questions and answers. The clue 'grouping' provided in the prompt might hide some deeper meaning.

It seems further information will be explained when we gather later, though this method of explanation is far too inefficient. Perhaps this is also part of the exam content, so I will treat it as a minor clue for now. Which parts of the next explanation will be the key clues? If I were in the first group, I would have more room to maneuver, but unfortunately...

"From now on, everyone must bring paper and a pen when going to gather. If you obtain the following information, you must record it on paper or in your minds:

1. Information or items that cannot be taken out of the room.

2. Information related to grouping.

3. Things the teachers repeatedly remind you of or set aside time for you to observe or memorize on your own.

4. Things that are not permitted to be recorded."

"Understood."

Thus, Class C prepared themselves to face the special exam.