Things Had Come to This

"What's something that always comes up in introductions?" Back in their dorm room, Sawahara asked Ryuen and Kaneda.

"At this school, it'd probably be your class," Kaneda said after a moment's thought. Most activities at the school were organized by class, so students usually mentioned their class when introducing themselves.

"That's completely meaningless," Ryuen immediately shot back. "Even without introductions, you can tell at a glance which class someone's in."

After all, students from the same class would obviously sit together during discussions.

"The important thing is probably names." Ryuen looked at Sawahara. "You figured it out too, you disgusting bastard."

That was what everyone was sure to mention in an introduction. But because it was so commonplace, it was easy to overlook.

"Why is your way of addressing me getting worse? But yeah, the key to solving this exam should be in the names."

Sawahara was speechless at Ryuen's increasingly nasty insults, but he agreed that names were the key to the exam.

Seeing the puzzled look on Kaneda's face, Sawahara began to explain.

"This exam tests our ability to think, not our ability to work as a team. In other words, we can figure out the problem, solve it, and get the final answer—the identities of the VIPs—by thinking individually." Sawahara had realized this as soon as he heard that the exam tested their thinking skills.

"The VIPs were chosen by the school, and there's no way the selection was completely random. After all, even the members of each group were chosen with some consideration.

"If we can figure out the pattern, we can work out the entire list of VIPs and win this exam outright."

"So the group discussions are just the school trying to mislead us?" Kaneda immediately believed Sawahara's analysis. Sawahara had been right in the past exams, so he was bound to be right this time, too. If Ryuen had said it, Kaneda would've been suspicious, no matter how reasonable it sounded.

"No. Using group discussions to identify the VIPs is the right approach. But this exam is also testing our way of thinking and our perspective. Even if it's the right method, checking all twelve groups one by one would take far too much time and effort." Sawahara shook his head. The school wasn't trying to mislead the students; their approach and perspective were also part of the test.

"We should still take the group discussions seriously, though. At least until we find the pattern." Even so, he doubted the class would get much out of those discussions.

"Got it." Kaneda nodded.

After sending the class a message telling them to meet at 7:50 in the second-floor lounge, Sawahara went to bed.

The first day of the exam. 7:50 a.m.

The Class C students arrived at the lounge Sawahara had designated. No one was late, though quite a few were yawning and looked exhausted.

"What happened to your face, Ishizaki?" Sawahara asked, eyeing the faint redness on Ishizaki's cheek. He could tell at a glance that it was an unnatural flush from being slapped.

Ishizaki glanced at Yamada beside him, pulled a face, then hissed through his teeth. "Nothing. I fell when I got up this morning."

You couldn't get up this morning, so Yamada slapped you awake. Sawahara thought it, but didn't say it out loud.

"You all did well yesterday." Sawahara was pleased with how readily the class had followed instructions. Their ability might not have been much to speak of, but at least they had the right attitude.

"You should all know that the school will send us the VIP information in ten minutes.

"Everyone, hand over your phones. I'll check them one by one and delete the message."

Sawahara had come up with a way to handle the group discussions. If the VIPs didn't know they were VIPs themselves, then the other classes wouldn't have anything to go on, even if they tried to guess.

But when the class heard him, they exchanged uneasy looks. Then one of the girls spoke up.

"Is that really okay?" The girl who spoke was Nishino, a member of the school's athletic clubs. She was bolder than most students.

"There's a lot of private stuff on our phones."

That was true. Phones played so many roles in people's daily lives that they held a lot of private information, such as daring selfies, chat histories from girls' group chats, browser history, and so on.

Sawahara understood their concerns. "I know what you're worried about. I won't look through your phones. I'll only check the message the school sent about this exam. You'll line up one at a time, and you can watch as I check each phone.

"Ryuen and I will handle the boys' phones, while Shiina and Ibuki will handle the girls'."

At that, Nishino nodded and didn't say anything more. As long as her privacy wouldn't be exposed, she had no objections.

When Sawahara saw that some of the class still seemed reluctant, he offered one last explanation.

"During the group discussions, anything we do could reveal who the VIPs in our class are. But if we don't know from the start, the other classes won't be able to spot any tells."

"But isn't that prohibited?" One of the students remembered the rules the teacher had explained earlier.

"The school only forbids copying, forwarding, or altering messages from the school. Deleting a message isn't prohibited." Sawahara answered all of the class's questions.

At last, everyone understood what was going on. Then Sawahara felt a vibration in his pocket.

Looks like the school's sent the information.

"All right, everyone, line up."

"What a shame. Not one of us was chosen as a VIP." After checking and deleting the information from everyone's phones, Sawahara sent the class back and kept only Ryuen, Kaneda, Shiina, and Ibuki behind.

"Hmph. What a pain, being in the same group as you." Ryuen didn't seem to care that he hadn't been chosen as a VIP; he just couldn't resist needling Sawahara.

"Here are the VIPs and group lists for the Sheep, Snake, and Dog groups. Can you see any patterns?" Sawahara ignored Ryuen. He had copied down the lists for the groups containing the three VIPs from his class, circled the VIPs' names, and handed the lists to the others.

"Hold on a second." Ryuen cut Shiina off just as she was about to speak. "Look at the time. Even an emperor shouldn't make his soldiers fight on an empty stomach."

"..." It was true. After gathering all the VIP information, it was already nearly nine.

At this point, they might as well eat first.