The Reason for the Loss

At 11:00 PM on the night the exam concluded, the school sent the results to every student via email.

Rat Group—All members answered correctly after the exam, Result 1.

Ox Group—All members answered correctly after the exam, Result 1.

Tiger Group—All members answered correctly after the exam, Result 1.

Rabbit Group—Traitor answered correctly, Result 3.

Dragon Group—Traitor answered correctly, Result 3.

Snake Group—Traitor answered incorrectly, Result 4.

Horse Group—Traitor answered correctly, Result 3.

Sheep Group—Traitor answered incorrectly, Result 4.

Monkey Group—Traitor answered correctly, Result 3.

Rooster Group—All members answered correctly after the exam, Result 1.

Dog Group—Traitor answered incorrectly, Result 4.

Boar Group—All members answered correctly after the exam, Result 1.

Changes in points:

Class A: No change.

Class B: No change.

Class C: Class Points +250, Private Points +29 million (Sawahara 20 million, other class members 11.5 million).

Class D: Class Points -250, Private Points 9 million (excluding points obtained through contracts).

Sawahara's expenditures: 750,000 for the deal with Koenji, 900,000 to bribe three students from Class D.

Regarding contracts: Class A must pay Sawahara 2.2 million Private Points every month; Class B must pay Sawahara 2 million Private Points every month.

Class A must pay Ryuen 50,000 Private Points every month.

"You really raked it in this summer, didn't you?" Ryuen tallied the gains and losses of each class. Even though he had been prepared, he was still struck with awe after roughly calculating the points in Sawahara's possession.

The ticket to Class A, which the teachers had described as unreachable, was already in his hands—and he would receive another one every five months.

"You didn't do too badly yourself, getting 50,000 points a month," Sawahara replied upon hearing the envy in Ryuen's voice.

"..." A steady income of 50,000 points a month might be something to envy if someone else said it, but coming from Sawahara, it carried a different meaning.

Ryuen felt that there would never be a moment where Sawahara was more detestable than he was right now. Looking at the contract he had signed, Ryuen wished he hadn't left it behind. This was the first time he had ever felt annoyed about making money.

"Get down here, you." Ryuen pulled the rug out from under Sawahara, punching the floating platform Sawahara was sitting on and sending him into the water.

"Cough, cough, cough." Caught off guard, Sawahara swallowed a mouthful of pool water and broke into a fit of coughing.

"What are you doing, Ryuen?"

"Hmph." Ryuen just snorted and walked away from the pool. If he stayed any longer, this bastard would definitely find a way to pull a fast one on him, too.

After the exam ended tonight, the students of Class C held a party at the ship's pool to celebrate their latest victory.

While some were celebrating, others were reflecting on their defeat.

Class A

"Another failure, Katsuragi." Nomoto, a member of the Katsuragi Faction whom Sawahara had seen before, looked at Katsuragi with a complex expression.

While it appeared that Class A's points hadn't changed, they had lost a massive amount of Private Points, and the gap between them and the former Class C had narrowed to less than 100 points.

"..." Katsuragi was speechless. If the Uninhabited Island Exam loss could be blamed on the Sakayanagi Faction's schemes, what about this time? Sawahara had already confirmed that no one from the Sakayanagi Faction had betrayed the class, yet they had still lost.

"The facts prove that this is all you're capable of, Katsuragi." Hashimoto offered some timely 'comfort.' "After all, someone like Sawahara from Class C is completely beyond the reach of a mortal like you, isn't he?"

"What kind of nonsense are you spouting!" Totsuka exploded upon hearing Hashimoto's words. "Even if Sakayanagi were here, could she have won?"

"Who knows? At least the Princess hasn't lost yet, has she?" Hashimoto didn't care about Totsuka's anger. In the end, he was just a dog relying on his master's authority. Now that the master had fallen, what did it matter if the dog barked a few more times? It was just waiting to be turned into dog meat hotpot.

Looking at the undisguised disappointment in the eyes of the students who had originally belonged to his faction, Katsuragi felt a sense of powerlessness. Yes, he was simply no match for them.

The members of the Katsuragi Faction and the neutral students silently walked over to stand behind Hashimoto.

"You guys..." Totsuka's eyes were filled with anger and shock as he watched this. "Have you forgotten what they did during the Uninhabited Island Exam!?"

"Yeah, that's right. That princess is selfish and reckless, and she doesn't even care about the class's interests." Nomoto looked at Totsuka and Katsuragi with some irritation. "But... at least she might lead us to victory, right?"

That was the reason. Between an incompetent leader and a capable leader with character flaws, which side should one choose?

For the students of Class A, who prided themselves on being elites, the answer was already clear.

"You!"

"Stop, Yahiko." Totsuka wanted to continue, but Katsuragi stopped him. "It's already over."

The era of division in Class A had come to an end, bought at the price of two crushing defeats...

As he left, Katsuragi asked himself a question: Where exactly did I lose? Was I just one step too slow, or was it something else?

Class B

"I'm sorry, I let the class fall into a passive position."

After the exam ended, the students of Class B gathered together, and Himeno Yuki apologized to her classmates; she was the VIP of Group Monkey.

After the exam concluded, they had already learned that Koenji had indeed guessed her identity as the VIP.

Originally, if Koenji had guessed incorrectly, Class B could have gained 100 Class Points and become the victors second only to Class C, but unfortunately...

"It's fine, didn't our class avoid having points deducted as well?"

"That's right, you can only say that weirdo got lucky; it's not your fault."

Just like last time, the students in the class stepped forward to comfort her.

Kanzaki watched this scene in silence. This shouldn't be right, should it? They had indeed lost, hadn't they? They had paid a massive amount of Private Points to protect their Class Points, which meant they had already lost.

Why could they be so indifferent about it?

Even after failing, they weren't discouraged, and everyone remained united... but is this really enough? Does a Class B that continues like this really have a future?

What exactly should I be doing?

On the teachers' side, someone was also incredibly heartbroken.

"Waaah, Chabashira Sae, I'm so sad. Our class is going to become Class C when the next semester starts." Hoshinomiya leaned on Chabashira Sae's shoulder, sobbing.

"I'm definitely going to drink until I pass out tonight."

"Don't call me that."

"Even if this hadn't happened, you'd still get dead drunk anyway. Can't you at least set a proper example for the students?" Mashima sat nearby, sighing helplessly as he watched Hoshinomiya's lack of decorum.

"Wuu, it's fine, it's fine. Honami and the others won't mind," Hoshinomiya said, waving her hand.

"Isn't that the bigger problem?" Mashima felt an even greater headache. The students were already used to their teacher being dead drunk all day; was it really appropriate to be a teacher like this?

"Geez, I'm already this sad and you're still lecturing me. No wonder people think you're cold," Hoshinomiya pouted in dissatisfaction.

"Better than someone who keeps changing their clothes," Mashima said, knowing his reputation among others but not caring in the slightest.

"You've changed boyfriends again." It was meant to be a question, yet it was stated in a declarative tone; he had long since grown accustomed to Hoshinomiya's chaotic private life.

"Well, I've already gotten bored of him," Hoshinomiya said, turning to Chabashira again. "Chabashira Sae, come drink with me."

Chabashira, who would usually push her away impatiently, remained silent for a moment before responding, "Fine."

Even though she had done so much, even resorting to threatening students... everything had still returned to the starting point.

Reality is truly cruel.

Class D

As the biggest losers of this exam, most of the students in Class D were full of smiles at this moment.

About half of them had received hundreds of thousands of points, and for those who had barely seen any points since the end of April, this made them ecstatic.

Those who hadn't received points wore expressions of envy and then consulted their friends to see if they could borrow some.

After the new semester started, they would finally no longer have to live a miserable life eating grass.

However, it wasn't as if no one was dissatisfied with this scene.

"What exactly are you all happy about?" The person who spoke was Yukimura, one of the rare top students in Class D. "Our class's points have been completely wiped out, and the gap between us and the other classes has widened even further. Why are you still able to laugh?"

"What's your problem? Are you jealous because you didn't get any points? He was a member of Group Rabbit, right? And he doesn't even have any friends." Ike looked smug; because his group had achieved Result 1, he now had 500,000 points in his hands.

"You'll probably have to keep eating grass next month."

"You!" Yukimura's face flushed red with anger.

"Why? Are you going to betray the class?" Horikita looked at the three students who had received 300,000 points from Sawahara.

"Don't put it so harshly, okay? What do you mean by 'betray the class'?" One of the girls looked at Horikita with an annoyed expression. "Why should we be spoken to like that by you?"

"You made our class's points..."

"It doesn't matter if those things get deducted, right? They don't bring any benefits anyway. What's wrong with using them to trade for some points?" The girl said indifferently. "If you want to move up a class, go earn the points yourself. As long as you have 20 million, you can move up, right? Why should we have to eat grass along with you?"

"Exactly. Come to think of it, that Sawahara from Class C seems to already have over 20 million points."

"Really?"

"If you have the ability, why don't you just do the same as them?"

"Exactly."

The few of them didn't intend to lower their voices at all; if anything, they deliberately raised them.

They knew, of course, that their behavior was problematic, so they had to ensure they stood on the moral high ground first.

"..." Horikita didn't know how she had left the noisy scene; she only felt that her mind was a complete mess.

"Horikita, are you alright?" Ayanokoji's voice finally brought her back to her senses. Only then did she realize that the two of them had arrived at a private room where they were alone.

"I don't know what you're planning, but I'm not some fragile girl." Horikita crossed her arms over her chest, wearing an expression that said, If you dare try anything, I'll beat you up.

"..." Ayanokoji fell silent, a rare, subtle change in expression appearing on his face, as if he were troubled. "Isn't this the exam review you mentioned earlier, Horikita?"

"Hmm, ah, it seems like that was indeed the case." Horikita recalled that before the class gathering, she had indeed said something to that effect. Come to think of it, the reason she attended the gathering was because she thought the class was getting together to reflect or something similar; she hadn't expected it to be a celebration.

"Horikita, why do you think our class lost so miserably this time?" Ayanokoji looked at Horikita, wanting to hear her thoughts.

"Because the people in our class never even thought about scoring points." Horikita clenched her fists as she spoke. Thinking back to the performance of those in her class, she couldn't comprehend it.

"..." It's a pity that's not quite right, Horikita. But you have made some progress.

"Horikita, don't you think our class is too disorganized?" Ayanokoji said. "We don't have strong and powerful leaders like Class B or Class C, nor do we have any rules or constraints. Why do you think they wanted points before?"

"It was for... Private Points." Horikita said, lost in thought.

"Exactly. Therefore, when Class C completely removed that incentive, this class had no fighting spirit left to speak of." It was rare for Ayanokoji to say so much.

"In other words, we never had a chance from the very beginning?" Horikita's face was full of frustration. It was like this this time, but what about next time? They would still lose all the same.

"No, actually, we did have a chance, but it's a pity we didn't seize it." Ayanokoji sighed. If they could have obtained the information about the Target that Koenji had guessed, plus the three they already had in the class, it wouldn't have been impossible to deduce all the Targets.

If they had managed to do that before Class C made their move, they would have had a chance to turn the tables.

"In that situation, who could say for sure that Koenji's guess was the correct result?" Horikita shook her head, not agreeing with Ayanokoji's point of view.

This is your limit for now, Horikita. You are indifferent to the people and things around you. Do you really understand what the people in the class are thinking? Do you understand what kind of person Koenji is? Would he really do something 'unrefined' without being sufficiently certain?

However, Ayanokoji didn't say anything more; such things were ultimately for her to figure out on her own.

"Why do you think Class A and Class B lost?" Horikita asked, voicing her own confusion.

"Class A lost to arrogance, and Class B lacked fighting spirit." Sawahara answered this question from Ryuen.

"The arrogance of Class A regarding their status is the root of their failure. You should have noticed, right? Class A is quite ignorant of the situation in Class D." Sawahara sat on a lounge chair, wiping her hair that had been dampened by Ryuen.

"Even on the day the exam instructions were given, Katsuragi and the others were quite indifferent to Class D. Because they were indifferent, they felt they were superior in Class A, looked down on Class D, and even held that view toward our class."

"That assessment isn't wrong; Class D is indeed full of trash." Ryuen didn't think there was anyone impressive in Class D.

"Don't learn the worst habits of Class A, Ryuen." Sawahara sighed. It seemed the people in the class were about to be blinded by victory.

"Not to mention that guy who almost made me suffer last time, Koenji's ability is also quite good."

"However, the biggest problem for Class A was that they didn't collect any intelligence on Class D at all. They didn't realize that Class D actually had no fighting spirit and misjudged the situation. Otherwise, Katsuragi would definitely have bought off the Class D students on the first day of the exam to end his class's participation."

"That defensive style is indeed that guy's signature." Ryuen curled his lip. If it were him, he would definitely have bought the information on the Class D Target to secure the grand prize.

"In this matter, Horikita also helped quite a bit." Sawahara smiled faintly. For her, there was probably nothing more painful than that.

"What!" Horikita looked at Ayanokoji in disbelief, doubting if she had heard correctly.

"Because you, Horikita, were always dealing with the exam seriously, it gave Class A and Class B the illusion that Class D attached great importance to this exam." Ayanokoji explained. This created an information gap between Classes A and B and Class C.

Sawahara realized this information gap and used it to deliver the final, decisive blow.

It was also because of this information gap that Sawahara was not satisfied with just Class Points, but wanted to scheme for even greater benefits.

"There is just one more question: why did he deliberately attack Class D?"

This was Ayanokoji's only lingering doubt regarding this exam.