Before the quiz officially began, Sakagami announced something else.
"Before the quiz, the opponents for each class in this exam have already been decided. Our class nominated Class 1-C. Since that nomination didn't overlap with any other class, it was approved." As Sakagami announced the news, he looked at Sawahara. Sawahara's purpose had become clear to him during the draw. He hadn't expected him to avoid Class A's nomination this way.
"According to the draw, Class D will be the class setting questions for us."
Although fighting Class C would be difficult, having Class D to make up the points would let them at least finish with a draw.
This outcome was entirely within Sawahara's expectations.
After the quiz ended, Ryuen and the others approached Sawahara again.
"Nominating Class C? That's not what we agreed on before," Ryuen asked bluntly. Their original plan had been to nominate Class D.
"This was to avoid Class A's nomination," Sawahara explained. "Class C chose to nominate Class A."
Shiina thought it over and quickly worked out how the pieces fit together.
"Class A nominated Class B, Class B nominated Class C, and Class C nominated Class A... The nominations between those three classes could leave Class D without an opponent. To prevent that, the draw's outcome had to be that Class D's nomination succeeded. In other words, Class D had to nominate Class B.
"So the final nominations for the four classes could only be: Class A attacks Class D, Class B attacks Class C, Class C attacks Class A, and Class D attacks Class B."
They claimed to be waiting on the draw, but there had never really been any room for chance.
"I see," Ryuen said, understanding the situation after hearing Shiina's explanation. "And here you were saying we'd lose