End-of-Month Assessment

A month of time quickly neared its end. Early this morning, Sae Chabashira walked onto the podium carrying a stack of test papers.

The students in the class continued to go their own way, showing no regard for their teacher, which only made her anger boil over.

Every batch is like this... useless trash that can't be molded.

However, she was clearly cursing too early. This batch of Class D was, in fact, even more "trashy" and even more "impossible to mold" than she had imagined.

Ike even whistled at her, his tone full of flippancy:

"Yo, little Sae-chan, looking at your expression, is it that time of the month?"

The classroom fell into a deathly silence. No one expected this guy to be bold enough to harass their homeroom teacher.

Clearly, Sae Chabashira herself hadn't expected it either.

But years of self-restraint allowed her to keep her expression unchanged. She thought about how, in a few days, this group of idiots would realize exactly what kind of hell they were in, and would show expressions of regret and complaint.

And when that time came, she wouldn't need to endure it anymore; instead, she could openly mock them.

"This period is a pop quiz. Keep your mouths shut. Any form of cheating during the exam is strictly prohibited. Once discovered, the school will impose severe disciplinary action!"

"Wait, teacher! You didn't say anything about a quiz beforehand."

Sae Chabashira snorted in annoyance:

"What? Did you never have exams when you were in school before? Or have you forgotten the fact that you are students since coming here?!"

"Ah, this..."

Hirata wanted to say something else, but he understood that he didn't really have a leg to stand on, so he could only sit down obediently and wait for the exam. Besides, his usual grades were quite good.

Katsuya Shinjo looked at the test paper in his hand and fell into a brainstorm. He was debating what score would be appropriate for this test.

The difficulty of the questions wasn't high. If he wanted to, he could score at least 90 points or so, but doing that wouldn't be very cost-effective.

After all, a high score meant raising the class average, which would be equivalent to dragging those students who were bad at studying along with him.

Although it sounded awkward, in Katsuya's view, since someone in the class had to be dragged along by others, why couldn't he be the one being dragged?

Getting a relatively low score that still couldn't be picked apart meant that if there were any competitions or the like, no one would set their sights on him.

Therefore, it was decided: for this test, he would aim for around 60 points.

He began answering the questions with fluid ease. Once the score on the paper was about right, he tossed his pen aside, rested his chin on his hand, and quietly waited to hand it in.

This action naturally caught the attention of Sae Chabashira. She had naturally been observing the students during class, and among them, people like Hirata, Horikita, Kushida, Katsuya, and a student named Yukimura were performing quite well.

At least from their eyes, one could tell they were actually listening.

Although she had used special means to check all the students' grades and backgrounds previously, Katsuya's test scores had been mediocre. But now, it was clear he was intentionally not answering, rather than being unable to.

[Could it be that he discovered something... No, if that were really the case, handing in a blank paper would be the safest course of action for this exam. Then why would he do this?]

Katsuya Shinjo naturally noticed the person on the podium observing him, but he didn't overthink it; after all, his actions were indeed a bit strange right now.

Horikita Suzune, sitting to the side, glanced at him with disdain. To think she had previously assumed Katsuya was an expert who didn't show his true colors. In the end... was she overthinking it?

This guy was just an idiot with low academic ability who had chosen to slack off!

For the subsequent subjects, Katsuya's approach was exactly the same as the first. Once the score on the paper was enough for a 60 or slightly above, he stopped writing.

Even if one wants to pretend to be an ordinary person, one has to make it look convincing!

So, he put a bit more effort into English, intentionally controlling the score to around 75, while suppressing Sociology to around 50.

'Even if the King of Heaven himself came down, he couldn't say there's anything wrong with me!'

As the bell rang, the final subject of the exam was declared over.

When Sae Chabashira was collecting the papers, she "accidentally" dropped something on his desk, then walked away as if nothing had happened.

[See you on the roof.]

To be honest, Katsuya Shinjo really wanted to ignore the invitation, because he had a premonition that this probably wasn't a good thing.

But the other party was his homeroom teacher, and they would see each other every day; he could dodge the first day, but he couldn't dodge the fifteenth.

Therefore, he intentionally dragged his feet for a while, and only after the students in the class had mostly left did he put on his backpack and go to the roof alone.

Sae Chabashira was still wearing her black-stockinged OL professional attire, with a thin lady's cigarette dangling from her mouth. Seeming to sense someone had arrived, she slowly exhaled a smoke ring:

"Tell me, why did you throw the test today?"

"I thought the teachers at this school didn't care about students' attitudes toward learning at all."

Katsuya Shinjo didn't answer the question directly, instead being sarcastic about the teaching environment here.

"I am the one asking you a question now."

"I don't know, couldn't think of it, didn't know how to write it, didn't know what to write. Are you satisfied if I say that?"

Sae Chabashira sneered upon hearing this, clearly not very satisfied, but helpless. However, one thing was certain: the student in front of her definitely knew something.

And precisely because of this, Katsuya Shinjo, the student she had always ignored, was truly being taken seriously by her.

"Lying isn't a very good habit. Wishing for students to achieve good grades is something every teacher wants."

"Oh? Is that so? Then I truly apologize, Teacher Chabashira. While lying isn't a good habit, I don't think saying one thing while hiding another is a good habit either."

Sae Chabashira's eyes flashed with a sharp glint for an instant, but she still replied calmly, "I don't understand what you're talking about."

Playing dumb... even though you're a teacher, I'm a professional when it comes to this.

"Ah, could it be that you didn't give Horikita and the others special tutoring? Then it must be that the gap in our natural talent is just too large, which is why they seem to have done quite well on the test. I'm truly sorry for misunderstanding you, Teacher."

The two of them stared each other down for three minutes, until Sae Chabashira finally admitted defeat, sighed, and said:

"Fine, I give up. Tell me, what exactly have you discovered?"

"Discovered? Oh? Could it be that you really did give someone special tutoring? If that's the case, it would be a bit of a violation of professional ethics, wouldn't it~"