"Looks like you all understand. Then we should get down to business."
What Chabashira had to tell them wasn't limited to personal points. The poster roll in her hands was the real matter of importance.
She took out a thick sheet of white paper, unfolded it, and pinned it to the blackboard with magnets.
It clearly listed the names of Classes A through D, with a number beside each one.
Class A: 940 points.
Class B: 650 points.
Class C: 490 points.
Class D: 0 points.
"This is the gap between your class and the others. These numbers represent your Class Points. Your Class Points are converted proportionally into Personal Points and credited to your student IDs."
Seeing it laid out like this made it easy to understand. Apparently, one Class Point translated into 100 Personal Points.
But even Shinjo looked surprised. He'd expected the gap between his class and Class A might be huge, but losing only 60 points in a month seemed like far too much.
And judging by the points of all four classes, the gap between A, B, C, and D was enormous.
"Let me make one thing clear: the school's evaluations are absolutely fair and impartial. As for why the difference is so large, you'll have to ask yourselves."
"So... can you understand now why you were assigned to Class D?"
?????
Chabashira's question had clearly touched on a blind spot in the students' knowledge.
Horikita Suzune, in particular, reacted with unusual sensitivity. She hadn't thought there was any difference between the classes, but now she seemed to realize that wasn't the case at all.
"What? Wasn't it because the classes were assigned randomly?"
"Now that it's come to this, I'll tell you. This school assigns students to classes entirely according to their level of excellence. The best students go in Class A, and the most useless are assigned to Class D. Simply put, you're the school's worst defective products."
"Class Points don't just determine your monthly Personal Points. They directly reflect your class ranking. In other words, if you had 500 points right now, you'd be Class C."
There was a certain logic to grouping excellent products or fresh fruit together, and rotten fruit with useless things.
After all, bad things could spoil the good ones.
At that, Sae Chabashira unfolded another sheet of white paper. It showed the results of yesterday's pop quiz.
She really was diligent. She'd graded all the papers in just one day...
"These are the results of yesterday's quiz. Seeing what a bunch of 'talented' students you are makes me so happy. Hey, what on earth did you learn in middle school?"
Ignoring the few students who'd scored near the top, most had gotten around 60 points. Shinjo was among them.
Looking farther down, Sudo had an unbelievable 14 points, and Ike had 24, but the class average was 64.
"Do you see? If this had been a formal exam, seven of you would already be getting expelled, right at the start of the school year!"
At some schools, scoring less than half the average resulted in repeating the year. But Advanced Nurturing Middle School was different. It cultivated only the elite and didn't take in trash.
"Expelled?!"
"What? Didn't I tell you? At this school, if you score less than half the average on a midterm or final exam, you fail. And any student who fails has to be expelled!"
"Whaaaaaat?!"
The classroom was immediately filled with protests.
Yesterday, they'd been saying, "I'll pay for everyone's shopping today," but now it had become, "I'll be one of the students getting expelled today."
It was something anyone would struggle to accept.
"Sae, stop joking around! Tell me, tell me you're just trying to scare us!"
Ike even wondered if he was still asleep. He pinched his face hard, but the sharp pain told him he wasn't dreaming.
"Ha. I told you there were a lot of ugly people in this class~"
At a time like this, Koenji stepped forward and began taking shots at the entire class.
That drew the furious indignation of the students who'd failed:
"Koenji, what the hell are you saying?! You must be in the group that failed too, right?!"
"Ha, BOY, you'd better take a good look."
Ike searched from the bottom of the list upward, but he couldn't find Koenji's name anywhere. He only spotted him near the top of the rankings, with an impressive score of 90.
Sae Chabashira took a moment to catch her breath, drank some water from her thermos, and cleared her throat.
"One last thing. Of course, I doubt you would ever have figured it out on your own. You've all heard about this school's extremely high university acceptance and employment rates, haven't you?"
Naturally. Most of the students who'd come here had been drawn by those two things.
"The school certainly has that kind of influence, but it can't just let low-level students like you go and cause trouble for those universities and companies. Do you understand what I mean?"
"You mean... if we want that kind of opportunity, we have to make it to Class C or higher, right?"
Chabashira shook her head.
"No. If you want your wishes to come true, there's no way except to graduate from Class A. This school won't write a letter of recommendation or provide any kind of guarantee for students outside Class A."
That was the bombshell that hit the Class D students hardest.
The bright future they'd dreamed of had turned to ashes in the space of a single class.
"H-How can that be?! I've never heard anything about this! Not once!"
A thin boy with glasses stood up. Unlike the others, he was a genuine top student. Not only had he taken the top spot, but he could also apply what the teacher said in class to other problems. He was a clever one.
Before Sae Chabashira could reply, Koenji's mocking voice rang out.
"How pathetic."
"Koenji! Aren't you the least bit unhappy about being assigned to Class D?!"
"Ha ha ha ha! It's simply that the school couldn't measure my potential. I respect and acknowledge myself more than anyone else. Whatever the school thinks of me means nothing to me."
"Besides, I've never expected the school to solve any of my problems or make my wishes come true. I'll inherit the Koenji Conglomerate someday, so whether I'm in Class A or Class D doesn't matter to me."
It was hard to say what someone like Koenji was doing at this school. The quality of the education he'd received growing up was no worse than what Advanced Nurturing Middle School offered, and yet he'd still chosen to come here.
Before you continue