No Obligation to Inform You

Just like the line Sakayanagi Arisu had said earlier—the very one he was now using as an excuse—answers that came too easily were often the least valuable.

If people began a relationship by "cheating" and seeing through everything, then what followed would likely lose much of the unexpected fun and genuine feeling.

Put simply, the process of solving a problem was an experience in itself, even though most of the time, all he wanted to do was hand in a blank sheet.

(It was like knowing how to solve a problem but wanting to write down only the answer, not the steps. Yet if you knew the answer without knowing how to get there, there was still something about it that felt hard to explain...)

The days slipped by like sand through his fingers, with Lin Mu half absent and Class D half sleepwalking through life.

The cherry blossoms outside the window had long since fallen, replaced by lush green leaves.

In the blink of an eye, May 1 arrived. According to the school's regulations, today was the day individual points would be distributed.

For once, Lin Mu showed up to the Class D classroom on time and took his seat.

A freshly unwrapped grape-flavored lollipop bobbed between his lips. Its sweet-and-sour taste spread across his tongue as he calmly surveyed the classroom.

Compared to the usual commotion, there seemed to be a subtle shift in the atmosphere today, a peculiar mix of anticipation and habitual carelessness.

Most of the students were still chatting or playing on their phones, but it was easy to sense that many of them were also waiting for the vibration alert from their wrist terminals.

They didn't know yet that the expected "ding" wouldn't come today.

Lin Mu leaned back at his leisure, like a spectator who'd bought a VIP seat, and waited for the show to begin.

Classroom teacher Sae Chabashira entered right on time, as usual.

But unlike other days, she didn't start teaching immediately. Instead, she went straight to the whiteboard, picked up a black marker, and began writing with her back to the students.

Her movements were steady, and her expression as indifferent as ever, in stark contrast to the classroom's gradually subsiding chatter.

Only after writing several clear lines on the whiteboard did she put down the marker, turn around, and face the students below, who were still somewhat distracted. Then she slowly began to clap, one beat at a time.

"Clap, clap, clap."

The crisp, monotonous applause sounded especially out of place in the suddenly quiet classroom, even a little grating.

All the Class D students, including those still sneaking looks at their phones, were drawn by this unusual behavior. They all looked up at once, their faces filled with confusion and bewilderment.

Last month, no matter how careless or noisy they were, Chabashira-sensei had practically turned a blind eye. She'd never tried to discipline or reprimand them.

So what was with her today? Had the sun risen in the west?

Or was she about to make an example of someone and crack down on their behavior?

In an instant, the students who'd been zoning out, whispering, or playing on their phones seemed to have been paused.

They quickly stopped what they were doing and looked nervously toward the lectern, wondering what their teacher was up to.

Sae Chabashira's gaze slowly swept over every bewildered face in the classroom.

There was no warmth in her eyes, no disappointment, not even the sternness one might expect. Only a near-numb calm, and beneath it, unmistakable ridicule.

She raised a hand and rapped her knuckles against the whiteboard behind her. The sharp "tap, tap" forced everyone's attention toward the figures that would determine their fate from here on—

First-Year Class Point Ranking

Class A: 940 CP

Class B: 750 CP

Class C: 490 CP

Class D: 0 CP

The cold figures on the whiteboard hit every Class D student like a merciless hammer, leaving them dizzy and breathless.

"Take a look."

Chabashira's voice was flat, but it carried clearly to every corner of the quiet classroom, laced with a bone-chilling mockery.

"Your Class D has proven perfectly well that it belongs at the bottom.

The worst in the entire year... a gathering place for defective products."

The words "defective products" pierced many students' ears like poison-tipped needles.

As soon as she finished speaking, the classroom fell into a long silence, as if even the air had frozen.

The next second, an uproar burst forth like floodwaters breaking through a dam!

"Zero points?! How's that possible?!"

"Our class has zero points? You've got to be kidding!"

"...Then what about our points this month..."

"...I ordered a new game yesterday..."

Shock, disappointment, confusion, disbelief... all kinds of emotions intertwined and churned across the Class D students' faces.

Some turned slightly pale, others widened their eyes as if checking whether they'd read it wrong, and some muttered curses. Most were left sitting there in stunned bewilderment.

The enormous gap between what they'd expected and reality made it impossible for them to accept the truth right away.

Amid the confusion and oppressive atmosphere, a hand rose calmly from the back of the classroom.

It was Linmu Fujimiya.

He still looked as languid and half-asleep as ever. The plastic stick of his grape-flavored lollipop bobbed by his lips as he spoke.

He stood up straight and met Sae Chabashira's cold gaze. His tone was mild, but his question was clear and left no room for evasion:

"Chabashira-sensei," he said. His voice wasn't loud, but it somehow cut through the noise in the classroom.

"I think that, as our classroom teacher, you must have known all along that the school tied individual points to Class Points.

Yet you never explained this to anyone in Class D, and even deliberately let us continue being careless.

In my opinion, that's at least... a dereliction of duty to some extent, isn't it?"

Lin Mu's words were like a block of ice dropped into a pot of boiling oil, instantly triggering an even more violent reaction!

The Class D students, who'd been consumed by shock and disappointment just moments ago, seemed to have suddenly found an outlet for their emotions and someone to blame.

They all turned toward Sae Chabashira at the lectern and began shouting over one another:

"Exactly! Why didn't you tell us sooner, Sensei?!"

"If we'd known about Class Points, we wouldn't have been so careless!"

"This is the teacher's responsibility! You deliberately kept us in the dark!"

"Yeah! This is so unfair!"

Faced with the sudden wave of accusations and questions from the students, Sae Chabashira's expression didn't change in the slightest. She didn't even move an eyebrow.

She simply raised her hand again and made a firm downward gesture. Her cold gaze swept across the room, and the noise quieted almost despite itself.

"I am under no obligation to inform you of every single one of the school's rules in exhaustive detail."

(Chabashira was like someone who'd already given up on her dream. Giving up and letting things slide had become part of her daily routine... In reality, she probably could have reminded Class D, but she chose to let things slide instead.)

Her voice remained steady, carrying an air of detached superiority.