Chapter 35

He looked at me with a conspiratorial expression. "Interesting. Once we've dealt with the first-years, we can go after Nagumo. What about Class A?" Ryuen made the call. "Katsuragi Kohei is a bald guy who won't be swayed. He believes in being cautious and conservative, so he's pretty boring. He's reasonably capable and is currently Class A's public leader. When he campaigned to become class representative, his policy was to strengthen Class A's advantage and maintain peace within the class." "Public leader?" Ibuki asked, confused. "That's right. The one who deserves more attention is Sakayanagi Arisu, a quiet-looking girl with a cane. I knew her before. She's far more capable than I am. She's an aggressive girl who doesn't play by the rules and loves stirring up trouble. She's practically a demon." "Is she really that outrageous? Even you, Kitazawa, think so?" Nishino exclaimed in surprise. "I wouldn't stand a chance against her. Maybe Ryuen, who also doesn't play by the rules, can handle her. Her group is much stronger than Katsuragi's. The only reason she hasn't taken control of Class A is that she deliberately let Katsuragi have it for now. We might be able to use that to close the gap with Class A quickly. It'll probably be difficult once she takes over. It'd be much better if we could take control of Classes B and D before we face her." "I understand. Thanks for your effort, honor student. I'll take it from here." Ryuen stretched and spoke confidently. "Yeah, I'll keep making trouble for them behind the scenes, just like this time. Ryuen, you can draw their attention with the open battles." "With you two here, our class is guaranteed to make it to Class A!" Komiya said. "No, we still need everyone to work together, just like we did on this exam. Cheers!" I said with a smile, standing up and raising my drink. "Cheers!" "Everyone, have fun! This is a class event, after all! We're all on the same side. Compared to Class D, which is a complete mess, Class B, which pinches pennies, and Class A, which is split into two factions fighting each other, we've got the most comfortable class!" Kaneda said. "Exactly!" I sat back down and clinked glasses with Ryuen again. "So, what do you think, our king?" I asked Ryuen with a smile. "It's not bad. These guys get so happy over the smallest things..." "Isn't that a good thing? That's how high schoolers are." "It is good. You know, Kitazawa, this school isn't so simple." "I know. But so what? We're students. It's nice to live in the moment and enjoy ourselves." "So you're a hedonist too! I thought you were an ambitious rich kid!" Ryuen looked pleased to have found someone who understood him. "Ambition? I just want to live well for three years at this school, where ability is everything." "What a coincidence. Me too. I just like living life to the fullest." Ryuen was telling the truth. That guy didn't seem to care at all about where he'd end up after graduation or being expelled. He had only two goals: challenging the strong and enjoying life. That was why he'd stepped forward to lead the class, and why I'd chosen him. People with drive and desire could always climb higher. The author says: Another update is on the way. Volume One: Showing Our Claws — 21: To Shirk Work Is a Crime. "To shirk work is a crime." — Leo Tolstoy. The relaxing weekend after the midterms passed in a flash. On June 1, everyone in Class C was once again seated neatly in homeroom. "Mr. Sakagami, why haven't our personal points for this month been issued?" Manabe and the other girls seemed unable to wait to spend their money. "Oh, there's been a dispute. It's part of the school's arrangements. The distribution of class points is suspended until it's resolved," Mr. Sakagami said calmly. "How can they..." A voice came from the back of the classroom, and Manabe immediately fell silent. The only person in Class C who could make such a decisive call was Ryuen. Once Mr. Sakagami learned that one of his students had started this, he gave a few routine announcements and left, apparently satisfied. So Ryuen's move against Class D had already begun. No wonder Ishizaki and the others had shown up to class with all kinds of injuries again... Poor Class D. When it rains, it pours. We'd been grinding them into the dirt with one wave of attacks after another. And Ryuen wasn't the type to play by the rules. Even if there were some kind of ceasefire agreement, he'd tear it to pieces and start fighting again, wouldn't he? If Class C wasn't getting its class points, I could just lend everyone some. Class D had only just gone into debt, and if they borrowed more, bankruptcy couldn't be far off. A lot of the Class D students who'd helped the Three Idiots would surely start regretting it, too. They'd thought they'd be getting new points soon, but now they had to sneak around like thieves and take out high-interest loans from me—their class's sworn enemy. I could imagine how they felt. I wasn't going easy on Class D's borrowers: borrow nine, pay back thirteen. What could they expect? We were in opposing classes, after all. They were lucky I lent to them at all. As for Nagumo, I'd go persuade him a little more later. With that in mind, I smiled and said, "Don't panic, everyone. It's just points. I'll lend each of you fifty thousand points this month without charging interest. And it won't interfere with Ryuen's class competition." "You're a lifesaver, Kitazawa!" The mood in the classroom immediately lightened. "There's no need to worry too much about fluctuations in class points. Our class's goal is personal points." Taking the opportunity, I began to rally the class. "You've all seen the current class points, I'm sure: A, B, C, and D have 1,004, 663, 494, and 46, respectively. Our class only went up by four points, presumably because some were deducted for the things Ryuen's been doing, right? But there's really no need to regret it." I said aloud what nobody else dared to. Many of our classmates looked at me gratefully, while Ryuen seemed not to care at all. "Because our goal was never something as unreliable as class points. The points go up and down with every exam, and future exams will only get harder. Things could even turn into a situation where the classes hurt one another. It won't be easy or safe to keep our class points in first place until graduation." "Then is there a foolproof strategy?" Ibuki asked at the right moment. She hadn't heard my conversation with Ryuen earlier. "There is: the rule that lets us transfer classes for twenty million points. We just need to collect eight hundred million personal points and transfer to Class A as a group right before graduation. It's difficult for one person to collect twenty million points, but it's easy if we work together to collect personal points. Besides, it's much harder for others to reduce our personal points than our class points. The school wants to train us, so future exams will definitely offer opportunities to earn personal points." "I see, but what if..." "That's true. There's a chance we might not manage to collect eight hundred million points. That's why we came up with a record-keeping system to track everyone's contributions to the class. For example, exam performance, how much they contribute to class expenses, and the class events they attend. Of course, if someone does something bad, like betray the class, we'll record that too." "So people who contribute more get priority to transfer classes in our third year? Is that..."