"I think the reward for first place in the exam might be a little too small." Totsuka Yahiko raised his hand to speak.
It was no wonder he'd protested. He probably thought he could take first place if he worked hard enough.
Unfortunately, the rewards for first, second, and third place in this exam had already been reserved by Yagami Shizuka.
The rewards he'd announced were for himself to use.
And someone still thought they weren't enough.
"Yeah, I think the rewards for the top three are a little too small, too." A few more students with good grades raised their hands.
Yagami Shizuka felt a twinge of guilt. "All right. Once the exam results are out, if you still think the rewards are too small, you can make a suggestion. For now, how about we leave things as they are?"
"Huh?" Everyone in the room froze.
"What does that mean? Whoever gets first place can ask for more if they think the reward is too small?"
"That's right. But my condition is that the reward for first place can't exceed 200,000 points. When the time comes, you can ask for as much as you want, as long as it's under that amount."
"Huh?" Plenty of people were still confused, but with 200,000 points as motivation, wouldn't they want to work like crazy?
Once he'd finished speaking, Yagami Shizuka slipped away.
Whatever else they wanted to do, they could handle it themselves. No matter how unwilling they were, they'd already handed over their points.
Not long after,
Knock, knock!
A cute girl with purple hair tied into buns knocked on the door. She peeked into the classroom and looked around. When she didn't find the person she was looking for, she asked, "Is Shizuka here?"
"He just went out. Is there something I can help you with?" Sakayanagi Arisu stood up.
"Oh." Tachibana Akane sighed in disappointment. "The student council president wants your class representative to come to the Student Council Room after school this afternoon."
"Got it. Thanks for letting us know."
Sakayanagi Arisu stared at the scores on the blackboard and fell silent for a long while.
She could see that Yagami Shizuka's grades weren't bad at all. He'd gotten full marks in several subjects, but his total score was one point lower than hers.
He didn't seem to care much about his score, either.
Why?
Had he done it on purpose?
That didn't seem right. If he'd done it on purpose, he wouldn't have scored just one point lower. He'd have scored much lower.
With their scores so close, all she could do was believe that was simply Yagami Shizuka's score.
In other words, she'd won from the start.
But winning didn't make her happy. Why did she feel so disappointed?
"Yesterday, when he said he didn't want to win, did he mean it? But..." Sakayanagi Arisu stared at the score that was one point higher than his, still silent.
Even though the points had been handed over, quite a few students still went to Class D's door to watch the students' misery.
Well, seeing other people suffer made them happy.
Well, they and Class D had both received zero points, since the points had already been handed over.
Even so, their moods were quite different from Class D's.
Yagami Shizuka was one of the people leading the spectators.
Some students who'd already spent all their points were sprawled on the ground, not even wanting to get up.
They couldn't help it. They'd been having too much fun.
They could've gotten by on just ten or twenty thousand points if they'd been careful, but they'd never understood how hard it was to earn money. Once they'd spent it all, they still wanted more.
Now everything was in chaos.
Some students still had points, but the penniless ones were begging them for mercy, hoping someone would lend them a few.
As soon as class ended, some students from Class D hurried back to their dorms as if fleeing a plague.
Being broke was going to be miserable.
And this was their first month; they didn't know what to expect yet.
Many second- and third-year students could only eat the free meals every day. Getting anything better wasn't easy.
With no points at all, not only food and drink but all sorts of other things could become problems.
Plenty of upperclassmen had come to watch the spectacle, but nobody went over to offer sympathy.
Eating nothing but vegetable salad for a whole month—just thinking about it made them shudder.
"Oh-ho-ho-ho..." Laughter came from behind Yagami Shizuka.
Who was being so rude, laughing that loudly? Couldn't they have some dignity?
At least leave them some face.
Yagami Shizuka turned around and spotted two purple ponytails.
"Morishita, why are you laughing so loudly? You're making us look like we have no... manners. Hahahaha!"
He really couldn't hold it in. Seeing her laugh made it even harder.
"Ke! Kekekeke!" Morishita Ai covered her mouth and let out another strange burst of laughter, setting off the students around her.
The students from Class D were even more embarrassed, and more of them fled back to their dorms.
After watching Class D make a fool of themselves for a while, Yagami Shizuka went to the school gate to pick up a few packages.
The things he'd bought online for nearly 500,000 points had finally arrived.
It wasn't that they were particularly expensive. The main issue was that they weren't available in the country or through legitimate channels, so they had to be shipped internationally.
With that, he'd be able to try mixing the medicines after school.
After school, Sakayanagi Arisu called out to Yagami Shizuka as he was about to leave the classroom. "The student council wants our class leader to come to the Student Council Room. Are you going, or should I?"
Yagami Shizuka stopped and asked her in return, "Haven't you always been our class leader? Why not just go yourself? Or bring Katsuragi Kohei along. He's still the class representative."
"But I think they're here to see you."
"Me?" Yagami Shizuka asked in confusion. "What for?"
He immediately waved a hand. "You go. Just say I couldn't make it because I have something to do. You can speak for me, so they can talk to you instead."
"But what if..." Sakayanagi Arisu turned around and twirled her cane. "They want you to join the student council?"
"Do you want me to join?"
"Yes. If you became the student council president, you'd probably have a lot of power."
"Tell the truth."
"I do. You..."
"Tell the truth, Arisu. Be honest. Don't say something you don't mean just for my sake. It isn't worth it." Yagami Shizuka covered the corners of his upturned mouth with his hand.
Sakayanagi Arisu turned around and raised her cane, ready to strike.
Yagami Shizuka hurriedly backed away.
As long as he stayed far enough away, Sakayanagi Arisu couldn't hit him, and there was no way she could catch up.
Bringing a weapon to school in broad daylight was totally against the rules. I'm going to report her.
Did being the chairman's daughter mean she could just do whatever she wanted?
He didn't run away and make Sakayanagi Arisu even angrier.
Of course, that was because Sakayanagi Arisu was weak. No matter how she swung at him, Yagami Shizuka barely felt it. He was only playing along.
Otherwise, what if she fell over after touching him and refused to get back up?
No amount of money would be enough to pay for that.
Sakayanagi Arisu angrily pointed at the blackboard. "You lost, so you should listen to me. Have you forgotten?"
"But I also said that if I'm competing against you, I'll never win. I know my own limits, so isn't that unfair to me?"
Sakayanagi Arisu froze, then lowered her cane. "Are you saying you did it on purpose?"
"No, no. I worked myself to the bone and went through all kinds of hardships to get a score that would make me lose to you. How could it possibly have been on purpose? Do you know how hard I worked?"
"Th-this..." A few sentences nearly left Sakayanagi Arisu dizzy. Wasn't that still admitting he'd done it on purpose?
But how was that possible?
"No, you couldn't have..." By the time she came to her senses, Yagami Shizuka was already gone from the classroom.
Before you continue