Faculty Meeting

Chabashira Sae arrived at the faculty meeting room to find the teachers of the other three classes already seated.

"Little Sae, over here, over here."

Chie Hoshimiya spotted Chabashira entering and waved her over to sit beside her.

After taking her seat, Chabashira glanced around at the teachers present, and a sense of inferiority welled up inside her.

As luck would have it, all the other homeroom teachers here were graduates from her own year, and they all knew each other.

However, they had all graduated from Class A, while she...

The homeroom teacher for Class A was Tomoya Mashima. After graduating from Class A, he could have pursued better opportunities but chose to stay on as faculty.

He had also been one of the leaders of their class back then, highly capable. When the school learned he was willing to remain, they directly assigned him to lead the top-tier Class A.

The homeroom teacher for Class B, Chie Hoshimiya, had been Chabashira Sae's close friend during high school. Though they were in different classes, their bond was strong.

Chabashira wasn't surprised that Chie chose to stay on as faculty after graduating from Class A. After all, Chabashira was her best friend and had often mentioned her future plans.

Still, Chabashira felt it was more of a "peculiar hobby" on her part.

As for the homeroom teacher for Class C, Suguru Itagaki, he had joined the faculty later.

After graduation, he apparently chose to have the school provide a large sum of funds for him to start a business, but it happened to coincide with Japan's economic recession, when the market was sluggish.

His venture ultimately failed, leaving him heavily in debt to the bank. With no other options, he had to seek help from Kodo Ikusei High School again.

The school, mindful that he was a Class A graduate, took him in and gave him a homeroom teacher position—though he had to start with the worst class, Class D.

Through several years of effort, he successfully rose from Class D homeroom teacher to Class C homeroom teacher.

Yes, you heard that right. In this school, even the teachers operate under a meritocracy.

Different classes come with different treatment. For example, Tomoya Mashima, who leads Class A, has a monthly salary of a staggering 1,000,000 points.

With various allowances added, he takes home at least 2,000,000 points a month. That salary places him among the top tier of earners in the entire island nation.

Of course, this is because working within the school means payment in points rather than yen, but if they want to spend outside, it can be converted at a proportional rate.

As for the other homeroom teachers, their monthly salaries are:

Class B: 800,000

Class C: 600,000

Class D: 400,000

What they receive is pure salary, with no allowances.

Still, Kodo Ikusei High School provides free housing, meals, and daily necessities for its faculty, so the benefits are decent.

Chabashira Sae, in charge of Class D, had passed the school's entrance exam by chance.

Each year, the school releases a small number of teaching positions to the public.

However, most of those hired from outside end up assigned to teach Class D.

That's because the school prioritizes placing Class A graduates who stay on as faculty, leaving only Class D for the leftovers.

When Chabashira Sae passed the exam, she was naturally assigned to Class D as well.

But unlike Suguru Itagaki, the Class C homeroom teacher, she hadn't managed to rise from Class D to Class C.

Instead, after leading one cohort of Class D, she remained stuck in the Class D position.

Speaking of which, when Chabashira Sae first enrolled at Kodo Ikusei High School, she too was placed in Class D.

But through three years of effort, their class ended up graduating with only a small gap separating them from Class A.

That year's Class D was said to have climbed the highest since the school's founding. According to rumors, in the final special exam, they could have risen to Class A.

But because Chabashira made a wrong decision for the sake of someone important to her...

In the end, they missed Class A by just a single step...

In truth, with Chabashira Sae's abilities, even if she looked for work outside, she could find a job with much better treatment than teaching Class D.

Yet she chose to come back and take the exam. No one understands why she did it.

If one had to guess, it's probably because she can't let go of that obsession...

"I believe everyone has already seen the first month's class point reports and held class meetings."

Tomoya Mashima, seated in the middle, spoke first. Besides being the Class A homeroom teacher, he also served as the head of the first-year affairs.

Mashima was an extremely fair and impartial person. Even though he was in charge of Class A, he never showed favoritism toward his own class. If they broke the rules, they were punished just like any other class.

Still, since it was Class A, they rarely made mistakes anyway...

The other three teachers present nodded in agreement.

"This time, Class A only lost 60 points in the first month, opening up a huge gap from the other classes from the start. That's a rare example in recent years."

"That's really impressive." Chie Hoshimiya glanced at Tomoya Mashima and said, "This year's Class A is almost too outstanding."

"Hmph." Suguru Itagaki let out a cold snort. Having climbed from Class D homeroom teacher to Class C, he had proven his ability, so naturally, he wouldn't be intimidated by this initial disadvantage.

However, rumors say that in the past, he stopped at nothing to get his class promoted—not only turning a blind eye to students doing things that couldn't be brought into the open, but even going out of his way to protect them when they were caught...

Chabashira Sae heard this and said nothing, silently lowering her head to look at the documents. After all, compared to Class A, Class D really was a bit too...

This was the complete opposite of the image she projected in the classroom in front of her students. If the students of Class D saw this, they'd probably be shocked...

"But you don't need to worry too much about falling too far behind to catch up. The Board of Directors has decided that the next midterm exam will give the other classes a chance to close the gap."

"What does that mean?" Chie Hoshimiya asked. Her eyes lit up when she heard "close the gap"—after all, the class she taught was Class B. There might even be a chance to overtake Class A.

"Hoshimiya, don't get ahead of yourself. Before that, I want to ask Chabashira—what's going on with your class?"

With that, Tomoya Mashima fixed Chabashira Sae with a sharp stare.

This school appeared to take a hands-off approach on the surface, but behind the scenes, the Board of Directors would find ways to make the classes compete with each other.

After all, their goal was to select and nurture outstanding geniuses. If there was no competition, why not just recruit only excellent students?

In the shadows, they would implement measures to narrow the gaps between classes.

Though they rarely intervened proactively...

"Well... they're all idiots, you know. They're Class D students—a collection of defective products," Chabashira Sae explained.

"I don't think so, Sae-chan. I even saw you calling two handsome guys to your office for a talk, and you wouldn't let me listen in. Hmph~."

Chie Hoshimiya refuted Chabashira Sae's words.

Chabashira Sae immediately shot her a murderous glare. "But Class D's class points for this month are zero. That's a fact!"