Faculty Meeting

When Chabashira Sae arrived at the faculty meeting room, the teachers from the other three classes were already seated.

"Saeko, over here!"

Chie Hoshimiya saw Chabashira come in and beckoned her to the seat beside her.

After sitting down, Chabashira looked around at the teachers present, and a sense of inferiority welled up inside her.

As it happened, the teachers from the other classes had all graduated in the same year as her, so they knew one another.

But...

They had all graduated from Class A, while she...

Tomoya Mashima was the homeroom teacher for Class A. After graduating from Class A, he could have had a better career, but he had chosen to stay at the school and teach.

He had also been one of the leaders of their class, and was highly capable. When the school learned he was willing to stay, they assigned him to lead the best class, Class A.

Chie Hoshimiya, the homeroom teacher for Class B, had been Chabashira Sae's best friend in high school. They had been in different classes, but were still very close.

Chabashira Sae hadn't been surprised when she chose to stay at the school after graduating from Class A. After all, Chabashira was her best friend, and she had often talked about her plans for the future.

However, Chabashira Sae felt it was more like one of her "perverse hobbies."

Kazuma Sakagami, the homeroom teacher for Class C, had only come to teach at the school later on.

After graduating, he had apparently accepted a large sum of money from the school to start a business. Unfortunately, he had launched it during Japan's economic depression, when the market was sluggish.

In the end, his business failed, and he was left owing the bank a huge amount. With no other choice, he sought help from Advanced Nurturing High School again.

The school took him in because he had graduated from Class A and gave him a homeroom teacher position, though he had to start with the worst class, Class D.

After several years of effort, he had managed to rise from homeroom teacher of Class D to homeroom teacher of Class C.

Yes, you heard that right. At this school, the teachers were also judged by merit.

Teachers in charge of different classes enjoyed different待遇. For example, Tomoya Mashima, who taught Class A, earned a staggering 1 million points a month.

With all the various allowances added, he could take home at least 2 million points a month. That salary put him among the top earners across the entire Island Nation.

Of course, the school paid him in points rather than yen because he worked there. But if he wanted to spend money outside the school, he could convert the points at the same rate.

The monthly salaries of the other homeroom teachers were:

Class B: 800,000

Class C: 600,000

Class D: 400,000

Those amounts were their base salaries, with no allowances.

Fortunately, Advanced Nurturing High School provided its teachers with free housing, meals, and daily necessities, so the benefits were still quite good.

Chabashira Sae, who was in charge of Class D, had come to the school after passing the hiring exam by chance.

Every year, the school made a small number of teaching positions available to the public.

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

The school gave priority to employing Class A graduates who chose to stay on as teachers, so the classes left over for outside hires were naturally Class D.

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

But unlike Kazuma Sakagami, the homeroom teacher of Class C, she hadn't managed to move up from Class D to Class C.

Even after teaching a year of Class D, she was still in charge of Class D.

As it happened, when Chabashira Sae first entered Advanced Nurturing High School, she had also been placed in Class D.

But thanks to their efforts over the three years, by graduation they had fallen just a little short of Class A.

That class was said to have climbed higher than any other Class D in the history of Advanced Nurturing High School. According to rumors, they could have risen to Class A in the final Special Exam.

But Chabashira Sae had made the wrong decision for someone important to her...

In the end, they had missed out on Class A by a single step...

With Chabashira Sae's abilities, she could have found a job outside the school that paid much better than teaching Class D.

Yet she had chosen to come back. No one understood why she had done it.

If they had to guess, she probably still couldn't let go of that lingering obsession...

"I'm sure everyone's seen the Class Points report for the first month, and held their class meetings too, right?"

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

Tomoya 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 the other classes.

Of course, since they were Class A, they were bound to make fewer mistakes...

The other three teachers present all nodded.

"Class A lost only 60 points in the first month. They've already opened up a huge gap with the other classes, which is rare in the school's history."

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

"Hmph." Kazuma Sakagami let out a cold snort. The fact that he had climbed from homeroom teacher of Class D to homeroom teacher of Class C showed that he had a certain level of ability. He wasn't going to be intimidated by this early disadvantage.

However, rumors said that he had stopped at nothing to get promoted. He had not only turned a blind eye when his students did things that couldn't be brought into the open, but had also fiercely protected them when they were caught...

Chabashira Sae said nothing. She lowered her head and silently looked over the documents. After all, compared with Class A, Class D really was a bit too...

This was completely at odds with the image she presented in the classroom and in front of her students. If the students in Class D saw her like this, they would probably be shocked...

"Still, you don't need to worry too much about falling so far behind that you can't catch up. The Board of Directors has decided that the upcoming Midterm Exam will give the other classes a chance to narrow the gap."

"What does that mean?" Chie Hoshimiya asked. Her eyes had lit up when she heard that they could narrow the gap. After all, she taught Class B, and this might be their chance to surpass Class A."

"Hoshinomiya, don't rush. Before that, I want to ask you, Chabashira—what's going on with your class?"

As he spoke, Tomoya Mashima fixed Chabashira Sae with a sharp gaze.

On the surface, this school seemed to leave its students to their own devices, but behind the scenes, the Board of Directors also came up with ways to make the classes compete with one another.

After all, their aim was to select and cultivate exceptional talent. If there was no competition, why not just admit excellent students in the first place?

Behind the scenes, they came up with measures to narrow the gaps between the classes.

They rarely intervened directly, though...

"Um... They're all idiots. They're Class D students, after all—a gathering of defective products." Chabashira Sae explained.

"I don't think so, Saeko. I saw you taking two handsome guys to your Counseling Room for a talk earlier, and you wouldn't even let me listen. Hmph~"

Chie Hoshimiya retorted.

Chabashira Sae immediately shot her a glare that could have eaten her alive. "But it's a fact that Class D has zero Class Points this month!"