"I'm not offering you a discount of 100,000 personal points. I'm offering you a discount of 3.6 million personal points. I hope you won't forget that!
"The students in our class who were injured suffered more than just physical harm. This incident left them with psychological scars, too, and it's still uncertain whether they'll be able to return to the Basketball Club and continue training after they recover.
"The Basketball Club will be selecting its official team members soon. The two students in our class had a very good chance of making the team. They could have gone with the team to compete in major off-campus tournaments and gained valuable experience. Now, they've been forced to sit out and recover because students from your class beat them up.
"They didn't just miss out on a spot on the team this time. This incident also robbed them of a chance to pursue their dreams. It's something that could affect the rest of their lives! We're only trying to get them the greatest compensation possible. Is there really anything wrong with that?"
Ryuen had already lowered his price once. He wasn't willing to give in so easily when Hirata spoke up this time. That would make him look like a pushover.
So he played the sympathy card, elevating the incident to a matter of life and ambition and lecturing Hirata from his moral high ground.
"But, but these points..."
After hearing Ryuen's appeal to emotion, Hirata felt he couldn't keep haggling. He knew the points were useful, but not exactly what they were for, much less that they could be exchanged for money at a set rate upon graduation.
So he felt terribly guilty. On one hand, he felt guilty toward his classmates because he was powerless to do anything about what was happening and could only let them carry a heavy debt for the next three years.
On the other hand, he felt guilty toward the two Class C students Ryuen had mentioned. He didn't know how good they were at basketball, but Sudo had still taken away their chance to pursue their dreams.
"If you can't scrape together that many points right away, I have another solution."
Deciding the pressure had built up enough, Ryuen pulled the agreement he'd prepared from a pile of documents in his desk drawer.
He'd prepared all kinds of agreements. His bottom line this time was 1.5 million for the second condition and 500,000 a month for the third. His opponents were simply too weak, so he'd only managed to bargain down the price once.
"The interest is still too high. We can't accept it, but we'll borrow points from Class B and repay you, so—"
"That's fine. I've considered that, too. After all, Class B is the only class that would lend points to Class D. In that case, let's replace the agreement with this one."
Hirata rejected Ryuen's agreement again because there was a problem with it.
As everyone knew, interest rates were normally calculated according to the bank's standards, using the bank's method.
But Ryuen's agreement used compound interest, meaning that interest was added to the principal. It was a method commonly used by loan sharks.
On top of that, Class D would be forced to repay the debt in twelve monthly installments, at a monthly interest rate of five percent. That was even harsher than the terms offered by most loan sharks.
There was no way Hirata and the others could accept an agreement like that, so Ryuen brought out an alternative.
If Hirata and the others borrowed points from another class, then until Class D had repaid Class C in full, compound interest would be calculated on the total amount Class D owed.
The rate would still be five percent, but per day. The difference was that if Class D repaid the debt by the end of today, they wouldn't have to pay any interest. If they failed, though, the interest would start piling up at an alarming rate.
Knowing they had no choice but to accept, Hirata and Kushida agreed to the alternative. So I went to the teachers' office and called over Hoshinomiya-sensei to witness the deal. Both sides signed the three agreements.
"So Class D's well and truly in the hands of you Class C kids now, little Masaryu. How about joining Class B?"
After Hirata and Kushida left with the agreements, Hoshinomiya, who had witnessed the deal, laughed.
She was genuinely delighted to see Class D fall into the abyss.
The agreement requiring Class D to make monthly repayments was like a sword hanging over their heads. They'd have to pay 900,000 personal points a month, which meant Class D's cutoff for Class Points had risen to 225.
If Class D's Class Points fell below that threshold, they'd either have to go further into debt to make their payments or suffer the consequences of defaulting.
If they chose to keep borrowing, Class D would fall under the control of Classes B and A.
If they defaulted, they'd have to help Class C unconditionally whenever the class needed them, and follow Ryuen and the others' orders during a Special Exam. Anyone who resisted would be expelled.
And they'd still have to repay the points. They'd only be given a little more time. The points Class D received each month would be taken from them in advance.
No matter what they chose, Class D had already lost the right to be a player.
"Hoshinomiya-sensei, mercenaries have to be paid. I'm sure you know that."
Class D had been thoroughly fleeced. Class C had more or less finished bleeding them dry, and Ryuen had already informed them of the deal after Hirata and the others signed the agreements.
That also gave them a reasonable excuse to gather points: spend two million personal points to buy information from their homeroom teacher, and save their Class Points. It sounded so upright and far-sighted~
"Well, I was only teasing. See you next time."
After her attempt to flirt with me failed, Hoshinomiya left.
"That brings the siege to a perfect close. Now it's time to attack their hearts."
I walked up to the podium and projected an image onto the screen for the rest of Class C to see.
"This is a frontal photo of a funeral hall that took me ages to find. When the time comes, let's all pitch in and decorate the Activity Room. We can make the props ourselves, and use this picture in place of the deceased's photo."
The image on the screen was the same one Ryuen had first shown Hirata.
"When the time comes, we need to get this photo framed properly. We've got to make sure it gives our invited guests from Class B a little shock!"
The scene would be so cool! My brain was already spinning with ideas.
It'd be even better if Sudo got angry and smashed something again while apologizing~
"Tch! What kind of setup is that? You call that humiliating? Ishizaki!"
"Here!"
"Take a few people to the school's print room and print every photo in this folder. Frame them all along with that one. At the apology, everyone in the class will hold a framed picture of Sudo bullying you in both hands, surrounding him like that. Now that's what I call the ultimate humiliation!"
Ryuen added to my plan. I thought the scene might turn out a little strange, kind of like a CG from a game I'd played in my previous life, but it really was a brilliant plan, y'know!
Before you continue