An Invitation from the Student Council

"It's almost the end of the month, and the school has decided that before the monthly exams arrive, each class will organize a small test of its own."

Sakagami, the homeroom teacher for Class A, distributed the test papers he had brought to the students in the front row and instructed them to pass them back.

A single test paper condensed with questions from five core subjects—is this what a small test in a Japanese school looks like? I had expected a stack of papers reaching double digits.

"The results of this exam will serve only as a reference and will have no bearing on your final report cards. There is no risk involved, but remember: cheating is strictly prohibited. This is not a suggestion, but an emphasis!"

Since it only serves as a reference, I have no need to take this test.

There are only four questions per subject, totaling twenty in all. That's fewer than the number of problems on a single math paper from my middle school entrance exam, and the difficulty is so ridiculously low that if anyone fails this, it can only be attributed to a lack of study, not a lack of intelligence.

Aside from three difficulty-spiking questions on the back, this paper has no highlights; the difficulty gradient is poorly executed.

"Sakagami-sensei~"

When Sakagami patrolled to my desk, I called out to him, handed in a blank paper, and after receiving the teacher's permission, walked out of the classroom.

"Sakagami!"

Ryuen replicated my actions, handed in his paper—which had only a few questions answered—and walked out of the classroom with me.

"Heh, this is actually the first time I've walked out of a classroom during school hours. Truly rare."

With his hands in his pockets, Ryuen left that remark behind and headed alone toward the classrooms of the other three classes. I didn't want to linger here either.

"I wonder what brings Vice President Kiriyama of Class 2-B to my humble abode at this hour?"

Inside the clubroom, Vice President Kiriyama of Class 2-B had become an unexpected visitor.

"Stop pretending. You saw through Nagumo's true nature the moment you enrolled and offended him because of it. If you don't want to suffer retaliation from Nagumo now, your only option is to join our faction."

Kiriyama, convinced he had grasped my weak point, wore a smug expression—a face that made me feel even more disgusted than Nagumo did.

"While I don't know what breed you two student council vice presidents are, if I recall correctly, the student council has the authority to view student records, right? Before you made the decision to negotiate with me, didn't you bother to read them carefully?"

I am also curious about what is written on my enrollment file. Unless Nagumo is brain-damaged, my file must have been deliberately altered.

Considering Nagumo's condescending attitude toward me—much like his attitude when he deceived Ichinose in the original work—could it be that some "dark history" has been stuffed into my file?

"Don't joke around. You know what you've done yourself. I really don't know why Horikita-senpai values you so much, even going so far as to make me come here in person. Don't be ungrateful for his kindness!"

Now I am certain my file has been tampered with. If I get the chance, I'd quite like to see it for myself.

"Joining the student council... I don't—uh, do students who join the student council receive a monthly stipend?"

Just as I was about to reject Kiriyama's "invitation" outright, I suddenly remembered this point. If there were a stipend, it's not as if I couldn't join the student council.

"Yes, student council officers receive a special monthly stipend of 100,000 private points, and the president receives even more."

"Good grief, this is worse than being a corporate slave in Japan. Not only is there no time off all year, but you're on call 24 hours a day with a high workload, and they only pay 100,000 private points a month? I thought only the college students back home were that naive~"

100,000 private points a month—are they trying to brush off a beggar?

This school is in Tokyo! With the 400,000-yen monthly salary standard for Tokyo corporate slaves, if you want to live even slightly comfortably and have a few hobbies, you're basically living paycheck to paycheck after taxes.

Buying a young laborer for 100,000 is too much of a bargain. Hanging them from a lamppost would be getting off light; they should at least be hung between two lampposts.

If a student council at a normal school paid 100,000 yen a month, I would applaud and happily slack off as a salary thief.

But in this school, all matters related to students are generally handled by the student council, and the school administration does not intervene unless necessary.

If you say this provides training for the students, I have nothing to say, but management experience is useless to me anyway.

You want me to be a beast of burden for 100,000 points a month? Forget it. I've sworn not to be a corporate slave in this life.

"Huh?"

"Vice President Kiriyama, how about this? When you go back to report to President Horikita, ask him if I can bring the documents I need to process to my clubroom to handle them.

If that's not possible, then as the president of the Traditional Literature Club, I cannot run back and forth between the student council office and the clubroom long-term. I believe a president who values 'purity' as much as he does will understand my painstaking efforts. This isn't a refusal, but a matter of responsibility.

Of course, if he wants both, I can accept another method—for instance, I recommend a student from Class C to enter the student council in my stead, and I will remotely control her to act on my will."

That dump of a student council office is nowhere near as good as my own clubroom. Everyone works in the same large room without partitions, cubicles, or even the most basic dividers! I cannot accept such a terrible working environment.

Moreover, I know why Horikita is so anxious to try and win me over, even abandoning his previous declaration that one could not join the student council if they had chosen a club.

At this point in time, the battle between Nagumo and Kiriyama hasn't actually ended; they still have plenty of fighting left to do.

Nagumo only led Class B to overtake Class A at the end of his first year, and he still needs to spend quite a bit of time unifying and integrating the second-year students.

Nagumo hasn't fully unified the second years yet, nor has he completely suppressed Kiriyama's class, so there is still a possibility for the two to continue fighting. Horikita still wants to try his luck with Kiriyama.

That is why he chose to have Kiriyama approach me after witnessing the incident between our Class C and Class D.

The agreement signed by Class C and Class D was reported to the student council, and Horikita is aware of this information. In his eyes, our Class C now effectively holds the voting power of both Class C and Class D in the first year.

As long as Kiriyama can win over me and Ryuen, then with the third years supporting Kiriyama, even if the second years support Nagumo, he can secure half the votes from the first years. This ensures that his designated successor for the next student council president, Kiriyama, won't run into any issues.

It's just a pity that Vice President Kiriyama doesn't seem to have grasped this point. If he had treated me better, it's not as if I couldn't have helped him clear things up.

It's hard to understand how Kiriyama could play a Class A start into this state, and even after falling from Class A, still be outmaneuvered by Nagumo, who unified the first-year classes C and D first.

Under normal circumstances, shouldn't it be three years of alliances and counter-alliances? The three classes B, C, and D teaming up against Class A is the norm, unless... there was simply no hope for promotion at all. You really are something, Kiriyama!