This Class Seemed Especially Long

On the second day of school, just as the bell rang for the first class, Sae Chabashira walked up to the podium with her lesson plan in hand. She was teaching Sakurajima history.

Sae Chabashira was a very alluring woman, at least in terms of her appearance.

She made her teacher's outfit look like a professional office-lady ensemble, and carried herself with a cool, distant air.

Anyone who liked the aloof, unattainable beauty type would find it hard to resist Sae Chabashira's charms.

But Makoto Nishikado had no interest in this class whatsoever.

The Sakurajima people's attitude toward history couldn't compare to the integrity of the ancient Chinese historians who had defended the truth at the cost of their lives during "Cui Zhu Assassinated His Lord." They were even far behind the Germans, who had also waged war and now dared to face their history.

Ancient history was tolerable, but the modern history textbooks were full of whitewashing and distortion, every line steeped in self-deceiving hypocrisy.

A textbook that couldn't even be objective wasn't worth looking at.

One reason Makoto Nishikado's Japanese language grades weren't very good was his contempt for the subject.

"Take out your textbooks."

As she lectured from the podium, Sae Chabashira watched the students in Class B.

Under Advanced Nurturing's evaluation system, there were no absolute standards for how students were assigned to classes.

But there was a general pattern to it.

Unless there were special circumstances, the students in Class A were excellent, those in Class B were mediocre, those in Class C were inferior, and those in Class D had serious shortcomings.

At that moment, a group of students the school had deemed mediocre were paying close attention in class.

No one was on their phone or whispering to a neighbor. At most, someone occasionally let their attention wander.

Sae Chabashira ignored Class B's little distractions.

It wasn't because their behavior had no impact on the lesson. More importantly, the school wouldn't allow her to intervene.

At least during the first month of the school year, teachers weren't allowed to interfere with students' conduct in class.

If this had been Class D, under such lenient conditions, the students would probably already be openly playing on their phones.

But even if Sae Chabashira had encountered that, she wouldn't have been able to do anything.

This year's Class D was probably still beyond hope.

Despite her outward indifference, Sae Chabashira was deeply anxious as Class D's homeroom teacher.

Just then, Makoto Nishikado left his seat.

His movement broke the classroom's calm and instantly drew everyone's attention.

His classmates turned to look, their eyes full of surprise and confusion. They couldn't understand what he was doing.

Makoto Nishikado didn't care. He headed straight for the podium, his steps steady, as if he had already made up his mind.

[Triggered Honami Ichinose's emotions, gained 2,647 emotion points.]

[Triggered Ryuji Kanzaki's emotions, gained 2,119 emotion points.]

[Triggered Yuki Himeno's emotions, gained 1,007 emotion points.]

No one could understand why Makoto Nishikado was doing something so outrageous in the middle of class.

The students in the front row wanted to remind him, but in the end, they kept quiet.

They all remembered that Makoto Nishikado had already given them a heads-up.

"Nishikado, what exactly are you trying to verify by doing this?"

Honami Ichinose was extremely nervous, her heart pounding.

Her past experiences had taught her that rules weren't meant to be broken.

Anyone who broke the rules had to endure severe punishment.

She couldn't understand why Makoto Nishikado would risk lowering his personal evaluation just to do something like this.

"..."

Sae Chabashira gave him a long look, then continued her lesson as though nothing had happened.

According to the rules, even if Makoto Nishikado disrupted class like this, as long as he didn't speak to her first, she couldn't react in any special way.

Makoto Nishikado gave Sae Chabashira a long look.

Under Class B's watchful eyes, Makoto Nishikado pushed open the classroom door.

He had skipped class in plain sight without even saying a word.

What surprised Class B's students even more was that Sae Chabashira didn't stop him.

Even Class B, with its strong discipline, couldn't help whispering among themselves.

"What exactly is Nishikado trying to do?"

"Is he skipping class?"

"Why isn't the teacher stopping him?"

They had been students for years, but this was the first time they'd seen someone openly break classroom rules without anyone intervening.

"That's amazing. He must have figured something out again."

Ryuji Kanzaki put down his pen, his mind in turmoil.

He couldn't focus on the lesson anymore. He really wanted to skip class and follow Makoto Nishikado.

"Teacher, may I say a few words to everyone?"

Honami Ichinose raised her hand.

At the sight of her, everyone else stopped talking too.

"Go ahead."

Sae Chabashira's face remained expressionless, but she felt a secret pang of regret.

She had already decided that with someone as bold and perceptive as Makoto Nishikado at the helm, Class B would be a tough opponent.

She almost wished Class B would keep disrupting class and lose more points.

"Thank you, teacher. Please keep the class orderly. We can ask Nishikado about what happened after class."

Honami Ichinose still hadn't seen through the school's test.

Makoto Nishikado was Class B's leader, but Honami Ichinose was still its class representative. In that regard, everyone agreed she was the right choice.

She hadn't earned everyone's respect by becoming class representative. She had become class representative because she already had everyone's respect.

After she finished speaking, everyone in Class B settled down.

"Then let's continue the lesson."

Sae Chabashira couldn't feel happy about it.

Aside from Makoto Nishikado, this Honami Ichinose also had a lot of influence.

Even Kushida Kikyo wouldn't carry that much weight in Class D.

If even Class B was this strong this year, wouldn't Class A be unstoppable?

Meanwhile, Makoto Nishikado hurried along the corridor.

"Worth it, worth it!"

Watching the system notifications keep popping up, Makoto Nishikado couldn't stop grinning.

Class B really were a bunch of little angels!

They'd provided him with at least 100,000 emotion points this time.

But Sae Chabashira had contributed the most by far.

The emotion points she'd given him alone were worth more than those from all of Class B combined.

Sae Chabashira really was a big treasure who cared about her class!

After finishing his little sigh of admiration, Makoto Nishikado quickened his pace.

This time, he planned to observe all eleven other classes across the three grades.

The first-year students in Class A were paying attention to their lesson and didn't notice him.

The first-year students in Class C were unruly in class. His gaze lingered on Shiina Hiyori for one extra second.

The most outrageous was first-year Class D.

Some were on their phones, some were asleep with their heads on their desks, some were playing handheld consoles, and some were whispering...

Students like Horikita Suzune, who were studying seriously, seemed completely out of place in Class D's atmosphere.

The first class of the new school year was already this chaotic. Makoto Nishikado couldn't believe it.

"Even if Ayanokoji Kiyotaka doesn't switch classes, this class is beyond saving."

Makoto Nishikado had made his judgment.

With him around, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka couldn't turn things around like he had in the original story.

And given the overall quality of Class D, developing an informant there would be far too easy.

So easy that Makoto Nishikado had lost interest.

After a couple of glances, Makoto Nishikado quickly left.

His main goal this trip was to check on the second- and third-year classes.

He already knew the answer, but now he had to work backward from it and construct a reasonable explanation.

The upperclassmen attending lessons would reveal a great deal of information on their own.

After confirming that he'd gathered enough information, Makoto Nishikado returned to first-year Class B.

Back at his seat, Makoto Nishikado ignored his classmates' questioning looks and raised his hand.

"Chabashira-sensei, can I spend personal points to have the penalty for leaving class waived?"

Under Makoto Nishikado's gaze, Sae Chabashira nodded, extremely reluctantly.

"Yes. Five thousand points."

Class B's students were dumbfounded.

They could understand being punished for leaving class, but how could personal points be used to get out of a punishment?

Seeing Makoto Nishikado obediently return to his seat, the students in Class B couldn't focus on the lesson anymore.

This class seemed especially long.