"He and I were to help Ichinose come up with another 15 million points."
"And there was a loophole in that second condition," Suzune Horikita said. "That was, we would cooperate with Ichinose. If Ichinose was willing to pay, then he would naturally have to pay as well. But what if Ichinose wasn't willing to pay?"
"Then he wouldn't have to spend a single point."
"And that was written into the agreement, so it wouldn't count as a breach of contract."
The more she spoke, the more enlightened she felt.
"That way, Hachiman won't need to spend anything, and I won't need to pay the 1.34 million points for the last-place group either. We only need to make up the 20,000 points for each student. So the reward I receive from this exam will increase by another 800,000 points, bringing it to a total of 5.3 million," Suzune said.
"That's right." Hachiman nodded.
"And Ichinose's class arrived late, then held their drawing vote ahead of time. In other words, no matter which group ultimately gets chosen as the last-place group, she'll follow the results of the drawing vote."
"If that student is on the list of people allowed to be expelled, then she naturally won't spend any money," Hachiman said. "That means they might expel one of their own classmates again during this exam."
"Then..." Having figured that out, Suzune still had something she didn't understand. "Why is the probability of having to pay thirty-seven? Ichinose's class has thirty-nine people, so those two missing people—"
"Probably because Ichinose has a guaranteed admission slot," Kushida said at that moment.
Ichinose was her romantic rival, so of course she knew that, since they were rivals, Hachiman must have treated Ichinose equally.
Just as everyone had received identical gifts back then, Hachiman had