Hachiman had told her for free that the school's true nature was nothing more than having her help buy him a meal. That was far too cheap, yet he was guiding her upward.
So now, she suspected Hachiman had ambitions?
But Classmate Horikita, you might have gotten it wrong.
Because...
The one who truly wanted to rise to Class A was Chabashira-sensei.
He merely wanted to obtain a bargaining chip to negotiate terms with that wicked woman, Chabashira-sensei.
And that card was her.
P.S. That was today's update. Time to pay the public dues.
There would be another update tonight. He was writing it now.
A quick promotion for a big shot's book.
Damn it, Chabashira-sensei, You're Even Poorer Than Me!
8:30 p.m.
Not far from the vending machine where he had encountered the Horikita siblings yesterday, a boy standing by the railing of the silent artificial lake let out a soft sigh.
Since he had plenty of time tonight, he had even taken a shower before coming out.
Still, he really needed to make some preparations.
That boy was Hachiman Hikigaya.
He was working hard for himself.
More precisely, to obtain more points.
Having been assigned to Class D from the start, there was basically no hope in obtaining points through a class-based system, so going solo was the best option. However, he had also confirmed that the Shopping Street did not allow part-time jobs or other ordinary high school methods of earning living expenses.
So he could only approach it from another angle.
His own situation was fairly simple. When he enrolled, he had made a deal with his homeroom teacher, Chabashira-sensei: help investigate one student's records in exchange for 200,000 points.
At this school, points could be spent directly as money, and upon graduation, the school would buy them back for cash. It was an extremely generous arrangement.
Logically, it should have been a good job.
But Manabu Horikita had given him some troubling information.
He suspected that Chabashira-sensei harbored greater ambitions.
So he wanted to raise the price accordingly.
Thus, he had arranged to meet Chabashira-sensei. Their appointment this time was at nine o'clock.
He had arrived early.
Not because he wanted to act like a gentleman, but because he needed to make some preparations.
For example, gathering information about Chabashira-sensei.
And the first thing he wanted to find out was... her salary.
She had not answered that question before. Instead, she had simply displayed a huge sum of 6.02 million.
Then she had even taken out her points cards.
Hachiman had swiped the cards, and both cards Chabashira had given him held balances of 200,000 points.
No deception involved.
She had seemed incredibly wealthy.
Still, he had to ask.
Normally, if one wanted information, one could trade points for it. That was the most direct method. For instance, Third-year Class A, where Classmate Sakayanagi was, had directly paid the exorbitant price of 2 million to obtain the school's true nature from their homeroom teacher.
As long as the price was high enough, there was nothing that could not be sold.
For example, being evaluated into Class D at the start was not beyond saving. By gathering points, one could collect 20 million and fly directly to Class A.
Of course.
Hachiman did not have such grand ambitions. Twenty million was several years' worth of work for an ordinary person. With a low salary, it could even amount to ten years of work without eating or drinking.
Wasn't it a good thing to mortgage ten years of labor?
Hachiman chose money.
After all, it was more straightforward. Even if he rose to Class A and entered the university he wanted, would he definitely find a job after graduating?
Would the salary definitely be good?
Hard to say.
And if he chose not to continue his education, instead using the school's recommendation letter to enter the organization he wanted, what if the economy or business performance worsened and he got laid off?
Those were all risks.
So compared to an imagined future, cash felt more reliable to him.
Just like how the type of woman he liked was always one who already had money from the start.
Rather than suffering together, it was better if the other person was wealthy from the beginning.
Yeah.
That was the mindset of a househusband.
Hachiman was doing serious business.
After all, there was no reliable, suitable rich woman for him to latch onto right now.
However, during his inquiries, he discovered some rather troublesome news.
Like this.
"Say, Student Council President, are teachers paid well?" Hachiman typed into his chat window with Student Council President Horikita.
The Student Council President, Manabu Horikita, was known as the greatest Student Council President in history.
He was also the class representative of Third-year Class A.
According to the Class A, B, C, and D scores posted on the first floor of the third-year building.
Yeah.
He now knew those were called class evaluation scores, the allocation each class received from the school.
The rankings of Class A, B, C, and D were fluid. Whichever class had the highest class evaluation score became the higher-ranked class.
That meant the higher-ranked classes were under pressure as well, worried about being overtaken by lower-ranked classes.
However.
Third-year Class A: 2530 points Third-year Class B: 1300 points Third-year Class C: 300 points Third-year Class D: 20 points
Manabu Horikita's Third-year Class A was far ahead of the others.
As the class representative, Manabu Horikita deserved much of the credit. He really was a formidable man.
He was also extremely strict with himself. Even though he had been privately telling his younger sister about the school, he could have avoided paying points according to the rules.
But he chose to enforce the rules impartially, punishing himself by paying a price of 1 million.
Of course, it was also possible that he wanted his sister to experience the school's cruelty. One wrong step, and she would immediately lose 1 million.
It was the earnest advice of an older brother.
Yet his little sister understood none of it.
That left Hachiman in quite a good mood.
His own little sister did not require that much worry. If anything, she was the one worrying about him.
She worried that he would not fit in, that no one would want him, that he would not work in the future, and so on.
But.
Just wait, Komachi. Your big brother was studying for free now, and while studying, he was also saving enough living expenses that he would not need to work in the future.
Hachiman felt brimming with motivation.
The only flaw was that although he had messaged Horikita to ask, she had not replied immediately.
Sure enough.
According to this school's rules, points could buy anything.
So did he need to transfer points to the Student Council President before he would answer?
Just as he was wondering how many points he should transfer to purchase that information, Manabu Horikita's reply came through.
[Your homeroom teacher's salary is probably around 200,000.] — Manabu Horikita
His wording was very precise. He had said "your homeroom teacher's salary," not teachers' salaries.
In other words, it was possible that students' living expenses and the school's evaluations earned through class competition were related, while teachers' salaries might also be tied to the classes they led.
But Chabashira-sensei's salary was only 200,000.
Then what about the 6.02 million in her private account on her phone?
"Do teachers receive free accommodation and meals? Or are there any extra bonuses or something?"
[...]
This time, Manabu Horikita did not reply with words. He simply sent three dots.
Right, Hachiman's question was strange.
[Normally, teachers, like students, do not pay accommodation fees, but they have to cover their own meals.]
[However, Chabashira-sensei from your class is probably very frugal. Sometimes, when I leave work late and go to the cafeteria, I see her lining up at the free counter.]
[Sometimes I also see her picking up free relief supplies.] Manabu Horikita probably thought something was going on with Hachiman, so he provided quite a bit of information.
Oh.
So that was it.
In other words, Student Council work was exhausting, which was why Horikita finished work so late.
But.
Chabashira-sensei ate free meals too.
So Chabashira-sensei was also family-minded... my ass.
She clearly had a salary, so why was she eating those mountain vegetable meal sets that upperclassmen thought tasted explosively awful?
In other words.
Was this teacher actually saving money?
Could the huge sum of 6.02 million he had seen actually be what she had saved through years of scrimping and saving?
And yet, despite being so frugal, she had directly given him 200,000 just to investigate one student.
Chabashira-sensei.
Perhaps you did not merely want to climb upward because teachers' salaries were tied to the classes they led.
There was something deeper behind it.
In other words.
Just like the students, were those assigned to Class D—whether students or teachers—all people with problems?
Before you continue