"..." x2
This casual mention made the two girls present fall silent at the same time.
As the homeroom teacher, Sae Chabashira could check the details of points deducted from the class each day.
As for Suzune Horikita, she was probably the only person in the class who had never had points deducted. Although she could not confirm the specific violations or point deductions, she had no hopes for the students in this class.
At the beginning, all four classes had started with 1,000 points, barely counting as the same starting line.
But if those 1,000 points became zero in a single month—
Then forget about reaching Class A. They probably would not even be able to surpass Class C.
"So what are you planning to do next?" Chabashira-sensei glanced at Horikita before looking at Hachiman. "I cannot provide anything beyond the scope of my authority."
In other words, as long as it was within the range of what she could say, she would cooperate fully, right?
Hachiman thought to himself.
"First, I came to report the progress of my task and tell you that I am properly fulfilling our agreement," Hachiman said.
"Then you really are obedient," Chabashira seemed to praise him.
But that was not it, Chabashira-sensei.
Hachiman had brought Horikita here so she could confirm that Chabashira really stood on the side of Class Advancement.
After confirming that they shared the same goal, Horikita would probably work harder and assist him more willingly.
Hachiman did not think he was strong enough to handle everything alone. If someone helped him, things would become much easier and the chances of success would increase considerably.
"And the second aspect?" Chabashira said.
"Probably waiting for you to receive a notification from the school," Hachiman said. "My actions exposed the evaluation points of all four classes ahead of time, so the school will definitely take measures."
"One possible measure would be ending the first month's special exam for the new students early. Then Class D could securely keep these 480 points. That would be the best result."
"Of course, the school might also continue the assessment. That would be a real pain. If it chooses the latter and continues the exam, then we need to make some arrangements."
As he said this, Hachiman paused.
"After all, this exam puts far too much pressure on our class."
Uh.
That was true.
None of the three disagreed with that.
Because if they did nothing, the students of Class D would deduct all their own points.
That was too cruel.
And they had begun nearly a thousand points behind Class A, which already knew the exam rules.
How were they supposed to catch up?
So they had to build up their base points.
If the school ended this Behavioral Guidelines Exam early, that goal could be achieved.
"Normally, the gap between the four classes revealed now is roughly at the standard level of previous years."
"The gap between Class A and First Year Class B is more than a hundred points, while First Year Class C and First-year Class D trail the higher-ranked classes by three or four hundred points."
What Manabu Horikita had announced were the real-time scores.
Class A, First Year: 996 points
First Year Class B: 834 points
First Year Class C: 611 points
First-year Class D: 480 points
The gaps between them barely matched the situation in previous years.
"However," Chabashira added, "this year's Class A is too outstanding."
Yeah.
Only four points deducted in six days. What kind of monsters were they?
But everyone also understood what Chabashira had left unsaid.
That was that Class D was far worse than usual.
Because—
It was only the sixth day since enrollment, and Class D had already fallen to 480 points. If they did nothing, this year's Class D would earn zero points in its first month.
Both Hachiman and Suzune Horikita watched Chabashira-sensei.
At that moment, Chabashira felt the pressure too.
Beep! Just then, Chabashira looked at her phone.
Her brow furrowed slightly.
"The school sent a message," Chabashira said.
"It has instructed the homeroom teachers of the four first-year classes to inform the students of the school rules. However, this month's Behavioral Guidelines Exam will continue."
As she spoke, Chabashira looked at Hachiman and Horikita.
"Unfortunately, our wish has fallen through."
"The school is not satisfied with the current point totals that have been revealed. It has decided to carry the first month's Behavioral Guidelines Exam through to the end."
"In other words, although your actions exposed the class evaluation points early, the school is simply treating this as an unexpected situation and responding accordingly."
Chabashira said.
"And it has an extremely poor impression of Class D."
That made sense.
The students of Class D had damaged the cameras and then been penalized by the Student Council.
The Student Council had done its duty. Since it had deducted points, it announced the result.
Taken literally, the school would not consider whether the student had acted deliberately, whether he had already discovered the true nature of the school, and then chosen to do something like that on purpose.
"Then is there any other information?" Hachiman asked.
"There is," Chabashira said. "The contents of the Behavioral Guidelines Exam are also permitted to be announced."
"The school allows teachers to list the assessed items."
"But it will not list the exact number of points deducted for each violation."
Oh.
I see.
Then the plan had merely suffered a minor setback.
Hachiman had never expected the school to act out of charity, so the school's choice to continue the assessment was within his expectations.
Otherwise, he would not have specifically asked Kushida to spread rumors.
The goal was for the rumors to spread, then be confirmed—proving that this school really was that harsh. That way, the students could be forced to restrain themselves for their own sake.
Still.
This school was pretty interesting.
It was quite humane.
The assessment was originally supposed to take a month, and the school might not have wanted to end it now.
But it had revealed the contents of the assessment.
In other words, although this was an unexpected situation, it was handling it unexpectedly as well. It had turned a closed-book test into an open-book test—so could they manage it?
Therefore, Hachiman felt that the school's chairman was definitely someone who genuinely wanted to pursue education.
The Enemy Was at Honnō-ji: Leader Sakayanagi Was Class A's Greatest Traitor!
Although he had never met the man, Hachiman had formed some impression of the school's chairman.
He felt that the other party was probably quite open-minded.
Earlier, Chabashira-sensei had tried to trick him into making a deal, so she had purchased from the school the authority to exchange Private Points for cash in advance. Later, the school had also sent him a message granting that authority.
And it had imposed certain restrictions.
It stated that points came first; as long as one had points, one could buy anything.
But one could not cross the line completely.
The school was flexible, but it also had bottom lines.
And now, it was demonstrating that.
Since the first-year class evaluation points had been forced into the open, it simply revealed the test questions, turning a closed-book exam into an open-book one.
Was there any meaning in doing that?
There was.
For one thing, the revealed scores already reflected the gap that could emerge between the four classes after enrollment.
But there were still more than twenty days left in the month, so it became important whether they could preserve their advantage or avoid having even more points deducted.
This allowed the school to observe the students' reactions further.
Hachiman felt that if he were the chairman, he would probably adopt this approach as well.
It would increase the range of things that could be assessed.
Of course, that was too hypothetical.
Hachiman did not know any chairman.
And he did not think he had any path upward like that. As someone from Class D, earning more money was the important thing.
If he led Class D through one Class Advancement to Class A, he could obtain ten million yen in cash from Chabashira-sensei.
And if he could acquire other points during the process, he could try that too.
"Then I'll be leaving first," Sae Chabashira said.
Although she had received the message issued by the school, she still needed to attend a meeting.
In other words, the teachers had to establish a unified explanation—what they could tell the students and what still needed to be withheld.
Teachers had it tough too.
Watching Chabashira-sensei leave, Hachiman and Horikita did not stay any longer either.
However.
"The plan remains the same." As they went downstairs from the rooftop, Hachiman spoke to Suzune Horikita.
"The school has decided to reveal the contents of the Behavioral Guidelines Exam. That saves us trouble. Otherwise, we would have had to compile and fabricate the specific contents of the exam for our classmates to follow."
"Being able to take an open-book test directly is the best outcome."
"But there is still one problem we need to deal with. Rather, it is a major problem unique to the lower-ranked classes," Hachiman said.
"What do you mean?"
"Once Chabashira-sensei announces the school rules, I will definitely be attacked by everyone because I caused the class to lose fifty points by destroying the cameras," Hachiman said.
"One way to make a group unite quickly is to give it a common enemy, but I do not want to play that role for this class."
"And..."
Hachiman paused. "This is where you come in, Horikita."
"..." Suzune.
Before you continue