Personal Grudges Between Teachers

As the evening homeroom meeting ended and the day's classes finally came to a close, Class B's classroom shed its tense academic atmosphere and became relaxed and lively.

Students packed their bags in twos and threes, either heading to the cafeteria together or strolling back to the dorms. The entire classroom still retained Class B's signature harmonious atmosphere—there was no undercurrent of suspicion, only the easy camaraderie of classmates.

Ichinose Honami stood beside the podium, carefully sorting through the day's class ledger points while answering all sorts of questions in the class chat, diligently serving as the class's pillar. Gentle and dependable, she had long grown accustomed to quietly maintaining order and soothing everyone's emotions.

Just then, a gentle yet familiar female voice came from the classroom door, instantly drawing the attention of the entire class.

Hoshinomiya Chie stood at the entrance to Class B, dressed in a simple teacher's uniform. Her bearing was gentle and relaxed, but the usual casual languor in her eyes was gone, replaced by a trace of gravity and seriousness. It was obvious she had come for a specific reason.

Seeing this, Ichinose instinctively stopped what she was doing and hurried over at once.

As class representative, coordinating with the homeroom teacher and handling class affairs had already become routine for her. She naturally assumed the teacher had come to discuss collective class matters or remind them of exam precautions.

"Ms. Hoshinomiya, do you have arrangements for a class meeting or an exam notice to give us?" Ichinose asked first, her tone polite and gentle.

Hoshinomiya lightly shook her head. Her gaze passed over Ichinose and swept faintly across the students in the classroom before precisely settling on Bai Mu in the corner.

She withdrew her gaze and spoke warmly to Ichinose, though her tone carried an arrangement that brooked no refusal. "It isn't a notice for the whole class. I came today specifically to see Bai Mu."

Ichinose paused slightly, a flicker of surprise passing through her eyes.

Since the beginning of the school year, Hoshinomiya had always been laid-back and lenient, rarely speaking with students individually, much less coming all the way to a classroom to seek someone out specifically. And judging by the teacher's expression, this clearly was no trivial matter.

Before Ichinose could think further, Hoshinomiya added, cutting off any possibility of someone accompanying them. "I have a private matter to discuss with him alone. No one else needs to come."

Those clear words—"discuss alone"—made the chatting students around them glance over, and half the classroom instantly fell silent.

The same question arose in everyone's minds at once—what could possibly require the homeroom teacher to come here personally and speak to Bai Mu alone?

Hearing this, Bai Mu showed neither surprise nor panic. He merely closed the book on his desk at an unhurried pace, his movements relaxed and composed.

He already had a rough idea. Hoshinomiya had deliberately avoided everyone else to speak with him alone; it had to be related to the upcoming special exam, the school's deeper rules, or some hidden class power struggle. Ordinary trivialities would never warrant such solemnity.

"Thank you for coming all this way, Ms. Hoshinomiya." Bai Mu stood up, his tone calm and polite, without the nervous restraint of an ordinary student.

Though Ichinose was full of curiosity as she watched them, she obediently nodded and did not ask another question, dutifully observing the boundaries expected of a student. "Then please take your time, Ms. Hoshinomiya, Bai Mu. I'll watch over the classroom."

Her gentle, sensible nature meant she would never rashly pry into someone else's private affairs, even though her curiosity had already quietly reached its peak.

Hoshinomiya gave a slight nod, turned, and took the lead out of the classroom. Bai Mu followed close behind. One in front and one behind, they headed toward the rooftop at the top of the school building.

The campus had shed its daytime bustle by evening, and the corridors were spacious and quiet. The two walked in silence without exchanging unnecessary words. A subtle atmosphere lingered around them, making it faintly clear that their coming conversation hid some earth-shattering secret unknown to others.

The rooftop's iron door was not locked. It was an area the school tacitly allowed students to use for relaxation, and one of the few secluded corners in the entire school that avoided surveillance blind spots and allowed private conversations.

Bai Mu gently pushed open the iron door, and the evening wind rushed toward him at once, carrying the distinctive chill of dusk and scattering the lingering heat of the afternoon.

Hoshinomiya Chie stood at the edge of the rooftop, quietly waiting. The evening breeze stirred her long hair, stripping away the gentle, approachable image she wore in the classroom and revealing a little of an adult's fatigue and weathered weariness. Complex emotions she had never shown before were hidden in her eyes.

When the footsteps stopped, Hoshinomiya turned to look at Bai Mu. Without any needless pleasantries, she got straight to the point, her tone direct and serious. "I called you here because there's a private matter—and also a major matter concerning the balance of the entire year. I wanted to give you advance notice."

Bai Mu stopped, his expression calm and neither servile nor arrogant. "Please go ahead, Ms. Hoshinomiya."

His posture was relaxed, without the nervous unease an ordinary student would show before a homeroom teacher. It was as though this was not a teacher summoning a student, but a meeting between two equal players in a contest.

As Hoshinomiya watched his composure, far beyond that of his peers, a trace of approval flashed through her eyes, mixed with a measure of helplessness. She had long seen that this foreign student was far from the laid-back, mediocre person he appeared to be. His scheming, vision, and ability to plan were far deeper than those of Class B's other students, even many upperclassmen.

"You should have noticed that the homeroom teachers of the four classes have never simply minded their own business," Hoshinomiya said slowly as she watched the distant sunset. "Between us, there are also positions, grudges, and struggles—just like the class conflicts among you students."

Bai Mu nodded slightly, unsurprised.

Advanced Nurturing had upheld the principle that strength came first from beginning to end. Even students were forced into intense competition and mutual restraint, so naturally the school's teachers could not all be one harmonious group. Wherever there were people, there were struggles, and this school magnified the competitive side of human nature to the extreme.

"You should be familiar with Chabashira Sae, the homeroom teacher of Class D," Hoshinomiya said, turning to look at Bai Mu seriously.

Bai Mu replied evenly, "I've heard a little. Her methods are forceful, and she is highly goal-oriented."

"She and I knew each other in our student days." Hoshinomiya sighed softly, her voice concealing resentment that had built up over many years. "We were in the same year. We were once roommates, best friends, and rivals who understood each other better than anyone."

Those words made Bai Mu glance at her slightly, surprise rising in his heart.

Who would have thought that two homeroom teachers with completely opposite personalities and drastically different management styles had once been old friends from the same school—intimate roommates, even? The contrast was more absurd than Shibata Hayate calling himself handsome despite having such an utterly ordinary face.

Without pausing, Hoshinomiya slowly revealed a grudge that had been buried for years.

"When we were students, we were also in our third year of high school. Near graduation, the school launched an extremely cruel 'Full-Class Consensus Special Exam.' The rules were simple, and cruel: the entire class had to make the same choice in order to pass and preserve its class ranking. If even one person disagreed, everyone failed."

"That exam directly determined everyone's qualifications for graduation, their guaranteed admission slots at prestigious universities, and their future paths. It was the final verdict on the fate of our entire year."

At the time, Hoshinomiya had been at the top of her class, with a bright future ahead of her. She had firmly secured a top ranking in Class A and held a guaranteed admission slot at a top university. As long as she passed the final special exam, she would be able to use the school's premier resources to enter one of Japan's finest universities and live a smooth, successful life.

Yet everyone's bright future was ultimately buried by Chabashira Sae.

"At the time, the class faced a dilemma. On one side was the future of everyone in the class; on the other was Chabashira's lover at the time." A colder edge entered Hoshinomiya's voice. "For the sake of her personal feelings, she firmly refused to cooperate with the class's unified choice and stubbornly went against the decision of the entire class."

"In the end, the exam failed, the class points were reset to zero, and everyone's rankings plummeted. I went from being a promising Class A graduate to falling straight to rock bottom. I completely lost my guaranteed admission qualification, and every plan I had made for my life was rendered void."

Years of accumulated effort, the fruits of all that hard study, the bright future that had been within reach—all of it vanished like a bubble because of someone else's momentary softness and personal feelings.

Such hatred was enough to make someone hold a grudge for more than a decade, unable to let it go.

"I won't deny her kindness, but at this school, soft-heartedness and personal feelings are the most useless and harmful things there are." Hoshinomiya's gaze sharpened. "Her moment of tenderness back then ruined the lives of an entire class. It ruined my future too."

Bai Mu listened quietly, understanding dawning in his heart.

As expected, Advanced Nurturing had never had grudges without cause. The opposition between teachers was, in essence, the lingering consequence of past campus struggles, perfectly mirroring the choices and conflicts the students now faced.

"So that's why you're targeting Class D—and Ms. Chabashira?" Bai Mu bluntly exposed the heart of the matter.

Hoshinomiya did not hide it in the slightest. She nodded calmly, making no attempt to conceal her selfish motives. "Yes. I have no real obsession in this life. My only obsession is making sure Chabashira Sae doesn't get what she wants."

"She's in charge of Class D now, painstakingly supporting her students and laying out plans for a comeback. She wants to lead Class D all the way to Class A, redeem herself, and prove that her choice back then wasn't wrong."

"And my goal is simple—I want to personally shatter all her hopes and completely prevent Class D from making a comeback."

Her words struck like a hammer, carrying years of pent-up resentment and obsession. The façade of the gentle teacher she usually portrayed had completely fallen away.

Bai Mu instantly pieced everything together.

"You called me out to talk alone because you want me to cooperate with you and suppress Class D?" Bai Mu asked lightly, exposing her purpose in a single sentence.

Seeing how clearly he understood, Hoshinomiya chuckled and stopped beating around the bush. "That's right. In all of Class B, Ichinose is too kind-hearted and soft, Kanzaki is too rule-bound and conservative, and most of the rest simply go with the flow. Only you are calm enough, calculating enough, able to understand the rules—and ruthless enough to act."

"Even that idea you had before—using money to buy someone to take an expulsion slot—was enough to prove that you're fundamentally different from the gentle little good kids in Class B."

Hoshinomiya had an exceptionally sharp eye. At a glance, she saw through Bai Mu's true nature.

Bai Mu neither confirmed nor denied it. He simply said in an even tone, "My purpose in enrolling here is only to take control of my own life. I don't want to be swept along by the rules or eliminated by exams. Stopping other classes from making a comeback and reaching Class A was always part of the path I had to take."

He did not need Hoshinomiya's request. Suppressing Class D, keeping Class A in check, and manipulating Class C had already been part of the game board he had laid out.

"I can go along with your plans, and I won't take the initiative to help Class D rise," Bai Mu stated his bottom line. "But I have one condition."

"Go ahead." Hoshinomiya immediately responded, her eyes full of seriousness.

"The grudges between teachers are your own business." Bai Mu's gaze was cold and clear, his attitude unwavering. "Don't forcibly interfere in the students' battles. Don't deliberately give me or Class B advantages or traps. What I want is a fair match—I want to win through my own ability, not through a teacher's favoritism, and I won't become a tool for your revenge."

That was his bottom line.

He could take advantage of the situation to help Hoshinomiya block Class D, and he could be happy to see it happen, but he would never become a pawn in someone else's revenge. Nor would he allow someone else's personal grudges to disrupt his overall plans.

Hoshinomiya paused slightly, then smiled in understanding.

She should have realized long ago that this deeply calculating boy would never allow himself to be manipulated. He seemed easygoing, detached, and content to slack off, but in truth, his boundaries were clear, his desire for control was strong, and he always kept the initiative firmly in his own hands.

"Fine." Hoshinomiya agreed decisively. "I'll only give you advance warning, so Chabashira's schemes don't catch you off guard. From then on, the struggles between classes and the contests in the exams will be entirely up to you students. I absolutely won't interfere."

It was an unspoken understanding between them, as well as a fair, mutual partnership.

Once the agreement was settled, the atmosphere on the rooftop eased.