The Exam Arrives

To her slight disappointment, Kushida Kikyo's cooking was only a little above average, but Ryuuen was pleased that she had prepared a very generous meal. It was clear she had put a lot of effort into it, with saury, miso, teriyaki, ginger pork stir-fry, tonkatsu, macaroni, and sashimi.

More importantly, Kikyo had put on light makeup and even brought back a pair of black stockings. Ryuuen was very satisfied that she knew how to please him, so after dinner, he taught Kikyo a couple of moves. Watching Kushida Kikyo, wearing his boxing gloves, punch the sandbag repeatedly, sweat pouring down her, Ryuuen chuckled to himself: This girl Kikyo doesn't actually think a few more punches will let her beat me, does she?

The next day, Kikyo went to Horikita and repeated what Ryuuen had said. Although Kushida Kikyo disliked Horikita Suzune intensely, she still had to force a smile and interact with Horikita to complete Ryuuen's task.

Bitch, I'll make sure you get expelled sooner or later! Kushida Kikyo cursed Horikita Suzune under her breath after leaving.

Class D, led by Horikita and Hirata, also organized study sessions. After all, failing would lead to expulsion, so they were all quite panicked. Ryuuen, upon hearing this news, naturally couldn't let them study in peace.

Ryuuen still sent out Ishizaki's trio. These three were quite unpopular in Class D, being involved in the Sudo Incident, so having them disrupt the struggling students in Class D was more effective. Especially Sudo; as soon as Ishizaki's trio stood nearby, Sudo couldn't read a single word in his book.

Eventually, Class D's study sessions had to move from the library to a cafe, then to a bookstore. But Class C's members were always like persistent ghosts, finding them no matter where they moved (this was, of course, Kushida Kikyo's doing). Finally, they could only study in the dorms, but even then, Class C's members kept knocking on their doors.

"Shameless!"

The Class D students wanted several times to teach Ishizaki and his group a lesson, but they were afraid of being scammed out of 100,000 points like Sudo. They wanted to complain to the school, but Ishizaki's actions didn't violate school rules.

Under these conditions, Horikita Suzune had no choice but to discuss with Ayanokoji and decide to buy past exam papers from the upperclassmen.

"We don't have that many points to buy the papers, Horikita," Ayanokoji reminded her.

"But judging from our class's current study progress, if we don't buy them, someone will definitely fail."

"So you want to crowdfund? It's for the class, after all; everyone benefits, don't they?"

"Do you think the good students will agree to crowdfund? Do you think the struggling students really have that many points to spare? They probably still have a stroke of luck mindset, thinking they won't fail and thus won't want to pay."

What Horikita said made sense, but the price set by the upperclassman was truly exorbitant: 500,000 points. After approaching several upperclassmen, Horikita Suzune finally found a third-year senior who only asked for 300,000 points. Horikita didn't have that many points, so she arranged with the senior for installment payments: 50,000 per month for seven months, totaling 350,000.

Signing the contract with the senior went smoothly. A contract was meant to bind student transactions; if someone violated it, they could be reported to the school, who could enforce it or even expel the student who breached the contract. The scope and flexibility of contracts were broad, and naturally, so was their enforceability.

However, one clause in the contract made Horikita Suzune a bit confused: "If Party B is unable to repay points on time for the current month, Party B shall handle household chores for Party A for that month."

This clause was perfectly acceptable, but Horikita Suzune felt the senior in front of her didn't seem like someone who was bad at household chores. Still, Horikita Suzune didn't ask further; asking such a thing of a girl wasn't polite.

Horikita decisively signed the contract and then meticulously scanned the exam papers the senior had given her. However, her attention was solely on the papers, and she completely missed that the senior had put away the contract without signing it herself.

That night, the contract appeared in Ryuuen's hands. There's no such thing as a free lunch; that senior was a decoy Ryuuen had bribed with 550,000 points.

And Ryuuen felt no guilt at all. After all, Horikita Suzune had come to him herself. This wasn't Ryuuen provoking her, nor did it violate his agreement with Horikita Manabu.

Horikita Manabu, as agreed, suggested to the school board that the exam questions be modified. The school board, after listening to Horikita Manabu's persuasion, approved his proposal.

Before the exam, studying was hard; during the exam, taking it was hard; after the exam, the results were hard.

Since it was the first time the exam papers were revised, the difficulty wasn't set too high, but even with all their hard studying, some students in Class C still failed.

Yabu Nanami, the girl who had previously supported Ryuuen's rule—frail, naive, and a bit foolish—her expression shifted from surprise to panic to fear when the results were announced.

She was one point short in English!

Yabu Nanami was going to be expelled! This was the thought in most people's minds. Although they hadn't known her for long, most cast sympathetic glances her way.

Tears welled up in her eyes, and she covered her mouth, unable to accept the reality. Even her long green hair seemed dim at that moment.

Ryuuen raised an eyebrow. Women truly are made of water; a small matter and they shed a few drops.

Hiyori, who hadn't spoken to Ryuuen for days, finally addressed him: "Ryuuen, you said you'd lead all of us to Class A. Are you going to abandon Yabu now?"

This truly was Class C's little angel. Although she hadn't been interested in reaching Class A before, when a classmate faced the risk of expulsion, she still stepped forward. While her words questioned Ryuuen, it didn't matter. Ryuuen hadn't spoken the moment the results were announced because he was waiting for Hiyori. Only if Hiyori spoke first could she establish authority among the girls. As Ryuuen knew, quite a few girls still didn't respect Hiyori, which was detrimental to class unity.

"I can cover that one point for Yabu, but I want you all to remember, any favor you receive comes at a price. I will lead you to Class A, but that doesn't mean you don't have to do anything. Those without value are discarded first. If you can't even manage something as simple as studying, it's best to leave this school sooner rather than later."

Ryuuen's words struck home for every student in Class C. They had already discovered how different this school was; they also wanted to reach Class A, but getting something for nothing wouldn't fly with Ryuuen. No one could be lazy. The difficulty of the regular academic exams at this school wasn't high; as long as they studied seriously, they could pass. The truly difficult part was the special exams.

Ryuuen didn't want any more instances of failing regular exams in his class.

For the one point Yabu Nanami was short, Ryuuen spent 100,000 points to buy it from Sakagami Kazuma-sensei.

The elites in Class A naturally wouldn't be tripped up by such a minor exam. Class B, with Ichinose organizing study sessions, also had no one fail. Only Class D experienced the same issue.

When the exam papers were handed back, Horikita's face turned exceptionally grim. The questions were completely different from the papers she had bought. Although she was confident she would pass, and even get a good score, Sudo and the others were definitely going to fail.

This exam only covered Japanese, math, and English.

Sudo was 2 points short in Japanese and 5 points short in English; he passed math.

Ike Kanji was 2 points short in math.

Sakura Airi was 1 point short in Japanese and 4 points short in math.

When the results were announced, Sudo was the first to rush up to Horikita and grab her collar: "Didn't you say the exam questions would be very similar to the papers you gave us? Then why did I fail?!"

Chabashira stood on the podium, watching the farce, hoping Ayanokoji would step in to resolve the situation. But he remained silent, his expression unchanged even as Horikita was roughly treated. Chabashira wanted to say something, but she opened her mouth and nothing came out.