Right away, everyone turned to look at the beautiful girl with long black hair sitting by the window.
Horikita Suzune stood up.
"These are probably the leaders of each class," Horikita said. "Since yesterday, Chabashira-sensei told us that the school runs class competitions."
"And judging by the current class evaluation scores, it looks like the other three classes were already preparing, unlike us."
"So they must've picked their class leaders last month."
"First is Class C, the one closest to us in score. Their leader is Ichinose, who's really popular and seems to have earned her classmates' trust through her personality."
"As for Class A, it's Sakayanagi Arisu. She's the one who, back in the gym, was named by Shirogane as the person he would choose as his vice president if he became student council president."
Named by Shirogane?
Some students picked up on how Horikita said Sakayanagi's full name, but just referred to Miyuki Shirogane as "Shirogane-san."
That suggested she might be on friendly terms with him.
But most of the class was focused more on what she was saying.
So—
"Then does that mean our leader in Class D is Hirata?"
"I can't accept that."
Some students weren't happy with Hirata.
One of them was Yamauchi.
He'd run out of points, and even though Hirata still had 10,000, he wouldn't even lend him 1,000—saying something about managing things during the class meeting today.
But nothing's been said yet. And even if they do manage the points later, would anyone actually give him some?
"Everyone, please calm down. I'm not saying I *have* to be the leader. But I think what really matters now is the special test this month."
Hirata stood up and spoke.
"Chabashira-sensei told us yesterday that there's a special test every month. The rules for this one will be explained in a few days."
"But can we hear the rules now?" Hirata asked. "And if we do well, we can earn class evaluation points, right?"
Oh.
Some of the unhappy students calmed down immediately.
Right.
They were upset because they had no money—but now, maybe they could earn some?
"We were supposed to wait a few more days, but I'll tell you now," Chabashira Sae said, glancing at him.
Hirata had asked about the rules of this month's special test.
But unfortunately, he was only thinking about how students in class didn't have money to live on—not about how Class D had finished in last place in the last test and really needed to step up.
Still, she said, "I already mentioned it yesterday. This month's special test is the usual written exam."
"The subjects are math, physics, chemistry, biology, and English."
"The test will be held on the 25th and 26th. Cheating is not allowed during the test. If anyone is caught cheating, they will be expelled. Keep that in mind—this school has no place for cheaters."
Chabashira continued speaking as the students below held their breath.
"Every month, the special exam will either increase or decrease your class points. And this month is no different."
That was what everyone had been waiting to hear.
As for the decrease in class points, Class D students didn't really care. After all, they were already at zero—how much lower could it go?
"So how many points can we earn?"
Someone asked this question.
Chabashira looked over and saw it was Kushida. Kushida was like the class angel, and of course she asked the question everyone was curious about.
"100 points. If you all do well enough in this midterm exam, your class can earn up to 100 class points. That translates to 10,000 private points per person," Chabashira explained.
"Only 100 points, huh—"
The students sounded disappointed. That wasn't a lot of money.
After all, last month they lost 1,000 points, and now in the second month, the reward seemed stingy.
"Think it's too little? Heh, well, I'm sure it feels that way, especially for a class like yours that lost the entire 1,000 base points in the very first month. Why not try being more like Class A, B, or even C? They'll be getting plenty of points this month," Chabashira said coldly.
Then she added, "Even this 100-point reward is only for truly outstanding results."
"And every year, Class D students not only struggle to reach that level—they also face an added danger."
"Danger?" someone asked in confusion.
"Yes. Think about it. What other school out there offers free tuition and gives you money to live on? Even here at the Advanced Nurturing High School, we can't just throw away money forever."
"Cutting losses and reducing spending is sometimes necessary."
"Which means... some students will be expelled."
"Of course, the school doesn't just kick people out for no reason. Only those who perform poorly and show no signs of progress will be expelled."
"And in this exam, there's a real chance of that happening. You'll be tested on five subjects. If you fail even one of them..." She pulled out the withdrawal forms that had already been returned by some students, "you'll be expelled."
"Actually, from now on, any student who fails a test will be expelled," Chabashira said.
"Ahhhhh—"
Many students started panicking, worried they might fail.
"Every year, some students get expelled during this midterm exam." But Chabashira-sensei showed no sympathy. "Just look at your garbage scores!"
"This time, just taking the exam will earn your class some points. But to get the full 100 class points, the average score across all subjects needs to be 70 or more."
"So instead of thinking about the reward, you should probably focus on how not to get expelled."
In that instant, the classroom was filled with groans.
"…" Meanwhile, Shirogane kept watching a video, and Kamuro seemed more interested in the two sets of written test results Chabashira had brought.
Kamuro was Sakayanagi's loyal follower. If Sakayanagi had printed out a roster of all the first-year students, Kamuro would definitely have seen it—so she probably already knew how Class D was doing.
And yet, here she was, still taking notes and seriously recording Class D's scores.
Obviously.
The class roster printed by Sakayanagi probably didn't have that much information on it.
Looking at it this way, Kushida from Class D really is good at digging up information. She filled in a lot of blanks.
Still, Ayanokouji paid some attention to it too.
His assessment of everyone's academic ability was pretty much the same as Kushida's.
You could say that even though Class D has a lot of students who are weak academically, there are still some strong ones.
There are several students rated with an academic ability of A.
Horikita Suzune, Kouenji Rokusuke, Yukimura Teruhiko, and Mei Yu—who isn't great at math but got a perfect score in English, the only one in Class D to do so.
There are also a few students rated between B- and B+.
Like Kushida, Hirata Yousuke, and Matsushita Chiaki.
On the other hand, Karuizawa Kei and Sakura Airi, who the system hinted had some secrets, were at the bottom of the rankings.
"That's the general situation," Chabashira said. "If you want to earn even a little bit of living points, then you'll need to do your best on this test. How many class points you can earn depends on your performance."
"But if you already feel hopeless and want to give up, I have withdrawal forms right here. You can take one and leave right away."
"After all, you're just useless students who couldn't even pass the basic monthly exam in your second month here."
"Dropping out would even save the school some money." Chabashira's words were harsh.
Naturally, some students in the class weren't happy about this.
"I've had it with this school, where whether we stay or get kicked out depends on a test." A tall boy with short red hair stood up.
"Looks like you're pretty confident in your abilities, Sudou," Chabashira said. "Do you think you'd do well no matter what school you went to?"
In truth, Sudou—full name Sudou Ken—did have some reason to be proud.
He was one of the most athletic students in the class, second only to Kouenji and Ayanokouji, and probably wouldn't lose to anyone even in Class A.
Soon after entering the school, within two weeks, he joined the basketball club and became a regular player thanks to his skills and physical ability. That earned him a monthly 20,000-point allowance.
Given that most students didn't get any allowance, he should have been living pretty well.
But.
Now—
The reason is simple.
His academic scores, both in math and English, were the second worst in the class.
The lowest scorer was a boy named Ike Kanji.
And both the last and second-to-last are at high risk of failing the test and being expelled.
So, is Sudou thinking of quitting now to cut his losses?
"That's not it," Hirata quickly stood up. "Sudou, calm down. Don't be rash."
"Also, in this test, no one from our class is going to get expelled," Hirata said with confidence. "I'm sure there's a way for all of us to get through this safely."
Hirata had already stood out several times with his actions.
While watching the video, Ayanokouji noticed that Hirata always stepped in right away whenever there was talk of someone dropping out.