Houtarou Oreki Classroom of the Elite

Because the seating position was quite far from Honami, Houtarou withdrew his gaze after watching Arisu leave.

However, from an outsider's perspective, those two seem to have a good relationship. They're already shopping together like friends.

While Honami has many friends, Arisu has very few.

"…"

This reminded Houtarou of the time before the Island Exam when Arisu saw his text messages with Honami.

At that time, he had arranged to meet with Honami. As a result, Arisu directly arranged for Masumi to keep an eye on him.

And during the scheduled meeting time with Honami, she had to postpone because she was with friends. Thinking about it now, that friend was probably this little princess.

Then there was Arisu's revelation about meeting her soulmate at the beach before enrolling. This suggests that she, like Kei, has maxed out her affection for him. That's why she's so concerned about the girls he interacts with.

Isn't this quite troublesome? He's surrounded by romantic complications.

Huh…

While thinking about this—

Beep!

He received a message.

| Arisu Sakayanagi |

| Oreki-kun, have you finished taking photos? |

| But even after finishing the photos, you're still having coffee with a girl. |

| How leisurely~ |

Had she seen this from the beginning? Or did she deliberately walk past with Honami?

It seems that since the vacation started, Arisu has become even more aggressive than before.

He put down his phone.

"It's just that we haven't seen any students from Ryūen's class these past two days." Haruka, who remained uninvolved, suddenly mentioned.

After vacation started, students were free. Like all students in the school, they would encounter students from other classes in various places.

But were Kakeru's class students not around?

Houtarou already understood that Haruka was the type who easily became familiar with others after initial contact. But her topic was quite interesting.

That is: Now that vacation had started, what were the new Class C students doing?

Houtarou then sent an instruction.

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First-year Class D.

No, that's not right. At 8 AM, staff had already arrived and changed the class sign to First-year Class C. Yes. Today is September 1st, and all classes' Class Points have been updated.

Their Class Points increased by 50, surpassing Class C and advancing. They returned to their original position.

"Feels good... Back to Class C again."

Kakeru's classmates were back in their rightful position. The classroom hadn't changed — it was still on the first floor — but everyone felt proud looking at the new class sign.

The class's teacher Kazuma was also in a good mood. Yesterday, someone spotted him on the road, and the teacher's face seemed to show a smile.

This was natural because the merit-based system applied not only to students but to teachers as well.

And since Kazuma still owed money, the class's promotion meant his salary would also increase.

However... others looked toward Kakeru with concern.

After the exam ended on the 27th, they had been required to come to the classroom in the morning for four consecutive days. At the same time, the evening supplementary classes from 19:00-21:00 continued, which was extremely tiring.

No other class forced their students to study as intensively as theirs!

Would today be the same?

"Ryūen, we've been in the classroom for three consecutive mornings. It's vacation time now. If it's supplementary classes, the evening should be enough. Why do you still need to occupy our morning time?"

Finally, a student couldn't help but speak up.

"You're quick to abandon the cart after the horse has done its job." Kakeru said expressionlessly, "And you even used the word 'occupy'!"

Bang!

He kicked over a desk with such force that it made a deafening noise, startling everyone.

The complaining student found Kakeru already standing in front of him.

"Umm... Ryūen, what are you trying to do? Don't forget we're in the classroom now!" The boy quickly said, "The cameras, the cameras are on!"

"Teachers won't be paying attention to us at a time like this!" Kakeru said expressionlessly, "And you seem to have forgotten who allowed you to continue staying in this classroom. Go ask the second-year Class C and third-year Class C. At the end of the first semester, did their classes still have all 40 students?"

With this, most of the complaining students fell silent.

After the exam ended on the 28th, Kakeru had them come to the classroom every morning. But he didn't say anything, just had them stay. This behavior seemed strange.

And now…

"It seems my patience is no longer needed." Kakeru said, "There's only one reason I had you come here. I was giving that spy time. If he or she had come to terms with me, I would have forgiven them. But until now, that spy still hasn't responded and remains obstinate."

Spy? Does he mean someone among them?

At this moment, everyone finally realized. This was Class C's routine spy cleanup phase.

They had cleared out spies once before, but as the class became poorer, it was hard to guarantee that new spies wouldn't appear after the first cleanup. If their class was exploited again, the next loss would be even worse.

So Kakeru needed to perform this repetitive work.

Additionally, because they had no money left, they needed to single out some people as examples.

This was to avoid inevitable expulsion situations where there was no one to expel or where everyone was panicking. They needed to first select a visible backup. To prevent subsequent chaos.

This was suggested by Hiyori.

The class was very poor now, so their options were limited. But preparations were necessary. As the class's strategist and academic leader, she was also responsible for study sessions in the evening.

It was better now than before; everyone had finally completed the elementary school stage courses and moved to the middle school stage courses. There seemed to be some progress.

But Hiyori felt this was just a drop in the bucket. Even starting from scratch, some students were... unable to keep up, or rather, not suited for studying. The class's overall academic level still couldn't keep pace.

The gap with Class A or Class B remained vast. Therefore, she was no longer enthusiastic about this endeavor.

Instead, she turned her attention to other class matters and proposed a precautionary plan to Kakeru, which received his approval.

The class's current situation was dire. Not only had everyone's accumulated Points been depleted, but they now owed another 1 million Points to Houtarou — that gold-eating beast.

Additionally, their agreement to exchange supplies for living expenses with Class B had been voided, and they'd signed a new agreement owing 3 million Points or equivalent aid.

After just one semester, the class had suffered enormous losses. Their ability to withstand risks had greatly diminished.

What would happen if the school's special exam presented a risk they couldn't defend against?

It would be impossible to gather 20 million Points to protect anyone. They might need to consider whether preserving all students was realistic. After all, second and third-year classes had also experienced losses.

If their only goal was to advance to Class A, then maintaining 40 students wasn't strictly necessary. But randomly selecting sacrificial students for inevitable future expulsions was too extreme — no one would agree to that.

However, if they chose spies as the sacrifices, it wouldn't matter. Choosing to be a spy meant the class didn't matter to them anyway.

Hiyori's plan surprised Kakeru somewhat. He had always thought she was gentle and kind, similar to Honami's sweet disposition, but now she seemed more "chaotic good".

But this made sense — if she were truly perfect, she wouldn't have been placed in Class C. She would be with Honami and her group.

So, Hiyori quietly continued reading.

"If it's just for this kind of boring thing, then I'll leave first." A voice suddenly interrupted.

It was a girl with blue short hair who had no friends in the class. This was Mio Ibuki.

"It's you again, Mio! Can you guarantee you're not a spy? I arranged for you to monitor Houtarou Oreki, but in the end, you unilaterally terminated the order. Then you ran off to Kōenji for tutoring. Don't think I don't know." Kakeru said.

"I need to consider my own future." Mio said, "Rather than wasting time here, I might as well study more."

Then don't be so easily deceived.

Kakeru was certain that she had been brainwashed by Houtarou again. Now she was completely refusing to follow orders.

"If you want to prove your innocence, hand over your phone!" Kakeru demanded, "I want to check!"

"By what right!" Mio refused.

"Can you guarantee that you're not a spy?" Kakeru said, "If you want to continue staying at this school, your class is still a very important component, and once you betray it, you become the class's enemy.

If there's an expulsion exam, I guarantee that the person expelled from our class will definitely be this spy!

Or would you rather have expulsions decided by ranking test scores or physical ability tests, with the last-place student being expelled?"

While his own academic ability was poor, he certainly wouldn't be in last place. At the same time, although he couldn't beat Albert, his physical abilities weren't bad.

And now...

"How could this happen…"

"Ryūen, have you gone mad? How can you decide who gets expelled like this?"

"But... if someone really gets expelled, there's still the option of paying 20 million Points to avoid the punishment. But... should we spend 20 million to prevent it?"

"The Points in school can be exchanged for money at graduation…"

The students in the class began to panic.

"Shut up!" Kakeru shouted, "Anyone who doesn't want to be expelled, hand over your phones to me. Or are you all spies?!"

Hiyori: "…"

Actually, Kakeru had always used force. But exposing his precautionary measures so openly and directly was too blunt.

Oh. Wait a minute. Hiyori noticed that as he was speaking, several classmates showed unnatural expressions.

Hmm…. Are there that many spies in the class?

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