Eight subjects, 50 questions per subject, for a total of 400 questions—all to be completed within a month.
That means an average of more than ten questions per day. Plus, they needed backup questions in case any were rejected during review.
The pressure was intense.
It was best to leave question-making to students with strong academic skills. The amount of knowledge a person has directly affects how difficult their questions are.
Take someone like Sudou, for example. He might think he's come up with a really hard question, but to Horikita, the answer might be obvious at a glance.
"Making over 400 questions in a month… that sounds really rushed."
It wasn't just Kanda Shuichi—Hirata also realized the issue.
"It's fine. As long as the school accepts the questions, you can get them anywhere—whether from the internet, upperclassmen, or even discussing with the teachers. It doesn't matter how you do it, as long as the content stays within the first-year curriculum."
"And even if you don't make it in time, the school will provide a pre-prepared test for the opposing class. But the difficulty of that test is really low, so you'd better handle it yourselves."
So basically, if we use the school's test, it's as good as losing before the battle even starts?
"One more thing—you need to tell me as soon as possible which class you want to challenge. If another class picks the same target, you'll be allowed to change your choice or settle it with a lottery. This has to be decided before the small test; otherwise, you'll be assigned one of the remaining classes."
"That's all for the preliminary explanation about the small test and the final exam. The rest is up to you to figure out your strategy."
With that, Chabashira-sensei announced the end of the school day.
As soon as she left, Horikita immediately turned to her neighbor and gave an order.
"I'm holding a strategy meeting. Ayanokouji, can you call Hirata for me?" Then, without waiting for his response, she pressed her hand down on Kanda Shuichi, who was packing up his books. "And you—stay."
"You're really in a hurry, huh?"
Kanda Shuichi made a sarcastic remark but didn't refuse.
Horikita lifted her hand off his shoulder and walked over to Sudou, apparently wanting to bring him into the meeting too.
Ayanokouji obediently went to call Hirata.
For him, this was just another thing he had to deal with because of Chabashira-sensei's pressure. Thanks to Kanda Shuichi's impressive performance before, he had been able to lay low for nearly half a year. But since Kanda Shuichi didn't step up during the sports festival, Ayanokouji had been forced to reveal a bit of his ability to prove himself.
He didn't like being manipulated by Chabashira-sensei, but he also didn't want to get expelled over something like this. So, he decided to push someone else into the spotlight.
He admitted that Kanda Shuichi was skilled, but his mindset was too unpredictable. Take the sports festival, for example—Ayanokouji refused to believe that Kanda Shuichi hadn't seen through Ryuen's plan, yet he did almost nothing about it.
That meant he couldn't be relied on completely. You never knew when he'd suddenly decide to quit.
So Ayanokouji chose Horikita. If Kanda Shuichi wasn't going to step up, then Horikita would lead Class D forward.
That way, he could go back to his carefree, unnoticed life from last semester.
But to establish Horikita as the leader of Class D, she needed a major victory. This was the perfect opportunity.
The first priority was identifying the traitor in their class.
At the moment, Ayanokouji had no leads—everyone seemed loyal on the surface.
Well, he'd ask Horikita about it later. She might know something.
Aside from that, he also had to be on guard against Ryuen.
Some idiot had sent Ryuen a recorded conversation, which led to him discovering the wiretap Ayanokouji had just planted. Now, he was taking the blame for something he didn't even do.
But Ayanokouji had a feeling that Kanda Shuichi might know something about it. No—there was a chance he was the one who did it.
After reviewing all the recordings from the wiretap, he had pieced everything together.
Someone had known about Ryuen's plan to take down Horikita. But instead of exposing him, they waited until everything was over and then sent the recording.
As a result, when Ryuen couldn't find the traitor in his class, he discovered the wiretap that Ayanokouji had secretly installed with Chabashira-sensei's help.
Now, Ryuen believed that the person who sent the recording and the one who planted the wiretap were the same.
But in reality, they were two different people.
And somehow, Ayanokouji ended up taking the fall for it.
If Kanda Shuichi was the one who sent the recording, then a few things made sense—like the possibility that he had a spy in Class C, someone even Ryuen couldn't uncover.
If that were true, then Kanda Shuichi must also know that Ryuen had planted a spy in Class D.
Was that why he didn't act last time?
But if the person who sent the recording wasn't Kanda Shuichi, then everything would have to be scrapped and recalculated from the beginning.
That's why Ayanokouji felt stuck. As for directly asking Kanda Shuichi, there was no way he would admit it.
Unless he laid everything out in the open—but that was impossible.
How could he tell anyone that he had taken the blame for something he didn't do? Especially Kanda Shuichi—he would definitely just laugh at him!
So, Ayanokouji decided to ask Horikita about the class traitor first.
"Hirata will be here soon."
"Sudou had to stop by his club first, but he'll be back quickly."
Ayanokouji, who had gone to call Hirata, and Horikita, who had gone to get Sudou, were now both back in their seats.
"So, how do you guys see this upcoming exam?"
"With our eyes, of course. It's just a written test at the end of the day. As long as you study enough, it's nothing to worry about."
Kanda Shuichi shrugged. It wasn't that he didn't want to share his thoughts—it was just that if he spoke now, he'd have to repeat everything again when Hirata and the others arrived. That was too much effort.
Horikita sighed at Kanda Shuichi's unnecessary remark and turned to Ayanokouji Kiyotaka.
"Kanda's actually right about this—it's just a tougher test than usual…"
Before Ayanokouji could finish, he noticed Horikita giving him a warning look, so he quickly added,
"But the real problem this time is the pairing system."
Hearing this, Horikita nodded slightly.
"And since the test questions are written by students from other classes, we can expect the difficulty to be quite high. The more twisted the person making the questions, the harder they'll be. Even if two questions have the same answer, just changing the way they're worded can make them much more confusing."
For some reason, Kanda Shuichi felt like Horikita was indirectly insulting him.
Twisted personality? Just because the questions are hard? Is she trying to take a jab at me?
"Sorry to keep you waiting. We're here to talk about the exam strategy, right?"
Hirata, who had been called by Ayanokouji, arrived shortly after. He wasn't alone—Karuizawa had come with him.
However, Karuizawa's face showed clear reluctance.
As both a spy and a weak student, she had no interest in being part of this discussion.
She had originally planned to use her bad grades as an excuse to refuse when Ryuuen asked her to do things, but she never expected Hirata to invite her himself.
What could she do? She was panicking inside.
Sensing Karuizawa's unease, Kanda Shuichi shot her a reassuring glance.
Karuizawa instantly picked up on it and calmed down.
"Since we don't have much time for this, I'd like to start discussing strategies right away."
That was true—Hirata also felt the time crunch.
Not only did they need to figure out the pairing system before the mini-test, but they also had to prepare over 400 questions in just a month.
"Yeah, we should get started right away. First, about the pairing system—"
"Eh? Are we really doing this here? I'm against that! If we're going to talk, let's go to Palette instead. What do you think, Yousuke?"
Palette was a café on campus, a lively spot often filled with female students during lunch breaks and after school. It was just a few minutes away from the school building.
Horikita, surprisingly, nodded immediately at Karuizawa's suggestion.
"That works. We don't know if there are spies from other classes around here. Palette has private rooms we can use."
Rather than arguing with Karuizawa, Horikita just went along with it.
And she had a valid point.
"Um… can I join too?"
The one who spoke up was their classmate—Kushida Kikyo.
"The meeting was started by Horikita, so just ask her," Kanda Shuichi replied casually.
Hirata had no objections either.
As for Karuizawa and Ayanokouji, they remained silent. Just like Kanda Shuichi had said—if Horikita didn't mind, there wouldn't be a problem.
"Of course, I was planning to invite you anyway, Kushida," Horikita answered without hesitation.
"Could you three go ahead first? I need Kanda and Ayanokouji to stay for a moment. There's something I want to discuss privately."
Although Kanda Shuichi found it odd that Horikita wanted to talk to them separately, he nodded in agreement.
It felt like today was going to be a long one… Looks like I'll be eating the "foodie tablecloth" again.
"I'm heading out first, Shuichi."
After saying goodbye to Kanda Shuichi, Kushida picked up her bag and left with Hirata and Karuizawa to grab a spot at the café.
Once the three of them were gone, Kanda turned to Horikita, waiting to hear what she wanted to talk about.
"Let's talk outside. It's not convenient here."
With that, Horikita picked up her bag and left the classroom. Kanda Shuichi and Ayanokouji Kiyotaka followed behind her. Once they reached a quieter spot, the conversation resumed.
"I remember you and Kushida don't get along. You actually agreed to let her join in?" Kanda found it a bit strange.
Back on the cruise, Kushida had made it very clear that she hated Horikita, and Horikita wasn't exactly fond of Kushida either.
"Do you remember the leaked sports festival roster?"
Horikita didn't answer Kanda's question directly. Instead, she brought up something from before.
"Yeah… but what does that have to do with anything?"
Ayanokouji was confused.
"I think it was Kushida who leaked the list to Ryuen. She's the traitor in Class D."
Horikita said this with certainty, leaving both Ayanokouji and Kanda silent.
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