The next day.
At school.
"Shirogane, did you stay up late studying again yesterday?"
As soon as Shirogane entered the classroom, a girl sitting next to him spoke up.
This was Shiina.
Today, she was once again a distraction on Miyuki's journey of studying. But after realizing that she also loved learning, he found that his resistance to her had grown stronger.
"I saw something a little unsettling," Miyuki said as he pulled out his chair and sat down. "So I'm feeling a bit tense. But I still studied."
But I still studied.
Listen to that—what kind of weird thing was that to say?
So no matter what happens, you still have to study?
Just then—*clap!*
[Shiina seemed to be impressed by your endurance. She was wondering how a person could push themselves this far.]
Hmm?
Miyuki wasn't too surprised to hear that voice in his head.
Was this level of effort really that shocking?
For him, this was just normal.
Since he didn't have a natural gift for studying, the only way to keep up was through sheer hard work.
The reason was simple—when he was little, he hadn't done well on his kindergarten and elementary school entrance exams. Because of that, his mother never really cared for him. And when she left, she only took his younger sister with her.
That made him feel like he wasn't good enough for his mother.
To his young mind, it seemed like she had abandoned him because his grades weren't good enough. So he believed that if he improved his grades, she would come back for him.
But even when his grades went up, she never returned.
By the time Miyuki realized this, he had already grown up. That was when he saw just how poor his family really was. But good grades could earn scholarships. So from then on, he stuck to studying hard.
Thinking about it now, that habit had lasted all the way until now.
And then... he ended up in Advanced Nurturing High School.
Only to be placed in Class C.
Now that he knew how the class system worked, it was obvious that Class A had the best students.
Which meant that he had been placed in a lower-ranked class because he had some flaws.
That feeling—of being what was left over after the best were picked—wasn't great.
So.
He had to move up.
Not just because he was in Class C, but because he wanted the school's promised reward.
Guaranteed admission to any university without needing to take entrance exams—this was something he needed more than anything.
But to move up, the class had to beat Class A in overall ranking.
The school had given them three years—meaning that as long as they surpassed Class A by graduation, they could still get the reward.
It was going to be a long, drawn-out battle.
Last night, at around 10:30 PM, the cold and arrogant Ryuen sent over three pictures.
They were photos of three small blackboards.
The first blackboard was completely empty.
But on the second and third blackboards, there were numbers written.
The second one said:
A1210
B780
C430
D200
The third blackboard displayed:
A2330
B1570
C300
D70
At first glance, the numbers didn't make much sense. But after understanding how this school worked, it became clear—these three blackboards were likely showing the evaluation scores for each class across all three grade levels.
And as expected, Classes C and D were far behind.
However, Ryuen didn't specify which grade the A2330 score belonged to. Even when Shirogane later messaged him to ask, he got no response.
It seemed like Ryuen was annoyed.
But regardless of which grade had the A2330 score, one thing was clear—the highest score was only 2330. That meant the competition in the special exams each month was intense. Gaining points wasn't guaranteed, but losing them definitely was.
So, earning high scores quickly would be difficult.
With that in mind, the 1000-point starting score for freshmen became even more important.
Thinking this over, Shirogane glanced toward Ryuen.
Ryuen had already arrived at the classroom, casually resting his feet on the desk of the student sitting in front of him. It was not only rude but also arrogant.
According to the upperclassmen's explanations, this kind of behavior could lead to point deductions.
So was Ryuen just giving up on the rules?
Or was he testing whether the student in front of him could be controlled right away?
"Ryuen!"
The boy whose desk was being stepped on finally snapped.
"Talk to me after school," Ryuen said coldly. "For now, shut up."
"Damn it—"
Shirogane silently observed the situation.
Shiina turned to Shirogane and said,
"That guy's name is Daichi Ishizaki. Back in middle school, he was known for being a tough fighter."
Oh.
But this kind of confrontation would probably play out repeatedly over the next few days in this class.
Meanwhile, Shiina took advantage of the fact that the teacher hadn't arrived yet. She stood up and walked to the front of the classroom.
"Everyone, I'm Shiina Hiyori."
"I just created a class group chat. I don't have everyone's contact info, so please add yourselves."
"I know some of you might not want to bother with this, but this school is kind of weird. We've gotten some information, and if we don't take action, we might not get our 100,000 yen allowance next month."
"And this is important."
Unlike Ryuen, Hiyori stood at the podium and spoke with confidence. She had a graceful appearance, but she was also efficient and capable.
Some students who were unhappy with Ryuen's violent ways started to feel a bit of admiration for her.
It was as if Ryuen was the aggressive troublemaker, while Shiina was the reasonable and calm one.
"..." Shirogane.
But this made Shirogane realize something—maybe his presence wasn't even necessary for this class to function. It seemed like things could continue just fine without him.
So what should he do?
Shirogane did have something he needed to take care of.
He had to deal with the contents of that SD card he found last night.
So.
He decided to head to the student council, and while he was at it, gather some intel on them.
Since this school prioritized strength, what kind of person was the student council president?
Back at the opening ceremony, most of his focus had been on walking to the gym with Sakayanagi, but he still noticed something.
The entire event was run by the student council, and no school officials took the stage to speak.
This was completely different from a normal school.
Only the student council president gave a speech.
At the time, he hadn't thought much about it, but now it made sense. The school seemed to give students a huge amount of authority—even the organization of the entrance ceremony was left to them.
More specifically, it was left to the student council.
So did that mean the student council here had way more power than a regular school's student council?
And if he could get into the student council, maybe he could help his class.
With that in mind.
After school, Shirogane made his move.
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