Meanwhile, Houtarou maintained his slightly drowsy state.
Masumi: "..."
She sat behind Arisu. While Kōhei was speaking at the podium, she noticed the little girl seemed to be in a bad mood.
She wasn't sure if it was due to her physical condition forcing her to forfeit again, or because she had just handed over her faction's leadership to Houtarou, only for him to pass it off.
It felt like giving a gift to someone you like, only to have them reject it and give it to another woman.
So Arisu pouted.
Masumi: "..."
Oh. Arisu, you're in a dangerous state right now.
Having worked with Houtarou during the VIP exam and stood guard multiple times, Masumi recognized that this girl's behavior resembled someone in love.
Then again, she herself had nearly fallen for him too, only to discover she'd been deceived — a dark chapter in her past.
So perhaps she was misinterpreting things.
After all, Arisu had declared that if she became Student Council President, she wouldn't let Houtarou join — wouldn't even give him a position.
So her recent actions might just be sugar-coated bullets aimed at him.
And so the three front-row students from both the Oreki and Sakayanagi Factions remained lost in thought.
Meanwhile, similar notifications and exam rules were being announced in other classes.
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For Class B students.
"A sports festival..." Honami was troubled. Athletics was her weak point.
However…
"I want to participate in more events!" Sō said, who was in the soccer club.
"I should be fine with running…"
Class B had many students who enjoyed sports, were good at athletics, and joined various sports clubs. That was reassuring.
"But we need to seriously formulate a strategy." Ryūji furrowed his brow.
He hadn't done well in the last island exam and VIP exam, and during the VIP exam he had almost done something unacceptable to the class. So now he wanted to think things through seriously.
Thus, Class B students were determined to take this challenge seriously.
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As for Kakeru's class — formerly Class C, now Class D…
"Finally." Kakeru said, "Our class has just one plan this time: get as many class points as possible, and also..."
He paused.
"Take back the points Class C won in the VIP exam!"
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As for Suzune's class, now Class C, the situation was clear without discussion.
Written exams were torture for them, and sports events would be just as hellish.
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So lunchtime arrived.
Having apparently recovered from last night, Houtarou invited Kikyō and Suzune to their usual meeting spot.
The three gathered at the tables and chairs by the small fountain, sheltered in the shade. Though it was July, the weather wasn't too hot yet, making it comfortable to sit outside.
"I assume your classes have also received information about this special exam." He said.
"Mm-hmm..."
Kikyō noticed that some time had passed, and he still hadn't exposed her as being from Class D — no, Class C now. He hadn't revealed her as a class traitor. The VIP exam had simply passed without incident.
But her luck wasn't all good. What started as once-weekly meetings had now evolved to twice a week. It felt somewhat unfair.
Still, this rare meeting of the three meant that Houtarou hadn't forgotten and would help her earn money again. Last night's costly service had proven worthwhile.
"Uh... wait a minute!"
But before she could continue, Houtarou took out his phone.
The device vibrated. This time, unlike before, he didn't announce the deposits aloud.
After all, some of these point transfers needed to remain private. Though those Class B students were truly reliable.
Houtarou received four transfers that day:
181,000 Points from the school's Class Points, 450,000 from the fifteen Class B students who had signed agreements (collected by Honami), and 1.08 million transferred from Suzune's collection worth 270 Class Points (27,000 Points × 40 students).
And then there was this one:
『1,000,000 Points have been credited to your account!』
『Sender - Unknown』
『Note: You seem to have lost some weight.』
Hmm. Lost some weight? Were they trying to fatten him up? But why would they want that?
"Looks like Oreki-kun's senior patron really likes you." Kikyō said, maintaining her usual demeanor and adorable angel-like expression.
While holding Houtarou's hand again, she noticed Suzune showed no reaction. Though this solitary girl had changed — no longer bringing vocabulary books when they went out together — she remained unmoved by the hand-holding.
Since Suzune didn't understand love at all, she didn't even realize she was being cheated on. Kikyō realized her actions were accomplishing nothing except making herself look improper.
She withdrew her hand.
"Why do you say that?" Houtarou asked.
Information about this senior patron hadn't appeared in his Precognitive Dreams. In other words, she seemingly didn't exist in future timelines.
"Because there's only one reason a girl wants a boy to gain weight — she hopes other girls who like him will give up. But she doesn't mind you as you are." Kikyō said diplomatically, "In other words, Oreki-kun is being quite passionately loved by that senior patron."
Suzune: "..."
Alright, this girl showed no reaction. I give up.
It seemed Suzune was the type who wouldn't speak up about things she didn't understand.
"Is that so..." Houtarou put his phone away, "Let's set aside the patron matter for now. I'm already extracting points from your class every month, which will be enough to repay her when I eventually break ties with the senior patron."
Oh. So that's why he's dividing up D... no, C Class's Class Points.
Kikyō found it a bit strange being back at school having climbed up a class rank. However, she felt she had deepened her understanding of Houtarou.
This person seemed to really hate troublesome things. If the senior patron were to appear and ask him to do something difficult, he would likely just return all the points to her.
That's why he completely refused to hear about her past... because he thought she was troublesome.
Hmph...
"So why did you call us out this time..." Kikyō maintained her little angel image.
"Well, it's the usual money-making plan." Houtarou said.
He handed her the sports festival rules that Tomonari had distributed.
"Our class is basically letting Kōhei handle things. And we don't really need to worry about strategy since everyone's physical abilities are good."
In other words, they were getting easy Points.
Since his class was Class A, they were paired with the second and third-year A classes.
They were also forming the Red team with all the D classes. However, since Kikyō's D class had moved up to C class, they now had to work with all the B classes instead.
"How fortunate for you." She said with a hint of envy.
Compared to Class A, her class's situation was quite bad.
"When Chabashira-sensei announced the sports festival, 80% of the class groaned."
They groaned?
Yes. The students in all four classes were selected through the same complex evaluation criteria.
Students with good foundations ended up in Classes A and B. Class C had slightly weaker foundations, while Class D was essentially a gathering place for poor students.
Of course, that was somewhat of an oversimplification.
Class D consisted of poor students and those with troubled histories — a collection of defective products and problem children. Yet some of these problem children had abilities that could rival Class A in certain areas.
Even though they had climbed up to Class C, the student composition remained unchanged. They were still a gathering of poor students with weak athletic abilities.
"Isn't that Sudō in your class quite physically strong?" Houtarou said, "If we were to grade athletic talent from A to E, he would definitely get an A."
His class had five or six people who could get an A in physical ability.
And someone like Masumi would probably get an A among the girls. After all, that's what she excelled at.
"Yes. For this sports festival, he wants to participate in all events, thinking he can sweep them. Indeed, Sudō-kun's physical abilities are very strong." Kikyō said, "However, our classmates are all worried about falling into the bottom 10. If you end up there, you get -10 points in all subjects for the next written exam. Nobody feels confident — they're very scared."
But she didn't have this worry. Her athletic talent was around B level, and Suzune was B+, putting them among the stronger students.
So how could they possibly end up in the bottom 10?
Still, the fact that Class C students were so worried was concerning. After all, they would select the bottom 10 from over 400 students across all three grades for punishment.
Were they already assuming they would be among the lowest performers across all three grades?
It seemed Class C wasn't just full of poor students — they also had an alarming number of physically weak ones.
But this didn't matter. After seeing the exam rules, Houtarou already had a plan to collect points from Class C.
"Hmm…" He nodded, "This is why I called you here. Your classmates don't want to end up in the bottom 10, and I have a plan for this issue. But I need Kushida-san to gather a list of classmates who are worried about being in the bottom 10, and collect a total of 4 million points from them. Then I can sell them my plan to avoid being in the bottom 10."
Kikyō: "...??"
Damn. So calling her out this time was to give her this troublesome job that would make people resent her?
"No, this matter..."
She had good relationships with her classmates. But collecting money from them wasn't right. It would damage their friendship.
"Everyone received 250,000 points from the Special Treatment exam. And 4 million means just 100,000 points from each person, so everyone can still keep 150,000 points." Houtarou said, "Plus your class still gets 800,000 points support from our class every month, so now you can each get over 40,000 for living expenses. That's enough."
Kikyō: "..."
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