No class has ever used up all 1000 points in the very first month.
Even in her own year, their class had 440 points left after the first month—that was considered doing well. Most Class D students only had 200 points left by then.
So her class back then managed to hold on during that first month. That gave them chances to make progress during the special tests in the following months.
But with how bad things have started for the current Class D, there's no way Horikita can handle this.
But…
Sadly…
Chabashira noticed that neither Takeyanagi nor Ayanokouji reacted at all.
Still…
She did notice a slight change in Kushida's expression as she sat in the front row.
She looked a little nervous.
And she was, for real.
Because what was Chabashira-sensei talking about just now? Class rankings can change, they have to climb up, and living expenses are tied to evaluation scores? And there are going to be special exams every month from now on?
Each class will be competing with the others.
But—
She seemed like she betrayed the class before anything had even started.
Yeah.
What Kushida is thinking about now is the three sets of information she gave to Miyuki Shirogane, Shiina, and Horikita.
It wouldn't matter much if it was just the info on Class A and Class B — those are other classes, after all. But Horikita asked her for help gathering info on their own class. And then Horikita took that info and traded it with Shirogane and the others.
So doesn't that mean that... hmm... Horikita Suzune is actually the traitor in our class?
Thinking of this, Kushida suddenly calmed down a little.
"..." Chabashira.
Chabashira, who was watching Kushida, noticed her mood shift in a strange way.
Still, Chabashira responded to Horikita's request.
"Here are the current class points for all four classes."
Chabashira-sensei wrote the points on the board.
Class A: 924 points
Class B: 560 points
Class C: 735 points
And Class D... 0 points.
"I really have to hand it to you all — you managed to lose all your points in just one month."
"That means you won't get any living expenses this month."
"Each class starts with 1000 base points. These points carry over month by month. So if you don't lose any, you'll get 100,000 private points as your monthly allowance. But if you lose, say, 500 points right away, you'll only get 50,000 next month. And if you keep losing more, you'll get even less than that."
"So class points are important. You can't just let them drop for no reason."
"And as of May 1st, Class D has dropped all the way to 0."
"You are, without a doubt, the most ridiculous and worst class in the school's history." Chabashira Sae said, as if delivering a final verdict.
Many students turned pale, mumbling things like, "How did this happen...?"
Then Chabashira continued,
"As usual, all first-years are given a behavior test during their first month. It's not meant to make things hard — it's just to check if you can act like proper high school students."
"Things like being late, leaving early, using your phone in class, fighting, or just acting out of line — all of those lead to point deductions."
Ugh.
The students, who were already stunned after hearing they wouldn't get any allowance and that their class score had hit zero, were now completely speechless.
"So you're telling me... we lost all 1000 points just for failing to act like decent students?" said a girl with a blonde ponytail who stood up.
She was actually really cute. She was the leader of a small group of flashy girls in the class — Karuizawa Kei.
What she said also reflected what many others were thinking.
How could the points drop that fast? How could just acting like bad students cause all 1000 points to disappear? After all, the other classes didn't lose all of theirs.
"The other classes must've had different rules for their tests, right? Otherwise, how come they still have so many points?"
Another student from Class D asked that.
It was Shinohara Satsuki, a short-haired girl who usually hangs out with Karuizawa.
Compared to Horikita, Chabashira actually had high hopes for Hirata Yosuke. Hirata had great stats and was outstanding in many ways. However, his middle school record had some serious issues, which was why he ended up in Class D. At first, people thought he was a troublemaker, but after arriving at the school, he treated everyone around him kindly, as if he was trying to start over.
So back then, before choosing Horikita, Chabashira actually valued Hirata more.
But Hirata couldn't take on the role of leading Class D. Over the past month, all he's really done is try to smooth things over between classmates.
"The school's evaluation standards are the same for everyone."
"While you're taking tests, the other classes are taking the exact same tests. There's no unfairness or cheating involved," said Chabashira.
That was actually a lie.
Because after the second week, she had a private conversation with Horikita and hinted that she should look into the true nature of the school. In other words, Class D did try to cheat, but it didn't work—because Horikita wasn't able to uncover anything.
So Chabashira basically leaked that information for nothing.
"..." said Chabashira.
"Then the reason the other classes lost fewer points... don't tell me—" Hirata finally stood up. "Did the other classes gather information and prepare properly?"
"That's basically it. That's also the difference between your class and the others," Chabashira said. "For example, the former Class C quickly started preparing after learning some key info. To stop students from using their phones in class, the first thing they did every day was hand in their phones. They only got them back during lunch and after school."
Uh-oh.
Hirata suddenly felt a lot of pressure.
If earlier, he still had trouble accepting it when Chabashira-sensei called them trash, then now… realizing the other three classes were actually working hard and gathering info ahead of time made it clear—there was something really wrong with their class.
"Chabashira-sensei," Horikita spoke up. "According to what you said, only Class A can receive the rewards the school talks about. Does that mean Class A is especially important?"
"Yes," Chabashira replied. "And when you graduate in your third year, only students from Class A will be officially recognized by the school. Students from Classes B, C, and D will graduate with a diploma from some second-rate high school instead."
"In other words, if you don't graduate from Class A, you won't get a real diploma from this school," said Chabashira.
"That's not fair!" someone shouted.
The class broke out into loud groans and complaints.
"..." Chabashira stayed quiet.
Stare.
Chabashira fixed her eyes on Horikita and continued.
"The school gives every class a fair chance. So as long as your class ranking goes up based on your class points, your class position will also change. For example, the current first-year Class C has 735 points, which is higher than the old Class B's 560 points, so they've now taken over the B class spot. The old B class has dropped to Class C."
"The class signs will be switched."
Chabashira kept looking straight at Horikita as she said this.
She pointed out that class rankings can change. As long as a class earns enough evaluation points, they have a shot at reaching Class A.
This was something Horikita hadn't been able to find out, but Shirogane—the person Chabashira told her to get in touch with—had already figured it out, and was leading his class upward.
Keep in mind, the overall student quality in Class C was only slightly better than Class D. And unlike Class D, Class C didn't have heavy hitters like Takayanagi or Ayanokouji.
But even so—
Class C had been able to enforce rules like collecting everyone's phones to stop them from messing around during class. Whether it was the way they carried it out or the idea itself, it was something no class had done before.
So it's not surprising that their class is rising.
But in comparison… Horikita Suzune!
Chabashira stared at her intensely—as if saying, "I already leaked you some key info, and now look at the state of your class. Don't you feel even a little ashamed?"
So, does Horikita feel ashamed?
Well… a little. But not that much.
Back when she first tried asking the upperclassmen for information, she got completely shut down. That hit her pretty hard. But she didn't stay down for long—by the next day, she had shifted her focus to Shirogane Miyuki.
She made a deal with him to share class-related info.
So she did end up getting results. Right now, she had student profiles from Classes A, B, and D. Having that kind of data on both the other classes and her own gave her an edge, especially in class-based special exams.
So in a way, she lost out at first but gained something in return.
The only gap was that she didn't have any information on Class C. That made her realize the difference between her and Shirogane—and why he was willing to trade info with her in the first place.
He had clearly already figured out how the school worked, and knew that special exams would be based on class units.
And now she finally understood the numbers she saw next to ABCD on the blackboard in the upperclassmen's area.
Those were the evaluation points for each class.
"According to the school's rules, the special exam for each month is announced on the first day of that month."
"But today, I also need to explain what this school is really about. So this month's announcement is coming a bit late."
Chabashira went on.
"For now, what I can tell you is that this month's special exam will be, as usual, a written test."
"So if you want to earn your living expenses, you'll need to do well on it. Right now, you're sitting at zero points. That zero will carry over to next month. If your class can't get any evaluation points this month, you'll still have nothing next month—and no living expenses." Chabashira said. "That's as much as I can say as your homeroom teacher."
With that, she handed the time over to the students.
Then, when homeroom ended, she headed to the chairman's office.
For leaking information to Horikita earlier, she had already been docked six months' pay. And now, for dropping that "usual written test" hint, she was about to lose another two months' salary.
Even though she felt the current Class D had stronger students than ever before, their zero-point score was definitely concerning. At this rate, she felt like she'd be paying off debts just to keep working.
And so—
After walking for about seven or eight minutes, Chabashira arrived at the chairman's office. On her way down the hall, she saw the other homeroom teachers.
Masaki Tomonari from Class A.
Chie Hoshinomiya from Class B.
And Sakagami Digital from Class C.
Actually, all four homeroom teachers were graduates from the same year at Advanced Nurturing High School. Chabashira and Hoshinomiya were even in Class D back then. Later, their classes climbed all the way to the brink of Class A—but they ultimately fell short.
Meanwhile, Masaki-sensei and Sakagami-sensei had been in Class A.
Masaki now taught Class A, but Sakagami had been assigned to Class C.
"By the way, why did they call us all here?" Hoshinomiya-sensei still looked as lighthearted and cheerful as ever, with a smile on her face, looking pretty cute.
In the eyes of many male teachers, she was like an angel. Her only flaw was that she liked to drink. But on important days like the first of each month, she was usually more careful.
So she didn't drink last night, and she seemed full of energy today.
"No idea, but it must be to praise our C-Class," Sakagami-sensei said proudly, lifting his head high. "After all, my class is now Class B."
His class had already moved up to B-Class.
That meant Hoshinomiya, who was the homeroom teacher of the original B-Class, and her class had now been bumped down a rank, making her the new homeroom teacher of C-Class.
Sakagami-sensei and Mashima-sensei were both from A-Class, yet they were assigned to C-Class when they started working. Meanwhile, Hoshinomiya, who had come from D-Class, was given B-Class, which had always rubbed Sakagami the wrong way. But now, he had climbed his way up with his own strength.
So this felt like a personal victory for him.
"Aaah, well, congratulations then. I was honestly surprised when I saw the results," Hoshinomiya said, though her tone didn't sound very emotional.
It made Sakagami feel like he had just thrown a punch into a pillow—completely unsatisfying.
"So, was it Ryuen from your class? Or was it Shirogane who led the charge?" Hoshinomiya asked with a curious smile.
But Sakagami instantly shut his mouth.
Because he realized Hoshinomiya was trying to fish for information.
"The reason we were called here today," Mashima from A-Class couldn't stay quiet anymore and spoke up, "is because one of us broke the rules."
"There was a violation, which caused some problems. The chairman wants to give us a talk about it," Mashima-sensei said. "For the record, I didn't do anything wrong."
And not only did he not break the rules, but he also refused to forcefully request a reward, which would've caused his class to lose 50 class points.
This goes back to the second day after enrollment—Shirogane Miyuki from C-Class reported a shop clerk in the school's shopping area for breaking the rules, and the school decided to reward him for it.
So both Shirogane Miyuki from C-Class and Kamuro Masumi from A-Class, who helped him at the time, were supposed to get 30,000 private points each, and their classes would also get 50 class points.
But when the student council came to confirm things, Kamuro Masumi turned down the reward.
So A-Class missed out on those 50 points.
That basically meant they lost 50 points they could've had.
Even so, without those points, A-Class was still A-Class. And as for Mashima, his character wouldn't allow him to play games like that for small gains.
So A-Class didn't break any rules. Then who did?
Mashima looked around.
"It wasn't me either," said Sakagami-sensei, who had just moved up to B-Class.
"If it were me, we wouldn't have dropped down from B-Class in the first place," Hoshinomiya quickly added.
"My class has zero points," Chabashira said.
So basically—none of them broke the rules?
Yeah, right. Like I believe that.
Mashima-sensei, being the teacher of A-Class, had access to more information. The chairman had already told him—teachers from B, C, and D all broke the rules.
---------------------------------------
You can read 10 chapters ahead on patre on
patr eon.com/JYouyi