On the 1st.
After the Sports Festival ended, students returned to their normal academic life. The cruise ship experience, island exam, VIP exam, and Sports Festival training had all concluded.
Morning.
Houtarou arrived in class right on time, holding his phone. He opened the account page on his student ID.
『Houtarou Oreki』
『Student ID: 1008610010』
『Class: First Year, Class A』
『Personal Account: ¤ 48,421,500 Pts』
An amount so large it made one feel there was no need to work hard.
Then he opened the transfer information.
『201,000 Points have been credited to your account!』
『Sender - XF10001』
This was the school's monthly transfer at 7 AM on the 1st. Every Class A student received it, as the Class Points had risen to 2,001 points.
However, there was another transfer update.
Having never received such a small amount before, he checked it twice.
『1 Point has been credited to your account!』
『Sender - Unknown』
And below was a note:
『Note: I won't be your sugar mommy anymore!』
He received these unknown transfer messages monthly — from a senior benefactor whom even his Precognitive Dreams couldn't predict.
"My, my, how pitiful. Oreki-kun only received 1 point this month."
His neighbor Arisu had arrived early, quietly taking out her textbook.
"You showed such impressive capabilities at the Sports Festival — quite eye-catching. One would think it should have made your senior benefactor happy. But now it seems you've been abandoned by your sugar mommy. Perhaps she discovered someone else with potential and chose to support them instead." Arisu said.
Her seat was close to Houtarou's, allowing her to see his phone screen. He made no attempt to hide it, so the 1-point transfer amount and note were clearly visible.
"Perhaps." Houtarou said.
"Such a calm reaction?" Arisu asked, curiosity in her voice.
"Mm." Houtarou nodded.
He had never met this senior benefactor, and his attempts at Precognitive Dreams about her had yielded nothing. It seemed they would continue to yield nothing in the future.
Perhaps this was when they'd decided to end contact — and maybe that was for the best.
Just then, a message from Kei appeared on his phone.
| Kei Karuizawa |
| A girl in my class seems interested in you and wants to confess her feelings. Please come to the first floor hallway at noon. |
"..."
"It seems after the Sports Festival, Oreki-kun has caught the attention of quite a few girls." Arisu commented, having noticed the message's contents.
"Maybe, though it could just be truth or dare." Houtarou said, "Even if it is a confession, I'll decline. There's no benefit to dating during high school. Studying is enough."
"Oh." Having received what she deemed useless information, Arisu returned to reading.
Masumi: "..."
Seeing that no one was looking at her, Masumi continued reading.
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"Good morning, you're all looking energetic today."
A man in a suit walked in through the classroom's front door — their Class A homeroom teacher, Tomonari Mashima.
It was time for homeroom.
"Teacher, you always announce tests on the 1st of the month. Do we have one this time too?" Yahiko, sitting in the front, raised his hand.
As Class A students, they were naturally concerned about special exams related to Class Points.
Their class maintained a commanding 1,131-point lead over Class B, giving them an absolute advantage.
"You're well-informed." Tomonari said, looking directly at him, "Next up are the final exams. You have about a month for review, and we'll be having practice tests to prepare for finals."
Oh. So it's time for final exams.
School started in April, and after May, June, and July passed, it was now August. They had been at school for 5 months.
Tomonari was in a good mood as he addressed the class, "First, I must praise you all. Though I haven't been a homeroom teacher for long, I'm also a graduate of this school and have a deep understanding of how things work here.
Never has there been a Class A like yours — one that could receive special rewards from the board of directors and maintain such impressive scores approaching the end of their first semester.
Now, I'll announce this month's special exam rules. Final exams will be held at the end of this month, and there's a new rule — you'll be creating the exam papers yourselves instead of the school."
"We're creating them?"
Kōji, sitting in the middle of the classroom, voiced everyone's surprise.
"Yes. Our school gives students considerable autonomy. However…" Tomonari distributed a stack of papers he had brought with him, "These are example questions prepared by the school. You can complete these papers and calculate your own scores.
There's also what you might call a special rule. For this exam, you'll be paired up with someone else from your class to form teams of two."
This novel rule caught the students' attention.
When the teacher mentioned pairing up, Houtarou noticed Masumi, who sat behind Arisu, looking relieved.
She probably felt reassured, thinking that as someone who followed the two of them around, she would surely be paired with either him or Arisu if they could choose their own partners.
Eh... She didn't seem to realize that her academic ability was quite impressive, even among top students.
Perhaps due to Kei's message about a potential confession, Houtarou's focus was wavering, his mind wandering.
Meanwhile, Tomonari laid out the exam rules.
The pairs would take the final exam as a united entity. There would be eight subjects, each worth 100 points, with fifty questions per subject, totaling four hundred questions. All questions would be multiple choice.
Each subject would have a minimum passing score of 60 points — the combined score of both partners. If any subject fell below 60 points, both partners would be expelled.
For instance, if Houtarou and Arisu paired up, and he merely wrote his name without answering anything — scoring 0 points — Arisu would only need to score 60 points for them to pass.
In other words, as long as one partner was academically gifted, the other could perform poorly.
The students in class didn't react to this. After all, they were all top students.
Houtarou yawned — for someone like him who could easily score perfect marks, this wasn't an issue.
As for Arisu, despite having a penalty from placing in the bottom 10 during the Sports Festival — losing 10 points on each subject in the next written exam — she didn't seem worried at all. She was probably confident in scoring 90 points in each subject.
"But this setup is too simple, so the school has added some difficulty." Tomonari continued, "If the pair's total score across all subjects doesn't reach 700 points, that will also result in failure. In such cases, both partners will be expelled."
This was an expulsion exam.
While previous exams had included the possibility of failing and being expelled, this one introduced partner expulsion.
"Mashima-sensei." Houtarou raised his hand, "Is this special exam the same as previous years?"
"No." Tomonari glanced at him, "This was specially proposed by the principal."
So that was it — the new principal had arrived.
Houtarou glanced at Arisu. She had earlier informed him that Kiyotaka's father wanted to take him back, though the chairman had blocked the attempt. The father wouldn't give up easily and might try to place his own people in the school.
The previous principal, eager to curry favor, had conveniently retired due to illness to make way.
Looking at it now, while this exam appeared reasonable on the surface, it harbored concerning implications.
With each subject worth 100 points across eight subjects, two people could earn a maximum of 1,600 points — making the 700-point requirement seem achievable.
However, if paired with a struggling student who scored zero in every subject, the stronger partner would need to average 88 points across all eight subjects.
This was an exceptionally demanding requirement.
If even a top student couldn't achieve this, the partnership system meant both students would face expulsion. Their fates were tied together — one partner's poor performance could doom them both.
This truly was a life-or-death partnership, and choosing one's partner would be crucial.
For Classes A and B, with their abundance of high performers, this posed little threat. But for Classes C and D, with their generally lower academic abilities, this exam was ruthless.
And this was the new principal's proposal.
Clearly, they were attempting to force Kiyotaka's withdrawal. The two-person pairing and joint expulsion system was likely designed as a trap.
But this had nothing to do with Houtarou, and he wouldn't interfere. With this thought, he looked toward Arisu.
However, she appeared lost in unpleasant thoughts, completely disregarding the exam rules being explained.
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