The two sides parted ways at the fountain.
"You'll hold on to the documents, right?" Shirogane said to Shiina. "Give the other copy to Ryuen."
"You don't want one for yourself?" Hiyori didn't refuse but was a little curious.
There were only two copies, and Shirogane hadn't kept one for himself. If he handed both over, he wouldn't have any left.
"I already looked through them and memorized everything," Shirogane said. "And making another copy would cost an extra 1,000 points. Since I've already committed it to memory, there's no need to waste the money."
Oh.
So, it was just to save points. That's why he only made copies for her and Ryuen.
As his former seatmate and classmate, Shiina knew well how frugal Shirogane was.
Still—
"You memorized everything? Just from flipping through it earlier?" Shiina asked.
"Yeah," Shirogane said. "I spent about ten minutes reading through it."
"Is that strange?" he added.
Strange?
Shiina stared at Shirogane with a blank expression while he gave her a confused look.
[Not strange at all,] the narration chimed in. [After all, while you were reading, I memorized it too.]
See?
Shirogane thought it was just something anyone could do with enough effort.
…
While things were peaceful between Shirogane and Shiina, Horikita and Kushida were walking back toward the dorms.
"Horikita, why do you think Shirogane and the others are gathering information on the other classes?" Kushida asked.
Since Horikita wasn't talking, she had to keep the conversation going.
She had once declared that she wanted to be friends with everyone in the class.
That, of course, included Horikita Suzune. But beyond that, Kushida had her own reasons for needing to stay on good terms with Horikita.
So even though Horikita could be frustrating at times, Kushida had always kept her patience.
The walk from the shopping district back to the dorms took about ten minutes.
That was enough time to deepen their surface-level friendship—just a little.
So, Kushida was trying to bring up a topic Horikita might actually care about.
But—
"..." Horikita stayed silent.
Shirogane had said she could use this information to gain her brother's approval.
But deep down, she felt like Shirogane was the one who truly wanted the data.
Yet he had given her information on both Class A and Class B.
That meant he was taking a loss.
If he was willingly losing out to help her, did that mean Class D's student data was actually important?
Or maybe—he just felt bad for her and wanted to give her a hand.
"..." Horikita remained silent.
Thinking about the deeper reasons, Horikita felt a bit conflicted.
But Kushida was still waiting for her answer.
"I'm not sure. But the information we've gathered is definitely important," Horikita said, recalling the deadline Chabashira-sensei had given.
"Things will change a lot tomorrow because that's when sensei will reveal the true nature of this school," she added.
"Huh? The true nature?" Kushida was shocked. "Does that mean it has something to do with our allowance?"
"..." Horikita.
Seeing that Kushida's biggest concern was money, Horikita was speechless for a moment.
Still, she replied, "I don't know for sure, but I doubt they'll give us the same amount next month. Think about it—there are 40 students per grade, and each person gets 100,000 points a month. That means 16 million points just for the first-years alone. The school also owns the stores on campus, and a lot of them aren't even making a profit. That's a huge amount of money."
"So I really don't think they'll give each person 100,000 points again next month," Horikita said.
"What?!" Kushida looked troubled. She was careful with money and had saved about 30,000 points from this month's allowance instead of spending it all.
But most of their classmates were living paycheck to paycheck.
They had been spending freely, assuming they'd get their next allowance soon.
Now, for the students in Class D, tomorrow could feel like the start of a nightmare.
After thinking it over—
Kushida, who had originally planned to use this walk back to the dorms to bond with Horikita, instead sent a message to the class group chat.
She warned everyone that their allowance might be reduced tomorrow.
She wanted them to be mentally prepared, worried that if they weren't, they'd completely lose it when the time came.
And just as expected—
Yamauchi: No way! Kushida, where did you hear this from?
Ike Kanji: Wait, so we're not getting 100,000 points next month?! But I already spent all mine!
Ike Kanji: I-I don't want to eat that nasty mountain veggie set meal…
Sudou Ken: You idiots. Didn't Hirata say that joining a club gets you extra points? If you become an official member, you get a 20,000-point stipend every month.
Ike Kanji: Sudou, you totally don't get it. You're naturally athletic, but not everyone is like you. It's not like just anyone can join a club.
Yamauchi: Sudou, you're seriously annoying.
Hirata Yosuke: Kushida, how reliable is this information? If our allowance really gets cut, the class won't take it well.
Kushida: It's just a prediction, but I think it's pretty likely. Horikita was the one who told me.
Karuizawa Kei: Huh?! So we're really not getting 100,000 points? How much are we getting, then? I only have a few dozen points left…
Kouenji Rokusuke: Heh, so you guys just found out? I figured your allowance next month would be pretty low.
Ike Kanji: What?! Kouenji, you already knew?! Why didn't you warn us? If we had known earlier, we could have saved some points this month!
Yamauchi: Yeah! Kouenji, you said you ran out of points—were you lying? Did you secretly save up while telling us you were broke? That's messed up!
Kouenji Rokusuke: I'm heading to the gym.
He sent a picture of himself working out at the campus fitness center.
Ike Kanji: @Kouenji!
Yamauchi: @Kouenji Rokusuke!
But Kouenji's profile picture suddenly turned black.
That meant he had logged off.
So, Kouenji wasn't an option.
Hirata Yosuke: I'm going to the shopping district.
Looks like Hirata went to ask Kouenji for the sake of the class.
But Kouenji left. Just now, Kushida mentioned the source of the information, which means there's still another person involved.
Karuizawa Kei: @Horikita Suzune, Horikita, is the information you got real?
Shinohara Satsuki: @Horikita Suzune
And just like that, a bunch of students started tagging Horikita.
PS: Today's update is here, give me some engagement! QQ
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