Just thinking about it feels a bit sad. Luckily, even though his little sister Koi became a bit distant after starting middle school—and even found him annoying—if she were the one who came to this school, her older brother Miyuki Shirogane would probably only need to push her a little to get her from Class D up to Class C.
Still, Shirogane didn't think she'd be placed in Class D to begin with. She'd most likely be in Class C or higher.
With that in mind—
"So, President Horikita, is there anything else you need to tell me?" said Shirogane.
"…" Horikita Manabu stayed silent. He thought this Shirogane junior was quite the realist. When he was trying to get information earlier, he kept calling him "President Horikita." But now, his tone had completely switched to business-like.
"What a shame," said Horikita Manabu. "If you and Suzune had ended up in the same class, maybe I wouldn't have to settle for just making sure she doesn't drop out."
"Yeah, kind of a shame," Shirogane actually agreed.
But his thoughts were very different from Horikita Manabu's.
Manabu felt the students in Class D were all either troublemakers or hopeless cases, so his serious and stubborn sister wouldn't be able to make any good friends among them.
But what Shirogane noticed was that Suzune had already revealed her weakness—her desire to be recognized by her brother.
So—
If they both ended up in the same lower-ranked class, there was a real chance she'd help him in his goal of reaching Class A.
And she wouldn't even need much convincing—she'd probably just jump into it on her own.
So even if Chabashira-sensei had given up on Horikita Suzune, to Shirogane, she was still a valuable asset.
She was perfect for a support role.
From Horikita's words, it was clear she believed Kushida didn't like her and was only pretending to be close—basically, she thought Kushida had something wrong with her.
Still, when she had to collect information she couldn't get on her own, she actually offered friendship as a trade to make Kushida help her.
That showed Horikita Suzune had some ability to be flexible.
So, overall: she's pretty smart, does well in school, physically capable, even though she has no friends and low emotional intelligence. But she can manage someone like Kushida, assign her to do tasks that most people couldn't pull off, and she's committed to moving up in class. She doesn't even need rewards—just some motivation or a dream to chase, and she'll go along with it. Plus, she's easy to work with.
That's the ideal teammate—it's a rare combo.
It's just that since they're in different classes, Horikita Manabu has now set the bar at "as long as she doesn't drop out." That means Suzune's potential is already being held back.
For Shirogane, who's not in Class D, that's a good thing.
But—
The fact remains: Class D still has a huge threat in it. Just having Horikita held back doesn't mean the class's overall strength has dropped much.
Shirogane looked over at President Horikita.
"So the reason you're still here is—"
"Actually," Horikita Manabu said, "I got an anonymous message around noon."
An anonymous message?
"Not even the student council could find the source?" asked Shirogane.
Horikita Manabu shook his head.
"The student council and the school are two different paths. Even though the school gave us certain permissions, the anonymous messages and numbers are still handled by the school."
"Which means not even the student council has access to them."
In other words, the sender went through the school's system.
As he said this, Horikita Manabu took out his phone and opened a message.
When Shirogane saw what was written, his eyes widened a little.
Because—
[Student Council President, you're the older brother of first-year Class D's Horikita Suzune, right?]
"Who do you think would do something like this?" Horikita Manabu asked.
Shirogane started thinking quickly.
There actually weren't many people at this school who knew that Horikita Suzune and Horikita Manabu were siblings.
It could be Shirogane, who tested Horikita in the elevator on the first day of school. Or Kushida, who was also in the elevator. Or maybe Chabashira-sensei.
After all, Chabashira-sensei was the first to contact Horikita last month. And choosing to contact someone like Horikita Manabu, who is smart, physically capable, but has no friends, felt odd.
Especially when Class D still had someone like Yukimura, a top student. Or students like Kushida and Hirata, who might not be the best academically but were outstanding in social skills and class connections.
But Chabashira not only took the blame and paid with points for breaking the rules—she still picked Horikita Suzune.
Clearly, something was going on.
Chabashira-sensei must have found out that Horikita Suzune is the student council president's sister. She probably thought: the president is amazing, maybe the sister is too. Maybe she wanted to put pressure on the sister, expecting her to live up to her brother.
But who would've thought—after just two days, the sister decided to go her own way.
So now Chabashira was probably pretty frustrated too.
And maybe, after receiving this message, Horikita Manabu's first instinct was to make his sister quit school.
He couldn't tell if the message was trying to attack him or his sister.
But now that he had decided to let her stay, he had to find a way to deal with the problem.
"The people who know… the only ones I can think of are me, Kushida from her class, and Chabashira-sensei. Then maybe… someone who's targeting you," Shirogane said.
"I see," Horikita Manabu began to think. "Kushida again... That D-Class report Suzune gave me before—she got it from Kushida, right? And the A-Class and original B-Class info you gave Suzune, that must've been from Kushida too."
Shirogane looked a little awkward—anyone who paid attention could tell the documents came from the same person.
"Shirogane, I'm giving you a task," Horikita Manabu said quickly. "It'll last for one year."
...
Meanwhile—
After getting kicked out by her brother, Horikita walked away and arrived at...
*Beep!*
She took out her phone and scanned the QR code on her student ID to pass through the security gate.
But—
As she waited for the elevator to go up, the doors opened and a boy was already inside. He was her classmate.
He had a clean look but often kept a blank expression, making him easy to overlook.
Based on the grades shown by Chabashira-sensei earlier that morning, his performance was average. He seemed like a normal student.
Even though they were in the same class, Horikita wasn't the kind of person who greeted others casually.
So even when they ended up in the same elevator, she stayed completely silent.
Would you like me to continue translating the next part?
But—
The person in the elevator greeted her first.
"Horikita. You're just getting back to the dorm now?"
"..." Horikita didn't answer.
At that moment, the other person stepped out of the elevator as Suzune was about to get in.
"Horikita." But the person spoke again.
"Is there something you need, Ayanokouji?" Horikita Suzune replied, saying his name out loud.
Yes.
He was her classmate, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka.
Even though they sat next to each other in class, and Ayanokouji often talked to her on his own, Horikita still acted cold toward him.
But—
"About today's test. Chabashira-sensei called me in this morning," Ayanokouji said. "I've been thinking about this special test."
"This evening, I went and counted the number of students in the second- and third-year Class D. There were still quite a few left. Not many were kicked out after the first test, which means they somehow avoided being expelled. But Class D is made up of students with low academic performance, so normally, we'd expect about five or six students to fail and get expelled. And this was just the first test. So if those upperclassmen in Class D stayed, they must've used some kind of trick."
"I think you should look into that," Ayanokouji said. "It might help our class get through this test."
"…"
So that means Chabashira called on Ayanokouji, maybe even gave him some information, and he figured out a trick to the test—but he doesn't want to be in the spotlight, so he's passing it off to Horikita?
That's not a bad strategy.
Because Horikita Suzune is determined to move up a class.
Since they sit together, he knows that last month, Horikita was gathering information on their classmates.
All of that was obviously for the goal of raising the class rank.
So—
Giving this job to Horikita makes sense.
It was Ayanokouji's way of shifting the responsibility. He's willing to help the class, but he doesn't want to take credit for it.
Also—
That morning, Chabashira called him up to the roof alone and asked him to lead Class D to the top. He clearly refused. He said he was just a normal high school student and didn't have what it takes.
But Chabashira seemed to see through him and then told him a secret.
Horikita Suzune is the student council president's younger sister.
In other words, even if he refused Chabashira's request, she might still come back to him. Because her goal is simple: push the class to climb up the ranks.
Who knows why this teacher, who usually looks lazy, is suddenly so determined?
For Ayanokouji, though, this kind of ordinary school life is something he's never experienced before.
That's why he doesn't dislike this life. In fact, because of the school's special tests and class-ranking system, he finds it even more interesting than a regular school.
And now that he understands how the school works, he's a little curious about trying to climb up too.
After all—
What he's always believed in, what he's always done, is simple: win.
No matter the cost—as long as he's the one who wins, that's all that matters.
So if you're only in Class D, does that automatically mean you're seen as a loser?
He did have some plans in mind. Even if Chabashira didn't come to him first, he might still make a move.
But that doesn't mean he wants to stand in the spotlight. He wants to be the one pulling the strings. So even if he helps the class move up, he'll need someone else to stand in front — like a stand-in, basically a tool.
And the person he picked...
Is Horikita Suzune.
The student council president's little sister, placed in the lowest class.
And yet she's dead set on climbing up the ranks.
Clearly, she's the perfect scapegoat and tool for the job.
"I'm not interested in moving up," Horikita Suzune said. "And I don't even mind having no allowance and eating the gross free meals."
"Besides, I'm not short on points right now."
Horikita Suzune did have a reason to say that.
Most of the class only had a few dozen private points left, but she still had 80,000.
Even though she didn't figure out the system when she first got here, she lived very frugally.
She even started using free items once she realized they were available.
At her current spending pace, her 80,000 points could last until the end of the term.
But when she said that and noticed Ayanokouji wasn't stepping aside, she added,
"Since you're the one who found this out, it makes more sense for you to investigate, right?" Horikita Suzune said sharply. "Also, stop talking to me all the time."
"?"
Ayanokouji seemed a little confused as he looked over.
He looked at her, clearly puzzled.
Because...
Isn't Horikita Suzune the little sister of Horikita Manabu? The one who got stuck in Class D? And she... doesn't even want to climb up?
So is this just bad information, or... has Horikita Suzune changed in a short amount of time?
Ayanokouji clearly didn't get it.
It wasn't just her mindset that had changed — even her brother's understanding of her had gotten worse three times in a row.
...
Not long after Horikita walked off, Shirogane also started heading back to the dorms.
The task Horikita Manabu gave him was worth 1 million points.
It's still far from the 20 million needed, but 1 million is pretty good — about what a C-class student like Shirogane would spend on living expenses for a whole year.
Of course, if the class rating goes up, their income will go up too.
But this amount came from Horikita Manabu himself.
For a class that needs to scrape together 20 million to save students from expulsion, for a class that saves points by eating free meals and living rough — the fact that he could cough up 1 million means that money didn't come from the regular school income based on class points.
In other words, the plan Shirogane came up with probably has no issues.
Even though the school has special exams each month and the threat of expulsion hangs over them...
It also hands out rewards, not just based on class points. There are probably other benefits, too.
So maybe doing well in special exams could give a chance to earn a large amount of private points.
According to the narration system, in 15 years, the Advanced Nurturing High School gets turned into an ATM by some students. Even though it's 15 years earlier now, the school probably already has ATM-like features.
So what he needs to do is find exams with big rewards and strike hard and fast.
Just like that.
"There are 50 minutes left until the 12 o'clock break," said Shirogane.
After returning to the dorm, Shirogane quickly took a shower.
Normally, the school dorms close at 11 PM. Since it's a student dorm, the dorm manager put up a poster on the first floor encouraging students to sleep by 11 for their health.
But unfortunately,
That doesn't apply to Shirogane. Still, he respects the school.
And since there's a lot of free time after afternoon classes, Shirogane has been trying to go to bed at midnight lately.
So now there are still 50 minutes until midnight.
Which means—
He can finish another practice book.
But right now he's not talking to the narrator system, because he knows it probably can't come online.
It usually goes to sleep at 9 PM, and doesn't seem good at staying up late either.
The fact that it even came with him to meet the Horikita siblings today was already a lot of effort.
So now, it's his battlefield.
ps: First update! Second one is in progress, coming later.