Although the other three classes would also discuss this exam, their pressure was far lighter than Class D's.
After all, they had plenty of private points to fall back on.
Even in Class C, Ryuen had told them that he would help them if they made the wrong choice.
But Class D was different. They didn't have enough points. In other words, whoever received a large number of critical votes would face the risk of being expelled.
"We should have had twenty million private points to begin with, right?"
"But didn't we use them to pay off the debt?"
"Then whoever created the debt should be the one to drop out."
The class meeting had barely started when someone made that suggestion. To avoid being expelled, people were willing to do anything.
It only took a few minutes for factions to start forming.
Before long, Horikita and Sudou had been isolated into one group.
Sudou merely clenched his fists in response. He had no idea how to argue back. Horikita, on the other hand, remained calm.
"Horikita, you should be the one to drop out. We only ended up owing Ryuen points because you acted on your own, didn't we?"
At first, she had only said it privately. But as time passed, Shinohara, who had apparently reached a temporary conclusion, stood up from her seat and turned her attack toward Horikita.
However, Shinohara's supposedly clever comment did not receive any support. Instead, the classroom fell silent.
There were several reasons for this.
First, some students thought Shinohara was right. Most of Class D believed that if they had those points, they at least wouldn't need to worry about being expelled in this exam.
At least they wouldn't have to be so terrified right now.
Of course, not everyone agreed with Shinohara. Some were not only opposed to what she had said but were actually shocked that she could say it.
"Hey! Are you kidding me?"
Yukimura was the first to speak up. To be honest, Shinohara's words had stunned him. He had already known she was extremely foolish ever since Kamio Tatsuya left Class D.
But he never imagined she could be this stupid.
It was already obvious why Horikita had fallen into that trap, and yet someone still had the nerve to say something like that.
"Horikita did it for her classmates. She was working hard for Class D, too. Are you trying to deny all of Horikita's efforts with what you just said?"
"Hmph. But she didn't accomplish anything, did she?"
"You!"
Yukimura was nearly furious enough to explode at Shinohara's reply.
"Yukimura, stop. Talking to certain people will only make you angry."
Just as Yukimura was about to lose his temper, Hasebe Haruka, who had been placed in the same group for the exam, stepped forward and stopped him.
"Shinohara, you should stop too. Horikita really did this for Class D. If Class D didn't have students like Horikita who were willing to take risks and try something, we would have no hope of moving up to another class."
Hirata finally found a chance to speak. Even so, he still had the same peacemaker attitude as before.
"Everyone, this exam is certainly difficult, but I still don't want anyone to be expelled because of it."
"Then why don't you tell us what we're supposed to do?"
Since expulsion was at stake, even Hirata had people arguing against him.
"Use points to save them, of course."
Hirata gave the obvious answer—the only answer that could actually work.
"Huh? We don't have nearly enough points, do we?"
"Exactly. Didn't we already count them? We only have eight million. We're still twelve million short of the twenty million we need."
The students of Class D glanced at one another uneasily.
"It's true that we can't gather twenty million private points on our own. That's why I chose to ask someone else for help."
"S-someone else? Is there really someone willing to help us under these circumstances?"
The students of Class D looked at one another, unsure who she meant.
"To be precise, they're willing to lend us the points. But we'll have to pay an appropriate price in return. Or rather… interest."
Hirata revealed the truth. "Horikita will explain the details. Being able to borrow these points is entirely thanks to Horikita."
Class D fell completely silent again. Shinohara and the people who had secretly supported her were especially embarrassed.
"I want to make one thing clear first. Although the other party is willing to lend us the points, I haven't actually received them yet."
Everyone in Class D listened quietly to Horikita. That was only natural. The amount in question was twelve million private points.
No matter how you looked at it, that was an enormous sum. Nobody would casually lend out that many points.
So the students of Class D were not surprised by this.
"They must have set some conditions, right? What are they?"
Akito Yukimura, one of the few smart students in the class, asked the question.
Horikita first nodded, then shook her head.
The students of Class D were completely confused. What did it mean for her to nod and shake her head like that?
"They did set a condition, but they didn't tell us what it was," Horikita said calmly. "I think everyone understands that nobody would willingly hand over this many points.
"These points could almost guarantee that someone avoids expulsion.
"So the other party asked us to give up something in exchange. But as for what that something is, they want us to figure it out ourselves."
Horikita's words caused Class D to grow restless. Everyone began wondering what the other party could possibly mean.
There was no helping it. When dealing with Class D, the question wasn't what Kamio Tatsuya wanted. It was what Class D had to offer.
The students of Class D were all thinking about the same question: What do we have that could make someone lend us twelve million points?
"Horikita, may I ask who is willing to lend us these points?"
Yukimura spoke up again. His thinking was simple: if they knew who the other party was, perhaps they could find the right way to deal with them.
Horikita fell silent at Yukimura's question. She hesitated.
She was wondering whether she should reveal Kamio Tatsuya's name.
After all, Kamio Tatsuya was a special case for the students of Class D.
Not only had he once been a student in Class D, but he had also caused the class to suffer considerable losses. As a result, most of the students had very complicated feelings toward him.
At first, some had considered him a traitor, while others thought that certain idiots in Class D had driven him away.
But after the repeated attacks that followed, Kamio Tatsuya had completely lost whatever goodwill he had in Class D. Aside from the people who knew him well, almost everyone either hated him or was afraid of him.
So Horikita was wondering whether she should tell the students of Class D about him.
"It's me!"
Just as Horikita was hesitating, Kamio Tatsuya pushed open the front door of Class D's classroom and walked in.
After speaking with Ryuen outside for a little while, Kamio Tatsuya had heard the arguing coming from Class D's classroom.
As for how he had heard it, of course he had someone on the inside.
"Kamio?" Hondou from Class D immediately stood up in surprise when he saw Kamio Tatsuya. His face quickly filled with anger. "What are you doing here, you traitor?"
"Hondou, we may still be minors, but we're responsible for the things we say. Are you telling me to leave?"
Kamio Tatsuya did not get angry. Instead, he looked at Hondou with an amused smile.
"When—"
"Shut up, Hondou!"
At the crucial moment, Hirata stopped Hondou. If Hondou had finished what he was about to say, Kamio Tatsuya really would have left.
And everyone could imagine what would have happened after that.
Kamio Tatsuya was the savior Horikita had called in. He had originally intended to lend Class D the money.
But Hondou had driven him away. That meant Hondou himself would have crushed everyone else's hope of avoiding expulsion.
So what would happen next?
The average student in Class D might not understand the consequences, but Kamio Tatsuya had no problem making them clear.
Once the students of Class D realized what had happened, they would undoubtedly take out their anger and fear on Hondou and force him out of the class.
Hirata had reacted quickly enough to stop Hondou. Otherwise, Hondou would definitely have been expelled. There would have been no other outcome.
"You almost lost your life there, Hondou," Kamio Tatsuya said mockingly. Then he turned to Hirata. "But Hirata, it looks like you haven't wasted your time lately. You've improved."
From the moment Kamio Tatsuya returned to Class D, it had taken him only a few seconds to dig a huge hole for them. Hirata had filled that hole just as quickly.
Most of the students in Class D were completely confused. They didn't understand why Hirata had shouted at Hondou or why Kamio Tatsuya had said that Hondou had narrowly escaped with his life.
"What just happened?"
"It's simple. If Hondou had driven Kamio away just now, then Hondou would have been the only candidate for expulsion in this exam."
Horikita now understood Kamio Tatsuya's intentions too, and a cold sweat broke out across her body.
When talking to someone like him, you never knew when you might fall into one of his traps. It was truly frightening.
"Kamio is currently our only savior. Hondou's actions just now were clearly an attempt to drive that savior away."
Seeing that the students of Class D still didn't understand, Horikita continued explaining. She needed to keep these idiots from angering Kamio Tatsuya any further or giving him an excuse to go back on what he had agreed to do for her at noon.
Kamio Tatsuya merely smiled at Horikita's explanation. There was even a hint of approval in his expression.
"Horikita, if your brother saw you like this, he'd definitely be proud."
Horikita was not happy in the slightest at Kamio Tatsuya's praise.
"Kamio, barging into another class's classroom during lessons is grounds for having points deducted from your class."
Chabashira Sae, who had been standing at the back of the classroom, suddenly spoke in a low voice.
Kamio Tatsuya looked at Chabashira Sae with a mocking smile at the corner of his mouth.
She was still as foolish as ever. That was reassuring. And… thank you.
"Oh, I see. I didn't know that," Kamio Tatsuya said, pretending to understand. "So that really is a rule. In that case, I'll be leaving now. Bye, everyone."
As he spoke, he waved at the students of Class D.
"Wait…"
Kamio Tatsuya did not stop walking.
"Please wait!"
Only after Hirata used a polite tone did Kamio Tatsuya stop. By then, half his body was already outside the classroom.
"What is it, Hirata? Keep it short. I'm no longer a student of Class D, after all. If I stay here without permission during class, they might really deduct points from your class."
"No, Kamio was invited here by me to discuss this exam. Chabashira, if that's the case, then there shouldn't be a problem, right?"
As Hirata spoke, he looked toward Chabashira Sae at the back of the classroom.
Even Hirata was having trouble holding back his anger over what Chabashira had just done.
When you thought about it, Chabashira was the one who had driven Kamio Tatsuya out of Class D. If she hadn't tried to act clever, Kamio Tatsuya might not have left the class at all.
And if Kamio Tatsuya had remained a member of Class D, he might not have helped them, but he probably wouldn't have hindered them either.
Either way, things would have been far better than Class D's current situation.
But Chabashira was a teacher, so no matter how dissatisfied Hirata was, he had no way to vent his anger at her.
"Chabashira, this exam concerns us students. Could you please stop interrupting?"
Horikita understood the grudge between Kamio and Chabashira better than Hirata did, so she bluntly told Chabashira to keep quiet.
To be honest, she was extremely angry at Chabashira's behavior.
Since the start of the school year, Chabashira had done nothing to help Class D move up.
And judging from her later attitude toward Kamio Tatsuya, she clearly wanted the class to advance.
Yet she kept acting like a terrible teammate. Horikita wished more than anything that Class D had never been given a homeroom teacher like her. Without Chabashira, Class D wouldn't have ended up in this miserable state.
Horikita was fighting with everything she had to keep Class D's sinking little boat afloat, and now Chabashira had jumped in again just to make her presence known.
Horikita was so furious that she could have killed her.
This was just as bad as what Shinohara had said earlier.
But Shinohara was only a student, and one who had been placed in Class D at that. Her foolishness was understandable.
But Chabashira was a teacher.
A teacher who had passed an interview at this school and been hired.
How could she still be this stupid!?
Or was she deliberately trying to make Kamio Tatsuya leave? Did she really intend to reduce Class D by one more capable person?
Faced with such a terrible teammate, Horikita felt all her energy draining away.
"I understand."
Chabashira Sae agreed reluctantly, her face dark.
"Then could you please step aside for a while?"
Kamio Tatsuya smiled as he made the request, but anyone looking closely would have seen that there was no warmth in his eyes.
------
You can read 50+ more chapter on patreon com/JYouyi