Chapter 1.5

After school, I walked calmly towards the courtyard and waited near the entrance.

Meanwhile, Ayanokouji and Kushida's plan was in full swing. Contrary to their intentions, after exchanging a few words with Kushida, Horikita realized all their deceit and decided to leave. As soon as she left the courtyard, I approached and struck up a conversation.

Yuuichi: Hello, Horikita-san! What are you doing here?

Horikita: Are you also involved in this?

Yuuichi: Hmm, involved in what?

Horikita: I have no reason to tell you.

Yuuichi: Even if you don't tell me, I could try to deduce it and jump to a hasty conclusion, like Ayanokouji confessed to you or something.

Horikita: (sighs) Kushida set a trap to get close to me.

Yuuichi: (nodding several times) I suspected as much. Honestly, her approaches are suspicious. Even if she were a genuinely kind-hearted person, she should understand the word "no" and have some boundaries.

Horikita: That's exactly what I think. It seems you're one of the few with a brain in this school.

Yuuichi: (with a friendly smile) I'll take that as a compliment. By the way, Horikita-san, what do you think of this school?

Horikita: I think it seems quite lenient, but I agree with what you said in class.

Yuuichi: (nodding) I'm glad you agree with me, although there are some who still refuse to listen.

Horikita: There's not much we can do about that.

Yuuichi: Exactly. By the way, I'd be happy to continue this conversation more comfortably. How about we go to a café? And don't worry about the expenses; I'll treat you.

Horikita: (considering the proposal) Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have a more extensive conversation. Alright, let's go to the café.

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The following days passed calmly, with a significant portion of the students taking Hirata and Yuuichi's words seriously, though the class was far from being exemplary.

A clear example was Sudo's constant tardiness and Ike and Yamauchi's never-ending chats, but overall, it was much better than it could have been.

Another notable event during those days was Karuizawa starting to date Hirata, which was odd for the whole class since they had noticed her previous closeness with me. However, it seemed like a plan to quickly improve her reputation.

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Third period, History class with Chabashira-sensei. She entered as soon as the bell signalled the start of the class. However, the students' attitude didn't change.

Chabashira: Everyone, be quiet. Today's class will be more serious.

Ike: What do you mean, Sae-chan-sensei?

Chabashira: It's the end of the month. We'll have a short test. Pass these to the back.

She handed out the papers to the first row, and eventually, the test reached my desk.

The exam had several questions from each of the 5 main topics.

Ike: Eh, I haven't heard anything. I don't want to take it.

Chabashira: Calm down. This test is only for future reference. It won't reflect on your grade report. There's no risk, so just relax. However, cheating is, of course, prohibited.

Yuuichi noticed that Chabashira-sensei assured that the test wouldn't be reflected in the grades, which meant that it would be taken into account somewhere else, like class points or the overall average.

The question is, where?

It probably has to do with class points or the overall average.

Once the test began, I looked at the questions. 20 questions, 4 per section, and 5 points per question, totaling 100 points. However, the questions were extraordinarily easy, even for me.

The questions in this test were about 2 levels below the admission exam questions. Everything here is too simple. That's what I thought, but the last 3 questions in the test were more difficult than the others.

- No... Why are these problems so hard?

Clearly, these are not meant for first-year students.