Chapter 32

There are no absences today! That's good, make sure you all do your best, 'kay?"

Ishihara-sensei strolled into the classroom with a gentle smile on her features.

"Sensei, none of us have ever been absent before. What makes you think we would be today?" Lelouch asked smugly.

"I didn't think you would be, but I still have to make sure 'cos this is an important test, y'know?" Ishihara-sensei responded cheerfully.

Ishihara-sensei handed out a stack of papers to Shiro, who started to hand the stack along the row. Our first period test was for social studies. Out of everything we'd studied, it was probably the easiest subject.

"Oh, and there's one more thing. If no one fails this test or the final exam in July, you'll be rewarded with a vacation during your summer break."

"Hoh? A vacation?" Sora narrowed his eyes. He was clearly suspicious already.

"That's right. A dream vacation on an island surrounded by the beautiful blue sea. What isn't there to love?"

Definitely suspicious.

Before long, the remaining single paper reached me, at the end of the row. On the teacher's signal, everyone began. I held off on starting for a moment and looked around the others. Everyone was as relaxed as could be.

I looked over all the questions in the paper. They all seemed relatively simple. There were a few difficult ones, but not to the point where I couldn't answer them. Slowly, I went through and answered all of the problems.

The second and third period exams were for Japanese and chemistry respectively. While I worked, I noticed that most of the questions on the tests were exactly what Lelouch had predicted would be on them, and what he'd placed emphasis on during our study session. The apathetic boy sitting beside me was even more impressive than I'd thought.

Then came fourth period. Mathematics. All of the abnormally difficult questions that had been featured on the mock test also appeared here. Even if Sudō and the others couldn't understand the problems, they should be able to answer most of the other ones. Should.

After a silent break came our English test. I was fluent in English since I'd learned it my whole life, so the test was like a breeze to me. Strangely, every single one of my classmates except for Light also seemed to be in the exact same situation as me. Light didn't look to be having any troubles, though. He was merely answering the questions calmly, whereas the rest of us treated English as second nature.

I understood that Kururugi had probably learned it in the military and that Shiro could've probably memorized it easily. But why did Lelouch, Ryuzaki and Sora all seem to know English flawlessly as well? I'd have to ask them after the test.

After the test, we all gathered around Light's desk which was centered in the middle of the room.

"Hey, I noticed that everyone here except for Light seems to know English fluently, as second nature. I understand with Kururugi and Shiro, but how do the rest of you know it?" I spoke up and asked the group.

"That's an interesting question, since you yourself also seemed to know English by heart, Ayanokōji. But I'll answer it. You may not have thought about it since I'm clearly overshadowed by Shiro, but I also have an eidetic memory. I memorized all of the major languages in the world long ago." Sora explained.

That was surprising. A pair of siblings who both had an eidetic memory? It seemed that since Shiro stood out so much, nobody really seemed to consider Sora. At least when it came to calculation and memory, anyway. Sora said that he was overshadowed but also said he knew every major language, so I couldn't help but wonder how many Shiro knew.

"I know English because it was pretty much mandatory for me to learn it in the past." Lelouch was pretty vague with his answer.

Lelouch was quite a mysterious figure. He was required to learn English in the past. Typically, members of the military were required to learn it because it was a common language and nobles were required to know the language for diplomatic purposes – other than that, I couldn't think of anyone who would be in a position that made knowing English mandatory.

Did Lelouch fit into one of these two categories? If he was in the military like Kururugi, then he would've mentioned it, right? He and Kururugi clearly knew each other before enrolling here, so it would be weird for him to not mention that they met in the military. But he didn't. That means that either he had a reason for hiding it, or that they met before Kururugi joined the military.

And then there was his signature...

"I said that I solved crimes during my introduction, right? English is a pretty important language to know in that area of work." Ryuzaki said.

So, he wasn't joking, he did actually solve crimes before coming here, huh? As I uncovered more and more about my classmates, I started to realize that nobody in this room was normal.

"And what about you, Ayanokōji? Why are you so fluent in English?" Shiro asked me.

There's no reason to lie, so I'll just tell a half-truth. "I've been taught it ever since I could talk."

"Hm, does your family speak English as well as Japanese, Ayanokōji?" Kururugi inquired.

"No," I answered nonchalantly.

"Huh? Then why..."

Everybody looked confused, but nobody asked further. That was good.

Ishihara-sensei walked into the classroom happily, as usual.

"I won't waste any time, I guess. I'll put your test results up now, 'kay?"

Like before, she revealed the results simultaneously and collectively. She stuck a large, white sheet of paper with everyone's names and test scores onto the blackboard.

"Hey look, Kururugi got a perfect score for once." Sora pointed out half-jokingly.

Indeed, Kururugi had a perfect score in English. In fact, every single one of us had a perfect score in English. That made English Class D's most proficient subject, then.

None of you failed! Good job!" Ishihara-sensei cheered for us as she drew a red line under our names. Nobody seemed surprised about that fact, though.

After saying that, Ishihara-sensei left the room. She certainly wasn't here for long.

"Well, might as well go and check whether anyone got expelled in the other classes or not." Lelouch said monotonously, making for the door.

I decided to tag along. It seemed like Sora, Shiro and Light were also going to be joining us.

"Isn't class starting soon?" Kururugi asked, still seated in his desk.

"Don't worry. We won't be late. We're just gonna have a look around." Sora replied as we left the room.

We sauntered down the corridor and descended the stairs, reaching the floor which all of the other classrooms were located on. We glanced through the windows of each classroom as we strolled through the school. Looking into Class A, I saw that they too had the red lines drawn beneath everybody's name.

"As expected of Class A, huh?" Light muttered.

Class B similarly had no expulsions. I saw Ichinose at the podium passionately congratulating her class as we strolled past.

"Say, Class B has the worst students academically speaking, don't they? I thought that the school sorted by merit." Lelouch pondered out loud.

"But merit isn't just academics. Take Horikita for example, she was placed in Class D even though her academics are Class A level. Class B is exceptional at working together, which probably means that even though their abilities weren't the best, they were evaluated highly because of that fact. I'd say that everyone placed in Class C and D are the 'defectives,' with Class D having the worst of them while Class C had the ones with less extreme flaws. Defectiveness probably has more weight than talent in the eyes of the school."

Sora deduced instantly as we walked down the corridor. He was probably right. The assigned classes could probably be thought of as being split into two halves – Class A and B, the non-defectives, and Class C and D, the defectives.

Class A was the class with students that weren't defective and who also had superior talent. Class B was the class that was made up of students also not considered defective, but who either didn't meet the Class A standard in terms of ability or who were considered to have very minor flaws.

Class C was made up of the most talented students left in the batch. This was probably why the average talent in Class C was higher than that of Class B and D. Class D, then, was the leftovers – the ones who were neither talented nor flawless. Even some talented individuals were placed there simply because their flaws were too big to ignore.

"Using that logic, it makes sense that Class C passed with flying colors as well." Shiro commented as we looked into the Class C room.

"Well, that just leaves the one class which is probably expected to have some dropouts." Lelouch sighed as we came upon the Class E room.

As soon as we came upon the room, Sora, Lelouch and Light burst out laughing. I had to admit, what we saw was pretty funny.