If Suzune had acted alone, the students wouldn't have surrendered their phones so willingly — she might not have even managed to gather the entire class.
And this situation...
"This exam—" Kikyō said, "Don't tell me you and Oreki are profiting again?"
"We're cooperating." Suzune said, "After the exam ends, I'll transfer 200,000 points to you."
"..."
200,000 points, huh.
Since when had this girl become so generous?
I know better — you have plenty of points yet live frugally, eating just a single rice ball for lunch. That's how stingy you are.
Being this generous now... Houtarou's plan must promise massive profits.
Is that really what this is about?
She knew Suzune wouldn't seek friendship without reason. Even her quick agreement to be friends had seemed suspicious.
So she was making money with Houtarou again and excluding her? Such behavior could hardly be called friendship.
For the first time, even Kikyō, who claimed to want friendship with everyone, felt the urge to exclude someone from her circle.
Afterward, they went together to the ship's valuable storage lockers.
"I'll keep the key then." Suzune said.
"..." Kikyō said, "Mm."
She felt gloomy.
To be precise, she had felt gloomy throughout the entire process. Realizing she'd been used as a pawn had soured her mood.
Furthermore, Suzune and Houtarou needed Class D's privileged student information.
What were they planning? Whatever it was, Class D would surely suffer losses.
Would she take the blame for this?
This was too much.
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Meanwhile, Houtarou had received the information from Suzune's phone.
Class D's four privileged students' information had been submitted. After obtaining information on six privileged students, rather than having Masumi bring him all twelve group rosters to analyze patterns himself, he had her manually enter all the information from the member lists into her phone. After noting all six known privileged students' names, she was to edit and send it to Arisu's phone number.
To Masumi, this seemed like another needless task from Houtarou. The materials were right in front of him, yet he insisted on an electronic version.
Creating an electronic version was one thing, but sending it to Arisu?
The "little princess" was at school and could only access messaging privileges in the evening by using Points at the school gates — part of their required regular communications with Arisu.
A message sent now wouldn't reach her until evening.
This irritated Masumi. She knew Houtarou was intelligent enough to deduce the pattern of privileged students himself.
So why involve Arisu?
"Sakayanagi can't participate in the exam due to her health." He said, "But she's still a Class A member, and she'll likely have to forfeit future physical education exams too. Constant forfeiting isn't good — I want to keep her involved as much as possible."
Oh. This was about improving that girl's image. Having her help deduce the privileged student pattern...
Indeed. Successfully deducing the pattern of privileged students would be quite an achievement.
So, Houtarou, you're being this thoughtful?
By the way, Masumi was a bit curious, "It feels like your attitude toward Sakayanagi has changed recently."
"Has it?" Houtarou turned around.
"Yes." She nodded firmly.
Before, you wouldn't have cared about maintaining Arisu's image. In fact, as she herself said, you were always trying to push responsibilities onto her.
So you're acting very strange. And this behavior... could it be...
Masumi suddenly had a thought.
The reason someone would change so quickly was probably what those gossipy girls called... love.
Indeed, Arisu is cute. It's natural to feel your heart flutter and be drawn to her. Plus, she skipped the exam and twice in a row let Houtarou freely direct her faction members. These gestures carry weight.
However, it's unfortunate.
Because Masumi knows that Arisu declared she won't let Houtarou join the Student Council if she becomes President.
In other words, she's about to become Student Council President, and despite having many positions available, she won't offer you even one.
So, Houtarou, you may have finally fallen for someone, but you've lost badly. Arisu excels at deceiving others. She's just using your current feelings.
Thinking this, she suddenly felt somewhat better, since she too had recently experienced first love with him, only for it to become an embarrassing memory.
Lost in these thoughts...
She noticed he was looking at her.
"Hmm, what is it?" Now meeting his dark green eyes again, Masumi, who had been deceived before, deliberately put on a stern face.
But undeniably, this guy did have qualities that drew girls' attention.
"Stop spacing out and get back to work." Houtarou said bluntly.
Masumi: "..."
Oh.
So she deliberately continued editing the names at a snail's pace.
"You're being quite slow..." Houtarou finally said, after sitting beside her watching her work for over 20 minutes.
By the time Masumi had finished editing all the information to send to Arisu's number, the ship's broadcast system came on.
[Discussion time has arrived. Your discussion periods are from 9 AM to 10 AM and 8 PM to 10 PM daily. Now announcing room assignments for each group.]
Tomonari's voice came through the broadcast.
[Rabbit Group to room 204, Dragon Group to 203, Snake Group to 205, Horse Group to 206, Sheep Group to 207...]
It was now 9 AM. According to the exam rules, this was one of the twice-daily group discussions, time provided for members to identify and find the privileged students in their group.
Houtarou didn't hesitate. He prepared to head to room 204 as announced.
"Then I'm off to the Monkey Group." Masumi said.
The Monkey Group's room was 209.
Though both were on the second floor, they were in different directions. So the two of them ran off toward their respective room numbers at the corner.
⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟
After spending time with Masumi, Houtarou had to jog to the meeting room.
Unlike last night, room 204 — over 30 square meters in size — was now bustling with activity. Most of the Rabbit Group members had arrived on time, following the exam rules.
His fellow Class A students Shigeru and Kōji were already there.
Three Class D students had also arrived: a slightly chubby boy, a boy who seemed poor at conversation, and a boy wearing glasses.
Having seen the full year's roster and information, Houtarou recognized them immediately. They were Hideo Sotomura, Akito Miyake, and Teruhiko Yukimura.
He knew their basic profiles too — Hideo was skilled with computers, Akito excelled at archery, and Teruhiko was Class D's top student, second only to Suzune in academics.
Kei was also supposed to be here, but looking around, he didn't see her.
He did notice several Class C students though — all girls, and mostly familiar faces.
Despite having students from three different classes in the room, there was little interaction between them. Though chairs were set up throughout the space, students clustered in separate areas by class. A gloomy atmosphere hung in the air.
"Oreki, over here—" Kōji waved to him.
As Class A students, sitting together came naturally.
Houtarou took a seat, noting an empty chair to his right.
Just then, the dreary atmosphere lifted like the arrival of spring. The division between classes was about to change.
"Yahoo— everyone. And Oreki too!"
This cheerful greeting came with an angel-like smile that could make hearts flutter — it was Honami Ichinose, the most popular girl in first year.
Her appeal went beyond her cute looks and figure. Her personality and presence drew everyone to her. As the first year's beloved angel, she had many friends and considerable charm.
More importantly, she was the only student who got along well with all four classes. The moment she arrived, the room's atmosphere brightened considerably.
With her arrival, most of the group was now present.
The complete 14-person roster for the Rabbit Group was:
Class A: Shigeru Takemoto, Kōji Machida, Houtarou Oreki
Class B: Honami Ichinose, Tetsuya Hamaguchi, Ryōta Beppu
Class C: Mio Ibuki, Shiho Manabe, Nanami Yabu, Saki Yamashita.
Class D: Akito Miyake, Kei Karuizawa, Hideo Sotomura, Teruhiko Yukimura
Thirteen had arrived — only Kei was missing.
When she finally arrived late, her expression soured slightly at seeing the room's occupants.
She exchanged glances with the boys from her class, but both parties pretended not to notice each other. Their relationship was clearly strained — despite being classmates, they barely interacted.
This tension stemmed from an incident where a boy accidentally knocked her pencil off her desk, leading to her fierce outburst. The episode had severely damaged her popularity among the boys in her class.
Even though... she was quite cute.
People like Haruki, who only judged by appearances, would dismiss her as just another flashy gyaru.
But her beauty was genuine — boys from other classes couldn't help but stare, likely comparing her to the girls in their own classes.
Kei's gaze swept around the room, landing on Houtarou.
"There's an empty seat here..." She mumbled.
But just when he thought she would sit beside him, she shifted her chair away slightly, keeping her distance from him.
Houtarou: "..."
⍟⍟⍟
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