The timing suggested they had just been informed, but since it was still class time, even if the homeroom teacher allowed students to chat freely, it was still technically a lesson.
So, what about Sakayanagi? Wasn't it different for her?
Actually, Sakayanagi had received permission for this period of freedom.
She had just delegated her authority, and although Katsuragi didn't say anything, his followers hoped he would use this opportunity to let Sakayanagi leave first, and then have the students from Sakayanagi's group listen to Katsuragi's brilliant ideas about the upcoming exam.
In other words, they were trying to sow discord between Sakayanagi and her group of students.
Sakayanagi didn't care about such childish schemes.
In fact, for an exam that almost anyone could score 70% on without trying, Class A had the advantage. There wasn't much room to meddle.
So for Class A students, this exam was an easy A as long as they studied. It was like using a cannon to shoot a mosquito, so she wasn't interested at all.
Even though she saw through Totsuka's trick — that giving her free time was just a childish attempt to cause trouble — Sakayanagi didn't mind at all.
She even went along with it on her own and walked out of the classroom.
After all,
[I'm now free to do whatever I want, while students from the other classes are still being told the rules for the special exam.]
[So, future student council president, do you have any orders for me? You know, now's the perfect time to spy on the other classes.]
But when Shirogane saw the message from Sakayanagi, he didn't answer right away.
Even though her idea sounded tempting, Sakayanagi wasn't in good health, and making her do something like spying felt a bit too much.
Also, the teachers had their own code of conduct — they could only share rules that were allowed to be said.
So basically, there shouldn't be anything shady going on.
Even so.
Shirogane suddenly thought — if this was a written test covering five subjects, and just failing one subject could get you expelled, what was Class D going to do?
Or maybe,
what would Class D's teacher do?
Yesterday, when Shirogane passed the bulletin board, he noticed that the teachers of Classes B, C, and D had all been fined for breaking the rules.
And among them, Chabashira-sensei from Class D got hit with the biggest penalty.
Shirogane already knew from talking with Horikita that Chabashira had broken the rules before, but could fines really be split up like that?
So.
Was it possible that Chabashira-sensei broke the rules again?
And the extra fine this time... was because it had something to do with this month's special exam?
"..."
It wasn't impossible.
Class D had zero points now and was packed with the weakest students.
If Ryuen's class had an 80% "bad student" rate, split about 60-40 between C and D level academics, then Class D was even worse — maybe 70-30 or something like that.
Both classes were in a miserable situation.
But unlike Ryuen's class, which had Ryuen using violence to force people to study, Class D didn't have any self-discipline at all.
If they did, their class points wouldn't have dropped all the way to zero.
So.
If they just took the exam normally without any help, there was no doubt more than one person from Class D would fail and get expelled.
Shirogane couldn't imagine Chabashira doing what Sakagami-sensei did — staying after school to tutor the students.
And since Chabashira had already broken the rules several times because of her obsession with raising the class rank, Shirogane didn't believe she would sit back and do nothing now.
She had probably crossed the line again in this exam.
And if Chabashira hadn't given up on Class D yet, then maybe...
This time, instead of focusing on Horikita, she was aiming at that Ayanokouji guy.
"..." Shirogane.
It was just a guess, but right now, Sakayanagi was basically the only student wandering around freely while the other teachers were still explaining the exam rules to their classes.
Even so, Shirogane didn't contact Sakayanagi right away.
"Does Sakayanagi Arisu really want to go spy?" Shirogane wrote in his notebook.
Yes.
What he wrote was that it was *Sakayanagi* who wanted to go.
It was a trick he learned from Kushida.
Like when someone says, "my friend wants to," "my friend is interested," or "my friend would like to see," it usually means the person themselves actually wants it.
So, when Sakayanagi said she was waiting for his order to go spy, what she really meant was that she herself wanted to do it.
[Sakayanagi? She's actually quite interested in this school, considering it has special rules.]
[But it seems like she's a bit tired of it.]
[She enjoys the freedom of being able to walk around outside while everyone else is in class. She thinks it's not bad.] The narrator's voice came through.
Looks like Sakayanagi is a bit of a mischievous person.
Shirogane then began to type a message.
"Then, I'll leave it to you, Vice President Sakayanagi."
[...]
About a minute passed, and then Sakayanagi Arisu finally replied.
[So, you really plan on naming me vice president when you become president?]
"This is my honest plan. If I get to the student council position, I'll follow President Horikita's principle of prioritizing strength, so I'll invite you to join the student council."
"I think you'd be fit for the vice president role."
"Or do you think your abilities aren't enough?" Shirogane continued typing.
Sakayanagi quickly responded.
[Heh, you're really bold, Shirogane. I just saw a weak provocation this morning, and now you're using the same tactic?]
"However you want to understand it, if you refuse, does that mean you think your abilities aren't enough?"
Even as he typed, Shirogane wasn't just thinking about this.
In fact, he was even bold enough to bring Sakayanagi into Ryuen's class.
And he would use the 20 million points that Sakayanagi herself had prepared.
After all, as a student of Ryuen's class, abandoning a classmate to go solo felt a bit too stressful.
But if he could ensure his class would graduate as Class A, then spending that 20 million would be worth it, and bringing Sakayanagi in would provide an extra layer of security for the class to stay in A-Class.
Of course,
If things were that simple, it would be great.
Although Shirogane wasn't hesitant about pushing his class to A-Class, he still felt a bit anxious about whether his class would really make it.
His class was one of the lower-tier ones, and just like with Manabe, if he wasn't expecting it, did the school expect it?
And there were quite a few students in the class who felt the same way.
So, was it really okay for his class to move up?
Sakagami-sensei had also mentioned that the school was very aware of the situation of each class.
In other words, Ryuen's class's weakness was the written exams, since most of the students weren't good at academics. So, what if they managed to rise up, and then the school decided to give them more written exams?
It was something that couldn't be predicted.
After all, no lower-tier class had ever successfully risen to A-Class, so there was no precedent. He would have to start from his class.
There was still about a year before Shirogane could make his big plans about inviting Sakayanagi to be vice president when he became president.
After all, President Horikita was still in charge, and there was still a year left before he'd step down and a new president would be elected.
[We've now reached the area of Class 1-D.]
While Shirogane was lost in thought, he suddenly felt his phone vibrate.
It was another message from Sakayanagi.
So, she's already started to listen in? Even though she volunteered herself and wanted to do it, her initiative is still surprising.
[But I didn't rush in.]
However, Sakayanagi sent a confusing message.
Because, even though she was clearly heading to eavesdrop, she hadn't done so?
But Shirogane knew Sakayanagi well enough to know she would explain soon.
Sure enough.
Not long after, Sakayanagi sent another message.
[There's someone standing by the door of Class D. A young woman who looks very S. She's wearing a black office suit, but with black stockings on her lower half. Her hair is tied in a ponytail. She looks sharp. If her expression wasn't so cold, she would definitely be the kind of big sister that excites people.]
[She's been standing there for a while.]
"This is Chabashira-sensei."
[It looks like you know her quite well.]
"I saw on the bulletin board earlier that she seems to have had the most points deducted for breaking the rules. The strange thing is, her salary from last month was also deducted. So I suspect she might have violated the rules again." Shirogane texted.
[Looks like you're really trying to pull me in. You just want to confirm the information about Class D.]
[But, I am curious.]
"So, are you going to continue following Chabashira-sensei?" Shirogane sent another message.
[No, she just walked into the classroom. I can't be sure she'll come out again. If she catches me, I'll lose face.]
Lose face?
So, Sakayanagi actually cares about saving face?
Shirogane was a little surprised.