At the school gates, Kiyotaka Ayanokoji and Suzune Horikita were debating the issue of giving up one’s seat. Ryuen had no intention of interrupting their first encounter. Interfering too much could easily backfire.
Ryuen took a lap through the academic building, observing the state of each class.
Class A was impeccably organized—worthy of its reputation as the elite class. Class B was harmonious as well, with everyone chatting and laughing around Honami Ichinose. Class D, meanwhile, was divided into numerous small groups, with a few lone wolves who seemed utterly out of place amid the rest of the class. Ayanokoji was one of them.
As though he had sensed Ryuen’s gaze, Ayanokoji, sitting alone, turned and met Ryuen’s eyes from inside the classroom. There was no emotion to be read in that stare. Was he truly as heartless as the original story described?
Ryuen flashed him what he considered a charming smile. Ayanokoji frowned slightly, then looked away.
"So you do have emotions after all. That look of disgust just now didn’t escape me. What a disappointment, Ayanokoji. I hope you’ll give me more entertainment later."
Ryuen muttered to himself outside Class D’s door.
Yosuke Hirata, Class D’s future class representative, noticed Ryuen and came over to ask whether he needed help. Ryuen ignored him and returned to Class C on his own.
The atmosphere in Class C was neither the best nor the worst. Name cards had been placed on the desks, and Ryuen quickly found his seat. Beside it sat a girl with long sky-blue hair, quietly reading a book.
The noisy classroom was clearly disrupting her reading. Ryuen noticed that she had not turned a page in quite a while, yet not the slightest hint of irritation appeared on her face. Her serene, refined, bookish air was rare even among the entire first-year student body.
"Interesting."
Ryuen had already recognized the girl before him as Hiyori Shiina, one of Class C’s few strategists. The book in her hands was one he had read himself: Gustave Le Bon’s social psychology work, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind.
Ryuen did not rush to strike up a conversation with her. Unifying the class came first. Hiyori Shiina posed no threat to him. The black student seated one row ahead of Ryuen was his first target for conquest. With that physique, he was impossible to overlook in this classroom—and he would become an indispensable fighting force for Class C.
Ryuen had once considered winning people over through virtue. But the years he had spent fighting his way through the business world had taught him otherwise: the weak ought to be ruled, and the strong made others submit. If he wanted to take control of the class as quickly as possible, violence was the most efficient method.
The drawbacks were obvious, of course. But as long as this tyrant could bring the class victory, they would worship him.
Ryuen propped his legs up on the desk, closed his eyes, and began to think.
The class remained relentlessly noisy, if anything growing louder by the minute. A pack of idiots, still excited over their new surroundings. The louder his classmates became, the more disappointed Ryuen felt—and the more convinced he was that ruling the class through violence was the right choice.
Then Class C suddenly fell silent.
"Good morning, new students. I am Kazuma Sakagami, your homeroom teacher. I will also be teaching you mathematics. For the next three years, we will be growing together, so I look forward to working with all of you. The entrance ceremony will be held in the gymnasium an hour from now. Before then, I will distribute your student cards and materials detailing the school rules. Please read them carefully."
The middle-aged man’s voice interrupted Ryuen’s thoughts. When he opened his eyes, he saw Kazuma Sakagami standing at the podium. He wore black-rimmed glasses and looked like an utterly ordinary teacher.
In other words, he had no distinguishing traits whatsoever. He certainly was not as pleasing to the eye as Class B’s Kazuomi Hoshinomiya or Class D’s Sae Chabashira.
Advanced Nurturing High School’s unusual rules had been distributed along with the acceptance letters. Compared with other schools, this one had several peculiar conditions: all students were required to live on campus, and unless there were exceptional circumstances, they were forbidden from contacting the outside world during their time at school. In compensation for such outrageous restrictions, the school waived all tuition fees.
To accommodate the students’ isolated campus life, the school had also built countless entertainment and lifestyle facilities. Clothing stores, movie theaters, snack shops, karaoke venues, bookstores, cafés—everything was available. Rumor had it that the campus covered more than six hundred thousand square meters.
Of course, none of that was the important part.
"With the student card you have just received, you can use every facility on campus. The card functions much like a credit card, except a credit card spends money, while this card spends points. Ahem. One thing you should keep in mind is that the points on your student card can purchase anything available at this school."
Sakagami deliberately coughed twice, trying to offer his adorable idiot students a hint. He was not permitted to spell it out too plainly, but regrettably, few of the idiots in Class C caught the implication behind his words.
Ryuen idly turned the student card over in his hand. Calling it a student card was almost misleading. It was more like a smartphone loaded with a digital payment app—except it could not contact the outside world and could only communicate with users inside the school. The principle was simple enough: a closed local network.
"It is simple to use. Just present it at any payment terminal. On the first day of every month, the school will automatically transfer points to your account. For now, every student will receive one hundred thousand points. The exchange rate is one point to one yen. That is roughly all there is to it."
Perhaps disappointed in the class, Sakagami did not cough again or offer them any further hints.
Before he had even finished speaking, the students below erupted into chaos.
"This is incredible! One hundred thousand every month? Doesn’t that mean we can buy whatever we want?"
"This is amazing. The school not only charges no tuition, it gives us spending money too."
"We should go shopping together sometime! I want to check out the cosmetics. There’s this lipstick I’ve been wanting forever..."
As the students enthusiastically discussed their newfound fortune, Sakagami said nothing. He simply stood at the podium and waited in silence, waiting for them to take the next step themselves.
Sure enough, amid the noisy discussion, a girl who clearly enjoyed drawing attention to herself stood out.
"Everyone!"
The girl abruptly rose from her seat. Seeing her stand, the people around her quieted down.
"We’ll be living together for the next three years, so why don’t we introduce ourselves while we have time? We can go in seating order. That way, we can get to know one another quickly and make friends with people who share our interests."
The girl did her best to put herself on display, trying to rally the mood of the class.
Both Ryuen and Sakagami were deeply disappointed. They had expected some insightful observation, but it seemed she merely wanted to perform in front of the teacher, earn his favor, secure a class officer position, and thereby raise her standing in the class to make her high school life easier.
Introductions were useful. They were an inevitable part of starting high school. But after listening to the teacher, there were clearly more important matters to consider. Couldn’t these people use their brains for once? Sakagami’s explanation was filled with obvious questions. Did none of them want to ask?
The future looks grim.
That was what Kazuma Sakagami was thinking.
"Enough. This farce ends here!"
Ryuen had reached the limit of his patience. He cut the girl off directly.
"What a boring, idiotic bunch. Just as I thought—you morons only need to shut up and do as you’re told!"
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