Volume 6, Epilogue: "Contrasting Decisions" Part 1

This chapter is updated by wuxiaworld.eu

Although many students became depressed from the days of repeated studying, time still passed by.

And then winter came. After entering into December, the final exam was finally less than three days away. Tomorrow, the school will be closed for the weekend, then the final exam will be waiting for us on Monday.

To be honest, the challenge of the exam itself wasn’t too much of a worry. As far as Class D is concerned, everyone has sufficient consistency and the results of the study groups are excellent. I can also assert that even Sudō, and the others who are often close to failing, have been working harder than ever.

The problem lies elsewhere. It’s not too much to say that the problem lies with Ryūen and Kushida. No doubt they’ve begun to move under the water’s surface, and I can roughly guess what they’re going to do.

Ryūen’s goals are to ‘beat Class D’s overall score’ and ‘smoke out the existence hiding behind Horikita’. For the former…… that is, the tactics available to him to beat our overall score are inevitably limited. The proper methods would be for Class C as a whole to study zealously, or to come up with super difficult questions. Either one works, but these are general strategies that Class D can also resort to.

I hardly know whether or not Class C has gathered for a large-scale study group. They haven’t appeared in cafes, libraries, classrooms, or any other typical studying location.

Is it just a coincidence that I haven’t seen them, or has Class C been working hard somewhere I’m unaware of? Even if they’ve studied hard, as long as Class D isn’t overwhelmed, they’ll be forced to fight a difficult battle. This doesn’t seem like their tactic for winning the fight regardless.

Then, it’s easy to imagine that they’re looking at strategies from other perspectives.

“Thinking about something?”

“Oh, my bad.”

Since I was at a standstill, Horikita looked up at me from the base of the stairs. I hurried downstairs to catch up with her.

She had a large brown envelope in her hand. It was stuffed with the questions that she had created with Hirata and the others over the last month. It held the fate of Class D itself.

Because of this, she didn’t even let me in on the questions, making the information out to be strictly confidential. Since it was ultimately compiled by Horikita, she was the only one who knew all of the questions.

“What are the odds?”

“Hard to say. I hope you’re not expecting too much. After all, the school has also been making big adjustments to the questions. However, there’s no doubt that we’ve finished the most difficult part of the exam that we’ve been given so far.”

Horikita portrayed a certain level of confidence. Should I consider it to be solidly completed?

The question then becomes: ‘how do we protect the questions until the end?’

We came across another student in the corridor on our way to the staff room.

“Yo, Suzune.”

Ryūen was there with a fearless smile, holding the same brown envelope as Horikita.

“Is this a coincidence or an ambush?”

“It’s inevitable. I’ve been waiting for you to come.”

“An ambush, then.”

Horikita gave a disgusted sigh and proceeded to walk past Ryūen.

“Hold up, you’re also submitting your questions at the last minute, right? Let’s go together.”

Ryūen spoke, displaying his envelope in front of Horikita.

“Since I don’t know who’s going take a peep, I understand that you’re also going to be cautious.”

“You’re worrying about someone in your own class? Are you feeling okay?”

“Kuku. No idiot would actually try to betray me.”

“And despite that, you’ve waited until the last moment to submit your questions like I have.”

Horikita used an aggressive approach to return provocation for provocation. Ryūen should find this incredibly enjoyable.

We walked on and he proceeded to follow after us.

“I hope the wisdom you managed to squeeze out of your defective classmates works out well for us.”

Horikita kept walking, ignoring Ryūen’s existence.

“Ayanokōji-kun, have you been studying properly? I’m curious about the status of your partner as well.”

“As it is, I think failure can be avoided.”

“There’s no use in just thinking it. We can’t have any drop-outs at all. Do not be negligent even though we're confident about anything Class C might throw at us.”

It appears that Ryūen didn’t intend to remain silent, as he once again responded to Horikita’s verbal jabs.

“Huh? Are you worrying about someone in your class? That was an interesting remark. It seems like you’re finally grasping our way of doing things.”

“Who knows. Maybe it was just a cheap provocation. It’s just like you.”

“Maybe so.”

Horikita called for Chabashira-sensei as soon as we arrived at the staff room. Shortly afterward, Chabashira-sensei showed her face.

Ryūen also called for Sakagami-sensei. Sakagami-sensei, who came first, took the brown envelope from Ryūen quietly.

“Will you accept this?”

“Aah. I’ll ask you later.”

After their short exchange, Chabashira-sensei showed up and changed places with Sakagami-sensei.

“Looks like you’ve brought it.”

It seems that she already knew what was going on, and only looked down at the brown envelope.

She didn’t seem to pay particular attention to Ryūen on the side.

“Chabashira-sensei. These questions that I’m submitting are the final versions.”

“I’ll take it.”

Ryūen watched over the conversation with an eerie smile.

Horikita saw her teacher’s hand ready to receive the brown envelope and paused for a moment.

“I'd like to ask you something. Is right now alright for you?”

“Ah.”

“These questions and answers are equivalent to the success or failure of Class D. We must avoid any leakage of this information, by any means. After I give it to you, would you please refuse anyone who asks for you to show it to them? I don’t want them to be seen by anyone, including me.”

Horikita negotiated in light of her recent failure at the sports festival.

I don’t know if Chabashira-sensei would understand that either.

“You want me to refuse to disclose the information?”

“Is that difficult?”

“That’s not the case. I can understand your fear of an information leak, and your desire to make sure that doesn’t happen. The school has no reason to refuse your request either. But, of course, it’s conditional.”

“Conditional, is it?”

“I have to determine whether or not it’s the general will of the class. Has everyone approved of it?”

“I didn’t take their words for it, but…… I think it’s safe to consider this to be everyone’s general will on the matter. Since no student wants their class to lose.”

“You can’t say that either. I’ve said something like that before, but each individual person can have an unexpectedly different opinion. It wouldn’t be strange for there to be a student who wanted to lose.”

“That’s……”

Chabashira-sensei crossed her arms and added further:

“Furthermore, can you guarantee that the exam questions you have there are what your entire class expects? Your class hasn’t collectively consented to the questions before you brought them here.”

“Are you telling me to prove it? Do you want me to circulate the questions to everyone and confirm that there aren’t any issues?”

“I didn’t say that. I mean, things aren’t that simple. It’s impossible for me to tell if the student, Horikita Suzune, standing here before me is acting for the sake of her class. Nevertheless, I’ll grant you your request. If any students are to come in contact with me, I will never disclose the questions and answers that you’ve created.”

“Thank you very much. With this, I can face the exam at ease.”

“However. I’ll dare to tell you one more thing. In general, it’s not a good thing that you have to restrict information like this. It’s evidence that the class isn’t uniting together very well.”

This is certainly a reality that can’t be denied. If we didn’t have any suspicious classmates, we wouldn’t need to make this request in the first place, and also wouldn’t have anyone leak information like this. Although this is just part of my imagination, it’s probably impossible for something like this to happen for Class B.

“What harsh words. I’m seriously dedicated towards improving intraclass relations right now.”

Upon hearing this, Chabashira-sensei smiled a little bit.

“You’ve changed too, Horikita.”

“……Some things can't always stay the same forever.”

“I’ve definitely accepted your request. However, there may also be cases where disclosure should be permitted when necessary. Unforeseen situations can always happen. Therefore, I would like to add a condition to our deal. If, with your permission, someone asks to see the questions and answers, I will then disclose the information. Is that okay? If I had to assert that I would never show it to anyone, it would be a risk to you too, right?”

In short, 100% non-disclosure is not formally possible.

It doesn’t appear to matter how, Chabashira-sensei seems to want some means of disclosure to remain possible.

“That’s okay. However, please consider my presence to be another requirement.”

“That’s a good idea. It’s possible for someone to lie about having received your permission. Let’s recognize it then. If someone comes asking for the questions and answers, I will tell them exactly what you’ve said. That you did not want to disclose the information out of fear of an information leak. After all, I cannot afford to lie as a teacher.”

“That’s alright.”

Horikita was relieved that the negotiations had been successful for the time being.

It’s definitely not going to develop the same way as the sports festival now. Whether it’s Kushida or anyone else, even if they wanted to check the questions, it’s impossible without Horikita’s presence. There shouldn’t be any tricks here, as well.

Even if someone was willing to pay a number of points to scrap it, it’s obviously not enough of a reason to overturn this decision.

However, something’s strange.

I felt this as I listened silently to Chabashira-sensei and Horikita’s conversation.

The answer to this problem doesn’t emerge immediately, but there’s no doubt that something’s strange. It all seems to be going well so far. The questions were completed with an exquisitely high degree of difficulty; definitely worthy of the effort of Horikita, Hirata, and the others. It’s fine up to this point. Horikita then presented it to Chabashira-sensei while also putting measures in place to prevent the information from being leaked to others.

Even if Kushida obeys Ryūen and tries to get at the questions, a mechanism that requires Horikita’s permission and presence has been successfully established.

Everything is solid. There are no loopholes anywhere……

I see. So that’s the reason.

While there’s nothing out of place with their conversation, there’s distinctly something out of place with Chabashira-sensei.

Chabashira-sensei’s eyes, movements, and attitude don’t show this.

She solemnly accepted the exam questions and allowed Horikita to leave.

There was also Ryūen’s confident attitude. Something about that laid-back behavior took my attention.

“Let’s go, Ayanokōji-kun. We’ve finished our business here.”

I didn’t listen to her and instead looked into Chabashira-sensei eyes. She responded by staring into my own.

Realize it Horikita. Before it’s too late--

I can’t speak carelessly in front of Ryūen, and I can’t send any excessive eye contact.

Even if we get through this, we might be in a situation where we don’t have enough time to come back here again.

Horikita began to leave the staff room but immediately stopped in place.

“……Chabashira-sensei. You just said you wouldn’t lie to me, right?”

“Yes. As a teacher, that much is only natural.”

“Then I ask you, will the questions and answers I submitted to you just now be accepted?”

She sensed it.

It was a slight wish, but Horikita caught on to the problem on her own.

“It’s unclear whether the questions will be accepted or not until it’s confirmed that there are no issues with them.”

“What’s the matter, Horikita?”

Horikita didn’t pay me any notice as I asked such a question.

“Then I’ll change how I’m asking. Before we introduce the current exam questions, there’s nothing like ‘we’ve already accepted different questions’ or ‘other questions are scheduled for acceptance,’ right?”

In the face of this inquiry, sensei’s eyes and mouth came to a standstill.

“What do you mean, that……”

“Whatever happened, the answer can only come from Chabashira-sensei’s mouth.”

“……I have a single answer to that question. The school has already finished accepting and reviewing the exam questions.”

So we were told. The truth of this situation was pointed out to us.

“This…… Does this mean someone else submitted the questions and answers?”

Her thoughts and feelings couldn’t catch up with the conversation.

“That’s right. In this situation, the questions that you’ve made won’t be accepted.”

“Please cancel the acceptance at once. The correct questions are right here.”

Horikita spoke, pointing to the brown envelope the teacher was holding.

However, based on the conversation so far, I knew it wasn’t such an easy thing to allow.

“I’m sorry, Horikita, but that’s your own selfish subjectivity. I received the exam questions from another student and already completed reviewing and accepting them. They were worried about similar things too. They wanted me to keep the exam questions and answers private to avoid an information leak, and if someone who wants to change the questions shows up, to just take their questions and keep them. They also wanted me to tell them who came by afterward.”

“How could this happen……”

Horikita fell limp on the spot.

It’s just too brutal a reality.

“Please, who is that student. You can tell me, right?”

“Kushida Kikyō.”

The answer was already obvious.

Horikita originally intended to block Kushida’s betrayal, but this means that Kushida struck the first blow. Kushida freely took bold and drastic action simply because we already knew about her other side.

“Depending on the situation, the accepted questions can be changed, right?”

“Right. Let’s deal with this unexpected situation. Do note that the deadline ends today. If you want to change the questions, please bring Kushida here.”

“Such a thing……”

Impossible. Kushida wouldn’t obediently say yes.

To overcome this problem, we’ll have to visit Chabashira-sensei with Kushida.

However, even if we start looking for her now, Kushida would never be caught in time. She could almost 100% escape from us by simply turning off her phone and hiding in her room. No, isn’t there a high probability that she isn’t even in her room? Today is surely going to end without us finding her whereabouts.

“Horikita or Kushida… I can speculate about which one of you two is lying, but I don’t know the truth. It’s also possible that an unknown third party is pulling the strings. It’s a problem for me if you don’t settle this intraclass dispute.”

“……How much longer do we have today? Until we can’t correct the questions any longer.”

“By six P.M.”

I checked my phone. It’s just before four in the afternoon, so in other words, we only had about two hours left.

“Kukuku…… K-kuhahaha! What the hell are you doing, Suzune!”

Ryūen had been watching the entire conversation and laughed.

The man who should have known about this from the beginning, spit out laughter at our desperate resilience.

“Aren’t you already damned? The questions that you created are completely meaningless!”

“Did you instigate this? You’re the one who instructed Kushida-san to turn in the questions, aren’t you!?”

“Aah, I don’t know. There’s no way I’m gonna know about Class D, is there?”

Horikita raised her voice as she responded to Ryūen’s obvious lies.

“I can’t stand for this conversation to be eavesdropped on any further by this outsider……!”

“Oh so scary. I suppose I’ll head home obediently. I’m looking forward to the results of the exam.”

“……Aren’t you going to look for Kushida, Horikita?”

“……I hate the pointless effort.”

Even if we manage to find Kushida, the odds of her complying with us are nonexistent. This game has already been decided.

“Did Kushida-san instruct you to not show the exam questions?”

“No, I haven’t received an instruction like that.”

That wasn’t a surprise. Rather, it’s more like a reaffirmation of what we already believed.

“Let me see them, please.”

As she had permission, Horikita requested for Chabashira-sensei to show her the exam questions that Kushida submitted.

After a glance, I immediately had a single thought.

“These have a superb difficulty.”

“Yeah…… really.”

The questions that Kushida secretly submitted shouldn’t be that different than those prepared by Horikita. These were arguably a set of well-refined, splendid exam questions. So good that no one but the author would know which is which. Considering that Ryūen is involved, this is probably Kaneda’s handiwork. Because of this, a third party wouldn’t be able to know which side is telling the truth. If they were problems that even Sudō and the others could solve, Kushida would be suspected for submitting such simple questions. However, if the difficulty is similar, the truth immediately blurs.

Horikita had made a promise to not reveal Kushida’s past, and Hirata, who’s afraid of intraclass conflict, also wouldn’t say a word about it. In short, the situation was that of first come first served.

If you know the answer ahead of time, it doesn’t matter how difficult the questions are.

If all the students in Class C share the answers, they can get a super high score.

Having judged this, Kushida thoroughly camouflaged the information to such an extent and carried out their strategy.

Despite attending the study sessions and accepting Horikita’s bet, she managed to solidly handle the situation.

If Class D loses, Horikita, who has taken the role of the leader of the class, would inevitably face part of the blame. Lowering her cohesive power, Ryūen is then used to drive Horikita into a desperate situation.

If it’s just the creation of the exam questions, the situation can still be saved. So far, there’s no helping the worst outcome.

However, the most important thing at hand here is the bet Horikita proposed.

The collusion between Kushida and Ryūen is certain, and it’s entirely conceivable that in exchange for her cooperation, she will receive Class C’s questions and answers.

In which case, Kushida will probably score 100 points. Then, if Horikita misses even one question, she will have to voluntarily choose to drop out of school.

Horikita wouldn’t break her promise either.

If she loses the bet, she will choose to drop out of school, even if it goes against her own will.

“Is there nothing more that can be done?”

With this, Class D’s victory disappeared.

Kushida’s preemptive strike should have impacted a great deal of damage on Horikita.

At first glance, she doesn’t seem to have done anything to improve the situation, but that’s not the case.

However, this was all caused by Horikita’s careless planning.

If it was me--

“Anytime is fine, Horikita. Ryūen left.”

Chabashira-sensei spoke such words to Horikita, who had her head hung low.

What’s going on here?

Chabashira-sensei also didn’t seem to be disturbed at all, diligently maintaining composure.

“I’m sorry, I was extremely cautious so I kept up the act for a long time.”

As Horikita said this, she lifted her head. There were no signs of depression in her face at all.

Then I understood.

“You took countermeasures?”

“Yes. I was defeated at the sports festival, so I couldn’t afford to be defeated again in a similar way. When the details of the final exam were first announced, I immediately consulted Chabashira-sensei. I had two requests: ‘I have the right to make decisions about the submission of the exam questions’ and ‘I want you to pretend to accept them if anyone else comes to submit their own.’”

In other words, Kushida was misdirected into believing that her exam questions were accepted.

“They must be convinced that the exam questions were changed. If they aren’t studying for the exam, there may be dropouts in Class C.”

I never thought that she would make such a beautiful counterattack, I didn’t even expect anything close to this.

Chances are Ryūen won’t be able to notice Horikita’s movements and predict her first strike.

“Nevertheless, this is a daunting situation. Until now, I have never heard of a request like this. Even from the Class D I’ve been placed in charge of. I didn’t expect my class to be so cautious and deceptive of each other in a school system like ours. Things won’t always go so smoothly, Horikita. If there are traitors in the class, any exam that could have been won won’t be won.”

Chabashira-sensei showed a rare look of worry.

That’s exactly right. To prevent exam questions from being submitted, and to lie about accepting it. They’re unnecessary actions that the other classes would never need to do. Even for the divided Katsuragi faction and Sakayanagi faction of Class A, they probably wouldn’t have gone so far.

To that extent, this indicated that we need to be precise with how we deal with Kushida.

“I understand. However, I intend to end this matter with this final exam.”

I could feel her determination to bring this conflict between comrades to an end.

“Really? In that case, let’s look forward to it.”

Horikita breathed a sigh of relief as she watched Chabashira-sensei return to the staff room with the brown envelope.

“I’m sorry for keeping you in the dark about this.”

When the two of us were alone, she bowed down and apologized.

“No, that’s fine. To be honest, I wasn’t aware of this at all.”

Although my opportunities to work with Horikita had diminished, I really underestimated her.

“I don’t know how many times he’s knocked me down, so it’s about time for me to learn from that.”

This not only shattered the definite victory of Class C, but Class D also got one step ahead.

However, Horikita’s tough challenge still remains.

“All that’s left is to beat Kushida-san’s score on the final exam, and with that, this will end without incident.”

That’s right. Horikita has no future here if she doesn’t beat Kushida’s score on the finals.

In order to ensure that she doesn’t lose, it’s a requirement for her to score full marks on the math portion of the final exam.

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