Houtarou Oreki Classroom of the Elite

August 27th.

Three days had passed since each class submitted their own exams, and the first-year students' first semester final exams began.

The content covered eight subjects from the third year of junior high, with exams scheduled over two days — two subjects in the morning and two in the afternoon.

The supervising teachers would also be changed, since this was a declaration of war between classes, and the teachers were involved as well.

Originally, teachers supervised their own classes, but now it changed to the homeroom teacher of the opposing class.

In other words, with Class A and Class C at war, Class A would be supervised by Class C's homeroom teacher, Sae. And for Class B and Class D's confrontation, Class D would be supervised by Class B's teacher, Chie.

After Chie wrote the morning exam schedule on the blackboard — [English] 8:00-9:30, [Math] 10:00-11:30 — the school-wide final exam bell rang.

"First, confirm that the exam papers are properly sealed." She opened a folder. She had everyone verify the seal and confidentiality of the exam papers.

Everyone felt that Class B's teacher didn't need to go through this process. Almost all first-year students and homeroom teachers knew that everyone had leaked the exam questions to each other for this test.

So the current assessment was just a formality. They would compare the total scores of the two classes and see which class could gain 50 Class Points from the opposing class.

However, some people looked in Kakeru's direction.

It seemed that after submitting the exam papers on the 24th, rumors spread about him being in a panic, apparently suspecting that Class B had prepared for the exam in advance, so the papers Class B submitted on the 24th weren't genuine.

Wasn't this life-threatening?

Fortunately, they received assurance from Honami that as long as Kakeru's side didn't break the rules, they definitely wouldn't do such a thing.

Or rather, everyone in Class B was an angel, and that girl was practically an archangel — how could she possibly do something so terrible?

Everyone really believed in Archangel Honami.

Everyone had gotten her exam papers around the 10th and began frantically memorizing them. Plus they had been practicing problems every day. They had done the same paper so many times they could all get perfect scores.

And now...

"Pass the papers from front to back…" Chie said.

The students in the first row had already received the papers.

"How is this possible!"

The person in the first row was Mio.

"What's wrong?"

Everyone quickly looked over. Was there a mistake?

"Nothing." Mio said. Then she passed the papers back.

Everyone paid attention to the papers they received.

First was the listening section, where the first question asked how many pence a shirt cost.

Wasn't this exactly the same as the exam papers they received on the 10th? Not just this, but also the cloze test below and the composition topic — all were the same. No changes.

This meant Honami and her classmates hadn't altered the exam! Kakeru must be having paranoid delusions after inflicting pain on others!

Everyone was relieved. Honami truly was an archangel! She wouldn't do the kind of excessive things Kakeru might do.

And so, without even knowing it, Honami suddenly gained a huge wave of popularity.

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Meanwhile, in Class B.

"The exam papers have been distributed. The listening section will begin in 10 minutes." The bespectacled Kazuma said.

Though he was now just a Class D teacher, he still had to follow the rules. So he carried out his supervision duties.

But Class B students merely confirmed their papers, then started working, ignoring his announcement about the upcoming listening section.

This made sense. Since the exam papers had been exchanged around the 10th, everyone knew the questions and had practiced them several times, memorizing everything.

They had experience from the second month after enrollment when they took old exams and memorized the answers to get perfect scores for 100 Class Points. In other words, they had mastered the exam content.

Now, having received the exam papers in advance, they could certainly achieve perfect scores in all subjects again.

Currently, the Class Points for the four classes were as follows: Class A: 2001 points, Class B: 870 points, Class C: 580 points, and Class D: 490 points.

Class B was far from Class A but close to Classes C and D. For this exam, the reward was that the winning class in the competition would take 50 Class Points from the losing side.

This could create a 100-point difference in Class Points.

Though it wasn't much, Kakeru was a dangerous person, and if they could widen the gap between them, that would be quite beneficial.

Therefore, Class B was working hard for those 50 Class Points!

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Then, in Class C.

"Distribute the exam papers—" Tomonari opened the folder, and students received their papers.

"Awesome!" A boy in the front row couldn't help but exclaim.

"Hmm? Please remain quiet during the exam!" Tomonari reminded him.

But he roughly understood the students' reactions. They must have confirmed that the exam papers were unchanged from what they had privately exchanged earlier.

After all, for a class full of underachievers, if the papers had been switched, there would be a large number of failures and then expulsions. So now they were relieved to confirm the papers were the same ones they had already received.

"Hmph—" Rokusuke snorted disdainfully.

The students had only received the papers when Kōhei and Houtarou came over on the 24th, and then began frantically memorizing them.

He had also been given a copy. But he hadn't actually looked at the exam papers — or rather, no matter what questions were on them, he could handle it. This was the self-satisfaction of a genius.

As for his classmates, eleven students had already received his tutoring, improving from appallingly poor levels to barely keeping up with the curriculum, meaning they could score in the 50-60 point range.

This unexpectedly gave Rokusuke a sense of achievement.

Because he remembered what he had said on the ship — that he was a man who would bear the future on his shoulders. And nurturing the next generation, pulling them out of the quagmire — wasn't that also shouldering the future?

And now he was already doing such meaningful work.

As expected of him. Shining brightly.

"Somehow Kōenji today... seems especially radiant…" Ken, who sat behind Rokusuke, couldn't help but comment sarcastically.

By the way, he was one of the eleven students who participated in the tutoring. He had gone from not understanding simple equations to now being able to solve problems and score over 50 points.

So, thank you, Rokusuke!

His family background was terrible, and his parents were even worse, but he didn't want to become trash himself. His only talent was in sports, and now, he didn't think his class could be promoted to Class A. This goal seemed too distant.

But he still had options. He was good at sports, and although he might not get a sports scholarship, if his academic abilities were passable, he could still get into a university.

For Ken, it seemed like he had gained a ticket to a future with some hope.

In the front of the classroom.

A girl with short blonde hair had already received her exam paper, but she wasn't in a hurry. Her cute brows furrowed slightly. She was Kikyō.

This exam was a paired exam.

After the gentle Yōsuke confirmed they had received Class A's papers, he didn't enforce the pairing arrangements, so the students basically arranged the pairings themselves.

And she... still had the task given to her by Houtarou to help with Suzune's popularity and relationships with classmates. Because it was difficult to imagine who would voluntarily team up with that girl.

Of course, Suzune is a top student, so teaming up with her is reassuring.

Therefore, despite her personality, there are actually many boys who want to team up with her.

Considering this, Kikyō decided to team up with Suzune first. This way, the two of them were locked in together. She also didn't want to team up with boys she disliked.

But now she had to team up with the girl she disliked the most. She didn't want this kind of life at all!

But refusing would be problematic too.

The first year was already halfway through, and in another half year, new students would be enrolling. If underclassmen from her middle school enrolled, the situation would be terrible.

She used Houtarou's good looks to infiltrate the third-year students. She also learned from the second-year upperclassmen that there were people from her middle school in the second year too.

So it was almost certain that there would be underclassmen from her middle school in the next batch of new students.

That meant she would have to face underclassmen who knew about her dark history. She didn't have absolute confidence in dealing with this, so she needed Houtarou.

But now she was still stuck with Suzune.

Ah… So annoying, that Houtarou!

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Meanwhile, in Class 1-A.

While waiting for Sae to hand out the exam papers, the annoying Houtarou yawned.

"Didn't sleep well last night?" His neighbor, Arisu, looked over.

"Hmm... I stayed up late." Houtarou said, "Watching a movie."

It started when he met Hiyori at the library earlier and reread the "5 Centimeters Per Second" novel.

Because he was a day student, while regular students had internet restrictions, he could freely watch TV or go online in his home at night.

Last night, he happened to see the "5 Centimeters Per Second" animated film on TV, so he watched it for a while.

Then he thought he might as well check out more of Makoto Shinkai's works. So he watched "The Garden of Words".

And that's how it ended up like this. He went to bed late, and now he didn't have much energy.

"I see..." Arisu didn't say anything more.

But by now, the exam papers had been distributed.

Houtarou looked at the English test paper he received.

The final exam was created by students from Class C, the class that Class A had declared war against. Having students create their own test papers put more pressure on Class C students.

Since Rokusuke might not create all of them, the eight subjects would certainly be distributed among the academically strong students in Class C. And Suzune was one of the top students in Class C.

Which meant this test paper might have been created by her.

At the same time, because the classes were at war with each other, the opposing class's homeroom teacher came to proctor.

That meant he would be taking Suzune's test with the grown-up version of that girl — Sae — proctoring?

This odd setup made the final exam seem interesting.

So when the listening portion began, Houtarou started the listening test.

Just like before, he hadn't spent much time memorizing the test papers in advance.

Because for any test paper, he only wanted to take it once.

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