Houtarou Oreki Classroom of the Elite

Why are there such adorable creatures as cats in this world?

Whether it's their plump little paws or their fluffy bodies, even their tails often seem to operate independently from their bodies, as if they were two separate creatures. But when they run toward you, you instantly feel healed.

These are the thoughts of a cat lover.

Of course, not being a cat lover, Houtarou wouldn't have such thoughts, but during vacation he still comes to pet his own cat. Otherwise, when he brings it back later, the cat might feel abandoned.

Arisu had said that pets feel lonely when left unattended for long periods. He remembered these words.

The current date is September 1st. The current time is 9:45am.

Yesterday, the school sent out exam results to every student. Houtarou saw that he had scored 100 Points in all eight subjects. This was the expected outcome.

Meanwhile, at 7 o'clock this morning, he received 205,100 Points of living expenses deposited by the school. Before this, Class A's Class Points was only 2,001 Points.

In other words, in the betting agreement with Class C, Class A won — as expected.

In the recently concluded pairing exam, first-year Class A gained 50 Points in Class Points and secured the termination of the contract for exchanging supplies and living expenses with Class C on the island.

As for Houtarou, from the 3 million Points that Suzune and her group collected, he only took 1.7 million Points as the mediator, leaving the remaining 1.3 million for Suzune and Kikyō to distribute between themselves.

As someone who possesses 50 million Points, he no longer craves amounts like a few hundred thousand or a million.

Since Class C lost to Class A in total score during this pairing exam, their Class Points decreased by 50 Points.

However, Class C's Class Points had already been depleted during their first month of enrollment. The current value is the combined score of Houtarou and Rokusuke.

And now the decrease in value has already affected the Class C shares of Houtarou, Suzune, and Rokusuke.

Nevertheless, the losses from this exam will be Rokusuke's responsibility. In the partnership between Houtarou and Rokusuke, one requirement was for Rokusuke to protect their share of the Points. So naturally, the deduction comes from his portion.

He also bears responsibility. He organized study sessions but didn't teach all the Class C students.

Of course, Rokusuke isn't stupid, nor does he want to teach everyone. He believes that if "someone truly wants to be rescued from the mud", he'll extend a hand.

As such, Class C's academic ability hasn't completely improved. A considerable portion of students gave up on the opportunity to learn from him.

So this outcome is quite normal.

What about Rokusuke himself? As the son of a major financial conglomerate, and for the sake of his family's reputation, he has the mission to graduate from Class A.

With this in mind, if his share of the Class Points decreases, wouldn't he be anxious?

Due to his defiant and overly proud personality, he was assigned to the worst class. Yet he needs to graduate from Class A, which requires 20 million Points. If his share of Class Points continues to be reduced, after three years, he might not be able to gather 20 million from the class.

So would he be anxious? No.

Because Houtarou has already accumulated 20 million — no, now it's rumored among the upper grades that he possesses 50 million Points. He's a super money-maker.

Of course, with so much money, he's naturally the school's heartthrob.

And Rokusuke has shone brilliantly during the Sports Festival, showcasing himself in the spotlight of the entire school.

Through this method, plus the photos of himself that he had displayed at his family's company before enrollment, some upperclassmen have already contacted him.

In other words, he has already established connections with third-year students.

So he just needs to wait for the third-year students to graduate, then he can purchase Points from them, or directly buy Points from Houtarou, who has tens of millions of Points. His mission to graduate from Class A can be easily accomplished.

So he's not anxious now. Rather, after being a teacher for a while, Rokusuke seems to have become more radiant.

Which means the only one who still needs to struggle desperately for Points is Suzune, who wants to prove she's not a useless sister.

And now, apart from the living expenses deposited by the school, Houtarou's account also has 1.08 million, which is worth 270 Class Points, collected by Suzune from Yōsuke.

Perhaps due to the vacation, Manabu also promptly sent 50,000 Points to take care of his sister.

Because of his Precognitive Dreams, Houtarou actually feels quite embarrassed about taking this money.

However, among the numerous transfers, 1 million Points have been credited again. The source remains unknown. And the note says "monthly maintenance".

{T/N: I really want to kill this author. I didn't mistranslate the transfer of 100 million points, it was really written like that in Chinese. So now I don't know if the author made a mistake, which is highly possible, or if it's a normal transfer. Consider from now on that the transfers from this senior are 1 million points.}

In other words, that senior sponsor has gone back on her word and still decided to keep him.

This means he'll still owe her a favor.

Although he could return the Points directly, and he has the means to do so, such continuous maintenance from the other party creates a sense of guilt. It feels like rejecting the other person would be betraying them or being too harsh.

Arisu has shown him how to control Masumi. She sends living expenses to her every month at fixed times. And she calls this method "training".

So, has Masumi been enduring such torment all along?

And now, Houtarou is stroking his cat's head. The feeling in his palm is comfortable, fluffy, with a bit of warmth, smooth and silky.

A few days ago, because of Makoto Shinkai's animation, he became a bit strange, even hoping Kikyō would wear stockings, which made her quite disgusted.

But now, indeed, a girl's thighs are nowhere near as nice to touch as a cat.

"Meow—"

Seeing Houtarou about to leave, the cat let out a cry.

"Hmm... I'll come see you tomorrow." Houtarou said.

But the cat placed both its front paws on the ground, rubbing its head toward his palm. This is coquetry.

This is his orange cat, Haruki. Very friendly. Currently being fostered at Arisu's place.

And now, it seems to have become even more clingy. It has even learned to be coquettish. When Houtarou first raised it, it wasn't like this. He doesn't know how it learned these behaviors.

"By the way, aren't you leaving yet?" Arisu said.

She was watching Houtarou as he stroked the cat's head, seemingly urging him to leave.

The current time is 9:47. He had arranged to meet someone at 10 o'clock — specifically, Airi.

She had sent him a message a few days ago, hoping he could be her model during summer break. Since she was not only a former model but also skilled in photography, this interest seemed quite natural.

At the same time, Houtarou owed her several favors. Whenever he tricked Kikyō, he borrowed Airi's phone for tracking. Repaying these favors would certainly be the right thing to do.

He also needed to congratulate her. As part of Rokusuke's tutoring list, Airi — who had previously struggled with academics — had experienced a sense of enlightenment after learning proper study methods.

While Ken might score over 50 on a 100-point test, she could now achieve over 60, possibly even approaching 70.

According to Rokusuke: "There are students in the class with appallingly low academic abilities, but some people simply can't learn no matter how they study. It's not that they don't try hard — they just haven't found the path to learning.

In my understanding, they lack a kind of mental clarity. Once they acquire this clarity, learning becomes an enlightening experience."

So, compared to Airi, Kei was quite unfortunate.

She could only reach Ken's level for now. Without that academic enlightenment, she had to rely on strengthening her basics first, accumulating sufficient effort and knowledge.

One day, she might suddenly experience that enlightenment. Then all her previously accumulated knowledge would connect, becoming clear in an instant.

Houtarou couldn't quite relate to this feeling, as he'd always possessed clear thinking when mastering knowledge, from childhood to adulthood.

So even though Suzune made unsympathetic comments like, "I absolutely cannot understand why there are still failing students," he also thought... if efficiency could be improved, wouldn't scoring full marks be the inevitable result?

So he wished Kei well.

However, for now, he needed to address Airi's invitation.

Just…

"Arisu, you seem to be in quite a good mood." Houtarou remarked sarcastically, "About me going to this appointment."

"Not at all, you might have misunderstood." Arisu denied.

It's just that she's already cute, and when she smiles, it makes one's heart flutter.

Or rather — Arisu, your mood is indeed very good, isn't it?

Houtarou recalled how photos from the ship had previously been leaked by Airi to Kikyō, who then sold them to Masumi.

So Houtarou had already figured out that when he goes to repay Airi's favor by being her model, the photos taken will eventually find their way into Arisu's hands.

From the perspective of someone who has a strong liking for him, urging him to meet another girl is clearly not a display of magnanimity. After all, no one likes to be cheated on.

Rather, this stems from thinking that Airi is just a photographer and poses no threat.

In other words, Airi, you've been greatly underestimated.

Thinking about this, Houtarou feels that tonight he could have a Precognitive Dream about the busted girl. He's a bit curious about what she'll become in the future.

A photographer, a model, continue studying, or something else.

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