Shirogane Miyuki in COTE

"This is one of the unique things about this school. Sometimes, special exams might take up your weekends, but other times, once they're over, you get the rest of the month off."

"The exam results will come out on the 31st, so you'll need to come to school that day."

"Anyway, best of luck until then."

Even though that's what he said, the students could tell from the smile on Sakagami-sensei's face — one harder to hide than a gun — that even though the papers hadn't been graded yet, their class probably got the top reward this time.

"Even though it's a break, there's something we still need to talk about."

Ryuen spoke up.

"This exam is over, yeah, but don't get too happy. We're taking 60% of the reward this time."

In other words, even if the class got a perfect score of 100, they would only keep 40 points. The other 60 points would go to the people who made it happen.

That meant Shirogane, Ryuen, and also Kaneda and Shiina, who helped out.

Those 60 points equal about 240,000 private points per month from the school. That's 2.8 million a year, and over three years, it would be more than 8 million — close to 9 million.

That's a huge reward.

And even though they were taking such a big cut, no one in the class objected.

Because without the old test papers, most of them wouldn't have made it.

And even if they didn't get expelled, there's no guarantee they could've even earned 40 points for the class score.

At the same time—

During this past half month of extra classes, they really did start learning from middle school level.

So, even though Ryuen was annoying, they had to admit that Shirogane's instructions were right, and they all did need to get stronger in some areas.

The students who weren't involved just went home after school.

But Ryuen and the others stayed behind.

There were a few people in the classroom, but no one was talking out loud.

They were chatting in the group chat.

Ryuen: Time to divide up the rewards.

Ibuki: Isn't it a bit early for that?

Ryuen: Handle today's stuff today. I don't want to think about it tomorrow.

Shirogane: Let's do the split. This exam gave us 100 class points total, and 60 of those are rewards to divide now.

Shirogane: @Shiina Hiyori

Hiyori: For this exam, the total cost was 155,000 points + 300-point strawberry milk.

Hiyori: The milk was given to me by Shirogane, so I'll cover that part.

Ibuki: ? Where did the strawberry milk come from?

Shirogane: I used it to confuse Nagumo. Originally, I was going to give it to Sakayanagi, but I switched to coffee at the last second. After that, I gave the leftover milk to Shiina when I got back. I don't like milk. Anyway, this milk isn't part of the class reward costs. I treated her, so no need to report it. @Shiina Hiyori

Hiyori: Then the actual cost for the special exam was only 135,000 private points—100,000 for buying the test papers, 35,000 for copying materials, and 20,000 for buying a printer.

Ryuen: …Shirogane, you sound like you're up to something dangerous.

Shirogane: It's related to me becoming the student council vice president. It has nothing to do with the class and won't cause any problems. After all, we've already taken on so many risks, haven't we?

"..."

Ryuen.

Ryuen: So that's where those edited papers came from. You cut off the test title, removed 5 questions, and added 5 new ones.

Ryuen: Doing something like that… you're really trying to stir up trouble, huh?

Shirogane: *Cough cough*, let's get back on topic.

Kaneda: Then let's start dividing the rewards.

Ishizaki Daichi: I get the feeling this reward split has nothing to do with us.

Ryuen: Pretty much. In this exam, Ibuki, Ishizaki, and Albert didn't really contribute, so no reward.

Ishizaki Daichi: I don't mind. I'm just glad I didn't get expelled this time.

Ibuki: I didn't do anything either. I'm fine not getting anything.

Albert: Me too.

Miyuki Shirogane: Then here's the split—60 points of class evaluation. I handled the intel and strategy, so I'll take 40 points myself.

Miyuki Shirogane: Ryuen handled buying the test papers, so he gets 10 points.

Miyuki Shirogane: Kaneda and Shiina helped organize the papers, so they each get 5 points.

Miyuki Shirogane: Once the points come in next month, Ryuen will collect from the class and distribute the shares into everyone's private accounts.

Ryuen: Don't you think you're taking too much? You're walking away with 70%.

Shirogane Miyuki: ...

Yeah.

Faced with Ryuen's question, Shirogane didn't answer right away.

But there was something he had to think about.

And that was—

Right now, everyone could work together and try their best to earn rewards.

But if someone could take the full 60 points alone, that might be more appealing.

The more people involved, the smaller the share.

So, is there a class out there that would willingly give most of the rewards to just one person?

But finding a class that generous isn't easy. Probably only Class A would even consider it.

But Class A is already being led by Sakayanagi, so that's not an option. Shirogane is still waiting for the day Sakayanagi fully controls Class A, so he can get the 20 million points needed to "buy" her.

Shirogane Miyuki: Then I'll pay the 100,000 points for buying the exam questions this month. The remaining 55,000 points should be split among everyone.

Ryuen: Then why not just pay the 55,000 too?

Shirogane Miyuki: That's a bit much. My family's poor, and we can't work part-time in this school, so I have to look for extra income in other ways.

Shirogane Miyuki: I checked the work records of past student council secretaries and found that starting with the 13th generation, the council added more practical tasks.

Shirogane Miyuki: For example, the student council might help deliver packages. Like, if a student's sibling has a birthday but the student can't leave campus, they can ask the council to deliver a gift.

Shirogane Miyuki: The school still keeps a tight grip on turning private points into cash, but in recent years, during graduation, the school has been buying back leftover points at a certain rate. I think it might be around 0.8.

"..."

So, the reason Shirogane is so careful with money and always trying to earn more points is because he wants to take some cash home when he graduates.

That means the future he's been describing to his classmates might not be just a dream. If you do well in this school, you can really take home a decent amount of money.

And with that, the first meeting of the new Class 1-B about splitting the reward points came to an end.

But then Shirogane got a question from Ishizaki, asking whether the current student council could help deliver a gift.

It turned out his mom's birthday is in June, and he wanted to send her something. Back home, he never had much pocket money, but now that he's at this school, he actually has some extra cash.

Who would've thought that this tough guy had such a soft spot for his mom?

Just like that—

Today's test ended, and things were going pretty well for Shirogane.

The student council president sent out a message saying that all the written tests across all grades were finished for the day, and there wasn't much student council work left—everyone could use their time freely.

So he didn't need to go in.

Even so—

He got back to his dorm, took out his textbooks like usual, along with scratch paper, and laid out a hundred pen refills.

[Shirogane-kun, you're really not afraid of studying at all, huh?]

A voice popped up in Shirogane's mind.

"Are you scared of studying?"

He asked back.

[I don't know. But I'm sure I could never work as hard as you.]

"You just haven't been pushed to the edge yet."

Shirogane said.

In other words, Shirogane knew very well that studying and doing well in school was both his strength and something he *had* to do.

Because—

He had nothing else.

This was all he had to rely on.

[Then have you ever thought about doing it for a different reason?]

"What do you mean?"

[Not just studying to build your own worth, but maybe… studying for someone special?]

?

Shirogane didn't get it.

[Like, maybe the version of Shirogane who's in love with someone is the strongest version of you. Something like that.]

"I don't plan to date anyone in high school."

Shirogane said.

[Ah—]

"What is it now?"

[Feels like I just shot myself in the foot.]

[Anyway.]

The inner voice seemed ready to change the topic.

[You didn't seem too happy with how the reward was split today.]

"I took 70% of the reward by myself, so I don't really have complaints. But I was thinking—there are others in Ryuen's class who could've earned something too. Ryuen himself could've thought of other plans as well."

Basically, just using Ryuen's class to claim rewards felt a bit too narrow.

[Then maybe it's time to consider working with other classes too?]

[Like Class C, for example.]

Class C was Ichinose's class.

And Shirogane didn't reject that idea.

Helping Ichinose's class this time and earning the top score reward together had already laid some groundwork.

So next time, if he helped Ichinose's class again, maybe they could discuss how to split the reward.

Of course, that would only happen if his own class stayed clearly in the lead.

If they ended up being overtaken by Ichinose's class… now that would be a big loss.

But then Shirogane suddenly remembered—

Even though the test stuff was done, he hadn't made much progress on the job from Horikita's older brother.

And from the inner voice, Shirogane had learned that Kushida had a secret.

Now Ichinose had also pointed out that Kushida had a secret.

But were they both talking about the *same* secret?

He kept thinking about that.

Shirogane took out the GPS tracker and saw that Kushida was showing up at the student dorms.

It was already 9:00 p.m.

The narrator system quickly went quiet.

Shirogane checked the GPS again—still showing Kushida in the dorms.

Then he searched for Sakayanagi—also in her dorm.

Looks like the GPS wasn't broken after all. So maybe Kushida just didn't feel like going to the railing by the artificial lake tonight?

Still...

He had already finished two sets of seat selection questions.

Hmm?

Shirogane noticed his phone on the desk finally showed a change in GPS location.

Kushida's GPS signal had moved. She was leaving the dorms.

It was already almost 10:30 p.m.—and she was heading out now?

Thinking this, Shirogane left his own dorm building.

*Ding.*

The elevator moved quickly, and he soon reached the first floor lobby.

According to the GPS, Kushida had just left her dorm too, and she wasn't far away.

Shirogane quickly looked around. He saw a student nearby—but it wasn't Kushida.

After thinking for a second,

Shirogane walked quickly toward that student. Strangely, the GPS showed the distance between him and Kushida's signal getting smaller.

But—

Looking around, he still couldn't see Kushida anywhere.

So with that thought,

Shirogane kept walking toward the student. That person seemed to notice someone coming and purposely slowed down a bit. Meanwhile, Shirogane kept checking the GPS for any changes.

He finally came to a conclusion.

Kushida's phone probably wasn't with her—it was with the student he had just seen.

Just as expected.

The boy stopped walking, and Shirogane saw that the GPS for Kushida Kikyo had also stopped moving.

There was only one possible reason.

"It's already this late."

"Dorm curfew is at 11:00 p.m."

"And now,"

"Ayanokouji, what are you doing?"

Shirogane said. He noticed Ayanokouji's left hand was hanging naturally, but he was holding a white phone.

The pocket on the right side of Ayanokouji's jacket was also bulging a little, and there was a faint outline of a phone case.

In other words—

Right now, Ayanokouji was holding a phone in his left hand, and he had another phone in his pocket.

"To be exact, why do you have Kushida's phone at this moment?" Shirogane asked.

…Ayanokouji.

When he heard his name, Ayanokouji looked at the tall boy who was also a first-year student, but who had earned the favor of President Horikita and got promoted to the student council. He was now serving as the student council secretary.

The other boy had blond hair and a slim, tall body.

He had dark circles under his eyes, probably from staying up late often.

He looked a bit strict but also very serious.

Even though he was just the secretary now, in a year or so, he might become president.

That's what Ayanokouji thought to himself.

Ayanokouji spoke up.

"Actually, Kushida and some others came to my room to celebrate."

"Everyone was happy the exam went well, so Hirata organized a little party."

"But Kushida seemed to have left her phone behind, so I wanted to return it to her. But I didn't expect she'd leave the dorm instead of going back to her room."

Ayanokouji explained.

So basically, he was just a kind student who found his classmate's phone and wanted to return it.

"Well, thanks for your effort."

Shirogane said.

"But that's just your side of the story. It's not that I don't believe you, but I think it makes more sense to hand lost items over to the student council. I'll let Kushida know her phone is here."

"…"

Ayanokouji nodded.

"…Understood."

Then the ordinary student, Ayanokouji, handed Kushida's phone over to a student council member.

 82