Ten minutes ago, as a member of the Dragon Group, Kakeru had submitted Kikyō's name to the school.
Now he realized that when she contacted him, she had first revealed her identity as the VIP. Thinking it wasn't safe without seeing her phone, he had her steal the key to retrieve the phones.
In the end, Houtarou outplayed him, leaving him furious and defeated.
He had missed an opportunity. Houtarou's impressive power came from tricking Class D students from the start — cooperating with Suzune to confiscate all their phones and learn their VIP information.
Hiyori had mentioned they only needed information about 5 VIPs to deduce the pattern.
They had three from Class C, one from Kikyō, and potentially one from Rokusuke, who had ended the Monkey Group exam.
But there was a catch — the Monkey Group's VIP was from his own class. If they had been from another class, he could have figured out the VIP pattern too. It really was just bad timing.
"Ryūen, it's your turn to transfer the money." Houtarou called out.
Kakeru glanced around. Both Kōhei and Honami had put away their phones, having fulfilled their agreement with Houtarou by collecting and transferring half of their classmates' points.
Was he the only one who hadn't transferred yet?
The class group chat was already buzzing with activity. Students were talking about receiving 500k, and people like Daichi were asking if they should transfer points now.
'Well...' Kakeru told them to wait until the next exam.
His account had received 13.5 million.
The school had distributed 19 million points to their class in total. After giving each student 150,000, he needed to pay Houtarou 9.5 million, leaving him with 4 million.
Four million — one-fifth of 20 million — was nothing to scoff at. Even Miyabi from the second year had only accumulated about this much.
After all, they had three years at this school, and they were just beginning to understand how things worked. There would be more opportunities ahead.
Moreover, Houtarou had prevented Honami and others from reporting the fight to the student council, preserving the class's 100 Class Points.
Kakeru's mood improved accordingly.
『9,500,000 Points have been credited to your account!』
『Sender - Kakeru Ryūen』
Houtarou's phone chimed.
"Oh no, Kakeru, your numbers are off."
"Hm?"
"You haven't paid the 500,000 for the phone replacement."
Kakeru: "..."
『500,000 Points have been credited to your account!』
『Sender - Kakeru Ryūen』
"Next time won't be so easy." Kakeru said.
He had figured it out. Though he'd missed this exam, under Houtarou's distribution scheme, he still took the lion's share.
And each student received 250,000 points — a substantial sum when combined.
For the next opponent: Class D. He would squeeze them dry.
Glancing at Kikyō, he wondered why she harbored such hatred for Suzune that she wanted her to drop out. Still, this could be an opportunity.
⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟
With the transfer complete, Kakeru from Class C departed.
"Well then…" Yōsuke said, finishing his transfer, "I'll head back first."
He needed to settle matters with the three Monkey Group students who couldn't participate in the money distribution due to ending the exam early.
"I'll head back too, since it's quite late." Kikyō said.
"This exam taught us a harsh lesson." Honami said, "But it also shows how valuable points are — they can be exchanged for money at graduation."
With secrets weighing on her heart and money being crucial to her, she contemplated whether to save more.
"This exam was my fault." Ryūji said, closing his eyes.
They left too.
Only Kōhei remained.
"The fact that we can exchange accumulated points at third-year graduation — I think this is extremely important."
His family background was poor — his parents had passed away, and he lived solely to support his sister.
After being selected for Advanced Nurturing High School and assigned to Class A, he hoped to graduate with his class ranking intact and receive the school's rewards, ultimately improving their living situation.
Now, he could finally start accumulating points.
"I owe you one." Kōhei said earnestly.
After he left, only Suzune remained in the large private room. Houtarou knew she was waiting for the money distribution.
His account had received point transfers from the various class representatives' collections.
The points from each class varied slightly — between 500,000 and 1 million points — since each group had different members.
To Houtarou, all exam participants were simply ATMs, regardless of their class.
The final tally was clear: out of 159 students (excluding Arisu), 146 remained after the Monkey Group's early exit. These students formed 11 groups.
This generated:
11 (VIPs) × 1M + (146-11) × 500K (regular group members) = 78.5M.
Taking half would be 39.25M.
Houtarou, seemingly content with the prospect of rest ahead, took out paper to list the expenses.
"Let's see — you spent 400,000 points on the spare device rental. I spent 250,000 on booking private rooms. Then 100,000 for Mashima-sensei's recording and the speakers to trick Kanzaki from Class B, plus another 100,000 for disposing of Kakeru's phone." He said.
Suzune found these costs reasonable.
The compensation was substantial: 39.25M minus expenses left Houtarou with 38.4M.
And she would get 10%.
『3,840,000 Points have been credited to your account!』
『Sender - Houtarou Oreki』
Suzune looked at her phone with satisfaction.
As a regular group member, she'd still receive her entitled 250K. Her total compensation came to 4.09M, though she would need to pay Kikyō 200K in hush money.
Still, it was a massive profit.
"Just..." She lingered after receiving the money, "Did you tell the other class representatives about the school collecting points at third-year graduation out of kindness?"
Out of kindness?
"Of course not." Houtarou replied, "I just wanted to give them hope so they'd save money diligently. Since points can be spent at school, I'm letting them hold onto them first. If they carelessly spend it all, there might not be much left when the opportunity comes to take it back."
Suzune: "..."
Ah. So he was indeed deceiving them.
Suzune nodded — this was the Houtarou she knew.
He was the same person who, upon entering school, had spotted what he called a business opportunity in opening a store. But it wasn't really an opportunity — as he'd plainly told her, it was just a pretext for scamming money, and he'd brought her along to help deceive people.
"However." He said, "Can we change up today's hand-holding?"
Mm. They hadn't held hands today yet.
Suzune had been thinking Houtarou needed to gain experience with her to resist Kikyō's charm.
"Change it how?" She asked.
"Well." Houtarou nodded, "Try learning from Kikyō — hold my hand with both of yours."
Learn from Kikyō, huh.
Indeed. Suzune recalled that girl had made such a gesture.
"Like this?" She put her phone in her pocket, then firmly gripped his left hand with both of hers. His hand started to drop, but she held it steady.
"The hand position is correct." Houtarou said, "But give me a smile."
"A smile?"
"Yes. That nurturing, mature kind of feeling."
"How should I smile?" Suzune asked, confused.
"Like you've achieved all your goals and finally found complete peace." Houtarou said.
"I see..." She paused in thought.
Then, in that instant, he felt he saw the future Suzune from his Precognition Dream.
In that moment, she truly appeared as the woman from his vision — the one who would embrace him like a wife.
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"..."
Outside the private room, someone stood guard — or more precisely, watched the door. They could hear something about hand-holding.
Speaking of which, hadn't Arisu said Suzune wasn't a concern at all? Yet this really seemed like they were dating.
As these thoughts crossed her mind, Masumi felt her phone vibrate. Someone was calling — a familiar name appeared on the screen.
Arisu. Was her timing perfect, or were her skill points in this area maxed?
But why was she calling?
"Excuse me, Oreki-kun, you have a phone call." Masumi said as she walked in.
Suzune released her grip on his hand at precisely the right moment.
She knew she needed to consult with Airi about her feelings tonight.
Because just now, while holding Houtarou's hand, she seemed to have gained some insight.
⍟⍟⍟
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