Fifteen minutes later, at Pallet Café.
Looking at "Hiyori Shiina" across from him, Ryūen crossed his legs and spoke in a calm tone: "Although it was an expected victory, I can't seem to feel happy about it."
"It's alright."
Symon absentmindedly stirred his coffee, helping the girl handle Ryūen's words: "The Student Council's power is indeed great, but the conflict was far less intense than I imagined. However, the exam ending early is very beneficial for Class C. Consider it a thank-you gift from Miyabi Nagumo and Manabu Horikita for you knowing when to back down."
"So you noticed after all,"
Ryūen leaned on the sofa with one hand and said with a smile, "This exam was clearly biased towards the upper-ranked classes. Although we were docked 100 Class Points, it's still better than being slowly bled dry."
Since the first day of school, he had been trying to suppress Class C's classroom discipline, but as time went on, the effect had visibly worsened. He was relatively satisfied with this outcome.
With that, Ryūen gave a few instructions, asking Hiyori Shiina to help him keep an eye on Class C's situation, then left with Ibuki and the others to recover from their injuries.
The next day, when Hiyori Shiina walked into the school building, she saw the first-year students gathered around an electronic board that displayed the Class Points for each class:
Class A: 990 points
Class B: 860 points
Class C: 680 points
Class D: 120 points
"They deducted that much?" Hiyori calculated it once and was a little surprised.
Excluding the 100 points deducted by the Student Council, Class C had lost a total of 220 Class Points in the ten days since school started. If the Behavioral Standards Exam had run its full course, Class C's points would likely have been cut in half.
Within her body, Symon teased with a laugh: "Looking at it this way, even if Ryūen hadn't gone after Class D, it seems they would have zeroed out their own points by the end of the month anyway."
"In the end, Class A actually became the biggest victim of this incident. Given their rate of point deduction, if they had just done nothing, they would have pulled far ahead of all the other classes by the end of the month. Now, Ryūen has messed it all up."
A hint of a smile flashed in Hiyori's eyes: "Ryūen-kun probably didn't expect Class A to have such a commanding lead, did he?"
"He wouldn't care even if he knew,"
Symon said, his tone mischievous. "He hasn't even secured his own money yet. Who has the energy to worry about how much others are getting? Naturally, he'd look out for himself first."
"You're being too blunt, Mr. Ghost."
While they were chatting, Ichinose from Class B walked over with two other girls. After seeing the revealed Class Points on the electronic board, a smile instantly bloomed on the girl's face, and she high-fived the students beside her in celebration.
"Congratulations, Ichinose-san."
Hiyori offered her congratulations at the right moment, her voice gentle.
"Thank you, Shiina-san. Class C still has a lot of points too. Weren't you affected by yesterday's incident?" Ichinose asked with a curious expression.
Hiyori smiled and shook her head, not mentioning Class C's situation, and instead replied: "The Student Council determined that Class D held greater responsibility and deducted 300 Class Points from them."
Ichinose didn't dwell on that, saying with some concern, "I see. Next month is going to be tough for the students in Class D, isn't it?"
"You're too kind, Ichinose-san."
The two girls with her said this as they moved closer to comfort her. A bit embarrassed, Ichinose introduced them to Hiyori by name.
Yume Kobashi, Chihiro Shiranami, both girls from Class B.
While Hiyori was greeting them, Symon also took the opportunity to identify the people through the girl's eyes:
Yume Kobashi, with blue shoulder-length hair and delicate features, seemed to have a cheerful personality.
Chihiro Shiranami, with light brown shoulder-length hair and a sweet face, looked soft and adorable.
Clearing his throat inwardly, Symon tentatively suggested: "Hiyori, why don't we transfer classes? I think Class B is pretty good."
"Mr. Ghost, you can't be a flirt..."
Hiyori grumbled gently in her mind, waving goodbye to Ichinose and the other two before turning to head to the Class C classroom.
Due to the suspension penalty from the Student Council, there were many empty seats in the Class C classroom, and the atmosphere without Ryūen was much more relaxed.
Fortunately, the Behavioral Standards Exam was over, and the teacher had begun to enforce classroom discipline, so no trouble broke out.
As Ryūen had specifically requested, and considering he had helped her earn 800,000 points, Hiyori Shiina helped keep an eye on Class C's situation in her spare time.
Because the gap with Classes A and B had widened, some in Class C grew restless over the next few days. However, perhaps because Class D was at the bottom, no one had yet openly voiced opposition to Ryūen's rule.
Although a small group led by "Hiroya Tokitō" and "Shiho Manabe" had tried to approach her, unfortunately, neither Hiyori nor Symon had any intention of getting involved in Class C's internal struggles, nor did they plan to snitch for the time being.
Time flew, and soon it was May 1st.
During morning homeroom that day, Kazuma Sakagami posted a list of grades on the whiteboard and announced, "These are the rankings from your last quiz."
"In three weeks, the school will hold the midterm exams as scheduled. For both the midterms and finals, anyone whose score is less than half of the class average will be expelled."
As he said this, Kazuma Sakagami drew a red line on the grade list, pointed to the few names circled below it, and added:
"The teachers for each subject will define the scope of the exams in advance. If you don't want to be expelled, you'd better start thinking of a way to avoid expulsion and survive the exams."
With that, Kazuma Sakagami stepped away from the podium and stood to the side, leaving the remaining time to the student he trusted.
Ryūen, naturally, walked up to the podium without any hesitation.
At the same time, Daichi Ishizaki moved his desk under the surveillance camera, stood on top of it, took out a white cloth bag, and covered the entire camera!
Looking down at the confused faces below, Ryūen ignored the matter of the midterms and instead made the following cold announcement: "As for this month's points, I imagine you all received them this morning."
"I'll let each of you keep 20,000 for living expenses. Transfer the remaining 50,000 to my personal account."
"I will wait only five minutes. After that, the offer is off the table."
"!!!" xN
From his seat, Hiyori looked at the nearly 300,000 Private Points on her personal terminal, silently sent 50,000 to Ryūen, and said with an inner smile: "Mr. Ghost, do you think Ryūen-kun will give the points back?"
Symon teased, "Returning the gentry's money in full, is it? Hiyori, you're becoming a bad influence..."
Although his methods were a bit crude, neither of them had any objection to Ryūen beginning to formally consolidate Class C.
There's a saying that goes: you have to concentrate your power to achieve great things.
What can you do with just a few tens of thousands of points in your own hands?
Absolutely nothing!
_____
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