His flawless motives (CotE)

advancement (chapter 4)

Spacing out on my desk, a sudden loud sound boomed into my eardrums causing me to squeal a little in shock.

¨Horikita, are you there?¨ Ayanokouji's voice echoed throughout my apartment as he knocked on the door. But that was not the voice who snapped me out of my lingering thoughts. ¨SUZUNEEEEEEEEEEEEE¨ Sudou enthusiastically yelled from the corridor..¨Wah?!¨ In an instant, there were hushed voices in the background which followed, telling me to keep Sudou's volume down. ¨Shh! Others might be disrupted!¨

Composing myself, I put up a stern face as I greeted the squad on my doorstep, ¨Hello. You guys may enter, but please do me a favour and keep your volume down. Especially you, Sudou.¨ Removing their shoes, they strolled into my bedroom. ¨Woah, this is pretty neat. It smells nice here too.¨ Sudou complimented. ¨We'll discuss the upcoming test around the coffee table. Would you guys like something?¨ I asked. The five of them nodded their heads sideways in refusal. ¨Are you sure that you're okay, Horikita-san? Chabashira-sensei announced that you are feeling unwell today. What happened?¨ Kushida spoke. Oh.. she probably wasn't involved. However, I was still filled with uncertainty. There was no guarantee that she was telling the truth. ¨Thanks for your concern, Kushida-san.. I just caught the flu, that's all.¨

Karuizawa, eyeing me intently, spoke,¨ Is the discussion really that important? I mean, the school pretty much guaranteed that our grades won't reflect our test results.¨

¨I wasn't going to force people to study. However, the school isn't making this test simply to measure our academic ability. We just passed the midterm, after all.¨ I assured Karuizawa-san to clear her doubts. ¨So, there's some significance to the short test? Does the school want to measure something other than our academics?¨ Hirata-kun clarified.

¨The short test's results will influence the partner selection for the final exam. That's why it matters.¨ Catching Sudou's expression, he looked puzzled. It was visibly written all over his face. ¨Do you understand, Sudou?¨ There was silence.

¨...Just barely.¨ I guess we have to explain and break down the significance of the test in simpler terms, but I doubt we have the time for that. Still, I continued, ¨There must be some kind of process to select the pairs. If we discover the process, we can gain a clear advantage in the final.¨ Catching a glimpse from the corner of my eye, with Ayanokouji next to Sudou, he turned to whisper to him. I guess I'll leave it up to Ayanokouji-kun to explain it to him.

¨So... what? Will they match up the people who scored closest together or something?¨"asked Karuizawa. ¨Or maybe they'll pair someone who got the answer right with someone who got the same answer wrong?¨Sudou added.

¨Either is possible.¨

¨I'm.... a little skeptical about this...¨ Hirata voiced out. ¨If there is some kind of partner selection method, then I think we should confirm with an upperclassman. If it's the same test from the previous years, then the rules probably haven't changed. Maybe the teachers would deliberately try to hide that?¨ Kushida, who listened quietly until this point, spoke,¨I was a little curious, too. I think an upperclassmen who I'm close with might be willing to tell me.¨ ¨Wow, just as expected, Yousuke-kun! You're right!¨ Karuizawa showered Hirata with admiration. Darting my eyesight at everyone, I continued, ¨ As Hirata-kun said, it's certainly true that we don't know the facts. However, the school hasn't tried to stop us from finding out what the rules are. In fact, discovering them might be one of the test's prerequisites.¨

¨What do you mean, Suzune? Could you explain it like we're dumb?¨ Sudou squinted.

¨So, the test begins once we find out the rules? In that case, not learning would be disastrous.¨ Hirata pointed out. ¨Yes. We're trying to avoid a scenario whereby half of the class gets expelled. Well, this is all hypothetical, but if we don't try to discover the process behind the pairing, it'll be like what Hirata-kun said. Chabashira-sensei said that this is the first time the Class D had made it this far without anyone being expelled. She also said that, in previous years, only one or two pairs were typically expelled, right? Isn't that strange?¨ I resumed, taking note of the details Chabashira-sensei had told us.