Classroom of the Elite: Checkmate

Chapter 8 - Cheap Shot

Wednesday, May 1st.

The classroom was louder and more chaotic than usual.

There were three people, however, that weren't as surprised.

One of them was Kouenji Rokusuke.

Just like any other day, he admired his own reflection in his trusty white hand mirror. His pearly whites sparkled as the morning sun shone through the transparent windows. He grinned, practically laughing at the surrounding students, which were losing their heads like chickens that were being hunted down by a sly fox.

The man in question glanced towards me before narrowing his eyes. After observing me for a moment, his gaze wandered towards the last person who was rather relaxed, since she had also expected what was about to unfold: Matsushita Chiaki.

The girl bit her lip in frustration as a hint of regret flashed across her charming face.

This was an understandable reaction after taking into consideration that Chiaki had only found out about the schools system because a curious classmate had prodded her until she realized that something was off. I wouldn't be surprised if she was cursing herself for not having thought of this sooner. She might even have been able to prevent this altogether if she had informed everyone of her suspicions.

Unlike her friends Karuizawa and Satou, she kept a clear head. Neither of them noticed this, however, as they were too busy freaking out over the lack of points.

Had she prepared questions for our homeroom teacher to verify the accuracy of her own assumptions? Was she interested in learning what she had missed out on? Or had she determined that the best course of action was to act like she usually did and hide her knowledge from everyone?

A few minutes passed and Chabashira-sensei strode into the room as the bell rang, holding a rolled-up poster in her hand. The expression she wore today was even worse than usual, which showed that even though she had expected us to fail, it was much worse than she wanted to imagine.

That or menopause had set in.

I had a sudden, inexplicable urge to ask her, but I felt that she would beat me to death with her bare fists if I were to do so. Not only did I value my life very much, but I also needed my place at this school, which is why I decided to desist from sexually harassing my teacher for the foreseeable future.

"Hey, sensei, did you start menopause or something?"

Once again, I had to remind myself to keep as far away as possible from Ike. His deranged thought pattern had already eroded mine, which was the only explanation that the two of us had the same obscene thought. Even though he was Class D's most dangerous secret weapon, I was opposed on using him, since I felt bad for my enemies.

Chabashira-sensei ignored his disrespectful remark, which could also have been interpreted as sexual harassment, before placing the materials and poster on the teacher's desk.

Her gaze flew over all thirty-nine students present in the room.

"Your morning homeroom is about to begin. Before we get started, are there questions? Now is the time to ask."

It was a given that she, as our homeroom teacher, was aware about Class D's terrible situation. Even students as dense as my classmates should have questions after they hadn't received their 'promised' points on the appointed day.

"Sensei, I checked my point balance this morning, but I didn't receive any additional deposits. Points are given on the first day of every month, aren't they?"

"Correct. Points are deposited on the first day of the month. I have confirmed that the points for this month were wired with no issues."

Most of the students pulled out their phones and rechecked their current balance in the naïve hope that they had looked at their points before the new ones were deposited this morning. This alone was more than enough evidence to emphasize the fact that they had understood nothing about the way this school worked.