Classroom of the Elite: Checkmate

Chapter 14 - King's Rook

[07:32:58 AM][Fumei] If an injury has to be done to a man, it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.

This was the first message I had received from Horikita-senpai after he warned me about Nagumo-senpai. The text itself read like a quote or some such, but I hadn't heard of it before.

Fumei wasn't the type of person to send a message without reason, so I had to wonder if something had happened. I was unaware of anything noteworthy that such a quote would apply to, but I still felt uneasy.

Yet again, I checked my point balance.

The fleeting hope I still harbored vanished without a trace.

Today was Monday, June 3rd.

We hadn't received our points on June 1st, so my classmates and I wished dearly that the reason was the fact that the first fell on the weekend. It was a stupid and pointless prayer, since the payout was more than likely automated, yet we still held onto such a futile hope.

There hadn't been a single logical reason to be hopeful, but I still couldn't help but feel frustrated after my balance hadn't changed.

"We didn't get any points for the exam after all..."

Hirata, the others and I all believed that we might see an increase in points according to our scores during the midterms, but as of now, it looked like we were sorely mistaken. Aside from important class matters which I now had to attend to, there was another problem I had to deal with during this week.

His name was Ayanokouji Kiyotaka.

The handsome boy himself wasn't the problem, but my thoughts and feelings concerning him were. I couldn't keep behaving like an idiot in front of him, so I calmed my jumbled up anxieties and made some plans going forward.

Since I was aware of the irrefutable fact that I liked him, I had to figure out just how much.

Judging by my silly and embarrassing behavior that evening, it was bad.

Seriously bad.

I was relieved that Kiyotaka had trouble with some common concepts, which is why he probably hadn't noticed that I was behaving in such a weird way. Even if he did, he should have had trouble understanding my feelings according to my impressions of him.

As a part of Class D's leadership, I had to better myself.

I scanned over my reflection in the mirror and nodded happily after adjusting my hair and bow tie. My complexion changed into a light, healthy pink as my palm caressed over the bracelet he had gifted me. Clapping my cheeks twice, I encouraged myself before heading out of the room.

"Yosha!"

♙♘♗♖♕♔ 🄲🅷🄴🅲🄺🅼🄰🆃🄴 ♚♛♜♝♞♟

Our classroom was as lively as usual before the first period began.

I wouldn't have been surprised in the least if the other classes heard Ike's annoying and somewhat disrespectful shouts, which must have carried quite far due to the opened windows.

This time, more so than usual, the class was disorganized, to a frightening degree. The reason, however, wasn't hard to figure out, since it likely had to do with the state of our current balance, which hadn't changed from last month.

After two days, most students would have lost hope for any rewards.

I unlocked my phone and checked the point balance of our class.