The True Elites

Chapter 5-3: Distribution Strategy

The student council president, Horikita Manabu, was swarmed with students seeking his advice and strategy, despite the fact that he had deliberately let a different student take the reigns.

You can imagine that student must feel undermined, however, it's not like you can blame the third years, especially his own classmates.

They had spent a long time following his leadership, and witnessed time and time again his exemplary abilities, which had no doubt been showcased through various feats across his time at this school.

The most obvious of which was the story that any third-year student would tell you if you asked them about the elder Horikita - that he had become the student council president during his first year by outvoting the third year who was vice-president the year before, and who was expected to take over after the previous student council president.

Then, of course, there were the first years. Katsuragi had approached the pillar of Class E, Hirata, acting once again as Class A's figurehead.

However, if you looked at the body language of the Class A students, it was evident that support for Katsuragi was running thin. Beneath the surface, most of them seemed to back the other big name in Class A, Sakayanagi Arisu.

She sat elegantly on a chair with her cane by her side, radiating a sort of fairy-like beauty. However, these looks were deceiving, as Sakayanagi was much more than just a beautiful girl; she was intelligent and cunning, the most dangerous kind of opponent.

She also seemed to know a little about my past. I had to remain wary of her. Even if she claims that she simply wants a fair contest with me, there was no telling what her true motivations could be.

Teaming up with them was Class E. I had to admit that the potential in this class was extremely high - if it was harnessed, Class E could become a serious threat come this time next year.

Each student who was blessed with talent was also held back by some form of flaw. With Sudō, it was his explosive temper. Ike could be a respectable form of all-around student, if it weren't for the fact that he was too lazy to learn how to socialise, study or exercise. Horikita was proficient in both academics and athletics, but was held back by her mindset and ego. To be fair to her, though, she had began to show signs of developing.

Last but most certainly not least, Kōenji. An enigmatic figure who possessed ability that could easily rival even that of the student council president, Horikita Manabu, but simply didn't want to put it to use.

That was on the surface, anyway. I had theorised that Kōenji was actually pulling the strings behind the scenes of Class E, which would explain both their surprise result during the uninhabited island exam, and their mysterious tactics of scoring all zeroes during the midterms.

Kōenji didn't seem like he faked his flippant personality, though. It was far too genuine. Instead, I queried Ishihara-sensei and found out that during special exams, the homeroom teachers aren't given any more information than their students are.

Thus, you can conclude that the school expects that, if they were given all the information, that the homeroom teachers would act with bias in favour if their own class.

From this, you can reasonably deduce that there is an incentive not just for the students, but for the teachers as well, for reaching Class A. If that's the case, it's entirely possible that Chabashira-sensei had noted Kōenji's extraordinary ability, and had decided to make direct use of it herself.

The homeroom teachers are just humans like the students, after all. If you understood human nature, they were not much harder to read.

"So are you saying you have no intention of cooperating?".