Magician of Cote

Vol-1 Ch-11 The Mask

"Well, that's-"

"I'm sure that in nine years of compulsory education, you learned that being late and talking in class are bad things. And now you say that you can't understand this because I haven't explained it to you? I'm afraid your reasoning is flimsy. If you had simply acted properly, then your points would not have dropped all the way to zero. This comes down to you taking personal responsibility."

There was no way for anyone to refute her perfectly sound argument. Everyone knew that bad behavior didn't pay.

"Having just entered your first year of high school, did you honestly think you'd receive 100,000 points every month with no strings attached? At a school established by the Japanese government for the express purposes of training gifted people? That's unthinkable. Try using some common sense.Why would you leave it to chance?"

Although Hirata appeared to be frustrated, he looked the teacher straight in the eye.

"Well then, even though Ayanokouji-kun explained the gist of it, could you at least explain in detail how points are added or deducted? We can keep that in mind for future reference."

"I cannot tell you. We cannot disclose the methods behind our student evaluation. It's the same as any other organization. When you enter a company, it is the company's choice whether or not to tell you how it evaluates its employees. However, I'm not cruel, and I'm not trying to be cold. In fact, this situation is so pathetic that I will give you one bit of guidance."

For the first time, I saw a faint sliver of a smile on Chabashirasensei's lips.

"Let's say that you stop being late to class and have no more absences... Even though zero points will be deducted from you this month, that doesn't mean that your points will increase, either. That means next month you will still receive zero points. From another perspective, you could say no matter how times you're late or absent to class, it doesn't matter. So, you're not really at a loss, are you?"

"Tch..." Hirata's expression darkened. Her explanation was so counterproductive that it had the opposite effect; some students seemed incapable of understanding what she meant. The students who thought they could improve their situation by remedying bad behavior had their hopes dashed. Which was the opposite of what I want.

That was probably Chabashira-sensei's, or rather, this school's, intention.The bell rang, signaling the end of homeroom.

"It looks like we spent too much time yammering. I hope that you understood the gist of it. Well, it's about time that we switch to our main topic."

From the tube she carried, she removed a white rolled-up poster and spread it out. She stuck the poster to the blackboard with some magnets. The still-confused students stared blankly at the poster.

"Are these...the points for each class? That Ayanokouji-kun talked about." Horikita tentatively took a guess.

Class A through Class D were listed. To the side was a row of numbers that went up to a maximum of four digits. Class D had zero. Class C had 490. Class B had 650. And at the top was Class A, with a total of 940. In this case, 1000 points would mean 100,000 yen. Every class had apparently lost points.

"Isn't something about this odd?" Horikita asked me.

"Yeah. The numbers look too even."

"You've all been doing whatever you pleased this past month. The school has no intention of preventing you from doing what you want. Your actions, such as being late or talking during class, only affect the points you receive. The same goes for how you use your points. How you choose to spend is entirely up to you. We have not put any restrictions on point usage."