Classroom of the Elite [Year 2, Volume 5]

．intro

The day after I was installed as the manager (?) of the maid cafe.

When Chabashira entered the class, from her stiff expression most students immediately realized something was weird.

However, unlike before, the words “special test” were not the first to appear in our minds. The biggest reason for it was that we were convinced that our next special test would be the sports festival. Further, the culture festival was already planned for after the sports festival.

“Before the sports festival in October, you will have to face a new special test.”

A tremor ran through most students. Last year around this time, there were no other special tests and we’d already started preparing for the sports festival. However, it looked like this year would be different.

“Another test? And we just cleared the difficult Uninhabited Island Survival Test…”

As was custom by this point, the first person to speak up was Ike, complaining as usual.

Ike had just gotten through a close shave with expulsion in the Uninhabited Island Survival and was finally establishing a romantic relationship with Shinohara Satsuki. So, he was already imagining the many dangers up ahead.

No matter how close you got and how well you built the relationship, depending on the special test, expulsion was always on the table.

There was no doubt that especially those students who ranked low in the OAA similarly sensed danger.

“Heh, I’m up for this. Before I own everybody in the sports festival, I feel like breezin’ through another special test.”

Sudou, who was supremely confident about his athletic skills, bumped his fists together.

“Don’t get carried away.”

“… ok.”

Sudou shut up, somewhat dejected, after Horikita immediately warned him.

That’s a nice master-servant relationship… No, you could say they are developing a relationship of friends.

“Honestly speaking, in past years we’ve rarely had a special test at this time of the year. And in reality, the first and third years don’t have to take a special test now.”

“So it’s just us second years who’ll be taking a special test before the sports festival?”

Satou asked, leaning forward from her earlier position with her back to the chair.

Completely in agreement with her, Chabashira nodded.

“Even the school values you excellent second year students highly.”

“Ehhh? Saddling us with a special test because you value us… isn’t that weird?”

“It is true that every special test carries an element of risk you have to be worried about. You can lose class or private points, and in some cases some of you might even get expelled. But in another sense, you could even say that you got more opportunities to live a more fulfilling student life. In fact, in order to reach Class A, a goal you all must consider more important than anything else, each additional special test is a gift of an opportunity.”

She’s right. If we wanted to gain a large amount of class points, it would be extremely difficult for us to accumulate those in just our daily lives. In fact, if we had to say, not having a special test could often mean that we were sure to lose class points instead. Whether it was the uninhabited island survival test or any other test, special tests gave us our first chance to rise to the upper classes.