Wolf in Sheep's Clothing // A Classroom of the Elite Story

[Ch.3] Against the Current

"You must be really stupid, aren't you?"

The condescending voice of Chabashira Sae echoed throughout class 1-D, effectively silencing the previous complaints regarding the confusion of not receiving the previously promised 100k points at the start of the new month. Needless to say the students were taken aback. Well, most of them at least.

"You really think the school would give you that many funds without a catch? How childish of you.", she continued to chastise the class, while writing something akin to a ranking on the board. It enumerated, top to bottom, the 4 classes and a point amount next to each one.

"0 points, huh.", Isogai murmured to himself, taking a quick glance at his own handbook, displaying the first 100k points untouched and ONLY them.

"This here is proof that your class deserved to be ranked dead last. I have to applaud you, as it's the first time I have witnessed a class blow through their entire point reserves in a single month.", she followed suit with the aforementioned applause, much to the dismay of her, now worried, stiff, pupils. "Defectives through and through."

That last part made Yuuma involuntarily smirk to himself. 'Defective'. A word amongst many others used to refer to him and his peers in the past. Perhaps it should have hurt him to hear it again. But paradoxically, the word now only served to invoke sweet memories of his junior high last steps

"Have I perhaps amused you in some way, Isogai Yuuma?", the teacher didn't miss his brief provoking facial expression. Not that she could really guess what was going through the boy's mind. It did however make the rest of his classmates take quick glances at him. Primarily, his left neighbor, Horikita Suzune had the most insistent one.

"Not at all. I was just being content with my choices right now.", he quickly responded, referring to his economies. Looking at class 1-B's points on the table, he surmised his friend is probably somewhat annoyed right now. Annoyed that he'd missed the chance to start from the bottom again.

"Ah. You mean the choice to not spend anything the past month, right?"Chabashira attempted to get under his skin, and succeeded somewhat at that, as his eyes narrowed with suspicion.

{So they keep track of point usage as well on top of things.}, he quickly caught on to his teacher's, perhaps involuntary, slip up. But the more annoying part would only begin later, as several classmates were already eyeing him with perhaps some selfish intentions. In an ironic fashion, Isogai Yuuma is now the most affluent person in his class.

"Sensei!"Yosuke Hirata, a central figure in the class after just one month of study, albeit at the dismay of some male classmates, quickly rose to his feet to ask his own questions. "Could you please tell us on what basis we are penalized or rewarded with points?"

"I am afraid not.", the teacher coldly shut down his well intentioned plea. "No one is telling you how they measure you as a person in day-to-day society, right?", Her argument was rather sound.

{But that's only on the premise this school emulates day-to-day society, sensei.}, Isogai had expectations and doubts regarding how well this emulation process would function.

"To begin with-", Sae continued. "All 4 classes started off with 1000 class points each. With a 1 CP to 100 PP conversion rate. This new discrepancy in class point amounts, all due to your own negligence in class I remind you, means you've lost all of those 1000 class points."

The teacher didn't mince her words once. And to her credit, she was in the right regarding all the tardiness and fooling around in class. It all came back to the discussion Shinzo and Isogai shared regarding the teachers' rather lax attitude in class. {They weren't lax at all. They were noting down each instance for penalisation.}, his previous small smirk grew larger slightly. He'd gotten the feeling principal Asano would have been on board previously with such arrangements for a school.