After some time, I went back to class to pick up my forgotten object.
By the time I entered, no one was inside; it seemed Ito had already left.
I picked up my phone from under my desk and headed to my room.
On entering my room, I put on my A.C. and lay on my bed as I began to hear the conversation Ito and Takagaki had—the one I recorded on my phone.
It started with Ito asking him if he had stolen the student records, to which Takagaki denied.
Ito went on to ask where he was on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but that went nowhere; however, Takagaki sounded a bit nervous.
That was until Ito said he wasn't recording their conversation, then Takagaki sighed a sigh of relief and said he wouldn't waste his time doing something like stealing a 'lower class's' student record.
I have to say, I agree with him there.
After what Ito said, the tide of the conversation changed; it was like a switch was flipped.
Though I could already guess why.
He was afraid that Ito would edit his voice.
That was why during the conversation he gave curt answers, but now he could let loose, so to speak.
I silently listened as he insulted Ito—saying he wasn't as smart as he looked—though Takagaki said he wouldn't tell anyone that we lost our class's student records.
However, that was only on the condition that he would get paid, to which Ito paid 15,000 Rp, or so I heard.
After that, Takagaki got bored and left; this left Ito confused and with no clues as to who the criminal was.
He eventually left after regaining composure, though he left with these words.
"Who could the criminal be?"
Of course, that was what everyone wanted to know, and unfortunately, I had wasted my time recording them; I couldn't get anything substantial from it.
"What an utter waste of time," I sighed.
There was also the special test was coming up—and unfortunately, I had to come up with test questions.
Well, I had people who would also help, though Arakawa joining us was a shock.
I had completely forgotten he existed because of how he acted during class.
"Who knew someone so egotistical could be so docile?"
It really was weird, but that was how he acted nonetheless.
He's basically a ghost, so it makes me kinda enthusiastic to see what he will do to help in making questions for the special test.
Luckily, I didn't have to wait anymore, as Ito made the group just as I was thinking about it.
[Ito Yuuto: Hello everyone. Let's start brainstorming ideas for the special test.]
I liked the fact that when someone added you to a group, you got their acc. saved.
[Kagura-chan: Heyo! I hope you guys will bear with me if I make some stupid questions.]
[Me: I hope you guys will also bear with me too.]
While I could guarantee that I would give questions, I couldn't guarantee that I could give 'acceptable' ones.
[Ito Yuuto: Don't worry; any question is fine.]
[Kagura-chan: Should we just start generating questions?]
[Ito Yuuto: Well… I think we should at least try and know what the school means by suitable questions.]
[Kagura-chan: Yeah, but who should we ask? Jackson-sensei?]
[Me: What about our senpais? Didn't they do the same test as us?]
There were very few people we could ask, but I didn't want to put teachers into the mix, so I tried to steer that idea away.
Moreover, upperclassmen were probably more inclined to tell us since they probably felt sympathy for us—that being said, with the school's promise after graduation, I couldn't really count on them.
[Kagura-chan: There are different tests for each grade level.]
Damn.
I had initially wanted to bribe an upperclassman that was low on Rp—maybe another Class Epsilon student—but that seemed out of the question.
[Me: So, who do we then ask for what the school meant by 'suitable'?]
[Kagura-chan: Dunno :<]
[Me: … At any rate, I can't imagine the other classes are any better than we are now.]
[Ito Yuuto: Yeah, at least we were getting somewhere.]
[Kagura-chan: Yeah.]
In truth, we were getting nowhere, and I was about to say something until—
Ito spoke up by himself.
[Ito Yuuto: I retract my initial comment; it's a lie. To be honest, as of now, we're getting nowhere.]
The group chat went quiet for a while—it seemed no one had any idea of what to do.
[Kagura-chan: I'll try asking other teachers.]
[Me: Well…]
If I had to choose between asking Jackson-sensei and other teachers, I would choose her every single time.
However, like I said before, I didn't want teachers in the mix—at least not until I was done with my assessment of them.
[Ito Yuuto: It's best we leave this for tomorrow, after we get a better idea on what to do.]
Nobody disagreed, and that was how the conversation ended.
So Arakawa didn't text at all, huh?
I couldn't tell if he read the chats, but he didn't say a word, so I assumed he didn't.
I considered texting him; his contact was registered in the group, but then I didn't because I had other matters to attend to.
I still didn't have any idea of what to do concerning this test, so I went to check what kind of information I could learn.
I went to the school app; it was a new app that magically appeared on my phone after I left the principal's office.
Everyone had this app since we all entered the school—well, except for me.
The first time I heard of it was today during the strategy meeting with my classmates.
Despite hearing about it today, I was already sure about how I got it. I was sure this was also part of Satou's deal with the chairman.
Since he won the bet, he handed the app to me, as there was no reason not to.
After all, the original reason for why I didn't have the app was because Satou didn't want me to know the real school rules.
Because the app was a pool of information—this was because of the class bulletin board and chatroom.
Chatrooms were places where clubs could chat but there was a main chatroom where anonymous information could be sent discreetly without even the school's knowledge, or so the app said.
I'm sure it exists so people can report to the school with no scrutiny from other students.
Every class had their personal bulletin board where the class's information was, and the school bulletin board was where school information was sent.
It was at the school bulletin board that the rules of special tests were posted.
And so, I began to read the rules just to make sure I was aware of everything.
I read and read, however—
There was no new information, like, at all. The only new thing I learned was that we would have 20 questions every day—5 from the other four classes—rather than having all the questions at once.
I can't tell if this is good or bad news—I mean, at least I didn't miss much of anything.
Regardless, I still had to pass, though how I would do that was still unknown.
And there were still the missing class records; however, there was something I also needed to handle.
That was why I got a certain person's acc. from Kagura and went off to sleep without doing anything.
I'll handle it later.
It seemed that I really couldn't do anything and could only hope that I could pass the special test.
Because if I didn't—
Then I'll get expelled.
***
Author's Note:
Eiya is in a real tough spot and might get expelled again. There are three main issues: His lack of Rp, the thief, and the special test–even as the writer, if I was in this situation, I'd probably be cooked, but oh well.
So, I will stop writing author's notes until I have something to say because these are getting boring, but you'll still see my remainder about sharing, commenting, and reviewing the book.
Anyway, remember to comment, share, and leave a review. Thanks for reading the chapter and see you in the next one.