Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e

Volume 10, Chapter 2: “The Class Vote” Part 2

That night, I got a phone call from Kei.

For the most part, it had to do with the special exam.

“Yeah so, this exam. What should I be doing?”

“You’ve started forming a group around you, right?”

“Well, kinda. There are seven girls in my group.”

She listed off the names of the girls other than herself.

They were all girls that Kei usually got along well with.

“After all, everyone’s totally scared of getting expelled. If I’m being real with you… I’m not sure how many people hate me.”

“It wouldn’t be that strange if you got a few censure votes.”

“Uhm. Shouldn’t you be telling me otherwise, even if you have to lie about it?”

Kei angrily snapped back at me from the other end of the phone.

“For now, the best course of action is to act quietly so that you don’t attract too much attention. It’s possible that you could become a candidate for expulsion if you stand out in a bad way.”

“Gotcha. I’ll make sure not to do anything stupid.”

“Good. Also, the fact that you’ve already broken up with Hirata by now may be advantageous for you.”

“Eh?”

“Hirata is very popular with the girls. If you were still together with him… some of them may have planned to use expulsion to forcibly separate the two of you.”

“Eep, that’s spooky. Although totally possible…”

Other students might do something impulsive purely because of the anonymity of the vote.

“…You should be fine right? You don’t stand out because you stick to the shadows, and your grades are average too.”

In the eyes of most of the class, there shouldn’t be anything to criticise or praise me for.

“Keeping a low-profile can have its advantages.”

“But it’s possible for you to get a censure vote from Sudō-kun, isn’t it? Like, in order to get rid of a rival aiming for Horikita-san. Though, well, that’s probably just what he thinks.”

“Maybe.”

Because there was no other choice but to vote for three people, everyone would probably get a couple of censure votes. Though, it wouldn’t be enough to be worth worrying about.

“Out of the whole class, I’d say that the three idiots and Kōuenji-kun are all kinda terrible, right?”

It appeared as though Kei’s group of friends had come to a similar conclusion as the Ayanokōji Group.

“They’re the top choices, but we still don’t know what will happen. That said, Kōuenji probably isn’t in a very good spot at the moment.”

“He’s not the type of person who would make groups and coordinate votes, is he?”

“Yeah.”

Ike, Yamauchi, and Sudō would obviously form a small group to support each other.

Kōuenji, on the other hand, was helpless and alone. He also had a tendency to make enemies thanks to that headstrong attitude of his.

Furthermore, on the very day the exam was announced, he had a tense argument with Sudō in front of the whole class.

“So what are you gonna do? Who do you plan on using your censure votes on?”

“I haven’t really thought about it yet, but I plan on picking people I don’t expect to be useful to the class moving forward.”

“How level-headed of you. But that’s your style, isn’t it?”

Seeing as someone inevitably had to leave the school, this was the only way for me to make my decision.

“Ah? There’s no way, but… you’re not talking about people like me, right?”

“You’re important to the class. There’s no way I’d do that.”

“R-really. W-well of course.”

Her surprised reaction sounded just a little embarrassed.

“If the class makes a decision on the students to get rid of, that is, if you notice that they’ve made a decision about who exactly they’ll be using their censure votes on, let me know. It’s difficult for me to get that kind of information myself.”

“Okay~”

I ended the call with Kei.

Even though I had told her I would pick people I didn’t expect to be useful moving forward, that was only my personal opinion on the matter.

Since I wasn’t actively involved in the class, I didn’t have any intention of getting deeply involved with manipulating the votes.

Accordingly, I intended to wholeheartedly accept whatever outcome the class came to, no matter which groups went at each other. Of course, if I were to come under fire, that would be a different story altogether.

Anyway, just as Kei had mentioned earlier, the chance of Ike, Yamauchi, or Sudō being expelled isn’t low. Kōenji as well. Furthermore, on the girls’ side of things, the ones with poor grades like Inogashira, Satō, and Airi probably aren’t safe either. Moving forward, however, groups would gradually begin to take shape. Large numbers of votes would start to move around for reasons completely unrelated to academic ability. Isolated people like Kōenji and timid people like Airi who don’t have many friends would also become easy targets.

“I wonder what’ll happen next.”

I just had to collect information to prepare for any unexpected developments and keep an eye on the trend of the vote.

(Chapter 2 End)