In the first-year faculty office—

  Uesugi sat in Hoshinomiya-sensei’s chair, carefully examining Ichinose’s enrollment records.

  The school had conducted thorough background checks on all incoming students at Advanced Nurturing High School, so logically, Ichinose’s history should have been documented.

  "Long-term absences and other instability factors, huh..."

  Uesugi stared at the word "other" in the school’s evaluation for a long time, scratching his head in frustration.

  "A hint this obvious, and I completely overlooked it… How careless of me."

  He had already read her file before—

  "This isn’t something you should be too hard on yourself for, Gen-chan," Hoshinomiya-sensei reassured him, sitting beside him.

  "After all, isn’t that the reason you were pced in Css B too?"

  That’s right—Uesugi had also been assigned to Css B due to his prolonged absence from school. However, in his case, he had private tutors at home, making attendance irrelevant.

  In a way, the two of them had an oddly fated connection.

  Uesugi casually expined,

  "I never attended school because all I needed was a formal academic record. Since my family funds this institution, whether I showed up or not was entirely up to me."

  "But the fact that I didn’t even question why Ichinose had long-term absences… That was a huge oversight on my part."

  Someone like Ichinose—a model student who showed up every day just to drag him to css—having a history of prolonged absences? That alone felt off.

  Something must have happened in the past to cause her to miss so much school, shaping her into who she was today.

  Raising his head, Uesugi looked seriously at Hoshinomiya.

  "Hoshinomiya-sensei, could you help me find the most detailed version of Ichinose’s background check from her enrollment period? I need to figure out what exactly happened."

  Since it wasn’t in this file, he’d have to dig deeper.

  Hoshinomiya tilted her head, thinking for a moment.

  "Hmm, I could… But you do realize that kind of report costs a lot of points, right? It contains personal information and all that."

  "If I remember correctly, you’re completely out of personal points, aren’t you? Should I cover it for you?"

  "Oh, that? No need to worry about that, Sensei."

  With that, Uesugi pulled out his phone, logged out of his current account, and switched to another one. Then, he casually turned the screen toward Hoshinomiya.

  30 million points.

  Hoshinomiya’s pupils contracted slightly, momentarily stunned. Even she was taken aback by this figure—it far exceeded the highest recorded amount of personal points held by any student in the school’s history.

  "Gen-chan… you…"

  Hoshinomiya looked at Uesugi, hesitating to speak. As a homeroom teacher, she was well aware that with just 20 million points, a student could guarantee graduation from Css A.

  "Rex, Hoshinomiya-sensei. Compared to that corporate-drone-looking Majima-sensei, I prefer a cute teacher like you."

  "Besides, I’m not interested in graduating from Css A. This 30 million is just a reward from the school."

  This time, it was Uesugi’s turn to reassure her.

  Hoshinomiya’s face flushed slightly before she pyfully smacked him.

  "Don’t talk to your teacher like that."

  "I’ll take care of it. I’ll submit a request to access Ichinose’s background report."

  She patted her chest confidently.

  "Then I’ll leave it to you, Hoshinomiya-sensei."

  Uesugi’s tone became unusually formal.

  Having realized this discrepancy in Ichinose’s past, he couldn’t ignore it. He needed to uncover the reason behind her long-term absences.

  If the school’s records didn’t have the answer, he’d have to ask Hoshinomiya to conduct an external investigation.

  I can’t leave campus, but Hoshinomiya can. Even with certain restrictions, she has the freedom to go outside.

  And if even that didn’t yield results, he’d have to leverage the Uesugi family’s influence…

  "As for any costs incurred, I’ll cover them."

  Uesugi was about to transfer funds to Hoshinomiya.

  "No need, no need. Let your teacher handle it. I’ve been a homeroom teacher for a while—I have some savings."

  "Think of it as a reward for successfully striking that deal with Css D."

  Hoshinomiya waved her hands, refusing his money. Then, as if recalling something amusing, she covered her mouth and chuckled.

  "I heard that when Css D found out about the contract, the entire css exploded."

  Uesugi let out a wry smile.

  For Horikita Suzune to swallow her disgust and go through with this… in some ways, she’s really something else.

  ---

  Meanwhile, in Css D—

  "You’ve got to be kidding me! We’re risking a condition in the next special exam… just to save these three failures who can’t even pass a basic test? And we’re not even given the 1.9 million points—we’re borrowing them?!"

  Yukimura Teruhiko, one of Css D’s top students, pointed furiously at the three trembling figures hiding behind Hirata.

  "Hmph. Truly unsightly, Hirata-boy. I never agreed to spend my precious points to rescue such unworthy, unbeautiful people. It’s simply tragic."

  Kōenji Rokusuke admired his own reflection in a mirror, whispering praises about his own beauty, completely unfazed.

  "Exactly! Hirata, we only agreed to let you try borrowing points—we never agreed to this condition!"

  The css erupted into chaos as students scrambled to voice their protests.

  Horikita Suzune stepped onto the podium, scanning the css with a calm gaze. Then, in an even tone, she said,

  "I made myself clear before. Without understanding the full extent of css competition, we can’t determine if losing students will put us at a disadvantage in future battles."

  "In the end, this situation is a direct result of your reckless disregard for school regutions in the first month."

  "...…"

  "You’ve got to be f***ing kidding me…!"

  Horikita’s lecturing tone instantly ignited the css. Even Hirata Yōsuke struggled to contain the chaos.

  Kushida Kikyō trembled, covering her mouth as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

  Meanwhile, Ayanokōji Kiyotaka watched on, mouth slightly agape, as if witnessing something eye-opening.

  At the same time, Css D’s homeroom teacher, Chabashira Sae, sighed as she observed the mess before her.

  Maybe I should’ve told them the real passing criteria from the start…

  After all, her goal was to push Css D to Css A, not to watch them self-destruct.

  Originally, she assumed that if Hirata couldn’t secure enough points, he’d eventually turn to her for help.

  That way, she could step in and naturally impose her own conditions.

  But to her surprise, Hirata and Horikita had not only secured the points but had done so from Hoshinomiya Chie’s Css B—the very css that caused her the most headaches.

  And what’s worse, they’d tied it to a contractual obligation.

  Chabashira wasn’t naive—there was no way Hoshinomiya’s css would settle for a condition that didn’t bite.

  But at this point, Css D couldn’t afford to spiral any further.

  This was the first time in years that Css D had even a sliver of hope for promotion.

  If this continued, that hope would be completely crushed.