People bring their own maids to the training camp

"It won't be so easy for Nagumo to succeed him. He'll have his share of disgusting moments in the future."

"I have no doubt about that."

"Now you just need to focus on your current task. Remember to be careful and don't let anything go wrong with the magazine, otherwise it will have a big impact."

"Please rest assured, I personally handled everything over there, there won't be any problems."

"Well, thank you for your hard work."

"Your will, young lady."

127. Interlude

After the Sudo incident was resolved, Chabashira-sensei met with Ayanokoji.

"You did a great job. I didn't expect to get extra class points. When the verdict was announced, I thought it was a lose-lose situation." On the rooftop, Ms. Chabashira lit a cigarette, looking quite pleased with herself.

Would you believe me if I told you it was an accident?

"Whatever you say, I'm satisfied with the result anyway."

“I knew no one would believe me.” Ayanokouji shook his head.

He genuinely didn't know that acts of bravery could earn class points—although the school's explanation was that he helped the school eliminate criminals, hence the reward of class points.

But thinking about it carefully, it makes sense. Fortunately, it was nipped in the bud; otherwise, if it had really blown up, it would have had a huge impact on a national school like Kaohsiung University.

Especially for the faction of the "ghost island" councilors behind Kao Yu, if Kao Yu has such a problem, he will inevitably be attacked by his political enemies.

"Just keep it up." Chabashira-sensei ignored Ayanokouji. "By the way, you probably won't be participating in that special exam next time, right?"

"Of course not, on the surface my abilities aren't good enough to participate," Ayanokouji said nonchalantly. "Although Sudo can't participate either, there are other boys in the class who are both smart and athletic, right?"

"Besides Hirata, name a few more," Chabashira-sensei sneered.

"..." Ayanokouji also fell silent. There really isn't anyone who is both smart and athletic.

"Even if Hirata and Horikita team up, wouldn't the other team be completely powerless?"

"If Kushida can choose her partner, I believe the men will be very willing to show their skills."

"If you don't want to participate, that's fine too. You won't get any class points anyway." Teacher Chabashira took another drag of her cigarette. "I won't force you."

"May I ask a question about the third-party forces you mentioned?" Ayanokouji suddenly asked. "Shouldn't they have identified themselves?"

"Of course, you want to know?"

"Yes."

“It’s alright to tell you, they’re from the Fujiwara faction,” said Teacher Chabashira. “Whether you believe it or not is up to you. If you don’t believe it, your father will come knocking on your door sooner or later. You can ask him to confirm this.”

Chabashira-sensei's "believe it or not" attitude actually made Ayanokouji feel that it was somewhat credible. After all, Chihaya's side had already come to him, but he knew nothing about them, and they hadn't even shown their faces, which put him in a very passive position.

Despite the offer he received, he still needed to remain vigilant.

"Does the concubine belong to the Fujiwara faction?"

"You're asking me? If I understood politics, would I still be a teacher?" Teacher Chabashira stubbed out his cigarette. "If you have any doubts about that Princess in Class B, you might as well try to find out—oh, by the way, you've been in contact with Sakura, right? Do whatever you want."

"Just asking," Ayanokouji replied casually. "Hime-no-kami is indeed a very outstanding person."

"Really? How does it compare to Horikita?"

“Horikitani is not as good as Himegami. Even if Himegami is showing 100% right now, Horikoshi is still inferior to Himegami,” Ayanokouji replied. “Horikitani’s martial arts skills are also superior to Horikoshi’s. He’s basically at Class A level, right?”

“That makes sense.” Teacher Chabashira smiled, a rare occurrence for him. “Let me remind you, the class is not absolute, so don’t underestimate anyone.”

"If there's nothing else, I'll take my leave now."

"Looking forward to your future performance."

Ayanokouji left the rooftop, leaving only Chabashira-sensei alone.

"Quite perceptive," Teacher Chabashira muttered to himself. "..."

----split line----

Class C.

"Alright, alright, you guys are really something, you didn't even notice someone was taking pictures." Long Yuan wasn't angry, at least not outwardly. "Didn't you even bother to arrange for someone to keep watch?"

Ishizaki and the others kept their heads down and dared not speak. Although they were following Ryuen's policy, it was indeed their oversight that they had not found any witnesses.

"Why aren't you saying anything? What are you afraid of?" Long Yuan asked. "Don't worry, since you've already been beaten, I won't beat you again. Otherwise, others will think I have no tolerance."

"So what's next?" Ibuki asked, arms crossed. "Shouldn't you explain the lineup for the special exam?"

“Okay.” Ryuen nodded. “Ibuki, you team up with me, and then Shiina and Albert team up.”

"Huh? The two of us?" Ibuki clicked her tongue, making a rather dissatisfied sound. "Why is it arranged like this?"

“In this exam, one person will most likely be the executor, and the other the decision-maker,” Long Yuan said. “Therefore, we need a combination of someone with a sharp mind and someone with strong execution skills.”

“According to your explanation, I can understand Shiina and Albert, but what about the two of us?” Ibuki questioned.

"You take care of the execution, I'll take care of the thinking."

"Do you even have a brain?" Ibuki said without even thinking.

“At least you’re better than me,” Long Yuan said with a wicked smile. “If you think you’re so capable, then the decision-makers can let you have it.”

"..." Ibuki fell silent. She had only subconsciously refuted Ryuen. She knew very well that she was not in a position to be the decision-maker, and if Ryuen were the decision-maker, then she would be the only female partner to work with him.

Ibuki could understand the reasons behind it, but she was still quite unhappy.

"So, can you guess the lineups of the other classes?" Ibuki simply moved on and changed the subject.

"There's not much to guess. The two decision-makers for Class A will definitely be Sakayanagi and Katsuragi, while Class B will definitely be Ichinose and Himegami. Class D might be a little controversial, but it's highly likely to be Horikita and Kushida."

"That is to say, the decision-makers are basically all women."

"If their academic abilities are similar, Horikita men generally have an absolute advantage in terms of physical strength. It's rare to see someone like Himegami who can take down a gorilla."

"That's true."

"Although points were deducted, Sudo from Class D really can't make it. This time, I need to take first place and see if there are any hidden rewards. If there are, I'll probably be able to figure out what happened in the last midterm exam."

"You suspect it's a concubine from Class B?"

“I can’t think of any way to transfer one’s own score unless someone has obtained scores other than the exam score—and she is the prime suspect for now.”

"really……"

"Let's see how long she can keep up this act."

128. List

Finally, two days before the "Flying Chess Exam" arrived.

The lineups for the four classes have been finalized and announced by the student council.

Class A: Arisu Sakayanagi's Hayabusa and Ryoko Nishikawa's Kohei Katsuragi.

Class B: Chihaya Chihaya Kanzaki Ryuji's team, Ichinose Honami Shibata's team.

Class C: Ryuen Sho and Ibuki Mio duo, Shiina Hi and Yamada Albert duo.

Class D: Horikita Suzune Ayanokoji Kiyotaka duo, Kushida Kikyo Hirata Yosuke duo.

The lineups for the four classes were not particularly surprising, except for two points.

Firstly, Sudo from Class D was "suspended," so Ayanokouji teamed up with Suzune.

Secondly, among the eight pairs, only the Ryuen Ibuki pair is Ryuen's decision-making and Ibuki's execution.

In other words, among the eight groups, only the Longyuan group had boys rolling dice while girls were responsible for "running the map." Although it's unclear what Longyuan's intentions were, it seemed like a good thing to the other classes—after all, each class had sent out their best students, and having a girl compete with the boys in Class C put them at a disadvantage from the start.

Of course, this is only from the surface level. After all, the other group in Class C is also very strong. Judging from appearance and physique alone, Albert Yamada is the strongest person in the entire first year and even in the entire high school.

This level of behavior makes one wonder if they are truly a first-year high school student.

Leaving aside Class C, the lineups of the other classes are all fairly standard, so there's not much to say about them.

Because apart from the general gameplay being similar to Ludo, all participants knew nothing about the specifics, so there was nothing to prepare for, unlike previous knowledge competitions where one could flip through books to learn some useless trivia.

Chihaya was quite relaxed because he was determined to target Class C as much as possible during the competition, so he could continue to hide his identity. If Ryuen became suspicious, so be it, since targeting Class C was a perfectly understandable strategy for Class B.

Although it doesn't involve class points, individual points are still very important, and the more the better. Therefore, even though it's not an activity involving class points that everyone participates in, Honami and Chihaya decided before the competition that they couldn't give Class C any chance to take advantage.

The consequences of CD's actions are still fresh in our minds. Class C really dares to take advantage of any opportunity given a little bit of leeway, so we cannot let our guard down.

......

"Why is Ayanokouji participating?" Chihaya looked at Ayanokouji's name on the preliminary round list with surprise. "Logically, he shouldn't be participating if he doesn't have class points."

"It can't be that they only brought Ayanokouji along because no one else wanted to partner with Suzune, right?" Hayasaka suggested.

“Actually, it should be the other way around. It’s Suzune who looks down on the others.” Chihaya shook her head. “Sudo is suspended and Kogenji is slacking off, so the other people in Class D are not as good as Ayanokouji, who has a certain understanding with Suzune.”

"That's true, but if Ayanokouji lets Kai go, Class D will basically have no chance, right?"

"You can't say that. Ludo is a game that depends a lot on luck. If you're unlucky and can't even roll a 6, then other people might have already circled half the board before you even leave from the starting point."

“It doesn’t have to come to this—but I’ve prepared a few dice, you can practice a bit.” Hayasaka said, opening his palm to reveal five dice inside. “It might be a little troublesome for others, but it shouldn’t be too difficult for you, right? With a little practice, you’ll be able to control the numbers you want.”

"The premise is that the dice used in the competition are the same as the ones in my hand." Chihaya took one die, tossed it in her palm to feel its weight, and then adjusted it so that the die rolled off her fingertips.

The dice stopped rolling quickly, and it was indeed a 6.

"Self-taught, that's amazing, my young lady." Hayasaka clapped her hands. "If she can precisely control the points she wants, victory is definitely within her grasp."

"It's hard to say. After all, this isn't just a simple board game. I feel like the school will definitely add more traps and challenges to increase the difficulty of the game, otherwise it would be too easy."

"If we follow your idea, wouldn't the final reward also be generous?"

"Now that you mention it, it's quite possible, but the randomness of these kinds of competitions is too high, so we can't guarantee anything."

"For example, does the effect of a certain cell return you to the starting point?"

"Okay, I suggest you plan this event."

“I’m afraid no one will survive, so let’s forget about it.” Hayasaka said seriously, “My plan will make this competition bloody and violent, which is too terrible and not good for the students’ physical and mental health. Filming a short film is much better for their physical and mental health. It can exercise their bodies and relax their minds, killing two birds with one stone.”

"..." Chihaya felt that Hayasaka was getting more and more crooked. The maid girl used to be so full of dirty jokes.