"A mayfly shaking a tree, huh..." Kaguya Shinomiya muttered to herself in a voice that could barely be heard, then raised her head, looked directly into Asagiri Utsunomiya's eyes, and said calmly, "Are you deliberately provoking me? The reputation of the pure students... This is not something I can bear alone by acting arbitrarily."
"Oh, you're not falling for it?"
Hearing Asagiri Utsunomiya's words filled with amusement, Kotoko Iwanaga, who was nearby, was slightly surprised, thinking, 'How can there be someone like you?'
It's one thing to use provocation, but how can you admit it so directly?
This is a bit too honest.
Just as Kotoko Iwanaga was thinking this, she heard Asagiri Utsunomiya speak.
"However, no matter what you yourself say, in the eyes of others, you are challenging me while bearing the reputation of the pure students. You should be very clear about this yourself, right?"
Facing Asagiri Utsunomiya's words, Kaguya Shinomiya could not refute him.
In the history of Shuchi'in Academy, such a thing had never happened.
Kaguya Shinomiya, the eldest daughter of the Shinomiya Family, was of noble birth, impeccable in speech and manners, excellent in both academics and sports. Furthermore, the current chairman of Shuchi'in Academy was Oko Shinomiya of the Shinomiya Family. With all these factors combined, Kaguya Shinomiya was the most outstanding and perfect among the pure students.
And Asagiri Utsunomiya was the complete opposite.
His speech and manners, his style of doing things, were completely unlike the rigid and dull majority of Shuchi'in Academy students. What stood out was his abstractness and individuality. Moreover, he was an impure student who only entered in high school, and on the first day of school, in broad daylight, he denied the unspoken division between pure and impure students within Shuchi'in Academy, and his words were very aggressive.
Asagiri Utsunomiya and Kaguya Shinomiya were both excellent. Whether in academics or sports, they were at the top of Shuchi'in Academy. But other than that, the two had no other similarities.
It wasn't just Kaguya Shinomiya alone who was looking forward to the arrival of the spring exam and hoping for her victory. Some arrogant and conceited pure students, knowing they couldn't win against Asagiri Utsunomiya due to their own lack of ability, could only presumptuously place their hopes on Kaguya Shinomiya, wanting to bask in reflected glory as pure students after she achieved victory.
But...
What if Kaguya Shinomiya lost?
She didn't want to lose, and she couldn't afford to lose. After all... she was the eldest daughter of the Shinomiya Family, bearing the Shinomiya surname. She could not accept the shame of losing to anyone in academics as a student.
"Say whatever you want, but..."
Kaguya Shinomiya narrowed her eyes slightly, a look of determination appearing in her red eyes. She looked directly into Asagiri Utsunomiya's eyes and said word by word.
"I— Will— Win!"
Just then, accompanied by the light tapping sound of high heels on the floor, Miwa Ashikaga, wearing a fitted suit and gold-rimmed glasses, slowly walked into the classroom. She glanced at Asagiri Utsunomiya and Kaguya Shinomiya in the corner of the classroom, didn't say much, just spoke calmly.
"Utsunomiya, Shinomiya, please return to your seats..."
Halfway through speaking, Miwa Ashikaga noticed a small head wearing a white beret hidden behind those two people and added a sentence.
"Oh, and Iwanaga, stop hiding there and go back to your seat."
Kotoko Iwanaga rolled her eyes, thinking to herself that she wasn't intentionally hiding. Those two people were too tall and were really in the way, weren't they?
Even though the three of them were standing together, she had no role whatsoever, not even getting a shot where her face was visible.
At this moment, Kotoko Iwanaga finally understood how Megumi Kato felt in her daily life.
After the classroom quieted down, Miwa Ashikaga scanned the students below and spoke in a clear voice
"As everyone knows, the exam is about to begin... This exam is different for our Class 1-A compared to the other classes. I won't be the invigilator, so before the exam starts, I'll tell you some important points.
"Cheating is naturally not allowed. There are two real-time cameras in the classroom, front and back, and dedicated personnel will be monitoring them. Additionally, there will be two invigilators.
"There are a total of three subjects: Social Study, Science, and Foreign Language. They will all be held today and will finish at at three o'clock in the afternoon."
Speaking up to this point, Miwa Ashikaga paused slightly. Her gaze first swept over Kaguya Shinomiya, then turned towards Asagiri Utsunomiya, who was sitting in the corner of the classroom, and she spoke in a calm tone.
"I only have one requirement for you: the highest average score in the grade. As for who achieves the highest individual score in the grade... as your homeroom teacher, I am also looking forward to it."
◆◇◈◇◆
Half an hour later, inside the meeting hall of Shuchi'in Academy's Board of Directors.
Sitting at the head of the long table, a middle-aged man who was bald, neither fat nor thin, with a somewhat lewd appearance, wearing a frivolous smile but having an arrogant look in his eyes, looked towards Miwa Ashikaga, who was sitting to his left, and said with a sneer, "Ashikaga-san... Oh, no, Ashikaga-sensei, I'm truly surprised you would come to attend the Board of Directors meeting. I thought you had already recognized your limitations and knew you weren't capable of shouldering the responsibilities of a board member, and were focusing on being a teacher for Class 1-A instead."
Miwa Ashikaga raised her hand to push up her glasses, seemingly not taking Oko Shinomiya seriously at all, not even looking at him. She simply said in a flat tone, "After this spring exam is over, you will realize how foolish your words are. If I remember correctly, Kaguya Shinomiya from my class is your sister, isn't she? If she loses to Utsunomiya, can you still maintain that expression?"
"Oh? So that's your goal? You want to use Kaguya's failure to threaten my authority? You are far too naive. She is merely a..."
Oko Shinomiya stopped halfway through his sentence, suddenly realizing that saying Kaguya Shinomiya was just a lowly mistress' child and not truly part of the Shinomiya Family, in front of so many board members, was akin to exposing his own family's shame. After all, a mistress' child, to put it bluntly... ultimately, wasn't it the mistake made because his father, the current head of the Shinomiya Family, Gan'an Shinomiya, developed real feelings for a hostess from a nightclub?
Thinking of this, Kouguang Shinomiya changed his words.
"Even if she loses, it will only prove that she is not worthy of the Shinomiya surname."
"Oh? Is that so?" Miwa Ashikaga made no attempt to hide her disgust for Oko Shinomiya.
The board members present could all see it, and because Miwa Ashikaga was from a true old noble samurai family, she was one of the few people who dared to openly make things difficult for Oko Shinomiya.
"Although I detest you, Kaguya is different from you. She is a truly excellent student. If even she isn't worthy of the Shinomiya surname..."
Miwa Ashikaga intentionally left her sentence unfinished, simply picked up the coffee cup in front of her and took a sip.
But the board members present were not foolish; they could all guess what she intended to express.
Kaguya Shinomiya was excellent, the national champion in archery, with top grades, and impeccable in all aspects.
As for Oko Shinomiya, the eldest son of the Shinomiya Family...
Setting aside his identity as the eldest son of the Shinomiya Family, his personal abilities were highly questionable.
Corrupt, outdated thinking, arrogant attitude.
His only redeeming quality, if it could be called one, was his skill in power struggles and scheming, but even this talent was merely something Oko Shinomiya demonstrated by leveraging his advantage as the eldest son of the Shinomiya Family.
Ultimately, the Shinomiya Family was a business conglomerate, not some ancient court drama nobility.
Could a person solely focused on internal conflict truly fulfill the responsibilities of being the head of the Shinomiya Family?
"Ultimately..."
Miwa Ashikaga put down her coffee cup, looked at Oko Shinomiya, who was sitting in the front seat and whose face looked displeased, then spoke slowly.
"You just don't want to admit the fact that Kaguya, as a mere mistress' child, is more capable and more deserving of the Shinomiya surname than you, the eldest son, are, do you?"
Upon hearing this, Oko Shinomiya's face looked even more displeased.
"You... you..."
"What, not convinced?"
"Hmph."
After Oko Shinomiya stabilized his emotions, he looked at the calm-faced Miwa Ashikaga, and spoke softly with mockery.
"As the descendant of a noble samurai family, yet placing your hopes on an impure student. Ashikaga, you are truly becoming more and more degenerate..."
"Are you stupid?" Miwa Ashikaga directly interrupted Oko Shinomiya's words and retorted with a scoff. "Have you forgotten how the samurai shogunate era began? The capable rule. Do you really think our Ashikaga samurai family is like those corrupt nobles? Oh, no, I forgot..."
Miwa Ashikaga paused, and then said a sentence that completely shattered Oko Shinomiya's psychological defenses.
"Although you are always arrogant, in reality... you yourself are not noble at all. Perhaps it's precisely because you are keenly aware of this fact that you have been putting on airs and emphasizing the so-called Shinomiya surname. It's truly laughable."
"Hmph, after being a teacher for a few days, your tongue has become quite sharp."
Facing Miwa Ashikaga's mockery, Oko Shinomiya's face had turned completely gloomy. He simply looked at the screen hanging in the board meeting room, which was live-streaming the scene inside the classroom of Class 1-A, and said in a deep voice.
"I hope you can still be this confident after the exam ends."
"That is natural."
Miwa Ashikaga's expression was very calm. Her eyes behind her glasses looked towards the large screen, at Asagiri Utsunomiya, who was relaxed and quickly answering the questions. She raised her hand to adjust her glasses and said softly.
"Asagiri Utsunomiya is the most excellent student I have ever met, and the one most aligned with my philosophy. I have placed everything on him. Through him... I will completely change Shuchi'in Academy."