Chapter 10: Playing Games in Class? You're Not Even Trying to Hide It?
A few minutes later, Chabashira Sae walked into the classroom. The first lesson of the new semester was to be taught by her.
"I will be in charge of the curriculum this morning."
The originally noisy classroom fell silent the instant she entered. Chabashira Sae walked straight to the podium, her gaze sweeping across all the students below.
'Even though they're just the defectives of Class D, it is the first day after all; it seems they haven't completely exposed their true natures yet.'
Chabashira Sae thought to herself.
In her eyes, almost everyone assigned to Class D was a hopeless case. Even if they appeared to behave well today, she knew that as time passed—as long as she remained hands-off—these Class D students would gradually reveal their true colors.
Tardiness, leaving early, skipping class.
Until eventually, the points they received each month would drop to zero. That was the end of the line for Class D students. They were probably just putting on an act for now... Wait?
Chabashira Sae narrowed her eyes slightly, her gaze locking onto a certain individual in the class.
Katsuragi Keima.
At this very moment, Katsuragi Keima was playing a handheld console with rapt attention, not even bothering to look up at Chabashira Sae.
This guy... he's not even trying to hide it?
"Hey..."
Horikita Suzune turned her head slightly, whispering a warning to Keima. However, the latter remained unmoved, continuing to play his game as if no one else existed.
Many other students in the class also noticed Keima's actions.
"Hey, hey, hey, isn't this guy a bit too arrogant..." "Playing games so blatantly during the very first class?" "At least try to fake it!"
The other students expected the teacher to get angry and confiscate the console immediately. However, Chabashira Sae merely glanced at Keima with a slight frown and said nothing, proceeding directly to start the lecture.
Chabashira Sae's class wasn't exactly interesting. Or rather, she no longer bothered to put much effort into her lesson plans; her former passion had long since been ground away. Now,
she only needed to explain the knowledge in the textbook. As for whether the students understood—or were willing to understand—that was their own business.
The combination of a long, continuous lecture and difficult content left several students in the class dozing off. Their eyelids felt like lead, and their heads bobbed up and down like metronomes. Chabashira Sae saw all of this, but from start to finish, she made no sign of acknowledgement, acting as if she hadn't seen a thing.
This led some students to gradually reveal their lazy nature.
As the class progressed, some students daydreamed, some whispered or passed notes, and some played with phones hidden in their desk drawers. A boy named Yamauchi Haruki even slumped over his desk and fell fast asleep.
Meanwhile, Keima was playing his game with extreme "earnestness," his gaze not landing on the blackboard for even a single second.
Horikita Suzune was listening to the lecture very seriously, but she would occasionally glance at Keima out of the corner of her eye, only to find that he really did play from beginning to end.
'As expected, he's just a guy who lets his ambitions be sapped by toys.'
Just thirty minutes before the end of class, Chabashira Sae put down her lesson plan and took out a stack of test papers from the side.
"Now, we will have a test based on the content just covered in class."
"What?!"
Chabashira Sae's words were like a bomb exploding in the classroom. A pop quiz? On the very first day of class?
"Are you surprised? In this school, unscheduled tests are frequent. But rest assured, this test was not arranged by the school; it is merely a temporary decision made by me as your homeroom teacher."
Seeing the panicked expressions on many students' faces, Chabashira Sae allowed a small smile to appear.
Throughout the lecture, she had been observing these students. This pop quiz was a means to further gauge their academic ability. On the first day of school, she wanted to see exactly what level these Class D students possessed.
Of course, the ones she was most focused on were only two students.
Ayanokouji Kiyotaka and Katsuragi Keima.
Especially Katsuragi Keima.
Chabashira Sae had only decided on this test yesterday. She wanted to know if Keima's exaggerated academic stats were real. Furthermore, she had hidden her own little "design" within the test paper.
Chabashira Sae quickly distributed the papers. After Horikita Suzune received hers, her eyes rapidly scanned the questions. Though there weren't many, they were indeed all covered in the lecture just now.
Horikita possessed excellent learning abilities; even if the content was difficult to grasp, she could still keep up with Chabashira's pace. She finished the initial questions quickly. She was confident she hadn't gotten a single one wrong.
However, when she reached the final question, Horikita's brow furrowed slightly. The difficulty of this question was significantly higher than the previous ones.
"Was this... covered in class? Or did I mess up my problem-solving logic from the start?"
Horikita's brain worked at high speed, but the answer eluded her. She looked up at Chabashira Sae on the podium, who was merely resting with her eyes closed, not paying any attention to the students.
This struck Horikita as odd. Despite it being a test, Chabashira Sae didn't look like a proctoring teacher at all. Was she that confident the students wouldn't cheat—or did she believe that cheating wouldn't help them anyway?
Horikita's gaze swept over the other students. Most looked miserable, and some hadn't even put pen to paper yet. Hirata Yosuke was also looking at the paper with a serious expression, seemingly stuck on a difficult problem. After all, not 100% of the students had been listening intently, and even if they had, they might not have been able to digest all the points in such a short time.
Horikita was certain that Chabashira Sae had designed this quiz to be difficult on purpose. Was it to give the freshmen a "show of force"? No, she couldn't overthink it; she had to finish the last question first. Although it was hard, with enough time, she should be able to solve it before the papers were collected...
"Sensei, may I hand in my paper early?"
At that moment, that familiar voice rang out in the classroom. Almost everyone's gaze was drawn to the source.
Katsuragi Keima had raised his hand and was speaking to Chabashira Sae.
"Oh?"
Chabashira Sae's gaze instantly locked onto Keima. She walked over to his seat, glanced at the test paper on his desk, and then turned her eyes back to his face.
"Are you sure? You really don't need to check it again?"