Hachiman Hikigaya, who returned from his studies after completing his training.

The bed opposite, where Kiyotaka Ayanokouji was, was now empty.

Knowing that the person sneaking out of the room was Ayanokouji, whom Hikigaya had instructed to keep watch, Sotomura could only suppress his laziness to continue sleeping, get up, put on his shoes, and secretly follow him.

Oh, so you went to the restroom.

Judging from the direction of the road, Ayanokouji's destination was the outer village. After thinking for a moment, he decided to follow. After all, later that night, Nagumo-senpai had brought drinks to all the students in Ayanokouji's group to encourage them to do well on their exams the next day.

After finishing his drink, he saw Ayanokouji go into the restroom and also felt the urge to urinate.

Just as the man from the outhouse stepped into the dimly lit restroom and wondered why Ayanokouji didn't turn on the light when using the toilet, a sharp pain suddenly shot through the back of his head.

Then he knew nothing more.

The first step is completed.

As Ayanokouji supported Tomomura's limp body in the dark toilet, he thought to himself, and then quickly stripped Tomomura of his clothes, leaving him lying naked on the toilet floor.

Then, facing the completely naked Ayanokoji Tomorrow, he took out his phone.

He forcibly took a personal cell phone from Class C's homeroom teacher, Sakaue, through threats.

Although he didn't want to give up the help of his homeroom teacher, Sakagami, there was nothing he could do. If he were to be expelled, Sakagami would be of no use to him.

"Click."

"Click."

"Click."

With a blank expression, Ayanokouji held up his phone, pointing it at the plump, white-faced man from the outskirts of the village.

The group's average score exceeded the school's cutoff score.

The group should not be at the bottom.

He only needs to achieve one of these two goals to avoid dropping out of school, and to be on the safe side, he plans to do both.

Chapter 205 The Eighth Brace

The last day at the forest school.

Inside the dojo, where numerous teachers stood upright with their scoring boards, first-grade students were already calming themselves down, closing their eyes, and meditating as they prepared for their first exam of the day.

Yo-lazy together 罒舞韭玖^ Meditation — Written test — Road relay race — Speech.

This is the exam order for first-year students, second-year students start with the road relay race, and third-year students take the speech test.

"I can barely feel my feet anymore," Sudo complained after finishing the exam and leaving the dojo.

Although it looks simple—just set a posture and don't move—meditation is actually a rather energy-consuming activity.

"I need to work hard on the upcoming written exam as well."

"The written test... I should be able to pass it..."

Ignoring Sudo, who was scratching his head and looking dejected, Hikigaya turned his attention to the classroom where the written exam would be held in a little while.

In a classroom already filled with students, Ayanokouji sat quietly a little distance away from her group members, seemingly both present and absent from the group.

"What do you plan to do after leaving school? Become an educator like your father?"

After entering the classroom, Hikigaya sat down in the chair in front of Ayanokouji. Like Ayanokouji, he didn't expect that Kanzaki knew his father and even said that his father was an educator.

However, Hachiman couldn't help but laugh at Kanzaki's admiration for his father.

It seems that Kanzaki, like Yukino Yukinoshita, was not chosen as the heir by his family, which explains why he ended up attending a school that is neither the best nor the worst, like Advanced Nurturing.

"I've always had a question about Hikigaya." Ayanokouji looked indifferently at the boy in front of him who had almost pushed him to the brink of despair.

Just like Hachiman wanted to have a final conversation with him, he also had the idea of ​​trying to understand Hachiman better. He couldn't understand this person, nor did he understand what he wanted.

He discarded the position of leader of Class B like trash, and even if he converted it into cash, he would still have tens of millions of yen in personal points, even though he clearly didn't come from a wealthy family.

He never cared about his reputation or publicized his achievement of greatly improving Class B's strength. He didn't seem to feel any self-satisfaction or pleasure from his selfless actions.

I have no desire for fame or fortune, nor do I feel any spiritual fulfillment.

Are you happy at this school?

"Hehe, I really didn't expect you to ask this."

Hikigaya was somewhat surprised; he had expected Ayanokouji to ask why Ayanokouji was willing to pay such a huge price to drop out of school.

This special exam will eliminate more than 20 million individual points from the expulsion penalty. The expelled student's class will also have to pay the price of 300 class points. As a result of expulsion, Ayanokouji has already been complained about by Horikita Suzune several times.

Of course, other students in Class B, such as A, also complained in their hearts, but they didn't dare to say it to his face like Horikita did.

"If you ask me whether I feel happy—" Hachiman fell into deep thought.

Compared to the carefree feeling he had when he was in his third year of high school, he now undoubtedly carries a heavy burden.

At the beginning of the semester, he only wanted to drop out so that Ayanokouji wouldn't be able to advance to Class A. There was nothing about this school that he would miss. He was even willing to drop out with Ayanokouji.

But that's impossible now. He carries the expectations of many people on his shoulders, and many of those people are people he cares about.

"Okay."

"What kind of answer is that?"

"Let's just say I'm both happy and unhappy." Seeing Ayanokouji's somewhat speechless expression, Hikigaya smiled with relief.

He himself couldn't figure out whether he was happy or unhappy at the school. The only thing he was sure of was that dropping out of Ayanokouji would definitely make him happy.

He is now looking forward to the road relay race, which will basically determine the results of each group after the written test.

"Ring ring ring————"

As the somewhat urgent bell rang, the teacher in charge of monitoring the written test entered the classroom, and Hachiman returned to his seat.

After the written exam ended and Ayanokouji left the classroom alone, two students passed by Hikigaya's desk one after the other and quietly left a note on the desk.

That's interesting, really interesting.

After glancing at the contents of the two notes, Hachiman found that they were completely different, even though he had instructed the two students to investigate the same information.

He suspected that one of the two students had betrayed him, and he was fairly certain who it was.

The other student who passed on information to him, Ayanokouji, would never have guessed that he would help him, after all, that student was basically always hurling insults at their former Class D.

............

............

The road relay race is an 18-kilometer mountain race. Each student in the participating group must complete at least 1.2 kilometers of the course, making it a competition that tests the overall strength of the team.

If a student is unable to finish the run due to unforeseen circumstances or fails to run 1.2 kilometers, they will be disqualified from the exam and receive a score of zero.

In other words, this is an exam where the group is guaranteed to lose if even one student slacks off.

“We also conducted an 18-kilometer mock test on Friday, so I know your abilities.”

On the van speeding toward the starting line of the road relay race, Ayanokoji looked at the other members of his group with a piercing gaze, among whom Sotomura and Hondo both lowered their heads, their faces pale.

"Both the main hall and the outer village have agreed to do their best in this exam. As long as you take it seriously, our group's average score will not be lower than the school's cutoff score."

"If anyone dares to slack off, I will definitely drag them down with me and drop out of school. Even if Hachiman takes out 20 million personal points to save you, it will still result in your class losing 300 points."

"Think about how your students will view you then."

After speaking in a cold tone, Ayanokouji glanced at the silent group members and, finding no one to object, began to decide on the order of who would run which leg, an order that should have been decided long ago.

The 18-kilometer round-trip relay race route was relatively flat and open in the early stages, making it unsuitable for doing anything shady, so Ayanokoji placed himself as the eighth runner.

He handed the baton to the first seven runners of the group, who were physically capable. Each runner only needed to run a minimum of 1.2 kilometers. Finally, the baton was passed to him by the current runner.

He was responsible for running the longest distance of 7.2 kilometers, while the last 2.4 kilometers were run by two people from Class A.

"Anyone who has objections can speak up." Ayanokouji looked at the crowd with sharp eyes.

Meanwhile, on the van carrying the Hachiman team from their starting point, Sudo clamored to run a little further, but Hachiman ruthlessly refused.

Everyone else except him was assigned the minimum test distance of 1.2 kilometers.

Hachiman himself was responsible for the eighth batter.

Chapter 206 Each Person's Schemes

“I still remember what Mr. Atsumaru once told me to grow into an adult who can help others, but you, Ayanokouji, as Mr. Atsumaru’s son, have done such a despicable and shameless thing in his name.”

When Hikigaya got off the van to take over the baton, he saw Kanzaki, with an angry expression, yelling at Ayanokouji.

Even though there were only six groups taking the exam, three of them set up a relay point here.

"Your perception of that man makes me want to laugh."

"I think Ayanokouji is right."

This was the first time Hachiman had agreed with Ayanokouji's words; he would have laughed if Kanzaki hadn't been staring at him with such a murderous look.

He was already happy to have caught Ayanokouji at this relay point, but he didn't expect Kanzaki to put on such a good show for him.

Ayanokoji Atsumo, who single-handedly founded the White House, an inhumane institution, and even sent his own son there, is no saint. In a novel, he would be a mastermind behind the scenes, a ruthless and cunning boss.

"Hachigaya, you know Atsuma-sensei too? If you don't, don't talk nonsense." Kanzaki's expression was like that of a fan whose idol had been insulted.

"Can a son truly understand his father?"

Hachiman quickly came up with a reason to refute Kanzaki, which indeed made Kanzaki blush and speechless, leaving him to sulk in the side.

Only Hikigaya and Ayanokoji remained at the water and rest area set up at the relay point.

"How did you find out that the information from the other village was fake?"

After sitting idly in front of the ubiquitous woods for an unknown amount of time, Ayanokouji spoke up.

According to his instructions, the information that the village sent to Hachiman should be that he was the one who would take the final baton, so Hachiman would never run into him here.

"Then how did you manage to get both the outer village and the main hall to listen to you?" Hikigaya retorted.

Although the contingency plan he had left behind made him realize that the other village had betrayed him, he still couldn't figure out how Ayanokouji had managed to get both of them to listen to him.

Both of them were rather weak and terrified of dropping out of school, and their fear of him was among the deepest in Class B.

"........"

Silence fell again in the water station tent until Koenji slowly ran in from afar, breaking the silence.

"Lucky, it seems I don't need to run around much anymore."

As he entered the tent, Koenji smirked, grabbed a bottle of water from the table, and gulped down about half of it. He then poured the remaining half over his head.

He slicked back his bangs like hairspray and then moved a stool over to sit in front of Ayanokouji.

Hikigaya gave Koenji two tasks: one was to run his 1.2-kilometer race, and the other was to go with him to catch Ayanokoji so he couldn't do anything bad—and if necessary, to use force.

"Why haven't you left yet, Hachiman?" Kanzaki walked into the tent.

He couldn't possibly miss the commotion caused by Koenji's arrival, and he naturally remembered that Koenji was from the Hikigaya Group, given Koenji's overwhelming presence.

"I'm waiting for someone."

Hikigaya smiled, which puzzled Kanzaki and made Ayanokouji restless. The worst thing he wanted to see had already happened.

It seems that Hachiman is planning to follow him closely and keep an eye on his every move during this exam, so how can he cause any trouble?

"It seems my teammates won't be here for a while. I'll go wander around the neighborhood for a bit."

As he spoke, Ayanokouji got up from his seat and walked out of the tent, and Hikigaya and Koenji also got up at the same time.

"I advise you to wait here for your group members, you dropout boy."

"Since Hikigaya can actually get you to do something, it seems you're not as free as you claim." Ayako turned around expressionlessly to look at Koenji, who was even more robust than him.

In terms of physical strength alone, he, who had been out of training for a long time, was no match for Koenji, and in terms of speed alone, he couldn't shake off this person at all.

The same applies to Hachiman; based on the speed Hachiman demonstrated at the Sports Festival, he cannot claim certain victory.

"Has it submitted to Hachiman?"

"How interesting, you're starting to feel fear too?" Koenji didn't get angry at Ayanokouji's words; instead, he smiled and answered irrelevantly.

The intention to sow discord was so obvious that even Kanzaki, who was standing nearby, could see it.

“I haven’t felt fear for many years.”