It was a little over an hour since the special exam had started. Class A, led by Sakayanagi, was making good progress on the special examination, with a few votes and breaks in between. Then, they finally arrived at the final motion.

Motion ⑤ ・ Expel one classmate and gain 100 class points in exchange

(If a unanimous agreement is reached, then another vote will be held to designate the student who will be expelled)

The key word “expulsion” startles a few of the students, but they cast their first vote silently as per the rules.

To avoid unexpected accidents, Sakayanagi, like Horikita, had instructed the four students closest to her in advance to make sure that their votes would be split.

Since there were two options, the results of the vote, which took place with two confirmed votes in

support and two opposed, was………

1st vote result 2 in Agreement 36 in Opposition

And so, the results were as said above.

With the exception of two controlled “Support” votes, the results reflected that all students expressed their opposition.

“Well, this was to be expected. So what are you going to do now, princess? Are we all going to vote in opposition on the next one?”

Hashimoto, who was in charge of putting in option 1, and therefore would have voted in support of it, asks for confirmation immediately after the interval.

“What about you? What do you think? Hashimoto-kun”

Hashimoto, not expecting to be asked to answer the question, was a little surprised, but read over the motion again in his mind.

“If we were to draw a conclusion right away, I would be against it. But when I think about it calmly, I feel that 100 class points is nothing to sneeze at.”

“So what you’re saying is that we should go for the 100 class points even if it means expelling one of our classmates?”

“No……I wouldn’t go that far. It’s just that I’m not sure we should be taking this lightly”

“If this had been the end of a competitive school year, I would have been forced to adopt a policy of us cutting down our classmates. But right now, this class is far ahead. It would be rather nonsensical to choose to drop one student in order to pick up 100 class points.”

“Of course, but are you sure that you won’t be crying over these 100 class points in the future?”

“Reducing the number of students in our class at the same time is also a disadvantage. Simply put, the total amount of our private points earned each month as a class would decrease, and our morale would sink while distrust would grow. An interesting thing to do would be to avoid any sacrifices by scraping up 20 million private points to save anyone who perhaps may be expelled in the future. Even if there is a way for us to earn class points by sacrificing a single person, the expenditure in resources would affect the upcoming sports and cultural festivals. No matter how you look at it, even if we were to have a difference of 100 class points to the other classes, I don’t think there is that much of a difference if you add in the invisible factors. Or perhaps is there someone who would volunteer to drop out?”

After saying that, Sakayanagi looked around the class once more. Of course, as Sakayanagi had said, there was no way that any of the students in Class A, which was far ahead of the other classes, would voluntarily offer to drop out of school.

“’The other three classes will surely be troubled making this decision. And even if they took the other choice and selected a certain person to be expelled, the class will not necessarily rise. Losing a fellow classmate isn’t as simple as it sounds.”

With her words, Class A’s decision was set in stone.

If Class A had chosen to expel a student, it would have been unanimous without a hint of dismay.

And in all likelihood, the student who was chosen by Sakayanagi would be the one to drop out.

“Katsuragi-kun and Totsuka-kun who are no longer with us were different cases. I won’t do anything to cut off the people who work for me.”

That was Sakayanagi’s lie.

If Class A were to be driven to the brink of disaster, Sakayanagi would have no hesitation in choosing to expel her classmates. However, if she were to choose to expel the students when the situation was not critical, it would create a sense of distrust. She simply decided that she had more to lose by getting into that situation now.

2nd vote results 0 in Agreement 38 in Opposition

Ryuuen and Ichinose’s classes had struggled to come up with a unanimous vote of opposition.

However, in just the first interval, with more than half the time remaining, the whole class’ decision was definite.

“This concludes all motions for the unanimous special exam. This class had the fastest time to complete the special exam. All other classes are still in the middle of the special exam, so please follow sensei’s instructions while you leave the classroom. As for the rest of the remaining time that was scheduled, you can spend it self-studying in the dormitory.”

Although they were not allowed to leave the dormitory, their free time was now their own to use.