After her conversation with Ayanokōji, Horikita returned to the dormitory.
The moment she stepped inside, the scene before her left her utterly stunned.
Amane was sitting upright at the table, her school uniform draped over her shoulders, completely engrossed in a book she held in her hands.
It was Crime and Punishment—a book Horikita Suzune herself rather liked. But Amane hadn't ever shown much interest in that sort of thing before.
What had prompted her to pick up a book today of all days?
"I'm back."
"Welcome back."
Amane looked up and offered Horikita a soft, faint smile.
Then her gaze dropped back to the pages.
"Amane, I thought you were still feeling drowsy earlier. Why not rest for a while?"
Horikita gently patted Amane's head as she asked with concern.
"I was still a bit sleepy, but then I started thinking about something, and the more I thought, the more awake I became. So I decided to get up and read for a bit—to try and coax some drowsiness back."
Horikita didn't know whether to laugh or sigh at Amane's explanation.
No wonder she'd suddenly taken up reading today.
So it was all to "cultivate sleepiness," of all things.
Really, and here she'd thought Amane had finally discovered the joy of reading.
"Suzune, don't you have something you want to talk to me about?"
Amane closed the book, her eyes still curved into that gentle smile as she looked at Horikita. Horikita froze for a moment, then her expression turned serious.
She was certain now—Amane must have known something.
Yet judging by Amane's reaction, it seemed she disapproved of whatever was going on.
"There is indeed something I need your help with, Amane. This is what happened—Ayanokōji came to me and said…"
Horikita repeated everything Ayanokōji had told her, word for word, to Amane.
Throughout the explanation, Amane stayed almost completely silent, that faint smile still gracing her lips. Even Horikita, who spent nearly every day with her, couldn't quite grasp what she was thinking.
"So it's a choice between only two options, huh? What a headache. Isn't there a third way?"
Horikita's eyes widened at Amane's words.
"Amane, are you joking? 120 million points—there's no way we could gather that many."
Horikita dismissed the idea outright.
Even if they pooled all the points in their entire grade, it still might not be enough to reach 120 million. Amane's wish to save everyone was simply unrealistic.
But Amane shook her head.
"What I mean is—isn't there an option where we don't save them? Why should I go out of my way to rescue them?"
A heavy silence fell over the room.
The look of sheer disbelief on Horikita's face seemed to amuse Amane greatly.
She probably assumed I'd definitely choose to save someone. Maybe she even thought I'd pick Ichihashi?
"Suzune, what's wrong?"
Amane looked at Horikita with apparent concern.
"I'm fine… It's just—if I remember correctly, aren't you and Ichihashi on fairly good terms? If Ayanokōji is willing to cover 50,000 points, that means you'd only need to pay the other 50,000 to prevent Ichihashi from being expelled…"
Horikita couldn't understand why Amane would refuse such an offer.
If Amane had to pay the full 100,000 points herself, even if she had enough, it'd be understandable for her to hesitate. But with Ayanokōji covering half…
Why would she still say no?
If it were someone she barely knew, Horikita might have understood.
But Ichihashi, Wang Meiyu, and Amane were often together.
By all logic, Amane shouldn't have any reason to refuse.
"If I save Ichihashi, what do I get out of it? 50,000 points, used carefully, could cover living expenses for two months. Is it really worth spending that much?"
Is it worth it?
Horikita fell into thought.
She had never considered that question before.
Was it worth it? When you compare a person to points, of course anyone would say a person is far more important than points.
But once you assign a numerical value to a person, or rank them by some standard, the priceless suddenly has a price.
Under the same measure, everyone gets sorted into high and low tiers. Then "all people are equal" becomes nothing but an empty phrase.
Under those conditions… was spending 50,000 points to redeem Ichihashi really worth it?
"If losing one person from the class prevents us from reaching Class A…"
After a long pause, Horikita managed a weak argument.
But Amane immediately refuted it.
"If expelling just one person really makes it impossible for us to rise from Class D to Class A, then we've already failed. Since saving Ichihashi won't help us reach Class A, why should I save her? The premise for rescuing her doesn't hold up."
Amane's logic was sharp—so much so that even Horikita couldn't find a flaw. Expelling one person or expelling six—if the class couldn't advance either way, saving one individual wouldn't change much for the whole.
"But what if Ichihashi contributes to the class in the future, earning the class more points?"
Horikita shifted tactics, trying to persuade Amane by appealing to Ichihashi's potential future value.
The future was always uncertain—precisely why Amane couldn't outright deny Ichihashi's possible worth.
"It's true that Ichihashi might contribute something to the class in the future. But compared to such an uncertain possibility, I place more value on the present."
"Ichihashi has been selected for expulsion twice in a row now. Can I not reasonably assume that in any future exam, she'll be a liability?"
Amane picked up her cup from the table and took a small, quiet sip of tea.
From beginning to end, her expression hadn't changed at all. Her eyes held a cold, detached light.
Whoever got expelled—it didn't concern her. She could afford to pay 100,000 points to save someone if she wanted.
But she wanted Suzune to understand: there's no such thing as a free lunch.
If Horikita Suzune truly aimed to lead Class D to Class A, sooner or later she would face the same difficult choices. No matter how you cut it, one thing couldn't be avoided: value.
You had to determine value before you could make a choice—that was just common sense.
Amane's analysis left Horikita speechless. What she said made sense. Ichihashi had been marked for expulsion twice—fundamentally, that meant the school had judged her to have no academic potential worth cultivating.
Even if they saved her now, the same thing would likely happen again later.
Amane wasn't a charity.
She had no obligation to pay for other people's failures.
"But…"
"Suzune, I'm trying to help you here. Your goal is to reach Class A, right? If that's the case, why not take this chance to discard the useless ones as much as possible?"
"We've already saved a number of people. The ones left are enough to keep Class D functioning normally. So why are you still hung up on saving the rest? If you keep hesitating like this, you'll never become a competent leader."
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.