As soon as Honda entered the private room, he bowed respectfully to Ren.
"Ren-sama, long time no see."
To keep Satou from using him as a stepping stone again like last time, Honda had decided to take the initiative.
By taking his position first and greeting Ren immediately, surely he would not end up being used as a doormat by that bastard from Class D again.
After greeting Ren, Honda turned his head and raised an eyebrow at Satou.
The provocation was obvious.
Satou almost laughed.
Honda, oh Honda. You're still not quite there yet.
Ignoring Honda's childish look, Satou bowed low at a perfect ninety-degree angle, just like Honda had done.
"Ren-sama, do you have any instructions for us?"
Unlike Honda, who raised his head right away after greeting him, Satou kept bowing and waited for Ren to allow him to rise.
Having survived in Class D for a long time, Satou knew exactly how to show humility.
"Satou-senpai, there's no need to be so formal. Just find a seat and sit down."
"Honda-senpai, same for you."
Even with the leaders of the three second-year classes already present, Ren, who was sitting at the head of the table, still said nothing about business.
It was as if he were waiting for more guests.
To his left, Fuka Kiryuuin did not seem to care at all.
She stared into the tea in her cup as if she were expecting a flower to bloom inside it.
Honda and Satou exchanged uneasy glances.
Did Ren call us here to settle old scores?
But their classes had not done anything wrong recently.
Thanks to the last special exam, one student from each of their classes had already secured a guaranteed spot.
Now that they had seen Ren was not just making empty promises, both classes had become obedient.
Any edge they once had had already been worn down by life under Nagumo's suppression.
Nagumo forced the four classes to scrape together 20 million private points on their own, and then he chose the candidates through backroom deals.
But Ren let them choose the candidates themselves, and they did not have to spend a single point.
It was not an exaggeration to say that Ren was the savior of Classes C and D.
Afraid of offending the man holding their future in his hands, the two leaders racked their brains, trying to figure out what they might have done wrong.
"Honda-senpai, Satou-senpai, I only asked you to come here so we could discuss something. Don't overthink it."
Ren lightly tapped the table.
"The reason we haven't started yet is simply because not everyone has arrived."
Honda and Satou were wearing their worry right on their faces, so Ren had no choice but to explain.
He was honestly a little worried that if they kept fighting each other over trivial things, their value would fall to the point where keeping them around would not be worth it.
For now, though, they were still useful, and Ren had no intention of replacing them yet.
Realizing their classes were not in trouble, Honda and Satou snapped out of their paranoid guessing and quietly let out a breath.
Good. Thank God.
To keep their classmates stable, both leaders had already chosen to divide the first slice of the cake Ren had handed them in a reasonable way.
If something went wrong and Ren cut them off, they would be left with nothing.
Ren had promised that both of them would definitely get a share.
If they let such a sure thing slip through their fingers, they would have no one to blame but themselves.
"Um... Katsuragi-kohai?"
Asada Miyabi opened the private room door a crack, peeked inside, and called out tentatively to Ren.
The moment she spoke, Honda and Satou froze in shock.
Who does she think she is?
Senpai-kohai hierarchy in Japan was strict.
And yet she dared to call the person sitting at the head of the table "Katsuragi-kohai"?
The two of them would not even dare to dream of speaking to Ren that casually.
Today you call Ren-sama "kohai." Tomorrow you stage a coup.
Poor girl. She's digging her own grave.
But things did not unfold the way Honda and Satou expected.
When Ren saw his cute senpai, he smiled and waved her in.
"Long time no see, Asada-senpai."
"Come in. Sit to the left of Fuka-nee."
"Okay, Katsuragi-kohai!"
Once she got Ren's reply, Asada happily walked over to the seat he had pointed out.
Did Asada really not know what the two second-year leaders were thinking?
Of course she did.
Even so, she still chose to gamble by affectionately calling him "kohai" in a setting this formal.
If Ren accepted it, that meant he was publicly acknowledging that he had a good relationship with her.
And if he refused, it still would not cost her much. At worst, it would just be awkward.
The benefits clearly outweighed the risks.
More importantly, Ren had transferred a huge amount of points to Asada on the first day of school.
Feeling that something about that was not simple, Asada had specifically investigated what Ren had done on his first day.
When dealing with other senpai, Ren had chosen to pressure them all.
But with her, he had made a different choice.
After learning that, Asada realized that she was different from those people.
While others had greedily taken the bait of 80,000 points and sold their information, Asada had chosen on her own to lower her asking price out of kindness.
And Ren had answered that kindness in return.
From that point on, Asada trusted Ren completely and followed him without hesitation.
Later, when she became one of the lucky ones, Asada did not take the easy 20 million yen settlement like the others.
Instead, she chose without hesitation to work for the Katsuragi Group in the future.
She believed that with her relationship to Ren, her future was already secure.
Ren might not openly favor her, but her position would definitely be better than the others'.
The White Cat special exam had already proven that her gamble was the right one.
Ren might have a way of dealing with everyone else.
But when someone gave him kindness without trying to use him, that kindness would always be repaid in the end.
Since not everyone had arrived yet, Ren still said nothing, and nobody else dared to speak either.
To Honda and Satou's shock, the leaders of Class C and Class D from the third year also entered the private room.
Even representatives from second-year and third-year Class A arrived.
Except for Fuka and Asada, who had been assigned seats directly by Ren, everyone else found a place at random and sat down.
Silence filled the room.
Everyone was waiting for Ren to speak.
Aside from Third Year Class A, every class with enough influence to matter had someone here.
Ren lightly tapped the table again, and the steady knocking drew everyone's attention.
"The reason I called everyone here today is simple."
"I just want to ask one question."
"Do you want to graduate from Class A?"
Ren had seen enough of the petty fighting within each grade.
It was time for these childish games to end.
Japan's population was aging, and Ren had no interest in wasting a group of students who had already been trained into useful assets.
No one answered right away.
But aside from the students from Third Year Class A, everyone looked at Ren with hunger in their eyes.
Had they not all come to this school chasing the promise of a 100% employment rate?
"Senpai from Third Year Class A, there's no need to look at me with such conflicted expressions."
"You should know that the number of special exams is never fixed."
"Just because you only have half a year left does not mean your class is safe."
"Or do you really believe President Horikita can hold on to Class A forever?"
Ren smiled faintly as he spoke, and every word hit the mark.
If that student had truly trusted Horikita Manabu without question, then he never would have accepted today's invitation in the first place.
It would have been fine if nobody had said it out loud.
But now that it had been spoken, ambition immediately lit up in the eyes of the other three third-year classes.
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