Chapter 258: Ryuen's Superb Face Blindness

The Advanced Nurturing bus convoy came off the highway and climbed a winding mountain road for some distance before finally slowing to a stop in front of the forest school.

Class A’s homeroom teacher, Mashima Tomonari, was the first to step off. A few staff members in dark work clothes, their faces flushed red from the cold wind, immediately came up to greet them. After nodding to each other in acknowledgment, the staff pulled out student rosters and began calling names.

“Students whose names are called, hand over your phones and disembark in order. Fuyuji Mikage, Toba Shigeru…”

After reluctantly holding each of the girls’ little hands in turn to say goodbye, Fuyuji followed the Class A boys off the bus.

His feet landed on the somewhat muddy ground of the forest school. The clear, cold mountain air rushed at him, carrying the scent of freshly melting snow and decaying leaves.

At a glance, the entire forest school was surrounded by dense forest. Ahead was an open but somewhat desolate stretch of dirt field. The gymnasium, school buildings, student cafeteria, and dormitory buildings were scattered behind it. It had a rather old-fashioned Showa-era flavor.

“Should I say Advanced Nurturing is rich, or stingy?” Fuyuji said, mixed in among the Class A boys, rubbing his chin and commenting. “I feel like I’ve seen this scene somewhere in a horror movie. Heavy snow seals off the mountain. The stranded students and teachers die one after another in mysterious accidents. In the end, not a single one is left alive.”

The entire Class A boys’ group, along with the supervising teacher, suddenly paused in their steps, then silently picked up their pace, occasionally glancing at the antique-looking buildings.

‘Fuyuji-san, please don’t say such terrifying things at a time like this. xN’

At this moment, the girls’ side had also finished forming up. The two groups silently split apart on the open field, each forming a column and heading toward different school buildings.

Along the way, through the dust-covered window glass, one could see a layout resembling a classroom inside. The most eye-catching thing, however, was an old-fashioned cast-iron stove placed in the center of the classroom, its chimney pipe running crookedly out through the window. There was probably no air conditioning or anything of the sort.

“Don’t tell me some school administrator read some weird manga, said something about training in the deep mountains tempering the will, and came up with this on a whim?” Shimizu Naoki muttered quietly.

“It’s possible, you know,” Sanada Kosei said with a gentle smile, observing their surroundings. “It does look the part.”

Hashimoto Masayoshi spoke in a joking tone. “The exam content won’t be making us stand under a waterfall, seeing who can last the longest, right?”

The previously light, chatty group instantly fell into dead silence.

A few seconds later, the Class A boys said in unison: “It’s not impossible!”

Before anyone noticed, the group had followed the supervising teacher to something like a gymnasium. The second and third years seemed to have all arrived already, and the first-year classes were gradually making their way there too.

About a dozen or so minutes later, everyone had arrived.

A teacher from the upper grades stepped onto the stage, picked up a microphone, tested the sound, and then, in a tone with no inflection whatsoever, addressed the whole room:

“I believe you all already have a thorough understanding of the detailed exam content from your time on the buses. So I won’t repeat it here.

Now then, please discuss among your own grades and form six groups each. The time for forming large groups will begin at eight o’clock tonight.

Additionally, regarding the groups you form, regardless of size, the school will not be involved in any way. The school will not intervene at all. That is all!”

Having declared this cleanly and decisively, the upper-grade teacher didn’t even glance at the audience again. He simply put down the microphone, turned, and strode off the stage, leaving the vast gymnasium to the several hundred students to sort out on their own.

The instant the words landed, the core figures of the third year’s several classes exchanged glances and immediately gathered in a corner, beginning their discussion and personnel allocation in low, efficient voices.

The second-year students seemed somewhat hesitant. After whispering among themselves for a while, their gazes quietly drifted toward that dazzling blond head in the middle.

As for the first years…

The atmosphere fell into a strange standoff. If the enemy doesn’t move, I don’t move!

Class A’s Katsuragi Kohei stood tall on the floor, arms crossed, eyes closed, conserving his energy. Class B’s Kanzaki Ryuji and Shibata So were chatting quietly with each other. Class C’s Ryuen Kakeru had both hands in his pockets, his venomous, cold eyes slowly sweeping the room. Class D’s Hirata Yosuke wore a bright smile and silently began organizing his class’s students.

The nail that sticks out gets hammered down. No one wanted to be the first to speak and fall into a passive position.

Fuyuji Mikage, at this moment, stood by the gymnasium window.

Outside the window was a stretch of bleak, withered forest. Twisted branches swayed in the cold wind, making a moaning sound. Every so often, a clump of snow that couldn’t bear its own weight would fall with a thud onto the dead branches and leaves on the ground.

“Hashimoto-san, what do you think…” Fuyuji gazed distantly at the desolate scene outside, “at this location, would any other countrymen pass by? There aren’t many cameras here either.”

“Probably not,” Hashimoto said with a bit of hesitation. “It’s a deep mountain three hours by car from Tokyo, after all.”

“I saw a guesthouse on the opposite mountain ridge from the bus earlier.” Kito Hayato, leaning against the wall, spoke in a low voice.

“Too bad the school confiscated all our cash.” Fuyuji sounded rather regretful.

“Indeed.”

…

A dozen or so minutes later, the standoff among the first years finally showed movement. Hirata, having already dealt with the dissenting voices in his own class, stepped out of the ranks. Wearing a brilliant smile, he clapped his hands and drew the first years’ attention.

“Everyone, let me introduce myself first. My name is Hirata Yosuke. For the next week, some of our Class D students will be in your care. Please treat us well.”

With that, Hirata bowed to everyone on the spot.

“Hey hey, what are you muttering about over there, Hirata?” Seeing that someone had spoken up, Ryuen immediately jumped out of the Class C crowd, grinning. “You should know full well what kind of goods your class’s defective products are, right?”

“What are you saying, you bastard! Say that again if you dare!” Sudo Ken stepped out from the crowd, fists clenched, glaring death at Ryuen. “And what makes you any better, you Shit-Eating King!”

“Pfft!”

“Hahaha!”

“The Shit-Eating King!”

The moment the words landed, the tense atmosphere in the room instantly relaxed a few notches. Cheerful laughter tacitly rang out from every class.

“Heh heh…”

Ryuen didn’t mind at all. He even let out a few contemptuous snorts of laughter.

“Am I wrong? From the perspective of the other first-year classes, Class D, who had every point deducted clean in the first month, is unquestionably a negative asset, isn’t it?”

“Your Class C is the same!”

“Wait, Sudo-san.”

Sudo had just been about to step forward and argue loudly, but Hirata stopped him with one hand. Hirata reined in his smile and met Ryuen’s mocking gaze.

“Ryuen-san, what do you mean?”

“Not bad, Hirata.” Ryuen looked at Hirata with interest. “I underestimated you.”

“You said the same thing last time. Spit out your plan.” Hirata said in a flat tone.

The video of Ryuen getting counter-killed in a three-on-one was still archived on the Advanced Nurturing forum under “The Toilet God of War’s Spectacular Battle Highlights.” Quite a few Advanced Nurturing students regularly pulled it out to reminisce.

“Tch, you’re really no fun.” Ryuen spread both hands and decisively withdrew his gaze. He turned toward Classes A and B, who had been watching the show from the sidelines. “Hey, you honor students from Class A and you good little children from Class B, have you seen enough? Let’s just team up. Don’t tell me you don’t want to form the optimal 11+3 configuration.”

Katsuragi and Kanzaki exchanged a glance, then each led their class’s students over.

“Ryuen, what scheme are you plotting this time?” Katsuragi frowned.

Kanzaki picked up the thread. “You’re not thinking of deliberately stuffing a few people into other groups and pulling some hard-to-detect tricks during the exam to drag down the group average, are you?”

“Hey!” Ryuen raised a hand to rub his chin, dragging out the sound. “Don’t look at me like that. I’ve already washed my hands of it and turned over a new leaf.”

“Pfft!” A sudden burst of stifled laughter from the crowd. Ryuen, the prodigal son returning, washing his hands of it? That was rich.

“How about it, want to hear my plan?”

Having weathered countless trials and tribulations to this point, Ryuen, whose face had grown as thick as the earth’s crust, continued enthusiastically peddling his plan.

“Say it. If it’s unreasonable, I’ll reject it outright.” After a moment of thought, Katsuragi said in a low voice.

“It’s simple. For this exam’s scoring, every additional class in the group doubles the points. But deductions are only based on the base score. Anyone with half a brain can see that the school is encouraging as many different students to mix together as possible. Yet every class is tied up in knots, afraid the enemy classes will drag them down.”

“From your tone, it sounds like you have a solution?” Kanzaki asked.

“Of course. Use your brains and think. In a situation like this, there’s only one way to lower each class’s wariness to the greatest extent.” Ryuen sneered and spat out two words. “Pick people.”

“Pick people?”

“Exactly. Everyone’s goal is the same: form the 11+3 group first, then make sure your own class’s person serves as the group leader to get the double points. So rather than that, how about all four classes open up their students, and each group leader picks one student from each of the other three classes whom they believe won’t drag the group down? That way, even if your group ends up last, the people were picked by you. You can’t blame anyone else.”

The tightly knit brows of the crowd slowly relaxed.

One had to admit, it was a good method. The people were picked by you, and your own class held the vast majority. As long as you were a little careful, you could absolutely exceed the score line the school had set.

“What the heck, this guy actually came up with a method like this.”

Even the athlete Sudo could tell it was a good method. He grumbled indignantly.

“Ryuen-san, then what do you plan to do about the remaining students?”

More than that, Hirata was worried about the situation of the remaining few Class D students.

If all four classes went with the optimal 11+3 combination, Classes A, B, and C would each have six people left over, and Class D would have five, for a total of twenty-three people forming two teams.

“That’s not my problem.” Ryuen chuckled and retreated back into his own group, saying with a meaningful tone, “But it’s obvious even thinking about it. The leaders of those two teams are definitely the most dangerous. After all, the other four teams have their own class members making up the vast majority, giving them an overwhelming advantage in unity.”

Something’s off. Would Ryuen be so kind as to remind the other classes?

Katsuragi, who had been quietly observing Ryuen from the side all this time, immediately sensed the problem.

No, this was probably Ryuen’s real goal!

Just as he was about to follow the plan and adopt the most conservative strategy, using private points to recruit two Class D students to directly meet the minimum team formation requirement, he was unexpectedly stopped by a hand signal Fuyuji had given him covertly.

[Don’t rush. Keep watching.]

“…” Katsuragi silently lowered his hand, which had been raised halfway.

At this moment, the Class B and Class D students gathered in a circle and began discussing the plan Ryuen had proposed.

Ryuen, meanwhile, took his few lackeys and leaned against the wall by himself, coldly observing the surrounding students.

“Boss, have you figured out what that guy Ryuen is scheming?” Hashimoto approached Fuyuji noiselessly and asked in a low voice.

“Yeah,” Fuyuji nodded. “I’ve got it. Later, tell Katsuragi to just follow the other classes’ approach.”

“Understood.” Hashimoto caught on and retreated back into the crowd.

Another dozen or so minutes passed. The students of the various classes had come to their conclusions one after another, and the class leaders gathered together again.

Class B’s male representative, Kanzaki, was the first to offer his opinion. “Katsuragi-san,” he turned his head, “Hirata-san, for the remaining two groups, how about we continue with the four-class mixed model? If we go with a two-class combination, that’s six people per class, and it’s very easy to create a binary opposition. Rather than that, we should split evenly across four classes and mix them into two teams, keeping each other in check.”

“But,” Hirata said with a bit of hesitation, “how do we handle the leaders of these two groups? There’s still a lot of risk, isn’t there?”

“Simple!” Ryuen stepped forward and raised a hand to straighten his collar. “I’ll serve as one group’s leader.”

“Ryuen, what the hell are you up to?” Katsuragi said warily.

“Don’t misunderstand. I’m not like you wastes who are afraid of expulsion.” Ryuen let out a scoff, tilted his chin up slightly, and revealed that venomous, cold smile of his. His gaze swept over the three of them. “There’s a condition. Each of your three classes can put one person in. The remaining two people from each class must be picked by me.”

The three other class leaders exchanged surprised glances.

That seemed acceptable. What kind of tricks could Ryuen and two Class C students pull? At the very worst, he was the leader himself. He couldn’t screw himself over, could he?

In a sense, the members of his group were the safest.

“No. I refuse!” After thinking with his head down for a few seconds, Hirata shook his head and rejected the proposal. “I can’t guarantee you won’t pull some small tricks on our class’s students during this time to force them into compliance.”

“You really are a nag.” Ryuen said impatiently. “Fine then. I admit that I won’t use underhanded tricks on my own group members this exam, alright? If I go back on my word, next time a similar exam comes up, the three of you can join forces and isolate me.”

Thanks to Ryuen’s recent streak of truly terrible luck, every time he tried to pull something, he’d get inexplicably sanctioned. As a result, when it came to class competition, he really hadn’t gone back on his word.

“Then… alright.”

With things said to that extent, in this forest school with no contracts, Hirata could only choose to trust Ryuen.

Following this plan, the four classes quickly formed six small teams.

“Hey, Class D’s blond monster, come over here. And the one with glasses!”

“Hmph, Dragon boy, do you appreciate my beauty that much? Then I’ll graciously pair up with you.”

“Who’s the one with glasses? My name is Yukimura Teruhiko!”

…

“Shibata So, and… never mind, just that one. Watanabe Norihito.”

“Huh? You’re picking me? Well, I guess it’s fine…”

“On a team with Ryuen, huh. How unlucky.”

…

“Hey, Hashimoto, get over here. I still haven’t settled last time’s score with you. And that Satonaka Satoru.”

“You really are petty, holding onto that for so long.”

“Um… just so we’re clear in advance, I won’t obey orders from a guy like you.”

…

Looking at the group members who had gathered over, having detached from their class’s main force, Ryuen couldn’t help but curve his lips. He had perfectly achieved his goal.

Such a golden opportunity to gather students from several classes together. How could Ryuen possibly let it pass?

Exactly!

These people were either reasonably capable, or held relatively high status in their respective classes!

This was the list of suspected masterminds he had sifted through over two semesters, through countless days and nights, ever since the toilet incident!

Having weathered countless storms, even after being branded with the title of the Great Shit-Eater, even after being screwed over by the mastermind again and again, his original intention remained unchanged.

That damned mastermind!

Just you wait. This week, I’ll dig you out and let you taste a living hell.

“Heh hahaha!”

His perverted laughter rippled through the vast gymnasium, lingering for a long time.

Fuyuji stood amid the Class A crowd, watching Ryuen, who couldn’t control himself and was laughing hysterically, and let out a long sigh.

Ryuen, ah, Ryuen. This face blindness of yours probably can’t be cured in this lifetime.

He patted Katsuragi’s shoulder and shook his head with considerable helplessness. “Later, put me in Ryuen’s group. With such an entertaining way of forming members, it’s only right that I stick my foot in.”

“Oh, alright.”