Classroom of the Elite: Surviving with the Intel System — Chapter 39

Chapter 39: It Seems a Shark Has Snuck Into Class DYou're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.

Horikita Suzune stared back with eyes as cold as glacial ice.

Every word slipping from the lips of the Class B homeroom teacher felt like a carefully concocted poison, slowly and deliberately corroding her patience. Beneath those seemingly casual, airy taunts lay a highly calculated purpose—to provoke her into a fit of anger, and then… deduct these so-called ‘points’?

What exactly did this woman mean by a point deduction?

It certainly wasn’t written anywhere in the standard student handbook. Was this yet another hidden rule established by the School Administration? She rapidly scoured her mind, analyzing every conceivable possibility. Could there be a hidden demerit system operating within the shadows of this academy? If a student violated specific, unwritten guidelines, would a corresponding penalty be levied against their accounts?

She had already paid an exorbitant sum of eighty thousand Private Points to purchase information from Shimizu Akira. Her current account balance sat at a pitiful sum of less than ten thousand. If this teacher managed to wipe out the rest of her funds, she would be reduced to scavenging the supermarket for free vegetable scraps just to make her own daily bento.

handling the treacherous waters of human interaction was far from her strong suit, especially when cornered by an opponent who so perfectly weaponized her authority as an educator with flawless social grace. In a battle of pure intellectual sparring, Horikita possessed absolute confidence that she would never fall behind. But facing a creature like Hoshinomiya Chie—a master manipulator of social dynamics who held the absolute high ground of the faculty—even the usually unshakable Horikita felt a distinct sense of powerlessness.

However, Hoshinomiya’s predatory attention had already drifted away from the ice-cold honors student.

As far as the teacher was concerned, Class D’s monthly allowance had already been thoroughly bled dry by their own incompetence; this rigid, rule-abiding girl no longer held any strategic value.

‘Hehe… Just picturing Sae-chan’s furious, frustrated face makes me so incredibly happy.’

Right now, her overwhelming curiosity was entirely focused on the boy standing quietly to the side.

“Shimizu-kun…” She practically purred his name, her slender finger playfully curling a lock of her own hair. Her eyes sparkled with a dangerous, probing light. “I heard a little rumor that you took our precious Ichinose to meet with some second-year seniors. Come on now, be a good boy and tell big sister the truth. What exactly did you ask them?”

Akira subtly shifted his weight, retreating another half-step until his shoulder blades nearly pressed against the cold hallway wall.

He truly could not fathom the depths of this woman’s persistence. Why was the homeroom teacher of Class B pursuing him with the relentless drive of a bloodhound? The other party shouldn’t have any reason to suspect him., she had to know that Class D was likely sitting at absolute zero! There was no currency left to extort from them!

Could it be… had this woman already deduced that he possessed critical information regarding the S-System? To maintain Class B’s comfortable advantage, was she proactively trying to crush potential threats from rival classes?

He quickly dismissed the thought as absurd. Their Class D was currently festering at the very bottom of the school hierarchy; Class B’s only true rival should be Class A. Beyond that—

‘Didn’t she constantly brag about being Chabashira-sensei’s absolute best friend?’

Was this how a so-called best friend operated? The moment class interests were on the line, she wouldn’t hesitate to ruthlessly scheme against her dearest friend’s students? Akira could only wonder if every homeroom teacher in this twisted academy operated with such terrifying duality.

Standing in the shadow of Hoshinomiya Chie, the natural, oppressive weight of her faculty badge made him genuinely uneasy. After all, one wrong word, one slight misstep, and she could effortlessly slap him with a penalty for being disrespectful to his elders.

“Hoshinomiya-sensei! What are you doing?”

A clear, ringing voice suddenly shattered the suffocating stalemate in the corridor.

Standing at the far end of the hallway, Ichinose Honami looked upon the scene with a deeply helpless expression, her hand resting tiredly against her forehead. She quickly closed the distance, stepping firmly to Hoshinomiya’s side.

“Please don’t make things difficult for students from other classes. Can’t you see that Shimizu-kun and Horikita-san are troubled by this?”

“Oh my! If it isn’t my darling class president!” Hoshinomiya blinked her eyes in an exaggerated display of feigned surprise, finally taking two reluctant steps back to give the Class D students room to breathe.

“Hoshinomiya! Keep your hands off my students!”

Accompanied by the sharp, rapid clicking of heels, Chabashira Sae finally materialized at the end of the hall. She was slightly out of breath, her usually composed demeanor fractured by a rare, unmistakable irritation. Her sharp gaze practically impaled Hoshinomiya before she marched forward and, without a single word of greeting, raised her hand to deliver a swift, punishing chop to the top of her colleague’s head.

“Who gave you permission to lay a finger on Shimizu Akira?” Chabashira’s voice dripped with a chilling anger.and support the real translator.Read at elysianreads.com This is a stolen translation. You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.

“Ouch!” Hoshinomiya rubbed the top of her head, looking up with wide, wronged eyes. “He came looking for Sae-chan all on his own! I was just being a good hostess and entertaining him while you were away!”

Chabashira let out a cold, dismissive snort. “It would have been vastly preferable if you had just ignored them entirely.”

She turned her attention toward Akira and Horikita, the harsh lines of her face softening just a fraction. “My apologies for keeping you waiting. It isn’t convenient to discuss matters out here in the open. You two, follow me to the counseling room.”

“Let me come too!” Hoshinomiya instantly perked up, leaning in like a clingy, attention-starved cat, her eyes practically glowing with gossipy desperation. “Just to listen in for a tiny little bit!”

“Absolutely not!” Ichinose quickly clamped her hands around her teacher’s wrist, anchoring her in place. “Hoshinomiya-sensei, we have urgent matters regarding our own class that we need to discuss!”

Chabashira, refusing to leave anything to chance, ruthlessly played her trump card. “If you dare to follow us, I have zero objections to making sure you spend your entire weekend recovering in a hospital bed.” She stared her best friend down with dead, expressionless eyes. “It will save you the trouble of going out and causing a scene at the local bars.”

“Waaah! You two are so incredibly mean to me!” Hoshinomiya dramatically slumped her shoulders, perfectly mimicking the pathetic aura of a puppy abandoned in the rain. “One is my dearest best friend in the whole world, and the other is my most trusted, beloved class president… How could I ever dare to disobey such cruel masters?”

When Akira, Horikita, and Chabashira completely disappeared around the far corner of the corridor, the bright, bubbly smile plastered across Hoshinomiya’s face vanished. It receded like a dying tide, leaving behind an expression of chilling, calculating sharpness.

“Sae-chan…” she murmured under her breath, the playful lilt completely gone from her voice. “She couldn’t seriously be planning to defy the higher-ups, could she? If she tries something like that… I’ll be the first one to step in and stop her.”

“Hoshinomiya-sensei?” Ichinose tilted her head, a flicker of genuine confusion crossing her features. “What did you just say?”

“Oh, dear me!” Hoshinomiya instantly snapped back into her usual, radiant cheerfulness, waving a hand dismissively. “I was just muttering some bad things about Sae-chan!”

“But aren’t you two supposed to be best friends?”

“Precisely because we are such good friends… when we finally do fight… it will be absolutely terrifying.”

“Sensei is saying strange things again…” Ichinose sighed, shaking her head.

“Hehe! That kind of dark, complicated adult stuff is still a few years too early for you, Ichinose! Anyway, speaking of important things, how did our class fare this past week?”

Ichinose’s bright expression immediately clouded over with distress. “It wasn’t ideal. A few of the students with lower academic marks noticed that you don’t strictly enforce classroom discipline. Recently, they’ve been openly playing on their phones during lectures and even skipping classes entirely…” She wrung her fingers together, her earnest heart clearly burdened by the situation. “As the class president, I find it incredibly difficult to scold them too harshly. I want us all to get along, so for now… I’ve just been letting it slide.”

Hoshinomiya let out a long, heavy sigh. “My sweet, innocent class president… Last week, you spent four entire lunch breaks sitting with those second-year seniors. Did you truly not notice anything strange at all?”

Ichinose blinked, her confusion deepening. “No? We were just making friends normally…”

Hoshinomiya was momentarily caught between the urge to laugh and cry.

‘Even Ichinose, a girl blessed with A-grade intellect and flawless social intuition, didn’t notice a single thing… So why did that completely unremarkable boy from Class D…’Suddenly, her eyes widened. The pieces of the puzzle violently snapped together in her mind.’Wait… that Horikita girl was incredibly easy to provoke into nearly violating school rules just now. But the moment I mentioned the word points, she looked at me with genuine, unadulterated confusion. That isn’t right!’Her mind raced, calculating the terrifying implications.’Either Shimizu-kun failed to extract any useful information from those upperclassmen at all, or… he deliberately chose to conceal the hidden truth of this school from his own classmates.’

“Ichinose!” Hoshinomiya abruptly spun around, her hands slamming down onto her student’s shoulders with startling intensity. “What is the exact name of the upperclassman Shimizu-kun asked you to contact? And why did you suddenly show up here in this hallway?”

“Ah! It’s a second-year student, Yamamura-senpai… And, well, Shimizu-kun actually sent me a message asking me to come here to help him out!”

Hoshinomiya’s eyes narrowed into dangerous, predatory slits the moment the words left Ichinose’s mouth.

‘It seems I am going to have to arrange a little meeting with this Yamamura-san myself…’She looked down the empty hallway where the Class D students had vanished.’It seems a shark that has no business swimming in the shallows has somehow snuck its way into Class D…’A sudden chill settled deep in her chest.’For everyone’s sake… I truly hope my intuition is wrong this time.’You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.