It was after school.

Since the deadline for the presidential election was coming up, I decided to visit the voting booths set up in the hall to cast my vote.

The four main candidates were Kishou, Kurosaki, Ichinose, and Itteki. I was going to be voting for Ichinose to show my support as a fellow 1st Year.

That, and Kaido threatened me to vote for her or else I'd suffer the consequences.

As I left class, I felt a firm hand clap my shoulder. I stopped, turning my head up to see who it was.

It was Albert Obama, a student of D Class - or rather, the soon to be E Class.

"...Albert-san."

I lightly greeted him as he stared down at me. Then, he drew away, revealing Zyriot and Horie were standing behind him.

"Zyriot-san and Horie-san too... is there anything I could help you three with?"

None of them spoke up. Albert looked away from me while Horie jittered in my presence.

"I heard that you worked with C Class in this special exam to beat us."

Zyriot stepped forward, carrying a threatening air around him. It reminded me of the bloodthirsty aura he held during the war.

"Yeah. I'm guessing you found out through Akihiro-san and Akari-san?"

"Indeed. They heard about it from Kawaguchi-san during break time. About how you and Kazuraba-san struck a deal with Kinoshita-san."

"All credit goes to Nora-san, honestly. He was the one who made the exams."

"Don't try to underplay your involvement in this, Yuuto-san. You were the one who made it possible in the first place."

"Sorry."

"It's fine. I'm just personally frustrated I didn't think of the same thing... I'm sure I could've gotten cooperation from Ichinose-san."

"I suppose you tunnelled too hard into defending yourself."

"Unfortunately. In the end, it didn't even matter..."

Zyriot chuckled derisively at himself.

"Six failures... I can't believe it."

"If I can ask, who failed in your class?"

"Take a guess. Here's a hint, they're all delinquents."

"...I don't know your class that well. If I had to take a guess, I would imagine Hiraoka-san and Terasaka-san are prime suspects."

"You'd be correct. Those two, alongside Gentarou-san, Kazuki-san, Suehiro-san, and Ryouka-san, all failed an exam."

"C Class really did a number on you, huh...?"

Zyriot didn't seem upset though. He remained calm and focused, carrying himself with a dignified posture and firm manner. You wouldn't have thought that his class lost all their Cl in this special exam.

"Also, I realised the reason why we didn't fail that many of the people in your class. We shot ourselves in the foot by making our English exam too difficult."

It seems he understood where he messed up.

"It was meant to be our ace in the hole, but since everyone in your class did so poorly on it, it tanked the average to the point you could pass even if your score was abysmal."

The passing mark on each exam was determined by taking the average score across the class and halving it. Since no one in our class did well on the English exam, the average score plummeted, meaning it was extremely easy to pass, even with a low score.

This wasn't an issue with the A Class students though, since the majority were academically able to answer the higher level questions I set for them. This meant the ones who were falling behind or were in A Class for other reasons, such as physical ability, suffered the brunt of the damage and were the likely failures of their class.

"I probably inadvertently helped out your class by getting A*. That alone would've bumped up the average just a bit."

"It still wasn't enough unfortunately. Anyways, this isn't what I'm here to talk about."

Zyriot held out his right hand.

"I came here to congratulate you and your class for getting promoted, Yuuto-san. E Class... no, D Class, fought well."

"Zyriot-san... thank you. Your class also fought well this special exam."

As I shook his hand firmly, a smile appeared on his face.

"I have to say though, when I heard that you became class representative, I was pleasantly surprised. I want to say part of me even saw it coming. It's seems I'll have to look out for you from now on."

"You're praising me too much. I'm not that impressive."

"Maybe, but you're still a formidable foe in my eyes."

"I'll try not to let you down then. What are you going to do now that you've been demoted?"

"We're going to climb our way back up to D Class, of course. If your class can comeback from 0, so can ours."

It's good to see that Zyriot hasn't lost his competitive spirit just yet. He looked more determined than ever before to do well in future intra-class battles.

"Is that so?"

"I'm confident we can return things back to the way it were before. So don't get too comfy while you're in D Class, Yuuto-san. We're coming after your class next."

"I'll look forward to intercepting it."

Zyriot smirked a little before nodding. He, Albert, and Horie left after that.

Looks like our bitter rivalry with Zyriot's class is going to continue after all... it seems I'll also have to watch my back going forward.

I wonder what the outcome of our next battle will be like.

Going back to what I was originally going to do, I made my way outside and headed to the hall.

However, when I arrived...

"...what an unpleasant coincidence."

I bumped shoulders with Machida, who was also here to vote.

It seems he was by himself, since none of his faction were following him.

To be honest, I didn't expect a guy like him to be interested in this kind of stuff. I thought he'd be part of the silent majority, or not vote at all.

"Funny running into you here of all places."

I made an offhanded comment and registered with the teacher currently operating the booths, Hiryuu-sensei.

I guess he had a lot of free time since he was a science engineer teacher.

"Seeing you is almost enough to make me not want to vote."

Machida blatantly showed his disgust towards me and also registered with Hiryuu-sensei.

"Who are you voting for then?"

"Why should I tell you? Keep your nose out of my business."

"I'm just curious, that's all."

"Then who are you voting for?"

Rolling his eyes, Machida flipped the question back on me.

"Well..."

"See, not so easy to answer now, is it?"

He grunted, shoulder barging past me.

"Hey, what's the rush?"

"I just want to get this done and over with, not chat with a dropout like you."

"I'm no longer Drachma Red, though?"

"You're still the same defective trash to me, even if you've gotten a new lick of colour."

"Besides, I haven't even answered your question yet."

"As if you were gonna answer it in the first place. Shut up and stop pestering me."

"You sure are grumpy today... I was going to vote for Ichinose-san."

Machida sighed.

"Of course you are. What 1st Year hasn't voted for her?"

"Let me guess, you're the same?"

"I don't have to tell you."

"It sounds like it is."

"I'm trying to vote, piss off!"

Machida looked like he was ready to throw the pen he was holding at my head. I raised my hands and backed off.

"Alright, sorry."

Yeah, he was totally going to cast his vote for Ichinose. Otherwise, why would he get so defensive about it?

Very few 1st Years were going to vote, but out of those who did, it was likely they were going to choose a candidate they were familiar with.

Due to Ichinose's friendly personality, she had gotten to know basically everyone in our year, so for us, she was the most recognisable person out of all the candidates.

I guess there was the King, but he didn't really interact with us 1st Years that much. Same with Kurosaki and Itteki.

Though, I guess Yukina might vote for Itteki... and I guess I could vote for Kurosaki, but she entered as a joke anyways. It'd be a waste to use it on her.

I stepped inside the booth next to Machida's and took the single piece of paper lying there listing the name of the candidates.

Following the instructions on the wall, I picked up the pen and ticked the box next to Ichinose's name. Then, I folded the piece of paper in half and put it into the box of votes.

Afterwards, I stepped out of the booth and went to make my leave...

...only to bump into Machida once more. He exhaled through his nose.

"Why do I keep seeing you...? You're such a pain in the ass, Takanori-san."

"Sorry..."

"Save your apologies. You can make up for it by dying instead, preferably quietly."

Machida growled, hurriedly walking away from me.

He really doesn't like me, huh...?

I thanked Hiryuu-sensei and took my leave, going to meet up with Yukina.