220 Epilogue : A Farewell to the Past

THE FIVE HOURS of the unanimous special exam had come to an end. Not long after, we heard that we were the only ones out of the four classes to have an expulsion. More than a few of the students must have regretted it.

However, the fact that we gained 150 class points in this special exam, where three classes gained only 50 class points, will definitely help us in our future battles.

If we finished September like this, we would finally be able to move up to Class B. After school, I was waiting for someone on the stairs leading to the rooftop as promised. About 10 minutes later than I had planned, a person showed up.

"I'm sorry to keep you waiting. It took me a while to finish up."

"No problem. By the way, did it end the way you wanted it to? Or was it the other way around?"

"Don't ask me a hard question, there is no real right answer in that test.

I believe that. There's a chance that someone will see us here. Shall we change places?"

"That would be wise."

With a faint raise of the corners of her mouth, Chabashira-sensei began to climb the stairs to the roof. She took out a key with a simple blue name holder.

"Every year, the school's attitude toward rooftop use is getting tougher.

Maybe in the near future it will be more difficult to get on the roof here as well."

Even with the fence in place, there was still a risk of falling off.

In addition, the rooftop is also a disadvantage because it can be used for minor abuses, as Ryūen once did. Chabashira-sensei quietly walked out onto the roof, leaned against the railing and exhaled.

"It's been a long day... really," Chabashira-sensei said to herself, genuinely stressed by the special exam. "As I mentioned during the exam... I took the same exam in my senior year of high school."

"It seems so."

I don't know where she's staring, but Chabashira-sensei just stares straight ahead at the sunset.

"If you forgive me, you can listen to my confession..."

"It's called the Sacrament of Forgiveness. I'm not much of a religious person, but it's fine."

The unanimous special exam she is said to have attempted when she was a student. She said that she had the same question, but the situation of the class would change the expression she would show.

"I remember that day as if it was yesterday. We, the 3rd year Class B, were on the verge of catching up with Class A before the graduation exam.

The difference in class points was only 73 points. Even if we couldn't upset them with the little time we had left in our daily lives, we were in a position to turn the tables with just one special exam.

That was a close call, and I'm sure Class A didn't think they had the advantage by that margin.

"In the meantime, the unanimous special exam began. There were five questions. Like you, we were able to make it through the fourth question, despite our differences of opinion.

"You said the last question was the same."

"Well... it was. It seems that my memory is a little fuzzy on today's exam."

I'm not sure if it's because she's confused about the timeline or her mind is distracted.

"Of course, the first time we voted, there were only a few in favour and a majority against. But as the debate continued, the situation began to change dramatically. If Class A voted unanimously in favour, the margin would have grown to 173 points.

"You didn't know what the graduation exam would be at that point, did you?

"No. In the event that Class B takes first place, Class A's second place may not make a big difference in class points. The difference in rewards between first and second place is 100 or 150 points. Of course, it could be more than 200 points, but there was no guarantee of that, you know. The debate heated up as time went on; there was no way that Class A would choose to drop out, so they all voted against it as well, and unanimously survived the special exam. There were those who argued that we should win the graduation exam and become Class A students, and those who argued that if Class A would not choose to drop out, then that would be our chance to turn the tables. We talked about all kinds of scenarios."

Even though it was the same question , the topics that came up were still completely different depending on the situation of the class. Only two options. But the only way to get there is to go through many, many twists and turns.

"After a great deal of time and discussion, the right answer never came.

Whether to take Class A even at the cost of sacrifice, or to choose your friends and throw yourself into a tough battle..."

Chabashira-sensei's moist eyes didn't move from the sunset.

"Eventually, my classmates slowly began to lean towards the idea that Class A would make the sacrifice to get the 100 class points. As the conversation started to progress on that assumption, the opposition slowly began to shift in favour of the idea."

"It's not easy to come to a consensus when someone is missing, is it?

As usual, there are students with low abilities and poor communication skills.

It is inevitable that students with one or two habits will be the first to be expelled."

"I agree. Once the vote is unanimous in favour, it is impossible to withdraw it. It's not easy to get everyone to vote in favour of it, you're right.

Something happened to change that situation. In the case of this special exam, I promised that only traitors would be expelled, and I was able to convince them to vote in favour."

"There was a boy in my class. The student was... well, I guess the best way to describe him would be to say that he was a combination of Hirata and Ike."

"Yōsuke and Ike?"

"I'm not sure how to put it together, but it's hard to imagine. He was both a leader and a mood maker for the class."

I see, he was a student who somehow included the merits of Yōsuke and the merits (and demerits) of Ike.

"We had been struggling on the last question until he finally decided to speak up. He decided that he would have himself expelled as it fell under his job as leader."

I guess he decided that he couldn't abandon his friends who had fought with him for three years.

"The only special exam left is the final graduation exam. It must be painful to be without a leader, and that's one option... but not the only one."

Of course, it is difficult to say that it is a wise choice. But if all the classmates were on equal footing, it would be extremely difficult to choose one. There is also the option of letting luck take its course, but I'm sure there are many students who are not convinced.

"But then again, it was never unanimous."

"Why? It was agreed that the leader would leave the school, wasn't it?"

"No. One person voted against the student's expulsion until the very end. The one vote against never turned into a vote in favour, and the remaining time was whittled away. I, of all people, was the one who kept voting against it."

From the flow of the story, I thought it might be so, but that means...

"So, to Chabashira-sensei, the student who was the leader was not just any leader?"

Closing her eyes, Chabashira-sensei lightly chuckled and slowly opened her eyes again.

Then she looked up at the sunset sky and affirmed deeply.

"I'm not sure what to say. For me, that student was a leader, a friend, and a... and a lover more important than anyone else."

The two of them overcame many hardships and came to understand each other. The future was supposed to be about grabbing the most happiness out of the remaining school life and aiming for Class A. So Chabashira-sensei couldn't let go of that.

"If I continued to vote against it, my classmates will naturally be confused and angry. Some of them turned their opposition to me. Well, it's a natural process."

"But if Chabashira-sensei didn't drop out of school, that means..."

"That's right. I protect him, he protects me. Such a stalemate went on and on. We couldn't finish the special exam on time, so our class was down 300 class points, and Class A had chosen to expel a student, so the difference was 450 points. In total, the difference was 523 points. In an instant, the distance between us and Class A, which was within striking distance, opened up to a desperate extent."

It's a gap that no amount of big-opportunity graduation exams will be able to turn around.

"If it's any consolation, your boyfriend didn't drop out of school, did he?"

"I don't know what I was protecting him for, but when the unanimous special exams ended, our relationship naturally ended as well. It was only for a day... or even less than 24 hours. After that, we lost the final exam, and our three years amounted to nothing.

"What happened to him after that?

"I never saw him again. I don't even know where he is now. He was everything to me when I was in high school. Now that I think about it, it's so dumb. If you think about it over the course of a long life, three years of high school is only a small part of it. Even if we didn't make it to Class A, we should have fought to the end with no regrets.

Does this mean that the Chabashira-sensei has been regretting her choice for 11 years? In this case, rather than a mistake, it would be better to say that she continues to worry about whether her choice was the right one or not.

"I was not qualified to graduate from Class A. But what was I supposed to do? Should I have strongly convinced him to drop out? Or should I have cut myself off when he told me he was leaving?"

"There's no real right answer to this particular test. It's probably impossible to get a perfect unanimity from the heart. That is, unless you have a student who is thoroughly unskilled and no one needs him or her..."

"The failure to see this is the cause of defeat...?

"The first time he convinced everyone to give up unanimously, the student decided to drop out of school in order to keep his chances of going to Class A. What he took was to first get a unanimous vote in favour and then think about it."

Chabashira-sensei nodded.

"If I had cut him out..."

"Were the graduation exams so easy that you could win without a good leader? Your class lost the unanimous exam even though you didn't have any dropouts, right?"

"Yes. If we had been able to fight as a united team and in perfect condition, we might have been evenly matched."

"I mean, you can't choose to be leaderless. But even if someone else was missing, we still couldn't win the Class A. If that was the case, the only way was to stay with the options of for and against. You had to refuse all temptations and inducements to agree and stay the course."

"Even if I had stayed, I would not have been in a position to be persuaded to vote against, which is what you're saying."

"There is no need for persuasion. The sensei's class was divided on the opinion of winning. If the votes don't coalesce, eventual defeat by running out of time is inevitable. When that happens, the proponents will absolutely move to consolidate the votes against. Even if they resist with their mouths, what if it is the final vote with less than a minute left? If you vote in favour, there is no time to expel the next particular student. The interval time is a fixed 10 minutes, but the voting time is a maximum of 60 seconds. If you adjust the time by deliberately delaying the vote, you can bring it to a final vote without a minute's gap."

If you choose in favour, you lose 300 class points for failing to clear, and if you choose against, you gain 50 class points for clearing.

"There is no way you can choose the former with only one choice. You can either run out of time and lose 300 class points, or you can make sure to clear the exam and get 50 class points, even if you don't get the extra 100 class points, to take the graduation exam with Class A. There was only one conclusion. Of course, I'm not sure if I could have made up the 173 class points."

The students were not ready to give up the idea of winning, and were caught up in the immediate 100 class points. The leader was able to take advantage of this psychology and succeeded in getting them to agree.

However, the strategy itself was a mistake.

He failed to see the heart of Chabashira-sensei, and the stubbornness of the opposite sex who became his lover.

"I'm... If I had a student like you back then, I would have..." She was about to say something, then perhaps thought better of it. "No, it doesn't make sense now. You can't go back in time. But let me ask you this, Ayanokōji. Sakura must have been a member of your close group. And moreover, that girl had special feelings for you."

"You know very well."

"I'm a homeroom teacher and I can often tell by the way my students look at me."

I wasn't particularly fond of her special skill.

"Wasn't there a way to save Sakura and blame the sacrifice on others?"

"I don't know. Horikita had the power to make change. It wouldn't have been enough time for a serious challenge."

"Didn't it hurt your... heart?"

"Of course, it would have been best if we could have avoided expelling Airi. As for me, I tried to bring the matter to a unanimous vote by any means possible, but Kushida couldn't stop me. I decided that there would be no solution unless we chose to expel the students and then cut off their path and hunt them down. However, if we were willing to be consequential, there might have been a possibility of unanimity through opposition. At that time, Kushida was so disturbed by Horikita's presence that she accepted the choice to stay at this school. That was not in my assumptions at all. I'm not the only one who wants to help students who are close to me. Now that it's happened, the only thing left to do is elimination. At this point, there is no choice but to give superiority to classmates. Whether they can study or not, whether they can play sports or not. Communication skills. Insight and observation skills.

We can only look at objective data, the OAA rankings."

If we look at the system the school has created, we can see who should be expelled even if we don't want to.

"Of course, there are a few students who are not so different from Airi.

But if a quarrel starts between students who are on the same side, their friends will naturally take the side of protection. However, with Airi, the only major obstacle was Haruka. In the end, there wasn't much of a loss."

"So you're saying that you intentionally sacrificed your own happiness for the class...?"

"Personality is also one of the deciding factors. Because of Airi's personality, she's not good at imitating people who don't want to quit or appeal to them not to vote for her. A good friend of hers, in this case Haruka, will not vote in favour of it. However, the only exception to this is the self-report from Airi. There's no way Airi could choose to stay in school after annoying the class by making them sacrifice 300 class points."

"You even knew Sakura's state of mind."

"Overall strength, familiarity, personality. And as a final push, I need to be informed by someone important that Airi is the one who should be expelled. If I told her, she will have no choice but to understand her fate."

"Ayanokōji... you're..."

"People may call me a monster. No one wants to be the one who made the "evil" choice. In the end, someone needs to make these decisions. It's the only way to succeed in this world."

"In this school, expulsion is a constant companion in every possible situation. As a teacher of this school, I'm prepared to accept it and do my best. Still, I will never be able to make a decision like yours without hesitation."

Admitting the weakness of his own heart, Chabashira-sensei said so.

"I don't know you very well, but how many people have you cut down?

I'm sure it's something I'll never understand."

How many people have I "cut down?" I hadn't thought about it. Just as we don't remember the colour and shape of each stone that falls by the roadside, those who learn with us and those who teach us will disappear if they are incompetent. That's just artificial selection.

"Thank you for taking the time to speak with me today, Ayanokōji. I regretted the choices I made in the past and stood still for a very long time.

But it turns out that I didn't have time for that. I will fulfill my role as a teacher to guide the students in my class to continue fighting without regret."

"It seems that through this special exam, you were able to make a deal with the past."

The profile of Chabashira-sensei who spoke was somewhat radiant, unlike before.

"It's not that I haven't dreamed of Class A before. Even when I try not to think about it, I end up hoping for it. That I might be able to fulfill the dream that I never could. And every time I do, I ridicule myself for being so stupid and erase it from my memory. That's how it went on and on."

Chabashira-sensei turned to me and gave me a smile I'd never seen before.

"I've decided, Ayanokōji. I'm going to make sure our class graduates from Class A, anyway I can."

"It's fine to be enthusiastic, but make sure you don't deviate from your position as a teacher.

"No, of course I know my position. I'm not sure how much I can do, but I'm ready to do it. Actually Ayanokōji... You say things that are uncharacteristic of a normal student."

"What type of things would a "normal" student say? "

"Well... I can't answer that question, because I'm not a student."

"If you're done talking, I'm leaving."

"Right. I'm sorry to take up so much of your time."

"No problem. Then, I'll leave now. Chabashira-sensei. ".

I've been calling her that lately, but I said it with emphasis. She will be fine now. Through this special exam, she has grown as much as the students.

Her mind, which had been stuck in the third year of high school, had quickly begun to catch up to her current age.

RoyalMTL Afterword

PrinceYG#6558 (u/TheLaw4465): Translator

- Yo, Prince here, hope you guys enjoyed reading this latest volume. Well well, this is the third translation we've put out, so do give us a round of applause. Personally, I thought this volume was alright but Y2V4.5 still reigns supreme. My favourite chapter was "Ichinose's Choice" even though it was more so Kanzaki's choice. I'm super excited to see how he progresses with this challenge. I was quite disappointed when I found out there were no appearances from the first years and third years (besides Yagami) but Kinusaga has made a vague statement that perhaps the next volumes will shift the focus back on them. That's when I'll see you all next. See you in February!

Rhymar#7433 (u/Rhymar) (Rhymar84 – Wattpadd): Translator

- Hey. Although this is my first time translating a COTE volume, I'd say most people reading this will know me as the Kushida simp who's cropped up on the subreddit over the last month or so. Some may even recognise me from Wattpad! Regardless, I hope you guys enjoyed reading this vol as much as I enjoyed co-translating it with Prince. Imo, this volume was probably the best y2 COTE volume so far; more specifically, I liked how both Horikita and Ichinose's classes were handled here, and it was enjoyable to see Kiyotaka openly take the wheel for once. Oh, and just F for Kanzaki. It seems like Yagami and Nagumo will become involved in the upcoming volume's more, as a result of their absence in this one, which I'm rather excited to see how Kiyotaka handles. Anyway, you can probably expect me to return to help translate y2v6 when it comes out, too, so I'll try my best to bring everyone faster and higher quality MTLs alongside Prince when that time comes.

Thanks for the read!

Amadeus#6844: Editor/Proof Reader

- Greetings. I'm Amadeus. Which option would you have chosen for the second task? I would have gone with Kyoto! Or Hokkaido. HOT SPRINGS

Translated by: PrinceYG#6558

DICK COMPETITION!! This is also my first time participating with translating a light novel volume, it was fun! I started reading the series at the beginning of October, and finished in mid October. Surreal experience. It is a joy to be able to help out the process of new volumes going forward. I am looking forward to it! As for this volume, I thought it was tremendous, one of the stronger volumes of Year 2. We finally got bitch Kushida exposed; as well Ayanokouji! The class now knows he is ruthless. How is he going to deal with the attention going forward? Other highlights were of course every Kei scene, Shiina showing off her own brilliance without getting even a word of dialogue, and... the impending implusion of the Ayanokōji Group. No more boring conversations! People will be disappointed by Kinu's desire to prevent Kushida from being expelled - but I want to see her suffer from humiliation before she gets booted out. Sakura getting yeeted was certainly surprising, but a welcome one in my mind. I can't wait for the next volume, which should be the sports festival. Nagumo vs Ayanōkoji??? (Please do more than make your third year sheep stare at him, Nagumo.) As a side note, Kanzaki's classmates are a bunch of retards. I have a soft spot for Ichinose though.

Cast#5942: Editor/Proof Reader

- Hi there, It's Cast. I really enjoyed reading and editing this novel and believe that Kinusaga did an amazing job. I agree with Prince however, and think that 4.5 was still a little more entertaining. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading this TL and please let us know about any mistakes throughout the novel, either through personal DM's or in our Discord.

Thanks.

Thanks Shōgo Kinusaga (the author) for writing this novel in the first place, please do support him by buying one of the official copies of Classroom of The Elite somewhere down the line.

See you in four months!

- RoyalMTL Team

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Translated by: PrinceYG#6558

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