Chapter 456: Chapter 7 Part III
Thus, Class C had won the first two events.
So far, luck had been on our side, and all of Horikita's plans were coming together beautifully.
There were 8 events left for the drawing to choose from. It would've been great if it had kept selecting events that Class C had suggested, but…
『English Test』 Required Participants: 8 ・ Time: 50 Minutes
Rules: The test will be within the scope of the first-year English curriculum. Victory will be decided based on the class with the higher overall score.
Commander Intervention: The commander can answer a single question on behalf of one of the participants.
The third event was a written test, something we all knew would be coming sooner or later.
The third program is a written test that will be chosen sooner or later.
The crux of this special exam was figuring out how to win in the events that the opponent had suggested.
If we managed to win this event, we'd gain an advantage far greater than a mere victory.
Starting with Mii-chan, I came up with a lineup of students who were skilled at English. Although, it was frustrating that I couldn't make use of strong trump cards like Horikita and Keisei yet. Class A had suggested three different written tests, English, Math, and Modern Literature, so it would be difficult for me to evenly distribute those of us with better academic abilities.
Horikita had outlined two different strategies in the notebooks she had made in case two written test events ended up getting chosen.
The first was to aim for both wins by evenly distributing the capable students between the two events. The second was to deliberately lose one of them and pour our resources into trying to win the other.
Sakayanagi quickly decided on her eight participants, but I took a moment longer to consider my options.
"This is the first time you've had to take time to think. It seems that Horikita-san left you with more than one option to choose from."
There was no guarantee that another test would get chosen later, but there was also no guarantee that we'd be able to win now.
But, the most frustrating part about this was that Class C had a tendency to do worse in English.
In other words, I had to choose between the two strategies. Do I balance the two teams and go for both wins? Or do I simply throw away our chances to win this one?
"Will you give up on the English event? Or… maybe you'll choose to fight and use up all your strength here?"
Sakayanagi prompted me with a question, struggling to contain her excitement.
However, I was not afraid of losing here.
"I can tell what you're thinking, Ayanokōji-kun. You're afraid that we anticipated the fact that you might choose to give up on the English test and, as a result, preserved our better students for the later tests, aren't you? After all, if we were to compete with a suboptimal team, it would give you a chance at winning. It's not so easy to give up on this event, now is it?"
After some thought, I made the decision to give up on the English event.
"Based on recent global trends, it seems that girls tend to perform better in a variety of subjects than boys do, and score higher than boys as well. And, as it would turn out, English happens to be one of those subjects. But of course, those are just trends. It's just a reference for you, if you will."
Sakayanagi spoke up one last time just as I was about to make my decision on who to include in the event.
She was looking to put pressure on me by feeding me with unnecessary information.
In any case, Class A couldn't afford to lose in the English test. She would undoubtedly choose several powerful contenders for the event.
Once we had each finished choosing the participants, their names were displayed on the larger monitor.
The eight people listed for Class C were Okiya Kyōsuke, Minami Hakuo, Karuizawa Kei, Satō Maya, Shinohara Satsuki, Inokashira Kokoro, Sonoda Chiyo, and Ichihashi Ruri. They were all students who wouldn't be needed in any of the events that would show up later on.
The eight people listed for Class A were Satonaka Satoru, Sugio Hiroshi, Tsukaji Shihori, Tanihara Mao, Motodoi Chikako, Fukuyama Shinobu, Rokkaku Momoe, and Nakajima Riko. While they weren't the best options Sakayanagi had available, it was still a fairly solid group. It seemed like she had made use of the trend she had mentioned just a bit earlier, as six of her eight selections were girls.
"It seems like you've chosen to give up on English and focus on the future. An acceptable decision."
As expected, she had a very good grasp of Class C's academic abilities.
Even though we had the power to intervene for one single question, for the most part, the only thing we could do is sit and watch the event unfold.
At a certain point, we were able to switch between the student's answer sheets in real-time.
Making use of my intervention, I helped one of my classmates answer a question that most of the students seemed to be struggling with.
However, whatever impact this may have had was negligible. At best, it would only improve our score by a handful of points.
After they were done, the school collected their answer sheets and immediately began grading them. Before long, the results were in.
The outcome of the test would be based on the cumulative scores of all eight participants.
Class C: Scored a total of 443 points.
Class A: Scored a total of 651 points.
The winner is Class A.
As expected, the difference between the two scores was overwhelming.
"We only scored an average of about 81%. If you had chosen to go all out instead of giving up, you might have been able to win this one."
Like Sakayanagi had said, there had indeed been an opportunity for us to take advantage of their low average score, but things just weren't that simple.
It was probably better to avoid thinking of this as a win that I let get away from me.
Sakayanagi's courage to hold onto her more capable students without being afraid of losing three events in a row was nothing short of admirable.
Just as Class A was presented with their first win, the selection for the fourth event had begun:
『Math Test』 Required Participants: 7 ・ Time: 50 Minutes
Rules: The test will be within the scope of the first-year math curriculum. Victory will be decided based on the class with the higher overall score.
Commander Intervention: The commander can answer a single question on behalf of one of the participants.
English test was followed by an additional written test.
"Looks like your choice paid off. You'll undoubtedly have to go all-out this time. Or… perhaps you plan on waiting for the Modern Literature test?"
In this situation, it was best not to place my bets on the Modern Literature test. Instead, I chose to make use of all of the academic ability Class C had at its disposal.
"I said earlier that girls have a tendency to score higher, but for math, the opposite is true. Apparently, boys tend to do better than girls. Fascinating, isn't it?"
No matter what ideas she may try to ingrain within me, the choices I would make still wouldn't change.
I chose Hirata Yōsuke, Yukimura Teruhiko, Ishikura Kayoko, Wang Mei-Yu, Azuma Sana, Kushida Kikyō, and Nishimura Ryūko. It was the strongest seven-man lineup that I could make from Class C. As for our opponents, Class A had chosen Matoba Shinji, Shimazaki Ikkei, Morishige Takurō, Tsukasaki Taiga, Ishida Yūsuke, Yamamura Miki, and Nishikawa Ryōko. It was a lineup of mostly male students of equal, or even higher academic ability than the previous ones she had put forth. This was set to be an all-out competition where we had put forth our strongest contenders, Horikita and Kōenji not included.
Not long after, the math test went underway. Unlike the devastating results of the English test, there were pretty much no mistakes this time, with Yukimura Teruhiko, that is, Keisei, taking the top spot.
Even though I had Nishimura, the one with the lowest overall scores in math, wear the headset, I was only able to help her with one question, so it was difficult to imagine that this would have a significant impact on the results of the test. Considering the fact that Sakayanagi would undoubtedly be able to do the same, having the commanders intervene successfully was pretty much just a basic requirement of the test.
After the written test finished, the teachers immediately began grading the answer sheets.
Given that this was an event that Class A had proposed, if we managed to win, our overall chances would rise exponentially.
We'd be able to challenge the fifth event with the possibility of taking home the entire special exam.
"Well then, I will now be announcing the results of the Math Test event. Class C: 631 points."
Our average score for each student was around 90%, a very impressive result.
However, if the questions on the test weren't very difficult, there would be other things to worry about.
"And for Class A… 655 points. Class A wins."
Sakagami-sensei reported the two cumulative scores, revealing that we had lost the event by a slim, narrow margin of just 24 points.
"That was dangerously close. Everyone in Class C must have studied quite a lot. If you had chosen Horikita-san and Kōenji-kun, you might have won, don't you think?"
"…Maybe so."
It was regrettable that we hadn't been able to steal the win this time. If I had included both Horikita and Kōenji, it's true that we might have won. But even so, it still wouldn't have been a guarantee either.
Furthermore, we were now facing the reality that, if the Modern Literature Test were to be drawn next, we would pretty much just lose automatically.
Class C simply didn't have anyone left whose academic abilities would be good enough to surpass those of Class A.
With this, the lead we had was gone. The score had once again evened out at two wins and two losses.
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