'Uncalled for, but not unplanned for.'

"Chabashira-Sensei, don't you think you're jumping the gun a bit with this ultimatum of yours?"

An inscrutable expression marred her face, as Yukio stared at her dead in the eyes. 

"With what I've read about you Yukio Kobayashi, I can assure you, I very much so have the means to expel you." 

"And what would those means be, might I ask?"

'What could she have found that's so incriminating? No. For starters, could this just be a bluff on her part? Maybe to acquire information from the source itself. Haa… it's unfortunate that the source itself does not know his own circumstances.' 

"I don't think you hold enough leverage in this conversation to ask me questions, Kobayashi." 

'Leverage? Obviously I don't have leverage. What a joke it would be if neither of us had any information though. Well… it's not like I didn't gain any from this though.'

"Sensei, honestly I don't have the time to act out this farce with you. If you don't want to divulge the information you have, then don't. I'm leaving."

Yukio was about to turn to the door but was stopped in his tracks by the bland statement that came out of the class D teacher's mouth.

"If you walk out of that door, you'll be expelled."

Yukio quickly turned around, appearing slightly irritated at the antics of his teacher. 

'She is too scheming! I could take a gamble and just walk right out, but that message I saw before I woke up in this world mentioned that expulsion would not be tolerated. Whether or not that was a dream, the circumstances of my transmigration and the weird image before I awoke seem to relate.'

Yukio walked slowly up to Sae, who stood her ground, and got up close to her face. 

"Sensei, I won't take a threat like that lying down, you know." 

"You perceived it as a threat. I stated a fact. You will work with me these next three years to get us to class A."

'Ah! Now I see what she's doing.'

Yukio reached up to a stray hair around her neck and rubbed it between his fingers. 

"Sensei. I grew up in an all-boys school where arguments were settled with fists."

'Don't explicitly threaten her.'

"And what would your mother say about that?"

The hand holding Sae's hair unintentionally clenched into a mighty fist before relaxing, with Yukio breathing out a sigh.

"Again, Sensei, I don't plan to play along with your farce."

"Oh? But you've already acted splendidly so far."

An unnatural grin spread across Sae's face as she looked into Yukio's eyes delightedly. 

"Hm… and how did I do that?"

"That hand of yours around my neck. I wonder how it would be perceived in the CCTV footage from this angle." 

Yukio looked around and noticed a CCTV directly behind him. His body would appear to cover the entirety of Sae's body and his arm would be raised up to her neck. 

"The hand that is holding your hair?"

"Hair or neck, what does it matter? Isn't it just a detail that can be edited when I file a report against you for violent behaviour?"

'She's good. So the background on me was a bluff. But she knew about my mother? So there must be something there.'

"I'll admit you got me there, but can the microphones be fooled too? I think not Sensei."

"That's just a small issue as long as you know the placement of them."

The woman sported a large smile as his counter was rebutted flawlessly. Though her glee was destined to be short-lived as her happy look began to crumble under Yukio's widening grin, as an ominous vibe came over the female individual in the room. 

"Who said it was the school's microphone that would be fooled?"

Yukio raised his school-issued phone in the air with the microphone on record, visible to the class D teacher who instantly deflated and took a step back, understanding when she had been beaten. 

'Why would he record our conversation? No! When did he begin recording? He didn't do it while he was in the room I'm sure. Did he do it before even entering? He predicted the route the conversation would go before I even let up any clues. This boy, no man…'

Sae looked back up at Yukio who now had a permanent lop-sided grin plastered across his face as he watched the look of enlightenment in her eyes. 

'…is a genius.'

"Chabashira-sensei there's no need to look that awed. Honestly, I think we just got off on the wrong foot. It would be lovely to get to know each other better."

Hitting 'Stop' on the audio, he pocketed the trusty phone while Sae watched him doing so. She knew what that gesture meant and immediately snapped at him-

"What do you want?"

"Sensei, let's not talk about what happened earlier. Why don't we get to bond with each other over a cup of coffee." 

And without asking for her permission, he walked into the kitchen and made himself at home.

Understanding she would have to acquiesce to his demands henceforth, Sae allowed to teenager to run amok within the guidance room. 

— — —

'Wow, that was nerve-wracking. Honestly, knowing everything about the Classroom of the Elite is a cheat.'

Yukio reflected on his experience with Sae, who was just in the other room, as he remembered walking right up into her face.

'Did I really just do that? To a teacher no less. I must have grown some serious balls. Haa… it's probably because she ticked off my survival instincts honestly. I'm glad I came in with a plan though. Sae… The Queen of Bluffs is a fitting title for her. She most likely had no past to go off of and tried to rile me up to create some blackmail material.'

Donning a mask of confidence, reinforced by the slight annoyance he had felt earlier when she threatened him, he walked back into the guidance room. 

'Oh shoot, I should send Ayanokouji back to the dorms. My bad.'

Passing a cup over to his class's teacher, he walked out of the room and quickly informed Ayanokouji that he'd meet him back at the dorms. Upon returning to the room, he leisurely sat down and looked Chabashira in the eyes, before immaturely saying-

"Do I hold enough leverage now, Sensei?"

"Very funny Kobayashi. What do you want?"

She retorted frankly, to which Yukio decided to oblige, knowing the sensei wouldn't continue to entertain his taunts.

"Just as I said earlier, I would like to get to know you better Sensei. Despite your cranky attitude toward us students, you clearly have the interests of class D in mind. Why is that? To even resort to blackmailing me… and planning something for the duo earlier too, right?"

Sae looked at the student sitting in front of her, unsurprised at his latest inference, and studied his expressions to check how serious he was.

"What do you really want, Kobayashi? You don't seem to care much for class D, and by extension, your friendship circle."

"Chabashira-Sensei, what's with asking me a question back? Well, I'll answer anyway. I want an easy life. If I can get that as a class D or a class A, I don't really care. Being schemed against is not part of my plans for an easy life so I put a stop to it." 

"So you would be willing to help class D rise to class A?"

Sae, despite her circumstances, still appeared hopeful. Someone of Yukio's calibre helping the class would boost the chances of reaching profound heights by a healthy margin. 

"No. I have no intention of working to rise to class A. I do, however, want private points so I can enjoy my life at this school. My desire does happen to associate with your desire… for now at least."

Chabashira relaxed in her seat, having received a satisfactory answer and ruminated over the story she would tell Yukio. 

Taking a quarter of an hour to narrate her background to him, Yukio listened on in contentment at the light novel's stories being told to him. 

'Hm… it's quite fun messing with the events at the school when your reward is living the raw Classroom of the Elite experience.' 

"Thank you for telling me that Sensei. While I do have the audio saved on my phone, I don't plan to use it against you anytime soon."

"Hm… so that's it? You don't want anything else?"

Sae looked at him in confusion, thinking she had lucked out with someone passive such as Yukio holding leverage over her. 

"Oh, no. Of course, I'll demand compensation for the emotional damages… in the form of three favours. The first will be to allow me to read through my student profile notes that only teachers have access to. I'm sure that's something easy for you to arrange."

"That can be arranged. I'll inform you about it sometime this week."

"Perfect. The second favour is slightly complicated. I want you to arrange for Ike and Sudou to both score a point below the pass mark in the midterms. And I want you to raise the price of a point in the exam to 250,000." 

At this point, Sae was extremely bewildered by his odd request but still nodded her head. Tapping his chin, Yukio mock thought about his third favour before cheekily stating-

"I think I'll keep the third favour on hold for now. Just to keep you on your toes, sensei. I'll see you in class tomorrow. Have a good day." 

His objective in putting himself on her radar and promptly shutting down any of her would-be and future schemes against him had ultimately been fulfilled.

As Yukio made his way to the dorms, he thought back on the way he handled Sae's 'punishment'. 

'Haa… can that even be called a punishment? It's just that I've developed a soft spot for the Sensei who is desperate to reach class A. When I lost my mother and became estranged from all of my friends in my past life, it was light novels, and the ability to connect with characters in the novels that kept me afloat. I've grown fond of the scheming woman and it's shown in my actions. I don't want to make things too hard on her but a line had to be drawn.'

Yukio thought of the things he asked Sae for and inadvertently smiled. 

'Now that I've got some material on her, she will keep me out of her plans, and I have gained my three favours. I just can't wait to watch them to bear fruit. Oh! Time to prepare for my talk with Ayanokouji.'