It was the next day.

Kai was probably waiting for a response from me.

What an annoying situation.

I was slowly getting dressed and preparing myself for the day. The bright artificial light was glaring into my eyes as I put my shoes on.

I was going to go to the lessons as usual. They were a good way to make me feel like a normal student. As I made my way through the door, a message appeared on my phone.

It was Erika.

—Can I come over?

That was it. I guess she was just following up on what she said last night. It was fine, I didn’t really mind if she came along with me to the class—she wasn’t as much of a hassle to deal with as Sumire was.

…

After a knock, I opened the door for her.

I guess the speed of it all caught her by surprise.

“Ah, Akira, you’re right there!”

“Yeah.”

She was dressed differently today.

“So, did you have anything you were going to do?”

“Yeah, I’m planning on going to the maths class.”

She seemed a little disappointed.

“Ah, um… do you mind if I come with you?”

“I don’t mind.”

She smiled a little before looking up at me.

We made our way to the lecture hall.

*

Find all triples (a, b, c) of positive integers such that a^3 + b^3 + c^3 = (abc)^2.

That was the question on the board.

This school had a weird obsession with number theory questions; I guess it must relate directly to the abilities in some way. However, I haven’t been able to find any direct connection between them just yet.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Students were taking down notes as the teacher explained techniques and ways to approach the question.

Normally, classes like this would be inefficient at best, but this school had actually managed to develop an effective system. The teacher was clear and coherent and was able to explain everything accurately.

There were three types of students.

The first type were those who were way ahead of the rest, with all the questions and teaching being basically trivial. This was a small worry since the school did not have mandatory participation, so they could simply skip the useless classes.

The second type is students who simply lack the foundation required to even learn the techniques and strategies being taught in the class. These people would’ve already been culled out through the entrance exam and (maybe) the interviews, although I didn’t know the content of them.

Thus, the majority of students would actually be able to gain value from the class. Maximising the resources of the school.

However, there was also a problem with this format.

The school wasn’t here to simply educate the young. In fact, the school had no need to care about anyone aside from the absolute smartest students.

In that regard, these classes were a waste of resources.

But knowing the school, they would never create a redundant product.

There was one simple explanation for why they created these classes.

It was the same reason over 300 students were admitted into the Ideal Human Project, despite the fact that there were only around three reported successes in the second and third generations.

The school had their bright shining stars, and then they had the sacrifices—whose only purpose was to be obstacles.

“Hey Akira, ‘c’ is equal to one, right?”

“I’m not sure, we’ll have to wait for the teacher.”

She giggled.

Scribbling down a few more lines of work, she turned to me again. The two of us were sitting on the edge of the row, so it was somewhat difficult to see the teacher at the front.

“You really have to work on your maths! It’s going to be hard to catch up if you’re too far behind.”

“Yeah, I’ve been going to quite a few classes.”

Spreading her fingers across the page of her notebook, she looked over at me. Leaning a little closer, I could hear the faint sound of her breathing.

“Akira, I could tutor you… if you want? I’ve been helping Fern with maths a lot.”

Sorry Erika, as much as I keep up this facade, I don’t want to waste your time.

“Uh, I don’t really like studying with other people around me.”

“It’s better with others! You keep each other motivated and you can always ask for help.”

“It’s okay, Erika. I like to study on my own.”

There was a moment of silence. I guess she accepted my answer in the end.

“Also, why do you never bring a notebook to class? You have to take notes if you want to retain what you’ve learnt.”

Taking notes.

It was something that I’d never done before.

…

There was some shuffling on the seats behind us. Erika didn’t seem to take much note of it, but it was clearly suspicious. Several girls moved around before sitting in different seats. I guess they were trying to be subtle.

While they were moving around, they placed a device on me.

It looked different to Kai’s [Scanner], but it was clearly made by someone’s ability.

It was stuck onto my back.

What a pain. I guess it was probably part of Kai’s scheme. If I had to guess, it was probably a tracker of some sort so Kai knew where I was, although his posse seemed to have their eyes on me most of the time anyway.

In the miniature commotion, I noticed that Fern was actually walking toward our seats. He missed most of the class, but upon seeing Erika and I, he was shocked.

Speeding up a little, he rushed over to us.

He whispered anxiously to Erika, who was sitting on my right.

“…What are you doing here?! With Akira as well!”

“…Um… we’re just listening to the maths class…”

“…What is this? You never go to maths class. Why did you decide to go today?”

This was a little awkward.