Classroom of The Elite : The Marionette

Chapter 45: Securing the Base

"While we wait for them to return, I think it's time for us to determine who will be our leader," Ikeda suggested as we all sought shelter under the shade of the lush trees.

"Isn't it clear who the leader is?" Tsukimi asked. "Ayase-chan is our leader, right?"

"Sorry, but Satonaka cannot be the leader," Ikeda said firmly. His tone also sounded slightly mocking, as if he had just stated something that should be common knowledge.

"Why not?" Tsukimi sounded a little offended. She was close friends with Satonaka, so maybe she thought Ikeda was questioning her friend's credibility without a clear reason, or maybe she didn't like Ikeda's tone when responding to her suggestion. However, if you remember the rules explained by Shionome-sensei, there is a clear reason why Satonaka cannot be the leader.

"Don't forget that on the last day, each class will guess the leader of the other classes. If our leader is guessed correctly by one class, we will lose points," Ikeda explained. "Understand? That's why we can't choose someone too obvious. Satonaka has been acting as the class rep of our class since our first day at school, not to mention she is a member of the student council. Her name is surely the first thing that comes to mind when people talk about the leader of class C."

"Ikeda-kun is right," Satonaka agreed. "Unfortunately, too many people know me. We have to choose someone else..."

After she said that, I immediately stood up from the large rock I was sitting on. "Before we discuss that, can you listen to me for a moment?"

Satonaka and some other students immediately turned to look at me. Why do their ears seem so sensitive every time I say something? I'm still not used to constantly being the center of attention every time I speak.

"Uhm... I just want to say that before we choose our leader, maybe we should first determine how we will approach this exam," They didn't say anything and continued to stare at me with a serious look. That was probably a sign to encourage me to continue. "So... basically, I can think of two approaches to this exam. The usual way and... uh, a slightly more defensive way..."

Ikeda's expression became more serious. "A defensive way?"

"We want to save as many points as possible, occupy as many spots as possible, and find out as many leaders from other classes as we can. That's what most people want to do, but the problem is with occupying spots. We don't know how many spots there are on this island and how far apart they are, but our ownership of a spot can only last for eight hours. That means if we don't want our spot to be taken by another class, our leader has to walk around the forest at least three times a day to reclaim all those spots."

"That sounds troublesome," Kouki commented.

"Not only troublesome but also risky..." I continued. "Other classes can easily guess who our leader is just by seeing who goes out to occupy the spot."

"In that case, send more than one person..." Ikeda proposed.

"Yes we can do that, but in the end, only the leader can use the keycard to occupy the spot. So they could hide near the card reader to spy on us, and see which one who will use the card"

After hearing my retort, Ikeda rubbed his chin. "You're right..."

"That's why if you guys didn't want to take the risk, then we can use the second way. Basically, we don't need to bother occupying spots other than the ones we will live in. Therefore, since we only have one spot, we don't need to go far from our camp and the leader can be chosen randomly, and we can arrange it so that nobody can see when we reclaim our spot by covering together or maybe we can try and build some kind of partition around it using stuff that we bought. No one can guess our leader that way..."