Volume 2-5 Chapter 2
TL: D3nj4l#7402
TLC/Proofread: Ponglettt#0647
Intro
The day after I was installed as the manager (?) of the maid cafe.
When Chabashira entered the class, from her stiff expression most students immediately realized something was weird.
However, unlike before, the words “special test” were not the first to appear in our minds. The biggest reason for it was that we were convinced that our next special test would be the sports festival. Further, the culture festival was already planned for after the sports festival.
“Before the sports festival in October, you will have to face a new special test.”
A tremor ran through most students. Last year around this time, there were no other special tests and we’d already started preparing for the sports festival. However, it looked like this year would be different.
“Another test? And we just cleared the difficult Uninhabited Island Survival Test…”
As was custom by this point, the first person to speak up was Ike, complaining as usual.
Ike had just gotten through a close shave with expulsion in the Uninhabited Island Survival and was finally establishing a romantic relationship with Shinohara Satsuki. So, he was already imagining the many dangers up ahead.
No matter how close you got and how well you built the relationship, depending on the special test, expulsion was always on the table.
There was no doubt that especially those students who ranked low in the OAA similarly sensed danger.
“Heh, I’m up for this. Before I own everybody in the sports festival, I feel like breezin’ through another special test.”
Sudou, who was supremely confident about his athletic skills, bumped his fists together.
“Don’t get carried away.”
“… ok.”
Sudou shut up, somewhat dejected, after Horikita immediately warned him.
That’s a nice master-servant relationship… No, you could say they are developing a relationship of friends.
“Honestly speaking, in past years we’ve rarely had a special test at this time of the year. And in reality, the first and third years don’t have to take a special test now.”
“So it’s just us second years who’ll be taking a special test before the sports festival?”
Satou asked, leaning forward from her earlier position with her back to the chair.
Completely in agreement with her, Chabashira nodded.
“Even the school values you excellent second year students highly.”
“Ehhh? Saddling us with a special test because you value us… isn’t that weird?”
“It is true that every special test carries an element of risk you have to be worried about. You can lose class or private points, and in some cases some of you might even get expelled. But in another sense, you could even say that you got more opportunities to live a more fulfilling student life. In fact, in order to reach Class A, a goal you all must consider more important than anything else, each additional special test is a gift of an opportunity.”
She’s right. If we wanted to gain a large amount of class points, it would be extremely difficult for us to accumulate those in just our daily lives. In fact, if we had to say, not having a special test could often mean that we were sure to lose class points instead. Whether it was the uninhabited island survival test or any other test, special tests gave us our first chance to rise to the upper classes.
“Fortune and misfortune are two sides of the same coin. It is precisely because there is a risk that we have something to gain, wouldn’t you say?”
Horikita calmly accepted Chabashira’s words and asked her from up close.
“Exactly.”
“We have nothing to be afraid of. As of now, we are certainly under pressure from Class A. All the classes below Class B are neck and neck, and the opportunity to pull ahead and leave them behind has come early.”
Every opportunity counts. That was the common understanding of all of us as we aimed for the top.
“That’s right… But it’s not like the test would disappear because I was unhappy about it, right?”
Satou and the rest of our classmates seemed to agree with Horikita’s words.
While not even close to complete yet, Horikita’s growth as the pillar of the class has definitely made a positive impact on the class. Chabashira herself must’ve been overjoyed by it, but she showed none of it on her face. She had never been one to let her stern expression slip, but I get the feeling that was much more true at this moment than before.
“This time, you will face the ‘Unanimous Consent Special Test’.”
The monitor turned on, and as was becoming usual a video started playing along with the explanation.
“The special test this time is extremely simple. So, if you have any questions, I’ll take them as they come up. The test will be held tomorrow, and as I’m sure you can guess from the name, it will involve the class voting on a multiple choice question again and again until the entire class reaches a consensus.”
“Tomorrow? … that seems awfully rushed.”
There wasn’t even any time to prepare. Of course, it wouldn’t make it unfair or give anybody an advantage or a disadvantage, but just as the class settled down it tensed up again.
“As I just said, this test is very simple. The school considers it unnecessary for you to take time to prepare, and has decided that there is no problem with holding it tomorrow.”
The class will have to vote on a question again and again until we reach a consensus.
Certainly, from just that, it was hard to see anything complicated in the test.
“So, we won’t be competing against other classes this time, right?”
Considering it more important than anything else, Yousuke immediately requested clarification on that point.
“Yes. This time the test will be completed within the class itself, and there is no need to compete with your rival classes. Tomorrow, the test will start with you receiving five ‘motions’ from the school. The contents of the motions will be the same for all classes, so there will be no discrimination.”
If the motions were different, the level of difficulty could vary from class to class, so that much was obvious.
“Let’s get right to it with an example motion to make it clear.”
Example Motion: You will lose five class points, but all members of the class will get 10,000 private points.
Options: Support | Oppose
The motion was shown on the display, and as had been announced, it was simple and very easy to understand.
“Mmm? What is this? Umm… so we’ll lose five points, but in turn we’ll all get ten thousand private points… This is a motion? Is this a good deal? Or bad?”
It wasn’t unreasonable for many to have various unexpected doubts.
Even though it was just an example motion, we were expecting something that would make us think more about our choices.
Shinohara, who spoke the earlier statement, bent her fingers as she made the profit-loss calculations in her head.
For each class point, we receive 100 private points each month.
So five class points were worth 500 private points.
At first thought, it would seem like the private points were worth significantly more.
However, class points would continue to hold value over time.
For just one month five class points would just be worth 500 private points, but if you consider over the span of one year those very five class points would be worth 6,000 private points. Until we graduate, that is, in the period from October of our second year to March of our third year, we would receive private points 18 more times. So, those five class points were worth 9,000 private points.
Would you rather take 10,000 points now, or receive 9,000 points over time until you graduate? Considering just the value of the private points, the former was slightly better.
However, it wasn’t so simple.
Say, if the five class points we lost now continued to affect us until we graduated, and caused us to lose out on becoming Class A, we would look back on this moment and think of it as the worst possible choice.
Of course, it wasn’t very likely that the margin between victory and defeat would be just five class points. And on the other hand, it was entirely plausible to have situations where getting 10,000 private points would be worth more.
So there were pros and cons to either side of the argument.
“In response to this motion, all 39 of you will vote in a secret ballot for one of the available choices. Since seeing is believing, I will have you actually vote on this question now. I’m sure you have many questions, but without spending time discussing it I want you to try it out. On your tablet, tap the Support or Oppose button.”
At Chabshira’s direction, our tablet screens changed. On the screen, the motion was displayed along with buttons for the Support and Oppose options. What an unusual special test. For now, let’s think about this seriously.
Private points, which don’t directly affect our class points. Supporting this measure would lead to all of my classmates receiving 10,000 points, a clear gain. However, along with that, we would lose just five – but still, five class points.
In this situation, we must consider what the instinctual response of a person would be.
It is not a question of whether you would want to gain 10,000 private points or not lose five class points, but the other way around. It is a question of which choice you would not regret making.
I was sure there would be few votes for it, so I decided to press the Support button and see how the results play out. I had judged that it wouldn’t be a good idea for there to be unanimity in the very first round.
“Good, all of you have voted, so I’ll show the results now.”
With that sign, the result was displayed on the monitor.
Round 1 Results: Support 3; Oppose 36.
I knew the opposition would get the majority of the votes, but I had not expected the margin to be so large.
“U, Umm? Wouldn’t the 10,000 points be more than what we would get bit by bit with the five class points? Did I mess up the calculation? Why are so many opposed?”
Ike had apparently voted to support the motion, so he looked around the class and wondered out loud.
“While it is true that in terms of just private points the 10,000 are worth more, class points are essential to our goal of reaching Class A. Since the difference is just a thousand private points, there’s no need to sacrifice our precious class points for them.”
Horikita had apparently voted against the motion, and she logically explained her reasoning for why.
“Just in case, if those five points make the difference between victory and defeat, we would never be able to stop kicking ourselves over it.”
As I thought, most students were concerned about the “just in case” possibility. Further, we couldn’t forget that the other classes were also facing the same motions. If the other three classes had unanimously agreed to keep their class points, we would fall one step behind the rest. Of course, if we had something we could use 10,000 private points for, the situation would be different.
“I’m sure you all have your own questions but listen to me for a moment. Despite the overwhelming majority of 36 votes in opposition, since the result was not unanimous you will have to vote on it again. In the actual test, you will have a fixed interval of ten minutes between rounds of voting. In that time, you will be allowed to talk freely as you are now, and even leave your seat at times to discuss your opinions. However, for now, we’ll skip that. Please vote again.”
The goal of this test is to reach a consensus.
Every round we failed to reach consensus would be wasted, and a time gap of ten minutes would be forced on us.
Even if we managed to hash our opinions out quickly, that amount of time was forfeit.
It was very likely that this test was set up with a time limit.
It was possible that if we kept failing to reach a consensus we would run out of time…
At any rate, it wouldn’t take a lot of thought to figure out that we had to select Oppose in the second round of voting.
If we selected Oppose, we could reach a consensus.
Therefore, even in the second round of voting I deliberately chose to go with Support.
I thought that doing so would help my classmates truly understand this test.
Round 2 Results: Support 2; Oppose 37.
“O, oi! Who’s still voting Support even after what we just discussed?”
“Sorry, it’s me, Sudou-kun. I was deliberately trying to prevent a consensus. Looks like there’s someone else who’s thinking just like I am… isn’t it?”
She wasn’t looking at me, but she was probably referring to me.
“That’s the result of the second round. Most of you have decided to Oppose, but there are still two votes for Support. In this case, we would once again have the ten minute interval and another round of voting after it. In this way, the test will involve repeating this vote-interval-vote pattern until you arrive at a unanimous decision, that is, 39 votes for Support or 39 votes for Oppose. Of course, the resolution you make at the end will actually be adopted. For example, if you got 39 votes for Support in this case, all of you would receive 10,000 private points but the class would lose five class points. And on the other hand if there were 39 votes for Oppose, the motion would be shelved and nothing at all would happen.”
In short, we would move on from this motion without anybody getting or losing anything.
“We have not had a unanimous result yet, but in the interest of time let us move on to the next example.”
Example Motion: One member of the class will receive one million private points.
(In case of unanimous assent, the student who will receive the points will be selected and voted on.)
“I’m sure you have some thoughts on the example motion, but in the test you are prohibited from discussing the motion before the first round of voting. Therefore, you must simply consider the motion and vote.”
So you will be allowed to discuss what you thought of the motion from before the second round of voting.
Round 1 Results: Support 39; Oppose 0.
The result was displayed on the screen, and it was entirely as expected. Even if it was just one person out of 39 receiving the money, there was almost no reason to oppose it. Even if someone would be pissed that they couldn’t get the money, it would be difficult to reach a unanimous decision in opposition.
“In the test, for motions like this which require selecting an individual, you will first have to reach a consensus on whether to support or oppose as was done with the first example motion. If you choose to oppose it, the motion ends right there, but if you support it, the motion will not end and you will have to proceed to the next step. There will be an interval and you will have to discuss and pick a nominee. On your tablet, you will be able to see the names of everyone except yourself.”
The screen on my tablet changed again, and as she had said the names of everyone except my own were listed on it.
But it wasn’t sorted in alphabetical order, and the names were randomly arranged with no regard for gender.
“In order to maintain anonymity, the list of names will be reordered randomly every time you vote. This applies to the Support and Oppose options as well. This is to prevent your neighboring students from figuring out who or what you voted for from the position of your finger when you tap.”
She told us we absolutely couldn’t read what our neighbors were voting for and continued with her explanation.
“If your discussions are fruitful, each of you can vote as and when you want. You just have to tap on the name of the one student you want to nominate. Within the interval, you can also reset your choice and change your vote. After ten minutes have passed, the student chosen by a majority of the class, that is, over twenty people in this class will be recognized as the subject. For example, say Ike was nominated by the majority and selected.”
“Eh, me?! Nice!”
“Since he’s been selected, Ike will not be able to vote for now. The remaining 38 of you should vote now.”
Any student who wins the majority vote is fairly close to being a unanimous choice. That is the setup of the nomination.
The voting for the next step of the motion began, and we voted.
Example Motion : Ike Kanji will receive one million private points.
Options : Support | Oppose
Round 2 Result: Support 0; Oppose 38.
“Eeeeeeh?! Wai- why did nobody vote for me?!”
“No, why would we ever give you a million points?”
Sudou represented the feelings of the entire class when he said that.
“Because of the unanimous result in opposition to the motion to give Ike a million points, the motion falls. However, that only leads to Ike’s name being removed from the list of possible subjects for this motion, and the disbursal of the million points remains up in the air. Therefore, you will be able to select a student from the remaining 38 and the motion will continue. However, if you fail to pick a subject for the motion and achieve consensus before time runs out, you will fail the test. Further, the one million points will not be given out to anybody, so be careful.”
“Ehh! You mean my chances of getting that money have just become 0?”
“Exactly. If there was even one vote for you, you would’ve remained on the list. Further, people can also volunteer to be the subject. If someone volunteers in the interval, they will be accepted as the subject on a first-come-first-serve basis. However, one person can only volunteer once for a particular motion.”
“But, what if nobody receives a majority of the nominations or volunteers before the time runs out, what will you do then? I think that case is entirely possible.”
“In that case, someone from the class will be selected at random and you will proceed to vote.”
Time and the motion won’t wait for us, someone will be forced to be the subject and we will vote.
“So it seems like it would be a waste of time to pick someone from among us.”
She was right. There were as many options as there were students in the class.
However, we can’t say for sure that we would fall in line with the student that was randomly selected.
“Keep your wits about you, everybody. This test could be more difficult than we expected…”
We can’t assume that all the motions will be such that we can talk it out and come to a consensus.
It was very possible that we could be under pressure with a motion where one side would absolutely not yield.
Rather, if it weren’t like that, there would be no meaning to this special test.
“Finally, let’s go through one last example motion. This time, as a practice round, we’ll take it to its conclusion.”
Example Motion: The school has decided to add facilities to Keyaki Mall. Of the following, which do you prefer?
(The school will pick the facility which receives the most votes from all the classes combined.)
Options: Restaurant | General Store | Recreational Facilities | Hospital
Unlike the questions so far, this one was not limited to Support or Oppose and had four options.
I thought it would be restricted to Support and Oppose type votes, but it seems like that wasn’t the case.
It seems like what we choose would actually be brought to life, but if this was not just an example motion, I wonder if they would actually construct those facilities.
“If the motion is passed with Support or Oppose, it will be adopted as is. On the other hand, motions which can affect the entire student body will take a different approach. For such motions, when you reach a consensus, the option your class picks will only be considered as one vote for that option. Even if this class unanimously chooses the restaurant, if the other three classes unanimously choose the recreational facilities, the recreational facilities will have received three votes and will be added.”
I think everybody already understood what Chabashira had explained. The motions were split into two types: those that had the power to make a change immediately, and those which only counted as the class’s vote towards a change. Regardless of which type a motion was, we had to be careful and discuss among ourselves to reach a unanimous decision.
Since we weren’t allowed to talk before the first round of voting, I voted based on my intuition.
Round 1 Results: Restaurant 20; General Store 4; Recreational Facilities 15; Hospital 0.
“Since we didn’t get a unanimous result, we will now have a ten minute interval.”
For the first time, we were going to have the interval time period.
The monitor behind the pedestal started counting down ten minutes. As soon as the timer ended, we would be forced into the next round of voting.
The students were allowed to freely leave their seats, talk to each other in loud voices or whisper to specific people, and build a consensus using whatever means they liked. I watched my surroundings and waited it out. The ten minutes passed without anybody calling the shots and most people just randomly talking to each other.
“Just before the interval ends, you will have to return to your seats and prepare to vote. You will have to vote within 60 seconds. If everyone finishes voting quickly, you won’t have to wait for the time limit to elapse and the results will be displayed immediately.”
Unlike the ten minute interval, we were allowed to reduce the duration of the voting round.
“And those who don’t finish voting within the 60 second period will be strictly penalized for the excess time taken. Each student will have a grace timer of 90 seconds for the entire exam. If any student takes a total of 90 seconds of excess time before the five motions are done, their grace timer will go down to 0 and they will be expelled.”
This was the School’s restriction to ensure all of us would vote for sure. If someone got ticked off and didn’t want to vote, they would quickly be expelled.
Even if someone tried to delay the proceedings every time we had to vote, if they didn’t finish voting by the 58th or 59th second they would start drawing from their precious grace timer, so it would be unlikely that anybody would go out of their way to attempt that
And so, the results of the second round of voting.
Round 2 Results: Restaurant 23; General Store 2; Recreational Facilities 14; Hospital 0.
Since there was no attempt at building a consensus, we ended up with a result that was very similar to the first round’s.
For motions that weren’t very pointed, it would’ve been difficult to get a consensus opinion on the very first round.
Along with that, it wouldn’t be too difficult to unite on one option and get 39 votes on it.
However, that was only true for motions that were within the scope of our expectations.
Depending on the motion, we could require a considerable amount of discussion as well.
“Let’s end this example here, but I think the flow of the exam must be clear by now. In order to clear this test, you will have to reach a consensus on five motions within a five hour period. If you are unable to finish all motions within the five hour period, an extremely severe penalty is in store for you. You will lose 300 class points.”
“Th- three hundred?!”
So, in this special test, it was absolutely essential to clear the motions.
“But if you do succeed in clearing the motions within the time limit, you will receive 50 class points.”
The risk and reward did not seem evenly balanced at first sight, but if you considered the difficulty of the test it seemed appropriate.
“Don’t panic, guys. We don’t have to fight anyone else this time, and we just have to unite our opinions. So long as we have the time, we can repeat the vote again and again with the interval in between.” Hirata said.
“I’m sure you’ve all understood the key points of this test. I will now show you a summary of the rules of the test. Those who consider it useful to keep a copy of the rules for reference can take a screenshot of it.”
Unanimous Consent Special Test Summary
Explanation of Rules
- In response to the motions put forward by the school, all members of the class will have to vote on the options.
(There will be five questions in total. There will be at most four choices for each question.) - So long as the response to a particular motion is not unanimous, the same motion will be repeated again.
- In case time runs out before unanimous consent is not reached for a motion, regardless of the progress on that motion the response will not be acknowledged.
- A unanimous response to any motion will be acknowledged, regardless of success or failure in the rest of the test.
- Clearing all questions put forward will grant the class 50 points.
- Failing to clear any of the questions within the five hour limit will lose the class 300 points.
The Procedure of the Special Test
- A motion will be presented. Voting will begin for 60 seconds.
- If the response is unanimous, proceed to the next motion and go back to 1. Otherwise, continue to 3.
- There will be a ten minute break. During this period, students are allowed to move around and talk within the class as they wish.
- Voting will begin again for 60 seconds. During this period, students are not permitted to talk, and are only allowed to vote..
(If any student has not finished voting within 60 seconds, the extra time will be counted against the grace time for that student. If any student uses over 90 seconds of the grace time, they will be expelled.) - The results of the voting will be presented. If the response is unanimous, proceed to the next motion and go back to 1. Otherwise, repeat from 3.
Repeating these steps again and again, once five motions are completed the special test is done. In case we failed we would be penalized. It would be no overstatement to say that losing 300 class points at this stage would be equivalent to losing our ticket to Class A.
If the other classes were able to clear the test, just with that we would fall behind them all by 350 points.
While we could discuss as much as we want, I’m sure the biggest hurdle would be the secret ballot, which would prevent us from knowing who had voted for what.
Even if someone voted to Support, they could swear they had voted to Oppose.
“Even we teachers have absolutely no idea of what kind of motions you will face tomorrow. I’m sure many of you are optimistic, but I will warn you to not let your guard down. In this test, it is strictly prohibited to make contracts or the like with others to restrict them to vote for only a specific option of a motion. It is also not allowed to exchange money to buy votes. Consider this to be as applicable within the class as it is across classes.”
So it was not allowed to control someone else’s votes.
To some extent, you were allowed to band together to fix votes, but you couldn’t verify that everyone had done as they promised.
Say you signed a contract with someone to only vote on one of the options. The existence of just one person who had promised to vote only on one of the options could lead to the test falling apart.
Just with that, a class could make a brutal attack on another class.
“The school will be keeping watch to ensure the rules are followed. If it becomes known that someone outside the class has caused people to pick the same option again and again, all involved persons may be mercilessly expelled. Keep that in mind. Further, if any of you is the target of foul play, immediately approach the school and I promise that we will spare no effort in ensuring that it is resolved.”
If we run out of time in this special test where clearing it is assumed, the school will certainly conduct an investigation.
Even if someone just broached the topic, it was likely that they could face severe penalties, so even someone like Ryuuen would refrain from openly doing that.
It was probably better to refrain from clumsily interacting with students from other classes until before the start of this test.
“Also, the protect point will be temporarily ineffective in this test. […]”
[End Trial]
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