How to Survive at the Academy Chapter 104

Student President Election Below (5)

As the student body president election approaches, the academic atmosphere is getting more and more intense.

As for which candidates would come out, it seemed that an outline had already been drawn to some extent among the students. Among them, the interest in Princess Fenia in particular was sky-high, to the point where even students who had no interest in anything other than academics were waiting for Princess Fenia’s declaration of candidacy.

“As of this morning, Lortel Kecheln has announced that she will run for student council president.”

Princess Penia was also quite taken aback by the information brought by the escort knight Claire.

“Elte Firm… Lortel Kecheln…? You mean yourself?”

“yes.”

Princess Penia tilted her head and expressed her curiosity.

Lortel Kecheln is the real power behind the scenes, not the kind of person who seeks to occupy such a foreground position.

In addition, it is Lortel, who is watching the work of Elte Firm. There was no way he could double as the student council president with a lot of work. If he really took the position of student council president, it would be safe to say that he would hardly see the work of the upper body.

I didn’t think Lortel’s personality would make such a choice.

However, it was not possible to view Claire’s information as incorrect. This is because he always carefully selects and brings only double-triple verified information.

“It’s unusual… What’s certain is that if she, who already holds onto the living area, gets the student council president position… then she’ll be able to reign like a king in this Sylvania. That’s best… I want to stop it.”

“If it’s the princess…”

“But… I have no intention of becoming student president.”

Princess Penia cut off Claire’s mantra.

After setting the teacup down on the luxurious table in the private room of the imperial residence… After thinking for a while, Fenia came to a conclusion.

“I need to go see Miss Tanya in the guest room.”

*

“It’s a situation where you can’t hide forever. Miss Tanya.”

Even on the first floor of the imperial residence, the guest room was reached after going deep into the hallway and turning several times.

It was an isolated space where no one would come in and see it except for the cleaning workers.

Due to the geographical characteristics of Aken Island, which is located on the outskirts of the empire, it is rare for a noble guest to come to stay. Therefore, guest rooms were built according to architectural conventions, but did not fulfill their role.

Still, it was at least a shelter for Tanya, who had escaped, so now that I think about it, it wasn’t a complete waste.

When Princess Fenia entered the room, Tanya was sitting still at the table, shaking her body.

“Princess Fenia…”

“I don’t know how close Ed Rosteiler was to Lortel Cacheln during his lifetime, but the merchant seemed intent on securing Miss Tanya anyway.”

The image of Lortel, who always defended Ed Rosteiler, was clearly remembered by Princess Penia as well.

It was unknown what kind of relationship the two had, but at least I could infer that Ed might be a very meaningful person to Lortel.

“Anyway, no matter what Miss Tanya is trying to do, she needs to be cleared of the murder of Ed Rosteyler.”

“But… even if I think about it, with this amount of circumstantial evidence, they’ll think I’m the culprit. It’s not a very… good situation.”

“…Then, I guess I have no choice but to ask for Miss Tanya’s opinion.”

Princess Fenia came to the table across from Tanya and sat down with her glossy platinum hair swept to one side.

Looking at the girl who looks exactly like Ed Roth Taylor, with her flaming blonde hair and facial features, reminds me of the man who died in a daze before she could even pick up her faults.

He is no longer in the world, but he could promise that he would not repeat the same mistake.

“If Miss Tanya didn’t instruct Ed Rosteiler to kill, then who the hell did it?”

That question is also in line with the question that Princess Penia had been harboring for such a long time.

The deep and deep darkness of the unknown Roth Taylor family. If I could find and snatch out even that fragment… Helping Tanya wouldn’t be meaningless at all.

“that…”

Tanya lowered her gaze and hesitated.

Cardek and Knox, who were accused of murder, are longtime vassals of the Ross Taylor family.

The status of a vassal is not just an individual, but means beings who carry the majesty of a family on their backs. In order not to tarnish the name of the family, they were also educated to be careful in every single action.

What percentage of those people are likely to commit a murder completely unrelated to the will of the family?

Even to the extent of coming to this island called Aken Island as a dispatched person and directly stabbing and killing the young master they served in the past… It is absolutely not arbitrary.

Things got twisted and the crime itself was exposed, but anyway, the dark side that ordered the murder is sure to exist.

“That… thing… maybe…”

Tanya knows too. He says that if he didn’t direct it… not many characters would be able to direct Kadek and Knox to such extreme actions.

He could think of even the most likely suspect.

It’s… the father I admire, Kreffin Ross-Taylor.

No one other than him can order Cardek and Knox to kill Ed Roth-Taylor.

“…”

Just by seeing Tanya’s hesitation, Princess Penia was able to infer the reason behind it. This is because from the beginning, Princess Penia was also a person who had been suspicious of the infinitely dark Krepin Ross Taylor’s intentions.

Still, I didn’t ask further. The fact that his father, whom he trusted and followed all his life, did such a thing casually… is a fact that Tanya would find hard to accept right away.

“…The reason Kadek and Knox came to this Sylvania… To assist me is just a pretext… In reality, it was to kill Ed’s brother.”

Suddenly, as if organizing her thoughts, Tanya slowly opened her mouth.

“Miss Tanya…”

“I was just… a puppet.”

Tanya lowered her head and spoke quietly.

Come to think of it, Tanya’s life has always been like that.

How many times have you judged yourself and achieved something?

After growing up, he has been refining his strength under the tyranny of Ed, who has somehow lost his taste.

Even after coming to Sylvania, the only thing he did… was to carry his nose high as if he had achieved something, riding on the back of Ross Taylor’s majesty.

There is nothing in Tanya’s life that she could have achieved entirely on her own without the support of Ross Taylor. Except for the fact that she was born as a daughter of a noble family in the first place, she was just a girl of her age, she only studied a little and a lot.

That fact hit me hard again, and I sniffed the tip of my nose with my head down.

Still, I didn’t shed any tears. Then, as she stared at Fenia with her head stiffened again, much of her fright was gone. It really impressed Fenia that she tried to force herself through her tears and put on her stern expression.

Everyone in the Ross Taylor family is so arrogant and greedy that I can’t trust them.

Fenia, who fell into such prejudice and sent Ed away. Now that I see Tanya like that… Little by little, the prejudice against Ross Taylor that was inherent in her psychology is crumbling.

“As expected… I’m going to run for student president. Princess Penia.”

“It won’t be easy. He’s been charged with murder.”

“That’s right, it won’t be easy… Even thinking of the people who helped me when I was in such a predicament, I shouldn’t be so intimidated.”

Tanya nodded as she straightened her waist while clenching the hem of her skirt tightly.

“My father didn’t even care about Ed’s brother. The reason why he suddenly made such an extreme choice was probably because I wrote about him in a letter informing me of his current situation.”

“…That means…”

“Yes, that’s right. In a way… I was the one who brought Ed’s brother to such a terrible end.”

Of course, you can’t call it a sin. Tanya just updated her current situation as usual.

I couldn’t have predicted that it would lead to Ed’s death.

However, the situation unfolded like this.

“There is something I confirmed after coming to Sylvania. My older brother is no longer in the world, but a lot has changed in this land of learning, Sylvania. Until the day my older brother passed away, I couldn’t let go of that doubt… but now I can admit it. “

I think back to the time I went to Ed’s camp and was served tea.

He is resentful of his past self for not being able to trust Ed’s mind and clearing his eyes of suspicion.

After coming to Sylvania, the land of learning, devoting himself to his studies and meeting many people, Ed feels as if he is finally back to normal. It was so sudden that I couldn’t even admit it. Because of that, he couldn’t give a friendly smile to Ed Roth Taylor, who was kind to Tanya.

If even the reason for his death was himself, he had no choice but to carry it on his back.

Bearing the weight and surviving, and not letting Ed’s death be in vain is the only way to atone for the dead.

Will returns in Tanya’s eyes. Even the empty eyes began to show their own light to some extent.

“I will stand on an equal footing with senior Lortel, and I will hold the power that can’t have that influence on me. At least on the island of Aken… To the point where I can’t be threatening me.”

“To run for the student council president as it is now… would be very unfavorable. Above all, it’s a situation where you have to go through an academic investigation for being a teacher of murder.”

“It’s still a ‘suspicion’ and a ‘suspect’, but my charges haven’t been confirmed. Strictly speaking, I’m not a former criminal yet. As long as I finish this secluded life and go through the investigation, there’s no reason I can’t run for the student council president. In the first place With Cardek and Knox silently keeping their mouths shut, it’s safe to say that my charges won’t be confirmed unless other evidence emerges.”

Of course, it doesn’t end with the question of whether or not you can become a candidate for the student council president election according to the regulations.

Being charged with murder would be a ridiculous flaw as a candidate in an election campaign. It is highly likely that he would be too arrogant to challenge for the position of student council president with such flaws.

However, there was a will in Tanya’s expression.

When Princess Fenia saw Tanya like that, a subtle smile came out.

“Then let me… officially endorse Miss Tanya.”

There was no way Tanya would not know how much the official support of Princess Penia meant.

At the same time, the fact that Princess Fenia would have a huge political burden… is clear.

When Tanya opened her eyes wide and looked at Fenia, Fenia lowered her gaze as if to say not to mind.

“I also have unpaid debts to Ed Rosteyler during my lifetime.”

Closed eyes have many meanings.

The fact that I can’t stand to watch this whole school go over to that cruel merchant.

The fact that he can’t just leave Tanya in a corner.

And, even the debt consciousness of not being able to apologize to the dead Ed Rosteiler in the end makes Donghae… Fenia raise Tanya’s hand.

Who could have imagined it. It was the union of Fenia Elias Chloe and Tanya Rosteiler.

* [ Gee, can I talk to you now? ]

[Leave it alone, please. Mug, if it was your business to interfere, he would have called you right away. ]

[But… you’ve been sitting on a rock for two hours already, haven’t you moved at all? It’s high tide soon, shouldn’t we go into the cave soon? ]

[I think Master Ed is an idiot. When the water comes in, it will move on its own. ]

I could hear Lacia and Mug talking about their bickering.

Perhaps it was because he had been sitting still thinking for a long time, but the spirits also seemed to be feeling strange.

Spirits do not always reside nearby. Being in a fluid state and wandering around, or even high-ranking spirits with strong self-reliance are active separately… Even spirits that stick around for such a long time are not as common as you might think.

Mugg and Lacia hovered around me almost without going anywhere, so if I noticed something strange, they would whisper like that. Merilda, on the other hand, has very little time to just be around. He walks around the island as if it were his own, and when it’s important, he shows up quickly, so it doesn’t matter too much.

“hmm…”

What I had been thinking about while sitting on a rock for a long time was the conversation I had with Lortel.

– ‘I’m going to sell the student council president.’

– ‘It won’t be an easy journey, but the return will be just as great as the effort put in.’

<Sylvania’s Failed Swordsman> Act 3, Scene 2, Student Council President Election.

If I remember correctly… This is a stepping stone episode before the subjugation of ‘Claude, the Alchemist of Disaster’, the mid-boss of Act 3.

It is a scenario to show the drastic change in the composition of the characters around the main character, Taily.

The villain, Tanya Rosteilor, maintains her rivalry with Princess Fenia until the end… and eventually loses miserably.

It appears as a boss, but there is no particular battle scene. This is because the election for student president is nothing but a power competition within the bachelor.

The main character, Taily, was determined to actively support the forces of Princess Penia. Not to mention, at the beginning of the semester, Taylor got into trouble with Ed Roth Taylor. It can’t be helped that Taylor is always hostile to the people of the Ross Taylor family.

Therefore, the same can only be said of Tanya Rosteeler. In the first place, Tanya is also a character who is consumed as an arrogant villain.

Anyway, Taily persuades the students to side with Fenia. Of course, in the scenario, there is no way to persuade all the students to do something reckless. If you ask the players to do that one by one, they’ll get bored and run away.

So what Taily did in the scenario… was to meet the seniors of each grade and convince them to support Fenia. Systematically, whether or not the seniors of each grade supported them eventually worked as a variable determining whether or not the candidate was elected.

If you convince more than 5 out of 8 people who can be persuaded like that, Penia will be elected, and Tanya will be defeated after being ugly in the end.

During the persuasion process, various sub-quests required by each character are broken, but the quest conditions required by each student are all different. I still remember that it was a part that gave me a headache.

“I understand that the support of top students is important, but…”

I sighed and rubbed my chin a few more times.

The number of people who can be persuaded is set at 2 centrists in each grade.

Year 1, Joseph, head of the Ministry of Magic, and Claude, head of the Alchemy Department.

2nd Year Combat Division Chief Clevius, Alchemy Division Chief Elvira.

3rd Year Combat Club Chief Drake, Alchemy Department Chief Atalante.

4th year combat department head Dyke, magic department head Tracyana.

Securing the support of five out of these eight was a key condition for winning the election.

It is out of the question because Wade, the head of the 1st year combat department, already supports Princess Penia, and Dorothy, the 4th year chief of the pension department, already supports Tanya.

Also, Lucy, the 2nd year head of the Ministry of Magic, and Jenika, the 3rd year head of the Ministry of Magic, did not exercise their right to vote. Lucy is annoying. Because Yenika is completely neutral.

“hmm…”

It should have flowed as it was, but in reality, after the story has come this far, it is naturally twisted here and there.

The cracks that appeared little by little from the first act, by the third act, the snowball has grown out of control. It is impossible to imagine at this point how the electoral structure will change.

So, wanting everything to flow thoroughly as I know the story is greed.

However, I hope that the original structure will flow as much as Princess Penia, who will be of great help in the later battle against Crepin, will hold power.

Even if I couldn’t match all the small flow, it was comfortable for me to match the big flow to prepare for the future.

But… I just couldn’t get past what Lortel said.

– ‘I’m going to make Tanya the student council president first. By any means.’

With the rolling waves in the background, she sits on a light brown rock, hugs her knees, and smiles.

It is a colossus of the Elte Company that must have thousands of squirrels inside.

When asked why he wanted to make Tanya the student council president, the girl in his memory replies.

– ‘That’s right, it’s because he’s the senior’s younger brother.’

That answer was just a model answer Lortel had put together in his head.

Lortel’s scheme always ends here, but the deeper part remains.

That’s why I can’t just sit idly by.

However… it is ambiguous what to do. First of all, it’s because I’m officially ‘dead’ now.

First of all, I have to finish this useless pretending to be dead quickly, so it seems to be easier to move in many ways.

*

“I’ve gathered the relevant documents here. You really ran for student president, deputy head of Lortel.”

“Oh, thank you. Secretary Rienna. You can leave it there.”

Lortel gave simple instructions to the red-haired secretary, humming what made her feel so good.

Since Lortel handles most of the work herself without a secretary, Rienna, a low-level employee at the Sylvania branch of Elte Corporation, thought it was a big deal when she received the job. Certainly, the workload was too much for Lortel to handle even the tasks related to the student council elections.

The curious thing is that he voted for the student council president even though he was clearly aware of that. Are you really thinking of hitting the upper house if you win?

“Agent of Lortel Hoju. I…”

“Let’s not ask useless questions.”

As if he knew what Rienna was curious about, Lortel answered gently without stopping to turn over the papers.

“Anyway… I have no intention of being the student council president.”

“Yes? Then these documents…”

Suddenly, Lortel’s hand, which had been dancing on the papers, stopped. The ink spreads little by little under the still standing quill.

“Would you like to ask only the necessary questions?”

It was the most benevolent and beautiful smile in the world, but Rienna apologized for suddenly getting goosebumps. And she quickly closed the door to her office and left.

Left alone, Lortel hums again and moves her quill.

“Anyway… I’ll find out…”

Tanya Rosteiler is afraid of Lortel. Outwardly, Lortel seems to think that Tanya killed Ed.

Retaining that position, openly hinting at retaliation, Lortel becomes the ‘whip’ that pressures Tanya.

On the other hand, whether Fenia or Tanya… they will have a strange sense of debt to the officially deceased Ed Rosteeler.

The psychological debt of not being able to properly recognize the sincerity of the man, treating him harshly, and neglecting him until the day he finally dies… doesn’t go away easily. It is even more so when you consider the personality traits of the two.

If left as it is and fanned out, the existence of a man named Ed Roth Taylor in the consciousness of the two will become more and more special, developing into something like a sanctuary that cannot be touched.

Then, when Ed Roth Taylor is alive, if the sense of debt and compensation psychology finally blooms, the recognition and actions of a man named Ed Roth Taylor will be a ‘carrot’ that is hard to refuse.

In order to do so, if you continue to stimulate a sense of debt to Ed Rosteiler, you can eventually drive to a situation where everyone falls into Ed’s grasp when you wake up. The psychology of a person is that the more he is driven into a corner, the more extreme he becomes. The whip for him is Lortel himself.

Going back and forth between repulsion and acceptance, conquering someone at the top of your hand, and adjusting your life skills to suit yourself.

Holding both the whip and the carrot in his hand, and little by little pushing the student council president into his grasp, it’s like a puppeteer controlling a puppet.

Half of his life is spent coordinating with people in the world of Sangdo. Soggy power struggles are now as natural to Lortel as breathing.

*

“Yeah, Bell.”

“You have 24 days and 3 hours left.”

“…”

Now it was a bell that popped out like an answering machine.

However, the date does not decrease.

Lucy was sitting on a chair in the private room with her knees hugged, and the chair clicked obliquely.

-Kudangtang!

Soon, he lost his balance and fell over. I collapse on the floor and look up at the ceiling, but the world is still motionless.

“Kill me…”

“It can’t be.”

“Kill me…!!!”

I was reflecting on myself that I would never again be swept away by emotions and go on a rampage, but apart from that, there were still two-thirds of the punishment I had to pay.

silence.

“…”

Only the face of Bell, the head maid, who stood politely, was shining brightly as if the world was at ease.

Lucy’s face was so savage.