175  President 7

“Haah… Why the heck are we even— in fact, why am I even here?” Amy grumbled, her voice dripping with frustration.

“Fufu~ you promised you would support me, right?” Dorothy chimed in, her tone teasing as she cast a playful glance at Amy.

“Yes, support as in helping you politically! Becoming one of your lackeys wasn’t part of the deal!” Amy retorted, her shoulders slumping as she begrudgingly carried a set of small boxes in her hands.

“Even though I’m finally free from the reign of your student council, why does it feel like I’m already back?” She sighed deeply, a defeated tone slipping into her voice as they walked along the almost-empty halls of Heavenly Hall.

Dorothy chuckled nervously at Amy’s reaction. She had gotten used to Amy’s constant complaining, but there was something about the seething hatred in Amy’s gaze that still made her uneasy, especially with those dark, tired circles under her eyes, which only made her already menacing look even more intense.

“Now, now, don’t get too heated up, Amy. Pres basically has no chance of winning this year, right? Hahaha, we’re basically free from her grasp now!” Celine chimed in with a cheerful tone, walking alongside them.

In her hands were much larger boxes than the ones Dorothy and Amy carried, yet she held them with ease, as if they weighed nothing.

Amy glared at Celine, her lips curling in irritation. “This muscle-headed idiot is really slow on the uptake, isn’t she? I wouldn’t be reacting like this if that were the case.”

Celine blinked in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Amy rolled her eyes, her voice sharpening with every word. “Dorothy’s chances of winning aren’t exactly zero now, you know?”

“EHHH?!” Celine’s eyes widened, glancing between Amy and Dorothy in shock.

“Did something happen?” Celine asked, curiosity piqued.

How could Dorothy possibly stage a comeback despite the overwhelming disadvantage?

Amy sighed, clearly frustrated. “Thanks to a certain first-year randomly supporting this tyrant of an ex-president, she’s now basically on par with Princess Snow in the upcoming election.”

Celine’s disbelief deepened. “There’s someone with that much influence among the first-years?”

“Yes, and you would know it by now if you weren’t sleeping all the time, you lazy, muscle-headed idiot!”

Celine’s jaw dropped slightly. “T-then you’re telling me there’s a chance we’ll have to suffer through another semester of this?”

Amy nodded grimly. “Yes.”

The two exchanged looks of despair, their shared anguish reflected in the glitter of unshed tears.

They both remembered all too well the weight of Dorothy’s presidency, where they ended up doing most of the work under her rule.

The mere thought of going through it again filled them with dread.

 If Alice were present, she’d probably be crying alongside them.

Watching this, Dorothy, who was trailing behind them, felt a vein popping on her forehead in irritation. The way they were acting made it sound as if working under her had been some kind of unbearable torture.

“You two make it sound like being around me was literal hell,” she mumbled, her voice dripping with annoyance.

“And what do you mean by tyrant ex-president? Wasn’t I always kind to you two?” She shot them a sharp glare, clearly offended by their dramatics.

“Kind?” the two mumbled at the same time as they stared at each other….. “We don’t recall any of that stuff”

“You two…” Dorothy sighed in annoyance as she listened to Amy and Celine continue to banter about how unfair their time under her leadership had been.

She couldn’t deny that some of what they said was technically true, but most of it was exaggerated.

The only reason they ended up doing so much work was because of the sheer lack of manpower their student council had at the time.

Even with Alice stepping in to help occasionally, despite not being a permanent member, the shortage of hands had worn everyone down. The constant workload during those semesters had drained their bodies and souls, but it wasn’t entirely her fault.

“You know, Ex-Tyrant, we wouldn’t be complaining right now if you had actually hired more people for your council,” Amy grumbled, casting a sharp glance at Dorothy.

Though Amy was relatively new to the student council during Dorothy’s reign, it only took her three months to nearly give up.

Dorothy’s relentless work ethic and lack of mercy on her subordinates were infamous.

“That’s unfair, and you know it,” Dorothy retorted, crossing her arms defensively. “Finding someone competent enough to work in the council was hard, remember? I wasn’t going to let just anyone waltz in and screw things up.”

Amy rolled her eyes. “Competent or not, it was better than making us do all the work like slaves. Seriously, you had no mercy. It was like working under a drill sergeant.”

Celine nodded in agreement, her voice filled with exasperation. “Yeah, Dorothy, it wasn’t just about competence. We were drowning in tasks! You practically lived in that council room, and you expected us to do the same.”

Dorothy groaned, running a hand through her hair as the memories of those long, exhausting days came flooding back. “I was doing my best! It wasn’t like I enjoyed overworking everyone. The situation was just… complicated.”

“Complicated?” Amy scoffed. “You mean you had ridiculous standards and refused to compromise. That’s why nobody wanted to work for you!”

“Well, maybe if you two had been a little more understanding—”

“Understanding?! We were practically running on fumes while you were busy micromanaging everything!” Amy interrupted. “Honestly, we should’ve started a rebellion.”

Celine chuckled at the thought. “Yeah, overthrow the Ex-Tyrant. I’d have gladly led that charge.”

“I think finding someone competent was easier than you made it out to be, Pres~,” Celine teased, grinning. “Besides, even if they weren’t competent at first, we could’ve just trained them properly. You know, eased them into the job. Instead, you worked them to the bone from day one—it was basically your fault.”

Amy nodded in agreement. “Exactly. Alice was a bit of a special case, but as for Rose and Riley? Those two were in a league of their own when it came to management. Last semester practically ran itself thanks to them.”

Dorothy’s patience was wearing thin, her expression shifting between frustration and regret. “Alright, alright, I get it,” she snapped lightly. “You two can stop now…”

The memories of running the student council were already hard enough without having Amy and Celine rub salt into the wound.

But she knew, deep down, that they had a point.

 Maybe she had been too rigid, too obsessed with perfection, and that had caused more harm than good.

As they continued walking down the hall, Dorothy’s mind wandered.

Her leadership style had been effective in some ways but flawed in others.

The arrival of Alice, Rose, and Riley had indeed made the council’s workload lighter, but it was no excuse for how overwhelmed the previous members had been before them.

“We’re here,” Dorothy finally announced, cutting off any further complaints.

They arrived at the student council office, a place that had been the heart of their operations. Inside, the room was eerily quiet, almost too still compared to the buzzing energy it usually had during their peak semesters.

The large, empty tables that once held mountains of paperwork now felt bare and lifeless.

Dorothy, Amy, and Celine carefully laid down the boxes they had been carrying—supplies given to them by the academy heads.

They started sorting them, each of them working in silence for a moment.

The boxes contained a variety of items, ranging from official documents to some new equipment for the upcoming semester.

Dorothy absentmindedly shuffled through the paperwork, her mind still lingering on their earlier conversation.

She wasn’t proud of how things had turned out before, but this time, she had a chance to make things different—if she could just win the presidency again.

Amy broke the silence first. “You know, Pres, this office feels a lot less chaotic without you barking orders every five minutes.”

Celine chuckled, setting down a particularly heavy box with ease. “Yeah, it’s kinda peaceful. Almost too peaceful, though. Guess we’re not used to having free time in here.”

Dorothy rolled her eyes but couldn’t help a small smile. “I’m not that bad.”

“Uh-huh,” Amy quipped, raising an eyebrow. “Says the tyrant who made us pull all-nighters just to meet deadlines you set.”

“You call them all-nighters. I call them ‘team-building exercises.'”

Both Amy and Celine snorted at that, clearly unimpressed.

The three continued their lighthearted banter as they worked, reminiscing about their time in the student council office.

Though Amy and Celine often felt like they had been overworked and used by Dorothy back then, it didn’t mean they didn’t enjoy their time together.

In fact, the only reason they kept blaming Dorothy for everything now was to see her adorable, flustered reaction.

The way Dorothy’s cheeks puffed up like a hamster whenever she got angry had always been amusing to the two. It was hard to resist teasing her when she made it so easy.

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