Chapter 44: Episode 44

The morning after I defeated Yeon in the duel.

—“Kyaaaaaaah! Hehehe!”

Bora’s unrestrained laughter echoed from my smartphone’s speaker.

—“Aren’t you just the coolest?”

“…Give it a rest already.”

She had been raving about the same topic for a solid thirty minutes.

—“No, seriously, it was insane! You took down Student Council President Hong Yeon with a single kick! You’re on your way to becoming the stormy transfer student!”

“…I’m not even a transfer student.”

—“The whole academy is buzzing! The underachiever Kim Yusin took down Hong Yeon! Wahaha!”

As it was, I was already on campus, walking around with a cap and hoodie pulled down low.

“It was a surprise attack. She was off guard, and she didn’t even draw her weapon and was trying to be considerate. She just got hit with a finishing move. I don’t know what would have happened in a real fight.”

—“Haha! You’re humble, too! A win is a win! Did you see the look on her face when she was slammed into the wall? It was so satisfying…!”

“I’m hanging up.”

—“Ah, wait—!”

I pressed the end call button. Trying to keep up with her was mentally exhausting. I pulled my cap down even further and walked along a narrow path on campus.

’Haah, well, it looks like my time at the academy is finally coming to an end.’

“Hey, wait up! Just a second!”

A loud voice called out from behind me. It seemed to be directed at me. I turned around to see a male student with a clean-cut appearance approaching.

“You’re the second-year, Kim Yusin, right?”

Judging by his informal tone, he must be an upperclassman.

“I am.”

“I knew it! I’ve been looking for you. My name is Gil Yeonwoo, a third-year student on the student council.”

Student council? A bigger fish than I expected. I subtly glanced around and saw two female students hiding behind a wall, watching us nervously.

“Haha! It’s nothing major, but you’re scheduled for the ‘Crossroads’ dungeon dispatch tomorrow, right?”

“Yes.”

“Sorry, but it was overbooked. The excess personnel were unavoidably split up and moved to other dungeons. You’ll be going to the ‘Moonshadow Forest’ dungeon tomorrow.”

Something smelled fishy, but I just nodded nonchalantly. Yeonwoo smiled gently.

“You’ll get an individual notice soon, but I wanted to tell you in person on behalf of the student council.”

“I appreciate you coming all this way to tell me.”

“Haha! So, about that, I’m also going to Moonshadow Forest tomorrow. If you’re free, would you like to join our party? I’ve already gathered about four people.”

’…Of course.’ After the duel with Yeon, I’d been plagued by countless party invitations. I had been rejecting or ignoring all of them, but I never imagined someone would abuse their authority like this to approach me.

“I appreciate the offer, but…” I said, feeling the expectant gazes of the girls hiding behind the wall, “I’ve already promised to go with another party.”

Yeonwoo’s expression hardened. Unless he was an idiot, he’d know what that meant. I gave a slight nod and turned my back.

“Wait,” he said coldly.

I stopped and turned back to see that his sycophantic attitude had completely vanished.

“You just heard the dungeon changed, and you’ve already found a party?”

“Yes.”

“Are you kidding me?”

I turned my body fully to face him. “Is it not a joke for a student council member to arbitrarily change someone’s schedule to match their own?”

Yeonwoo flinched but quickly hardened his expression. “I can’t just let that comment slide. Are you questioning the student council right now?”

“We’re both questioning each other, aren’t we?”

A blatant trick deserves a blatant response. Yeonwoo didn’t back down. Embarrassed in front of the girls, he approached me with an enraged expression.

“Just because you beat Yeon, you think you can do whatever you want.”

I just listened quietly as he spewed his nonsense.

“How about I cancel your dungeon dispatch for tomorrow? No, while I’m at it, how about I create a nice little system error and make your early graduation application disappear? Who do you think you are, messing with…”

“Hey!”

A sudden voice made both of us turn our heads. A woman in a neat, monochrome coat and glasses was approaching.

“Ugh, Vice President?” A surprised yelp escaped Yeonwoo’s lips. So this was the vice president.

“What are you doing here again?” she asked, glaring at Yeonwoo. It seemed he wasn’t on good terms with her.

“Ahaha! I-It was nothing! I just had a few things I wanted to ask…”

Yeonwoo, glancing around nervously, made an excuse about work and disappeared. The Vice President sighed softly as she watched him flee.

“I’ll apologize on his behalf.”

“It’s fine. Nothing happened.”

“You’re Kim Yusin, right? I’m glad I ran into you.”

“Were you looking for me too, Vice President?”

She nodded.

“…How does the student council know everyone’s location like this?”

“The sensors at the school gate read student ID information to record entry and exit. I saw you came in and ran over, considering your likely route.”

“…I see. So what did you need me for?”

“Ah.” She pointed. “This isn’t the place to talk. Let’s go to the student council room.”

What on earth did she want to talk about? In the end, I followed her to the student council room.

“Well then.”

As soon as we entered, she spun around and bowed her head.

“I look forward to working with you, Student Council President.”

“Whaaat?”

What was she talking about? Seeing my dumbfounded reaction, the Vice President unfolded a document and showed it to me.

“The former student council president has resigned. From now on, Kim Yusin is to be the president.”

Stunned into silence for a moment, I quickly retorted, “Wait a minute! Wasn’t that just a duel? We didn’t bet our positions on it!”

“Having lost the duel, Yeon voluntarily stepped down from the presidency. The vacant position naturally goes to you, the student who defeated her.”

“What kind of twisted logic is that?! Besides, I’m planning to leave in a few days after the early graduation exam!”

The Vice President silently held out a piece of paper. An official letter appointing me as the Student Council President. More importantly, the signature line bore a familiar name.

“It’s an order from the Association President… no, the Chancellor.”

’You’ve got to be kidding me!’

To think she would get involved personally. She must be busy with Association matters, so what possessed her to meddle in school affairs? I desperately looked for a way out, but all the procedures had been completed before I could do anything.

In the end, I had no choice but to accept reality. A student council president with a term of less than a week…

“Oh, and since the president has changed, a student council meeting will be held, so please attend.”

I had to escape.

“When is it?”

The Vice President glanced at her wristwatch.

“In exactly one minute.”

As if on cue, student council members began to flood into the room and take their seats.

’…I’d been completely had.’ In the blink of an eye, the student council room was packed with about forty members.

“Over here!”

From a distance, I saw Bora waving cheerfully. As a first-year member, she seemed to be low on the totem pole, standing near the back with a few other first-years.

And then…

“I met him, and that bastard is all talk! Here’s what happened earlier…” Yeonwoo, who had been speaking passionately as he entered the room, saw me, and his jaw dropped. His face screamed, ’What is this bastard doing here?’

“Allow me to introduce you all,” the Vice President said. “He’s the hottest topic on campus, so he needs no special introduction. This is Kim Yusin. He has been inaugurated as the 9th Student Council President.”

Applause erupted from all sides. In contrast, Yeonwoo’s expression went from stiff to pale. ’Ah, this was suddenly becoming a little fun.’

“The resigned Athletics Department Head Hoseung Oh, General Affairs Head Seunghyun Kim, Operations Head Seulah Yoon, and all forty-six other student council members are present.”

After announcing, the Vice President sat down next to me. I looked around. I could sense various emotions, but there wasn’t much of the opposition I had expected. Instead, I felt goodwill, anticipation, and a strange sort of respect. It seemed my impressive performance in the duel had made a good impression, except for Yeonwoo, of course, whose expression was sour.

“I’m Kim Yusin, and I’ll be serving as the Student Council President.”

It couldn’t be helped. I might as well say something.

“I look forward to working with you, even for this short term. And I’m sorry, Vice President.”

“Yes, go ahead.”

She treated me with respect.

“This is my first student council meeting, so are there any procedures or an agenda I should follow?”

“This isn’t a regular meeting; it’s just for our first introduction. You can talk about your future plans or anything you want to say. It’s up to the president how to proceed.”

“Is that so? Well then…”

I put down the paper in front of me and spoke.

“I’ll skip the long, boring rhetoric. Since I’m president now, let’s change one thing.”

At those words, everyone’s attention focused on me.

“The Academy also recruits students for non-combat tracks. Correct?”

“Yes, that’s correct,” the Vice President affirmed.

“Then you must also know the graduation rate for students with non-combat abilities.”

She looked at me with a slightly stiff expression before saying, “The success rate is around three percent.”

“I feel like that’s not right.”

These were the things I had always felt were unfair before becoming the Tower Master. And for the sake of Yoonjeong, who was still stuck here, trying her best, I had to change things like this before I left.

“I want to revise the dungeon dispatch allocation so that students deemed non-combatants can also grow in dungeons.”

“Wait a minute,” Yeonwoo interjected, as if he had been waiting for this moment. “The Academy’s dungeon dispatch standards follow the Association’s regulations. I think it’s normal not to grant dungeon entry permits to people who don’t even have the skills to get a provisional license. It’s for their own safety.”

A few people around him nodded in agreement. I laughed internally.

’Clever.’

A new president, appointed out of the blue. And as soon as I sat down, I touched on the rather sensitive issue of dungeon dispatch rights. If he wanted to undermine my power, now was his chance. Since we got off on the wrong foot, he was launching a preemptive strike rather than waiting to be kicked out. I smoothly responded.

“That’s the standard for regular players. But Academy students can enter any dungeon grade-4 or lower, right? I think a rank-1 gurma hunting ground should be fine for students who are considered non-combatants.”

“So what’s the point of giving dungeon permits to people who’ve been judged ‘non-combat,’ whether they’re rank-1 or 2! Those people can’t even handle a single gurma—!”

“That statement you just made.”

I cut Yeonwoo off.

“Can you take responsibility for it? What are you going to do if they can?”

* * *

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