Chapter 86

[System Message]

Part 1, Act 4 has ended.

*Reward will be given.

Quite a long time had passed since Part 1, Act 4 ended, yet there was no sign of Part 2 starting.

The reason was simple.

‘Because Part 2, Act 1 is the student council president election.’

After Aaron Stingray’s death, the Academy’s power structure was shaken violently.

When it was revealed that Aaron Stingray was the true culprit behind the serial student murders, dissatisfaction and distrust toward corporations grew among the students, and they began to feel anger about their own treatment as well.

That discontent erupted fiercely, and as a compromise, the student council system was introduced.

And that student council became the main stage for Part 2, Act 1 — the story that unfolded when the protagonist, Shade Wells, jumped into the student council president race.

The problem was.

‘Unlike in the original, Part 1 has ended without any significant incident, so the reason for the student council’s creation has disappeared.’

So what should I do?

Should I just leave things to flow as they are?

Well, considering the original Part 1’s ending point is roughly six months later than now, that wouldn’t be too bad either — but my judgment was different.

‘This is an opportunity.’

The student council would become the stepping stone for Iri Elisbell to fully inherit the role of the now-absent protagonist.

But no student council?

Then I’ll just make one myself.

With Stingray’s influence, as long as I chose the right justification and timing, I could introduce the student council system.

It wasn’t something entirely new either — just reviving a system that had vanished in the past.

“I plan to revive the student council system soon. And I want Iri to become the student council president.”

Make Iri the student council president!

Even with my grand plan, Raina’s reaction was subtle.

“…The student council, you say?”

Raina tilted her head slightly.

From her expression, it didn’t seem like she thought my idea was nonsense or that she opposed it — it was more like she simply didn’t understand.

‘Well, I guess that’s the natural reaction.’

In Trinity Academy, there was no such organization as a student council.

Of course, it wasn’t nonexistent from the beginning, but it had disappeared long ago.

It once existed, but was gone.

An organization for the rights of students?

There’s no way the nobles and corporate foundations of our city would see such a thing favorably.

To them, Trinity Academy was nothing more than a hatchery producing elite personnel.

How dare some “larva” raise its voice?

Their thinking was that you should simply obey the orders from above.

Just look at the name “Stingray Foundation” — its full title was “Human Resource Development Foundation.”

It was supposedly for supporting Academy students.

If this world carried any semblance of a normal human rights perspective, they’d have named it something like “Stingray Educational Foundation.”

Again, to corporations, students were nothing more and nothing less than “resources” to operate their companies.

‘In that situation, hearing the word ‘student council’ out of nowhere probably wouldn’t click for her.’

To draw Raina’s cooperation, it’d be best to explain a concrete plan.

But it felt awkward to lay everything out bluntly, so I needed to wrap it in some packaging.

“A student council is an autonomous organization within the Academy made up of students. Its representative role is to gather issues and suggestions from students themselves, and deliver them to the Academy so they can be reflected.”

In other schools, a student council might also contribute to policy decisions, or regularly hold events to promote exchange and friendship among students…

But expecting such things here would be asking too much, given the Academy’s atmosphere.

And after hearing my explanation, Raina’s expression became even more unreadable.

“You’re saying they’ll collect the opinions of students?”

“I know what you’re thinking.”

The current mood was already one of students scattering and clustering based on their affiliated corporations, fighting tooth and nail — so an organization representing the opinions of all students sounded absurd.

Honestly, I thought so too.

But for me, this was the best way forward.

If things continued as they were, the next scenario wouldn’t start, and if that happened, there’d be nowhere for me to earn points.

I had recovered most of my power, but I couldn’t afford to settle for this.

‘No matter what, I need to establish the student council, and naturally arrange for our people to become its core members.’

But I couldn’t say such thoughts out loud in front of Raina, so I recited another pretext I had prepared.

“There’s an opinion that the overly heated, competitive atmosphere during regular exams — especially midterms — is actually lowering student performance.”

“Yes, that’s true. Even during the last exam, the mood was so intense it was strange no one ended up stabbing each other.”

“They already did.”

“…What?”

“Looks like you haven’t heard about the incident in the Science and Technology Department’s second-year class.”

“Oh my…”

Usually, the most extreme situations arose in the first-year class.

At the start of the semester, they all got along fine, but then suddenly split apart.

This year, the first-years had been quiet — but the problem erupted in the second-year class instead.

Apparently, blinded by grades, someone went, ‘If it weren’t for you, I’d have been first place!’ and stabbed them with a knife.

‘Was it ‘Sing’?’

The guy who had lost to Miyu in that module-making contest a while back was the victim.

Fortunately, his life wasn’t in danger, and not long after, he was discharged from the hospital without issue.

Since the incident happened after all the exam results had been announced, our side’s staff had been a bit busy with the matter.

‘For these kids, the Academy really is a jungle where you fight for your life.’

Seeing things like this, the corporations and the Academy should obviously feel a sense of crisis and work to gradually improve the atmosphere.

But true to this hopeless world, the corporations just turned away, going, “Oh well, not my problem.”

Well, aside from the points, I also thought it was best to fix this chronic problem in the Academy.

I should prevent it before my kids end up getting stabbed.

“So I plan to aim for a shift in atmosphere by establishing a student council.”

“You mean, before worrying about which corporation’s scholarship they’re under, you want to unite all grades under the category of ‘students’ and foster camaraderie?”

“Exactly.”

“And you plan to place Iri at the center of it. Since a student from the Fallen becoming their leader would carry its own symbolism.”

“You understand well.”

“Hmm…”

Raina seemed to hesitate a little.

“I understand your intention, Director. But… I’m not sure if I can use this word in front of you…”

“It doesn’t matter. Say it.”

“Iri is… ‘an outcast’…”

“…”

For a moment, my heart twinged.

My kid, an outcast?

No, of course I’d already been aware of it.

But hearing such a blunt word from a classmate’s own mouth somehow hit harder.

It felt like even the tiny bit of hope left in a corner of my heart had been crushed.

“There are quite a few kids who resent Iri. She doesn’t care at all herself, but realistically, doesn’t she lack a bit of prestige to become student council president? Ah, o-of course, I’m only speaking objectively…”

Perhaps thinking she’d been too blunt, she trailed into excuses.

But I had no intention of denying her opinion.

“As you said, believing that a student from the Fallen could become student council president is excessive optimism.”

“R-right…”

“But you’re here.”

“M-me?”

Raina Alton.

In the original, she was buried as a one-time gag character.

But I valued her abilities highly.

In this Academy atmosphere steeped in individualism and competition, the ability to get along with numerous students across the board and influence their opinions was quite a useful skill.

‘That was the case in the original too.’

Since it had been just a brief gag episode, it didn’t stand out much.

But if you looked closely at what Raina did to win over the protagonist, it was no joke.

She brought him lunchboxes and fed him, brought useful information, and even shaped public opinion in his favor.

Therefore—

“I believe if you become Iri’s advisor, it’s a problem we can overcome.”

“A-advisor… next seat…!”

Uh, what’s with those eyes?

Get a grip, you rascal.

For a second, I regretted setting a wolf next to my kid.

But there weren’t many other choices anyway.

Just putting the condition of ‘someone who doesn’t discriminate against Iri’s origins’ narrowed the candidates drastically.

Adding the condition of ‘someone who can supplement Iri’s lack of connections or social skills’ narrowed it even further.

For example, Miyu?

She’s a social-phobic herself, so how could she be an advisor?

Ciel?

How could an android join the student council?

Silence?

He might surprisingly work, but he’s reserved for another role, unrelated to the student council.

Considering all these factors, Raina was the best candidate for now.

She liked Iri to begin with, so she should be reliable.

“H-heh… next seat…”

Reliable… right…?

Please don’t make me regret this.

“Ahem.”

“Ah, sorry.”

“From your expression, I guess you like my proposal. So, what will you do?”

“If I can be next to Iri, I don’t mind. Use me however you want. I’ll do my best.”

The earlier skepticism had vanished, replaced with an expression that looked like her head was full of flowers.

I nodded, half pleased, half worried.

“That’s a good mindset.”

“But the real concern is still how to make Iri the student council president. The key will be what method is used to select the president.”

“We’ll hold a student election.”

After all, voting is the flower of democracy.

If the president was elected through an official election, most complaints could be suppressed entirely.

“That would make it even harder… No matter how I think about it, there’s a limit to how much I can turn public opinion on my own. Even if you, Director, were to exert your influence, I think that would cause quite a serious backlash.”

“Mm.”

I agreed.

I wanted the newly created student council to be an organization with no connection whatsoever to ‘Stingray.’

Whatever the reality, at least on the surface it needed to look like an organization that fully respected the students’ autonomy.

If I forcefully pushed for the creation of the student council under those circumstances, the picture would inevitably be ruined.

Even if I appointed someone other than Iri, the students would fiercely oppose it, and other sponsoring corporations would raise issues as well.

However—

“That part is nothing you need to worry about.”

“…What?”

“Your job is simply to support Iri so that she can become student council president. If you do the job properly, I promise, in my own name, that you will be well rewarded.”

At those words, Raina’s eyes shone again.

“Understood. Just leave it to me. I’ll do my best.”

“Good. You can go now.”

I nodded in satisfaction and sent Raina away.

Once I was finally alone again, I organized my thoughts.

As Raina had said, at present, even if we held a vote, the chances of Iri winning were slim.

Even if I went to the trouble of creating a student council, someone else would become president and overturn the picture I had drawn.

‘So I’ll have to reverse the order.’

Instead of making Iri student council president so she could overcome a crisis, I’d make her overcome a crisis and become a hero, so that she could be acclaimed as student council president.

Swiish—

I turned my gaze toward the ‘Liberator’ hidden deep within that drawer.

Part 1, Act 3 — ‘Android Rebellion’ — had passed by in an anticlimactic way, but it was still a perfectly usable card.

The Kingmaker Project was just beginning.

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