[ ◆ Evade the First Danger. (25%) ]
The quest’s progress proved that my determination had not been wrong.
Even for something as simple as resolving how I would act from now on, the progress had risen by a full five percent.
I smiled with satisfaction like someone who had found a ray of light in a dark cave.
‘Now that I know the path, all I have to do is follow it.’
From the moment I possessed the Chairman, until now, I had had no path.
At most, I had thoughts like, ‘Medio will try to kill me, so I need to find a way to survive,’ or, ‘To survive, I should make good use of this status window.’
But now was different.
Someone suspected me, and I had to act like the Chairman to avoid that suspicion.
It was not motivation in a positive sense... but it still gave me a purpose.
However, there was one more problem.
‘Acting like the Chairman. It may work for now, but it will definitely become a problem later.’
If I acted like the Chairman, I could avoid suspicion and survive for now.
But Medio would enroll in only three months.
What if the original story’s protagonist entered the academy carrying revenge for his brother, only to find that the Chairman had not become kinder and was still doing nothing but villainous things?
‘His revenge, which had been cooling down, would boil right back up....’
Unless I wanted to trade my future for the present, I could not simply act like the Chairman.
While acting like the Chairman, I had to increase my allies and draw them in beneath the surface....
Sigh.
‘The difficulty is absurdly high.’
It was a goal far too high to expect from an ordinary modern person, but what could I do? If I wanted to live, I had to do it....
Letting out deep sighs, I dusted myself off, rose from my seat, and opened the chairman’s office door.
“The remaining areaaaa... Chairman?!”
I met the eyes of a servant who had been cleaning the corridor in front of the chairman’s office.
I had been looking for someone to pass along a message in my place, so this worked out well.
“One favor....”
Just as I was about to say, ‘I have one favor to ask,’ I quickly closed my mouth.
Come to think of it, the Chairman would not choose a kind word like ‘favor’ when speaking to a mere servant.
Feeling deep self-reproach, I silently opened my mouth.
“Tell Gess Alep, a second-year in the Knight Department, to come see me this weekend.”
“Y-Yes? Where... where should I deliver the message...?”
Her voice trailed off, but I could roughly understand her.
“Gess Alep is currently in the lounge on the second floor of the Knight Department’s Second Annex.”
“Understood...!”
The maid looked at me with an expression somewhere between ‘Do I really have to go?’ and ‘How does he know where that is?’ Then she ran down the corridor with her cleaning tools in hand.
I watched her retreating back before turning my head toward empty air some distance away.
[ Gess Alep ]
[ Traits / Weak Against the Strong, Strong Against the Weak; Born Actor ]
[ Special Note / Monitoring Silia Orez in the lounge on the second floor of the Second Annex. ]
The ability added alongside the message that I had earned Gess Alep’s trust.
The ability to check a status window even when the target was outside my sight was quite useful.
I gave a small, satisfied smile, but the moment I turned around, my face hardened.
‘...I need to clean first.’
The chairman’s office was a complete mess.
Before anyone saw it, I had to resolve that first.
After spending a long time successfully restoring the chairman’s office to its original state, the secretary—whose evaluation had changed from ‘trustworthy’ to ‘untrustworthy’—came to see me.
“Chairman.”
I wanted to yell at that businesslike face, ‘Did you not say you would come again tomorrow?!’
But useless words like that would increase the chances of the quest failing.... I valued my life.
“...Yes. What is it?”
“An official notice has arrived from the Chancellor’s office. At first, I believed it was a meeting regarding the projected decline in next year’s incoming students and intended to handle it myself, but....”
“Get to the point.”
“Yes, my apologies. Chancellor Pionia’s meeting appears to concern an entirely different subject from the decline in incoming students, so I came to report it to you.”
The official notice sent by Chancellor Pionia, which I had forgotten because of the quest and the unknown danger.
I accepted the single sheet of paper the secretary handed me with a puzzled look.
‘Was there some event or festival at Calyps Academy around this time? As far as I remember, nothing important happened until the Freshman Welcoming Ceremony, when the main story began....’
「 A Disciplinary Committee concerning ‘Emma Novician and Six Unauthorized Duels’ is scheduled tomorrow in the Main Building’s second-floor Grand Conference Room. All committee members must attend.... 」
...There was.
And it was the first event that had never appeared in the original story, one created by my intervention.
I repeatedly read the phrase ‘Emma Novician and Six Unauthorized Duels’ before letting out a deep sigh.
‘I had forgotten about Emma Novician.’
Gess Alep, the ringleader, had already been punished under the Chairman’s executive authority.
Naturally, I had let down my guard regarding Emma Novician, who had taken on the role of ‘victim.’
But in the eyes of the other faculty members, Emma Novician was also nothing more than a ‘perpetrator’ who had accepted unauthorized duels.
At this rate, Emma, whom I had worked so hard to save, might be expelled after all.
My choice was clear.
‘If I interfered of my own accord, I should take responsibility.’
I turned toward the secretary, who was quietly waiting for my next instruction.
“I need to check the roster of committee members.”
Normally, I should not give the secretary any room to act. But using him for work-related orders did not seem like it would matter much.
‘If I imitate the Chairman and throw away my work as well, I cannot change the future.’
It felt like I was walking a precarious tightrope where my head would crack open one hundred percent if I fell. Pressing my brow, I continued.
“Can you prepare one with their affiliations and brief personal information?”
“Yes, that is possible.”
“Place it on my desk before this evening. I need to know who is attending... before I can do anything.”
Yes, I had to do something.
Aside from Gess Alep, Emma Novician was the only student I had any chance of recruiting.
And she was a student overflowing with talent, enough for the Chairman to have bullied her.
I could not let her be expelled like this.
Still, I was concerned that the secretary might become suspicious of the Chairman attending the Disciplinary Committee—more precisely, doing work.
“Are you planning to attend the Disciplinary Committee?”
“Yes. I cannot let Emma Novician go.”
Fortunately, the secretary seemed to misunderstand my words just as I had hoped.
To him, ‘I cannot let her go’ would likely sound like, ‘I will keep bullying her to the end.’
“Understood. Shall I inform the Chancellor’s office of your attendance?”
“No, there is no need.”
I firmly shook my head.
Telling the Chancellor’s office that I would attend would only deepen needless misunderstandings.
To Chancellor Pionia, I was still nothing more than the wastrel Chairman.
Instead, I intended to use this Disciplinary Committee as an opportunity.
[ ◆ Evade the First Danger. (25%) ]
The condition for completing the quest was to act like the Chairman.
And the Chairman was a true wastrel who enjoyed bullying others and making a mess, so I had to attend the Disciplinary Committee.
Attending a committee he had never given a glance, interfering at a critical moment, and ruining the meeting.
That was exactly the sort of thing Sita Calyps, the wastrel Chairman, would do.
Though about an hour remained until the Disciplinary Committee convened, quite a few committee members had already filled the Grand Conference Room.
The committee, composed mostly of professors, was engaged in heated debate over what outcome this Disciplinary Committee should reach.
“This incident is only a problem within the academy. The moment one takes a single step outside the main gate, it loses all meaning.”
“Are you saying we should tolerate unauthorized duels?”
“Of course, I am not unconditionally supporting unauthorized duels within the academy. But if both sides agree to duel, what is the problem?”
“At the academy, we must follow the academy’s rules. Even if both sides agree, they must be punished for violating the school regulations!”
“Even the children who merely watched as well?”
“Of course. The moment one watches wrongdoing, it is no longer watching but standing by. Those children are guilty of standing by while their classmates committed wrongdoing.”
“I do not think standing by is right either, but the number is too large. Nearly one hundred students from every department watched the duels.”
“Hmm....”
Pionia Ratio, Chancellor of Calyps Academy, listened to the committee members’ discussion with her eyes closed.
As the Vice Chair, she had a duty to reach a decision at today’s Disciplinary Committee that was neither too harsh nor too lenient.
She was quietly listening to the committee’s preliminary discussion when a claim, spoken in a voice slightly louder than the others, burst out from one side.
“What is the point of this discussion?! The bastard who should receive the heaviest punishment has already escaped!”
“You... should lower your voice.”
“Enough! Can those without backing not even say what they want? It is well known that the House of the Marquess of Calyps backs the House of Baron Alep, but this goes too far! He took away a delinquent who violated the academy regulations and punished him as he pleased!”
Several people cautioned the shouting committee member, but the atmosphere among the committee had already shifted toward agreeing with him.
They had eyes and ears. They had heard that the wastrel Chairman had taken Gess Alep away and imposed a punishment as he pleased.
Some might have changed their minds if they knew that punishment consisted of unlimited service until graduation. Unfortunately, that fact had not reached them.
“We need to get rid of that wastrel as soon as possible!”
At last, direct criticism of the Chairman burst out.
If those words reached the Chairman, it was obvious that the committee member would suffer for it.
Most of the faculty had been bought by the Chairman, but the members of this Disciplinary Committee were mostly capable people who sincerely cooperated with Chancellor Pionia.
“Professor Matthew, you seem too agitated....”
As both Vice Chair and Chancellor, Pionia did not want a committee member to come to harm, so she tried to calm him.
But a sudden cry interrupted her before she could achieve her purpose.
“T-The Chairman has arrived!”
“...That cannot be.”
Without realizing it, she denied the committee member’s words.
The Chairman, who cared only about embezzlement and bribes, was attending the Disciplinary Committee?
It was so absurd that she suspected there might be a student among those confined who had bribed the Chairman.
Yet, while everyone else’s gazes turned skeptical, the committee member who had announced the Chairman’s arrival cried out as though he had been wronged.
“It is true! The Chairman just said he would attend—”
“Not Chairman. During the Disciplinary Committee, you should call me Committee Chair.”
—Hic.
The committee member turned around with a pale face.
At the meeting room entrance, where no one had stood just moments before, the Chairman was standing in a black frock coat, wearing a crooked smile.
Fortunately, instead of paying him any attention, the Chairman leisurely crossed the room past the round table where the committee members sat and naturally took the empty seat of honor.
“““.........”””
The Grand Conference Room fell silent.
As though he did not feel the dozens of gazes directed at him in the slightest, the Chairman calmly straightened his clothes before speaking in a light voice.
“As Chair of Calyps Academy’s Disciplinary Committee, I declare it. From this moment onward, the Disciplinary Committee concerning ‘Emma Novician and Six Unauthorized Duels’ is now convened.”
Faced with the Chairman’s overflowing composure, the committee members fell into fear.
What kind of havoc had that wastrel come to cause by attending a committee he had never even looked at?