The Student Council President Can't Hide Her Sweet Tooth
The day after I shut down the fortune-telling stall, I was summoned to the student council room.
They didn't tell me why.
The note Selene had sent herself simply said to come by after classes.
Was the notice I tore up yesterday academy property?
Or am I being treated as an accomplice for not reporting Noel's unauthorized business right away?
All sorts of thoughts crowded my head on the way there.
When I reached the door, a sweet smell drifted out.
Sugar.
Butter.
Ripe fruit.
Whatever was happening inside, it looked more like a tea party than a terrifying interrogation.
I knocked.
"Come in."
Selene's voice answered.
I opened the door onto a spacious student council room—a long desk, neatly arranged filing cabinets, a wall covered in schedules. By the window sat a small reception table.
And on that table were three cake boxes.
Selene was looking over documents as if nothing were amiss.
"Sit."
"Am I in trouble?"
"Why would you think that?"
"I don't remember doing anything good enough to get called here."
"Three days ago your achievements were announced in front of the entire school."
"And after that a fortune-telling stall appeared."
Selene set down her pen.
"That is why I called you."
Of course.
I chose a chair close to the door, just in case I needed to run.
Selene sat across from me and slid a sheet of paper over.
I disliked the title already.
"Seventeen prophecy requests have come into the student council."
"In a single day?"
"Five lost-item cases. Four romance consultations. Three exam-related. Two weather. Two demon-related."
"And the last one?"
"Graduation timing."
I looked up from the paper.
"Whose graduation?"
"Mine."
Selene's expression hardened, just a fraction.
Someone had risked their life sending that question, apparently.
"I'm a little curious about that myself, actually—"
"Student Cheongha."
"I'm not curious anymore."
The White Dragon's icy gaze landed on me. I quietly returned my eyes to the paper.
"From now on, all simple fortune-telling requests will be refused. Only matters that genuinely need help will be verified by the student council and then passed along."
"Could you just... not pass those along to me either?"
"If possible."
If possible.
A deeply unsettling phrase.
Selene slid a second sheet across.
Verification of Precognitive Ability
"You really can't see the future?"
"I can't."
"The magic circle at the lake?"
"It appeared while I was raising the water."
"Looking at the spire before the underground aqueduct?"
"I didn't want to go somewhere that smelled."
"The hidden room?"
"There was a draft."
"The drainage passage?"
"I found that by watching the wind and the dust."
Selene was silent for a moment.
I shrugged.
"See? Not a scrap of prophecy."
"That only makes it stranger."
"Why?"
"It means every one of those incidents lined up by pure coincidence."
I thought that was strange too.
But that was the truth.
Selene tapped the paper twice with her pen.
"Then let's check simply."
She pushed the three cake boxes toward me.
They were all the same size.
"Each box holds a different dessert. I've placed a barrier spell so the contents can't be seen."
"You want me to guess?"
"To confirm whether you can see the future—or sense what can't be seen."
"I told you I can't."
"Pick one."
I looked at the boxes.
Left.
Center.
Right.
No difference on the outside. No mana either.
I pointed at the nearest one—the middle.
"This one."
"Reason?"
"It was closest."
Selene released the barrier and opened the box.
Inside was a fresh cream cake, red strawberries lined neatly over white cream.
"Did I get it wrong?"
"You're supposed to say what's inside first."
"How am I supposed to know that?"
I picked up a fork.
"If I got it wrong, I can eat this, right?"
"Who said anyone could eat it?"
"It's food used for the test."
"After the test, I'm eating it."
Selene pulled the box toward herself. Her hands were fast. She dragged the other two boxes closer as well.
Apparently all of them had been hers from the start.
"Did you prepare these more for snacks than for the test?"
"Both."
Utterly shameless.
I glanced at the right-hand box. Nothing showed on the outside, but Selene's gaze kept drifting that way—just for a second, looking away and then back. Her fingers rested near it too.
"You want the right box the most, don't you?"
Selene's fingers stopped.
"How did you know?"
"You have a face that likes it."
"I didn't change my expression."
"You kept staring."
"When?"
"People usually don't notice their own faces."
Selene opened the right box.
A small tart topped with yellow lemon cream sat inside.
Correct.
"Good observational skill."
"Anyone could tell."
"Other people can't."
She transferred the lemon tart to a plate. She looked a tiny bit happier. Truly tiny.
If I'd only seen her in the game, I never would have caught the difference. Face-to-face, I could.
Selene wasn't cold and expressionless. Her changes were simply smaller than most people's.
"Want one?"
she asked.
"You said no earlier."
"The test is over."
"Then the strawberry cake."
Selene cut the cake exactly in half and set the slightly smaller piece on my plate. Even by eye, the difference was clear.
"You just used student council president authority to take the bigger half, didn't you?"
"You're imagining things."
"I may not see the future, but I can see size."
Selene didn't answer. She ate her cake. The tips of her ears flushed the faintest red.
When we'd eaten about half the cake, Selene spoke again.
"If the rumors are a burden, say so clearly."
Her voice was softer than before.
"What the students want to believe and what you can actually do are different things."
"Will the student council block it for me?"
"That's my job."
I set down my fork.
Simple conversation continued over the snacks. Selene said she had already completed every credit required for graduation. She didn't even need to attend classes, yet she stayed on as student council president handling every scrap of academy business. This person was a strange human... no, a strange dragon.
In the original work she had only looked like a cold, flawless upperclassman. In person, she might actually be surprisingly warm.
"How long do you plan to stay at school, President?"
The inquiry from earlier floated back, so I asked.
Selene's fork stopped.
"Why?"
"No reason. You said you can graduate whenever you want."
"It's comfortable here."
"More than the snowy mountains?"
Her gaze drifted to the lemon tart.
I understood everything.
"They don't have things like this in the snowy mountains?"
"They do."
"Do they taste bad?"
"They freeze."
A serious problem.
But for a cool-headed, intellectual student council president, the reason for delaying graduation was far too trivial. My evaluation of Selene plummeted vertically.
Selene lifted her teacup, looked out the window, cleared her throat, and continued.
"If I return to Frostheim, there will be a great deal to do."
First I'd heard of it.
"Family matters?"
"Meetings, territory management, barrier inspections. Everything can be handled in a set order."
"What you're doing now looks like more work."
"That is... student council work is less than you'd think."
Even as she said it, her eyes returned to the cake. Listening to her talk seemed to have loosened her tension.
"I don't know where I'm supposed to go either."
The words I'd only been thinking slipped out on their own.
Selene looked at me.
"Because you have no family?"
"That too."
I didn't even know if there was a way back. I wasn't sure yet whether I wanted to go back. After waking up here I'd been too busy surviving day to day. At first I'd thought I had to restore the original story. Next I'd wanted to prove the Azure Dragon's power. What came after that, I still hadn't decided.
"If I graduate I have nowhere to go, and I don't even know why I'm here."
I pushed cream around the plate with the tip of my fork.
"When I think about it, nothing's decided at all."
Selene was quiet for a moment. Then she took a sip of tea and answered evenly.
"Then stay until it is decided."
"At the academy?"
"Even without a family, you can use the dormitory. There's no reason to rush graduation."
"Like you, President?"
"I have different reasons."
Her gaze went to the lemon tart. The reason looked extremely clear.
"Anyway, just because you don't know doesn't mean you have to decide right now."
Selene said.
"Dragons have plenty of time."
I almost corrected her that I was a dragon, not a Western dragon, then stopped. This wasn't the moment to explain the difference.
Instead I took another bite of the remaining cake.
Sweet.
It tasted better than a moment ago.
Selene refilled my teacup without a word. The tea smelled of lemon.
She looked at me.
"Don't smile."
"I wasn't smiling."
"The corners of your mouth went up."
"You're pretty good at reading other people's faces too, President."
She stole a strawberry from my plate.
Petty.
When I left the student council room, Selene handed me a sheet of paper.
Student Cheongha denies possession of precognitive ability. Possesses exceptional meteorological sense and observational skill.
An official record.
Maybe the misunderstanding would finally ease a little.
Satisfied, I tucked the paper away.
Out in the corridor, two students spotted me and whispered.
"The president called her in separately."
"Maybe she asked about her own future alone?"
"Does that mean the president acknowledges the prophecy ability too?"
Selene opened the student council door.
The two students screamed and fled.
The misunderstanding had not eased at all.