The Student Council President Is Scheming
It had already been three days since we plotted our strategy at the cafe with Raul and Lucia. We'd agreed that the actual core heist would take place in seven days, when the third episode began.
"Honey, so where are we going?"
"...Please don't call me honey. Everyone's staring."
I was currently heading with Lucia toward the starting point of the 'plan to neutralize the security company' we'd discussed three days ago. If she was going to grumble about being called honey, why had I brought Lucia along? She was here both as security and as a conversation partner to keep me from getting bored. She'd insisted on coming with me, and honestly, I liked having her around.
I've become a lot more honest with myself.
The old me would have drawn a firm line, thinking 'I have no personal feelings' before even considering something like this. But once I decided to get closer to her, to try approaching her a little more, such things didn't matter anymore.
"I call you honey because I like you! You should feel honored since no one else gets to hear me say that!"
To be completely honest, I was closer to the side that liked Lucia. If I were to put it grandly, it was probably a form of realization. And if I'd realized it, it was about time I started being a bit more honest.
"Thank you."
"Ehh...? You don't have to thank me..."
Lucia tilted her head as if she hadn't expected me to respond this way. For the past three days, without missing a single day, whenever I showed her even the slightest bit of kindness while she chattered away, she'd react like this. It made me feel oddly sorry, wondering if I'd really been that stingy with her before.
"Can I hold your hand?"
"Uh... yeah! Of course!"
Of course, asking to hold hands felt like we were moving our relationship forward quite a bit, but there was a reason for that too. Two days ago, Lucia and I had filled a notebook with all sorts of notes while having a deep conversation about how far skinship could go between friends. Our opinions had differed quite a lot—I'd argued that skinship between friends didn't make sense, while Lucia had probably written something like 'Anything you want is possible! (Jack Orlannte limited edition).' So this skinship was essentially a symbol of my desire to move our relationship even a little beyond friendship.
But now that I think about it, isn't this too defenselessly favorable...?
The phrase 'anything you want is possible' could be interpreted in a rather sinister way depending on the person. As expected, before this flower-brained young lady of a marquis family could taste the bitterness of the world, I needed to properly correct—
"Hey, we're already at the student council president's office. Aren't you going in? Should I just barge in?"
Before I could finish that thought, we'd arrived at our destination: the student council president's office. In this world, the student council president held considerable power within the academy, which was why they even had a private room like this...
To put it simply, it's just a way to hype up the student council president character.
Yes, no point in hiding it. Campbell Academy's student council president, Francis Watson, was also one of the male leads in this novel... or more precisely, a cross-dressing female character pretending to be a boy.
It's not that her gender identity is male or anything...
It was simply a disguise to hide her true identity. That was why she dressed as a boy.
"Going to meet a girl... I really don't like this..."
This seemed to be why Lucia had insisted on coming along. When I'd told her the student council president was actually a girl, she'd muttered something chilling like 'There should only be me around Jack...' and followed me. Come to think of it, she'd been periodically reminding me since yesterday that I wasn't allowed to have any affairs. Surely it wasn't because of this?
"You're much prettier than the student council president, so don't worry."
"Ugh... You're being weird lately..."
I'd complimented her to keep her from feeling anxious, but this was her reaction? Pretending to be a little sulky, I crossed my arms. Lucia fidgeted before adding hastily,
"N-no! I didn't mean I don't like it! I mean... it's a good kind of weird!"
"Pfft."
Her flustered, incoherent response was so cute that I let out a small laugh. Lucia's face flushed bright red as she started whacking my arm. If it were an ordinary person, those hits would have easily broken bones. Yet her right hand, the one holding mine, gripped even tighter, as if she was worried I might dislike it. The thought warmed my heart.
-Thwack! Thwack!
...Never mind. It actually hurt like hell. How could punching an arm with a fist produce the sound of an axe splitting firewood? Was this the mystery of the human body?
"My, my. Public displays of affection on campus are strictly prohibited by school rules."
A neutral voice came from behind us. Or rather, a light tone that sounded like a woman trying to imitate a man's voice reached my ears. Before the person behind us could approach, I leaned close to Lucia's ear and gave her one last instruction.
"Remember what I told you? Don't act rashly, and whatever you do, don't make eye contact."
Lucia nodded in understanding and clenched her fists tightly. I smiled faintly and turned my head toward the source of the voice. Of course, without meeting their eyes.
"I'm late with my introduction. My name is Francis Watson, and though I am unworthy, I currently serve as the student council president of Campbell Academy! It's a pleasure to meet you, new students!"
A person with blue hair and a monocle, looking like a romance fantasy nobleman. Perhaps because her natural features were beautiful, even cross-dressing as a boy, she looked remarkably handsome. It would have been nice if her heart had been as pretty as her face.
"Standing in front of the student council president's office means you have business with me, correct?"
How should I describe this person? Two-faced, duplicitous, a wolf in sheep's clothing, all bark and no bite, black-hearted... There were many ways to call her. But among all those words, they all ultimately led to one conclusion.
A person whose exterior and interior were completely different. There was no better way to describe Francis.
"If you tell me what it is, I'll do my best to help within my capabilities!"
In front of others, she acted like the world's kindest and most virtuous student council president, but behind the scenes, she schemed to create situations that would always benefit her. She viewed the world as a chessboard and regarded everyone—including herself—as mere chess pieces. Born into the Watson ducal family, which centered around commerce, she judged everything in the world purely by profit and loss. Having occupied a position of unparalleled power from birth, she lacked certain common sense. That was Francis Watson.
"So, no matter what it is, feel free to tell me, alright?"
She smiled brightly at us, but soon noticed that we were deliberately avoiding her eyes. Her expression hardened completely. It created a pressure similar to when a scheming, narrow-eyed character opened their eyes wide.
"You're not just ordinary new students, I see. You came here knowing something?"
Of course, the reason we avoided Francis's eyes wasn't because we disliked looking at her face.
The Persona, one of the Five Great Relics I'd mentioned before.
An absurdly overpowered item that could manipulate emotions simply by maintaining eye contact for a few seconds. To explain its danger simply: it could instantly change the wariness we were feeling right now into something like love. What was even more terrifying was that unless one knew the true nature of Persona, they usually wouldn't even realize their emotions had been arbitrarily tampered with.
The owner of such an item was none other than Francis Watson.
Of course, it does have clear limitations.
People like the crown prince or the saint, who already knew about Persona through their information networks, wouldn't even attempt to make eye contact in the first place. The activation condition required maintaining unbroken eye contact for more than ten seconds, so aside from situations involving extended conversation, there were almost no opportunities to trigger it.
Still, if someone deliberately tries to make eye contact during casual conversation, it's not impossible.
Knowing this fact made it difficult to maintain eye contact for more than ten seconds. Nevertheless, just to be safe, we continued to deliberately avoid her gaze. We weren't giving her any opening at all.
"Good grief, the problem these days is that everyone and their mother knows about Persona."
Francis muttered, 'These days, anyone with a bit of power has ridiculous information networks...' before opening the door to the student council president's office. She perched on the chair in the center and looked at us.
"Jack Orlannte, the guy who took down the crown prince to get into the academy, right?"
"...That's correct."
I'd hoped this information hadn't reached her ears. The duel during the academy entrance exam was supposed to be kept secret on the surface, so she should have at least respected that much.
This is really annoying.
For some reason, there was almost no one in this academy who didn't know I'd defeated the crown prince. It made sense that if regular students knew, the student council president would too, but a guy could still hope, right? You had to dream of something nearly impossible before you could call it hope.
As expected, hope never comes true!
Ever since I entered this damn romance fantasy novel, all my hopes had only ever rolled in the opposite direction. Honestly, wasn't it about time things went well for once? Irritated, I gestured to Lucia to take out her club. If she wasn't cooperative, we'd just beat it out of her.
"Hup!"
Of course, it wasn't me but Lucia who acted. Our Lucia was the one who hit people.
"You have to tell me what you want before I help. Why are you raising a club first?"
"You have an Empire-certified monster hunter certificate, don't you?"
What we wanted from her was the Empire-certified monster... let's just call it a hunter certificate. The hunter certificate was essentially a qualification for professionally hunting monsters like dream demons or spiritual beasts. We weren't going to hunt monsters ourselves, but we needed the hunter certificate for our plan. That's why we'd come to see the student council president, who was the easiest person to approach among those who possessed one.
It's almost the same concept as taking the crown prince's rosario for our plan...
So I was prepared to do whatever it took to get the hunter certificate—
"Here."
—but it was handed over far too easily right in front of my eyes.
"...?"
I'd thought something like this would only be obtained after a bloody conflict. I checked it just in case it was fake, but whether I looked at the front or back, it was unmistakably a genuine hunter certificate.
"Take it and get lost. You don't have any other business, right? Return it within a month at least."
As soon as she handed it over, the student council president spoke in a sullen voice and began shoving us out the door. Wait, she was giving it this easily? Without any argument or resistance?
Even as I was being pushed out the door, I was still dumbfounded. Then—
-Slam!
The student council president's office door slammed shut without even giving me time to think.
"...Jack, is this for real?"
Lucia asked from beside me, but I couldn't give her a proper answer either. For a moment, the only sound between us was the rustling of the single sheet of paper in my hand.
"What the hell just happened?"
The atmosphere felt like I'd touched something I shouldn't have.
There's definitely something going on here.
But why did none of the episodes I got involved with ever resolve cleanly? I'd just gained another headache to worry about.
...Should I just quit the academy? Screw the death threats or whatever.