Wanna Boycott Together?
I had secured the heroine who would help clear the scenario, but I was still facing another hurdle. The problem was that we were still short on the headcount required to pull off the student council boycott. Honestly, I was at a complete loss as to where to find more people.
For now, I recalled the original members of the boycott from the game and drew up a list. I had already passed those names along to Rozamin. They were students who had harbored grievances against the student council and the academy from the very beginning. If they felt even slightly swayed, they would listen to what Rozamin had to say.
I planned to personally persuade the key figures among them. Though for those guys, I'll have to approach them as Vikamon, not Hanon. But for the person I was about to meet now, my Hanon persona would work much better.
Slide— Opening the familiar door revealed an unfamiliar sight. Books were piled haphazardly everywhere, and documents lay scattered in disarray. Sitting in the chair where someone else usually worked was a young man, surrounded by several other students. This was the student council office—a student council now missing its vice president, Nikita.
"Oh, Hanon! You're here?" The man, who had been scratching away with a quill pen with a splitting headache, looked up with clear relief. He was a handsome man with striking light blonde hair and a cheerful, smiling face. Despite his outwardly gallant appearance, his name was Sylvester Drapen, the Student Council President of Jerion Academy. He was also the youngest son of Duke Drapen, one of the empire's four great dukes.
This was precisely why Duke Robliaju was so intent on bringing down the student council. Since Duke Drapen belongs to the First Prince's faction... If the student council fell, the blame would rest entirely on Sylvester's shoulders as president. Ruining Sylvester and allowing Iris to restore the student council's authority would provide significant political leverage.
My gaze drifted back to Sylvester. His nickname was the 'Incompetent Idler'. Born into the Drapen family, he had no inheritance to look forward to as the youngest son. Nor was his personal ability particularly outstanding. Yet, he had ascended to the presidency solely on the strength of the Drapen name and his decent looks.
The lack of proper talent among the third-years probably played a part too. Because of this, he had dumped most of his duties onto the vice president, Nikita. But with Nikita absent following the recent incident, he was now being utterly crushed under the daily avalanche of paperwork.
Things were usually manageable in the middle of the term, but at the very start of a new semester, the student council's workload was immense. Yet, Nikita had managed all of this while keeping up with her rigorous training. Once again, I was reminded of just how incredibly competent she was.
"You're working hard," I said. Although people visited the student council office much less frequently after Nikita's departure, I had continued to show up regularly. To orchestrate a successful boycott, I needed a steady stream of information on the current state of the student council. And today, I had a specific reason for coming here.
"Poara."
"Ah, yes, senior!" Poara, who was diligently carrying stacks of archives from the previous year, quickly responded to my call. The Contractor of the Spirit Lord, and a key figure in the Act 4 student council boycott: Poara Silin. I caught a slipping folder to keep him from dropping the documents and offered a gentle smile. "Let's have a quick chat in a bit."
Wanna boycott the student council with me?
After finishing up the student council duties, I walked home with Poara. "Yes, that's right. That did happen last time." Poara was conversing with spirits that were completely invisible to my eyes. It was a sight I had witnessed multiple times, yet it never ceased to amaze me. It felt like watching someone talk to ghosts.
"Ah, I'm sorry, senior. The spirits are exceptionally chatty today."
"It's fine. Don't worry about it." They were the spirits who always supported Poara, after all. It was only right to let them have their say. When I chuckled lightheartedly, Poara smiled back from behind his glasses.
Though Poara had shown a lot of anxiety and hesitation at first, a semester had passed, and he seemed to have fully adapted to academy life. He looked remarkably reliable now, carrying himself with the quiet dignity befitting a Contractor of the Spirit Lord.
Even though I've acquired the Fire's Flame... Unfortunately, the spirits still refused to show themselves to me. Vikamon's spirit affinity was practically non-existent.
"So, what did you want to talk to me about?" Fortunately, Poara was the first to bring up the main topic.
"Poara, do you remember what we talked about last time?"
"Last time?"
"About you doing me a favor."
Poara blinked, then clenched his fists tightly and nodded vigorously. "Yes, of course! It was thanks to you, senior, that I was able to form a contract with the Spirit Lord in the first place! Just say the word!"
What a reliable junior. I smiled warmly. "Poara, a group has recently formed to oppose the student council."
"A boycott?"
"You remember what happened to Senior Nikita recently, right?"
Poara's face darkened instantly. While not as close as I was, Poara had gotten along very well with Nikita. Nikita was someone who treated all her juniors without discrimination, so Poara had naturally looked up to her. Even though quite some time had passed, her absence was still deeply felt, and the whole situation weighed heavily on Poara's mind.
"It seems they're planning to use that incident as a pretext for the boycott."
"How could they do something so awful...? Senior Nikita worked so hard to make this academy a better place! To exploit her pain like that... They're unbelievable trash."
A deep sense of indignation radiated from Poara. It struck me once again how much he had changed. In the original game, Poara was one of the key instigators of the boycott. But now, he was standing firmly on the student council's side, more furious than anyone.
"Right. That's why I need you to join the boycott group, Poara."
"Huh?" Poara blurted out, utterly dumbfounded. He had just been fuming over Nikita's situation, so being told to join the very people exploiting it was beyond belief. I had to persuade him carefully.
"Think about it. If you, a member of the student council, claim to harbor grievances against the council itself, how do you think the boycott group will react?"
"...They'd welcome me with open arms?"
"Exactly. To them, you'd be a perfect justification and a highly useful asset. But from the student council's perspective, you would be..."
"Ah! You want me to be a spy!" Poara nodded, his face lighting up with understanding.
"Bingo."
Of course, Poara would actually end up leading the boycott group under my direction. But as long as I established his official role as a student council spy, I could easily pull him out of any trouble afterward.
"B-but do you think I can pull off being a spy?" Poara was about as far from an actor as one could get. A simple, honest youth—that was the description that suited him best. Asking him to play a double agent was a monumental task.
"What are you talking about, Poara? You can do this better than anyone."
"R-really?"
"Of course. Above all, you have the spirits who are invisible to everyone else. If you borrow their eyes, gathering intelligence will be a breeze."
"...Would the spirits really help with something like that?"
They absolutely would. Poara cherished the spirits out of genuine love, but spirits were creatures of strict hierarchy. Since Poara had contracted with a Spirit Lord, they would do anything he asked, short of self-destruction.
"Believe in me, who believes in you. Poara, you are the junior I trust most in the student council."
"Ah, cough, ahem." Poara cleared his throat, blushing. I didn't particularly enjoy watching a guy get embarrassed, so I decided to stop the praise there.
I miss the days when I used to praise Nikita. I missed her. I hoped I could get some news about her soon. Meanwhile, Poara puffed out his chest proudly, confidence shining in his eyes.
"Yes, senior! Leave it to me! I will carry out my duties as a spy flawlessly!"
Simple and reliable as always. "I'm counting on you." And just like that, I successfully planted Poara inside the boycott group.
Now, all that was left was to reel in the other key figures of the boycott. Fortunately, I knew exactly what weaknesses to exploit to force them to join. And shaking them down by those weaknesses was a job for Vikamon. As the third-rate villain Vikamon Niflheim, I would lead this boycott to a resounding success.
Preparations for the boycott proceeded steadily. Though we were severely lacking in numbers at first, Rozamin and Eiring, deeply moved by my words, worked tirelessly and managed to gather a decent crowd. On top of that, the individuals whose weaknesses I had exploited joined the boycott while swallowing their tears.
"That cruel bastard... How on earth did he find the self-written poem I wrote for my first love...?"
"*Sob*, I already disliked the student council, but using *that* to blackmail me is just too much..."
"...How did he find out that I wet the carriage seat after eating bad clams?"
Though victims of my blackmail were crying in every corner, the ranks of the boycott were filling up nicely. Thanks to that, I was confident we would have no issues meeting the scheduled boycott date.
Now, all that's left is for Iris to make contact. I planned to leave the actual interaction with Iris to Rozamin as much as possible. Of course, since the scenario was a tightrope walk, I intended to watch from the shadows. I thought everything was falling into place perfectly, but then I ran into a completely unexpected problem.
"Good morning! Morning training again today? You really are diligent."
My daily morning training with Aisha had recently gained a new participant. Standing right beside me, wearing athletic shorts and a light jacket, was a girl with honey-blond hair. Isabel Luna. She was right there.
"..." Aisha silently glanced in my direction. Her eyes practically screamed, What is the meaning of this? I didn't know either. During our conversation the other day, Isabel had declared that she would stop me. Naturally, I had interpreted that as her trying to stop the boycott incident. But apparently, Isabel had something else in mind.
Don't tell me she's trying to fundamentally change me? Isabel stood beside me with a bright, cheerful expression. Her smile seemed to carry the determination to transform my anger through positive energy. A dull headache began to throb in my temples. What a relentlessly bright main heroine. Then again, this side of her was exactly why I had liked her character in the game.
After killing Nikita with his own hands, Lucas had suffered a deep emotional wound. This trauma continued to fester until it eventually broke him completely. At the end of Act 4, Isabel comforts and encourages the shattered Lucas. Seeing him finally rise again, Isabel falls in love with him.
That was a scene I had absolutely loved back when I played the Flame Butterfly Chapter. It was the moment Isabel, who had always been just a childhood friend, awakened as the main heroine. As a player controlling the protagonist, it was impossible not to love that scene.
Wait. I suddenly froze. There was no Lucas in this world right now. Instead, I had taken on parts of Lucas's role to keep the scenario moving forward. And right now, to Isabel, I appeared as someone deeply wounded and enraged by Nikita's death. Even though this was a misunderstanding born of a situation I had carefully orchestrated, to Isabel's eyes, it couldn't look like anything else.
Which meant that if the scenario continued down this path, I would end up following the exact same trajectory as Lucas.
Isabel would fall in love with me.
No, it wouldn't be exactly the same. Lucas was Isabel's childhood friend, whereas I was her rival. Even if she felt a sense of pride seeing me overcome my resentment, she wouldn't actually fall for me. I probably don't need to worry too much about that.
The real issue was that, having substituted for Lucas's role, Isabel seemed intent on sticking to my side like glue for the foreseeable future.
"...Aisha, let's train."
But there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn't just skip training just because Isabel had tagged along. Aisha nodded, and we began our usual training routine.
Isabel kept up surprisingly well. She was, after all, one of the top students in the second-year martial arts department. Naturally, she could handle standard training. The problem, however, was that our training was anything but standard.
"*Pant, wheeze*... Are you guys seriously out of your minds? Doing *pant* this much in the morning?!" Isabel gasped in horror, staring at the dozens of kilograms of iron weights strapped to our backs and arms. Aisha and I locked eyes, and smirked simultaneously.
"Whining over something like this?"
"Senior Isabel is quite weak, isn't she?"
Aisha and I were perfectly in sync. A vein throbbed on Isabel's forehead. As a martial arts student, she had her pride. She was thoroughly triggered.
"Weak?" Isabel gripped the iron weights tightly and forced herself up. "That is the first time in my life I've ever heard that word directed at me."
That was the spirit. "Aisha, let's keep going."
"Yes, senior."
We pushed through the morning training once more. Isabel followed with sheer grit, but eventually, she collapsed from exhaustion halfway through. Since we had also pushed ourselves harder than usual just to tease her, we decided to call it a day.
"Ugh, *groan*..." Isabel's legs trembled violently as she tried to stand and return to the dormitory. Watching her struggle, I walked over. Isabel flinched. "Y-you don't need to support me!"
"I wasn't planning to." I walked right past her, wondering what on earth she was talking about.
The boys' dormitory was further away than the girls' dormitory, so I was simply trying to get a head start. I had to move quickly if I wanted to shower and not be late. Isabel stared at my retreating back with a dumbfounded expression, her face showing that she had just remembered the true nature of our relationship.
"Senior, let me help you," Aisha offered, stepping in.
"Mmh, thanks..." Isabel quietly accepted Aisha's support.
"You don't smell like sweat at all," Aisha noted softly. Isabel could only lower her head, her face flushing crimson.