The day for school to start back up had finally arrived. Which I had already teleported back to.
And As I let out a yawn, I stretched my arms out into the air while making my way toward the auditorium.
I had no idea as to why I needed to go there, I was just reported to be there first thing in the morning. Because of that, I woke up a bit earlier than Xara and was now on my way there.
“Ah....”
Stopping right at the entrance to the auditorium, I was met with the MC standing there and giving me an annoyed look.
Unsure what to say, I was about to ask him why he was there when a voice spoke up behind me.
“What are you doing here?”
Hearing an irritating voice behind me, I turned around to find none other than Talia standing there. One of the many people I found myself disliking at this school.
Despite being one of the heroines, I’ve never really been a big fan of how she treats guys. Maybe other dudes enjoyed her, but I personally hated her. Even more so after I played through her slog of a route.
“Dunno. I just came here because I was told to. Got a problem with that?” I replied.
Talia let out an irritated huff.
“Whatever. Just don’t ruin the mood with your disgusting attitude, Scummy Man Commoner.”
“Right back at you Princess Jackass.”
She let out another huff before walking past me. What a pain.
“Are you two not on good terms?” asked the MC.
“Nope. Not in the slightest. So if you want to win her over and keep her out of my life, you’re more than welcome to.”
“Um…Okay?”
Not sure of what else to say, the MC turned around and walked into the building and I followed shortly after. Why did this year have to start on such a low note?
Once inside, I took a seat a bit farther behind the others in the room and had a look around.
The building wasn’t much different from what I remembered. That made sense considering it’s only been about two months since I was last here for the end of year words from the student council president.
Glancing at the other people in the room, I noticed a majority of them were women.
There were a few guys here and there, but eighty percent of the people here were women.
Now that I think about it, I was pretty sure most of the people here were from the school disciplinary committee. Weird
A few minutes later, Haiko, the student council president, stepped up onto the stage in front of everyone wearing the same blank expression she always had.
“Greetings everyone. Today, I have an important announcement to make. Throughout the entirety of last year, I’ve been keeping an eye on several different individuals in hopes of acquiring their help in improving this school bit by bit to become the ideal institution for education. Which is why...”
Haiko continued babbling on for another five minutes about her ideas for an ideal school and even managed to bring a few students in the room to tears. I still didn’t get what was so heart-wrenching about what she was saying, so I decided I might as well tune her words out. Thus, I was about to close my eyes and catch a little shut-eye when something she said caused an alarm to go off in my head.
“So in order to see these goals through, I’ve selected two new students I wish to recruit to help in making this school an even better place to learn.”
Feeling my body tense up, I listened quietly.
“First up, I’d like to request a student who has drawn my attention through his struggles in this school. He may not have the best record in some areas, but his grades in both physical as well as magical abilities are exceptional enough to deserve the role I wish to offer him. So without further ado, I would like to ask for Riko Toyazoto to come up on stage.”
All eyes immediately turned to the MC who was trying to hold back the look of surprise on his face as he made his way up to the stage. Nervously shaking Haiko’s hand, the MC seemed to be trying to gather his thoughts.
More than likely, he hadn’t been told this in advance.
“Riko Toyazoto. Would you be willing to join the student council as its treasurer?”
When Haiko asked this, the MC’s eyes darted around nervously before nodding his head.
“I…I would be honored.”
Shaking Haiko’s hand once more, he was guided over to the other members of the student council before Haiko went back to talking.
“Moving on, I would like to announce the second student I wish to recruit. Despite his many achievements, this boy is hated by the majority of the student body due to his stance at this school. However, I see potential in him and want to make sure that potential can take form.”
Huh? Why does this sound familiar?
The eerie feeling I had was causing my heart to quicken with worry. Then, the next words that left Haiko’s mouth caused my blood to run cold.
“In order to improve our school, I wish to bring the individual known as Axel Savoncho on as a member of the disciplinary committee. Would Axel Savoncho please step up to the stage?”
All eyes immediately turned to me. All except Talia who was standing next to and staring at Haiko with an expression of shock on her face. It was pretty obvious she didn’t know about this.
Getting up from my seat, I made my way up to the stage and stopped right in front of Haiko. Next to her, Talia gave me a rather threatening glare.
Holding out her hand to me, Haiko tried her best to smile. Too bad her blank expression made that pretty much impossible.
“Axel Savoncho. Would you be willing to join our disciplinary committee and help make this school a better place?”
Emotions swelling up inside me, I smiled and shook Haiko’s hand. Then, I opened my mouth.
“No way in hell.”
Silence hung over the room after my answer.
“Really? Well, that is a shame,” replied Haiko before looking out at the crowd and preparing to move on.
Figuring I should use this chance to leave, I turned around and started making my way off the stage.
“Hold it right there Scummy Man Commoner!”
“Woah!”
Feeling someone grab onto the collar of my school uniform, I looked back to find Talia grabbing hold of me.
“What kind of answer was that!? Do you even realize the offer President Haiko just gave you!?”
Everyone had their eyes on the two of us.
Sighing, I rubbed my eyes.
“I don’t have time to bother with boring shit like disciplinary committee duties. I have a life of my own to live. Not to mention, if I worked on the disciplinary committee, I’d have to spend a bunch of time with a pain in the ass like you. So thanks but no thanks.”
Trying to leave again, I was stopped once more.
“Look, I don’t like the idea either. But if Haiko sees potential in a jackass like you, Then I have no choice but to bury my frustration and let you join.”
“But I don’t want to join.”
“You don’t get a say in the matter!”
“Like hell, I don’t!”
The two of us continued bickering with each other for a few more minutes before Haiko stepped in.
“I’m sorry. It appears my decision has caused a fuss.”
I rubbed my eyes.
“You can say that again.”
Talia glared angrily at me again.
“Is glaring all you can do?” I asked.
Irritated by my words, Talia grabbed my shirt from the front.
“What's your deal? Are all commoners as scummy as you?”
Using some wind magic to apply strength to my grip, I clenched onto Talia’s arm which caused her to wince in pain and let go of my shirt.
Taking a few steps back, I decided it was time for my departure and jumped off the stage.
Talia tried to reach out and grab me, but I was already out of her reach.
Making my way out of the auditorium, I turned back and looked at Talia for a second.
"If rejection is scummy to you, then you're not ready for the real world in the slightest."
Turning my head away, I had no idea what expression Tailia made after that. And I didn't care. I simply made my way out of the room. Finished with making my stance on the matter.
Disappointed at Savoncho declining the offer, I tried my best not to let it show as I returned to giving my speech to the rest of the students. I figured this would happen, but I still held onto the hope that he might’ve been interested.
From the way Savoncho and Talia interacted though, it was safe to assume they didn’t like each other.
With an issue like that, it’d be close to impossible for me to convince him to join the disciplinary committee.
But after seeing everything he’s done, I felt confident he’d be able to protect the school with ease. So thinking of what to do next, I thanked everyone for coming and departed. Heading off to the student council office.
And as I walked over to my desk, I decided to come up with some ideas to convince Savoncho while waiting for the rest of the student council to arrive.
As failed idea after failed idea flew through my head, I rustled my hair lightly.
Resting my head on my hands, I glanced at the photo next to me on my desk. It was a picture of me and my grandparents.
Despite not being my real parents, they were far better at raising me than my family ever was.
Memories flashed through my mind as I thought about my real parents.
“Alright, Haiko. Just stay still until the experiment is done. If you don’t, then you’ll be skipping dinner tonight. Though, you’ll probably be skipping it regardless of if you complain or not with an experiment like this.”
“Hey, Haiko, can you test this liquid out for Mommy? She needs to know if it’s deadly or not.”
They were truly terrible people.
Actually, now that I think about it, it’s been almost ten years since my grandparents took me away. I wonder if my parents have improved at all.
Deciding to move past that for now, I went back to brainstorming ideas to convince Savoncho to join the disciplinary committee.
“So that’s why you had to leave a bit early.”
Meeting up with Xara at the front of the school, I sighed in exhaustion.
“Yep. My first morning back to school has been nothing but a pain.”
Walking through the gate, we made our way over to a board that would tell us about our classes for the year.
Scanning it, a sense of excitement welled up inside me. Suddenly, Xara hugged me tightly.
“We’re in the same class this year!”
I chuckled.
“Yeah. That’s pretty awesome.”
Yep. Xara and I were in the same class this year.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“Axel Savoncho - Class 2-A”
“Xara Femashito - Class 2-A”
I couldn't explain why, but seeing both our names up there caused a happy warmth to rise up inside me.
“Hey, it looks like Dianne is in our class too!” shouted Xara.
“That so?”
Spotting her name among the list in our class, I guess it was true.
“...Wait a minute, did you just call her Dianne?” I asked. To which Xara nodded.
“Yeah. Is that weird?”
“Well, whenever we hung out with her before, you always called her Miss Dianne.”
Xara scratched the back of her head awkwardly.
“Oh. Well, you see, back when you went missing, the two of us got closer after she helped me handle my emotions.”
“Really? Interesting.”
So the two of them bonded over my absence. I wasn’t sure whether to be happy about them growing closer, or mad that it happened thanks to me going missing.
But moving past that for now, it might just be best for us to go to our new classroom.
“Well, let’s get moving," I said.
“Right!” Xara shouted in response.
We began to walk away when...
“Savoncho.”
Hearing my name, I turned around to find Haiko standing there looking at me.
“What do you want?”
As the two of us stood in front of each other, the students around us instantly went silent.
“I still want you to join the disciplinary committee. Would you be willing to reconsider?”
Why did she word it like she hadn’t just asked me to join less than an hour ago?
“My answers not gonna change. I’m not interested. If you want someone to join, ask literally anyone else. I’m sure they’d be more than happy to join.”
People began to mutter amongst themselves.
“He’s turning down such an amazing offer?”
“She wants a disgusting commoner like him on the disciplinary committee?”
“Does this commoner truly not see the gracious gift he’s been given?”
Some seemed surprised I was even offered the chance to join, while others were disgusted at the idea of me joining.
“I see. Still, if you’d be willing to listen to me, I wish to speak with you further. If you’re able, can you come to the student council office after school today?”
Well wasn't she persistiant.
Rustling my hair in frustration, I sighed.
“I’ll think about it.”
“I’m grateful. When then, goodbye for now," Haiko said with a bow.
Taking her leave, Haiko made her way off towards the school building.
From behind me, Xara looked at Haiko’s back as she left.
“For some reason, she smells kinda stressed,” said Xara.
“Stressed?”
I almost forgot. Succubi had the ability to smell a person’s aura or soul or something. That’s how she initially met with and hung out with the MC before she and I got close.
“Yeah. Like she’s trying her best to keep her life going but worries it’ll all fall apart at any moment.”
“That so?”
Honestly, I wasn’t surprised to hear that. I didn’t know someone could smell stressed, but I imagine it’s probably intense being the student council president.
But she can’t exactly take a break. Especially since she still has to get through at least another few months before she’s allowed to resign.
You see, apparently in this world, when a student council president is elected, they have to run for at least a year and half years. Since Haiko’s already been president for for a year, she still has to make it through a few more months before leaving the role to someone else.
But deciding to move past that for now, I went back to making my way toward class.
“Anyways, let’s get moving," I said.
“Um…Right!”
Feeling the glares of my classmates resting on me, I responded by glaring back with a smirk which just seemed to irritate them more. Hilarious.
Arriving to class, we spotted Dianne among the students who had already arrived.
Spotting us, she ran over with a look of…concern?
“Axel, is it true you turned down a role on the disciplinary committee?”
“Er…Yeah. What of it?”
Dianne let out of huff of frustration.
“Being given such an offer is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. How could you turn down such an amazing honor?”
Even Dianne was grilling me about this?
I sighed.
“As I’ve said before, it sounds like a pain I don’t need in my life. Simple as that.”
Dianne appeared completely dumbfounded by my words.
“You really are a strange one Axel.”
I shrugged.
“Well moving past that for now, it’s good to see you again Dianne. “
Wanting to move along as well, Dianne smiled.
“You too Axel.”
Other than helping her out with something at the during the break, I hadn’t seen Dianne in a long time. And I took a look at the uniform she was wearing.
It looked almost exactly like last years. However, there were subtle changes to it that didn’t come with the previous uniform. One such thing is the bowtie that changed colors from a pinkish red to a more dark green color.
There were also a few extra pockets and was fit to be a lot more adjustable in comparison to the previous year's uniform.
I don’t know why they had different uniforms for each year, but the system does make it easier to tell seniors and juniors apart from freshmen.
Personally, I think the reason behind the different uniforms was that the artist working on this game thought some of the heroines didn’t look very good in the same uniform. But that’s still just a theory of mine.
Moving past that though, I noticed Dianne seemed to have something to say as her face suddenly lit up.
“Oh! I just remembered something. My younger sister is actually enrolling in to this school starting this year as well.”
“That so?”
Sister? Did Dianne ever have a sister in the game?
“Yeah. She’s only a year younger than me, but she’s always seen me as her big sister. Because of that, she’s been wanting to enroll ever since I came to this school last year. Would you two be fine if I introduced you?”
I shrugged.
“Sure. I don’t have a problem with that,” I replied.
“You’re more than welcome to do that,” replied Xara.
Dianne gave us a beaming smile after hearing our responses.
“In that case, would you two be willing to meet her after school today?”
I thought about it for a moment.
It’s true I said I’d only think about coming to the student council office after school, but did I really want to go?
This sounded like the perfect excuse, but a strange sense of guilt caused me to hesitate to give Dianne a response.
Rustling my hair a bit I sighed.
“Sorry. I have somewhere to be after school today. Maybe sometime in the near future?”
Dianne nodded in understanding.
“Sure. Just tell me when you’re available and I’ll see if my sister is too.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it.”
In the end, the sense of guilt won. Dammit. And here I was thinking I could fully make my own decisions without anyone pushing me around. Just goes to show I still have a lot of work to do if I wanna make my way in the world without being guided by others.
The school day went by pretty slowly, but I managed to make it through without any major issues.
Waving goodbye to Dianne and Xara who were going off to meet with Dianne’s sister, I made my way to the student council office where I found Haiko and Talia waiting.
Talia clearly didn’t like my presence there and showed it by eyeing me up and down with a suspicious look on her face. It made me feel like I was being interrogated for something I didn’t do.
Haiko talked about a bunch of boring duties that the disciplinary committee did. Probably in hopes that something would catch my interest. But it all just felt like pointless jibber jabber that I couldn’t care less about.
Probably seeing my lack of interest, Haiko seemed to make something up in her mind and proposed an offer to me.
“A temporary stay on the disciplinary committee?”
Haiko nodded.
“In exchange for your absence from classes during the first half of the day, you will work as part of the disciplinary committee as a temporary member until the end of the month. This means that while getting good grades, you’re free to just relax for the majority of the morning and don’t have to return until around halfway through second period. Does that sound appealing?”
I rolled my eyes.
“There’s no way you’d make a deal like that without a catch. I seem to remember you saying something before about wanting to make this the best educational institution you can. Wouldn’t me skipping classes kind of contradict that?”
Haiko closed her eyes and clasped her hands together.
“You’re quite right. Sorry. I guess that deal would sound suspicious coming from me.”
Getting up from her seat, Haiko began walking toward me with her arms behind her back.
“In truth, we have disciplinary committee members take extra classes to cover what they missed. So even if you skipped first period, you’d just catch up on it after school.”
Yeah. I figured there’d be a catch like that.
Rubbing my eyes, I let out an exhausted sigh.
“Could you just tell me why you want me on the disciplinary committee so bad? You never did explain that.”
“I didn’t? But I thought I already told you this morning. It’s because I’ve been keeping an eye on you and see you have potential as a member of the committee.”
“And that’s all?”
“Do I need more reasons?”
“If you consider someone with my attitude and reputation, yeah. I highly doubt you’d bring someone like me on without a better reason than that.”
Seeing I wasn’t gonna take that reasoning as an answer, Haiko seemed to make a decision in her head.
“You raise a very good point. Fine then. I’ll tell you. This might sound crazy to believe, but I actually wish to bring you on because I want to use you as a shield.”
“Use me as a shield?”
Seemingly picking up on what Haiko meant, Talia gasped in disbelief.
“Wait a minute Haiko! You shouldn’t be telling him something like this!”
Haiko shook her head.
“If it helps bring him onboard, I have no choice.”
Stopping a few feet in front of me, Haiko continued.
“Back before I enrolled in this school, I had a rough childhood. Because of things my parents did, I had to run away from home and be taken in by my grandparents. Even to this day, I still live with them.”
I see. So she’s just like her game counterpart in that aspect.
“I became student council president in hopes of protecting others from the same fate as me by showing them support as the student council president. But as much as I want to do so, there still lies a fear inside me that my parents will one day come looking for me. So for my own protection, I’ve carefully selected people who I see as strong and brought them on as members of the disciplinary committee. In other words, a shield to protect myself.”
Huh. That part’s different than in the story I was familiar with. In the game's story, she grew frightened of her parents after the experiment and left them behind to go live at her grandparent's house. That seemed to be as far as these stories matched.
In the game, after Haiko hangs out a lot with the MC, she comes to realize she misses her parents and decides to reunite with them and learn that they have become better people. Thus the family was brought back together and that helped Haiko find her emotions again which led to her falling in love with and confessing to the MC.
With the way this world’s Haiko is wording it, she appears to still fear her parents and what they might want to do with her. Honestly, this whole thing started to sound like a hassle.
Letting out a frustrated groan, I crossed my legs which caused Talia to glare at me. Still, I finally caved in.
“Well, I guess that’s a better reason than the previous one. So you want me to work on the committee for a month, correct?”
Haiko seemed slightly surprised by my sudden agreement before returning to her static expression from before.
“While I’d like you to stay on it for longer than that, I’m fine if you only join in as a temporary member for this month alone.”
“Alrighty then. That means I’ll only have to deal with Princess Jackass for a month. Shouldn’t be too hard.”
Hearing that, Talia jumped at me and tried smashing her fist in my face. I instantly jumped out of the way and used some wind magic to make her lose her footing and she crashed to the ground with a thud.
“D…Damn you…” Talia muttered.
Trying my best not to laugh at her, I stood in front of Haiko and held out my hand.
“Glad to be aboard…President Haiko.”
It looked like she tried to smile, but her facial expression barely managed to change as Haiko reached out and shook my hand.
Thus, I became a temporary member of the disciplinary committee.
Talia grumbled curses under her breath as she handed me a book containing all the things I needed to know as a member of the committee.
Reminding myself to hand this over to Nia later so she could help me memorize it, I slipped the book into my bag and began making my way out of the room.
As I opened the door, I passed the MC who was making his way into the room with a stack of papers he appeared to be delivering to the student council.
Ignoring him, I began walking down the hall.
It was only then that I finally realized something.
“Shit. I just got involved with the story again. Why am I so bad at keeping my nose out of stuff like this?”
Rubbing my eyes, I left the school to return to my dorm.
The place looked just like it had when I left it.
“Sir Savoncho!”
To my surprise, someone hugged on to me tightly.
“Whoa. Quite hyper aren’t you Vey?” I chuckled.
Releasing me from the hug, Vey grinned.
“I’m just happy to see you again after such a long time Sir Savoncho. It feels like ages since we’ve last seen each other.”
“Really? It's only been like two months though,
Vey had wanted to come to the island, but her parents said no. So while it may have been a while, it's not like it's been years or anything.
“Even so, I missed you Sir Savoncho!”
“Er…Is that so?”
Was being around me really that great?
I mean, Vey said I saved her from something during my adventuring days and that’s why she was currently serving as my squire here at the school, but with everything I’ve been through, I still can’t recall the time she was talking about.
Nonetheless, I appreciated her company.
“Well, I’m glad to see you too.”
She looked ecstatic when I said that. Chuckling, I began making my way over to the kitchen my room had.
“Anyway, I was just gonna makeup something quick to eat before bed. Got any suggestions?”
“Really!? Then…Then how about that pizza stuff you introduced me to?”
“Well that’s a bit much for a quick meal before bed, but I’ll see what I can do.”
“Yay!”
Smiling, I began preparations to make the pizza dough.
Weirdly enough, this world didn’t have pizza. A bit strange when they have things like burgers, fries, and hot dogs.
I was just glad I still knew how to make one. However, I honestly forgot why I learned how to make them in the first place. I think it had something to do with impressing either my co-workers or my step-sister, but I couldn’t remember which.
But moving past that for now, I focused on making the pizza.
Forty minutes later, it was done.
Appearing out of thin air, Nia sat down with me and Vey and we began chowing down on the pizza with grins on our faces.
Once we were done, I began washing the dishes as Vey made her way to bed.
After I was done, I got into bed and closed my eyes.
Nia laid down next to me like she always did and shut her eyes while clinging to me.
Feeling sleep beginning to take over, I thought about everything that had happened today.
With my disciplinary duties starting up tomorrow, I found myself wondering what kind of rabbit hole I’d fallen into this time.