[Tuesday, April 9]

The following morning, I woke up feeling more or less the same as usual and went through my morning routine while contemplating the class vote. I was at least certain that I would get enough votes for the voting session not to end today. With the protection of anonymity, many students would probably try their luck and see what happens if they vote for me.

These thoughts ran through my mind as I left my dorm room and walked to class. Upon arrival, the atmosphere was tense as most of the students were already seated and the professor was also present. Since we would be doing the votes, the professor advised us to come a bit earlier than usual in case we needed extra time to finalize things.

“Everyone is now present, so we will begin immediately. You will get a piece of paper and either write ‘D’ for Dante or ‘I’ for Ian, then I will go around with this box and collect the votes.”

Eliana spoke as she raised the small box in her hand. Although it wasn’t an official ballot box, it was enough for a matter as trivial as this. Papers were passed around the classroom, but before we could start, Dante stood up from his chair and started to speak while heading to the front of the classroom.

“Since we are doing this, how about we each say a little something to give the voters a proper reason to vote for us.”

The words were pointed toward me, and I stood up without question and went to the front of the classroom. Even without this, the individuals in favor of Dante would still be greater than mine, so this was likely a ploy to increase this gap even further.

“As the first candidate, I guess I will go first.” Dante’s expression became serious, and everyone’s attention suddenly spiked.

“For starters, those of you who wish to vote for me because I am Khal Eliv’s son shouldn’t bother voting for me. I didn’t come here to ride on my father’s achievements or get to the top using his name. My name is Dante Eliv. I am not my father, nor will I ever be satisfied with reaching his level. I came here to become the greatest commander in history and surpass him in everything he has ever achieved. So, if you vote for me, I promise you 100% of my effort. Thank you.”

Cheers erupted throughout the classroom as the students clapped at his impressive improv speech.

Ah, the beauty of democracy.

The garbage coming out of your mouth didn’t need to be true; it only needed to be prettier than your opponent's. Dante looked towards me with his signature smirk as if saying, ‘Now it’s your turn.’ I took him up at his unspoken words and started to speak.

“My name is Ian. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pretty words to say to you, but I will at least promise one thing. If you vote for me, class C will never know defeat in their time at the academy. That’s all.”

Silence. The reaction was more or less as I expected. Since Dante would see the individuals who show their support for me, they didn’t want to take that risk and simply kept quiet. The two of us went back to our seats, and the voting session finally began.

After collecting all the papers, Eliana placed the box on the ground and started taking out the papers one by one and counting in her head. She was probably using a special skill to keep track of the numbers because, after a few minutes, she finally faced the class and spoke up.

“Sigh. The results are as follows: 26 votes for Ian and 60 votes for Dante Eliv. So, as per the rules, we will have another vote tomorrow morning.”

“Wow, that’s a lot more than I thought he’d get.”

“Yeah, did you vote for him?”

“What? Of course not.”

The reaction from the students was as expected. All of them, including those who voted for me, were questioning what happened with surprised looks on their faces. Since there were 88 students in our class, that meant one of us had to get at least 82 votes to completely win. When you looked at the current result, it did indeed sound like a very unrealistic goal.

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“Oh, you didn’t do as bad as I thought you would. I guess my vote also made a difference.” Roran by my side said with a playful expression.

“Don’t say stuff like that. Did you already forget the first rule?”

If more people heard him, they could deduct a vote from me because of it.

“Oops, sorry.”

He put his hand over his mouth as he asked for an apology. I simply shrugged it off since it wasn’t that big of a deal.

With this outcome, I was able to make it through the first day of voting without much incident. One would have thought this would be the best time to start interacting with my classmates and fishing for votes in order to stand a chance, but I simply relaxed and went on with my day as usual.

Later that night, I received an unexpected message from Roran.

[Dude, you should watch your back. Apparently, Dante is offering money to anyone who can catch you doing anything shady to get votes.]

A small sigh escaped my mouth when I read through the message. It seemed he had no intention of giving me a chance of winning. If I started approaching my classmates, they would be more focused on catching me cheating rather than listening to what I actually have to say.

***

[Wednesday, April 10]

I went through my usual routine and exited my dorm room, but on this day, an unexpected visitor was standing on the other side. The boy seemed tense the moment he saw me and quickly approached me as if his life depended on it.

“Um. Hey.”

The boy greeted me with a forced smile, and I responded with a slight nod. From his timid appearance, I could tell he was a first-year student, though he wasn’t in my class.

“W-well. There’s going to be another meeting on Sunday, and if you don’t show up, Tim will punish us instead. So, umm. if you can—”

“What time is it?”

I cut him off as he was about to beg, but he didn’t seem bothered. In fact, his face seemed to brighten the moment I asked.

“It’s at 19:00.”

“Then I will see you there.”

I turned around and immediately left him. He was a student in the high classes, but even that wasn’t enough to stand up against Tim, one of the kings of Rezen.

As long as you were within the academy grounds, you had to follow the hierarchy created by the strong. Your social status didn’t matter if you didn’t have the strength to back it up, so the only way to beat Tim was through individual strength.

Such thoughts haunted me as I left the dorms and went to class. It was now the second day, so lessons were going to commence as normal, and the periods would be longer. Our class commenced with our voting session, and after a few minutes, the results were announced.

“Tsk. The results are as follows: Ian - 15 votes, Dante - 71 votes. So as per rules and whatnot, we will have another voting session tomorrow.”

Eliana announced with a monotone. It was understandable since it wasn’t really her job to help us pick a leader, but at the same time, she couldn’t ignore her precious students when they needed help.

With that, the second vote revealed how weak my influence was, and because of this, many would likely give up on trying to vote for me since Friday was rapidly approaching. After the first class, the rest of the day was uneventful — extremely boring even. The classes were now longer, and we had to sit through hour-long lectures.

The day finally ended when our last class ended at 15:00 in the afternoon. It was an especially torturous experience for me since whenever I heard something, [Recall] would automatically activate, and the lecture suddenly sounded like a complete repeat of what I already knew.

“Haah… the classes are brutal. Who would have thought we would cover that much work in a single day.”

Roran cried by my side as we left the building together.

Throughout the whole day, he was probably the only student who wrote almost everything the professor said. He might have even written the jokes the professors cracked in class. Though it wasn’t really because he was dumb or anything, rather it was because he had the speed to actually do it.

“Well, you can always come to me for help,” I responded to his cries with an all-knowing smirk, but he didn’t seem convinced.

“Heh, is that so? You didn’t even take any notes in class. Are you some kind of genius or something?”

“I am.”

I lied through my teeth, but Roran seemed convinced as he looked at my confident smile.

“Then how about we—”

“Ian. Is that you?”

A voice suddenly interrupted us, and a student stood in front of us. The student had spiky blue hair and piercings all over his face, a few around his eyes, mouth, and all over his ears. I looked at him with a frown as I answered,

“What do you want?”

“Oh, straight to the point, huh.” He seemed amused by my response as he chuckled to himself.

“I am Leven Drollen from Class A. Our leader is sending out an invitation.” He handed me a piece of paper with an address written on it — it was outside the academy.

Class A, huh? Lily should also be in class A.

The boy immediately turned around and left before we could ask any more questions. I was curious as to why this was happening, but at the same time, I had to be cautious. After some contemplation, I finally decided.

“You can go ahead, we’ll talk later.”

“Okay, but will you be fine going alone?”

“Yeah, it’s a famous fast-food place, so I don’t think they will cause a scene.”

I handed him my wristwatch first since we weren’t allowed to leave the academy grounds with them. With that, I left the academy for the first time since enrolling here. The city was naturally busy with people coming back from work and others going for their night shifts.