[Friday, 12 April]

The final voting session finally commenced, and everyone cast their vote as usual. Although everyone already knew the outcome, there was still a sense of anticipation about how many votes each side would get.

Eliana collected the votes and went to the front of the classroom to count them. It didn’t take long to finish, and the announcement came right afterward.

“For today’s votes, Ian got 86 votes and Dante got 0 votes.”

“What!?”

“Wait, did I hear that right!?”

The class erupted into an uproar of confusion at the unusual results. No one could have guessed the outcome, but at the same time, no one wanted to believe it. While everyone argued about who voted for whom, Dante stood up from his seat and gradually approached the front of the classroom. Having anticipated this, I approached behind him and quickly grabbed onto his shoulder as I spoke in a blunt tone,

“What are you doing? I already won.”

He turned around and let out his signature smile, indicating that despite the result, he was still confident of his win. He then gently grabbed my hand on his shoulder and removed it. As if giving a lecture, he spoke out loud for all to hear,

“Tuesday, 215. Wednesday, 211. Thursday, 203. Friday, 223. Miss Bloodthorn, what do you think these numbers represent?”

Eliana tilted her head at the unexpected question. In all honesty, I also had no idea what he was talking about, but his next words caught me by surprise.

“That’s the number of seconds it took you to count the votes on each day. Isn’t it strange?” Dante said with a smile directed toward Eliana. I quickly cast [Recall], and frighteningly enough, all his numbers were completely accurate.

Geniuses are scary.

Even after hearing this, Eliana still seemed confused as she stared at Dante. Seeing this, he continued with a smile,

“It only took you 203 seconds to count the votes yesterday because one of the candidates had an overwhelming number of votes over the other—80 against 6, to be exact. So I'll ask you again. Isn’t it strange that the one time we have an 86 to 0, you still took longer than usual to count the votes?”

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"..."

I honestly didn’t expect him to use something like that as proof of foul play. The other students all looked at Dante in awe as they turned to Eliana for an explanation. But before she could be pressured, I spoke up in her defense,

“You really think we would believe something like that without any evidence? You just pulled those numbers from thin air; do you think we are stupid?”

Everyone seemed to snap out of their daze as they also started to contemplate, looking at Dante suspiciously. Although they wanted proof for the alleged foul play, they still couldn’t get rid of the nagging feeling that most of them had,

'I definitely voted for Dante'.

It was written all over their faces, but because I was the only one engaged with Dante, they didn’t dare say anything out loud.

“Haha. I was wondering what kind of stunt you would try to pull, but you’ve really disappointed me, Ian. If you really believe you've won, then how about you show us the votes?”

He stepped forward toward Eliana, but I grabbed his shoulder again and spoke in an intimidating tone,

“That’s against the rules. You've already heard the announcement; do you have any proof I cheated?”

“I see. Then…” He looked around the classroom, and the class looked back at him with worried gazes. What he would do next was simple.

“Everyone who voted for me, let’s see by a show of hands.”

“Don’t!” I retorted out loud to the rest of the class. Dante didn’t lose this chance as he came closer to my face with a more sinister smile,

“Don’t what? Who are you talking to, huh? I thought no one voted for me, so who the hell are you talking to!?”

If no one voted for him, then what he just said made a lot of sense. I simply looked away from his gaze, and he seemed to take it as a confession as he said out loud again,

“Everyone who voted for me, raise your hands please.”

One hand.

Two hands.

Soon, almost everyone in the classroom lifted their hands—85 students in total lifted their hands, except for Roran, obviously. Dante looked around the classroom with a proud smirk on his face as he proudly declared,

“Now tell me, Ian, who exactly is the winner?”

“Ahem.” A small cough rang out through the classroom, and everyone’s gaze turned toward the front. Eliana shuddered at the tense atmosphere because of what she had to say next, but she continued nonetheless,

“In accordance with the anonymity rule, everyone with their hands up will now be disqualified, and their vote will no longer be valid. Therefore, the new results are as follows: Ian has 1 vote, and Dante has 0 votes. So, Ian wins…”

That’s right. I win.

‘Condition #1: Every vote will be anonymous, and anyone who breaks this rule will be disqualified, and their vote will not count.’

“Huh?” Dante’s face distorted in anger as he glared at Eliana with bloodshot eyes. He shouted before anyone else could react,

“What the hell! You faked the votes and now you’re pulling this?”

“U-um. I was mistaken, I mixed up your names, so sorry. I was going to announce the real ones, but since everyone’s disqualified, that means—”

“Cut the shit! Mixed up our names!? You were in on this!” Dante’s angry voice reverberated throughout the classroom. Everyone refrained from saying anything, just in case they got on his bad side. I smiled at his actions and approached him calmly. I then put my hand on his shoulder as I spoke in a cheery tone,

“Democracy. You just gotta love it, am I right?”

A lovely system indeed.