“Ah, right. By the way, you should form teams of 4 before the end of the week. Make sure it’s a well-balanced team since you will be working with them the whole semester. You should also decide on a class leader by the end of the month.” She disappeared into the hallway, and the students immediately started talking with their friends to presumably form teams.

So it finally begins.

In truth, this was the first test students had to pass at the academy — team formation. If you chose teams based on friendships, you were more likely to have a hard time along the way, but since most of the students didn’t know each other, it was the only plausible way they could form teams. That is unless someone could lead the class and create teams that are suitable for everyone, but unfortunately, the academy won’t tell anyone about this. ‘Make teams before the end of the week’ and ‘Choose a class leader by the end of the month’. Because of such a delivery, any normal person would prioritize team formation rather than actually choosing a leader. It was simple logic. Any normal person, that is…

“Hello, everyone.”

Everyone’s attention was suddenly drawn to the front of the classroom where a lone student now stood with a confident smile on his face. His brown hair covered one of his eyes and his left eye scanned the room of students.

“Firstly, I am declaring myself as the class leader. I’m sure everyone is fine with it, right?”

He spoke in a voice filled with charisma and confidence, and the students could only watch in silence. He was, after all, a noble among nobles. It wasn’t only because of his position that the students kept quiet, but because they believed there was no one more suited for the role. The son of Khal, the current military commander of the Frein Empire. A future member of the [Strategic Table] and one of the best brains in the empire.

Dante Eliv.

I didn’t have anything against him, nor did I suspect he was the traitor in the future. He was indeed the best suited to lead the classroom, but unfortunately, I wasn’t going to let him…

I lifted my hand, and my voice reverberated throughout the quiet classroom,

“I object.”

Everyone in the classroom turned to the source of the voice, looking at me with complicated expressions. The rumors about the green-eyed student seemed to linger in their minds as they looked back to the front of the classroom and gauged Dante's expression instead. Contrary to everyone's expression, he didn't look bothered at all and stared directly at me with calculating eyes.

“You’re Ian, right?”

I nodded without saying anything, but he didn't take offense and continued,

“I’ve already heard from the rumors that you are pretty strong, maybe even stronger than I am, but you do realize this isn't a position of strength, right?”

A person exposed to the most danger on the battlefield cannot be the leader. It's really that simple. Whether or not he really believed I could win against him was very doubtful.

“Of course, I do. You don't have to worry, I'm not as strong as the rumors say, so I think I'm more suited for this type of position.”

“Oh?”

He seemed amused at my answer as a surprised murmur escaped his lips. If I had used my strength as the reason to lead the class, he would have had an easier time pulling the class to his side. Though it didn't seem my unexpected reply did much damage as he continued,

“Well, that might be true for now, but you are Lily Dragnok’s brother. There's no doubt you have great potential, so this type of position might hold you back from fully reaching it.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Oh, so the rumors are true?”

“Now it makes sense why the Scarlet Arsenal lost.”

Most of the students seemed to be hearing this for the very first time, so they couldn’t hide their surprise as they whispered among themselves. At Dante’s gaslighting, I decided to play it off with some self-deprecation,

“Well, there’s a reason she was adopted, and I wasn’t. So really, I’m not as strong as you all think.”

Though the others seemed doubtful, they didn’t say anything further and looked at Dante’s reaction, but his expression was still the same,

“Hahaha, I guess that might be the case. Then how about we settle this with a majority vote?”

“Majority vote? Are you serious? That failed system doesn’t belong in this day and age.” I retorted strongly, mocking his suggestion. However, what I said wasn’t far from the truth. Democracy was a failed system, after all.

“Well now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Although a majority rule system might not be used as opposed to royal succession, it’s still useful for less important decisions. We are simply electing a class leader; we have to make sure this is someone the majority trusts.”

Everyone seemed to agree with his words as they nodded to themselves. No, the ‘majority’ seemed to agree. I made a frown and pretended to think before speaking,

“Fine then, but I will only agree under two conditions.”

“Of course, as long as it’s reasonable, I will accept.”

Dante gave a casual reply. He was clearly confident he could win either way as long as we decided this by majority rules.

“Firstly, every vote will be anonymous, and anyone who breaks this rule will be disqualified and their vote will not count. Then, for the second condition, the vote will be repeated once every day until one of us wins with a 95% majority vote.”

A lot of the students here knew about Dante’s influence, and they all wouldn’t want to get on his bad side, even for something so little. If we could give them anonymity, they could at least vote against him without repercussions. As for the second condition, it was to make it harder for Dante to win too quickly and hopefully prolong the voting as long as possible.

“I see, those are indeed some interesting conditions, but isn’t the second one a bit unrealistic? We have until Friday to decide on a leader and also divide ourselves into groups. Let’s have an additional condition. If there’s no winner by Friday, Casper Lov will be the class leader.”

Dante replied while pointing at a particular student in the classroom. The student in question widened his eyes at Dante’s sudden action and stuttered in surprise,

“M-me!?”

I had no idea who he was, but from the last name, I knew he was from a well-established family at the very least.

“Yes, you. I believe you are the most suited for the job. If I win this, I already plan on having you as the vice leader, so it’s only natural you would be the most likely candidate for leader if I fail. So, do you accept these conditions, Ian?”

He turned toward me with a smile. His smile spoke many things, yet his mouth never moved. It was possible that he lied about everything he just said and simply chose Casper in order to use him if he failed to win. By nominating him as leader, Casper would naturally feel indebted to Dante and be more likely to be manipulated as just a figurehead than an actual leader. It didn’t matter whether they knew each other or not; that’s how effective his strategy was. But…

“Sure, I accept then.”

After pretending to think for a while, I gave an answer with a calm expression. Dante didn’t react to my calmness and simply continued,

“Then we might as well make this official. We will talk with the professor and have her set this up for us.”

After the tense debate, Dante went to his seat and the atmosphere turned back to normal as the students began to converse with each other more freely. The topic of discussion was, of course, their favorite candidate between the two of us.

“Mmh. Are you sure you can win? That guy might be the son of a big shot or something.”

Roran on my side finally voiced his concerns with a worried look on his face. The fact that he didn’t realize who Dante was, even after hearing his name, really spoke volumes about the type of life he used to live.

“That’s the son of Commander Khal.”

“Eh!? Then doesn’t that mean you are screwed!? Who’s Commander Khal, by the way?” He asked with a confused expression.

“The commander of the Empire’s military.”

“What the!? Then you are definitely screwed!”

This time, his eyes widened in surprise as he gave an exaggerated expression. I simply gave a small smile and responded nonchalantly.

“Probably.”

The rest of the day went by rather uneventfully. A few of the other professors came by for a similar introductory class, but I wasn’t paying attention.

Later that day, Dante and I visited the academy staff office and submitted our proposal to Eliana, who although seemed reluctant at first, eventually accepted, and the class vote would commence the following day. It went without saying that any misconduct would also result in disqualifying either of us from candidacy.