The student city of Rochest.
"Cheers!"
"Whoo!"
A young man and woman clinked their wine glasses, chatting boisterously. Late at night in a tavern. Two distinctly fresh-faced students gulped down wine, their robes pulled tight as if trying to hide their identities. Both of their faces were flushed red from the alcohol.
"Ish it really okay for ush to be doing this?" the girl hiccuped as she spoke.
"We gotta shtudy for finalsh, too. Right, babe?"
"It’s not even exam season yet! If we don’t drink now, we won’t get another chance!"
"That’sh true."
The two laughed loudly and looked out the window. Outside, the night was pitch-black. It was a late hour when even the students who had snuck into Rochest had returned to their dorms, and the locals had closed up shop and left. The two continuously downed their wine, calling this their "youth."
"Babe. You want to hear a scary story?"
"Oh, really? I love shcary shtories."
The boy raised both hands above his shoulders and faked a spooky smile.
"You know the fanatic Ever Kire who infiltrated the Dark Festival? Word is Lady Nephthys killed her."
"Uh-huh."
"But the truth is, she’s supposedly still alive and kicking."
"Ah!"
The girl let out an ear-piercing shriek and playfully smacked the boy’s shoulder. The tavern owner heard the noise and frowned, but since they were Kizen students, he couldn’t do anything and merely clicked his tongue.
The boy grew even more excited and continued.
"The story that Lady Nephthys killed her was actually Ever Kire manipulating reality! Rumor has it that the fanatic is still buried deep underground on Roc Island."
"Ah, that’sh shcary!"
Immersed in his own tale, the boy lowered his voice and spoke grimly.
"And she’s making her own followers within the school to hold a resurrection ritual! People holding crosses are just..."
A sharp crash of shattering glass rang out. The boy laughed out loud.
"What are we going to do if you break another one? You must be really drunk, babe. Let’s call it a night."
"Th-th-th-th...!"
Her hand pointed forward. Her eyes were wide open, as if she had completely sobered up.
"Right there! Right there!"
"Come on, what is it? Your timing is way too obvious. I’m not falling for it."
The boy giggled and turned his gaze out the window. And then he saw it. People draped in robes marching down the streets of Rochest, holding crosses.
"Gah! Aaaagh!"
He tumbled backward out of his chair with a loud crash.
"Ugh! A cross! What the—! What the hell! Here! What the hell is that?!"
"B-Babe!"
The boy scrambled away in a panic, leaving the girl behind. His pants were damp with a yellow stain. The girl burst into tears and chased after him.
"Good grief. Kids these days."
Watching the students flee the tavern, the owner let out a deep sigh and fetched a mop. Then, he looked out the window they had been staring at.
"What did they even see?"
There was nothing there. While he clicked his tongue and went out to wash the mop...
People in black robes hid behind the building, their breaths hushed.
The next morning.
The Mutant Club’s basement.
Simon sat deep in thought, the Chaos Dullahan laid out before him. Ever since his defeat in the secret duel against Aizel, he had been racking his brain for a way to take him down.
’I need a new technique that can completely turn the tide of battle in an instant.’
’Slip’, ’Cancel Spark’, and ’Yeonpung’ were all just basic prerequisites for facing Aizel; none of them were the decisive, tide-turning blow needed to defeat him. Simon weighed every dark magic spell in his arsenal. Naturally, his thoughts converged on the Chaos Dullahan. Powered by chaos and directly piloted by the former Swordmaster, Manus.
’It’s true that this is the strongest card I can play. But...’
It felt like it was lacking that final push. Since the Dark Festival, he hadn’t found any notable way to utilize it in actual combat. Even setting aside the drawback of its extremely long summoning preparation time, even if he succeeded in summoning it—
’It doesn’t feel like it would be enough to reach Senior Aizel.’
Manus’s skull, resting on the floor, glared at Simon, radiating a sense of displeasure.
Simon quickly smiled and waved his hands dismissively.
"No, no, I’m not saying you’re weak. I’m saying there are limits to a Dullahan’s body."
First, Simon examined the chaos magic circle used to move the Chaos Dullahan. Purple lightning crackled across his palm.
’The performance of the already completed Chaos Dullahan won’t change much. In that case, what if I focus on strengthening the chaos a bit more?’
A new chaos spell. Simon spent a moment intensely scribbling down chaos magic circles before finally clicking his tongue. As expected, he just couldn’t get a feel for this particular field.
’No, no. Let’s think broader. Chaos has a wide variety of jet-black variations, but it’s lacking on the divine side. Wouldn’t learning a new way to utilize divine magic create some kind of breakthrough?’
However, figuring out how to learn a new divine technique right away was another problem.
’Divine, Divine. A new application of Divine magic to generate chaos.’
Just as Simon was agonizing, tearing at his hair in frustration, an announcement echoed over the PA system.
"Student Council President Simon Polentia! Student Council President Simon Polentia, please come to Professor Jane’s office immediately. I repeat!"
’Huh?’
Simon raised his head.
’Did something happen?’
An hour later.
Simon and Meirin had been summoned to Jane’s office. The two stood stiffly at attention, stealing glances at each other. It was obvious they had been called in their capacities as Student Council President and Vice President. Their eyes briefly met.
’I didn’t do anything wrong!’
Meirin shook her head vigorously as if to say just that. Then, she narrowed her eyes and glared at Simon. It was as if she were asking, ’Did you do something wrong?’
Of course, Simon had no idea either, so he quickly shook his head. Jane finished her paperwork with a soft tap. Taking off her glasses and placing them on the desk, she slowly looked back and forth between their faces. Standing before those cold purple eyes, one couldn’t help but feel tense, even if they hadn’t done anything wrong.
"The reason I called you two here is none other than the release of the midterm evaluation report for the 330th Student Council."
She held out a file folder. Simon took it and checked it, while Meirin tilted her head with a look full of curiosity beside him.
"You may listen while you read. The overall grades for the 330th Student Council are satisfactory."
Simon flipped through the documents. It was a report evaluating the Student Council’s performance across ten categories. The highest-rated categories included external festival operations, budget execution, and administrative staff satisfaction. Beside him, Meirin was stamping her feet and letting out muffled squeals of joy.
’This isn’t just satisfactory, is it?’
Overall, it was an excellent evaluation. As Simon happily read down the document, he let out a soft groan at one particular section.
’Student Satisfaction: ★★★’
"Student satisfaction is a bit low," Simon noted.
"That is fine," Jane replied. "If you analyze the statistics in detail, it is entirely understandable, so I will take it into consideration."
"You mean..."
"The third-years gave an unusually high number of unsatisfactory ratings."
Meirin’s face flushed with anger. Simon smiled bitterly at her extreme emotional swings.
"However, the satisfaction rate among the much larger first-year class was high, so we can consider that you made up for it there."
Among the first-years, Simon was a hero who had rescued kidnapped freshmen on the very first day of the entrance ceremony. Furthermore, the first-years took it for granted that a second-year was the Student Council President, so they felt no resistance. In fact, many first-years were dissatisfied, wondering why a Student Council President who was doing a good job had to be replaced just because the top third-year had returned.
"Let’s get to the point. Look at the bottommost category."
’Student Communication Activities: ★’
Seeing the rating, Meirin jumped.
"Th-This can’t be right, Professor! Do you know how hard we worked?! We improved the walking paths based on complaints, replaced the poorly rated student cafeteria...!"
"Those fall under the facility operations category, Vice President."
Jane clasped her hands together and looked at Meirin.
"How actively did the Student Council step up to resolve the students’ difficulties and complaints? How much did you communicate with the students, understand their struggles, and resolve them? That is what this category evaluates."
"B-But Dick definitely said he handled that well, too!"
Jane didn’t answer immediately and merely offered a faint smile. Meirin’s ears turned bright red, and she soon clasped her hands and hung her head.
"W-We will correct this."
"Yes. You must."
Jane leaned back in her chair.
"You are the ones fully in charge of and responsible for the first semester of the 330th Student Council. If your evaluations come out poorly—"
She looked at Simon and continued.
"Regardless of the outcome of the duel between President Simon and Top Student Aizel, it will be difficult for you to inherit the Student Council for the second semester, let alone your third year."
’Checkmate.’
They were cornered. The members of the 330th were promised they would maintain the Student Council until the end of the first semester. It was a good thing that they wouldn’t have the achievements they had all worked so hard to build stolen by the third-years, but at the same time, the responsibility was entirely theirs.
’Correcting the student communication activities.’
No matter how little Kizen interfered with the student-run organization’s activities, the school wasn’t foolish enough to let a Student Council with a "failing" grade remain in power. A prerequisite task that needed to be handled even more urgently than the duel with Aizel had just arisen.
On the way back to the Student Union building after leaving Jane’s office.
"Ah, damn it! Seriouslyyy!"
Meirin clutched her head in agony. Her cheeks were flushed red with embarrassment.
"Making me suffer such humiliation in front of Professor Jane? That commoner is dead meat when I get my hands on him!"
"Calm down," Simon soothed her with a smile.
"She wasn’t scolding us. She was just letting us know that since the midterm evaluation came out like this, it could become a problem later if we don’t fix it."
"I suppose."
Meirin pouted with a sullen expression before closing her eyes. Her anger was brief. She seemed to be pondering what to do next.
"For now, let’s move toward utilizing the Student Council counseling center we set up as much as possible. It seems we lacked promotion. We’ll mobilize the underlings to promote it on a massive scale, and then, hmm."
After thinking for a moment, she looked back at Simon.
"Simon, when is your afternoon major class?"
Simon checked his wristwatch.
"In thirty minutes."
"I still have an hour and a half left. So I’ll go around the dorms and check if any letters came into the help boxes."
"Alright, I’m counting on you."
While Simon focused on major schedules and external activities, Meirin managed the school’s internal operations incredibly meticulously.
"Listen carefully! We don’t have time to spare anymore." Meirin lightly bit her fingernail, looking anxious.
"I want to somehow finish all our backlogged work quickly before the actual final exam season starts so I can focus on my personal grades. You probably want to focus on that weird ’Defeat Senior Aizel’ special training too, right?"
"It’s not special training, just supplementary lessons..."
"What kind of supplementary lessons are those? Not even a fool would believe that!"
Meirin snorted and looked at Simon again.
"Anyway, if there’s anything in the help boxes, let’s do it all! If we document it and report it, they’ll count it as an achievement."
"Got it."
"Stay sharp, Simon!"
Standing on her tiptoes, Meirin thrust her face close to his.
"Soon, performance evaluations, final exams, and all sorts of schedules are going to pour in! We have to finish this as fast as possible! Understood?"
"Y-Yeah, understood."
"Then I’ll see you in the Student Council room later after class!"
Meirin waved her hand and ran off energetically, her skirt fluttering behind her. Simon also pulled his golem board out of his subspace.
’Alright, let’s focus.’
Just as Meirin had said, Simon entered the Student Council room after finishing both his afternoon class and supplementary lesson.
"Oh, ’sup!"
Dick, who was sprawled out on the sofa, waved his hand in greeting. Kamibarez was nowhere to be seen, likely because her supplementary lessons weren’t over yet.
Simon walked over and gave Dick a familiar high-five.
"I heard the news. You and Meirin got chewed out by Professor Jane?" Dick asked.
Simon shrugged and slipped on his Student Council President coat hanging on the rack.
"It seemed like Meirin was pretty mad at you because of that," Simon noted.
"Hey, come on. I’m always doing my job, right? Where else are you gonna find a General Affairs Manager as competent as me?"
Dick flashed his signature sly grin and pulled out an eye mask.
"Well then, Simon! I’m gonna sleep for another thirty minutes, so wake me up then..."
"You think this is the time to sleep, you idiot?!"
Meirin, who had followed Simon in, threw a textbook with a full swing, planting it right into Dick’s face with a loud smack. Dick let out a bizarre shriek and tumbled off the sofa.
Simon flinched slightly, feeling the astonishing impact.
"Crazy! Why’d you hit me?!"
Dick jumped up, a red mark stamped on his face. Not backing down, Meirin stomped over and stood right in front of him.
"If you have eyes, look at this! We got one star in the ’Student Communication Activities’ section! One star!"
She placed one hand on her hip and used the other to wave the report right in front of Dick’s eyes.
"Didn’t you say you’d take care of this part?!"
"I really did do it all, though?"
Dick peered at the report as if he couldn’t possibly comprehend the one-star rating.
"I asked the underlings to pick up trash, handed out ice cream on hot days..."
"We’re not supposed to make the underlings do it; we have to do it ’ourselves’!"
She poked Dick hard in the chest, backing him against the wall. Dick turned his head away with a wincing expression.
"N-No. As long as the students are happy, does it matter who does it? This report is weird."
"I can’t deal with you!"
Meirin fumed with anger and stomped away before looking at Simon.
"Simon. Let’s just handle this ourselves."
"Y-Yeah."
"I searched through all the help boxes set up in the dorms and the plaza, and exactly two letters came out."
She pulled out two letters.
"We’ll each take one and be fully responsible for the issue. Which one do you want?"
Resolving student complaints. This was Simon’s first time doing this kind of work, but as Student Council President, it was naturally his duty. Simon pointed to the right.
"I’ll take this one, then."
Meirin handed the letter on the right to Simon and tucked the left one away.
"We start immediately today! Got it?"
"Got it."
"I have an evening study group, so I’ll head out first. Let me know how it progresses! Bye!"
Meirin waved again and vanished. Dick rubbed the stinging spot where he’d been hit and got up from his seat.
"She really lives a busy life."
"Tell me about it."
Simon smiled and sat down in the President’s chair. Then, he scanned the letter up and down. It was a featureless white envelope.
"I wonder what the problem is, though?"
"Hehehe! It’s obvious."
Dick shrugged.
"What kind of problems do kids our age have? It’s definitely romance! Romance! ’There’s a boy I like, what should I do?’ It’s probably something like that."
"You think so?"
"Of course! The angle is clear as day. We’re going to be messengers of love."
Simon tore open the sealed letter and checked the contents. His eyes widened. Goosebumps suddenly erupted all over his body.
"I’m right, aren’t I? It’s romance, right? Unrequited love?"
With a serious expression, Simon showed Dick the contents of the letter. Instantly, Dick’s jaw dropped, and he froze stiff.
’Please save me. Goddess Deva is trying to kill me.’
Simon and Dick stared blankly at each other in silence for a moment. Dick rubbed his shoulders.
"Whoa, that gives me the creeps. They sent it as a joke, right?"
"It’s too extreme to be a joke."
Within the Dark Alliance, Goddess Deva was an entity whose name shouldn’t even be spoken carelessly. The same went for crosses or any symbols of the goddess. It was a story from the distant past, but there was a famous incident where a noble was executed for accidentally placing his knife and fork in the shape of an upright cross instead of an X at a banquet.
"The letter was sent four days ago," Simon said after checking the date on the letter.
"Fortunately, it hasn’t been that long. I need to go right away."
"Wow, you’re fearless. You’re going today?"
Simon nodded and adjusted his coat.
"The client’s name is Aurore Serum. Look up her profile for me."
"Okay, okay. Got it."
Fired up by the sudden appearance of an intriguing case, Dick scrambled over and pulled all the student rosters off the shelf. Then, flipping through the pages rapidly, he spoke.
"You know the information the Student Council can access is limited, right? Do you need me to do some personal investigating too?"
"Yeah, please."
"Oh, found her. Aurore Serum. That’s a unique name."
Dick stopped turning pages and scanned the entry.
"Second-year female student in the Necromancy Department. Ranked 184th overall? She’s smart. And... wait a minute."
"What is it?"
Dick looked up with a slightly stiff expression.
"She doesn’t live in the dorms."
Simon immediately headed down through the Forbidden Forest to Rochest to meet the client.
’To think she lives in Rochest.’
She lived in the student city of Rochest, not the dormitories. He had heard stories about people like her. They were commonly referred to as "off-campus dwellers"—students who had left Kizen’s dormitories to live outside. There were various reasons for this.
Some students were kicked out due to accumulating too many demerit points, while others left because unavoidable circumstances made group living impossible. Among the demi-humans, fairy students couldn’t live in the dorms with other students because they scattered pollen everywhere while in deep sleep. And Jule, a second-year Top 10 student, the Combat Magic Representative, and a magic sword user, was also famously an off-campus dweller. It was said that he fought his magic sword for control of his body every night and even swung it around in his sleep.
The former couldn’t stay in the dorms due to racial traits, and the latter due to the nature of his abilities.
’What about this person?’
Dick was staying behind at the school to gather more detailed information. Simon made his way toward the address with a tense face.
’Goddess Deva is trying to kill me.’
It was hard to believe, but since the client’s mental state seemed severe, he hurried.
’This is it.’
An old, crumbling house located far away from the center of Rochest. The environment looked quite poor for a Kizen student to be living in.
’She’s a second-year, right?’
Simon cleared his throat and knocked on the door.
KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.
"Excuse me."
There was no response.
"You’re second-year Aurore Serum, right? I’m from the Student Council."
’KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.’
"Is anyone there?"
At that moment. The door creaked open just a crack.

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