Ch.2020. A Senior Buying Meals With Excessively Good Eyes

As I finished my conversation with Alkine and stepped out the door, I came face to face with a man standing right in front of me.

Since there were only two men here—myself and Diggers—I didn’t need to wonder who it was.

“Can we talk for a moment?”

Diggers said this with a nonchalant expression, pretending everything was normal.

I wasn’t particularly surprised since I’d anticipated this would happen before I even came out.

In the game, there’s an event where the protagonist has a private meeting with Alkine after raising their reputation within the Student Council, and this guy shows the exact same reaction then.

Like the obsessive maniac he is, he tries to fiercely block any man who gets close to the president.

‘Now that’s dedication, real dedication.’

Honestly, I didn’t care about his obsession with Alkine.

After all, I knew this obsessive maniac’s love would never be fulfilled.

When the president ultimately rejects his feelings, he goes dark and tries all sorts of things, but the president overcomes it all (physically).

In the end, he’s a crazy character who commits crimes just to get her attention once, resulting in not only his expulsion from the Student Council but also from Rubetia Academy.

He does appear in the final act after coming to his senses and plays a supporting role, but he’s only on screen briefly, so I don’t even know what he did.

Still… apart from that, he was objectively a capable talent.

That’s why Alkine keeps him in the vice president position despite knowing all about his dark intentions.

The problem is that I seem to have been targeted by this capable talent.

After dragging me to the back of the Student Council Hall, Diggers immediately threw out a question.

“So you’re going to be the secretary?”

“Well, yeah. With you pressuring me like that, how could I refuse?”

I answered that way, but truthfully… if I had decided not to be the secretary, I could have found a way out of it somehow.

Looking back, even Alkine’s talk about leaving the Student Council was probably meant as a joke.

But a council officer route that wasn’t in the original story? I couldn’t resist that.

I had to try it out just to see what kind of developments would unfold.

Of course, this was a reason I only thought of later.

I have a habit of always choosing one option when given choices, so earlier I was genuinely contemplating whether to leave the Student Council or become the secretary.

What matters is that I don’t particularly regret it now.

I was half-pushed into joining the Student Council in the first place, so what difference would it make to take on an officer position?

I’ve already come too far to worry about dealing with the consequences. It’s about time I let go of such concerns.

“…Why would the president, when I’m right here….”

Meanwhile, what is he muttering about?

Huh, look at those fierce eyes. Just because your face is smiling doesn’t mean it’s a genuine smile.

After struggling with his thoughts for a while, Diggers sighed deeply, approached me, and said:

“I don’t know what happened today, but it doesn’t look good to others, so don’t get too cocky. You’re still a freshman and the youngest one here. Got it?”

Though his tone was friendly, knowing the full story, I couldn’t help but find it pathetic.

Had he forgotten that he was the cause of my involvement today?

If you hadn’t dragged me to the Rift saying I needed to be taught a lesson, things wouldn’t have escalated this far, you jerk.

I had a lot I wanted to say, but I held back and just said I understood.

Losing your cool here is amateur hour. A true master waits for the right opportunity.

‘Let’s see… was this stage one?’

Being as gentle as possible, pretending to be friendly while trying to distance me from the president.

That was the content of stage one of Diggers’ event.

This event, which consists of three stages total, ends with getting ridiculed heavily in stage two and getting beaten up in stage three.

There is a development where you can push stage three as far back as possible, beat up the vice president instead, and take his position…

But I don’t particularly plan to follow the game’s developments, so I shouldn’t worry about that.

Besides, things have already diverged too much from the game’s plot.

A Student Council officer? There was no such development in the game.

I hope this doesn’t lead to some non-existent stage four popping up.

I’ll just stick close to Alkine no matter what he says and get under his skin.

Even if I can’t win, I’m confident I won’t get beaten up.

Unaware of my wicked thoughts, Diggers said he would go back first and that I should return after a time gap, then left.

Hmm… but isn’t it weirder to come out together and then go back separately?

I couldn’t understand his logic, but anyway, when I returned after the time gap as instructed, this time Grain caught me.

“Is it my turn now? The president said I could go back with you. Come on, let’s go.”

“Where are we going?”

“Hmm… let’s go to the student cafeteria first? You probably haven’t eaten yet anyway.”

That was true. By the time Lilith’s training ended, it was getting close to lunchtime, and I had rushed straight to the Student Council.

Checking the time belatedly, it was too late for lunch but too early for dinner.

For me, who hadn’t eaten anything, any time was the optimal time for a meal, so it didn’t matter.

“Sounds good. You’re treating, right?”

“Hmm, I wonder? It’s a bit embarrassing to act like a senior when I’m a second-year who got beaten by a freshman.”

I expected her to still be holding onto that, but I didn’t think she’d be so direct about it.

Still, she didn’t seem genuinely upset, just teasing, so I could respond lightly from my side as well.

“I humbly apologize for my thoughtless words, not recognizing the greatness of my senior…”

“What are you saying? That’s weird. Do you not get popular with girls acting like that?”

Why do you have to pour salt on my wounds?

You know, I don’t want to die without having dated even once.

“How beautiful is the back of someone who knows exactly when to leave… the scattered falling petals…”

“What are you even saying… Fine. I’ll pay for the meal, just stop with the weird talk.”

“Thank you, senior.”

My heart is already shattered, but I’ll forgive you since you’re paying. People who buy meals are good people.

Having successfully secured a free meal, we were heading to the student cafeteria when Grain brought up the incident from earlier.

“I heard about it. They say you wandered off alone and made it out.”

“Yes. I just hid around and somehow managed to endure until…”

“I already know that’s a lie, so you don’t need to rack your brain.”

What? Wait, wasn’t this supposed to be a secret between me and the president?

Is it okay to spread this around already?

“I can guess what you’re thinking. The president tried to keep it secret too. It just became impossible to hide.”

“What did I do that made it…”

As I expressed my doubt, she pointed at me with her finger and answered.

“How can you lie when you’re walking around with that energy all over your body? It’s hard to play along when everything is so visible.”

According to Grain, the black energy that flowed from the demons was clinging to my body to a chilling degree.

If Alkine looked like she’d rolled in muddy water, I looked like I was buried in a mud pile.

Knowing that this level of contamination doesn’t come from just inflicting a few wounds, she immediately saw through Alkine’s lie.

‘So that’s what she could see.’

It wasn’t a coincidence that our eyes met right after I completed the Rift conquest.

From Grain’s perspective, she naturally looked over when she saw something dark moving around.

Thinking about it that way, I understood why she remained strangely calm even while Alkine was creating a non-existent officer position for me.

“Still, you’ve got guts? Other people don’t even know what you did, but you readily accepted it. How were you planning to handle it?”

“It’s not like I accepted it because I wanted to.”

“For someone saying that, you don’t seem particularly displeased. If anything, you seem to be enjoying it now.”

“…Is that also an ability of yours?”

“No. Why would I waste my ability on looking at you?”

That’s true, but… if it’s not an ability, that’s even more surprising.

There must have been some influence, right? Otherwise, this exceptionally good insight can’t be explained.

After that conversation ended, there wasn’t any particularly special talk.

We just exchanged a few words about future academy life and Student Council activities.

How should I put it, it was a relief.

I thought there would be some distance between us once she found out I had defeated demons, but contrary to my expectations, we could have a normal senior-junior conversation.

I’m not actually that strong, and it would have been quite bitter if things had become awkward due to a misunderstanding from a lucky break.

Seeing how both Alkine and Grain treat me so normally, maybe revealing one’s power isn’t such a shocking thing after all.

Of course, I don’t have any power to reveal… anyway, I’d prefer not to learn more here.

While thinking about this, we had already arrived at the student cafeteria.

One peculiar thing about the academy is that while they separate students into lower, middle, and upper classes with discriminatory treatment, they integrated the student cafeteria.

Perhaps they thought discriminating with food was going too far?

I don’t know the exact reason, but thanks to this, it was a great place to meet various people.

The student cafeteria here served the role of a meeting place, similar to guilds or taverns in fantasy worlds.

Because of this, I entered the student cafeteria with somewhat excited feelings… but for some reason, there was a chaotic atmosphere inside.

Given the time, there weren’t many people, so I wondered what was happening. Looking around, I saw that most people had their attention fixed on one spot.

Following their gaze, I saw two familiar faces.

Celia and Lilith.

Seeing them, I realized there was nothing strange about this chaotic atmosphere.

These two are currently celebrities within the academy.

It would be stranger if they weren’t famous, carrying titles like the Imperial Princess and the Saint.

That alone would be enough to draw attention, but they take it a step further by being beautiful.

Not just pretty, but truly captivating beautiful… so it was only natural that they disrupted the surrounding atmosphere.

But why are they here eating dinner so early?

I can understand Celia since she usually goes around when there are fewer people, but why Lilith? Wasn’t she the type to eat late?

Still, it’s nice to see them like this.

With that thought, I approached them to say hello…

“So? I doubt you came to brag about getting help from Ludion. What exactly do you want to talk about?”

“It’s not bragging, I just…”

“If it’s not urgent, I’d like to focus on my meal.”

She’s at it again.

Or rather, this is the first time she’s acting like this here.

When she was with me, she didn’t act like this, so I thought she had improved… but it seems her original personality hasn’t changed; I just started things off well.

“Senior, I’ll be right back. Would you mind ordering for me first?”

“Um… it looks pretty intense over there. Will you be okay?”

“No problem. Oh, I’m fine with just the basic set meal.”

Since Lilith seemed quite awkward, I left the meal ordering to Grain and decided to intervene between the two.

And a moment later, the ceiling of the student cafeteria exploded and flew away.

This is not a metaphorical expression—it literally flew away.

“Ludion… this wasn’t what I meant to do… oh no…”

The culprit was Celia.