<811 – Newbie, Come Here (10)>
“It’s impossible.”
After much deliberation, Velvet finally drew a line.
“The Foundation Workshop Battle just ended and it’s barely been a month. The political attacks questioning whether Seoguyeon is a secret faction of the Foundation won’t stop. Seoguyeon is still too weak.”
Accepting teachers from the Foundation’s butlers and maids is out of the question.
No matter the authorization to hire teachers, I can’t handle the barrage of attacks coming from all directions.
In fact, there are not just a few suspicious nobles raising their voices with “Are you a Foundation spy?” and threatening to take out the Foundation’s minions, insisting on ‘cleaning up’ the past.
It’s as if they have a pathological obsession with erasing anyone who knows they are spies!
“Eeh. Then it’s going to be tough to push for Velvet-senpai as the Student Council President?”
“You have to bear with it.”
Unlike my disappointment, a gloomy aura flickered in Velvet-senpai’s eyes.
“If we compromise, we can hold hands here. But if we separate, we’ll have to dig into your past and wounds. I don’t want to become that kind of relationship.”
“I’m fine with that!”
I know what senpai means.
Negative strategies are also important in elections.
I have plenty of experience from my muscle-focused days.
– I can’t acknowledge the candidate who lost in an arm-wrestling match due to an attack by a mysterious masked villain as our Academy’s strongest Student Council President!!
– Who do you think you are, attacking?! You think that huge physique is going to be hidden just because you’re wearing a mask?! Besides, the Student Council President doesn’t necessarily have to be the strongest or have anything to do with muscles!!
It’s a strategy of negative muscle intimidation, attacking the president candidate while in various disguises to highlight how weak and pathetic they are!
If it were Velvet-senpai, she might even deploy a giant surprise kick negative strategy!
If I choose another candidate, I might be kicked by a surprise giant kick and end up collapsing and screaming like Tetraphos-senpai!
For the safety of the candidate, I should either delay the announcement as much as possible or go out myself.
Why would I go out myself?
That’s because I have a way to counter the giant kick!
“I’m used to that kind of thing!”
“…Don’t make me look too much like trash.”
However, for some reason, Velvet-senpai turned with a face that seemed to suppress great sadness.
She suddenly looked very unwell; could it be that day that comes once a month?
*
– If we compromise, we can hold hands here. If we separate, we’ll have to dig into your past and wounds. I don’t want to become that kind of relationship.
– I’m fine with that! I’m used to it!
Velvet was greatly shocked by Oknodie’s bright exclamation.
She’s eleven years old.
Even the daughter of a noble family is at an age devoted to studies for debut in society.
To declare that she would dig up past wounds at such a young age and to respond that she is “used to it” was astounding.
If it were a different child, they might think she were just being reckless without understanding the meaning, but Oknodie, who has won against the director in a one-on-one, doesn’t strike me as a child being foolishly reckless.
‘She must know everything. About what I was going to do.’
Sending assassins, targeting subordinate members, and attacking until she withdraws her support declarations, with misfortunes hitting the organizations or clans of the members constituting her campaign team.
The Foundation’s Agassi responding to that turmoil with the words “I’m used to it” regarding all the political disputes that will occur inside and outside the Gift Academy using all powers of Seoguyeon.
Velvet Belle realized something she didn’t want to understand.
‘There can’t be just Oknodie among the Agassi.’
Countless Agassi exist within the Foundation.
Butlers raised and selected by the Director as the chief scholarship student.
How many Agassi competed until they reached that special status, and how many were attacked by butlers and maids striving to become chief scholarship students?
In a world where noble families often attack each other over the queen’s position, Oknodie’s position must have been even more precious than that of a queen in the underworld.
The competition must have been fiercer than fierce.
In the shadows, not in the light.
Not from noble families, but from the Wahyhiemhai Foundation.
As I tried to learn about Oknodie’s past, which I had not cared about or tried to know, I could easily catch a glimpse of that unhappy past.
“Is the future of Seoguyeon so precious that it has to demand the child’s unhappiness?”
Velvet asked herself.
And she reached a conclusion.
At least for her, the position representing Seoguyeon is not so trivial that she could easily give it up.
So she called.
All noble students, suspended students, observers dispatched from the main house, and authority figures belonging to Seoguyeon.
“We are in opposition to the practical successor organization of the Wahyhiemhai Foundation, [Organization that Plays with Oknodie]. If we don’t give up the Student Council President candidacy, we will present many policies to snatch away the Homunculus votes amounting to 380,000, while simultaneously revealing to the Academy and the world just how cruel and harsh an organization Oknodie is.”
The authority figures dispatched from the western noble family willingly nodded their heads.
“We cannot lose the Student Council President’s position, which holds massive authority to the heir of the Foundation.”
“This is a golden opportunity to utilize the Gift Academy graduates and suspended students scattered around the world for our Seoguyeon. Stepping on one child is nothing.”
“I don’t quite understand why we need to be summoned for something so simple.”
The students enrolled and suspended at the Academy showed extreme reluctance to that suggestion.
“Have you forgotten about the Catacombs expedition already? She’s a child who has to receive lectures from that cruel professor. Professor Sadako has been tormenting her with lectures bordering on abuse using her past as a pretext. I think she’s already suffered enough.”
“Do you think there are many students and allied forces who would have died if Oknodie hadn’t stepped in during the Foundation Workshop Battle? We stepped in to help her, and she stepped in to help us.”
“Oknodie is a pitiful child. Many who have escaped the influence of the Foundation will seek to exact revenge on her for their resentment toward the Foundation. If she does not become the Student Council President, she will surely die.”
Velvet looked at Andersen, the captain of Class 981, who could be seen as close to Oknodie.
“What do you think, Andersen?”
“She’s a child who has taken on responsibilities that are not her own, everyone has shown sympathy toward her in her pitiful state, and even though the Foundation is in a position to take the high ground, she killed her biological father just to save everyone. We can say we owe her a great debt.”
“Bullsh*t! Our Seoguyeon main house owes Oknodie nothing. Don’t distort our family’s intentions claiming that you brats have arbitrarily shown kindness without knowing our circumstances!”
In short, opinions were starkly divided.
The students’ position stated that they owed a debt to Oknodie, while the family’s position claimed no such debt existed.
One side must be supported.
It wasn’t too difficult for Velvet to make a decision.
“Seoguyeon will… support Oknodie.”
“That’s overstepping!”
The representatives dispatched from the main house increased their force.
The seven territories of the rainbow expanded, while the suspended students facing those territories backed away in fright, holding their breath.
The enrolled students struggled to protect their juniors, unable to interfere in this clash.
Indeed.
Not all of Seoguyeon’s strong figures remain at the Academy.
Some ambitious individuals return to their families to engage in power struggles, disregarding the tragedies that may arise from their own strength.
Facing such powerful individuals alone, Velvet engraved her will even more clearly upon the world.
“Even if our roots are in Seoguyeon, the value of Seoguyeon is defined by our actions. Your Seoguyeon may be like that, but my Seoguyeon is different.”
The strong ones, supported by their families, begin to yield as Velvet’s presence starts to balance the scales.
The title of Seoguyeon’s strongest of the age was not given for mere accomplishments.
“It’s treason!”
“Are you planning to defy the main house’s will?”
“Seoguyeon is not yours. It belongs to the elders of the family, you brat!!”
The eyes of the main house representatives turned bloodshot.
Veins popped on their foreheads, and blood welled up in their burst vessels.
Blood dripped from their gritted teeth, noses, and ears.
Those who could not withstand the tremendous pressure exerted by Velvet’s presence began to bleed.
This was something Velvet could never have dreamed of doing in the past.
Both in strength.
And in spirit.
‘It’s all because I was chased terrifyingly while entangled with that child, leading me to feel the need for growth.’
I was able to grow because there were those who followed me.
I was able to grow because I felt my own powerlessness.
And another reason.
There was a child willing to even kill their parents to break free from the constraints of her organization.
Velvet was able to reveal her greater ambition by breaking the massive shell surrounding her known as Seoguyeon.
“Compared to the Foundation’s rebellion, this is nothing. Yes, you guys. The main house of Seoguyeon. All of this is nothing. I’m ready now.”
Ready to challenge the main house.
Ready to walk my own path.
“Cowards. How long are you going to continue to extend your leave and dawdle at the Academy to avoid the main house?”
A look of shock spread across the faces of the suspended students.
“Velvet, are you… serious?”
“Are you declaring war against the main house?”
“It’s nothing. Compared to the Foundation’s internal conflict.”
The shock gave way to exhilaration.
“Perhaps we’ve been looking forward to this moment for a long time.”
“I’ll trust you and follow you, Velvet.”
Seoguyeon’s students prepared to sever ties with the elders of their family.
That resolve became a letter placed in front of Oknodie.
[Conditions for Candidate Unification: Support for Velvet’s faction to occupy the Seoguyeon Executive Committee, Seoguyeon Cabinet Council, and Seoguyeon Congress Chair positions.]
Oknodie, waving her roots wildly while dreaming of rebellion, smirked with a single finger while playing with that goo.
“Huh. This time, Velvet-senpai’s determination is a year early? A premature event like this is the first of its kind, and I can’t miss such a fun event!”
Oknodie accepted the request for support from Seoguyeon’s Velvet faction proposed as a condition for candidate unification.
