Loverock City was the third largest city in the Empire in terms of population but also had one of the largest CBDs(Central Business District) in the entire world. This was one of the reasons they decided the academy would be built there instead of the capital, which was more of a military stronghold than an actual city.

As I navigated the busy streets, it didn’t take long to finally reach the restaurant. Upon entry, a lot of people were coming in and out while carrying takeaway for the road, it was a familiar site in most business districts since many couldn’t cook because of time. When I entered the restaurant, it was easy to spot the student who called me.

She was the only one wearing an academy uniform and thankfully, she was sitting alone. She sat close to the window and her long white hair fluttered with the wind every now and then. I approached her and got a closer look at her face. Her dark eyes seemed completely devoid of any emotion, but her expression was different. The moment she saw me, a bright smile appeared across her face as she spoke,

“Ah, I didn’t think you would come. You can have this, so please, take a seat.” She pushed a half-eaten burger and some fries toward me. I was a bit surprised by the sudden action but I acted composed and sat down opposite her.

“Why did you call me.”

I decided to go straight to the point, between her strange behavior and her ire hallow eyes, there was something dangerous about her whole demeanor. Her eyes were even scarier than Lily’s whenever she activated her authority.

“You are on a date with a beautiful girl and that’s all you have to say.” She pouted at my words as she casually reached for some fries in the tray she had given me.

“You are nothing like what Lily described.”

Is that why she called me here?

In the past iteration, even after people found out I was Lily’s brother, no one paid any attention to me, so this meeting never happened. In fact, this was the first time I was seeing this girl, after all - she died during the first semester of her first year.

One of the uncrowned Kings of Rezen Academy, a title that Lily would also hold very soon.

She was the only child of the Tink family, Precious Tink.

“Well, then I guess I will go straight to the point. I heard what’s going on in your class and wanted to offer some help.”

“What kind of help?”

“I can convince your classmates to vote for you.” Precious gave an ominous smile as she bit on some fries. I grabbed a fry from the tray after convincing myself it wasn’t poisoned and replied to her daring words,

”And how do you plan on doing that.”

“Well now, aren’t you the talker, asking a poor girl about her plans for the future and stuff.” She gave a playful smile but I didn’t react and simply stared at her. It was hard to tell when she cracked a joke because of her eyes, those eyes that seemed to carry a darkness greater than my own.

I felt uncomfortable at how comfortable I was in her presence.

“I can send out some of my best classmates to talk to them, I’m sure even Lily would be willing to do it.”

It was obvious what she had in mind — beating them into submission. I also didn’t doubt that Lily would gladly do it if she thought it was to help me, but unfortunately, her concern was for nothing.

“If that’s all, then you don’t have to worry. I don’t need your help.” She frowned at my response but didn’t look like she would push it further, but I decided to add,

“By the way, my phone is dead right now. Do you mind showing me the time on yours?”

Precious gave a childish smile, it was a strange reaction to such a simple question. She placed her cell phone on the table and the figure '03:42' flashed on the screen. Though, this wasn’t the current time.

03:43

03:44

03:45

It was how long the voice recorder app had been going for since I sat at the table, so I decided to ask,

“How much did Dante pay you?”

Even under normal circumstances, there was no way I could have accepted her help, but because she went out of her way to say out loud how exactly she would help, it sounded like a setup. If she had said something like ‘Just leave the methods to us’ or ‘We have a plan’, then it might have sounded more convincing than bluntly suggesting violence.

But the problem didn’t go away even if she said something convincing, the problem lay in the fact that if I accepted her help and she went out and assaulted my classmates, the fact that I accepted in the first place would make me responsible and therefore would mean that I supported her misconduct.

Declining was the only way out.

“Wow, how did you know?” She seemed amused as she asked me with a childlike tone, it didn’t seem like catching her ploy bothered her in the slightest.

“I don’t know what you are talking about. Anyway, thanks for showing me the time, that means my time here is up. If that’s all I’m leaving.” I stood up from my seat and was about to leave, but her voice reached me again.

”Well, I guess Dante might really lose huh?”

I didn’t answer and simply left the restaurant. I once again realized how little I knew about the students in the high classes. If I really wanted to save Precious, I would have to find out more about her, especially what her authority is — if I could find that out, I might know why they murdered her in the past iteration. For the sake of humanity, I would even save the most heinous prisoner from jail.

I will have to contact Lily to investigate for me.

As the thoughts raced through my mind, I dragged myself back to the campus and immediately collapsed from exhaustion.

---

[Thursday 11 April]

The morning class went as usual and our class commenced the voting session for the day. This time, the results were worse than usual.

“Sigh. Today’s results, Ian has 6 votes, and Dante has 80 votes. Since the conditions are still not met, we will have a final vote tomorrow.”

“Well, it’s over.”

” Yeah, there’s no way anyone would vote for him after this.”

The students didn’t seem surprised by the outcome, after all, the majority of them had already voted for Dante. With today’s result, there was no doubt the rest of them would simply do the same. Dante needed just 2 votes to win, so dragging it out just so Dante loses could be detrimental to the class — that’s likely what the other six voters were now thinking.

The class went on as usual, and surprisingly, Dante never approached me to ask me to forfeit or anything like that, it seemed he wanted to win till the very end.

Classes finally ended for the day, but I didn’t leave immediately. After telling Roran to leave alone, I went straight to the staff room to find a certain professor. My situation wasn’t something I could solve using conventional means, and my goal wasn’t to prevent Dante from leading, it was to completely win the election. I waited outside the staff room as more and more professors clocked out until finally, my target left. The moment she saw me, her face went stiff but I smiled brightly as I spoke up,

“Hey, professor Bloodthron. I think we need to talk.”

Eliana looked at me with an uncomfortable gaze as if all her sins were being read out loud to her.

---

[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 on how many votes either side would get. Eliana collected the votes and went to the front of the classroom to count them as usual, it didn’t take long to finish and the announcement finally came.

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

“What the!?”

“Wait, did I hear that right!?”

The class was sent into an uproar 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 quickly went on to grab his shoulder and spoke in a blunt tone,

“What are you doing? I already won.”

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

“Tuesday 215, Wednesday 211, Thursday 203, Friday 217. Miss Bloodthron, What do you think these numbers represent?”

Eliana tilted her head at the unexpected question, to be honest, 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 right. Even after hearing this, Eliana still seemed confused as she stared at Dante, seeing this, he continued with a smile,

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

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

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

Everyone seemed to snap from their daze as they also started to contemplate and they looked at Dante suspiciously, although they also wanted proof, they still couldn’t get rid of the nagging feeling they all had in their minds — ‘most of us definitely voted for Dante’. 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 have 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 have 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 anxious 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!?”

I simply looked away from his gaze and he took this as a confession and shouted out loud again,

“Everyone who voted for me, lift your hands!”

One hand.

Two hands.

Soon, almost everyone in the classroom lifted their hands — 85 students in total lifted their hands, except for Roran for obvious reasons. 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?”

“Kuhem.” 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,

“In accordance with the anonymity rule, everyone with their hands up except for Roran will now be disqualified and their vote will no longer count. Therefore, the new results are Ian with 1 vote and Dante with 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 fuck. You faked the votes and now you are pulling this?”

“U-um. I was mistaken, I mixed up your names, so sorry. I was gonna 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 kept quiet in case they became an object of his fury. I smiled at his actions and approached him calmly, I put my hand on his shoulder as I spoke in a cheery tone,

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