Although the meet and greet only lasted a few hours, Arc had been at work the entire day trying to cement a trashy image for himself. This was of course due to his delusions about the role of the hero’s friend. Dedicated to such a cause, it was only when the day was almost up that he reunited with Yue. 

“Everyone at the training field was thankful for your hard work, Arc.” Yue had a satisfied look on his face. He walked alongside Arc as they walked through the courtyard and headed towards the office of the disciplinary committee. It was the last event that Arc had planned for the day.

“Is that so?” Arc noticed the slight shift in Yue’s expressions. It gave him an ominous feeling, but he shook it off as if Yue was just being silly and then changed topics, “How was your date with Luna?” 

“Ehh… I mean we just sparred and trained together.”

Arc smiled, “For the whole day?”

“I mean… there were other people. And like I said we were just training…” Yue’s face was red and his voice trailed off. 

“Oh, so you didn’t eat lunch or anything together…” Arc slapped Yue’s back. 

“We did…” Yue played with his thumbs, “But there were others like… Sera, Cassius, Diamond, Umikai, Elizabeth…”

“There sure were a lot of girls…” Arc smirked, “Did Luna get jealous?”

Yue narrowed his eyes. “Archer was also there… and you could have been too—”

“Archer?” Arc cut Yue off. The image of the buff elf covered in blood replayed in his mind. Did Yue actually manage to become friends with him?

“Yeah, he was famished after going all out. Apparently our snacks smelled really good.” Yue laughed slightly as he recalled the events. “It was quite the sight… You really should have stayed around longer.”

Arc shrugged his shoulders. “I had things to do.” 

“I know.” Yue nodded. “Sometimes you are just too good of a guy, Arc.”

Arc frowned as he scanned Yue up and down. Was there something wrong with his head? Why did he seem so happy? You know your friend was acting like trash, right? Why are you proud your friend was acting like trash?! 

“Of course, what else is a womanizer like me supposed to do?”

Yue nodded his head slowly. “Umm… yeah…” 

Arc felt like he was missing something, but he continued to push such ominous thoughts down. Still, Yue couldn’t keep eye contact with him. Was he disappointed after all? 

Before an awkward silence developed, Arc let out a sigh of relief. His worries seemed to dissipate as they arrived at the building that housed the disciplinary committee’s office. 

Arc knew that Yue possessed a bit of demonic lineage. This usually wouldn’t have been a huge problem, but it appeared to be an unlucky bloodline. 

There were many times it created problems. It was sort of like a scent that came off of Yue. It could have been a coincidence, but various things kept happening around Yue. Of course, some of it was Arc’s fault—but it couldn’t all have been Arc’s fault, probably. 

Whatever the case might be, getting Yue involved in the disciplinary committee had its advantages and solved potential issues.

There was a slight problem in the fact that club activities weren’t supposed to begin until the second half of the first semester, so what Arc was doing was going against school policy; however, Arc felt confident he could manipulate things from behind the scene if things went poorly. 

Arc had also done his research. The vice president was a pushover despite being a second year student. Arc even managed to confirm this first hand.

The vice president was the man with the glasses that appeared suddenly when Arc and Yue were alone amongst a dozen unconscious bodies. As for the president, although she was basically in charge of morals and rules of the student body, she was known to be flexible. 

Arc’s main worry was running into Elizabeth. There were multiple other clubs and organizations that were also in the building that Arc and Yue entered. This included the student council.

The hallway was quite empty though. Most of the upperclassmen were not yet on campus. It was mainly the upperclassmen that possessed leadership roles in their department or club that would be present. 

Kal Arvensis, Elizabeth’s servant, as a member of the student council, was an example of this. It was also why Arc felt worried. He waved at Arc from across the hall.

Arc gave a hesitant wave back and then quickly knocked on the door leading into the disciplinary committee’s office. He didn’t want to linger when other members of the student council might appear. 

“Come in.” A honey sweet voice trickled out from behind the door. 

There were only two figures in the committee room. The guy who wore glasses before and the president of the committee, a beautiful girl who was the top of the third year students. She didn’t wear a school uniform but instead wore an immaculate black suit. 

The best word to describe her would be bubbly. Her hairstyle was similar to Luna’s; although instead of having short red braids, the president had longer purple braids. 

“Are you the one going around causing trouble?” The girl was positioned in the center seat of a large table. Her expression was cheerful even if the gaze coming from her light purple eyes felt like it was going right through them. She just had a perpetual bright smile plastered on her face that made it hard to determine her real feelings.   

The glasses guy was positioned right behind her. He was trembling slightly. He seemed to be both begging and warning them with his eyes. 

“I was just being nice to my female classmates.” 

The girl tilted her head and looked towards the glasses guy and then back to Arc. Although initially confused, the girl’s face lit up with realization. She pointed to Arc and let out an audible chuckle. 

 “You're the one that is after little sis, ain'tcha?” 

“Little sis?”

“Cute little Sera.” The president clasped her hands together and relaxed them on the table.

“Yes…” Arc wasn’t a fan of how carefree the president looked. He felt like he was slowly being swallowed up. 

“So how many women did you flirt with today?”

“A little over 80?”

Yue frowned and looked at Arc. It looked like he wanted to say something, but he only bit his lip and sighed. 

“80.” Her mouth went wide and whistled. She unclasped her hands and rested her head on her cheek. “Little bro, that isn’t the way to be popular. That is just plain creepy.”

Arc looked at Yue. ‘Wait is it creepy?’

Yue couldn’t look at him. Arc looked back at the smiling girl. Her smile was ultra sweet. It was too much. It made him feel like trash. 

‘Did I waste all my efforts? No… this is what I wanted… the friend of the hero should be perverted trash. I did my research!’

The girl coughed. “It seems this is shocking to you, and while I would love to comfort you… my original question was admittedly about something else.”

“Is that so?” Arc said, slightly depressed.

“Indeed. I was referring to the students that got beaten up prior to orientation.” 

Arc gave Yue an exhausted and defeated look. “Why don’t you explain it?”  

‘Because I still don’t know what happened.’ 

Yue was originally frowning but he possessed natural positivity. It didn’t take long for him to energetically explain what happened. In a way it matched the president’s warm tone, yet none of the words he spoke made sense. 

“...”

“...please continue.” The girl’s purple eyes narrowed. After listening to Yue, she seemed more exhausted than Arc. The glasses guy had tried to escape the room during this time, but the president’s glare stopped him. 

“And so it was like bam and ka pow!” Yue looked at Arc like a puppy expecting to be praised. Arc nodded and Yue nodded back, content written on his face. Whatever had been waning on Yue’s mind before was all but gone.

The president tapped her fingers. “Well, it doesn’t really matter. I’m sure little sis took care of everything properly. It seems some lowlifes thought she would be easy prey at the academy… but I digress… why are you two boys here.”

“My friend was hoping to join the committee. You see his dream to become an actual hero and he has a strong sense of justice.”

“Arc… that is embarrassing.” Yue pouted.

“Is that so? I’m afraid—”

Arc cut her off and pointed to the man behind her. “We got a recommendation from the vice president.”

The president looked at the man. He was stuttering, and so she cut him off. “Is that so? That is highly unorthodox. He should know that isn’t allowed.” 

Arc smiled. “Yes, it was during that ugh… disturbance… when the lowlifes ganged up on Sera. Yes… that is when it happened… The vice president thought Yue handled the situation very well and recommended him to come by later.”

“Is that so?” Her gaze continued to rest on the poor man. “Bam and ka pow, huh. He didn’t tell me anything about that…”

“I, I… ugh…” The man looked at Arc. He seemed to read that if he didn’t go along with what Arc said then he would be thrown under the bus. “It's… true. The bam and ka pow… were ugh… impressive.”

The current conversation was in fact bullshit, and everyone was aware of this fact. It was the things that weren’t said that created the bait that Arc wanted. 

The president hated corruption, nepotism, and incompetence. Despite this, Arc was blatantly blackmailing the vice president in front of her. 

It was obvious that he would be caught, but it would pique the interest of the president, who was known to be flexible despite her moral views. 

“Alright.” The president clasped her hands together. “I have decided. Both of you are to join the disciplinary committee.” 

“Yes?” Arc tilted his head. 

“Members of the committee must not only have a sense of justice but the courage and determination to act out justice. Are you prepared for that?”

“No.” Arc shook his head.

Yue looked at Arc with a piteous look but then looked towards the president and nodded. “Yes, ma’am!”

Arc looked at the vice president, who returned his gaze. He seemed to want to say you don’t know how scary the boss really is. He also seemed to enjoy Arc’s predicament. 

“Are you prepared?!” She shouted towards Arc. 

“I am, boss!” Arc looked at Yue then at the vice president as if he could predict the future. Did I make a mistake?

She clicked her tongue. “I’ll make a man out of you two, yet.” 

Arc and Yue just bowed. 

“Don’t make me regret my choice. You can’t become an official member yet, but I can show you the ropes. I’ll send for you later… don’t be late. Now, I’m afraid we are still busy…” Her gaze turned towards her vice president.

Arc sped out of the room and Yue followed behind. He took a large sigh when he was outside the room. 

“Looks like we are going to be clubmates?” 

“I wasn’t against joining, but I was originally going to  join the student council… Well, thinking about it… this is probably for the best.”

“Is that so? By the way…” Yue’s face was red, “Was that Luna’s older sister?”

Arc’s mouth went wide. He did notice a similarity, but he hadn’t connected the dots. He closed his eyes and combed through the information he had stored in his head. Arc opened his eyes.

“It would seem so…”

‘I’ll make a man out of you two, yet.’ Arc recalled her words. She probably knew about Yue and Luna, and as for himself, she referred to Sera as ‘little sis.’ Arc moaned and stopped thinking about it. He was going to go to sleep early. 

***

Arc was mentally drained by the time he reached his dorm room. For some reason his room was switched, but considering he stored everything he needed in a pocket dimension, it wasn’t a big issue. 

The issue was the girl sleeping in his bed. Elaine was sprawled out on the bed in an unflattering manner. Of course, that only made it look cute. 

She wore a nightgown that had an animal print on it. Arc shook his head as he saw how she just threw her armor about haphazardly.

Her blanket was also on the floor. He decided not to question it. It was too tiring for that. He simply pushed her to the corner of the bed with his foot before crashing into the soft mattress. He pulled up the blanket and practically threw it at Elaine. She snuggled up to it. 

Arc still had things to do. He twirled his fingers in the air for a bit and finished various mental tasks.

Arc created his own unique appraisal magic and used it to write notes about significant individuals that could impact his plans. He had to update Elaine and Sera’s character sheets just a tiny bit. 

He had to change Elaine’s role to “Commander of the Guard” since he forgot to update it previously. He also had to increase Sera’s magic stat. He adjusted a few other things about Sera in his detailed notes, but it was nothing major.

After that, he added character sheets for the Third Princess, the mysterious shadow, and Elizabeth. 

Finally, he noted various points of interest that he would fill in later. For example, he made a note of Cassius' brotherly care for Sera. However, tiredness created laziness, and so Arc turned and looked at the figure breathing softly next to him. 

‘Really. Now…’ 

Arc pulled the blanket and secured a portion of it for himself. He wasn’t too close, nor was he far. But over time he gradually got closer. It felt warm. He noticed her arm at her side. He debated snuggling underneath it. 

He wondered if he did that would it feel like Elaine was truly his mother. He never managed to call Elaine that word: mother. Not even once. It wasn’t just the fact that Elaine was only a few years older than him. It definitely was a big reason, but it wasn’t the main reason. 

Arc closed his eyes. ‘I’m pathetic… why else would I have been abandoned.’ Arc knew his own memories were sealed. Memories were sacred things that usually couldn’t be tampered with. It meant that he himself had sealed them, and he was terrified of why. He only vaguely recalled that black haired woman. Was she his true mother?  

Arc turned over. His back was placed against Elaine’s. He closed his eyes. It felt nice and he fell asleep easily.