After finishing the conversation with Alkine and stepping out of the room, I ran into the man standing in front of me.
Considering that the only men here are me and Diggers, there was no need to wonder who it was.
“Can we have a little chat?”
Diggers said that with a calm expression, pretending nothing was out of the ordinary.
Since I’d expected this to happen even before coming out, I wasn’t particularly surprised.
In the game, when the protagonist raises their reputation significantly within the student council, there’s an event where they have a personal meeting with Alkine. And in that event, this guy reacts in exactly the same way.
The moment any man even dares to approach the president, he swats them away like a hawk, as if to prove he’s the quintessential obsessive stalker archetype.
‘Seriously, the dedication is real.’
Honestly, I didn’t care much about his obsession with Alkine.
After all, I knew his obsessive love would never come to fruition.
When the president ultimately rejects his feelings, he loses his mind and tries all sorts of schemes, but the president overcomes them all—physically, no less.
In the end, he gets so desperate for attention that he commits crimes, leading to his expulsion from both the student council and the academy. He’s a crazy character who hits rock bottom.
Although he does make a brief reappearance in the final chapter, acting as an ally, it’s so minor that no one remembers what he actually did.
That said, if you set aside those parts, he’s objectively a capable individual.
That’s probably why Alkine keeps him as the vice president despite knowing about his shady tendencies.
The problem, though, is that it feels like I’ve now caught this capable individual’s attention.
Diggers dragged me behind the student council building and immediately threw a question at me.
“So, have you decided to be the secretary?”
“Yes, well, with such persistent insistence, how could I refuse?”
That’s what I said, but honestly, if I had truly decided not to take the position, I could have avoided it somehow. Leaving the student council was always an option, and in hindsight, Alkine’s suggestion about leaving seemed more like a joke.
But taking on a council position not mentioned in the original story? How could I resist?
I couldn’t help but wonder what new developments would unfold, and that curiosity alone made it impossible to turn it down.
Of course, this reasoning came to me a bit later.
At the time, I genuinely debated whether to leave the council or accept the secretary position because of my habit of always picking one of the given choices.
Whatever the case, what matters now is that I have no regrets about my decision.
After all, joining the student council was something I was half-pushed into. Taking on an officer role doesn’t change much at this point.
I’m already way too deep in to worry about dealing with the aftermath. Maybe it’s time to just let go of such concerns altogether.
“…Even with me around, why would the president…?”
What is he mumbling about now?
And look at that sharp gaze. A smiling face doesn’t automatically mean you’re friendly, you know.
After agonizing to himself for a while, Diggers let out a deep sigh, approached me, and spoke.
“I don’t know what happened today, but don’t get too full of yourself. It doesn’t look good to others. You’re still a freshman and the youngest here, right? Got it?”
His words sounded kind, but from my perspective—knowing the whole story—they came off as absurd.
Had he forgotten that today’s events happened because of him?
If you hadn’t insisted on dragging me into a rift and showing me some “spice,” things wouldn’t have escalated this far, you little—
I had plenty to say, but I held back and just nodded, saying I understood.
Losing my temper here would only make me look foolish. A true master waits for the right opportunity.
‘Let’s see… this must be Stage 1.’
The first stage of the Diggers event involved subtly pushing me away from the president under the guise of friendliness.
This event, which consisted of three stages, ended with mockery in Stage 2 and a beating in Stage 3.
There was even an alternate development where you delay Stage 3 as much as possible, beat him up in return, and take his position as vice president.
But I had no intention of following the game’s storyline, so I didn’t care about that.
In any case, the current events had already deviated too far from the game’s original plot.
A student council secretary role? That wasn’t in the game at all.
I just hoped some nonexistent Stage 4 wouldn’t suddenly pop up.
For now, I decided I’d stick close to Alkine, no matter what Diggers said, just to scratch at his nerves.
I might not win, but I was confident I wouldn’t get beaten.
Without realizing my malicious thoughts, Diggers told me he’d go back first and instructed me to return with a time gap before leaving.
…But wouldn’t it be more suspicious if we went out together and came back separately?
Though I didn’t understand, I followed his instructions, and when I returned, Grain caught me.
“Now it’s my turn, huh? The president said I could walk back with you. Let’s go.”
“And where are we going?”
“Hmm… How about the student cafeteria? You probably haven’t eaten yet, right?”
That was true. After finishing my training with Lilith, it was nearly lunchtime, but I’d headed straight to the student council.
A quick check of the time showed it was too late for lunch and too early for dinner.
Since I hadn’t eaten anything, it didn’t matter when I had a meal.
“Sure. You’re paying, right?”
“Hmm, we’ll see. I’d feel embarrassed to act like a senior after losing to a freshman, though.”
I expected her to hold a grudge, but I didn’t think she’d be so open about it.
Still, her tone seemed more teasing than genuinely upset, so I could respond lightly.
“Back then, I failed to recognize a senior as magnanimous as you. Please forgive my transgression…”
“Ugh, stop it. It’s weird. You’ll never be popular with girls if you act like that.”
Why must you rub salt into my wounds?
I didn’t want to die without ever having experienced love, you know.
“To know when to leave and to depart gracefully is a beautiful thing… Scattered petals—”
“Okay, stop. I’ll buy you dinner. Just quit the weird talk.”
“Thank you, senior.”
Though my heart was in pieces, I’d forgive her since she was treating me.
Anyone who buys me food is a good person in my book.
While heading to the cafeteria after successfully securing my meal, Grain brought up the earlier incident.
“I heard what happened. You got separated and wandered alone, right?”
“Yes. I just hid and somehow managed to survive…”
“Don’t bother lying. I already know the truth.”
Excuse me? President, wasn’t this supposed to be our secret?
Why are you already spreading it around?
“I know what you’re thinking. The president tried to keep it hidden but couldn’t.”
“What on earth did I do…?”
When I expressed my confusion, Grain pointed a finger at me and replied.
“Before you try to lie, you might want to deal with the ominous aura clinging to you. It’s so obvious that it’s impossible to overlook.”
According to Grain, the dark energy emanating from the demons had clung to me in a way that was downright creepy.
If Alkine looked like she’d rolled in a mud puddle, I supposedly looked like I’d been buried in a pile of mud.
It wasn’t something that could happen just from getting injured a few times, so Grain had immediately seen through Alkine’s lie.
‘So all of that was visible…’
It wasn’t a coincidence that my eyes met Grain’s right after finishing the rift mission.
From her perspective, there was something visibly ominous wandering around, so it was natural for her attention to be drawn to me.
Thinking about it that way, her oddly calm demeanor when Alkine was creating a nonexistent position for me, calling it a “secretary,” made a bit more sense.
“You’ve got some guts, huh? Nobody else knows what you did, but how are you planning to handle accepting such a position so readily?”
“It’s not like I accepted because I wanted to.”
“For someone saying that, you don’t seem particularly dissatisfied. In fact, it looks like you’re actually enjoying it now.”
“…Is that a skill of yours?”
“No. Why would I need to use my skills just to observe you?”
Well, that’s true, but… if it’s not a skill, that’s even more surprising.
There’s probably some influence at play, right? Otherwise, this absurdly keen eye of hers would be hard to explain.
After that conversation, nothing particularly special came up.
We just exchanged a few words about academy life and student council activities.
In a way, I was relieved.
I had thought that learning I defeated a demon would create some distance between us, but contrary to my expectations, we were able to have a normal conversation, like a typical senior and junior.
Considering I’m not actually that strong, if the situation had become awkward because of some mistaken perception, it would have been pretty bitter.
Both Alkine and Grain seem to treat me surprisingly normally. Perhaps having my power exposed isn’t as shocking as I feared.
Not that I have much power to expose… but anyway, I’d rather not reveal anything further.
With those thoughts, I realized we had already arrived at the student cafeteria.
The academy is quite peculiar in that it separates students into lower, middle, and upper classes, yet it has a unified student cafeteria.
Did they think discriminating over food would be too much?
I don’t know the exact reason, but thanks to this, it’s an excellent place to meet a variety of people.
You could say the student cafeteria here serves as the academy’s version of the fantasy guild or tavern—a hub for encounters.
Because of that, I entered the cafeteria with a slightly excited feeling… only to be greeted by a strangely chaotic atmosphere.
It wasn’t even a busy time, so I couldn’t understand why it felt so disordered. Looking around, I noticed that most people were staring in the same direction.
Following their gazes, I saw two familiar faces.
Seria and Lilith.
Upon seeing them, the chaotic atmosphere made sense.
The two of them are famous figures within the academy—one a princess and the other a saintess. It would be strange if they weren’t famous.
That alone is enough to draw attention, but on top of that, they’re incredibly beautiful.
Not just regular beauty, but the kind that could easily captivate people. Naturally, the surrounding atmosphere would be affected.
But what are they doing here, having dinner this early?
I get that Seria tends to move around during quieter times, but what’s Lilith doing here? Isn’t she usually a late eater?
Still, it’s nice to see them.
Feeling glad, I approached them to say hello…
“So? You didn’t come here just to brag about how Rudion helped you, right? What exactly do you want to say?”
“It’s not bragging. I just—”
“If it’s not something urgent, I’d prefer to focus on my meal.”
She’s at it again.
Or maybe not? It’s probably the first time she’s acting like this here.
She wasn’t like this when she was with me, so I thought she had changed. Turns out, I just managed to start things off well with her back then. Her original personality hasn’t gone anywhere.
“Senior, I’ll be back in a moment. Can you order for me? Just the basic meal is fine.”
“Uh… it looks pretty intense. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“No problem. Just the basic meal, please.”
Seeing that Lilith looked quite awkward, I decided to leave the meal order to Grain and stepped in between the two.
And shortly after, the ceiling of the student cafeteria exploded and flew off.
That’s not a metaphor—it actually flew off.
“Rudion… I didn’t mean for this to happen… Ugh…”
The culprit was Seria.