Chapter 158

Chapter 158

I Became the Academy Mafia Chapter 158While I was back home making up through assignments for the classes I missed because of mentoring, a voice came from outside the door.

-Young Master? Are you asleep? Should I not come in? Young Master? Young Master?

It was Ratte.

Perhaps she thought I was asleep, because hearing her diligently whispering from beyond the door, I closed the assignment I was finishing and got up.

“Come in.”

“Ah! You weren't asleep!”

The moment she heard my voice, Ratte opened the door and came inside.

Unlike at the café, inside the estate she was wearing the maid uniform used by the servants, and the contrast felt refreshing.

“What is it?”

“Ah. Today's results report!”

Saying that, Ratte handed me a USB drive.

“How's the audio quality?”

“Yes! These are conversations that have gone through an initial filtering, and the files inside have been categorized with the time, table number, and a brief summary of the conversation.”

These were the recordings containing the conversations of the people who had visited the café today.

Among them were the pieces of information judged to be useful.

“Didn't it take a long time?”

“Ah, no! The secretarial office helped me, so it finished much faster than expected.”

“Really? Perfect. Good work.”

“Hehe.”

I patted Ratte's head for handling the job perfectly from the very first day and looked at the files.

With this, preparations for the information war at the Academy were complete. The next thing to do was simply prepare for the storm that would soon come.

Today's meeting with the Head of Club Affairs had been satisfactory, but if it was Ray, he would definitely see through the hidden purpose behind it and take follow-up measures.

“I did ask Yuli, at least.”

I'd asked her to delay today's events from reaching the president's ears as much as possible, so she should be able to buy me a little time.

I had to settle things within that window.

“By the way, wasn't working at the café difficult?”

“No! When I first entered Niflheim as a new prisoner, the senior villains made me run coffee errands, and I never dreamed that would help me here. It was easier than I thought!”

“R-really?”

I had no idea what those two things had to do with each other... but if Ratte was fine, then I suppose it was fine.

Hmm, then.

______________

The next day.

After arriving at the Academy, I immediately gathered the kids and began explaining what we had to do today.

“Today is going to be pretty busy.”

The kids clustered around me from the break period onward.

Maybe because I'd laid the groundwork in advance by saying we needed to make a new operation plan?

Their eyes were sparkling brightly.

“Is it that?! Since we became a Silver Club, we're going to take over the other clubs or something. That's it, right?”

Jin-woo started off by saying something terrifying. At that, Se-ah shook her head as though it were absurd.

“Are you crazy? Do you have any idea how hard I've been working behind the scenes to improve our club's reputation! There's no way!”

He immediately wilted after being rebuked by Se-ah, our club's publicity and image-making manager.

At that sight, Choi Yeon, who had briefly come to visit our class, also lowered her head deeply.

“...

I was looking forward to it.”...

What the hell had she been looking forward to?

She had probably been imagining something like going around recklessly challenging other clubs and breaking dojos.

“The reason I said we'd be busy isn't because of something like that. It's because of this.”

With that, I took a pamphlet I'd stored inside the Cube and spread it out on the table.[‘Famiglia’ Together With You]

“This is our new business item. A support policy for weaker clubs.”

A Familia support system aimed at clubs that struggled to operate on Academy subsidies alone.

It was a pamphlet that explained in an easy-to-understand way that through connections with outside companies, items produced by clubs would be sold and the profits returned to them.

“Hm? President. But this says Seoul Hero Academy is participating too. Did you already get the Academy's approval?”

Young-je, who had apparently already skimmed through everything, asked.

“No? I'm going to get it now.”

“Hm?”─Bzzzt.

At the same time, the speaker installed in the classroom turned on and a faint static noise came through.

-Han Eugene. Student Han Eugene, please come to the dean's office. Once again. Han Eugene. Student Han Eugene...

Even though it was still early enough that morning homeroom hadn't begun, the announcement drew not only Familia's gazes but those of the other students toward me.

“I'll go get permission and be right back.”

The dean's permission?

It's not that difficult to get.

Leaving the kids behind, I exited the classroom and headed toward the dean's office, where the dean, already waiting outside, looked at me and smiled brightly.

“Shall we go inside? Student Eugene.”

“Thank you, Dean.”

We entered and took our respective seats. Heo Seok-gi, the dean, spoke first.

“You're wearing the shoes.”

Realizing that what I was wearing was the Black Mist he'd given me, he asked with a proud smile.

“How are they? Do they seem worth wearing?”

“Yes. Thanks to them, I was able to overcome many dangerous situations. Thank you.”

How many times had I succeeded in infiltrating places thanks to Black Mist, and how many times had it saved my life?

I sincerely felt grateful to him.

The dean nodded in satisfaction.

“Then I'm glad. By the way... you said you had a request for me, Student Eugene.”

As the atmosphere relaxed a little, he brought up the main topic.

“That's right. This is a request no one other than you, Dean, can grant.”

At my sincere words, the dean leaned back in his chair and stroked his chin.

“For none other than Student Eugene to ask me for a favor, surely you're not planning to cause some incident at the Academy or anything, are you? Even I cannot cover up a major incident.”...

Just what does he normally think of me?

He went completely off the mark right from the start.

“It's nothing like that. Rather, it's a request that would greatly benefit the Academy, the students, and all of us.”

“A request that benefits everyone?”

Interest entered the expression that had previously held concern.

“Then let's hear it. What is this request that benefits everyone?”

In truth, my request wasn't anything that serious.

“I would like you to officially commend the Academy's student council, the Head of Club Affairs, and the president in your name, Dean.”

______________

That afternoon.

For the first time in a while, all the students were summoned to the convention hall.

Although such gatherings happened once or twice a month, today's had been decided suddenly on the same day, leaving the students puzzled. Among them were also members of the student council, said to stand at the pinnacle of the Academy.

“Yuli, the entire student council has been summoned too. Haven't you heard anything separately?”

Ray Pendragon walked toward the convention hall with his hands in his pockets. Yuli, walking alongside him, shook her head.

“Not really. There hasn't been anything like this recently. From what I heard from an instructor I know, it was the dean's direct order.”

“The dean? Something feels strange.”

Ray looked even more puzzled at Yuli's words.

At that moment, the Treasurer poked her head forward and smiled.

“Hasn't something like this happened occasionally when someone was being commended? It's probably something like a student saving a civilian on the street... something like that.”

At the Treasurer's words that it was probably nothing important and not worth worrying about, Ray went, “Hmm...,” and nodded.

“If it's something like that, I don't really want to go... but they said even the student council absolutely had to attend?”

“That's right, President.”

“What a pain~ They should just handle things like that among themselves.”

Muttering that, Ray opened the doors to the convention hall, and everyone's attention immediately focused on the entrance.

It was a sight created by the rare appearance of the entire student council.

“Wow~ every student really is here. Where do we sit?”

“There are signs up front marked student council. I think we should sit there.”

“Ahh. Found them. You mean over there, right?”

They headed toward the front of the convention hall following the words on the signs.

Soon, Ray found the chair bearing his name, sat down immediately, and crossed his legs.

“All right, let's see what someone did to make them gather every student here.”

Ray smiled as though already looking forward to it and interlaced his fingers.

A little while later, the empty seats began filling one by one until the convention hall was packed with people.

“Wait. Then those guys might be here too?”

At that moment, Ray turned his head toward the back and began looking around for ‘them.’

The people who had recently made his Academy life entertaining.

There was also some expectation that they might be involved in something like this.‘Kyaa! The president looked over here!’‘President!’In the middle of it all, students who admired the president screamed and waved, but Ray smiled at them as though he was already used to it, and finally found ‘them.’

“They're sitting back there?”

A boy sitting in a seat that was high up but at the very back, wearing an arrogant smile.‘Han Eugene’.

The one who had recently taken the top rank among the first-years.

And beside him were the members of the club he ran, along with the Sword Saint's granddaughter, ‘Choi Yeon,’ who had been pushed down to second place.

At that moment, perhaps feeling Ray's gaze from above, Eugene's eyes met Ray's.

At the same time, the boy grinned.

Ray smiled as well, finding it interesting.

“Right, so you're involved after all. Is that it?”

Just what had he schemed this time?

And like last time, how had he moved the dean?

While thinking that, Ray turned his gaze back forward, where a student from the broadcasting club had finished setting up the microphone and stood before the podium.

-Thank you all for attending. The reason we've gathered you today is because there are individuals the dean wishes to personally commend.

“So that's what it is?”

Ray nodded at the confirmation that it was related to a commendation, just as they'd discussed on the way here.‘All right, let's hear what they did to make the dean personally commend them.’Thinking that, Ray crossed his arms and leaned back against the chair.

-The commendations will be personally presented by the dean, and each recipient will receive a scholarship of ten million credits from the Academy.

With those words, the broadcasting club student stepped down from the podium, and the dean, who had been waiting, walked up.

The convention hall instantly filled with applause.

At the sight, the dean lightly raised a hand, and the applause died away.

-Hello, students. I am Dean Heo Seok-gi. The reason I asked everyone to gather today is simple. Two of our students have done something exceptionally outstanding.

Ray covered his mouth with a hand to suppress a yawn at the familiar routine he'd heard at every commendation ceremony.‘What did they do, kill a goblin that appeared on the street or something?’Content that didn't particularly interest him.

But the next words that came from the dean's mouth were more than enough to shock Ray.

-Commendation recipient, Ray Pendragon, President of the Seoul Hero Academy Student Council. Come forward.

“What?”

Ray was flustered at hearing his own name called out of nowhere, and the dean looked at him once more and spoke.

-Come forward.

In an instant, everyone's gazes began gathering on him.

“The president is getting commended?”

“What did the president do this time?”

“As expected of the president.”‘I have no choice but to go out.’Though he couldn't understand why he'd become a commendation recipient without knowing anything about it, with the situation like this, he had no choice but to go forward.

Ray Pendragon rose from his seat with a smile as though nothing were wrong, as if he'd expected it all along.

For him, maintaining an expression like this was extremely easy.

Ray Pendragon walked up in front of the podium and stared into the dean's face.

His gaze carried the question of just what the hell he was planning.

But the dean maintained his smiling expression and continued reading from the script before him.

-Commendation. Ray Pendragon. The above student, through student council activities, has made a major contribution to establishing a new system created to support clubs that struggle to engage in normal economic activity──“Hm?”-and is deemed to have contributed greatly to the settlement of the ‘Club Economic Activity Support System,’ ‘Famiglia’─ therefore, upon the strong recommendation of the representative of ‘Famiglia,’ Hero Kwak Chun-sik, and vice representative ‘Choi Seon-ho,’ this certificate is awarded.

“Ah.”

Only then did Ray Pendragon's eyes begin trembling as though he'd finally understood the entire situation.

-Congratulations. Ray Pendragon.‘Ha. He really got me good.’Ray Pendragon.

It was the first day since becoming student council president.

That he felt ‘humiliation.’