yemalu

Chapter 491 Come To The Student Council, We Have Sweets

"For my final act as the student council president of this school, I would like to name first year Special Class student Aster as my successor!"

A cheer rang out throughout the hall as Daniel delivered his speech.

He really did it huh… I thought he might have been joking but he was serious…

Daniel continued, "Of course, a formal voting would still take place so look forward to it! To the rest of my fellow final year students…"

Oh ok, so it\'s not confirmed yet at least? But the way he talked about it makes it sound like it was a done deal…

I mean… I\'m not that against becoming president of the student council… But if it limits my freedom then I\'m going to have to pass.

I\'m part of the go home club for a reason ok?

As a Special Class student, I\'m already given a lot of leeway in my curriculum where I could just have free study periods and access to various study materials that are restricted to other students. And if I feel like it, I could just take some time off as long as I keep my studies up.

So if I were to get nominated as the student council president and get a whole bunch of responsibilities heaped on me, I will definitely reject it!

I was still thinking about how I should turn down the nomination when Daniel exited the stage and made his way towards me.

"Congratulations Aster. I do think you would be a great example for the students of this school."

I poked my fingers together, "Umm… Is this really alright though? I thought only final year students could be the president?"

He scratched his cheek with a finger, "Well… There\'s not exactly a rule that says that must be the case. Although I suppose you would be the first… Even the princes and princesses who attended the academy would only get nominated after a few years in school."

"Umm… Then why me?"

He then dropped his voice to a whisper, "Do you want to know the real reason, Aster?"

I raised an eyebrow at him but nodded.

He looked around him to see if anyone was looking at us.

Seeing none, he gestured for me to lean closer to him so I did.

"Are you aware of how much influence you hold in this school, Aster?"

"Err… Influence? None?"

"Aster… I dare say that if you were to announce that you lost a sock or something in school, you would have more than half the school\'s population crawling through the entire school searching for it."

"... What?" I could not help but let out that single word of astonishment.

He stepped back and shrugged, "Don\'t ask me why but that\'s how it is. I know you have not actively sought for it but something like this was inevitable for someone like you."

… Again, what?

I mean… I would understand if they knew I was from the Nilm family and they\'re doing this to butter me up… But to them, I am simply Lady Aster, not Lady Nilm.

So why?

Argh! I can\'t wrap my head around this!

I am aware that there\'s a fanclub of me around but that\'s just some small group headed by Odeta isn\'t it? And I\'m pretty sure they\'re there more because of her than me since I barely do anything much to stand out around here.

Ok… That\'s incorrect, I have been doing quite a lot of things that make me stand out… Is that why?

I suppose people are just attracted to power?

Hmm… I guess that makes sense in this kind of world where you have monsters, dungeons and stuff… Or at least that\'s what I can use to make sense of the current situation…

Daniel clasped me on the shoulder, "Don\'t worry so much. To be honest, the position of the student council president is kind of like a figurehead."

I narrowed my eyes at him, "Didn\'t you tell me that you have all that administrative work like planning school events and such?"

He chuckled, "Yes, we do. But they\'re usually already events that were intended to happen from the start. All we do is check that they are fit for the current standards of the students to participate."

"Sounds like… A lot of work…"

He smirked, "It\'s only a lot of work if you want it to be."

"What do you mean by that?"

He crossed his arms, "What do you think I do in the student council room, Aster?"

"... Stamp and sign documents?"

Daniel let out a full bellied laugh, "Ahahaha!! Oh no, definitely not! We\'re really just using the student council room mostly for our own self study at times. We barely have anything important to do. Of course the option is there but you don\'t need to if you don\'t want to."

"Eh? You can choose to do important stuff?"

He shrugged, "The idea for setting up a student council in the first place was to elevate a group of students above the others as a group that could inspire and motivate the others to strive towards. The council itself is of course given responsibilities, but the main responsibility is to act as the image of the school both within and without the academy. If you were to close off the council and declare that you would not do any administrative work, no one will complain as long as you fulfil just that one responsibility."

I blinked at him, "So… What do you actually do in the student council?"

"Hmm… Aside from the odd few times like a Special Class student being challenged and handling some student events… We just stay in the student council room having tea and eating sweets, we will--"

"You get sweets?!!" I gasped, grabbing onto the front of his jacket.

Daniel barely looked surprised by my action even while I uttered a hurried apology and released him.

"No worries, I do know about your love for sweets so I was prepared for such a response. And to answer your question, one of the privileges of the student council is that we do get to personalise the menu from the Academy\'s cafeteria, though most of the time it\'s just sweets. Have you tried the sweets in the cafeteria?"

I shook my head, "I normally have my meals delivered to me by my personal maid…"

"Ah, of course. Hmm… This is a little troublesome… Had I known this earlier, I would have invited you to participate in the student council activities before graduation…"

"That\'s right. Is it even alright to nominate me? You\'ll already be graduating and I can\'t exactly just take the position without knowing anything, right?"

He tilted his head at me, "We\'re not leaving the school yet though?"

"Eh?"

"Huh? I suppose no one told you about it since there wasn\'t any reason to… The final year students are still staying on for probably another quarter of next year. Though they won\'t be acting in the capacity as students during that time."

I blinked at him, "Then… What will you all be doing?"

He looked towards the stage where the final year students were currently being called on stage to be granted a graduation certificate one by one.

"Aside from the Special Class students and those who have managed to secure a spot at the main Aerialla Academy, the other students, especially the commoners, do not have a guaranteed place where they could work or go to yet after they graduate."

He then turned back to me, "The Royal Knights, the Royal Magicians, even merchants and foreign dignitaries would be arriving here to scout for talents. There would be a small festival of sorts before the formal start of the school year where final year students can take the chance to showcase their talents to find employment. The party after this ceremony also has that reason behind it albeit tailored to noble families looking for retainers."

"Huh… I thought that this would be worked into the curriculum before graduation instead…"

"Oh it used to be. But the heirs of noble families complained that it was pointless to them so the Academy moved this event to after the graduation instead. It also has the added effect of allowing students more time to prepare themselves for the festival without worrying about their studies."

Ahh… I can see a child of a Duke moaning about the event being a waste of their time and demanding to be allowed to leave or something.

I looked at him, "So… What you\'re suggesting is…"

He gave me a wry smile, "I won\'t force you to since it would still be the holidays for you, but you can come and look at the student council during that period of time. The others who have already been nominated to occupy the student council will also be there."

"Ugh… Will they even accept me? I\'m a last minute entry, aren\'t I?"

"Oh, don\'t worry, they most definitely will, you can trust me on that."

If you\'re so sure about that… I guess it\'ll be better than just suddenly occupying that position without any introduction I guess…

I agreed to be there just as the principal took the stage again.

"Finally, I would like to invite all the students for the end of year gala held at the Royal Palace. For the students that are participating, please make your way to the carriages. Those who do not have carriages of their own, there are rented carriages that you can use waiting outside."

Welp… Guess it\'s time for the second part of the graduation…