Sorry for the late post.

After school, Monica who had reached the front of the student council room took a deep breath lifting her hand to knock… then stopped.

For a while now, Monica has been repeating the same motion repeatedly. This was the thirtieth time she had taken a deep breath.

The sight of her standing in front of the door of the student council room, taking deep breaths, was nothing but short of suspicious. Monica's mission was to eliminate the suspicious people near the second prince, but she was definitely the most suspicious person at the moment.

T-This time for sure…

This time I will knock on the door for sure… or so determined Monica, but when she just about do that…

"Um… are you okay?"

Hearing someone's voice from behind had made her jump in surprise, which made her head hurt after it slammed into the door.

Feeling guilty toward Monica who was now holding her head timidly, he bowed in apology.

"Ah, sorry for calling you out of the blue. Well, you've been taking deep breaths in front of the door for a while now, so I thought you might not be feeling well…"

It was a boy with light brown hair who approached Monica. He was rather small and looked young, but judging from the decoration on his sleeve, he was in the same grade as Monica. On his collar, he wore the same student council officer badge as Monica.

He's a student council member as well?

Now that she thought about it, she felt she saw other people in the archive room as well. But, since at that time she was too engrossed in reviewing those documents, she had paid no attention to it.

While Monica squirming, the boy gave her a polite bow.

"I presume you are our new treasurer, Monica Norton? I'm Neil Clay Maywood, the general affairs assistant. It's nice to meet you. Since we are the only second-year students on the student council, I hope we can get along."

His bashful smile that had displayed toward Monica was of that a good person.

And Monica felt relieved to that.

Inwardly, she's been worrying what if other student council members hated her, now that she saw there's had good people like him among them, it made her feel relieved. I might able to get along with them… or so she thought while patting her chest in relief.

"How long are you want to talk in front of the door?"

Hearing an angry voice echoed from her behind, her shoulder jerked.

Turning her head around, she saw Cyril Asley, the student council vice president, staring at Monica with his arms folded.

"Monica Norton, because of your repeated weird behavior while standing in front of the door, I can't get in the room!"

Apparently, Cyril had seen Monica repeatedly taking deep breaths in front of the door.

"Um, vice president… were you watching her the whole time by any chance?"

When Noel said that in a low voice, he immediately covered his mouth after being glared at by Cyril.

Cyril snorted haughtily glaring at Monica again.

"I don't care how did you make His Highness elected you as student council members, but I will never recognize you as one of us."

After spoke that, Cyril opened the door to the student council room.

Having urged by Neil, Monica could only timidly followed them.

In the student council room, three people were already seated there. Seated at the office desk in the center was the student council president, Felix.

At a low table was a beautiful woman with light blond hair and a young man with reddish brown-colored hair with slanted eyes. They were checking some documents.

Noticed at Monica who stood behind Cyril, he gave her a smile.

"Okay, I guess everyone's here."

After Felix spoke those words, the rest members were naturally moved to the low table leaving the innermost seat and the last seat, empty.

The seat next to Neil was probably Monica's seat.

Felix took a seat at the far end before urging for Monica to be seated.

"Now, as I mentioned yesterday, student council has decided to replace our previous treasurer, Treasurer O'Brien, with Miss Monica Norton as our new student council officer."

Listening to Felix's words with a solemn attitude were the vice president, Cyril, and a beautiful blonde woman. The reddish brown-haired young man was looking at Monica with a somewhat amused look in his eyes, while Neil was nervously looking at his seniors.

"I'll start by introducing myself. I'm Felix Ark Ridill, who served as the student council president."

Since Felix has stood to introduce himself, everyone also obliged to introduce themselves.

Cyril, the vice president, opened his mouth with a bitter look on his face.

"…Cyril Asley, served as the student council vice president."

Monica could feel his hostility towards her from his sharp voice.

While Monica cowered, the reddish brown-haired young man leaning against the backrest lazily, then lifted one hand.

"I'm Elliott Howard, served as the secretary. Nice to meet you."

Elliot was a young man with slightly slanted eyes with a frivolous air about him.

The next person to speak to was a beautiful young lady with beautifully coiffed light blonde hair.

"I'm Bridgette Graham, served as the secretary."

Bridget gave her name nonchalantly without looking at Monica.

After her quick self-introduction, she covered her mouth with a fan without another word.

Finally, Neil who was sitting next to her shyly introduced himself to Monica,

"I'm Neil Clay Maywood, serving as general affair assistant… I have introduced myself earlier, haha."

In the still tense atmosphere, Neil's laughter echoed hollowly.

To soften that atmosphere, Felix opened his mouth.

"Well then, now is your turn to introduce yourself, Miss Monica Norton."

Oh, why did she has so many opportunities for hateful self-introduction these days? If she could, she would run away right now.

If I run here, Louis will scold me, Louis will scold me, Louis is scaring me, Louis is scaring me.

So Monica imagined Louis Miller as her fellow Seven Sages, in her mind.

——Oh, my colleague? You can't even introduce yourself properly? Hahahaha, you sound like a dying cicada. Since when did cicada become my colleague? If you're so incompetent, people will think I, as your colleague as incompetent as you, will they? Now, if you understand, go straight up your spine, and turn yourself into a human being, you cicada girl!

Just imagining It almost made her crying.

So Monica introduced herself with a faint voice while sniffling.

"I-I'm Monica Norton…"

She said it, she actually said it.

Although it bit stuttered, she did a good job introducing herself, or so she thought. But…

"How unsightly."

The one who cut off Monica's self-introduction with a single word was Bridget. She looked at Monica with her amber eyes before covering her mouth with a fan before she spoke coldly.

"I've never heard of a student council member who couldn't even say his or her name properly."

As Monica's shoulders jerked, Bridget gave her a cold glance before shifting her gaze to Felix.

"Your Highness. I don't believe this girl is qualified to stand in public. Please reconsider your decision before you bring the reputation of the student council down."

Felix's smile was still as gentle as ever——he closed his eyes in amusement.

"You don't like my choice?"

"Yes."

Without fear or flattery, Bridget plainly nodded to Felix, the second prince.

"Are there anyone else who thinks the same way?"

It was Cyril who reacted to this.

Cyril stood from his chair, clenched his fists, then made a powerful speech.

"Your Highness! I am of the same opinion as secretary Graham! I hope you could reconsider your decision! If you bring this little girl here, it will only disgrace our student council!"

Cyril insisted loudly, Elliot looked on in amusement, and Neil flustered.

And Felix——for some reason, he was chuckling. But even though his mouth was smiling, his blue eyes were shining somewhat coldly.

"You guys are funny. You keep your mouth shut while act as if he never existed when injustice happened to former treasurer Aaron O'Brien, and now you loudly denounce Miss Norton for something she has yet to do."

The air in the room froze.

Cyril turned pale and said, "That's…" as he hesitated, and Brigitte sunk into silence expressionlessly.

Monica did not know what kind of person the previous treasurer had been. However, from the flow of the conversation, she guessed that he had been forced out of the position of treasurer due to some kind of fraud. Remembering the inadequacy of the last year's accounting report, it was easy to imagine what he had done.

Felix crossed his leg, smiling as beautifully as he could, and said.

"People without backing are easier to denounce, right? You don't have to worry about them attacking you back."

The student council members' expressions hardened at the gentle, soft, yet chilling words.

"If Miss Norton misbehaves in any way, it will be my fault for appointing her. At that time, I promise I will resign as student council president."

The student council members were horrified by this statement, but Monica was undoubtedly the one who was more surprised than anyone else.

W-Wait, wait, waaaiiiiiiit!

She honestly has a feeling she's going to screw up. She will. She's going to screw something up. After all, except when it came to numbers, Monica was just a plain, ordinary girl.

As Monica clacked her teeth in a shudder, Felix clapped his hands lightly.

"Okay, we will end our talk here. So, without further ado, Cyril. Please teach Miss Norton how to handle accounting."

At Felix's instruction, Cyril opened his mouth with a look of extreme frustration on his face. But he swallowed his objections, bent his mouth into "へ" shape, and nodded grudgingly.

"As you wish…"

Cyril raised his head as he glared at Monica. His eyes were blazing with hostility filled with murderous intent. He even made a gnashing noise.

Of all people, why it has to be him who's going to teach her how to do her job!

Frightened at that sight, Monica looked up at Felix.

"U-Um… I think… being taught by the vice president is…"

"You know, Cyril's been acting treasurer for a while now after we got the previous treasurer to quit."

Stopping his words, he looked into Monica's face in amusement.

"Did you perhaps want me to teach you?"

"N-No, I just hope… t-the person who would teach me… was someone with similar grade to me…"

In other words, it was the most mild-mannered-looking boy, Neil.

"I see…"

Felix smiled kindly and said.

"Work hard with Cyril's lesson."

"Hiiek!"