Tuesday, October 18, 1887.

“Mayumi, are you really going to keep this up?”

“Keep what up?”

“Avoiding everyone.”

“You don’t have to do the same if you don’t want to, Caius.”

“Ahem. I’m here too, y’know.”

Eon interjected stiffly. They sat all the way to the side, on the edge of the stage floor of the auditorium. There were less than two weeks until the talent show, and with the due date fast approaching, the crew needed to rehearse with the real deal on a real stage. Together, they watched Trisha, who was on the auditorium floor looking up at the elaborate setup at the stage’s centre and directing its choreography that was unfolding before an empty audience.

“Why are you here, too? You don’t have to do, y’know, the same thing I am.”

Of course, Mayumi was giving Kato the cold shoulder ever since they came back from the Equinox. It was hard for anybody to get back into a normal routine after being rejected. Though it was unsurprising, it didn’t explain why Caius and Eon followed suit so resolutely. In fact, both of them had not talked to Kato since the Equinox.

“Isn’t it cool to have just the original three of us hang out once in a while?”

“That’s not what’s happening, though. Celia’s been with us the whole time, too. I can understand if Caius is doing it, but you’re not even in the drama department. You don’t need to be here, dude.”

“Then are you gonna be ending this cold war?”

“…”

“If you’re not, then I’m gonna continue to be here, champ.”

Mayumi sighed, unable to answer. Eon had been joining them for rehearsals after school, and he had gotten special permission to do so from Mr Verne through the two stars of the show, Caius and Mayumi.

“Then, are you still practicing for the talent show with them?”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t change anything because we already settled on something to perform. I always hold up my end of my commitments.”

“How do you practice with them…silently?”

“You just do.”

Eon shrugged, unconcerned with the state of affairs. Whenever Alice or Kato or Franco tried asking him questions on things outside of their little band’s practice, Eon would ignore them. It worked, but it was unendingly awkward for the other people involved. She shook her head in exasperation, disagreeing with his determination to do this on her behalf.

“It’s fine, Mayumi. Just leave Eon to his discretion. What I wanna know is if we’re really gonna be doing that thing.”

“That thing, eh?”

“Yeah, that thing.”

“We decided to do that thing already, c’mon. Getting cold feet is not allowed, and definitely not you, Eon, who knows the plan.”

That thing was a plan that only Mayumi could think of, and it was a nasty thing to do, academically speaking.

“As a user and an abuser of my abilities, there’s no risk in what we’re gonna execute on. Get in, do the thing, get out in under five minutes. If we arrive right when the school opens and get to it pronto, no one’ll even notice. Even if someone were to turn on a Teller sonograph, it’ll only work out for them if they do it within half an hour after I finish the job, or else the characteristic mana fields will dissipate into the natural background, making it no longer detectable by the sonograph.”

“And the more living things present, the faster the fields dissipate. That’s why I’m coming.”

“No, I don’t think the pace of natural coherence will change that much based on just one more human body present.”

Mayumi slapped Eon lightly on the cheek for being cheeky, as Eon’s participation was not just for attendance but for insurance if anything went wrong. Three Elites were better than two.

“I still can’t believe we’re gonna try to cheat on a midterm. What has the world come to?”

“I told you, I’ve done this many times in the past. It’s fine.”

To be specific, they were planning to cheat on a very specific midterm for Cecilia’s sake. After revealing to the original Elites that she was likely going to do poorly on the math midterm two days from now, and then proving it to be so on a mock midterm, they decided to use Mayumi’s future sight to cheat for the answers to a few of the questions—enough to pad her marks above seventy-five points.

Normally, she did well with schoolwork because of the need to keep up her marks to avoid being demoted to a lower class. But now that she was in her third and final year, there was no next year to promote or demote to any longer, and with it the incentive to keep up that tightly with academics, hence her immediate regrets now for neglecting her studies.

For the record, Mr Verne almost ruined his own musical by forgetting to tell Cecilia to pull her tardiness streak together, but luckily, Cecilia decided to trade her original role of Whatzshecalled for St. Timmy, which was a much less exhausting and much more replaceable role, to Mr Verne’s fortune.

So, it was now entirely on Cecilia to dodge academic probation by doing more than just passing the midterms. If she was put on academic probation, she would be barred from extracurriculars until she fixed it after finishing the next set of morning classes’ midterms around three months from now. That meant missing out on the talent show and of course her role in Auxirian Idiot.

“Hey, you guys! Celia’s in trouble! Come!”

As they were leisurely resting, an abrupt appearance by a hurried Risa snapped the Elites back to the attention of the drama department around them. Surprised and worried, they followed their hairstylist to the back of the stage.

“I didn’t catch the first part, but the argument looked super-bad, knowing it’s Liam who’s involved. Flora’s watching too.”

Only moments later, they joined the other hairstylist, who was half-hiding behind a wooden prop and looking on at the site of the quarrel. On one side was led at the front by Liam, with his two compliant followers in tow. On the other side was Cecilia on her own, as the arbitrator between them, Anne, didn’t seem to be on her side.

“Look, all I’m saying is that my team won’t be able to use the new Matsushita autolight for the show. It’s way too complicated for us to learn a new standard for the cata-paper inputs in time for the show and to run it well, y’get what I mean, Anne? I warned you that at the very start, before we made the buy, ma’am.”

Grinning, there was not one iota of shame on Liam’s face as Anne continued to ask questions to clarify the situation. On the other side, Cecilia frowned in silence as she let the situation spin out of her control, as if she didn’t want to be here for the belligerent exchange.

“And yet you agreed to purchase it anyway?”

“I recall that it was her two main character friends who signed off the receipt, no?”

“I expected you and Cecilia to sign the receipt, though. Why did that not happen?”

“It didn’t look like our schedules would align to allow both of us to go to the store in Sharpsand Cape. I guess we were running out of time, so Cecilia went with her friends to get it as soon as she could. Good on her.”

Anne looked over to Cecilia, who nodded in agreement with his characterization. It was true, after all.

“And you can’t make any free time for yourself to go with her? It’s not a complicated task. Have you done everything to accommodate making this trip?”

“We’re all busy with our own lives, too, madam manager. If we have to move unmovable things when it can be resolved through an easier way, why not?”

“If that’s the case, then why hasn’t this problem been brought up sooner?”

“Well, the new autolight was advertised as a faster and simpler replacement to the previous generation of autolights, so the team thought it would be easy to use. If even the original manufacturer is advertising it like that, then we didn’t see any major issue with coming by on our usual schedule. I still have the flyer, by the way. It wasn’t until a lot later that we realized it took more time than advertised. Isn’t that right? Kenny? Joshua?”

Anne clicked her tongue at the weaselling answers that Liam gave, as his lackeys nodded hurriedly in unison on Liam’s cue. She could tell he was hellbent on avoiding responsibility for this incident. It wasn’t the first time she had seen this from him.

“Then what are you gonna do about it?”

“Well, this is where I hope you can lend my team some guidance, ma’am. We can continue using the new autolight, but I can’t guarantee the result’ll be satisfactory. The other option is, of course, to use the old autolights this time around. We all know how to use the old lights, but it’ll take some more effort to set up all the correct sequences. Both options’ll be time consuming, but I have more confidence in the second option. And that’s why I wanted to bring this up to you, y’know?”

“What, because you can’t figure it out yourself, you have to make me do your work?”

“Don’t be like that, Anne. I’m just letting you make the decision. I’ve voiced my opinion at the very start, and things have turned out more or less as I’ve said it would, eh? Isn’t that right?”

He smirked at Anne first he peeked over to Cecilia, and it made Cecilia want to crawl into a hole to hide herself from this standoff.

“And if I make a decision here, you’ll do your job fully and cleanly, without fuss or trouble, is that correct?”

“Indeed it is, ma’am.”

“I have one more condition for you. Rather, it’s an order for you for wasting my time with this—”

“—Wow, Anne, I’m a victim of the circumstances here, too, y’know?”

“I don’t care, because the result is the same: wasting my time. Now, right after this talent show, you and the third-years in the lights team will transition completely to the PSC. Understood?”

“Oh, what? We already decided that that’s gonna happen, no?”

“You understand exactly what I mean. Now, go with option two and get your ass on it. Immediately.”

“As you wish, manager. I knew you’d make the right decision.”

He grinned and gave her a thumbs-up, but Anne responded with rage in her eyes and a menacing step forward.

“Get to it already.”

“Yuppers.”

He strolled away lightly, goons in tow and still holding that satisfied smirk on his face. Anne’s fury, however, was not yet extinguished, and she turned upwards to the depressed blonde girl next to her after Liam and his friends were out of earshot.

“Are you happy now? Have you caused enough trouble yet, Cecilia? What’s next, you’re gonna suggest we use a crane to fly people across the stage, hm? Is that it?”

Cecilia was just as inert as she was before, though less spooked as there was one less person harassing her.

“I initially also was against using a new autolight because I knew this piece of shit would not do his job properly. Granted, the new autolight does have much better capabilities, but using it in this show is, as I thought, impossible. Yet, you insisted that we need to use the new ones, and now look where this got us.”

She was quite vindictive, as she usually was towards Cecilia, but unlike usual, Cecilia didn’t make any thin retorts or excuses. Or rather, she was too absorbed in her own thoughts and depression to pay any heed to Anne.

“You see what happened? You wanted to change something that’s, from his point of view, in his territory, so he fucked you over with his procrastination and gave you a nice spell of verbal abuse. If he continued, he would’ve fucked us all up, without a functioning lighting sequence for the musical. If I wasn’t here, who’s gonna fix this problem, huh?”

Even after all of this, she only got angrier, and seeing that Cecilia was still despondent, in a bout of temper she slapped her across the cheek, finally bringing Cecilia’s stunned eyes to her.

“I don’t get what he sees in a lousy and idiotic woman like you. If you’re this pathetic, please transfer yourself down to the lower classes, where you belong.”

“Whoa, what gives?!”

“Hey!”

Mayumi and Caius both launched themselves toward the two, followed closely behind them by Risa and Flora. Their yells seemed to have snapped Anne out of her rage, and she allowed them to put distance between herself and Cecilia.

“What was that for, Anne?”

“Did you need to slap her?”

Risa hugged Cecilia gently, while Flora turned to Anne.

“We’ll take care of her from here, Anne. It’s all resolved now, right?”

“You’re right. Then, I’ll be going now.”

“Anne, wait!”

As Anne abruptly turned to leave at the behest of Flora, perhaps uncharacteristically accommodating, Mayumi stopped her heatedly, refusing to let her go.

“Liam’s clearly in the wrong here! We were there when Celia asked him to come with her, and he tried every excuse to not go with her. He even suggested signing the receipt after she brought it back, but he was nowhere to be found the next day, so I had to co-sign it.”

“And?”

“’And?’”

“What of it?”

“…”

Mayumi didn’t like Anne very much, though that wasn’t an uncommon sentiment among the drama department anyway.

“Even if Liam did all of that, even if he was to blame for all of this—how would it change the outcome here?”

Mayumi stopped, momentarily stunned by Anne’s cold but reasonable reply. In her fluster after witnessing the slapping, she forgot about the real situation at hand.

“That’s…”

“It wouldn’t. Even if he co-signed it, he would still procrastinate on the basis that it was ‘too hard’ to learn within a short timeframe. This confrontation would’ve still happened, but with one less trivial detail for him to use as ammunition.”

She was right. Anne did shut him down immediately after he tried to use it to paint himself as the victim rather than the instigator.

“Then… if that’s the case, then do you need to slap her? What was that for?”

“Tch.”

Anne frowned, but she didn’t falter.

“That, I’ll admit, was just frustration on my part. There’s no real reason for it except for my gripes with Cecilia. That’s all.”

“Ugh.”

With a deprecating snort, Anne turned to walk away once more, not held up by anyone this time. Mayumi could only be impressed and yet dismayed at Anne’s quick admission and anticlimactic departure.

“Can you let her stay with Risa for the time being? She’s not gonna be responsive for a while.”

She smiled gently at Caius and Mayumi, mostly at the former who was just as agitated by the slap and tried to get Cecilia to talk.

“Why is she…”

“I can explain. Let them be in peace for a minute. Caius should already know this story, though I’m not sure if you paid any attention back then to remember it.”

Flora moved them to another secluded corner of the stage before she began her story, somewhat apologetically. Caius was still apprehensive.

“What do you mean, I already know this story?”

“In our first year, there was a case of a kid who was bullied big-time by some third-years of the Victor faction. It was bad enough with the persistent bullying, but when they tried to frame him for a mistake he didn’t make, the drama club went ballistic. I don’t even remember what he was blamed for, but it had something to do with breaking the onstage props, because all I remember from that was that he for sure didn’t break any of it—he was with me, Risa and Celia at the time of the incident.”

“No, I don’t remember something like that. There was so much of that going on at the same time that I didn’t care to remember every single altercation.”

Flora shrugged lightly.

“I don’t blame you. It was from this that we became friends with Celia, though we wished it could’ve happened in a better circumstance. During that incident, Celia stood up for that kid because it was obvious that the kid wasn’t in the wrong. He was right there with us. But the drama department wasn’t a place to uphold justice back then, so the Victor faction almost got away with it. The only thing that won us the day was Donovan stepping in and appealing to the rest of the department on our behalf.”

“…what?”

Mayumi was shocked, not because of Donovan himself but of the implications of this turn of events. Flora nodded in agreement.

“Yes. Donovan repeated the exact same defence to the seniors of the club, and they begrudgingly accepted the evidence. Even though Celia made the same arguments, none of them accepted it merely because—”

“—because Celia was a nobody.”

Caius gritted his teeth and spat out those words.

“It was cruel to Celia, but she’s still braver than any of us. She stood up for that boy, even though we knew the state of affairs back then. I was too scared to do anything, and by not doing anything, I felt like I betrayed the trust of that kid and Celia herself. I didn’t say anything until Donovan prompted me to testify.”

Flora said ashamedly, knowing full well that she was partly at fault for Cecilia’s predicament.

“It’s okay, Flora. Celia understood that you were in no position to speak up. Fortunately, Donovan did the speaking, right?”

Mayumi tried to soothe Flora’s anxiety, but she shook her head.

“It would’ve been enough if it ended here, but it didn’t. Donovan fought against the seniors in place of some nobodies, and because of that, Celia too became a target of continued bullying and harassment by the rest of the Victor faction. They didn’t take being upstaged by first-years very well, so they made their lives miserable, and after a while the kid broke down and left the school entirely.”

Flora enunciated sombrely as her three listeners grimaced. It left a very terrible taste in their mouths.

“Celia could take it because she has an iron heart, but the kid clearly couldn’t take it. It made Celia feel like it was her fault that the kid was forced out of Korolev Senior, so now y’see the guilt she’s been carrying that she never should have needed to carry in the first place.”

She pointed to the gently sobbing Cecilia in the distance, and shrugged again helplessly.

“Y’know how Celia’s a quiet thinker and sometimes spaces out, right? That part of her came about because of that trauma. I hate to say it, but she needs quiet time like this to herself or she’ll be down for days, and it’s especially hard when Anne berates her. The result here’s on the tamer side of things.”

Caius subconsciously rolled his fingers into a fist.

“I’ve never seen her like this before. She can be awkward, but she has her own will, and it’s surprisingly strong. You’re saying this happens on a regular basis?”

“If she seems strong-willed to you, then I’m glad she’s found somebody worth showing her strengths to. Then again, not many people can endure as much abuse as she had. She doesn’t get any rest at home either. It’s really frustrating that neither I nor Risa can do anything more than this.”

“At home?”

“She has a troubled household, I’ve been told.”

Mayumi curled her lips. She was unsure if Flora meant it was the Liguro family’s fault for that, or otherwise. If it was the former then she would feel much worse about it, but luckily in actuality it wasn’t the case, though Mayumi had yet to know.

“I’d assume it’s pretty bad. She always uses the dorm showers—and everything else too— before she goes home. I thought it might be a coincidence, but if it’s been like this for the third year, I think they’ve gotta be related, no?

“In any case, if you can give her some time to herself, she’ll be up and running in no time. ‘Kay?”

Flora gave them another apologetic smile before she began to make her way back to Risa and Cecilia.

“…”

Eon rubbed his forehead, thoroughly exhausted even as a pure bystander.

“We’re in more than just a bit of a pinch here, huh.”

“Flora’s right. I always wait for her to finish her business at the dorms before we head home, but I didn’t know it was because it would be because of a troubled household.”

“Well, we don’t know yet if that’s actually true or not. That’s still speculation on Flora’s part.”

“I’d agree with Flora’s speculation, though. In fact, it’s exactly the truth.”

Suddenly, an imposing presence caught the attention of the Elites as one surprise appeared after another. Additionally, Mayumi put on a glare as well at the approaching man that resembled her quite a lot.

“What are you here for, Stephen?”

“We all have troubled homes, but Cecilia has it the worst out of us—the three of us. That’s what I’m saying.”

While he added to his initial remark, he ignored Mayumi’s question and instead continued walking towards Cecilia. Distracted by it, Mayumi called out to him, wanting him to explain why ‘the three of us’: Cecilia, Stephen, and herself.

“Wait—!”

But he was gone in an instant without another thought for them. Dusty wind eddies trailed behind his brisk walk, awing the Elites into silence. They followed him quietly, completely unsure of what he was here for.

Though Risa and Flora were taken aback by his appearance, they nevertheless yielded Cecilia’s field of vision to him as he crouched down to her eye level. They didn’t know about his relationship with Cecilia at all, but his red armband clipped over the top of his cleanse tag was more than enough reason to give way.

“Cecilia? What are you…Cecilia—”

“Stephen?”

She mumbled listlessly, unable to fathom why he was here. It wasn’t that he wouldn’t make any contact with her at all at school, but if he did, it would be about anything but the two of them. This was quite literally the first time at school that he addressed her personally. He turned upwards to Flora.

“Where’s Anne?”

“S-she’s gone. She said some nasty things to her before she did, but…”

“Was the issue resolved cleanly?”

“If by cleanly you mean there are no more problems left to deal with, then yeah…”

“Okay, I know what to do. I’ll have a word with her later.”

Stephen turned to Cecilia again, who was still awed by his calm aura—but only relatively speaking. His tone was absolutely still harsh by any standard definition of the word.

“Do you know what you’re doing?”

“…what I’m doing?”

“Or rather, do you know what you’re getting yourself into?”

“I…don’t get what you’re trying to ask.”

Her expression fell, but surprisingly it didn’t break Stephen’s composure. He remained eerily stoical.

“I told you before at the Equinox that taking the same path as your friends from Class F will bring hardship. You haven’t forgotten about that, have you?”

“What…?”

She couldn’t understand why he was bringing that up at a time like this. Did her confrontation with Liam have anything to do with Class F and their near-insurrection against the Assembly?

“As long as you understand that, you have to accept the consequences, like right now, get it? So, do you have the resolve to stick to them and see yourselves through to the end?”

More confusion filled her expression, trying to look for a logical answer from Stephen’s rigid frown. He insinuated her hunch as much, but right now she couldn’t imagine how they were connected. Her head began to spin as her efforts to grasp the meaning in his words were dragged through the stresses of anxiety and tears from mere moments ago. It only served her to understand even less, in addition to bringing any coherent thought processes to a grinding halt.

“Give yourself some rest and think about the answer later. If you have an answer—any answer— then the next time you find yourself under fire like this, call me, and I will help you.”

Somehow, Stephen noticed her strenuous efforts and stood up abruptly, attitude unchanging. She looked up at him, shocked again at the lack of the usual hostility and the unconditional offer of support. The five others around them were just as speechless, though for slightly different reasons. Sparing a vague glance at the Elites, Stephen began to walk away in the direction of sudden shouts and noises from one of the auditorium exits—the same one that Liam’s group left through and the one Stephen entered from.

“What was that about…?”

Caius muttered in disbelief. While he was stricken by Cecilia’s circumstance, he was also very concerned by Stephen’s earlier implications. Was it really because she was affiliated with them that she was getting bullied by Donovan’s goons in the PSC? It hardly made sense to put this much effort into it, if they really wanted to clandestinely isolate Class F’s personal connections; that itself had to be made known to the victim in the first place. Coercion still needed a clear goal in mind to start with. It made even less sense that Cecilia would be their target when she was Donovan’s pet favourite.

“Are you guys okay? Did Stephen do anything to you?”

Trisha arrived in a hurry and short of breath from the choreography practice. Flora replied.

“No, he didn’t. What happened?”

“You hear those voices outside, right? It’s a standoff between Liam’s and Stephen’s people. Do you know why they’re confronting each other?”

“No idea—”

Flora began to shake her head but Mayumi cut her off, though she was talking more to herself than Trisha.

“Stephen’s angry that Liam tried to blame Celia for the incident with the new autolights.”

““He is?””

Everyone turned to Mayumi in astonishment, including Cecilia herself. Of course, that would have made sense if the situation occurred in a normal school among normal students, but this place had neither. Mayumi pointed to her lame right eye.

“I saw the whole thing in my future sight, including the standoff they’re having outside.”

“Was that why you were quieter than usual? Well, I’m not complaining about it.”

“But I still don’t understand why he would do such a thing; not that I know any of his motives to start with. Anyway, that’s what happened outside the auditorium.”

Trisha heaved a big sigh.

“What a bother. I knew Don’s departure for the PSC wouldn’t be a smooth transition.”

“Hm? Why’s that?”

“For one, there’ll inevitably be people who want to double-dip in their extracurricular participation, but in reality can’t commit to both things wholly. A few exceptional students can manage that, but not all can. It’s a nuisance when that sort of trouble comes up, like right now with Liam. I have a hard time with training those people, too, when they don’t show up enough to practice.”

She frowned at her own words helplessly as she continued.

“Like Anne, I’m also on the receiving end of cleaning up after loose ends from the staff shuffling. For example, remember how our year doesn’t have enough talent? With experienced members leaving for the PSC, the shortage of them makes the training a lot harder.”

“But you’re doing just fine, aren’t you?”

Trisha chuckled ruefully and shook her head.

“That’s because I have to work my ass off to get the plane off the ground, so don’t take my efforts for granted, Caius. Next time, I won’t have enough in me to make a second miracle happen. And luckily, Mayumi’s as talented as a professional, so I didn’t need to teach her anything at all. Bless you, Mayumi. If she didn’t, I really wouldn’t be able to re-teach the female lead’s parts.”

“Peace, peace!”

Mayumi grinned at Trisha, who grinned in response, dispelling the cloudy atmosphere and returning the scene to normal. One of them, however, remained deep in thought. Next to her, Eon was already musing about the sequence of events they had just witnessed.

“I have a bad feeling about this.”

“What’s the meaning of this?”

“Meaning of what?”

Stephen slammed his palm on the marshal’s desk, at which Donovan sat comfortably.

“Why are you gonna be on the ground with me?”

“Oh, I just thought I should be able to carry out an investigative operation as a marshal, so I want to get some field experience wherever I can.”

“It’s a covert mission. I don’t want more people on it than I actually need.”

“Now, now, don’t get too upset about it. It’s an operation that I’m very interested in, so I want to contribute in any way I can.”

“You can contribute by sitting here and waiting for my reports.”

“We can’t be doing just that, my friend. I have a reason why I want to join you in your stakeout. Care to guess why?”

Stephen snarled at Donovan’s polished, toothy smile.

“You don’t trust me to operate against both my half-sister and my cousin.”

“Close, but incorrect. On that note, though, I do have a good idea of what happened behind the scenes with your family, Gilbert’s and the student council president, so that does come into my consideration of your loyalties. I have to give you that much, right? Anyone in their right minds would think this way.”

Donovan’s face shone without a shadow of ill will, yet his words were the direct opposite. Stephen narrowed his eyes at what Donovan revealed to him to keep him in check, though it was not an unexpected turn of events. That bit of information would eventually percolate through the underworld anyway.

“Then why not purge the rest of us from the PSC?”

“C’mon, I only have a hunch. I won’t remove talented people purely on the basis of rumour or presumption. You get me?”

It felt as if Donovan was threatening him. The implication was that if those rumours or presumptions became reality at any level, then Donovan would have no qualms about letting the final blade of the guillotine to fall on the remainder of Class A in the PSC.

“Then, what have I got incorrect?”

“We’ve overheard a few conversations about which exams Cecilia’s struggling with, and collected some interesting clues. Not something we can use in a court of law, but they’re very good leads, don’t you think?”

He took out a small stack of ruffled papers from a file package and threw them onto and across the table. Stephen instantly recognized what Donovan threw down.

“Cecilia’s mock midterms. You scoured for these from trash bins?”

“Well, I had other people do it. It wasn’t that hard, actually. Where do mock midterms come from? Either the teacher made some in advance, or they took select questions out of the textbooks. It was only a matter of trailing these circumstances that we got our hands on these.”

Donovan explained in a suspiciously roundabout manner, but nonetheless he got up from his seat and pointed to a few of the mock midterms.

“There’s only one on here that warrants any attention, and it’s the math midterm the day after. I’ll join you in the science room next to my homeroom first thing in the morning, all right?”

Stephen clicked his tongue, upset that Donovan was insisting on meddling with the operation, though if their positions were reversed he would be doing the same thing.

“Suit yourself.”

There wasn’t a real reason to deny his request in the first place. After a certain incident Donovan just referenced, it was clear to Stephen and the rest of Class 3-A in the PSC that they were counting down their remaining days in the sun. It was only natural that the new kids on the block would take over operations. He wouldn’t be surprised if Class 2-A would eventually be purged from the PSC, too.

Then, a thought occurred to Stephen as he remembered a certain detail that was reported to him earlier in the week and triggered by Donovan’s flowery explanation earlier, and he scowled.

“Your men went through Cecilia’s locker to steal these midterms?”

“Of course not. What could have given you that idea?”

Donovan grinned, though, affirming Stephen’s suspicion. It wasn’t only the student council who had master keys to locks within the school.

“It must feel exhilarating to wield powers like these.”

“Come now, every iteration of the PSC that came before me used their lawful authority to fulfill their duties; including yourself. The responsibilities I’ve been entrusted with are no different.”

Stephen was not impressed, so Donovan continued.

“Say that the unwashed masses are correct in that the people in positions of power are abusing it for their own greed. Then, what should the contemporary system be replaced with? A democracy like in Royal Candor?”

Donovan sneered, obviously viewing the political agitation of the common people with contempt.

“You should know already, Stephen. A system is a set of rules, and they’re put in place to not make society equal and free, but to perpetuate the system. A perpetual system brings stability and therefore, legitimacy. In the long term, any transient dissatisfaction is meaningless because it’ll be forgotten once the moment passes and the system restores the day-to-day normalcy.”

“And you think that principle holds in our current crisis? It’ll restore normalcy?”

“If the system is perpetual, then of course it’ll regress to the normal.”

“That’s literally nothing but sophistry.”

Donovan laughed out loud. He enjoyed going on casual philosophical tangents like these once in a while, and Stephen even entertained him for half a thought.

“The masses’ demands are nothing but pipe dreams. You’re allowed to dream, but they’re dreams for a reason. As long as humans are selfish, as is their nature down to their primal instincts, then we’re destined to chain ourselves to inequality and injustice, no matter how virtuous a society claims itself to be.”

He finished off the latter half of his thought before switching to another topic on his mind.

“Now, I have a different question for you. What was the scuffle with Liam about?”

Stephen stiffened.

“Nothing important. We just don’t see each other eye to eye.”

“Well, I’d remind you that whatever’s happening in the drama department stays in the drama department.”

“I did nothing to the drama department, now, have I?”

“No, you haven’t, but your favouritism towards your family is not lost on me. You expect me to believe that my men got bruises for no particular reason, do you?”

“Sure, why not. I’ve never hid my disdain for Liam and his lackeys. In any case, they were the ones provoking me first.”

“Provocation that included your cousin as the main subject?”

“You can read between nonexistent lines all you want. I’ve never let any provocation go unsettled before.”

“C’mon, Stephen. I’m saying that your cousin herself is the provocation. If it was anybody else, it wouldn’t be a provocation to you, now, would it?”

“So have it be anybody else, and have Liam come up and spew the same garbage to my face. See what my response would be. Liam’s clearly the one making the issue about my cousin. I don’t care if the subject was her or not—he’ll get a fistful if he wants to pick a fight.”

Donovan heaved an exaggerated sigh as Stephen continued.

“By the way, Anne has corroborated my account of what happened in the auditorium earlier. I’d suggest cleaning up your act before looking for ghosts.”

For the first time, Donovan frowned at Stephen, who remained unimpressed. Donovan was duly reminded that he wasn’t someone to make light of.

“I see. I’ll take that into consideration, and have Liam be less troublesome to you.”

Stephen extricated himself from the marshal’s desk as Donovan quietly shrugged away his staunch defences, evidently uninterested now. However, in the moment he also knew that Donovan had put him on a mental hit list. It was only a matter of time before he would have to join Gilbert in the shadows, but until then, while he still had the privileges of the PSC, he was determined to see through his plans to the very end.