How to Survive as the Academy Student Council President

Eredor Territory, southeast.
The Meister Academy, located not far from the Hall of Truth.
Since it was originally a branch campus that split off from Eredor, it only took about ten minutes to reach it by tram.
A party of four disembarked from the tram.
I had clearly only called for Beatrice, but the other two had tagged along right behind her.
Yulina, who had been following us with a perpetually annoyed expression—apparently still bitter that she’d finished the exam later than I had—asked,
“Loen, are you really going to accept Meyer’s challenge?”
“In terms of matchup, I have the advantage. I can definitely win.”
At first, I had no intention of accepting anyone’s challenge, but Meyer was a different story.
He was a worthy opponent, and there was much to be gained by defeating him.
When I stated confidently that I could win, Yulina immediately nitpicked.
“Meyer’s physical abilities might be similar to yours, but his magical aptitude can’t even be compared. [N O V E L I G H T] He’s from the McDowell bloodline, a prestigious Magi-Engineering house.”
“That’s true.”
I slowly nodded.
A mage’s abilities are mostly inherited through bloodline.
That doesn’t mean they have something like a “magic circuit” they pass down from generation to generation, like in some game settings.
However, talent and mana affinity do get passed down through the blood.
In fact, in the game’s marriage system, there’s a probability that the [Traits] held by ancestors will be inherited, and the starting stats are also partially inherited from the parents.
‘The McDowell family, a prestigious house that began with the empire itself, is notorious for thoroughly managing its bloodline.’
Meyer, who sent me the challenge letter, also possessed tremendous talent.
His trait was [Magic Armor].
He had a talent specialized in developing “magical armor that humans can wear,” and its performance was set to be extraordinary.
You could basically think of it as a high-performance autonomous golem that moves with the wearer’s will.
Thanks to that, Meyer’s Competition Battle rank was 72nd.
Not a rank you’d expect from a pure Magi-Engineer.
He was clearly an opponent of considerable talent, just as Yulina said. However—
“In terms of bloodline, I’m not outmatched either.”
When I said this with confidence, Yulina stuck out her lips in disbelief.
“That’s technically true, but… the De Valis family is a swordsmanship house.”
“I learned swordsmanship too.”
“You’ve only learned it for about a month and you’re already so full of yourself. So are you going to fight him with a sword?”
I shrugged.
Fight with a sword, sure. I have no intention of getting smacked by magic armor and ending up hospitalized again.
While I was talking with Yulina, Bell cut in between us.
“But where exactly are we going? The Meister Academy’s administration office is over there. If we’re going to meet Meyer…”
“We’re not here to see Meyer. We’re here to see the dwarf triplets.”
“……?”
“I have some things to ask them while we’re at it.”
***
Thud-. Clang-.
Bzzzzt-.
Fiiiiiinng-.
Inside a workshop where eardrum-shredding welding noises and the rhythmic sound of hammering rang out in a steady pattern.
Beep-.
I opened the door with a Union keycard and looked all around the interior.

Inside the spacious room were various cutting-edge manufacturing facilities, a materials storage area, and even living facilities where you could grab some sleep or wash up.
Among the workshops provided by the Meister Academy, this was an “A-rank” workshop—classified as high-grade.
It was a place I had newly provided for the dwarf triplets, who had originally been drifting between C- and D-rank workshops.
‘Spacious and nice.’
I should get a workshop here and do my own work someday too.
The current lab was lacking in equipment and too cramped to produce homunculi or golems.
Once I beat the crap out of Meyer, I should discuss terms of settlement.
“Hey, how’s the production coming along?”
When I waved my hand and called out, the dwarf triplets, engrossed in their work, turned their heads to look at me.
The three of them removed their welding masks and spoke.
“Oh, you’re here. Living the good life, are you? Walking around with three female classmates in tow.”
“Heheh, what’d you bring us this time?”
“What, wha-what’d you bring?”
Typical dwarven short height and dense-looking muscles.
The dwarf triplets, each sporting a long beard down to their chests.
Melga, Malgor, and Murgan—the three brothers.
Considering we were the same age, it was almost amazing how long their beards were, but I’d heard it was a characteristic of dwarven culture.
The more magnificent your beard, the more popular you are with the opposite sex.
Judging by their reactions, they were expecting I’d brought a new OOPArts blueprint, but unfortunately, I couldn’t live up to those expectations this time.
I’d been too busy and hadn’t had time to explore any ruins.
And even if I had found a new blueprint, it wouldn’t be wise to hand it over right now.
If I did, they would become completely absorbed in the new blueprint, and the production of the carbonated water generator I’d asked for would be delayed.
To manage these three properly, it was important to hand over OOPArts blueprints at the right pace and in the right order.
“Sorry, no new blueprints this time. But I brought good news and some dark beer.”
I handed the eldest, Melga, a gift set neatly packed in a wooden box.
A set of dark beer I’d bought at the pub where we had a get-together with the Alchemy Club on the final day of the Sports Festival.
I don’t know much about alcohol, but according to Trishi, it was very tasty, so it should suit their palates.
Dwarves were the sort who couldn’t resist alcohol.
Melga examined the box with a satisfied smile.
“Oh-ho, Imperial Stout. You know your stuff. Malgor, take this and put it in the fridge.”
“Damn it, Murgan, you go put it away.”
“N-no, I don’t wanna. Melga, you do it.”
The three brothers all trying to pawn the errand off on each other.
Beautiful teamwork in shirking responsibility.
Beatrice ignored the bickering dwarves and fixed her gaze on their work.
Her eyes sparkled as she looked at the row of carbonated water generators.
“Oh, so this is the famous device I’ve heard about. Melga, may I touch it?”
“Do as you please.”
With Melga’s permission, Beatrice placed her hand on the mana engine.
She ran her hand over the engine and the various parts of the carbonated water generator, then spoke.
“The craftsmanship is excellent. I can’t find any weak points at all—your handiwork is truly superb.”
“You flatter us. All we did was follow the blueprint as written. We’re the ones honored that you would come all the way to such a shabby place to see our work. Hem-hem.”
While Beatrice and Melga traded compliments, Yulina stared at the line of carbonated water generators with a thoughtful look and said to me,
“You’re not planning to make me create ice again… are you?”
Judging by the way she shivered, she must have recalled the time I used her as an ice-production machine during the Jaban Sports Festival.
On top of that, the number of generators had multiplied several times since then, so it wasn’t unreasonable for her to imagine a nightmare scenario.
I reassured trembling Yulina.
“Don’t worry. We’ve added an ice-generation function. Right?”
The second brother, Malgor, slapped the generator with his palm and answered,
“Yeah, heheh. Ice-generation magic is mana-inefficient, sure, but the principle itself isn’t that difficult.”
“Good. When is Unit No. 1 expected to be completed?”
The one who answered my question was the youngest, Murgan, who had just put the dark beer into the fridge.
“Unit No. 1 is alm-alm-almost done—we only have to install the core now. Th-the rest will be finished one after another.”
“Hmm.”
Smooth progress on production.
If things continued at this pace, we’d be ready to do full-scale business with visitors from all over the continent during the Academy Festival.
The cola franchise plan seemed to be proceeding nicely, which lifted my spirits a bit.
At that moment, Melga spoke with a grim expression.
“But we have a problem. To run this generator, we need a power source with greater output and more advanced technology than what we have now.”
“So the cores we’re using now aren’t enough.”
To my words, Melga nodded.
“That’s right. We did carry out the modifications you asked for, but as it stands, it won’t be usable. If we keep using the existing cores, there’s a high chance they’ll break down.”
Right now, the power sources installed in the carbonated water generators were the same cores used in the Union’s autonomous golems.
Their output couldn’t be called low by any means, but since the technology used in these generators was OOPArts, far beyond current technological levels, they seemed to consume far more mana than expected.
Moreover, the generators under construction were designed to handle several times the volume of the prototype used during the Sports Festival.
And to achieve that capacity, we’d increased the size of the machines and added several extra features—basically, a massive round of overclocking.
Yulina asked,
“Then can’t you just use two or three cores instead of one? You said it’s an output issue, right?”
“If that were all, things would be simple. But this isn’t just an output problem. This DT101 The First Edition Ver.1.31 we made this time is manufactured using a completely different process than the prototype. It needs a new power source suited specifically to it.”
“The… First, what?”
The name was so bizarre Yulina couldn’t even bring herself to repeat it, only tilting her head.
“Don’t mind it. Melga just has atrocious naming sense when it comes to his inventions.”
In any case, not having a usable core was a huge problem.
In car terms, it was like having a perfectly built sports car with no engine.
If things stayed like this, we’d end up with red bean buns without red bean paste—a product that looks complete but lacks its essence. But fortunately, I had a solution.
I spoke in a voice full of confidence.
“There’s no need to worry about the cores. I think I can create a new mana core that’ll be much more efficient than the ones we’re using now.”
“Wha… what?”
“Heheh, are you insane?”
“T-th-that’s impossible.”
The dwarf triplets all reacted differently.
I also turned my gaze to Beatrice and said,
“You should listen too. You said you wanted to strengthen the Union’s forces, didn’t you?”
“Don’t tell me…”
Beatrice immediately understood what I meant and opened her mouth in shock.
“You guessed right. Around eight hundred autonomous golems patrol the vicinity of the Union. I’m planning to replace all of their cores with ones that perform on an entirely different level.”
“Have you lost your mind?”
Beatrice’s reaction wasn’t that different from the dwarves’.
Yulina and Bell were also staring at me with disbelieving expressions.
And understandably so. A next-generation core wasn’t something that gets developed easily.
In the Mage Towers, countless scholars buried themselves in research for decades just to develop a new generation of cores. After that, even more time was needed to commercialize them.
If some random undergraduate—who’s a delinquent with zero background in Magi-Engineering, no less—said he could create such a thing, anyone would react like this.
Just in case, I added,
“It’s not certain yet. I’m saying I might be able to make it.”
The dungeon where the blueprint for that core lay dormant was one of the most difficult among the Academy’s Seven Mysteries.
Unlike the Spooky Dungeon I cleared practically for free, that dungeon would be hard to conquer with my current power.
This was precisely the moment when I needed Beatrice’s capabilities.
“For that, I need your help, Beatrice.”