How to Survive as the Academy Student Council President

“Lo-Loen Gong. Le-let’s go together!”
Garfield’s voice came, ragged with breath.
Tadak-.
The Ishtal drill field, filled with students running along the lanes chalked on the ground.
Instead of answering Garfield, I kept my pace and steadied my breathing.
“Huu. Huu.”
By Professor Verdandi’s command, about a hundred students ran across the drill field.
Only the top ten would be spared.
The rest would have to run another lap around this vast drill field.
In the worst case, they might have to do more than ten laps.
'My current rank is about eightieth.'
If my raw physical ability were what it once was, I’d be floundering back there with Garfield, but I came prepared with body-enhancing artifacts.
There was no rule saying we couldn’t wear artifacts to class.
Wearing several artifacts now, my physical stats were roughly that of an ordinary man — which explains why I could keep this rank.
“Huu.”
Keeping a calm, steady breath, I watched the pack running ahead.
To exaggerate slightly, the lead pack was half a lap in front of me.
I regarded them with something like respect.
‘…There are no monsters like these.’
Pure body specs alone — without magical aid — and they were like that. Truly befitting an academy of knights and warriors.
Among that leading group, the most standout was, without question, Freya, who ran at the very front like a goddess of the battlefield.
Her movements were flawless, her eyes unshaking.
With her skill and grades, Freya didn’t even need to attend this basic lecture.
But she was known for never skipping any swordsmanship class.
She took everything seriously and sincerely, and she completed assigned duties without complaint — that was her diligent nature.
Well… it didn’t hurt that Professor Verdandi, her sister, was the instructor for this basic swordsmanship class.
Anyway, making it into the top ten among those monsters was impossible.
So the plan was to keep a reasonable pace, let the top groups go first, then sprint at the right moment.
I’d have to circle the field another five or six times in the meantime, but think of it as exercise.
Besides, I’d skipped morning exercise today anyway.
Watching the lead group including Freya from a distance, I was running along smoothly.
“…!”
Tuk-.
Someone shoved my shoulder hard from behind and surged forward.
The impact felt almost malicious.
“Uut.”
I almost fell, but I quickly planted both hands on the ground and pushed off to regain my balance.
Papak-.
'Who the hell is that?'
Straightening up and looking forward, I saw the kid who’d bumped me glance back.
“Huh.”
He snorted a mocking laugh and dashed ahead. The shove had been on purpose.
How dare someone pick a fight with Loen outright — must be bored with life.
…Though given Ishtal’s culture, friends are closer to fists than the law.
These kids were children of various martial houses across the continent.
With aggressive temperaments and matching physical ability, petty squabbles like that were common.
It explained why Garfield had been hassled earlier on the path.
But I couldn’t just let it go.
'I already know who he is.'
The boy who picked a fight with me was Hendrik.
He bore a grudge against Loen.
He wouldn’t stop here; I’d have to handle him when I got the chance.
'I’ll fatten him up first.'
He’ll taste better when he’s plump.
I calmed myself and continued running without a word.
***
“Good work, ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) President.”
“Thank you.”
True to form as a leading student-council president, Freya was the first to cross the finish line.

She reached the all-weather pavilion after the run and, breathing shallowly, accepted a canteen from an attendant and drank slowly.
“Huu.”
She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand after the cool water and then turned her gaze to the students still running on the drill field.
Ten students finished per lap, and the rest continued the death rally circling the field.
Freya’s eyes, scanning the students, drifted and landed on me running among them.
“…….”
Despite my warning, I hadn’t skipped the swordsmanship lecture and had stubbornly shown up.
Moreover, unbelievably, I was actually participating diligently now.
Loen running silently among the students — it was the first time she’d seen him run like this since childhood.
It was surprising that he could run that much in his condition.
Freya watched me with complicated feelings.
'Why. '
What change in his mind had led him to enroll in the class and run so earnestly?
And why had he thrown himself to protect her then?
No — a more fundamental question: why had he become such a hooligan in his youth?
Questions piled up and spun around Freya’s head.
“…….”
But Freya had already given him one last chance, and he hadn’t answered it.
Her mind was made up.
She closed her eyes after a moment of watching the drill field.
***
After the death rally.
“Huuuk-. Huuuk-.”
Garfield lay sprawled on the ground like a soggy rag, panting.
My final rank was sixty-eighth, and the ignominious last place of the death rally belonged to Garfield.
Given his build, finishing at all was something to be impressed by. It was surprising either way.
Verdandi cast a look bordering on contempt at Garfield and nodded.
“Trainee number 99. Stamina is the foundation of everything. You can’t achieve anything without stamina. Academic achievement, training results, research outcomes — if you want to accomplish something, train your stamina first.”
“Yes, ye—yes.”
“Medical team. Take him to the infirmary.”
At Verdandi’s order, medics waiting nearby lifted Garfield onto a stretcher and carried him off to the infirmary.
“Ugh. Heavy.”
Because of his size, four people struggled even carrying the stretcher.
Garfield waved a small hand to me as he was taken away.
Don’t wave while being carried off.
Verdandi glanced at Garfield, then addressed the other students.
“All right. Having completed stamina training, we’ll move on to basic swordsmanship training. Everyone, draw the swords you brought.”
This basic swordsmanship lecture was a hardcore three-hour class.
The running was only warm-up; the real start was now.
***
After the death rally, two hours of sword techniques followed by hand-to-hand combat training — the hard schedule continued.
This brutal basic swordsmanship lecture was now nearing its end.
Verdandi looked around at the students and said,
“Finally, we will do a simple sparring exercise using the hand-to-hand techniques learned today. Volunteers will receive extra points.”
“I’ll do it!”
At Verdandi’s words, a male student shot his hand up.
A black-haired boy boasting a large frame — Handol Hendrik.
He’d been the one who provoked me on the drill field earlier.
He was the son of the Hendrik house, vassals under the Gunhild family, and the family head was the famous rough-and-tough “Black Axe” Balkan Hendrik.
When he stood on the platform, his crooked, hooked nose caught my eye.
There was information that, when we were kids, Loen had once smashed that kid’s nose while playing.
It’s weird how I remember such tiny details.
The one-line facts that pop up in a game’s loading screen — like [Did you know?] — stick in your memory more than you’d think.
Anyway, Hendrik hadn’t picked on me without reason.
“All right. Trainee number 21. I’ll give you extra points.”
“Instructor. Instead of extra points, may I designate another student as my sparring opponent?”
“You can designate someone, but you need their consent. Who is it?”
Handol pointed, like he’d been waiting for the chance, to the very back where I was standing.
“I designate Loen de Valis.”
At his declaration, murmurs rose and everyone’s gaze turned to me.
“…….”
I’d expected him to do that.
The earlier shove had probably been part of setting this up.
He might have thought that with so many people around, I’d find it hard to refuse being called out, but that was a miscalculation.
Loen wasn’t the kind to care about that reputation.
With Freya and the others waiting for my answer,
“I refuse.”
I refused his proposal flatly.
When I shot his suggestion down, Handol glared and taunted me.
“Are you not a man? If you have any honor at all, face me and fight!”
“Honor….”
Citing honor like a scion of a martial house.
I shrugged and continued.
“I don’t have any honor worth boasting about. Everyone at this academy knows that.”
Loen the academy hooligan.
On this body, honor had long since been replaced by notoriety and disgust.
“But.”
I looked at Handol and smiled faintly.
“At least I’m honorable enough not to ask a swordsman like you to duel me in magic.”
“Pfft.”
“Teehee.”
Laughter — mocking laughter — echoed around the training ground.
My comment, pointing out the absurdity of a mage being challenged to a physical duel, drew reaction from the students.
Caught off guard by the unexpected reversal, Handol’s face flushed.
“…You bastard!”
Handol burst out in rage, but his outburst didn’t go further.
“Handol. Watch your tongue. I won’t tolerate any more trouble. Withdraw now.”
Handol gritted his teeth, fists curled under Verdandi’s rebuke.
He stared at me with a fierce look.
“Since circumstances don’t permit it, I’ll demonstrate myself. Freya, come up.”
Handol stomped down from the platform in a huff, and Freya mounted the stage silently and faced Verdandi.
With Freya’s appearance, the tense mood lifted, and after a splendid spar between the two sisters, the swordsmanship lecture concluded successfully.
Clap clap-.
Thunderous applause.
I joined in clapping, lending a bit of my strength to the noise.
The swordsmanship lecture was over, but my business with Handol had only just begun.
***
A deserted alley.
“Did you think I’d back down just like that?”
The gray buildings lining this part of Ishtal left many places like this with few passersby.
I deliberately chose this route home, and, as expected, Handol followed behind me.
“No way.”
I turned around leisurely and smiled.
With his large frame blocking the dim alleyway, the place grew even darker.
I asked Handol, who had stepped in front of me to block my path,
“By the way, what grudge do you hold against me? I don’t recall.”
Aside from smashing his nose as a kid, I truly didn’t remember.
I really didn’t remember, but he thought I was feigning ignorance and ground his teeth.
“……I’ve been waiting for a day like today. For the day you’d set foot in Ishtal without Ciel.”
‘Ciel?’
Now that he mentioned it, Ciel was Loen’s guard — an all-round maid capable of physical combat.
Handol seemed to have seized the chance created by Ciel’s absence.
But that was only a physical obstacle; there were plenty of reasons why people still couldn’t touch Loen.
“Will someone cover you afterward?”
Aslan cut my allowance off, but she wouldn’t move over something this trivial — that was a family secret.
From the outside, I may be the family’s outcast, but I was still a direct de Valis by blood.
Even if it was kids’ fighting, the fallout wasn’t easy to handle.
But Handol smiled as if he had backers.
“Don’t worry about that. There are plenty of high-ups who want to put you in your place.”
Kkukduk-.
He cracked his knuckles and slowly closed the distance.
“This is ridiculous.”
In the end, this is how it would go.
I snorted and set down my bag and sword.
Then I flicked a finger toward him.
“I’ll deal with you. Come at me.”