How to Survive as the Academy Student Council President

“Who… are you?”
With bandages wrapped over her eyes, she groped at her surroundings, judged the distance, and came up to the counter.
Judging by appearance alone, she was nothing but a pitiable blind girl watching over a quiet shop, but the reality was a little different.
Tap-tap-
Tap-
Rattle-.
I tapped the counter with my fingers to make a fixed rhythm. It was the signal for a trip to the Underworld.
The instant she heard the signal, the aura flowing from the girl changed at once.
After that, I took a black card out of my wallet and placed it in the girl’s hand.
Feeling along the card carefully with her rough hands, the girl soon opened her mouth.
“It’s been a while since you came. But somehow…”
At the same time—
Ping-.
From somewhere, a sharp line appeared and lightly looped around the area near my neck.
A hardened thread coated thick with razor-edged mana crystals.
This thread, spread through the shop like a spiderweb, could easily slice through a person’s neck.
I glanced at a single glinting thread in the dark, then turned my head and looked at the blind girl.
'The Underworld’s gatekeeper girl. Gretel.'
She was an elite assassin raised by Panopticon, the current ruling power in the Underworld.
Not someone to take lightly.
Whine-.
Controlling the sharp hardened thread with her fingers, Gretel spoke to me.
“You seem a little different, Loen.”
Though blind, Gretel distinguished people by presence, scent, and the subtle flow of mana.
It seemed she sensed something from me that was not Loen.
But even with the hardened thread touching my neck, I opened my mouth evenly.
“Maybe.”
No need to be flustered.
Nothing had changed physically anyway. If anything changed, it was my cologne.
As long as Gretel didn’t read my mind or thoughts, there was no way my identity would be exposed.
“……”
After exuding a murderous air for a moment, Gretel soon withdrew the sharp thread.
Shwick-.
“All right. I apologize for the discourtesy.”
Returning my card, the girl also handed me a black mask.
A black, egglike mask with no ornament of any kind. Only small eyeholes were cut.
This mask, for those who needed to hide their identity, had cognition-impairing magic cast on it, so to others’ eyes your distinguishing features would appear indistinct.
Without a word, I put away the card and donned the black mask.
My field of view narrowed along the mask’s eyeholes.
“……”
Perhaps feeling sorry for pointing the thread at me so suddenly, Gretel tipped me off with a piece of information once I had the mask on.
“…Lately the Underworld’s mood has been unsettled. Be careful not to get swept up in unrest. Especially around the Durhen District.”
'A power struggle, huh.'
An everyday occurrence in the underworld.
Panopticon might reign as the Underworld’s ruler, but they didn’t perfectly control every area.
Well, even if there was a power struggle, I could at least protect myself for the time being, so it shouldn’t be a big problem.
Ting-.
As an information fee, I pulled a gold coin from my pocket and flicked it to Gretel.
Despite being unable to see, she had no trouble snatching the flying coin headed for her.
Feeling the coin with her hands and gauging its value, Gretel tilted her head.
“What’s this? A tip? And a gold coin at that?”
Given that she’d never in her life received a tip from Loen, the reaction was only natural.
“Yeah. Use it as you like. It’s payment for the info.”
“Sure. Well. I’ll use it well. How strange, though.”
Even as she fiddled with the gold coin I’d given her, Gretel couldn’t hide her puzzlement.
Of course, there was no particular hostility in her voice.
Thinking of what was to come, I had reason to build a connection with Gretel.
Until a passage connecting to the Underworld was opened under Izelin Academy’s dormitory, I would have to use this place; better to raise favorability little by little like this.
After handing Gretel the information fee, I headed toward the bookshelf beyond the counter.
Rumble-.

When I pushed the large bookshelf to the side, a staircase leading down to the basement appeared beyond it.
Whooo-.
A chill and dark emotions of some sort seemed to spill up from the underground stairs.
At a glance, it looked like the gaping maw of a demon.
“Go safely.”
“……”
I looked for a moment at this door leading to the demonic realm, then soon took a step downward.
Clack- Clack-.
The sound of shoe heels quietly reverberated through the narrow cylindrical space.
Descending slowly along the spiral staircase, I brought to mind what I knew about the Underworld.
The Underworld.
It was the name for the massive underground city formed beneath the Union academy grounds and the central power that ruled it.
This large-scale underground city stretched beyond the academy grounds like an anthill, connecting to multiple islands of the Meteor Isles, so you could practically consider it a small nation.
If you dug deeply into the history of the city’s founding and its annals, you’d have to go back far earlier than the Union’s own past.
'…In the setting, was it seven hundred years ago from now?'
I traced the Mir-ellin Saga’s setting, organized in my head.
The Meteor Isles where the Union was built were once a land called the Isles of Darkness, a demonic realm that swarmed with monsters and fiends, like today’s western front.
But precisely because of that, it was a land overflowing with rare magic stones and costly ores, alchemy materials, and monster by-products.
Mercenaries and adventurers chasing wealth and glory, thieves and criminals fleeing from the continent, and tradesmen selling goods to them—
It was truly a land of opportunity where all sorts of human figures gathered, and a hideout for fugitives.
Thanks to the exploits of those who had come to the isles, the underground city steadily built up a kind of system and grew.
Just when it seemed the underground city’s prosperity would continue—
About five hundred years ago from now, on the day the “meteor shower” fell—
The continent’s various kingdoms and houses formed an allied army, launched a great subjugation of the Isles of Darkness, and at last seized part of the archipelago for humanity.
Thus, to commemorate that great victory and the alliance of that day, the Academy Union was founded atop the Isles of Darkness; it was also then that they newly named the cluster of islands the Meteor Isles.
Riding that momentum, the allied army tried to wipe out even the underground city and the Underworld, the hotbed of crime, but that soon fell through.
Though they had won, the allied army’s losses were immense, and they lacked the strength to conduct a purge of the Underworld.
So instead of spending power to eliminate the Underworld, opinion gathered toward using its strength.
Accordingly, in exchange for cooperation in developing the Meteor Isles, the allied army made a temporary non-aggression pact with the Underworld, and this strange symbiotic relationship has continued to this day.
'Well… even if it’s called a symbiotic relationship, there’s almost no point of contact between them.'
Honestly, aside from the fact that they exist on the same land, there’s almost no point of contact between the Union and the Underworld.
There’s no need to get entangled, and neither side tries to.
An educational institution and the underworld—by their very natures, they are fundamentally different powers.
However—
'Someone always gets wedged in the black and white and becomes a gray element.'
There are certainly those who range between the two powers and take profit.
I, too, am among them.
Clack-.
In the stale air, I stopped walking.
The spiral staircase that had felt like it would go on forever ended, and a flat floor greeted me.
As I stepped into the underground city, the grimy floor, caked with old filth, stuck tackily to my shoes.
It was the moment I felt, viscerally, that I’d arrived in the Underworld.
“……”
Holding back my distaste, I kept walking forward, and the bustle of human presence gradually began to draw near.
Fwoosh-.
The long, cave-like corridor ended, and a new world greeted me.
As if tiny capillaries flowed toward a great heart, the small alleys gathered together to form a massive cluster here.
“Woo! Woo! Woo!”
“Kiyaaaahoo!”
“Kill! Kill ’em!”
“Booze, bring booze!”
The air was hyped and the mood was running hot. Violence and disorder, frenzy and chaos.
And within it, the fragments of order.
At a glance, it looked like a city ruled purely by the strong, but even within that, law and decency certainly existed.
The underground city’s western downtown—Heukseongchon greeted me.
“Get up! Fight back!”
“Damn it, do you know how far I walked?”
“……”
I shrugged as I looked at the crowd gathered and screaming like mad.
Even for the Underworld, things usually weren’t this hellishly out of hand.
After glancing around for a moment, I soon saw why.
A raucous match was underway at the arena in the center of Heukseongchon.
'So it looks the same as in-game here too.'
I looked briefly at the gladiators and the crowd around them, then turned my eyes.
Betting on gladiators would be fine and all, but I had business to take care of first.
Instead of the arena, I headed for the circular downtown that had formed near it.
The various shops lined along the downtown were crowded with people.
“Sniff.”
Following the fragrant smell into the food court, the savory steam billowing from a large cauldron and the oil sizzling at a boil pricked at the tip of my nose.
Just the smell alone made my mouth water.
Heukseongchon had not only eateries like this but everything else—daily necessities, adventuring goods, magic devices, arms and armor, clothing shops, even brothels. There was nothing it didn’t have.
Looking around the downtown a bit more, I was also able to find the streets with magic-tool supply shops, magic-goods shops, and jewelry stores handling artifacts that I was looking for.
“A barrier magic scroll, please!”
“Coming~”
“Over here! One more return necklace! Hurry, hurry!”
Even now, countless adventurers and mercenaries were stopping by the magic-goods shops and buying up armfuls of disposable artifacts and scrolls they needed.
They were mercenaries heading for the archipelago’s undeveloped regions.
No matter how moth-to-a-flame their lives might be, life is precious; protective artifacts could be called essential for mercenaries.
But I only watched those magic-goods shops from a distance and didn’t go inside.
Shops like that sat on good ground, so they had lots of customers, but the quality of their wares wasn’t very good.
'As a rule, good items are the ones you farm yourself.'
Have you ever seen a game where the weapon shop in town sold rare weapons or precious artifacts?
The Mir-ellin Saga faithfully followed that rule as well.
But there was one exception: a way to unlock a “special shop” through a particular route.
'The merchant of a special shop.'
Once you made contact with a special shop’s merchant and opened the route, you could use it to good effect from then on too.
What I was looking for now was that very special merchant.
I looked around the noisy street and stopped by a nearby food stall for a moment.
I lowered my voice as much as possible and even changed my speech.
“Give me three of those.”
“Sure thing, five cooper each.”
I bought a few sausage skewers covered in a sweet sauce that tasted like mustard, then, chewing under the mask, I strolled further down the street.
After walking a long while taking in the sights—
I was able to leave Heukseongchon’s main street, noisy enough to make your ears ring.
Along with a chill that felt like a lie, narrow alleys stretching into various parts of the underground city appeared.
The Underworld’s alleys, tangled haphazardly like a maze.
Naturally so, since this underground city had formed along caves without any road planning.
Ting-.
I turned on the system map, then stepped into the complicated alleys.
Like that, after wandering with the map for a good many minutes—
I had gone far from the main street and was continuing to roam the quiet surrounding alleys, when—
“P-please… not that!”
Hearing an earnest voice from somewhere, I paused for a moment.
From beyond that alley came a plea from a girl, nearly a scream.
The rough voice that followed—
“Not that, my ass. Who didn’t pay on time? Hey, grab all the goods.”
“Yes, boss.”
“I’ll pay, I’ll pay—okay? By next month for sure!”
“Next month? Blow it out your— There is no next month. Sell her off with the goods.”
“D-damn it, let go! Let go of me!”
A girl’s voice and the sound of a rough scuffle came from beyond the alley.
From the ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) sound of it, debt collectors, having hounded her, were about to go so far as human trafficking.
“Hm.”
Inside the Union it would be out of the question, but in an underground city that bordered on a lawless zone, it wasn’t anything special.
All the more so if they weren’t a family under a giant power like Panopticon or a subordinate merchant paying protection money.
“S-someone, someone please help!”
On the verge of being dragged off by the debt collectors, she shouted at the top of her lungs for help.
But that cry didn’t continue.
“Ah, shut her up. Gag her too.”
“Yep.”
“Mmph! Mmph!”
“Let’s go.”
Gagging the girl and binding her, the gang of debt collectors soon emerged from the narrow alley.
And—
“…What the hell is this?”
“……”
They came face to face, squarely, with me, who had been watching the situation from the mouth of the alley.