How to Survive as the Academy Student Council President

The moment our eyes met, a strange silence settled between us.
A brief stillness passed, and the thug boss who was leading the abduction swept his eyes up and down me and spat out,
“What are you looking at? With that mask, you look like an outsider. Get lost before I gouge your eyeballs out.”
I was not bothered by the vicious threat and looked straight at the thug boss.
Patchy stubble around his jaw, a vicious look, and a boar-like massive build.
Dragon tattoos inked on shoulders tensed with force and on thick arms.
His appearance was close to the stereotype of the so-called “tattooed pork-soup thug.”
'No mask, huh.'
Seeing he wasn’t wearing a mask like me, he seemed to be a gang member born in the underground city, not someone from outside.
I took my eyes off the boss and looked at the girl held by the lackeys in the rear.
“Mmph!”
Beauty hidden beneath a shabby getup.
Navy hair clumsily braided back and silver eyes shining in the dark.
She was the owner of the “special shop” I was looking for.
'Came to the right place.'
I’d wandered a bit, but I’d arrived at my destination. And with pretty good timing at that.
Ting-.
I closed the system map floating in the air and, with a side glance, counted heads and prepared to fight.
'One boss and four lackeys.'
They were simple lowlifes with no particular skills and nothing special in their stats.
Having already subdued Handol and Chepesh and gained experience by fighting a demon, they were not opponents for me.
“Die!”
Vwoom-.
The boss’s heavy fist shot through the air.
There was no mana or special ability imbued in it, but by brute strength alone it was the kind of blow that could cave a face in one shot.
But his fist never reached me.
KWA-BANG-.
With a sound like hitting a wall, his fist pathetically stopped in midair.
“Graaagh!”
He grabbed his now-swollen, bleeding fist and rolled on the ground.
I looked down at him, then shifted my gaze to the semi-transparent, gleaming armor in the air.
[Aegis Shield.]
It had been completely wrecked when Demer pierced it during the recent exam, but I had restored its durability.
“Ghh… you son of a— what trick did you pull!”
Clutching his dangling wrist, the thug boss squawked at me.
To use a comparison, he’d punched a concrete wall with all his strength; his hand bones were probably all crushed and his wrist broken.
Looking down at him with indifferent eyes, I spoke.
“There’s no need for you to know. And—”
Crackle-.
“Now it’s my turn.”
I stretched my right hand toward the bastard who had fallen to the ground.
Sssaaaah—
Red mana-light gathered around my outstretched hand.
“!”
Seeing the flow of mana flicker around my hand, the lackeys’ mouths fell open.
“M-mana?”
“He’s a mage! A battle mage!”
To lowlifes with no special abilities, a battle mage was truly ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) a disaster.
Better to run than to face him.
Of course, thanks to my constitution I couldn’t fire magic directly, but just drawing up mana like this was threat enough.
“Run!”
Abandoning their boss on the ground, the lackeys bolted.
Then the boss, left alone on the ground, squealed like a pig being slaughtered.
“Damn it, don’t you run! You’re supposed to haul me!”
After hurling curses at the lackeys who’d fled, he glanced at me, then fled in a panic.
“Eek!”
Watching his back as he retreated, I let the mana disperse.
“……”
I had even brought a Strength Enhancement Stone just in case, but there was no need to use it.
'Boring, though.'

Dusting off my hands, I shrugged.
Once the thugs had scurried off—
I undid the ropes and the gag binding the girl they’d been holding.
She let out a sigh of relief and bowed repeatedly, thanking me.
“Thank… thank you so much. I have no idea how I could possibly repay this grace.”
Her braids swayed each time she bowed her head.
I watched her hair sway like a puppy’s tail with interest, then opened my mouth.
“No. There is a way to repay me.”
“…?”
Talking about repaying the favor right after saving her, she stammered like she was a little flustered.
“Uh… yes, right. There must be. I’ll definitely repay you.”
“Good. First, gather your things.”
“Oh, right.”
She scratched her head and then started picking up the magic tools strewn across the alley floor.
Watching her gather the magic tools, I fell silent and drifted into thought.
Ordinarily, by following the sub-quest progression she should have become a proper special-shop owner, but as things stood, she still hadn’t escaped life on the street.
'A world without the protagonist…'
I had used the General Student Council President’s authority to dig through the student roster and tried to find traces of the player, but it was in vain.
It wasn’t just that the roster didn’t have him; there was no enrollment record at all.
I also looked into the essential storylines that should have changed along the protagonist’s quest progression, but there was nothing worth mentioning.
This sight before me must be an effect of that as well.
If so, what I had to do was clear.
'I will take the player’s role instead.'
For the story to proceed normally, I would have to move busily myself.
“Um, I’ve gathered everything.”
While I’d been lost in thought, the girl stood up with a now-bulging backpack.
“Good. Then lead me to your shop.”
“My shop? Ah, so you were a customer looking for me. I’ll guide you, so please follow closely. The roads are a bit complicated.”
“Sure.”
With a backpack full of magic tools, she took the lead and started walking.
As we walked quietly through the alley, she introduced herself first.
“Um, my name is Rize.”
It was exactly the name I knew.
Given that she revealed her real name, you could say her trust in me was fairly high.
“I’m Loen.”
To give trust, I should at least reveal my real name. It’s not like there’s only one Loen in the world.
“Loen… sir.”
As if trying to get used to saying my name, Rize murmured it once, then asked me a question.
“Is there something you want from me, Loen? As a way to repay the favor, too.”
“Something I want…”
After stroking my chin for a moment, I pointed at Rize and spoke.
“I want you.”
“Eh? M-me?”
To the startled Rize, I added one line.
“To be precise, your talent.”
“……”
Narrowing her eyes, Rize muttered something to herself for a moment, then opened her mouth again.
“How did you even know to find me, Loen? I haven’t even been able to do business properly lately because of the Red Hound gang. Did someone you know introduce me?”
Red Hound, huh.
It seemed to be an internal organization of the underground city connected to those debt-collector thugs from just now.
Thinking back, I felt like there had been that kind of organization in the game too.
After thinking about that briefly, I gave an appropriate answer.
“It wasn’t that hard to find you. Rumors about someone with exceptional skill will spread one way or another.”
“Hehe.”
“Even if you did go completely bust and are buried under debt.”
“Ugh, you’re poking where it hurts.”
Chatting idly with Rize as we walked the tangled alleys for a bit—
Rize stopped at one alley and made an introduction.
“This is my shop. Though I’ll have to move soon.”
A shabby store tucked in a deserted corner of an alley.
Calling it a shop felt like a stretch. It was almost at the level of an illegal street stall.
I frowned as I looked at the shabby shop and the dark alleys around it.
“Can customers even find this place?”
“It’s like a hidden hole-in-the-wall. You found your way here, didn’t you, Loen? Those who will come, come.”
Flap-.
Lifting the shop’s curtain, Rize went to the counter and greeted me with a familiar line.
“Welcome, customer. Do you want an appraisal?”
A line I had heard over and over in the game. A good ring to it.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts and got straight to the point.
“No appraisal. Can you also buy and sell items?”
I could handle appraisal myself. What I needed now was a trading partner.
I needed a trustworthy and capable partner through whom I could liquefy funds by selling unneeded artifacts or acquire high-grade artifacts.
If it were the Rize I knew, she could fully handle that role.
But at my request, Rize made a troubled face.
“Ah, normally yes, but… the thing is.”
“Is there some problem?”
Feigning ignorance, I tilted my head, and Rize’s shoulders drooped.
“Yes, my suppliers have completely cut me off right now. I’m sorry.”
“For it to be bad enough to cut off suppliers—since when has business been failing?”
At my question, Rize let out a deep sigh and spoke.
“Originally it went so-so. Enough to pay down some interest and principal on my master’s debt bit by bit. Even if the shop looks like this, I had a fair number of regulars.”
Rize’s master.
According to the setting, he was someone who had recognized the talent of Rize—who had been an orphan—early on, took in the young Rize, taught her, left her appraisal magic tools, and then passed away.
The problem was that he’d left her with debt.
It makes you think, who demands that a disciple repay the debt of the dead when they’re not even family—but that logic didn’t fly in this underground city.
These were the kind of people who would even make up nonexistent debt to take money.
Rize continued her explanation.
“But… starting a few months ago, the Red Hound guys took in a new appraiser under their wing and started harassing me, their competitor. From then on my suppliers were cut off and the debt collection got worse. Strictly speaking, I’m not even at the level to be called a competitor.”
I looked around Rize’s shabby shop and nodded.
If it was Red Hound, they were one of the resistance powers opposing Panopticon’s rule.
As Rize said, they weren’t a big enough organization to consider someone like her, who was nothing but a street vendor, a competitor and harass her.
If so, their intent was clear.
“They want to recruit you, don’t they?”
At my question, Rize silently bit her lip.
“…I know. But how could I go under the bastards who killed my master?”
Rize quietly clenched her fist in anger.
Seeing her quivering fist, I sighed inwardly.
“How about requesting protection from Panopticon or another power? Or join a power’s organization outright.”
Most merchants in the underground city paid protection money to a giant power to prevent situations like this.
It was the best way to shore up the underground city’s public order, which a volunteer guard couldn’t handle alone.
Or there was the method of joining a family outright and becoming an organization member.
If you became an organization member of a power, you gained a huge backer and could free yourself from pressure by other powers.
But Rize shook her head and spoke in a gloomy voice.
“You need money to pay protection, don’t you. They take everything the moment it comes in. And they don’t accept a pipsqueak like me as an organization member.”
“True.”
For someone who had become a target of a power like Rize, they would demand even more protection money and wouldn’t accept her as a member.
In the end, unable to do this or that, the debt kept piling up, and she nearly suffered something awful, as in the present.
If she shelved her master’s grudge for a while, compromised with reality, and entered Red Hound, it would be easier.
She could work from within their organization, bide her time, and sharpen the blade of revenge later.
But Rize had not chosen that path.
“Foolish.”
“……”
'But upright.'
I looked into Rize’s eyes, which didn’t lose their light even in the dark.
A firm character that keeps to what’s right to the end even in a cesspool of a situation like this.
Perhaps that was the shackle binding the talent Rize possessed.
Yet that uprightness was also the fundamental force that made “Rize” a named character.
My role would be sufficient if I cut the chain of malice currently entangling Rize.
“……”
Having settled my thoughts, I quietly held out my hand to her for a handshake.
Slide-.
“?”
Watching her tilt her head at my outstretched hand, I spoke calmly.
“I’ll help you.”
“You’ll help me?”
As Rize asked back with eyes grown round, I gave a faint smile.
“Right. But it won’t be for free. There are a few conditions.”