There are three princes in the Kingdom of Ridill, but as of who will be the next king, the current king has yet to declare.
Currently, there was a strong movement among the nobles in the country to make the second prince, Felix, the next king.
After all, Felix had the backing of Duke Crockford's family, and his power was growing stronger by the day. If the power of the second prince's faction continued to grow, Felix would surely become the king.
That's why many young ladies from noble families have their eyes set on becoming Felix's fiance.
Compared to the unrefined first prince and the inconspicuous third prince, the second prince, Felix, possessed outstanding good looks. There were many girls who fell in love with him at the first sight upon seeing him.
For this reason, there were often girls wandering around the student council room, hoping to catch a glimpse of Felix. It's the same now. A few girls were gathered in a huddle, waiting gingerly for Felix to arrive.
As the girls gathered around, one of the girls approached from behind.
It was a student named Bridgette Graham, the daughter of Marquis Sheilberry.
Listed as one of the three most beautiful women in Serendia Academy, she coldly turned her beautiful face to the girls and told them.
"You're blocking me from getting through. Could you clear the way?"
With that comment, the girls dropped their heads in shame and walked away.
Bridget has excellent grades and has always been in the top three for three years in the academy. And she was particularly gifted in the field of foreign languages, where she ranked alongside Prince Felix, who has the highest overall score.
With her perfect appearance and family background, and being a childhood friend of Prince Felix, people around her naturally saw her as a potential fiance for Prince Felix.
Above all, Bridget was a student council member who had appointed directly by Felix. She was the only girl in the current student council that he had appointed. That was Bridget. A person that Felix trusts so much.
"Oh?"
Turning the doorknob of the student council room, Bridget furrowed her brow. The door was unlocked. She stepped into the room, wondering a bit if she would be the first one in today.
There was no sign of anyone in the student council room, but… she could hear a faint noise coming from the adjacent archive room. Bridget looked into the archives to see if anyone was working there… and was struck dumb for a scene what she saw.
One of the cabinets in the archive room was empty, and documents were piled up on the floor.
And at a work desk in the back of the room, a girl with light brown hair she didn't recognize was quietly reading a document.
"Who are you? With whose permission did you enter this room?"
Even after Bridget called out to her, her petite back didn't even budge.
"Answer me right away."
Even after speaking in a strong tone, the girl still did not respond.
Just as Bridget was about to raise her voice even higher, two boys appeared behind her. Both of them were from the student council.
"Oh, so Miss Bridget is the first one to arrive today… What the heck is this?!"
"How could all the documents are… Um, who is that person over there?"
The tall young man with reddish brown-colored hair was Elliot, the secretary, and the small boy with light brown hair was Neil, the general affairs assistant.
Elliot looked at Brigitte and smiled a troubled smile.
"Uh, who's the girl over there? Is she one of your friends, Miss Bridget?"
Instead of replying, Bridget stared at Elliot with golden eyes that glittered like a wildcat's.
Elliot cowered, "How scary," and immediately corrected his words.
"Well, I guess she's not your friend. I mean, Miss Bridget doesn't have any friends…"
"From her attires, she's a sophomore like me… But I've never seen her before."
Neil, who had been hiding in Elliot's shadow to see what was going on, took one step closer to the desk and called out to the girl's back.
"Um, excuse me. May I ask your name?"
As expected, there was no response, and the girl still silently flipped through the pages of the document, occasionally writing numbers on a small piece of paper and tucking it into the document. Her eyes were always on the documents, never looking back at them.
While Elliot and Neil were at a loss, Bridget raised the fan in her hand and… swung it down on the girl's cheek.
Pah! The girl's movements stopped for a moment as a flashy sound echoed.
Elliot and Neil both gulped and looked at Bridget as if they were looking at something terrifying.
In the midst of all this, Bridget unfolded the fan she had swung down and told the girl in a chilling voice.
"Have you woken up?"
"………"
The girl paused for a few seconds, but then began to turn the pages as if nothing had happened.
＊ ＊ ＊
——Ouch.
Still immersing in the world of numbers, Monica suddenly felt a strong pain in her cheek.
——Painful things are scary. And scary things are always depressing.
The more painful or scary the situation was, the more Monica's thoughts sank into the world of numbers.
Because as long as she thought about numbers, she will not feel depressed.
In the beautiful world of numbers, nothing can hurt Monica. It will never say horrible things or do painful things to her.
Hence, Monica, who felt a pain in her cheek, immersed herself in the world of numbers again, as if to distract herself from reality.
＊ ＊ ＊
This is baaaaad, Monica's completely out of her mind!
Nero, the black cat who had been exploring the school building, watched this scene from outside the window of the student council room.
He saw everything, including the part where Monica gets smacked on the cheek with a fan.
You can't! Slapping her is counterproductive! If you scare Monica, she'll get more and more lost in the world of numbers!
Nero has learned how to bring Monica back to her senses in this state.
——And that was using a paw.
If you give her a paw on her cheek, she will come back to her senses. For that reason, he wanted to get close to Monica somehow, but since the window was locked, he couldn't get inside.
Nero scratched the window and meowed.
The most petite boy was the first to notice Nero and shouted, "Oh, there's a cat," and the other two turned to look at the window.
Good, now my chance has come!
Nero sat down a little on the window sill then struck the cutest pose he could muster before squealed, "Meow."
How's that? It's my special move! Sexy dynamite pose with all my might! Now all the little girls are going to fall in love with me!
Once he strikes this pose, most humans should have melted into Nero so they would let him in.
In addition, I would let you groom and feed me! or so what he thought triumphantly like a spoiled child, but the lady with the fan said flatly.
"I don't like creatures who do nothing but begging."
Meow… meow… meowhat!?
Nero was furious. Can this be allowed to happen? No, it should not be allowed at all. Because I'm so cute!
Who said I was only creatures who do nothing but begging, you little human girl! Let me show you how serious I am!
Even though Nero making a ruckus while stomping on the ground, Monica still hasn't noticed Nero.
Just, open, the window! Let me paw her cheeeeek!
As Nero was scratching the window roughly, two more people came into the reference room.
It was Monica's target for protection, the second prince, who was also the president of the student council. Following him was a silver-haired young man who was apparently his aide.
"Oh? what's going on?"
＊ ＊ ＊
The first thing Felix did when he entered the archive room was to check the keys.
It hasn't moved from its initial position…
With a natural demeanor, he checked the other cabinets, but they didn't seem to have been ransacked. The only thing that had been removed in its entirety was a cabinet for accounting records.
Felix picked up one of the documents that lined up at his feet and flipped through the contents.
That was the accounting records from twenty-four years ago and there was a piece of paper with the correct numbers tucked in where the corrections were made. The same went for the other documents.
Cyril, who had been checking the documents beside Felix, peeled his eyes back in disbelief.
"This is… impossible! She's not only reviewed five years of records, but she'd done it for the entire records! Why did she even bring out all these old records! Hey, little girl! Explain the situation!"
Despite Cyril's ranting, Monica was not responding. His white cheeks were twitching in anger. At this rate, he might even hit Monica.
It was then that Felix noticed something. Monica's right cheek was swollen.
"What happened to her cheek?"
"I have to teach the rude one a little discipline."
Bridget replied with a sullen look and covered her mouth with her unfolded fan.
Apparently, Monica's attitude had angered her.
Felix stroked Monica's cheek with his gloved fingertips. As expected, Monica didn't even bat an eye.
"Just now, I've asked her to review five years' worth of accounting records."
After explaining this to the members of the student council, Felix calculated the numbers on the page where the correction paper was tucked.
It was as Monica pointed out, there were some flaws.
But I can't believe she went through the trouble of reviewing all the past records.
Even Felix was surprised by it… It has been a long time since he has been so surprised by something.
Feeling a little impressed, Felix gently tapped Monica on the shoulder.
"Good work, Miss Norton. I think it's time for you to take a break."
But Monica did not reply.
"Miss Norton."
When Felix shook Monica's shoulder a little harder, Monica lifted her right arm, and… brushed Felix's arm away in annoyance.
The student council members started to become agitated. Cyril, in particular, became enraged and began to spread his ice mana.
"You! How dare you disrespect His Highness! You deserve to die!"
Cyril started chanting angrily, but Felix lifted one of his hands to stop him.
Then he looked at Monica as if he were looking at a strange creature.
Monica was now using all of her consciousness to do calculations. The girl who was so scared to look at Felix's face was now not even looking at him.
It was the same as when she praised his sequence number more than Felix's appearance.
That strangely tickled Felix's heart.
——I would rather have you look back at me than at my numbers sequence.
A faint smile appeared on Felix's lips, then put his fingers on top her cheek, then——
——drop a single kiss on it where the red swollen cheek was.
While the student council members were in a state of shock, Monica's movements stopped, but she kept her eyes on the documents.
"Wait a minute, Nero… I'm almost done…"
"Nero?"
When Felix tilted his head and asked, Monica's thin shoulders jerked up and the quill fell from her hand.
Eventually, her whole body began to shake, and her head slowly, slowly turned toward Felix.
"Y-Y-Y-Y-Your…"
"Hm. You did your job very well."
In response to Monica's strange voice, Felix gave her a smile, causing her to tumble out of her chair then fall on the floor.
"P-P-Please pa-pardon me fo-for my disrespectful mann—."
Apparently, she bit her tongue at the end.
Monica clutched her mouth and began to squeal.
Felix gently stroked Monica's head, feeling as if he was watching a toy that moved in a delightful way.
"Please raise your head. You've worked so hard to fulfill my request, so you have nothing to be blamed for."
"Ye-Yesh…"
Monica nodded while sniffling, but Cyril interjected with one hand raised, "With all due respect."
"Your Highness, this little girl has gone too far. Your Highness, you were only ordered her to check the accounting records for the past five years… but she has gone all the way reviewed documents other than those ordered by you, so I think she should be punished."
At Cyril's statement, Monica turned pale again and began to shake pitifully.
Felix didn't ask Cyril but asked Monica.
"What did you think when you saw those accounting records?"
"Um… That's…"
"I won't get angry at you. Just be honest and tell me what you think."
When Felix urged her in a calm voice, Monica fidgeted with her fingers and said.
"I was surprised at how sloppy the management was, even though the amount of money moving around was incredibly large!"
"You!"
Cyril became enraged and yelled at her, while Monica cowered while saying, "You said you wouldn't get angry…"
Felix looked around at the members of the student council with a faint smile.
"This is the reality of our previous student councils. All of the student council members were in a position where had no financial difficulties, which is why it has been poorly managed. Even I was unable to catch Aaron O'Brien's wrongdoing right away… So with that reminder, I hereby declare."
Felix grabbed Monica's hand, who had shrunk back into a sobbing heap, then announced in a high-pitched voice.
"I hereby appoint Miss Monica Norton, a sophomore in high school, as Student Council Treasurer."
In the next moment, Monica's eyes turned white then collapsed on the spot.
As for the black cat, he was meowed noisily outside the window.
