"Good morning, everyone," Raelyn said, smiling at the attendees as she was the first to speak.
Even though some seats near Tyrone and Raelyn were empty, she started anyway.
"As this is our first meeting since the new first-year students have joined us, could you both introduce yourselves?" Raelyn asked Asher and Alyssa.
"Asher Greville," Asher replied, causing a brief hush to fall over the hall.
"Alyssa," Alyssa raised her hand to introduce herself, though her presence alone caused irritated looks on the faces of many students present in the hall.
"Firstly, congratulations on being elected as the Year Representative," Raelyn's authoritative tone rang out, commanding the attention of everyone in the hall.
Although Raelyn may have appeared gentle and kind with her smile, she was one of the most powerful students in the academy.
"This year's first-year students are quite special, I must say," Raelyn stated, glancing at Alyssa.
But Alyssa met her gaze with confidence. The girl in front of her was from the family that took the place of her mother's family in the High Council. The Whiteheart were chosen to become an Elite family because of the fall of the Garcia family.
From their looks alone, it was clear that neither of them liked each other. Unfortunately for Alyssa, the whole Student Council was in full support of the President.
"It wasn't much, especially considering that I only encountered worthless pests," Asher spoke out.
His words shocked many people in the hall as he was directly calling out Raelyn's brother Kevin with provocation.
"Well, it's not their fault if their family simply had no resources," Asher said as he looked directly at Raelyn with his indifferent face.
His words directly mocked the Whiteheart family, which became part of the High Council a decade ago, and the amount of influence and power they had was nothing compared to families like Greville, who had maintained their spot for a long time.
"Aren't you being too rude, Asher Greville?" A voice of a student spoke out, and everyone turned to see who it was.
"Let's not agitate each other, shall we?" Jack said as he looked at Asher.
Others were glad that someone like Jack, who had the backing enough to equally talk with Asher, pointed out his rude remarks. Raelyn's reputation inside the Student Council was quite high, and nobody liked that Asher was being rude to her.
"Eight minutes," Asher said with an indifferent face, confusing the students sitting in the hall.
"Wrap this meeting in eight minutes because after that, I will leave."
"What do you mean? The meeting had just started," one of the guys sitting who admired Raelyn secretly decided to speak out.
Tyrone knew where Asher was taking this conversation, and he stepped in before the matter escalated.
"It was my mistake. I sent them the wrong time," he decided to take the blame instead of Raelyn.
Asher raised his eyebrows at Tyrone, seeing his little white knight act to defend Raelyn.
"Enough," a pressure was felt by all the members as they saw Raelyn, who was looking at Asher.
"Raelyn!!" Tyrone stood up, but Raelyn gestured for him to sit down.
She had only targeted Asher with a little pressure, not using her entire strength, and Asher was unaffected because this much was nothing for him. But this was not the case for Alyssa, who was clearly resisting the pressure by using her own.
"It seems you have forgotten my standing inside the World Academy," Raelyn said.
"You are just a first year, so don't mistake others being polite, that they are afraid of you," Raelyn's expression was cold.
"It seems being polite nowadays is taken too lightly. I will move to the main issue of this meeting, and that is you, Alyssa," Raelyn said, taking her pressure in.
"You have used mana outside of a duel without justification towards your classmates," Raelyn looked at Alyssa.
"Is that true?" Raelyn asked.
"Yes," Alyssa admitted it.
"And may I ask why?" Raelyn looked at Alyssa.
"He was disrespecting me," Alyssa spoke.
"Student Council is allowed to use mana but not for such reasons," Raelyn said.
"You will be fined 2000 GP for your offense if you do it again," Raelyn passed her judgment. Alyssa glared at her, but she couldn't do anything. 2000 GP would mean that she would need to survive next month without her GP.
"But you used mana on me just now," Alyssa retorted with a calm look on her face.
She had expected that the Student Council president would make it difficult for her, but she just needed to maintain her Year Representative position, and then even Raelyn couldn't remove her from the Student Council, until Alyssa broke one of the major rules.
"It seems you are not getting my point. Your spot in the Student Council is not permanent until you secure your place as one of the first-year rankers," Raelyn replied.
"And for you both," Raelyn addressed Asher.
"I, as the President, have the power to call a vote to request your removal from the Student Council," Raelyn warned Asher.
"Oh really, so why don't you try?" Asher mocked Raelyn.
It was true that Raelyn could kick Asher if 70% of the Student Council agreed on the vote.
"Raelyn, stop," Tyrone finally intervened.
Removing Asher from the Student Council was the worst thing they could do right now when their own authority was in jeopardy.
"Start the real meeting," Tyrone looked at Raelyn with a serious expression.
There was a huge reason why Tyrone did not want to remove Asher from the Student Council. In fact, he was glad that it was Asher who won the tournament, not Kevin.
Seeing Tyrone's expression, Raelyn gave up on her plan for now.
"Well, it seems everyone has arrived," Raelyn said as the door opened and many people with distinct features and attractive faces walked in and sat on the seats closer to Tyrone and Raelyn.
"Wow, why is the atmosphere so gloomy?" a girl said in a cheerful voice as she sat on one of the empty seats.
The seats were filled, but one guy did not sit down and stood behind Asher.
"Eric, why are you standing there?" Raelyn asked, frowning.
"Why would I sit above my Young Master?" Eric asked Raelyn with a confused look on his face.
Asher smirked at Eric's behavior. Nobody knew that Eric was actually the son of Stephen, who was the head butler for the Greville family, so this confused the whole council.
"Sit here. Such things don't matter inside the World Academy," Raelyn was not liking where this was going.
Asher stood up and looked at Raelyn.
"Eight minutes are over. Eric, handle everything," Asher stood up.
"Sit down, Asher Greville. I will not repeat this for the second time," Raelyn said, and the atmosphere around the room got heavy.
This time Raelyn was serious.
Raelyn had been trying to take it easy on Asher, but remembering how he had beaten Kevin and the brutal fight he had with Elena, as narrated to her by Kevin, had already made her develop a strong dislike for Asher.
"Take your aura back," Eric flared all his mana as he threatened Raelyn.
Eric was a guy who was fully committed to serving Asher. His family had served the Greville for generations, and he wanted to do so as well.
Seeing Eric's huge aura, others also flared their mana. Asher found it annoying because it was easy for him to handle such aura, but it was not the same for Alyssa, who was clutching her chest.
Before anybody could move, a chilling killing intent took over the hall, chilling the spine of all the second years. The third years were fine because they were used to such bloodlust, but it was not the same for the second years.
"Eric, get me and her in your committee and manage everything," Asher said and left the room, with Alyssa following behind him.
His killing intent had surprised the whole council.
"D Rank," Tyrone muttered, as he could feel that Asher's rank was in the D ranks already.
'He can't join Leonard,' Tyrone thought with a serious look on his face.
"Eric, do you think I will let you leave scot-free?" Raelyn said as she unleashed her aura completely.
"Urk," Eric struggled, but he wasn't going to back down.
"Enough, Raelyn. You have done enough," Tyrone finally unleashed his aura and pushed Raelyn back.
"Nice save," Eric showed his thumb towards Tyrone, who saved him from Raelyn.
"Everyone leave," Tyrone said, and apart from the committee heads who had arrived just now, three of them were left in the room.
"I will give you the application form for two students from the Duel Committee," Eric said as he left as well.
Eric Herod was the current Duel Committee head, and they managed all the duels. They also had some authority over the Trial Grounds.
"I didn't know that Eric guy was related to the Greville family," a girl spoke up with a serious look on her face.
"I will leave as well. I don't want to involve in this," the guy who was the head of the disciplinary committee also left.
Committees under the Student Council were independent units that were part of the Student Council, but they operated independently. Each head had the authority similar to the Vice President of the Student Council, and this was why Eric could openly oppose Raelyn to support Asher.
But committees could align with other factions as well and could weaken the authority of the Student Council. That's why Raelyn did not fight Eric right now. If she was serious, Eric would have been on the ground. That was the true might of the Student Council President.
"Tyrone, I will not allow this," Raelyn glared at Tyrone.
"No, don't get entangled with the Greville for now. We need to deal with Leonard Tarvian's growing influence as well. Let's leave the first years for now," Tyrone advised her.
"Don't worry, Raelyn. I will support you," the girl tried to lighten the mood.
"Fine, I was too hasty this time," Raelyn admitted that this time she had made a mistake and swore to herself that she would definitely crush Asher's pride herself.
But she didn't know that this was just the start of her downfall. The current her could not even imagine what the future entailed for her. Slowly but surely, a fall of many giants was coming that would shake the foundations of this world, and the cause of this was one young man.
Outside the Student Council building, Jack Allister was messaging a certain person, seeing the dispute between Asher and Raelyn.
"Leon would be happy with this," Jack smiled as he sent the message.
