I got into school for nothing - 226
I got into school for nothing (226)
Lesson 45. Founding Festival Preparation - 1
Union Academy's Monday lectures tend to be quite subdued.
The reason is simple.
Most students haven't fully recovered from the fatigue accumulated during the Tower explorations, which last until Sunday.
Therefore, Mondays are usually structured around liberal arts classes that don't require intense physical activity or mental exertion, with proper lectures commencing from Tuesday through Thursday.
“But to completely blow off the morning lectures...”
Ban Yuwon murmured in disbelief, casually glancing around.
All students of the Academy, from first-year to fifth-year, were gathered in the main auditorium of the Academy's main building, where the entrance ceremony had taken place.
The sheer incongruity of it all was overwhelming: this was not a lecture hall where, typically, theoretical professors, themselves laden with weekend fatigue, would be emitting "sleep waves" towards drowsy students.
“Because there's a good excuse called the Founding Festival.”
Mira, who was sitting closely beside Ban Yuwon, stated calmly.
Indeed, the most incongruous thing was her presence sitting beside him... no, it was his current position.
Right now, Ban Yuwon was seated not with the first-year Class 11, but on the dais with the Student Council executives.
“It's also an unusual sight for the professors to be uniformly excluded from an event like this...”
“It's precisely *because* it's an event like this,” Mira explained. “It's a place where the Student Council's authority must be respected. It would be problematic if a full professor were to appear and inadvertently steal the spotlight.”
“That's true.”
The student body, not the faculty, had organized this all-school assembly.
Ordinarily, they were in a pitiful state, pushed around and struggling with limited authority just to keep the Academy running smoothly. However, thanks to the substantial power granted to the Student Council specifically for the Union Founding Festival, they were able to orchestrate an event like this.
“Huhu.”
As he watched the back of Student Council President Shatie, who stood at the front of the dais preparing for her announcement, Mira suddenly let out a chuckle.
“Those who usually strut around as if they're from the Special Class are now looking up at me, and that doesn't feel bad at all.”
“Control your expression, control it. You look incredibly wicked right now.”
Perhaps it was due to her inherently noble status, but Mira occasionally made disparaging remarks about the Special Class.
She spoke as if they merely had the good fortune to be born in worlds with high mana density, yet they acted presumptuously without knowing their place. Sometimes, she even seemed to pity them.
However, if one looked at it that way, wasn't Mira, born as a fairy princess of the A-1 Dimension, also just lucky? But if he started delving into that, Ban Yuwon himself wouldn't be in a position to criticize, so he decided to keep his mouth shut.
‘When you think about it, all the students here are basically having a 'golden spoon' competition. Even As Light and Rucell, from lower dimensions, are royalty. And Dokgo Yeon, though I don't know the full extent, seems to have an even more extraordinary origin than both of them...’
Was the only hope that 'spoons' didn't absolutely determine superiority among the students gathered here?
And the proof of that was Shatie, standing proudly on the dais right now.
“Students of the entire Academy, I am Student Council President Shatie. First, I thank you for gathering here.”
Shatie bowed her head slightly with a polite introduction.
“Now that I think of it,” Ban Yuwon mused, turning his gaze to the seats of honor where each year's Special Class was located.
He had somewhat expected it, but unlike the first, second, and third-year sections, which were at least somewhat occupied, most of the seats for the fourth and fifth-years were empty.
Even if Shatie wielded influence over the Special Class, those who were senior to her were clearly expressing their refusal to acknowledge her in this manner.
For those who had morning lectures, they would be marked absent, let alone those who didn't. Did the Special Class simply not care about missing a lecture or two?
“Now, I will make an announcement regarding the second semester's Student Council executive appointments and the Union Founding Festival, which is 37 days away. First, the Vice President.”
Ban Yuwon was slightly impressed.
Normally, you couldn't gather the entire student body just because an executive other than the Student Council President had changed.
But to use the Union Founding Festival as a good pretext to gather the whole school, and then introduce the executives – Shatie's nerve was truly something else.
However, the reason this was possible... was probably also thanks to Aire, who had been newly selected as Vice President.
“......”
Click, clack.
Aire, wearing transparent sky-blue shoes that resembled her eyes, proceeded to the dais at Shatie's summons.
She looked as she always did, yet simply by walking forward, she captured the attention of every student in the Academy.
“Her charisma already rivals the President's.”
“If only she wasn't from the Special Class, she'd be a truly perfect choice.”
Graham, the Secretary-General, nodded in satisfaction, to which Rika, the Head of External Affairs, clicked her tongue and remarked.
However, Begun Delawalker, the Treasurer, seemed to think differently.
“It might be even better precisely *because* she's from the Special Class. We can't keep tearing each other apart with the uncooperative Special Class forever, can we?”
“Hmm, even if it's too much to ask of the current students, it would be good if we could gradually foster a different atmosphere, especially among the new students.”
Rika nodded, assenting to Begun's words.
“Hah.”
Hearing this, Mira scoffed, and without caring if others saw, gently tugged on Ban Yuwon's sleeve.
“That’s already happening. Don't you see?”
“Graham, Mira's about to start bragging about her boyfriend again. You do something about it.”
“Everyone, please be quiet.”
While the executives chattered, Aire, who had taken the microphone, finished her brief self-introduction.
It was so simple it made one wonder if it was truly acceptable, but as soon as she finished speaking, such a thunderous applause erupted, starting with the first-years, that it soon didn't matter anymore.
“Then, next, I will introduce our Planning Department Head, whom you all already know.”
Even more astonishing, however, was that as soon as Aire's turn ended and Shatie took the microphone again to speak, the entire hall was engulfed in a tremendous roar of cheers.
“Hoo... did you see that?”
And for some reason, it wasn't the recipient of the cheers, but Mira, who struck a proud pose and wore a triumphant expression.
It was a moment that reconfirmed the power of Rebellion, which boasted overwhelming recognition not only on Union Net but also within Union Academy's intranet.
Rika, who was also the only fourth-year among the executives, let her shoulders slump slightly.
“I used to be the Student Council's mascot...”
“Forget about a 'hako' (はこ, 'box'=shack) channel with less than 100 subscribers.”
“Don't call it a 'hako'!”
Ban Yuwon stepped forward from his seat, slightly impressed, thinking that words used for disparaging competition over subscriber counts existed everywhere.
As he approached the dais, the cheers grew louder, making Ban Yuwon once again realize the tremendous success of the Rebellion channel.
‘But... why is this happening? Outside the Academy, perhaps, but it feels a bit strange for students *within* the Academy to be so enthusiastic about me.’
What he had initially hoped for was simply to establish a comfortable space within the Academy where they wouldn't be ostracized merely for being from lower-ranked dimensions.
The goal was to increase their recognition through the Rebellion channel and naturally integrate their presence into the Academy... but the Rebellion channel didn't stop there; it turned them into popular stars representing the school.
Not only students outside the Academy but even those within willingly accepted this.
“The Head of the Planning Department truly is special.”
“Special, indeed.”
“Just this past exploration, he conquered 30 rooms in one go, didn't he? Kyahaha, and all of them were Chain Rooms. I was overwhelmed myself, so imagine how others must have felt.”
Shatie said, standing with him on the dais and handing him the microphone.
“Everyone is probably starting to realize, little by little, that the Head of the Planning Department is undertaking an exploration that might just change the history of the Academy.”
One could perhaps phrase it negatively as having lost their competitive spirit, but Shatie added that it was more akin to the feeling of cheering on someone who was climbing a mountain they themselves couldn't even dare to attempt.
“Kyahat, by the time you're a third-year, you realize. You can't just climb the Tower blindly and expect to reach the top.”
The malevolent aspect of the Tower was that simply climbing high didn't guarantee reaching the summit.
And so, students who initially harbored pure passion for the Tower and climbed it eventually came to realize that truth, sooner or later.
“But the seniors are still diligently climbing the Tower, aren't they?”
“I'm not saying my passion for the Tower has cooled. It's simply that, honestly, my current feeling is that if I can't reach the summit of the Tower, I'll just climb as high as I possibly can.”
But Ban Yuwon was different.
After all, the Rebellion party, which had only just reached Room 160, had conquered multiple Chain Rooms, Trick Rooms, and rooms so vast they could contain an entire empire...
How would students who had already abandoned their lingering attachment to the Tower's summit react upon seeing that?
Perhaps it wasn't strange for them to hope that he might truly reach the Tower's summit.
“Though, of course, the number of his enemies would have increased proportionally.”
Amidst the ceaseless outpouring of cheers, Ban Yuwon and Shatie exchanged wry smiles as they briefly glanced at the members of the Special Class who glared at him unceasingly.
“Go on, Head of the Planning Department.”
Shatie playfully clapped him on the shoulder.
“Turn both the Tower and the Academy upside down.”
Ban Yuwon did not reply, standing on the dais.
Indeed, after hearing Shatie's words, he finally understood how the Union Academy students viewed him.
From the very beginning, he had approached his task with the conviction that he could reach the summit of the Tower of Babel, and thus could accept the miraculous events within the Tower as quite natural. However, for the students who had vaguely given up on conquering the Tower, having embarked on unknown explorations with no clear answers, it was not the same.
Not mere rivalry, but an expectation that *he* might finally accomplish what they themselves could not.
Such was the sentiment of the Academy students looking at him now.
When all was said and done, these students were victims, caught up in a fantastical myth because their ancestor had needlessly created a 'pie in the sky' like the Tower of Babel.
Initially, he had branded both the Academy professors and the students as thieves... but looking at it from a different perspective, weren't they pitiable too?
‘Now that I'm quite a bit more relaxed, I should show a little tolerance as the homeowner.’
He gripped the microphone he'd received from Shatie, flashed a grin, and opened his mouth.
A roar of cheers, powerful enough to bring down the Academy's main building, responded to him.
For some reason, Aire looked a little displeased.
* * *
Several major events are held during the Union Founding Festival.
There are special competitions between clubs, as well as a masquerade ball hosted by the Academy.
Remarkably, all of these events are broadcast live under the authority of Union Net, and even more astonishingly, external guests are permitted to enter the Academy, but only for the Founding Festival.
While there are several special considerations, if you just isolate those, it's truly no different from a school festival held at a high school or university.
And on this day, the schedule for the masquerade ball tournament preliminaries was announced, and along with it, applications for 'special matches' also became available.
“Senior Ulrike Prominence, I have a favor to ask. Would that be alright?”
“Oh, my. To seek me out directly, what is the matter?”
Of course, Ban Yuwon acted immediately.
He had hoped it wouldn't unfold as he imagined, but unfortunately, that wasn't to be.
For Ban Yuwon was not the only one awaiting the masquerade ball's special matches.
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