"Let's start today's meeting."
A boy with blonde hair said.
"We have a new member today and our vice president has just returned."
I was in a room with around 10 people, including myself. Six of them were the famed Scion students and the other three were some students I'd never met before.
It was the same room where I met Asa and Jenna to talk about the experimental stim.
"Let's introduce our new member then. Keir stand up."
My body shot up, and sweat was trickling down my forehead.
"Hello everyone, my name is Keir Licht."
I'm sure most of the people in the room knew my name since I've had prior relations to them, but I've never met the others.
I got a few mixed responses to my introduction. Kiran, Fukuyo, and Jenna had smiles on their faces, whilst Asa and Lilith were indifferent.
The other two students looked at me in disgust while the other sat there with a wandering mind.
The student who was zoned out had short brown hair and blue eyes. He looked quite similar to Vincent in a way.
"Keir meet Sean Morris, Park Dae-Hyun, and Olivia Chen. I hope you'll all get along."
Asa said.
'Morris huh?'
No wonder Sean and Vincent looked so similar.
They must've been family.
Sean snapped his eyes onto me and had a surprised reaction.
"Ah- nice to meet you too Keir."
The other two didn't even bother greeting me back.
I sat back down and looked back at Asa and Lilith. We were currently starting the meeting.
"Ahem- today's meeting we will be talking about our upcoming midterms tournament. Within this tournament, we will pit students of similar rank against each other to climb higher up."
That was a chance.
The midterms were my shot at garnering some respect, a chance to show off my abilities.
There was one issue though.
"You aren't strong enough yet."
Nishil's voice rang through my head.
He was right. If I wanted to really make an impression I had to master the abilities Nishil would teach me.
My level of RC control was leagues below other students, and Nishil had to take control whenever I used anything related to RC.
"The midterms will take place in two months and will be hosted and judged by three of our professors. Those professors are Naomi Shogo, Darren Li, and Joshua Albrecht."
Asa announced.
Everybody's eyes were on him. Especially Olivia's. She looked at him with an infatuated gaze.
'She must like him.'
I thought to myself.
"There will be multiple rounds to the tournament over the course of midterms, but we'll discuss that when the time is right."
Lilith said with a graceful yet commanding tone.
*****
"That is all for today's meeting. Let's all head to class shall we?"
Asa said whilst setting his tablet down on the table.
The meeting dispersed like birds leaving their nest. I was making my way to my battle strategy class with Jenna when Kiran approached me.
"Didn't know you were gonna join the Student Council Keir."
He said while walking beside Jenna and I.
"Well, aren't you glad he's a part of it now Kiran?"
Jenna replied with a grin.
"Well…yeah it's just that I didn't expect something like that from him. Don't you also have to be recognized by the headmaster?"
"I wasn't recognized. I was forced."
I said with dread.
"Forced? The headmaster forced you to join? Why didn't you say no?"
"You think I'd live if I said no to that man? Plus, he coerced me with the Hera Building."
He didn't even have to coerce me. That building was fabulous.
"I mean, I think you'd live. That old man is like a teddy bear. So that was you last night training?"
Jenna said while walking backwards looking at Kiran and I.
She twirled and skipped along the sidewalk. As her hair flowed through the air.
Today was quite nice, a cool breeze blew through the campus and the sun was shining straight through the pillow-like clouds.
"Oh that was you training? Now that I think about it you do look a lot better now. You're taller and your face is more defined."
Kiran said while squinting his eyes at me.
"Hmmmmm now that you mention it he does look ever so slightly more handsome hoho~"
Jenna said with a smug grin.
"Wait when did you pierce your ears??! HUHHHH?!"
Kiran yelled out.
"Calm down Kiran, I think they look great on him personally huhu-"
Jenna said with a slight chuckle.
I could barely say anything in return. This was more of a conversation between them and not the three of us.
I was happy though.
"Hmph I guess I am handsome now. I'll overtake the handsome rankings soon enough Kiran. You better watch out Azar."
"Keep on dreaming Keir. With that haircut you won't be overtaking shit."
He fired back at me.
"BAHAHAAAA that is true. We need to find a new haircut for you. THEN you can overtake the handsome rankings. In your dreams of course."
"Haaaah?"
They met my sarcastic joke with flaming reception. Jenna whispered the end of her statement, but I could clearly tell she was messing with me.
Maybe I really should go get a new haircut.
Before we knew it our conversations were full of laughter and came to a slow and steady downward trajectory. Jenna and I had arrived at our class and so we split up with Kiran.
As I walked in, I expected all eyes to fall on Jenna but instead, they fell upon me. The multitude of gazes and glares I got was far more than what I had experienced with Fukuyo and Kiran.
All because it was for a different reason.
"Did he really join the student council?"
"Lucky bastard."
"How did someone like him join?"
Whispers and gossip surrounding me could be heard throughout the room. I went to my seat and ignored the surrounding gossip.
I knew it had to be some stupid teenage gossip anyway.
"I heard he bribed the headmaster to get in."
"I heard he got in by blackmailing the vice president."
What?
Where did these sudden rumors come from? They were saying things that weren't even close to the truth. Jenna looked up at me from her seat and gestured for me to go talk outside of the room.
We made our way into the hall, and Jenna took a deep breath before speaking.
"Don't bother listening to those baseless rumors or gossip, okay? It won't get you anywhere."
She looked at me with worried eyes.
"I know, but now they're talking about rumors that involve other people. Two people that didn't deserve their names to be used like that."
"Lilith and the headmaster? They'll be fine Keir, just worry about yourself."
"That's not what I'm worried about."
Jenna was currently in the midst of heading back into the room before I continued.
She halted her steps and turned her head back to look at me.
"Then what is it you are worried about?"
"Nothing."
"Then there you go, problem solved."
Jenna flashed a friendly smile before heading back inside.
She probably thought I was worried given my facial expression and words, but I wasn't in the slightest. I knew that Lilith and the Headmaster could handle themselves, but what about me?"
I didn't want to just stand around and take it.
I needed to find the root cause of these baseless claims and rumors. It wouldn't just help me but it would help those two as well.
Like a bonus reward.
I stepped into the room and walked back to my seat. Class started and Naomi was taking attendance, but I couldn't care less right now.
If I didn't stop these rumors before they grew, then they would keep on haunting me.
I was a bit angry.
"Keir Licht."
Naomi suddenly voiced out, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"Present."
"Alright, that's all for attendance. Get to work on studying your notes for the midterms."
Naomi announced to the class.
"You're really gonna waste your time on this?"
A voice echoed through my head.
'Yes, if it benefits me in the future I don't consider it a waste.'
"Haa- do whatever the hell you want."
Nishil said with a long sigh.
If the rumors spread this quickly, then it must've been somebody from the meeting today. To my knowledge, I wasn't even announced as an official member yet.
That narrows it down by quite a large margin then. It had to have been one of those three.
Olivia Chen, Park Dae-Hyun, or Sean Morris.
Sean was the least of my worries right now. When I first saw him, he was lost in his own little world minding his own business. The other two students on the other hand, did seem to have some sort of disdain towards me.
That narrows my suspicions down even further.
I had to find out more about Olivia and Dae-Hyun. If I could somehow figure out why they started the rumors, maybe we could come to an understanding.
A middle ground.
I had to focus in class first of course. I couldn't let my grades dip or my training fade, I couldn't be pushed back because of this in general. If I did, then I wouldn't be reaching my full potential.
I wouldn't be happy with myself.
"Let's see… positioning tactics and reading an enemy sounds interesting enough."
I swiped through the notes provided to us by Professor Naomi. They even had pictures to show us how positioning and reading is key.
"Reading an enemy's move is like seeing into the future…"
I was scanning through the text in front of me. All of its content was key in winning battles and confrontations.
I guess that is what this class is for after all.
"Hey Keir."
"Hm? What's up?"
Nathan suddenly tapped me on the shoulder.
He got up from his seat and went up to me before leaning his head down. He placed his mouth near my ears discreetly before whispering.
"I know who caused the rumors."