"I refuse" I answered with a neutral expression.
After all, the council is a group of people who care about power and strength, they want to dominate everything and control the academy, the only reason they recruited the protagonist was because of his potential.
But me? I don't have any special abilities other then my anger meter nor am I talented in anything, so why would they want me? It looks more like a death wish when I look at it from my end.
"I see..." the grey haired man sighed while adjusting his glasses, "it seems like we need to persuade you."
"Huh?"
"As you may know, the council has absolute authority over the school, and it's members are chosen based on their strength and talent, you have proven yourself worthy of being a part of us, so please reconsider your answer."
"I'm sorry, but I must decline."
"Well then, we have no choice" the green haired man spoke, "we will give you one month to reconsider your decision, or else we will be obligated to use force."
"What?"
"We will not tolerate any refusal from you, and since you have declined our offer, you are now consideed an enemy of the council, you have one month to reconsider your decision."
Oh hell fucking no, please don't try to do that bullshit on me.
The main character had to fight some of council members because of his constant refusals, but me?
Even when I read those fights, they were described as extremely deadly, also they only started taking actions on Daemon during the 5th month of the first year and this kept going until the end of the second, only stopping because most of them graduated so new members took their places and abandonned the idea of getting the protagonist, yet here they are trying to fuck me over on the second month?
"I'll be leaving then" I turned around and headed to the door.
"Remember, you have one month."
"Yeah yeah, I got it."
And as soon as I left the room, I couldn't help but sigh.
"This is bad, this is really bad."
I wasn't ready for this, I mean... who would be? The council was supposed to be a big deal and a major plot point in the novel, and now I was in the middle of it.
I needed to find a way to escape from their grasp before it was too late.
"Hey, are you okay?" Mina was waiting for me outside the council room, "you look pale."
"I'm fine, let's go back to the dorms" the fact that she was here didn't even surprise me after the events I had just lived.
"Sure."
The walk back was silent, I didn't want to tell her about what happened as it would probably cause more problems, and when we arrived, I went straight to bed.
"I need to think of something... even if it means beating every single one of them."
***
Three days passed since that incident and surprinsigly nothing had changed in my school life, looks like they really didn't lie about waiting a month.
The students these past days had been taking up every single space in the campus and ARR to train.
Yet here I was, inside of my dorm room eating snacks while playing on my phone.
I mean seriously, my only powers are based on my anger meter, so what can I even do to train?
[Anger meter: 63/100]
Mina also went outside to train her bow magic and didn't even try to argue with me about my lack of effort for the practical exam.
I think saving her from that villain gave her enough confidence in my skills to trust me.
***
It was finally Monday, and the knot in my stomach was growing bigger by the second, I know what the test is but I can't predict everything after all...
Mr.Volt had asked us to go directly to the classroom instead of the advanced reality room, leaving the others confused, but I knew why.
"Good morning everyone" Mr.Volt started talking as soon as he made sure everyone was present, "today we will be having the practical exam."
And just as I expected, I noticed that the doors of the class suddenly locked themselves, making it impossible to leave without bursting them open.
"I know every single one of you must be wondering what the test will be about, after all you must have trained really hard to be here today..." he continued, "but you need to realize that this academy is different from the others."
I could hear people whisper in all directions about what he was talking about.
"You also needed to consider something important: the element of surprise."
As soon as he said that, high-grade sleeping powder started pouring inside the room from the all the vents.
"Wha-"
People immediately tried to exit the classroom, but miserably failed.
The anxious atmosphere from before was now replaced with full on panick because of the sudden attack.
"This is the practical exam" he shouted, "good luck!"
Then the entire classroom was covered in smoke, and everybody lost consciousness.
Except for me that is.
[Skill: Status Resistance, activated]
Mr.Volt obviously stayed counscious too, after all he was at such a high level he could tank that sleeping powder.
I then heard the door of the classroom open and footsteps approach the unconscious bodies of students, it was probably teachers taking them to the ARR.
But as the smoke started disappearing and it became easier to look around.
"Hey, Lana?" I heard a teacher talk.
"Yeah?" she replied while pulling a student.
"Huh... look..." she pointed in my direction.
At this point the classroom was completely visible, and there were five teachers holding students using either their powers or big carts.
But they suddenly stopped when noticing I was still up.
"Sorry, I am immune to that" I told them before they could ask.
"Couldn't you have talked before? Also how the heck are you immune to high grade sleeping powder" she said while approaching me.
"I didn't want to ruin your moment sorry, if you want I can just fall asleep and act like I was never awake in the first place" after finishing saying that, I layed down on the ground and closed my eyes.
""Pfft~~"' I could hear some teachers try to stop themselves from laughing at my actions.
But Ms.Lana wasn't the type to joke around with stuff like that.
"Get up" she ordered me, and I followed through, "if you can't fall asleep from the powder, then I'll have to put you to sleep myself if you don't mind"
"Sure, I don't really mind, waiting for you guys to put me into the advanced reality room would of been both boring and annoy-"
I didn't have time to finish my phrase that Ms.Lana put her right hand infront of my face.
"Sleep" she said while snapping her fingers.
And just like that, I was knocked out cold.
But before falling into the realm of unconsciousness, I could swear I heard her say something else.
"You're very interesting, Kaine Brande, I'll be watching your practical test with great interest."