After witnessing the tale between his parents and Agnes around 20 years ago, Nathan Modernson could no longer keep his interest in the recent generations of the Student Council. The scenes that flashed past his eyes faster than stories told by words felt too short to satisfy, yet the weight of the decisions of the characters was suffocating enough to overwhelm. It almost felt like everything had ended before it started, only leaving a couple of traces of memories buried deep in their hearts.
Talking about memories, Nathan was quite positive that these memories were not the generic ones stored in the Student Council room, but were directly transferred from Agnes Paradox's mind and stowed in absolute secrecy in the hands of Henry Nox. This also explained why nobody ever doubted anything other than the truth fabricated by the aristocracy and royalty. After all, why would the head of the Paradox Clan even consider hiding such dangerous things?
He was certain that what he had just witnessed was indeed the truth of what happened, and to an extent, he understood why everybody who knew the entirety or part of it refrained from telling this secret to him. It was dangerous, mythical, and uncontrollable if it ever leaked, and, more than anything, there was no guarantee that someone wouldn't be listening inside the walls, apart from this memory transaction.
Nathan, who was looking forward to Arthur's story in the Student Council, was severely disappointed by its total absence. This also meant Arthur had yet to decide on what object he planned to leave behind, but Nathan was already expecting the very worst.
To his fortune, the previous two years had left some record of what happened to Arthur's generation. Though fragmented and often useless, it was somewhat entertaining to hear about Jonathan and Amy's mutual harassment of each other. These dilemmas included Amy's accusation of Jonathan cheating in the midyear exams, followed by Jonathan's revenge by spreading rumours about her bullying ordinary students. To the previous Student Council Presidents' credit, they were resolved without too much drama and felt rather silly. Yet, according to his subtle observations, he felt that something extremely negative and influential between them had happened right before the last year ended, which barely mattered to Nathan for now. After everything, Jonathan Schwarz and Amy Blanc were just students who were quite incompetent in the bigger picture of the two clans. One was too lazy to engage in anything strategic, the other too arrogant to be thoroughly cruel.
And on that note, Nathan lifted his head from the imaginary journal that contained the Student Council's entire history. He turned his head to the clock to check the time instinctively, only to realise he had forgotten too much about reality to remember the time when he entered this dream.
"Do not fear, Nathan, these side effects are only…" Henry's hand rested on the final object Nathan had seen left behind, a well-crafted sword hanging on the wall in authority. His sentence was interrupted after seeing Nathan's lack of reaction, "Oh… It seems like you are a special case."
In fact, Nathan Modernson did suffer from a stinging pain within his head, like millions of small yet sharp needles were poking into his brain at once. This pain, however, was not enough to drag him out of all the new information pushed inside his brain.
"You understand everything now, don't you?" Henry questioned with a faint smile, "Everything."
"Everything is a big word," Nathan said, "There are more questions left to be answered than answers, but I'm so glad I finally understand what happened between my parents. Henry, thank you for being the only truthful person towards me. I will not forget what I owe you."
"Back to owing me favours, huh?" Henry mused, "Helping others is always a choice, not a responsibility or a business deal. If I choose to help you, it means I'm not expecting something in return. Let me stop you right here before you thank me again, there are some more headaches you need to deal with."
Henry continued as Nathan nodded in embarrassment, "I have not yet told you this, but both Jonathan Schwarz and Amy Blanc have voluntarily surrendered their positions as the two vice presidents of the council, following Arthur Paradox's footsteps. I'm glad to see these two finally agreeing on something for once, but it does mean there are now positions in the Student Council available to be taken."
"That's relieving news. I've expected such." The pain in Nathan's head was beginning to cease gradually. The news Henry brought him probably played a part, "Does a member of the Student Council have to be a Representative Student?"
"Well, that's the tradition since the academy's foundation." Henry avoided direct answers intentionally, though the warning in his eyes gave away his opinion, "Whether you follow it or not is solely dependent on you, but how others react to your decision is also solely dependent on them."
"I understand," Nathan sighed, knowing that the path to reaching equality among students was still too convoluted and long for him to walk out of, "Then I'll choose William Schwarz and Leo Blanc, leave some respect for their kin."
"Sure." Henry did not seem to care too much about who the two positions went to and moved on to the next topic, "And one more bothersome errand you have to run: to pay King Runaria, and the four Pathtower Spireheads, a formal visit in the royal palace."
"I'm granted an audience?" Nathan was somewhat surprised to hear that. Unlike how Henry worded it, Nathan found this more exciting than a pain in the neck.
"I don't think you realise how important you are to Runalond's future." Henry lifted his glasses with the back of his hand, "Rest assured. Erik Runaria is basically the same person as your father. You two would get along fairly peacefully."
After explaining to Nathan the exact details, Henry Nox left the Student Council Room and returned to his office in a weirdly hurried fashion. Nathan first saw it as someone who was almost late to their work, but the more he dwelt on this matter, the more it felt like a starving man rushing to his meal. It was not only a desire or anxiety, but a need for survival.
In the next few days, before the new Student Council had its first formal meeting, Nathan sorted out a couple of things that he was too occupied to rectify earlier. He first paid a visit to Clara Marshall, who, according to the others and to his own impression, seemed much happier. Sometimes, to the extent that she would forgive the students who didn't complete their homework perfectly.
He questioned why nobody told him about his Completely Harmonised Elemental Duality, to which she replied with the resigned answer that, since his case was the first in historical records, telling him or not would not influence how he was taught. Clara called it "The Imperial Academy's attempt to keep away their laziness and incompetence from the students." Nathan laughed it off.
In turn, she told Nathan that she knew that the person who killed Alisher Vester was not him. For some reason, she also seemed to be interested in the truth of his death. Of course, Clara Marshall was not Joseph Gravekin. Nathan clearly wouldn't tell her the truth, and she clearly wasn't buying Nathan's lie that Arthur was the true culprit behind it either.
And about his "Personalised Rune Art," Nathan told her half the truth. He said that it was a mere Projection Rune Art that was manipulated in a way that could result in the permanent transformation of reality itself. When Clara asked for clarification, Nathan brushed it off with how "Its power lies within the secrecy."
With that, even though Clara did not inform him directly, Nathan Modernson got an easy graduation certificate that would be handed to him when his three years of academy life ended. Yet, the Nathan Modernson who paid zero attention or effort in class remained the same. He couldn't forget the faces on Joseph, Genesis and John when they first saw Nathan drawing a portrait of Professor Marshall instead of working on his quiz, and how Clara dismissed it with a roll of her eyes.
The original members of the Representative Students' class noticed a rapid, if not unreal, improvement in Nathan's historical knowledge. This was all thanks to his second mentor, The Indescribable, who would come to Nathan at random times that fortunately never clashed with Lily's. He didn't give any proper lessons whatsoever, just the chronicles of the kingdom. What truly benefited Nathan was his insightful questions on his perspective of different events. The Indescribable, along with history itself, solidified his belief that this world is not a definite black or white, but often an entire spectrum of colours that cannot be easily judged. Nathan was amazed at how discerning The Indescribable's viewpoints on humanity were, perhaps because his identity as an artificial human allowed him to look at everything as an outsider.
However, if everything you believed were publicly displayed, wouldn't that make life too difficult? Nathan had to continue playing his role as a judge of right and wrong, for his own ideals, and for the sake of all others who entrusted their future to him.
Nathan was quite disappointed that he couldn't convince John Krymer to join the Salvation Club. That prodigy did not seem to possess any desire for human connections, nor did he care if anyone disliked or picked on him. He did realise why John was so successful in the field of Rune Art Mastery. It wasn't that his talent was top-notch, nor was he someone who tried his 100% in everything. He was simply interested in Rune Arts and their theories, and often dedicated his entire day to researching and inquiring about them. He told Nathan that his ultimate goal was to free Runalond's citizens from the limitations of Elemental Traits, and live in a future where everyone could cast Rune Arts from any element.
Like this, days and weeks flew by without much disturbance. The new Student Council replaced the original at a conventionally odd time. It was almost unheard of for someone to forfeit their position as the president, let alone the mutual resignations of the two vice presidents that immediately followed.
"Alright, team," Nathan Modernson announced as he lazily pushed himself up from the President's armchair, "I believe an introduction would be pretty pointless, you all know who I am."
"To be exact, you all know who I was, but now it's all different. I am now one of the youngest people ever to invent a personalized Rune Art, and the youngest person to become the Student Council President in the Imperial Academy's history."
"Let me make something clear: Whoever dares to disobey me in this council will be immediately excluded from it. Unlike our beloved prior President and Vice Presidents, this case will not be a forfeit, but a mark of shame and incompetence on your very behalf. So be wise about what you say, and be efficient in what you are asked to do."
Nathan's words were drawn out, almost sounding careless, "I am no Arthur Paradox. I'm not as experienced, much more reckless, and perhaps lack a bit of the leadership skills he possesses, but if you served under him before, don't mistake me for someone who has any less authority. Can everybody agree with that?"
William Schwarz and Leo Blanc nodded without hesitation, and Nicolas Terrast lowered his head in expressionless respect. Dorothy Rumble, whose face had already begun to pale a while ago when Nathan started speaking, opened her mouth to protest.
But before any voice was allowed to come out, Nathan interrupted in a timely manner, "Good, good, I can already see how successful our council will be."
"Here," Nathan snatched the files that he had prepared earlier and handed a copy each to all the members politely, "are all the trouble students who have been picking on others. Keep these names in mind, and don't hesitate to…" Nathan eyed a mischievous smile. What he was trying to imply was clear to anyone who had any intellectual ability.
Dorothy looked up to check the expression of Nicolas, who still carried the same level of nonchalant concentration. These were mostly ordinary students whose clans' names held some weight in Runalond. Sure, some of them were not the nicest of the bunch, but there were quite a lot who were considered innocent even to Arthur.
Before she could say anything, she was once again interrupted by Nathan as another sheet was laid out before her. Nathan claimed that these were students who required special protection. From the look of it, they were just members of the Salvation Club. It almost felt like Nathan didn't even bother to hide his abuse of power.
"Alright, since Mister Paradox was such a great President, I don't see any other policies or plans that need to be altered too much, so we just wait and see how they work out."
"So this is it. There are other policies and changes I will make in the not-so-distant future. If there aren't any more questions, we can call it a day."
Dorothy tried to speak again, only to be interrupted by Nathan immediately, "Very well then. Thank you for your attendance, class dismissed!"
Having her attempt at protest halted for the third time now, she stood up in fury, but this time, her words were swallowed back.
Across the table, Nicolas Terrast stared her down with the most venomous look she had ever seen appear on his face. She instantly realised that her emotions had overtaken her logic. Everything aside, Nathan Modernson was someone that she could never afford to oppose. This was one of the indisputable facts in life that one had no choice but to accept.
"Sorry…" She whispered and sat down, "Nothing…"
"Nothing?" Nathan smiled, "If you have anything to say, don't hold it inside yourselves."
"After all, opinions and speech won't get you in trouble, right?"