[Morning, at the General Student Council]
A girl with long wavy blond hair, emerald green eyes, a pair of black wings on her back, a purple diamond shaped gem set on her forehead, and an air of faint timidity between her brows spoke to me softly:
"Sensei, thank you for coming today."
"Not at all. This is part of my job."
I could not help but sigh inwardly. Trouble makers like Shiranui were still a minority within the General Student Council.
The other department heads I had come to know through work, like Ayumu, the head of the Arbitration Office in front of me, as well as my dear Rin and Aoi, which one of them was not like me, burning the midnight oil day after day for the future of Kivotos?
It was necessary to conduct in depth work exchanges with the General Student Council, to share advanced work experience with the department heads, and eventually become partners who could truly rely on each other.
"This is today's destination," Ayumu's gentle and soft voice sounded beside me as I imagined the future.
I smiled and nodded. "Thank you for your trouble. I can take it from here."
"Eh? But Rin-senpai specifically told me to take you there, Sensei…"
"You still have a lot of other work to do, right? It's fine. If Rin asks, just say it was my request."
Ayumu, who worked as something like Rin's secretary, might not have quite as much work as Rin, who seemed to personally handle everything herself, but it was not far off.
Rather than guiding me around, it was better to spend that time on something more meaningful.
"Uu…" Ayumu hesitated for quite a while. Perhaps because work really was too busy, she finally agreed. "I understand. There should not be any problems… right? If Sensei runs into any trouble, please contact me anytime."
Watching her dignified figure leave, I was full of anticipation at forming new bonds with a new student as I knocked on the door of the Transportation Office director's room.
"Who is it? Come in."
A somewhat muffled voice came from inside, as if the person was doing something.
I pushed the door open, and what met my eyes was a long slender tail and two legs sticking out from the edge of a sofa, swaying back and forth.
Then a head chewing on something lifted up and asked in confusion:
"Who are you?"
If I remembered correctly, the Transportation Office, which was responsible for the entire public transportation system of Kivotos, should be one of the departments with the heaviest workload in the General Student Council, right?
"Oh. I remember now."
The pink haired girl hopped down from the sofa, holding a bag of potato chips, and walked over to me.
"Hello. I heard from Rin-senpai that a Sensei from Schale came over… that you?"
"That would be me."
Her teal eyes narrowed slightly as she looked up at me with interest, sizing me up, and I quietly observed her as well.
Her appearance hardly needed mentioning. Fluffy hair tied into twin tails, small sharp horns atop her head, a slender build, yet she also had a black snake tail as thick as her legs, its scales arranged like a fence, with a blade like tip at the end.
I kind of wanted to hug her tail with both hands while wiping the potato chip crumbs from the corner of her mouth.
"Hmm… you look more reliable than I expected."
The dragon like girl stuffed another chip into her mouth and bit down with a crunch. "Heh, whatever. I don't really care either way."
I frowned slightly. Was this girl's attitude a bit too arrogant?
If Rin had not told me there was important work in the Transportation Office that might require Schale's assistance, I would probably be running field operations in Millennium right now.
But when I took another careful look at her hair color, I suddenly felt much more at ease.
That made sense. Pink hair in Kivotos were supposed to be heavy hitters one after another, each with their own special talents. Otherwise it wouldn't make sense.
"What are you doing?" The girl suddenly became wary and hugged the potato chips to her chest. "You can stare at me all you want, but I am not giving you these mentaiko flavored chips."
I had not even been thinking about it before she said that. Now she had sparked my curiosity. I really had never tried that flavor.
Still, compared to being given some, I was more interested in taking them straight from her mouth.
"I am Momoka. Like Rin-senpai, I am also an executive of the General Student Council."
After introducing herself, Momoka sighed. "Recently, because the General Student Council President went missing, I have been so busy that I barely even have time to eat snacks."
From a dialectical point of view, what she said was not wrong. Even though the president had been missing for nearly three months, the problems that had piled up, been encountered, and now loomed ahead were only increasing. That was something I could clearly feel as the person in charge of Schale.
However, right after saying that, Momoka stuffed another chip into her mouth, which made her claim rather unconvincing.
And also, who was it that I saw lying on the sofa early in the morning when I came in?
How did this person even become a department head? Could she be another Kaya? I was starting to get scared.
"Perfect timing." Momoka flashed a smile that gave me a bad feeling. "I see that this so called Federal Investigation Club, Schale, has been pretty idle lately, so I came to assign you some work."
Damn it, even Kaya would not dump work on me like this.
"Sorry, but Schale has been running all over Kivotos every day, exhausted from dealing with all kinds of incidents."
Like easing the students' illness of missing me.
"Huh? You're saying you are busy?" Momoka thought for a moment. "Hmm… well, since you are already that busy, adding a bit more work should not hurt, right?"
…It feels like Kaya loves me more. Even though Kaya is a bad kid.
As I was left speechless by Momoka's shamelessness, she continued:
"You know, ever since the GSC President disappeared, there have been idiots causing trouble all over Kivotos. Some call themselves agents of justice but go around wrecking things. Others are bold enough to even steal confidential documents from the General Student Council… I really cannot handle everything on my own."
Hearing this, my impression of Momoka improved slightly.
Maybe she just spoke harshly, but in reality truly don't have the time to deal with these matters, and that was why she had no choice but to come ask me.
Until I heard her next sentence.
"Ah, but I didn't do anything about it."
Then what exactly are you too busy to handle?
"Anyway, if I keep ignoring it, Rin-senpai will probably scold me again."
As she spoke, she let out a malicious laugh. "Working at the General Student Council means bearing joint responsibility. In other words, you cannot stay out of it either, hehe…"
Just as I thought.
This kid is kinda rotten.
"I can agree."
"Pretty sensible of you. Then let us start with something simple."
"But before that."
I smiled kindly. "If you want my help, is there no compensation?"
Momoka looked confused. "Huh?"
And my gaze shifted downward.
Stopping on her swaying long tail.