Chapter 43

Knock, knock. I knock on the door of the student council room.

"Come in."

"Excuse me."

Rattle, rattle, rattle. I push the cart into the student council room.

"......Oh my, oh my, oh my. Your Highness, this is unusual. What wind has brought you here?"

The student council president, the queen of the academy, and the duchess's daughter, Lady Eleena Stradis, glares at me while elegantly sipping tea with the other student council members.

"I thought I'd help with the student council work."

"There is no work for you to do at the moment. I will call you when the time comes."

"I heard from the advisor. The annual schedule for student council activities is ready, and I'm here to get your approval for it. Please approve it."

"That's commendable. Just leave it here."

"Your approval, please."

"Here and now?"

"Yes."

Lady Eleena spreads out the schedule and gives it a quick glance.

"I approve."

"Then, your signature, please."

"Wait a moment."

She signs it smoothly. Good grief, is that all the student council president does?

"Thank you. Then," I say, lifting the stone tablet from the cart and placing it with a thud on the central table in the student council room.

"So... Your Highness, what do you intend to do?"

"It's a mimeograph. I'm going to print this and distribute it to all the students as the student council newsletter."

I pull a chair over, sit down, and place the wax paper on the stone tablet, using a ruler to draw lines with an iron stylus.

"The teachers will do that!"

The entire student council is dumbfounded.

"Um, the sports festival in June, just football? I want to add more events. Something the girls can participate in too. Well, there's no time, so maybe from next year. The closing ceremony in August, the opening ceremony in September, the school festival in October, that sounds fun. Nothing in July... I want to do something..."

"Are you going to do this printing all by yourself?"

"Yes."

"For all the students?"

"There are fewer than three hundred. The key is to summarize it on one sheet of paper. It'll be done quickly."

"Why is the student council doing such distribution work?"

"Because it's the student council's job."

What are these people talking about? It's common sense, isn't it?

"Don't increase the student council's workload unnecessarily! What do you think of the traditions of this prestigious student council! The student council is the highest decision-making body that approves school events. Do we need any other jobs! Even if you are a prince, I won't allow you to act on your own!"

The vice president is angry.

"There are no such traditions."

"What?"

"There are no such traditions in the student council. This is the student council's job."

I continue to write the schedule on the mimeograph paper with the iron stylus.

"What nonsense are you saying?"

Ah, it's so noisy.

"......Please look at this. It's a file of the student council's activity records over the past seven years."

I dump the file from the cart onto the table.

"The student council has been running all these activities independently. There are records."

"......Where did you get these records?"

"They were stored in a special room in the school library. Any student can view them. To prevent loss, you need a librarian to supervise and sign the entry and exit log. This is set up so that current students can refer to previous years' activities. Seniors have always referred to this and created their own activity records at the end of the year, which they handed over to the student council advisor for storage, right?"

"We leave that to the teachers."

"So, you're not doing even that level of work anymore?"

"It's not necessary."

You really have no memory of it. That's terrible.

"No, that's not it. You've abandoned necessary tasks over the past five to six years. It's not a tradition; it's just that successive student council officers have been pushing their responsibilities onto the teachers and reducing their workload. Didn't you notice?"

"Do you have proof that the student council made these records?! They look no different from what the teachers made!"

"I have clear evidence that students made them independently, Vice President."

"Which ones?"

"These documents from seven years ago were made by Princess Saran, who was a student here at the time."

...The student council members are shocked.

"Seven years ago, my sister, Princess Saran, participated in student council activities and worked with the members to create these materials and distribution items."

"There's no way!"

"It's true. I was just a child, but when school events approached, Princess Saran often came home with ink on her hands and face, and even the king laughed at her. 'The work isn't done yet---' She often brought materials back from school and worked on the mimeograph at the palace. I was often made to help with the printing, getting covered in ink with the roller."

"......I can't believe it."

"Please look. The sports festival participation list, the publicity poster, the financial report, the school festival program---Princess Saran's hand is in all of them. Of course, the other student council members at the time as well. There are many documents with the same handwriting."

"You can't prove these are Princess Saran's!"

"I can... You don't know, but when the royal family writes something, there's a mechanism to prove it's their own writing. Only the royal family can recognize it."

Everyone is surprised.

"Royal documents can be forged or fabricated, so we do this. Show this document to the king, the queen, or the secretary, and they will confirm that Princess Saran wrote it herself."

"......Where is the mark on this document?"

Everyone examines the documents in the file, looking for the mark.

"That's a secret. It's a state secret. If you knew, you'd be detained. I won't tell you. It's better not to know."

"......Are you just saying that, Your Highness?"

"I'm a member of the royal family. When I say, 'This is Princess Saran's writing,' it's accepted everywhere in this country. If you have doubts, ask the royal secretary."

Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch. I continue the mimeograph work. I place the wax paper on the stone tablet and write with the iron stylus, which cuts through the wax, allowing ink to pass through.

Once that's done, I attach it to the mimeograph, place a sheet of paper on top, and spread the ink with a roller, printing the text from the wax paper onto the paper. The wax paper is disposable, but this method can print several hundred sheets.

I've been helping my sister with her work since I was a child, so I'm quite good at this. Until recently, I even made materials for the royal council meetings, distributing them to the king and ministers.

"......While looking at the documents, I noticed something."

"......?"

"The 'miscellaneous expenses' are an enormous amount..."

Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch.

"Seven years ago, the 'miscellaneous expenses' in the financial report were just six large copper coins."

Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch.

"But after Princess Saran left for her studies abroad, the 'miscellaneous expenses' have increased every year..."

Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch.

"Last year, it was thirty-two gold coins, more than ten percent of the student council budget collected from all the students. And it's all unaccounted for."

Scratch. Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch...

"If a minister submitted such a financial report to the royal family, they would be immediately dismissed. The accountant might be arrested. What on earth is this being used for..."

Scratch.

I look up at everyone's faces. They're frozen.

"Was the student assembly held last year?"

"......The student assembly hasn't been held for two years. The student council has the trust of the students."

"That's just you unilaterally abolishing the trust process, Vice President. Accountant, are the student council financial reports publicized?"

"We were told it wasn't necessary."

"You're handling the students' money. It's not something you can just not do. Who made that decision? Can the student council use the student council fees as they please?"

"N-no, we didn't do that!"

"Let's recalculate all the student council's finances for each year. Who provides the tea and snacks you all enjoy every day?"

"......"

"Does the president provide them?"

"No, I don't know."

"Vice President?"

"I don't know."

"Secretary?"

"......I don't recognize it."

The accountant is sweating profusely.

"Answer me. If I'm not satisfied, I'll recalculate the entire financial report from scratch."

"......The student council fees are used for it."

"See, I knew it."

I'm disappointed.

"But, but, it's a necessary expense. It's reported as miscellaneous expenses! It's a tradition from the seniors!"

"There was no such tradition. It's a false tradition you and your seniors have created over the past few years. These seven years of records prove it. Is it a tradition after just four or five years?"

"Ugh..."

"You're in your second term as president, and you were president last year too. As a duchess's daughter, you've been diverting student council fees to tea parties in the student council room and justifying it as necessary expenses. It's like you're acting like vulgar nobles who squander the people's taxes on luxury."

"Are you insulting me!"

"You can do that to commoners in your own territory, but in this case, the students are being insulted. All the students are nobles. Is it right to treat the student council fees like taxes?"

...Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch.

"What will you do? Should I write about this in the student council newsletter?"

"I won't allow it!"

The president is furious.

"You don't have that authority."

"Hand over those documents!"

"No, Vice President. These are public documents."

"What?"

Ah, can't you see...

"The student council has no secrets that can't be made public to the students. There shouldn't be any. It would be strange if there were. So, the president has no authority to keep any content of the student council's activities confidential. Therefore, the student council cannot dispose of these documents."

"No, I will dispose of them. This is confiscation!"

"Ah, Vice President, if you damage even one page of this file, you'll be arrested."

"Just a student council file! There's no way!"

"Yesterday, I took these files home and registered them as public documents at the National Archives. I made a list and had the librarian record it. Every page has a stamp and a serial number. The librarian did it all in one night. Please look."

The student council members open the seven-year file with wide eyes.

Every page, every document, has the royal crest and a number stamped on it.

"Princess Saran's handwritten documents, discovered in the student council files, are now valuable materials. Everyone was delighted. The cute illustrations show her playful and charming personality. It's a first-class historical record of the royal family, showing how she worked harmoniously with the students on these tasks without complaint, creating heartwarming stories from her student days."

The faces of the student council members turn pale.

"After Princess Saran, the student council that followed did almost nothing and left everything to the advisor. This will inevitably be compared... Even the 'accounting errors' will be officially recorded in the National Archives."

"Accounting errors?!"

"If it's officially recorded that the top students of the academy, after Princess Saran's departure, couldn't manage the student council and fudged simple financial calculations, the academy might no longer be a source of talent for the government. I mentioned this at the opening ceremony. The Flora Academy is in a crisis of survival."

The president's hand holding the file is trembling.

"Don't even think about disposing of this file or correcting the errors. If you dispose of, tear, burn, hide, or alter even one page, you'll be charged with public document tampering and arrested. You'll be expelled from the academy, by the king's authority. The current owner of these files is the National Archives, which has loaned them to the academy indefinitely."

"Your Highness, using your power for such things is unacceptable!"

"Where did I use my power? I just reported the discovery of valuable handwritten documents by the royal family from the materials that any student at Flora Academy can view. There was no problem with registering the records created within the academy as public documents, as the academy is funded by the state. It's just a routine administrative procedure, not an exercise of power."

"......Such an excuse"

"Using power is very convenient. But when a higher authority comes along, it can be easily nullified. That's why you shouldn't rely on power or be arrogant about it. Please do work that you won't be ashamed of when others see it later, work that befits the Flora Academy student council. Otherwise, the records will remain for future generations. Understand?"

Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch...

"Alright, it's done!"

This is my first official task in the student council!

"Shall we start printing? Is anyone willing to help?"

I attach the wax paper to the mimeograph, take off my jacket, roll up my sleeves, put on an apron, and pour ink onto the roller tray, spreading it with the roller. I'm quite good at this. About three hundred sheets will be done quickly.

"I hate the smell of that ink!"

The president screams.

"I'm sorry. President, could you open the window?"

"Do it yourself!"

Everyone in the student council room leaves.

President, this is how you use power.

Next: "43. The Torn Textbook"