Yelena

Although the Student Council's workload was always heavy, members who arrived at the office to start working around seven in the morning were a rare breed in the academy.

At this moment, within the large and somewhat empty Student Council office, a single petite figure was pacing restlessly across the polished wooden floor. The sound of her light, quick footsteps was exceptionally clear in the silent room.

Yelena Furst, a third-year student at Glory Cael Academy, was theoretically Vivian's senior.

However, the title of 'senior' was almost entirely non-existent on her.

There were two reasons for this.

First, she was born with an incredibly youthful baby face, paired with a petite frame under 1.5 meters tall and large, round eyes that were always filled with timidness. She looked exactly like a student who had just entered the Middle School section; occasionally, even first-year students would mistake her for a cute junior who had lost her way.

Second, she was introverted and cowardly, spoke in a soft, thin voice, and panicked easily. She possessed none of the maturity or presence a senior should have.

Over time, the Student Council and even the classmates familiar with her had subconsciously come to view her as a junior or a mascot who needed looking after.

But at this moment, this mascot senior's heart was filled with immense unease and anxiety.

"Uwaaa... The President specifically told me to come this early... Is there... is there some very important task that must be given to me?"

Her hands were tightly clasped in front of her chest, her fingertips turning white from the pressure. She muttered to herself in a small voice, her round face written with nervousness.

"But... I was only just discharged from the hospital a few days ago... I'm not in the best condition... Can a useless and unlucky person like me really complete a task personally assigned by the President? What if I mess up again and cause trouble for her?"

Yelena's worries were not unfounded.

Besides her appearance and personality, she had another trait that caused her great distress: she was extremely unlucky.

Whenever a task for the Disciplinary Committee was handed to her, no matter how simple or routine it originally was, it would always somehow become problematic or even evolve into a small disaster.

For instance, she once received a report of a small group fighting in a corner of the training grounds.

This was one of the most common matters for a Disciplinary Committee member to handle.

Yelena mustered her courage and went there, but as soon as she approached, the combatants somehow missed each other, and the stray magic blast hit a nearby area where discarded training dummies were piled.

The mountain of heavy dummies collapsed with a roar. Although no one was hit directly, the resulting dust and noise drew the attention of the professor on duty.

The professor thought a serious accident had occurred and urgently evacuated students from several nearby training grounds, only to find it was a false alarm.

Yelena was criticized for failing to stop the situation in a timely and effective manner, thus causing chaos, even though the primary responsibility wasn't hers.

Another time, she was ordered to the library to remind several students who were discussing loudly to keep quiet.

This should have been the simplest of verbal warnings.

However, when she walked to the area where those students were, her foot tripped on something. She lost her balance and pitched forward with a cry. Her hands flailed in a panic, and she happened to knock over a heavy ancient tome that a student was consulting on a nearby shelf.

The loud crash of the book hitting the floor and the scattering of pages instantly caused an even greater commotion in the reading area.

Not only did Yelena fail her task, but she also became the culprit who disrupted the library's order. She was thoroughly scolded by the librarian and ended up spending nearly an hour helping to organize the scattered pages.

The most serious incident, however, occurred last month.

She received an anonymous tip claiming that Chloe Ivy, the second-year representative of the Department of Alchemy, was suspected of conducting illegal experiments using unreported dangerous materials outside of designated hours.

As a Disciplinary Committee member, it was her responsibility to verify this.

Carrying a heart full of trepidation, she arrived outside the underground alchemy laboratory. Her finger had just been raised, not yet touching the heavy soundproof door—

"BOOM—!!!"

A deafening explosion, accompanied by blinding fire and a violent air current, erupted from behind the door without warning!

She didn't even have time to see or sense any specific danger before her vision went black and she lost consciousness entirely.

When she woke up again, she was lying in a ward at the academy's affiliated hospital, wrapped from head to toe in white bandages like a freshly unearthed mummy.

The subsequent investigation showed that it was indeed a minor experimental accident by Chloe Ivy, but the power had far exceeded expectations.

Yelena's luck was simply 'too good,' placing her at the most wrong location at the most wrong time.

The physical trauma from this unprovoked disaster had not yet fully healed, and the mental blow was even worse.

One night during her hospitalization, she was sleeping soundly under the influence of medicine and exhaustion when she was startled awake by a clamor.

In her haze, she saw a blonde figure standing by her bed, shouting and crying about something.

And when she managed to focus her vision and see that face—which was excessively handsome even in the dim light of the hospital room—immense fear instantly seized her.

Greg Sass.

He was one of the people she hated and feared most in the academy.

In Yelena's memory, Greg Sass was always that arrogant, nasty individual who ran rampant in the academy relying on his family background.

Breaking school rules was a daily occurrence for him, and provocations against professors happened frequently.

As a Disciplinary Committee member, Yelena had several times mustered her courage to step forward and point out his mistakes, trying to advise him or record his violations.

However, every time, all she got in return was a glance full of impatience and that mockery that sounded like a curse:

"Where did this brat come from? Get lost! Don't get in my way!"

Brat... Brat again!

What Yelena hated most was being treated like a child because of her appearance!

She was clearly already a third-year student!

"So what if I look a bit young?! I have plenty of suitors too, okay!"

This sentence had screamed in her heart countless times, but facing Greg's arrogant aura and the undisguised contempt in his eyes, the naturally timid and cowardly Yelena could only swallow her rebuttals and grievances every time. Her face would flush, her head would drop, and she would silently retreat to the side.

What made her feel even more powerless was that even the President seemed to show a certain avoidance or reluctance to look deeper into Greg Sass's disciplinary issues when occasionally asked about them.

This made her even more unsure of how to deal with this delinquent noble.

Therefore, that night in the hospital, being startled awake by Greg and even faintly hearing him say threatening words like "If you dare tell anyone, I'll kill you," Yelena's conviction was strengthened once more amidst her fright.

"Greg Sass... is indeed a terrifying and troublesome person! From now on, I must try my best to avoid everything related to him! I absolutely, absolutely must not have anything to do with him ever again!"

However, fate always seemed to enjoy playing malicious jokes on her.

"This is Yelena Furst, a third-year student and current Disciplinary Committee member. This is Greg Sass; at the Headmistress's request, he is temporarily joining the Disciplinary Committee ranks. For the coming period, you will be responsible for guiding him through the basic work and procedures."

The door to the Student Council office was pushed open, and the morning sunlight cast long shadows into the room as two figures entered.

President Vivian's cold and steady voice echoed clearly in the empty room like a judge's gavel.

Yelena followed the sound and saw the calm President, and...

Behind the President was a figure with hands in his pockets, looking entirely unwilling, with blonde hair shimmering in the morning light—someone so handsome it was blinding, yet someone who made her blood freeze instantly.

Greg Sass.

Time seemed to freeze at this moment.

Yelena's round eyes snapped wide to their limit, filled with extreme horror.

She opened her mouth but couldn't make a sound. She felt the world spinning, and a cold chill surged from the soles of her feet straight to the top of her head.

Me... guide him? Greg Sass? Disciplinary Committee?! Me?!

No—!!! This is impossible! This must be a nightmare! It's a hallucination from the side effects of yesterday's medicine! Wake up, Yelena!

The shock was too intense, exceeding the limits of her fragile nerves.

Yelena's vision went black, her ears rang, and her petite body swayed. Then, very simply, her eyes rolled back, and she slumped backward.

A split second before her consciousness sank completely into darkness, her last remaining shred of hearing caught that demonic voice saying:

"Hey, I say... has the Student Council expanded its business to hiring child labor now? That's not exactly legal, is it?"

Before losing consciousness entirely, Yelena almost imperceptibly showed a look of near despair.

Then, darkness swallowed everything.