“Were you here, Lady Rukna! I bought some mountain rabbit bread.”

“I appreciate the thought, but I can’t eat it today. I’m meeting a friend soon.”

As Rukna stood up, Hans picked up Rukna’s jacket hanging on the back of the chair and naturally helped her put it on.

‘I feel like a chairman.’

She was indeed the club president. Though not by choice.

Rukna left the library and walked towards the main gate.

She had an appointment with Giselle today.

Right after returning from the Island of Wisdom, she had sent another letter to Giselle, and Giselle had come all the way here saying she wanted to talk face to face.

“There’s someone grateful enough to keep Lady Rukna company! I’d love to greet them!”

“Haha, when you say it like that, it makes me sound like I don’t have any friends at the military academy… Huh?”

Wait. Did I have friends?

Bolton, Matian, and Chad came to mind, but the student council was far from friends.

“Come to think of it, I didn’t have any friends.”

Rukna muttered with a shocked expression.

“Oh, that’s not true! I’ll be your friend!”

“No, I’ll be your friend!”

The members of Ruibitdong raised their hands one by one with solemn expressions.

“Put your hands down, you weaklings! Lady Rukna, if you’ll allow me, I, Zvai, would like to challenge for that position.”

Zvai’s eyes sparkled like a cunning gangster aiming for the right-hand man position to the boss.

“Forget it.”

“Are we not good enough? Should we post a notice on the bulletin board?”

“A notice?”

As Rukna passed by the bulletin board near the main gate, she imagined a banner hanging up there that read ‘Recruiting friends for Rukna Golden.’

The student council wouldn’t let that slide.

‘Hey, blockhead. How much is the hourly wage to be your friend? What were you thinking putting up such a banner, gak gak!’

Bolton, who would mock her.

‘You have me, Ruka. A friend who shares secrets.’

Chad, who held dangerous secrets.

‘Installing illegal banners that damage the surrounding landscape is 1 demerit point, Rukna.’

Matian, who would smile kindly while issuing a demerit slip, but with eyes cold as ice.

Just imagining it for a moment was already embarrassing.

“Just try it. I won’t let it slide.”

Rukna waved her hand, telling the club members to go away.

She was supposed to meet Giselle at a cafe near the main gate, and she couldn’t be seen with these rough-looking guys.

So Rukna entered a teahouse located in front of the main gate.

Seeing cadets in uniforms paired with young ladies, it seemed to be quite a popular teahouse.

“How did you find your way here, young master.”

A waiter welcomed Rukna while serving.

“I have an appointment. With Giselle Golden…”

“Ah, you mean that person over there.”

The waiter pointed to a crowded table.

Giselle could be seen sitting elegantly, with cadets hovering around trying to strike up a conversation with her.

Perta, sitting next to Giselle, was being jostled by the crowd with a pale face.

“Rukna! Over here.”

Giselle waved at Rukna with a bright smile.

The cadets who were trying to confirm the partner of the beautiful young lady immediately backed off upon seeing Rukna.

“Damn, it’s Rukna Golden!”

“The president of that club that’s said to gather only brutal guys? That judge of death?”

“His underlings came too. Let’s run away before we get involved.”

Who came together? Rukna scratched her head and turned around.

The Ruibitdong members who had been assisting her had followed her in and were guarding her back.

Every time they picked up small pieces of trash from the floor, the customers sitting at nearby tables flinched in surprise.

“Why did you follow me all the way here?”

Rukna, seated at the table, looked alternately at Zvai and Hans standing at the front.

“If it’s to assist Lady Rukna, we must go to the ends of hell!”

“This isn’t hell, it’s just an ordinary cafe.”

No, it seems to have become hell since these guys entered.

Rukna waved her hand to dismiss the club members after noticing a trembling waiter hugging a round tray like his life depended on it.

They bowed politely saying, “Then have a pleasant time, boss!” before leaving.

Wait a minute. Boss among peers? I’m not a gang leader. Rukna felt dizzy.

The customers who watched this whispered, “Has the Golden Count family become a new power in the back alleys?”

Perta, who had shrunk his shoulders at the sight of the big guys, muttered the words ‘judge of death’, and his complexion had grown even worse in the meantime.

On the other hand, Giselle, sitting up straight, was dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief.

Was she so scared that she was crying?

“Are you okay, Giselle?”

“Sniff, it’s not that. I’m just so proud of you, Rukna!”

“Huh?”

“You’ve made so many friends and younger siblings, Rukna!”

Friends? I was about to hang a banner recruiting friends on the bulletin board just a moment ago.

“Ahaha… Is that so.”

It would take too long to explain that they weren’t friends but just rough-looking thugs, and that after beating them up personally, their rough edges had been smoothed out and they now seemed like friends, so Rukna just nodded for now.

“Every time I came to see you like this, I could see injuries here and there, but I’m glad there are no wounds today.”

Nod, nod.

“But I think I’ll get angry if you have someone closer than me.”

Nod… huh?

“I’d rather Rukna be a loner!”

Giselle accelerated like a runaway six-horse carriage.

“But that wouldn’t make Rukna happy, so I’ll endure it.”

And her angelic smile while tightly gripping the handkerchief she had been using to wipe her tears was unparalleled.

Why are my hands sweating? Haha. Rukna grinned along with Giselle’s lovely smile and ordered sweet cocoa.

She desperately needed a sweet drink.

‘Now that we’ve prevented the water ether from being contaminated, what’s left is earth, fire, wind, and light. The Grand Priest will protect the light ether well, so the Red Eagle’s next target is…’

Damn it. Matian leaned his head back against the chair and let out a deep sigh. His thoughts kept getting interrupted and wouldn’t flow for long.

‘Why does Rukna keep popping into my mind?’

At first, she had caught his attention as a suspect who took the holy sword, but now she was barging into his thoughts for no reason.

‘Maybe I’m drawn to her because of her holy power.’

A clean and stable feeling, like the holy sword.

Matian looked down at his own hand, estimating the circumference of Rukna’s wrist that he had grabbed last time.

It was about this size. His thumb and index finger formed a round circle.

Is she mixed with gnome blood? How can someone with such small feet have such slender wrists? It’s amazing she can even grip a sword hilt.

“Matian? What are you doing alone? Need money?”

Aaron, the student council treasurer, barged into the student council room, asking. He seemed to have misunderstood Matian’s gesture as being about money.

“Aaron, come here for a second.”

“Why.”

Despite his cute appearance, Aaron had an expressionless and stiff way of speaking.

He approached Matian with student activity accounting documents tucked under his arm.

Without warning, Matian grabbed Aaron’s wrist. This caused the documents he was holding to fall to the floor with a thud.

For Aaron, who valued money like his life, the accounting documents were sacred.

As they rolled on the floor, Aaron’s cheek with three cute diamond tattoos in a row twitched.

“Your wrist is quite thick.”

Whether he saw it or not, Matian was focused solely on examining Aaron’s wrist.

‘I thought Rukna was similar in height and build to Aaron, who’s a gnome, but their bone structure is definitely different.’

If Aaron was solid and sturdy, Rukna was more…

“Is this some new kind of duel challenge?”

Aaron tilted his head and rolled his eyes.

He was already on edge because he couldn’t work properly due to the thugs on tiptoes crowding the library, and now Matian was annoying him too.

Aaron immediately raised his hand holding a wooden mallet and struck Matian’s crown.

Matian, who was still focusing on the wrist, defended with his other hand without even looking at Aaron’s attack.

“A certain person keeps popping up in my head, Aaron.”

“Did you lend him money?”

“No.”

“Then you must have lent him money and forgotten about it.”

Aaron shook off the wrist Matian was holding while looking at Matian, who was lost in thoughts he usually didn’t have.

Matian Wiegratz, troubled? Has he become weird from feeling bored with living as too much of a model student?

Or maybe a screw has come loose from the stress of not finding the missing holy sword.

“I keep looking at them. For no reason. What could this be, Aaron?”

“Ah, you were talking about Rukna Golden.”

Aaron immediately figured out who he was worrying about.

Matian’s eyes widened as if asking how he knew, when he had been feeling deflated.

“Why are you so surprised? You’ve been staring at Rukna Golden constantly ever since the holy sword disappeared.”

“Me? That can’t be.”

“You’ve been pretending not to, but there hasn’t been a day when you took your eyes off her. Whenever I looked to see what you were staring at, it was always Rukna Golden.”

Well, Aaron thought she was worth looking at too.

Her grades suddenly improved, her personality changed, and her skills became amazing enough to defeat Bolton in a duel.

Moreover, her ability to reform delinquent students and turn them into subordinates was almost at the level of a cult leader, so even the student council was paying attention.