The doors didn't open quietly this time.
They swung wide. Wide enough to draw every gaze in the room before a word was spoken.
Elias and Kael stepped in beside the student council president.
Claude didn't head for his seat immediately. He stopped just short of the long table, hands loosely in his pockets, posture relaxed in a way that made it clear that this was his space.
Elias stood slightly behind him. He gazed around. Just… uninterested.
"Everyone," the president said.
A few members straightened. Others only shifted their eyes, slow and unimpressed. Eight of them.
"We have new additions."
His eyes shifted.
The roommate introduced himself.
"Kael Winger."
Eyes popped open.
"Winger?"
"They are top two in Rowen city."
"Welcome to the council."
Only one pair of eyes lingered on Elias. A silver-haired girl. She stared at him, eyes widened in awe.
"So tall..."
"And Elias Morail." Claude added, when he saw that Elias made no attempt to utter a word.
Silence descended for a short while.
Then—
"Morail?"
"What's that?"
The silver-haired girl beamed louder. "You're so tall! Can I hang on your leg?!"
A girl near the center, elegant, let her gaze linger a second too long before her lips curved faintly. "Another one?" she murmured. "Mid-term?"
"Looks like it," someone else replied, not bothering to lower their voice.
The president didn't stop them.
"Elias," he continued, calm as ever. "Transferred under special admission. C-rank raider."
There it was.
A boy leaned back in his chair, exhaling through his nose. "C-rank?" he echoed, like he'd misheard something insulting.
"Special admission?" another added. "You mean charity."
A quiet ripple of amusement followed.
Elias said nothing.
Didn't even bother looking at whoever spoke.
Which, somehow, made it worse.
The elegant girl tilted her head slightly, studying him now with open curiosity. "Scholarship student too, I assume?"
No response.
She smiled a little wider. "Ah. That explains the silence."
"Or the lack of manners," someone muttered.
A few soft laughs.
Claude exhaled quietly, almost like he was letting them get it out of their system.
"He'll be joining the student council."
That cut through everything.
The laughter died mid-breath.
"What?" the boy who'd leaned back earlier straightened, brows pulling together. "You're serious?"
A sharper voice followed, edged with disbelief. "You're placing a C-rank…here?"
"This isn't a training hall," another added. "There are standards."
"I like him!" The silver-haired girl beamed.
Elias finally shifted his gaze to them, taking them in like he was memorizing nothing worth keeping.
The elegant girl noticed.
Her smile thinned.
"You don't seem very grateful," she said lightly.
"I was brought here," Elias cut in, calm. "I didn't ask to join."
That landed.
Eyes flicked this time, not at Elias, but at the president.
Claude smiled faintly.
"So you're saying," the boy at the table said slowly, "that you don't want this position?"
Elias shrugged, almost absentminded. "I'm saying it doesn't matter to me."
Another pause.
This one stretched longer.
The elegant girl leaned forward slightly, fingers tapping once against the table. "You think you're too good for it?"
Elias met her gaze again.
"Yes," he said simply. "I just don't think it's anything special."
That did it.
The temperature dropped.
A boy at the end of the table smiled faintly, but there was no humor in it. "Do you know who sits in this room?"
Elias didn't answer nor regard him.
A chair scraped lightly against the floor.
He let out a dry laugh. "Of course you didn't. People like you never do. You just—"
"That's enough."
Claude cut in clean.
The room stilled instantly.
"You seem to be under a misunderstanding," he said, gaze sweeping across them.
"This isn't a discussion. He's not here because of your approval."
His eyes flicked briefly toward Elias, then back.
"He's here because the principal approved it."
That landed harder than anything else. A visible change. The elegant girl's fingers stilled against the table.
"…The principal approved him?" someone repeated.
The president's expression didn't change.
"Yes. So you will fix your tones. Or you will find yourselves removed from this council, and if necessary..."
His gaze sharpened.
"...from this academy."
Silence.
No one laughed now.
Even the boy who'd spoken the most leaned back again.
The message was clear.
Kael took his seat.
The president straightened, the tension dissolving from him as easily as it had appeared. "Now that that's understood…"
He gestured lazily toward the empty seat at the far end of the table.
"Elias. Your seat."
All eyes returned to him, careful now.
Elias looked at the chair.
He moved, walked to the seat, pulled it out, and sat down.
The silver-haired girl immediately hopped down from her seat, and ran to the empty seat beside him. It took quite a lot of effort for her small frame to climb the high chair, but nevertheless, she settled on it.
Then, she leaned sideways, rested on his thigh, and stared up at him.
"I'm Tiana! I love you!"
He gazed down at her.
She smiled wider.
"Tiana," a voice that hadn't spoken from the start finally spoke. "Stop that."
Tiana pouted her lip, but pulled back.
The lady stood up and addressed Elias.
"Welcome to the student council. I am Fayera, the vice president. If you need anything, do not hesitate to ask me."
He nodded.
"Alright!" Claude clapped and took a seat. "We have a case to settle. Let's begin."
The meeting started like Elias didn't exist.
Which suited him just fine.
"—attendance from the Northern sectors will double this year," one of the members was saying, fingers gliding across a glowing panel hovering above the table. "If we don't tighten screening, we'll have outsiders slipping through the—"
"Then tighten it," the elegant girl cut in, chin resting lightly against her hand. "Or are we lowering standards across the board now?"
A few quiet chuckles.
Elias sat at the far end of the table, exactly where they'd placed him.
He leaned back.
Closed his eyes.
And slept.
Not observing. Actually asleep.
Breathing even. Shoulders relaxed. Head tilted just enough to make it obvious.
It took a moment for anyone to notice.
Then:
"…Is he serious?" someone muttered.
The boy near the center frowned, tapping his fingers against the table. "He's asleep."
"No," another said flatly. "He's mocking us."
"He's handsome!" Tiana yelled.
The elegant girl's gaze slid toward him, slow and sharp. "In the middle of a council meeting?"
No response.
The irritation built quietly.
No one wanted to be the first to address it, because acknowledging him felt like lowering themselves.
So they kept going.
"…As I was saying," one of them continued, tone tighter now, "the guest list needs to be finalized before—"
He took a deep breath.
Still asleep.
Someone clicked their tongue.
Another shifted in their seat.
The boy leaned forward slightly, eyes narrowing. "President, are we just going to..."
"Continue." Claude ordered.
And somehow, that made it worse.
They continued, tightened jaws and words clipped.
Through glances that kept drifting unwillingly toward the boy sleeping at the end of their table like none of this mattered.
Because to him, it didn't.
—
By the time the meeting ended, the tension hadn't gone anywhere. It had settled deeper.
"Meeting adjourned," the president said simply, closing the session.
Chairs shifted.
Papers gathered.
Low conversations started.
Elias didn't move.
The elegant girl stood, smoothing her uniform but the irritation in her eyes hadn't faded.
"Before you leave," the president added, precisely to her. "You'll take Elias and Kael to the tailor. Get their council uniforms made."
Another pause.
"What?"
It slipped out before she could stop it.
"I'm not—" she started, then caught herself, exhaling through her nose. "You can't be serious."
"I am serious."
"Then assign someone else."
"No."
Her expression tightened. "You expect me to escort," her gaze snapped to Elias, still unmoving. "Him? A nobody who can't even stay awake during a council meeting?"
No response.
She laughed.
"Unbelievable."
She stepped away from her seat, heels clicking sharply against the floor as she crossed the room, straight toward him.
He didn't acknowledge her presence even when she stopped right in front of him. She yanked Tiana off him.
"Get up."