Swish—when he shifted his gaze, he saw a Student Council member who had obtained permission to speak from the president. Looking at the badge on the Academy uniform, they were a freshman who had just joined. Unfortunately, he had never spoken with them personally, so he didn’t know their name.
The Student Council President answered with a troubled face.
“Layla. I told you just a moment ago. I have no intention of reversing the decision.”
Ah, so her name is Layla. I should remember that.
Anyway, how many times did they have to discuss that performance? Continuing to debate this was a waste of manpower. Nigel spun the pen in his hand once, his face holding back his irritation as much as possible.
But if she made a persuasive argument, it wasn’t like he couldn’t grant it.
“Which school rule says to cancel a performance that’s been prepared for months just a week before the festival? Can’t you just cancel only the problematic items?”
You should have stayed within the budget in the first place. Nigel thought to himself.
“You should have just stayed within the budget the Student Council set for you in the first place.”
Somehow he agreed with Lios. Lios, sitting in the third-year seats, yawned and said languidly. At those words, Layla’s eyes turned sharply toward him.
“Senior Lios, exceeding the budget is certainly wrong. However, I don’t think it’s the Student Council’s role to trample on the passion of students who have worked hard for the festival for months like this.”
“Passion alone can’t excuse everything, right?”
Lios still hadn’t wiped away his sly smile. Layla bit her lips in frustration, but couldn’t talk back any further to Lios, who was both the youngest son of a ducal family and a third-year.
Instead, her gaze turned to Nigel, the actual authority in this meeting. Her eyes held a strong will not to give up.
Her courage was good, but her grounds were weak. The Alchemy Department wasn’t that innocent. They were one of the departments that had monopolized much of the budget last year.
Nigel set down the pen he’d been spinning and tapped his fingers on the table.
“Eden Lake.”
At Nigel’s call, Eden, who hadn’t taken his eyes off the documents, immediately answered.
“Yes, Nigel-nim.”
Though he’d been openly sulking since earlier, it seemed he had no intention of disobeying instructions in an official setting.
“Report the details of the Alchemy Department’s budget overrun, item by item.”
“…Understood.”
Eden seemed to hesitate for a moment, but soon stood up from his seat and began reporting concisely with the documents he’d prepared. His low voice resonated calmly within the glass greenhouse.
“The budget requested by the Alchemy Department exceeded the initial budget by 170%. The main causes are the ‘mana-reactive gemstone powder’ used for the costume of the ‘Mysterious Forest Fairy’ role, and the ‘living butterfly swarm’ that was to be used for stage effects. Both items were not in the budget proposal submitted in advance.”
Having finished his report, Eden looked at Nigel silently. His eyes were asking, ‘What will you do now?’ The Crown Prince leaned back deeply in his chair and looked at Layla once more.
“You heard? Budget overrun without prior consultation, and even those items are closer to extravagance unrelated to the essence of the performance. The Student Council has an obligation to manage the budgets of all other departments and balance the entire festival. The efforts of other departments shouldn’t suffer because of one specific department.”
As if there was no room to refute that, Layla just pressed her lips together in dissatisfaction. Nigel turned his head toward the president sitting at the head seat and continued.
“As a member of the Student Council, I understand the desire to listen to other departments’ opinions. However, this is already a decided matter, and if you want to re-discuss it, it would be better to do so after bringing content that is persuasive enough, President.”
The meeting room was once again engulfed in silence.
The Student Council President, who seemed to share Nigel’s thoughts, clapped a few times to change the atmosphere, then said with a light laugh.
“Right. Let’s not waste meeting time on this issue again. Let’s move on to the next agenda.”
Only then did Nigel look around with a satisfied feeling.
Perhaps because he’d finished one troublesome matter, he felt a strange sense of achievement, and the stuffiness that had been throbbing in his head seemed to settle.
That’s when it happened.
A freshman who had been sitting quietly throughout the meeting cautiously approached Nigel. The freshman stood before him with a nervous face, holding a small tray.
“Um, Senior Nigel… the meeting went long, so… I thought you might be thirsty…”
On the tray, tea in a transparent glass was steaming. The sweet honey scent mixed with the flower fragrance inside the greenhouse tickled his nose.
He didn’t usually enjoy tea mixed with honey or syrup…. Well, drinking it occasionally wouldn’t be bad.
Nigel nodded slightly and accepted the cup. As soon as he took the tea, the student who had brought the tray smiled brightly, then said ‘Th-thank you’ in a very small voice. Then they hurried back to their seat.
It was the moment he was about to bring the teacup to his lips.
He caught Eden Lake standing up abruptly from his seat across from him at the edge of his vision. Hm? As Nigel tilted his head slightly, Eden walked across the meeting room with his long legs in big strides.
Even though the secretary had briefly left his seat, the other students didn’t stop discussing the next agenda with serious faces.
Eden Lake, who had walked around the back of the elliptically arranged chairs to reach this side, bowed his head deeply to the seated Nigel. Whoosh—his refreshing scent that he’d caught in the corridor earlier tickled his nose.
“Is something wrong?”
Then Eden Lake cupped his palm beside his ear and answered so the other students wouldn’t hear.
“Your tea will be out soon, Nigel-nim. The kind you always drink.”
His pitch-black eyes turned once toward the tea in Nigel’s cup, then returned to his face.
“You don’t like tea with honey, do you?”
“…It’s not the kind I enjoy.”
It’s just that refusing was bothersome. His timing was good since he was thirsty too. But hearing that his usual tea would be out soon, there was no longer a need to drink this tea.
Thud—Nigel set down the teacup he’d been about to bring to his lips on the table. Only then did Eden Lake seem to have returned to his usual self.
His face was cold as always, but he was carefully focused on Nigel’s every action. Nigel smiled slightly inwardly and leaned back in his chair.
‘So he prefers that I drink the tea he ordered rather than tea given by someone else.’
It seemed the briefly sulking bastard’s mood had been resolved. Though it was presumptuous to try to control the Crown Prince’s actions, thinking that he would return to being the quiet and loyal original Eden Lake made him feel generous.
Discussion of a few urgent agenda items that needed to be resolved before the festival and some that had more leeway finished.
The Student Council President ended the meeting with a face that looked much more relieved.
“Let’s stop here for today. Starting tomorrow, since there’s not much time left until the festival, everyone make time for about 30 minutes before class starts. Got it? We’ll be stopping by the Student Council room every day until the festival.”
The final announcement was a matter he’d been mentioning for several days already. All personnel sitting there, including the Student Council executives, nodded as if they understood.
“Yes.”
“Understood.”
“Good, everyone work hard until the festival.”
They’d wasted quite a bit of time unnecessarily because of the Alchemy Department. Nigel craned his neck while sitting to loosen his stiff body.
When the meeting ended, Student Council students poured out in a rush from the massive glass greenhouse.
Nigel preferred to take a bit more time and leave leisurely rather than mixing with them and moving quickly. Eden Lake, who knew Nigel’s personality, also kept his place right beside him with his back straight.
He raised his head toward the ceiling of the peaceful glass greenhouse and received the sunlight. His brow furrowed slightly at the mild migraine that came again.
“Are you tired?”
“No.”
An answer jumped out of his mouth without even time to think at Eden’s question. Though his head hurt because of the headache, this happened every day anyway. And whining to his aide every time his head hurt was absolutely detestable.
“……”
Eden Lake watched Nigel closely and pressed his lips together. He probably noticed the half-hearted excuse, but there was no intention to clear up his suspicion.
“…Shall I give you medicine?”
Nigel shook his head and said.
“I took some at lunch. The effects will kick in soon. And let’s go now too.”
Nigel said as he stood up from the Student Council room chair. By now the corridor leading to the Academy’s main building would be clear.
“…Let’s do that.”
Nigel’s bundle of parchments and documents on the table passed entirely into Eden Lake’s hands. Then, following behind Nigel, he quickly walked ahead at the massive greenhouse door and opened it for him.
