The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent

The Imperial Rondarium Academy was a four-year institution.

The reason it ended up this way probably stemmed from the developers’ desire to stack three years of high school onto the third year of middle school.

This academy didn’t follow any legally defined curriculum. Judging by its system, it functioned as a strictly private institution. Everything was determined by the will of whoever funded it—that is, whoever paid the money to run it.

In the first place, this country didn’t even have a proper concept of elementary school, let alone high school. There were some similar institutions, but they catered only to wealthy families.

In the long term, establishing a system to educate children like that would be beneficial. If Alice really became emperor in the future, I’d consider suggesting it to her.

Anyway, since what we’d consider basic in modern society had never been legally established here, you can imagine what the rest was like.

Things that would be unthinkable in a modern society were completely legal here and happened openly.

And Charlotte was making full use of that “legal gray area.”

It took us three days to figure out where Charlotte and Mia disappeared to every morning.

Alice and I had been doing our part in the meantime. We made the rounds through the student council offices, casually chatted with noble students, subtly asked about things they hoped would be taken care of in the future—always careful to avoid giving direct promises, keeping our words vague enough that nothing could be pinned down.

They couldn’t even complain later, asking why their requests weren’t handled. After all, it was just a brief conversation from back when they were students.

But even that slight “possibility” was enough to get the noble students to vote for Alice. And that influence would remain useful all the way up to the moment Alice became emperor.

...In a way, it was an even more underhanded tactic than the empty promises of modern politicians.

The problem was, whatever Charlotte was doing went one step further than what we were doing.

“This won’t do.”

Alice said this to me after school, having failed to catch any sign of Charlotte making moves among the noble students.

“She’s clearly doing something, but she’s hiding it so well we have no way to respond. We have to figure out what strategy Charlotte’s using.”

“How are you going to find out?”

“...There’s no choice but to go there in person in the morning and find out.”

Alice replied.

“That’s exactly what I said two days ago.”

Back then, when I pointed out that Charlotte wasn’t making moves among the noble students, Alice had dismissed the idea of going to check in person, saying it would hurt her pride.

But after we’d seen every noble student face-to-face, her thinking seemed to have changed.

“There’s no helping it. Otherwise, we won’t know what kind of strategy the opponent’s using and we’ll end up taking all the hits.”

This time, she didn’t say anything like “I’m going to win anyway.”

Honestly, I ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ was still feeling somewhat optimistic about the situation. No matter what Charlotte did, Alice was the Crown Princess of this country. What good would it do to reject the next emperor?

“Alright then. I’m curious about what Charlotte’s been up to myself.”

*

Charlotte was an exceptionally skilled swordswoman. And in this world, being an “exceptionally skilled swordswoman” meant that if someone of equal or lesser skill tried to follow her, she’d notice right away.

Which meant waiting outside her room and tailing her was out of the question. My swordsmanship was terrible. My strength lay in being a good shot. If it were from a distance, maybe I could trail her unnoticed, but on the same corridor, in the same building? I wouldn’t be able to mask my presence at all.

If I still had the power to rewind time, maybe I could’ve forced it, but that wasn’t an option anymore.

Trying to follow Mia wouldn’t help either—there’s no way the student council president and vice president candidates would split up while promoting their campaign. If Charlotte was with Mia, following Mia would just be the same as tailing Charlotte.

So, the method we settled on—

Was to just openly follow the two of them.

If we were going to get caught anyway, might as well go boldly.

We were just walking around the school, what could be the problem?

Of course, we didn’t follow them from the very start. If we had, Charlotte would have noticed and started weaving around to shake us off.

...Honestly, I really don’t know why we’re doing all this just for a high school student council election.

“Ah, there she is.”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Alice was the one who spotted Charlotte first.

And when she saw where Charlotte was headed, her expression turned briefly confused—then completely pale.

And with good reason. The place we found Charlotte heading to was none other than Class D, the commoner class.

This academy didn’t have that many students per year. Two noble classes totaling 30 students, and two commoner classes totaling 60.

They liked to say “all students at the academy are equal,” but stuffing only fifteen nobles in a class and cramming thirty commoners together in one? That was blatant discrimination. Still, in a world where the class system was so deeply ingrained, just saying “everyone’s equal” was already considered progressive.

And since every student at this academy was “equal,” each of them was given “one precious vote.”

Sounds obvious, right? But in this world, it wasn’t.

Commoners weren’t banned from voting. But most of them were too busy working to bother with elections, and even when they did vote, it was usually the wealthier, better-off ones—who naturally voted in favor of the elites.

So, those with the most influence in actual elections were always the wealthy nobles, who had both time and money to spare.

There wasn’t even women’s suffrage yet. Women couldn’t run for office, and they couldn’t vote. The reason Alice and Charlotte’s candidacies were being accepted without question was because this was just an academy.

And this twisted state of affairs was considered “common sense” in this world. So much so that even someone like Alice, who was relatively principled, had overlooked it.

Thinking back now, maybe this academy was structured this way in anticipation of a time when society would change. Like a prototype system built in advance.

“...” 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Anyway, after seeing Charlotte enter the classroom, Alice crept toward it quietly.

She peered inside through the hallway window—and her mouth fell slightly open.

I quietly followed behind her and looked into the classroom too—

...The room was filled with wine bottles.

No, it wasn’t a drunken party.

There were just a lot of bottles.

Bottles filled with high-quality Belvur wine.

“...”

I could understand why Alice was too stunned to say anything.

Even I, who thought Alice would win despite knowing the commoners had votes too, hadn’t thought of this.

Because this was a setting where anyone could run and everyone could vote, I naturally assumed elections would follow modern structures. And I assumed the laws that exist to protect the sanctity of voting would be in place here too.

In a modern society, whether or not an election has legal power, buying votes with money or gifts is something you simply don’t do.

But this was a harsh aristocratic age.

And at the same time, a brutal capitalist one.

“...Okay, but isn’t this just cheating?”

Alice, who’d been dumbfounded for a while, suddenly frowned and spoke sharply.

...It seemed that no matter how harsh or brutal the world was, Alice couldn’t accept what she was seeing.

Yeah. Even I had expected Charlotte to use a more traditional method.

But thinking about it, if she played by the book, there’d be no way for her to win.

I almost understood it...

But I didn’t.

No matter how I tried, someone like me who had lived in a modern society couldn’t see this as impressive.

Just look at Mia standing next to her—she clearly looked like she wasn’t sure if this was okay.

This looked like a situation that needed a conversation.

*

“It wasn’t a bribe, though.”

Surprisingly, it turned out Charlotte hadn’t actually given away the wine.

“I just hosted a tasting event for cultural exchange. Belvur wine is quite well known, even in the Empire.”

“And you brought only the most famous and expensive selections, popped open all the bottles, and held a full-scale tasting event?”

“That’s right.”

Exactly.

When people are in a good mood from drinking, they’re more open to what you’re saying.

And since it was a tasting event, no one got so drunk they wouldn’t remember the conversation.

Still...

She may not have given them the wine, but she served it. That’s practically the same thing.

Isn’t that... dangerously close to bribery?

...But then again, considering the era, maybe it’s fine.

The phrase “Industrial Age” really is magical.

A time where all sorts of bizarre crimes become normalized... what kind of era even was this?