“Geez. This sure has turned into a real hassle,” I muttered as I looked at Haiko floating in front of me.

  The way she looked reminded me of the white room I found myself in before coming to this world. Although it had a human body, so maybe it wasn’t exactly the same.

  Nonetheless, I don’t think they're identical. I may not have had any magical powers or anything in that room, but even I could tell how powerful it was.

  However, in comparison, this thing didn’t feel that powerful at all, so beating it probably wasn’t gonna be a huge problem. I was more concerned about how I was gonna free Haiko, who floated there as if waiting for someone to try and approach her.

  I had an idea in my head, but I’d need to get close enough to touch her in order to pull it off. Thus, I brought along the people at the party to help me deal with this issue. Getting them here wasn’t exactly easy, but I did manage to pull it off. How, you ask?

  Well, to answer that question, the best thing we can do is rewind a little bit. Back to the party not too long ago.

  A little under an hour earlier, I began making my way toward the stand where the band was performing and grabbed hold of a microphone.

  Figuring no one would bother listening with me, I twisted around the mic a bit and caused a painful screech-like sound to echo through the room.

  That immediately drew everyone's attention as they tried covering their ears before turning to glare at me. I didn't wanna admit it out loud, but something about seeing them all annoyed made me want to laugh. But moving past that, I started speaking into the microphone.

  “Good. Now that I have your attention, there’s something I’d like to discuss with all of you.”

  As I was talking, I had Sirin inform me of what was happening, and she also gave me the exact coordinates where everything was going down.

  Once I had everything I needed to know, I began getting into the most important stuff that needed to be addressed while I was speaking.

  “Now listen here, all of you. I fully understand how much you all hate me. However, this isn’t about me right now. Your student council president, Haiko Ariyama, is in danger. And if we don’t act, she might end up dead. That’s why if you have the bravery to fight, I ask you to join me in going to save her.”

  I wasn’t exactly used to asking for help, but I was used to giving presentations in my old world, so putting myself in that mindset made doing this a lot easier.

  I put a lot of effort into my words, however, they were instantly met with hatred.

  “Screw you! Why would we work with someone like a commoner!?”

  “Yeah! Plus, what good would come from us saving some idiotic president who thinks someone like you should be the next student council president!? She should just die for even considering someone like you!”

  “Yeah! She can just die!”

  Upon hearing that, I could feel a vein twitching on my forehead. These guys really were scum. Still, scum had it’s uses. And if there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s to manipulate stupid scum like this. And I knew exactly how to do that. So, with a slightly twisted grin, I spoke once more.

  “Fine then. Give up on her. I’ll just let your families know just how pathetic you really are.”

  “Wah-!”

  “Pathetic!?”

  Some growled in anger at my words, while others just gritted their teeth. Good. It seemed my words were working on them.

  “What? Are you saying you’re not pathetic? No. Of course idiots like you wouldn’t think that. They think they're always in the right. Only the truly righteous understand when to step up when they need to. So go ahead and cower, you pathetic idiots. I’ll just go rescue her myself and get all the praise. And then, when your families whine about how you didn’t do anything and failed to show your family proud, they’ll praise me for actually standing up and facing this challenge head-on. That’s fine with you pathetic idiots, right?”

  I had to hold myself back from laughing when I saw how angry they were all getting.

  This might’ve just been a provocation, but I was having a hell of a good time doing it.

  “Pathetic? Just how rude can you be?”

  Suddenly, a guy who looked to be a senior stepped forward.

  “Are you seriously saying we're pathetic for worrying about our own lives? It’s in human nature that we wanna protect ourselves from danger. Even if it’s at the cost of another member of royalty.”

  At his words, people started to agree.

  Had my plan been just to rile them up, he would’ve caused that plan to fail instantly. However, I wasn’t done yet.

  “Oh really? And you’re positive you won’t regret leaving her behind?”

  “Huh?”

  The senior seemed confused by my words.

  “Just think about it. Since becoming student council president, when has Haiko ever left any of you behind? Can you think of a single time she’s abandoned someone who’s asked for her help?”

  At my words, the senior took a step back.

  Looks like Haiko still helped every student she could in this world, too.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Back when I played the game, she would always go help a student if they asked. She was the only person in the entire school who watched out for everyone.

  Using that knowledge to my advantage, I knew I could convince them to help me.

  “It doesn’t matter that she wants me to be student council president. Hell, I couldn't give a crap about the position. What’s important is that she watches out for anyone and everyone. Are you actually saying she should die simply because of a single decision you didn’t like? When you think about it that way, you’re even more pathetic than those simply looking out for their own lives. Am I wrong?”

  As I looked at the crowd, I could tell the majority of them had bloodlust in their eyes. More than likely because they wanted to punch me in the face because of how right I was. Not that I would let them do it.

  The room remained silent for several moments before the senior in front started chuckling.

  “Interesting. Very well, commoner…no. Axel Savnoncho. I’m in. Let us go and save President Haiko as soon as possible!”

  I nodded.

  “I…I’m going too!”

  “M-Me too!”

  Another student spoke up, then another. Soon enough, the entire room was filled with people agreeing to join me in this endeavor.

  With a light smirk, I spoke out to everyone in the room.

  “I’m glad to hear. Now, here’s the plan!”

  After I explained what I knew, I had everyone agree to follow my orders, and then I used the coordinates Sirin gave to teleport everyone there one by one.

  Once everyone was here, a huge explosion of light occurred in front of us, and we rushed toward it as fast as we could.

  That leads us to where we are now.

  As I mentioned before, I had an idea of how to save Haiko, but I’d needed to get close to her first. Thus, I rushed forward while everyone else fended off the weird paper-like monsters that were protecting Haiko.

  Xara, who was among them, pulled out a pitchfork with hearts on it and began chopping through the monsters one after the other like a knife through butter.

  She moved with such elegance that you’d think she’d been in a battle this big before.

  The other students were handling themselves pretty well, too.

  “Bring forth the fire of my passion. Flame Arrows.”

  As fire-shaped arrows appeared out of thin air, one of the students shot them forward, and they pierced the paper-like monsters, which knocked the arrows away before they made impact. It seemed that despite having the flexibility of paper, these things were made of a pretty tough material.

  Running ahead, I was halted by a giant wolf.

  “Tsk. How annoying.”

  Preparing a fireball, I was about to knock the wolf into oblivion when-

  “Haaah!”

  -the senior from before came rushing forward with a mace in hand.

  Swinging it at the beast, he knocked it away before turning to me with a grin.

  “Just keep running. We’ll cover you if anything gets in your path.”

  I nodded.

  “Understood.”

  With that, I let my fireball vanish and continued rushing forward.

  Even with their assistance, I won’t be able to get close unless I can get past her defenses. It seems the weakest point is on the right, but I’ll still need a pretty powerful fireball to burst through it.

  Listening to my expanded thinking, I ran toward the spot that appeared to be the weakest. It looked a bit more hollow than the rest of her defenses, so it should be possible. Just gotta get enough power into a single attack.

  Letting a fireball grow in my hand, I continued running toward Haiko as fast as I could.

  Arriving at her side, I quickly located the weak spot and threw my fireball.

  “Take this!”

  As it shot forward, the fireball let out a strange hiss before smashing into the weak spot.

  Almost as if I’d burned a part of its body, the paper-like tentacles sprung out as the being that was once Haiko let out a loud screech.

  “What an irritating sound,” I muttered before pushing wind into my feet and charging forward.

  Moments later, I stood in front of the being that took control of Haiko’s body.

  Not wanting to waste a second, I reached out to grab her.

  However, as I did so, she let out another loud screech.

  From up close, I had no choice but to cover my ears to keep them from bleeding.

  Expecting that, the being shot tentacles at me, which grabbed hold of one of my arms before flinging me away.

  “You've got to be kidding me!” I screamed.

  This was growing more frustrating by the minute.

  Using wind magic to slow my fall, I landed on the ground and glared at the being who seemed to be glaring back.

  “Wow. You sure know how to piss off a guy, huh?”

  As if responding to my retort, the being shot its paper-like tentacles at me. Guess we’re gonna have to do this the hard way.

  “Alright, Nia. Let’s show this thing what we can do!”

  “Right!”

  Sprinting forward, I launched myself into the sky just in time to dodge some of the tentacles before using fire magic in my hands to burst forward like a rocket.

  Without losing focus for a second, I flipped away from another tentacle before landing on the ground and running once more.

  “Damn. Why does saving someone require such a heavy workout?”

  I muttered this to myself as I tried my best to keep moving. As someone who isn’t exactly good when it comes to physical exercise, this wasn’t really my forte.

  Pushing myself into the air once more, I looked down at the enemy below and grinned.

  “Alright, Nia. Activate it the minute I make contact.” I shouted.

  “Understood!” shouted Nia in response as she got ready to act.

  Pointing my feet toward the ground, I began plummeting at a rapid rate.

  Hoping to take me out midair, the tentacles shot at me all at once.

  “Get outta my way!”

  Blasting them away with blades of wind, I continued plummeting faster and faster.

  And then, I stopped right in front of the being controlling Haiko.

  Not giving it another chance to scream, I push wind magic into my legs. Stopping me from making impact with the ground as I touched the enemies head with my hand and shouted my order.

  “Nia, now!”

  “Right!”

  Suddenly, my hand began glowing brightly, and after a moment, both the being and I slumped to the ground. The real battle was about to begin.