Student Assembly (2)

When we arrived at the student assembly's office, we were met with a strange scene.

On one side of the room was a group of humans talking in whispers with tense and hostile expressions, while pointing to the other side of the room where the group of eblors we met at Dayana's place was talking among themselves indifferently as though the humans around did not exist.

Both groups noticed us as soon as we entered. At first, they did not pay us much attention, only to be surprised when one of the eblors greeted us joyfully.

"Jane, Sylvia, Ley, you are here!"

The eblor who greeted us was one of the twins, Lily.

Her actions made the humans look at us strangely. They seemed to be wondering who we were and why a eblor seemed to know us.

Some of them even showed a slight hostility.

Sylvia ignored Lily's greeting, and Ley frowned in displeasure. I wanted to ignore her as well, but when I saw Lily's expression of anticipation, I could not bear to.

In the end, I returned the greeting with a reluctant expression.

"Miss Lily, I did not expect to see you so soon."

"Hehe, it's nice to see you again. Hey, hey, Jane, did you agree to be our guide?"

As expected, it's about that.

To be honest, I planned to reject it, however, I could not tell her that.

Thus, I simply shrugged.

"I'm not sure yet. Let's see what happens."

Lily seemed to understand my implicit refusal because her expression became slightly downcast.

"Is it so? Anyway, it's good to see you again."

I nodded and followed Jazmine to the office of the representative of the student assembly.

When we went in, we saw a red-haired young man seated behind a desk. He was wearing black-rimmed glasses and sported a serious expression, but his most noteworthy feature was his piercing red eyes that seemed to see through everything.

He was the representative of the student assembly, Harold Weber.

But he was not alone in the office. A familiar teacher was leaning against one of the walls with a solemn expression.

It was the teacher that stopped the confrontation between the celers and the students of Sanctuary's First a few days ago, Sol Garcia.

She stared at us as soon as we entered, as though she was examining us, but her gaze lingered longer on me.

'Strange, I don't think I know her...'

"You are here," Harold spoke up as soon as we came in. "Please sit. Jazmine, get them something to drink, please."

"Understood."

"You must be Sylvia Quin, Jane Walker, and Ley Pham; the first, second, and fourth place in this year's entrance examination, right? Nice to meet you, my name is Harold Weber, representative of the student assembly, and this here is Sol Garcia, instructor of martial arts in Sanctuary's First."

"Nice to meet you." We replied politely.

"You must be curious about why I called you here." He asked as Jazmine put a glass of juice in front of each one of us. "I'll go straight to the point. I hope you can show the campus to the exchange students of the eblor race."

Our expressions immediately hardened while Sylvia drank the juice indifferently.

"… Why us?" I asked after a brief pause.

"Two reasons. First, you are three of the most outstanding students in this year. The college has decided to put the exchange students in the same class as you, so you will have to meet them regularly from now. Think of this as an opportunity to get familiar with them.

"As for the second reason, it was because they requested it."

'As expected, it was Lily.' I could not help but sigh.

This smell to trouble.

Before Ley or I could give out our answers, Sylvia spoke first.

"I'm sorry, but I will have to refuse."

"… Can I ask why?"

"I don't have plans to get familiar with them, plus, it's a hassle. No way I will get involved in something this troublesome."

"If you agree, the institute promises to give you a couple of extra credits. Won't you consider it?"

"Not interested."

"I understand." Harold sighed. "What about you?" He asked Ley and me.

I looked at my sister briefly and saw her shook her head.

It seemed like she did not want to do this either.

"I'm sorry, but we will refuse too," I stated.

"As expected," Harold massaged his temple. "I hoped one of you agreed, but I guess no human wants to be close to people of foreign races."

He then looked at the three of us before sighing again.

"I understand. Miss Sylvia, Miss Ley, you can leave. As for you, Mr. Jane, can you stay behind for a moment?"

I nodded startled, but inwardly, I was thoughtful.

'… I have a bad feeling about this.'

Ley looked in my direction with a concerned expression, but I nodded at her to indicate that everything was alright.

When the two girls left, Harold looked at the teacher leaning against the wall.

"I will leave the rest to you, teacher Sol."

"Very well." The tanned teacher nodded and looked at me. "Nice to meet you, Jane. You probably don't know me, but I know you."

"Huh?"

"Your mother and I are old friends. We fought together during the war against the races."

I was surprised.

"So you are a friend of my mother."

"Yeah, although we don't talk much recently. Well, that is not important now. The reason we asked you to stay behind was because we hope you reconsider your decision."

I furrowed my brows. Is that after all?

"… I'm sorry, but I don't think I want to reconsider it."

"Don't answer so fast. First, listen to my explanation." Teacher Sol scratched her head with a bitter smile. "Actually, Jane, this exchange with the celers and the eblors is more important than you think. Although I'm not aware of the specific situation, I know that the higher-ups are doing everything in their might to make this exchange successful."

"What does that have to do with me?"

"A lot." She said with an apologetic expression, "After all, your mother is the director of Sanctuary's Awakened Association."

I stiffened.

"I called your mother just before calling you here and explained the situation to her. She asked me to tell you to call her if you refused."

"… I see." I sighed with a complicated expression and took out my smartphone to call my mother.

The call connected almost immediately.

[Hello, son.]

"Mom…"

[… I believe that you heard from Sol about the situation.]

I smiled wryly.

"You got me into something troublesome."

[I'm sorry, dear. But this is important.] My mother sounded apologetic. [If you really don't want to do that, you can refuse, but it will help me a lot if you agree.]

"How can I refuse after you say that?"

[Thank you, son. I'm sorry for asking this of you.]

"You don't need to apologize. I'm happy to help you."

[Mom is glad to hear that. And I know that I asked you to do this, but If you feel that it's dangerous, stop immediately, okay? Your safety is the most important.]

"I know. Bye."

[I love you, son. Bye.]

As soon as the call ended, Harold looked at me.

"So, what is your answer."

I smiled bitterly.

"I'll do it."