Presidential Elections and the Queen Chapter 4 (1)

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Afterwards, it was as if cold water had been thrown over everyone and order was completely restored to the gathering.

Even the jeerers were viewed like they were just rude people emboldened by a concert-like atmosphere.

The campaign speech portion solemnly disintegrated, and the students lined up to cast their ballots like tame sheep.

The ballots results would be posted the next morning after Third Years under the pay of the Student Council had finished their count.

Those results— "Congratulations A-chan." "Nakajou, congratulations." "Congratulations, Nakajou-san."

—Even without hearing the voices congratulating her first thing in the morning, Azusa was elected Student Council President.

"…Shiba-san, I think it's better if you don't pay it any attention, since the ballot doesn't affect anything."

"Too bad, Tatsuya-kun."

While listening to the sympathetic voice of Suzune and, unable to keep from showing how amusing she found it, voice of Mari, the siblings with matching pained faces read the vote tabulation report.

In total, there were 554 ballots.

The number of legitimate votes was 173 ballots.

The tabulation of the ballots contents… "…These are the results."

"Shiba: 220, Nakajou: 173, Tatsuya-kun: 161…"

"…Wait a minute. The ballots of the large number of people who miswrote the name shouldn't be recognized in the count…"

While crying out 'I want to pretend this doesn't exist' without words, Miyuki calmly made an objection.

"Why are 'The Queen', 'Her Majesty, the Queen' and 'The Snow Queen' all being counted as votes for me?"

Miyuki cried this out in a tearful voice.

"Because on other ballots 'Queen Miyuki', 'Her Majesty, Queen Shiba Miyuki', 'Snow Queen Miyuki' and the like were written… there was no other way to interpret them."

Listening to the apologetic voice of Suzune soothe her, there was no way Miyuki couldn't understand.

"What do they mean by that? Do they think I have some sort of perverted inclinations?" (here, Queen can also refer to S and M Queen)

"…No, I believe that they definitely don't mean anything like that. After seeing you look like that, I don't believe anyone would have the nerve…"

As if she had lost an inner battle, her body actually slumped as Mari contradicted her in a confused manner.

"Hey, am I that appalling? Is my demeanor really that intolerable?" Miyuki's tone had changed into a genuine wail.

"…Miyuki-san, calm down. After all, no one thinks that."

Mayumi was trying with all her might to make her voice sound soothing so that she could somehow calm Miyuki's mood, but it had almost no effect.

"Lend me the ballots! I'll find whoever wrote them!" "That's absurd… in the first place, how would you do that?"

Somebody murmured this obvious flaw in her plan, but in this case, it was utterly futile.

Miyuki turned her entire body towards Tatsuya, her eyes clouded all at once. "Onii-sama…"

With a needy look in her eyes, just as Miyuki was about to release her tears and snuggle against him, Tatsuya temporarily shelved his own disturbance.

"Do not ask for the impossible, Miyuki. Since this is a secret ballot, investigating who voted for whom is a serious violation of the rules."

He patted her head without any trace of embarrassment and admonished her as if she were a small child.

"But… but…"

Not having a clue of what else to do, Tatsuya gently embraced his little sister who was sobbing her eyes out.

"It's okay."

His mouth neared the vicinity of his sister's ear "After all, you are not a Queen."

And with a deeply gentle voice,

"No matter how anyone else views you, to me you are a cute princess." Tatsuya made that vow.

"Onii-sama…"

The sound of crying gradually ended, simultaneously it looked as if the anger and frustration were also ending, and as potential Armageddon was soothed away, everyone relaxed their tense posture.

Nevertheless, they were soon in an entirely different kind of awkward situation.

Although she stopped crying, Miyuki showed no sign of leaving Tatsuya's arms.

Rather, her head and cheek were shockingly pressed against Tatsuya's chest; the aura around them was so sweet that they were all suffering from heartburn.

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For the noon recess that day, the siblings, Tatsuya and Miyuki, did not show their faces in the Student Council room.

Not only did Miyuki cry in front of her senpai, she let herself be seen being embraced and comforted, so it was only natural that she was too embarrassed to come; as the seemingly unembarrassed Tatsuya had already informed them so, Mayumi and the rest were unworried.

Azusa was being honored with a celebration by her fellow second years so her seat was empty.

Suzune as usual didn't come unless she had something to do, so she didn't appear.

And today, unusually, Katsuto came to the Student Council room. "Here it is."

When the meal came to an end, Mayumi took out tea for Katsuto. Katsuto made a silent toast and raised his teacup to his mouth. "So, why are you here today, Juumonji?"

Although they were both guests, Mari—maybe because she couldn't hold back any more—behaved as if they were in her own headquarters and questioned him; Katsuto gave a "no reason" type of answer.

"Perhaps, because today is for Saegusa her true retirement day. This is the last time I can come to see her in Student Council President mode."

"I see, you came to thank Mayumi for her service or something." "Oh, Juumonji-kun, thank you,"

"Ah, you're welcome."

While smiling smugly, the two of them coordinated an attack (a verbal assault?) which Katsuto solemnly rebuffed.

"…So that's it. I thought Tatsuya-kun resembled someone; he responds to these things just like Juumonji-kun."

"Shiba?"

'We're alike?' Katsuto asked with a glance; Mari shrugged. Even though superficially their response was similar, Mari believed that Tatsuya's were intentional and Katsuto's were spontaneous, so her assessment was that their taciturnity was the only similarity.

"Speaking of Shiba, how do you think it went yesterday…"

Perhaps she believed that she couldn't throw him off through body language alone, Mari attempted to make a swift change of topic.

"It was okay… But there was no need for us to worry."

However, maybe because the topic on both of their minds, both Mayumi and Katsuto leaped over Mari's choice and directed the conversation to the topic of their choice.

"I was too low to be able to really see what was going on, but did Shiba restrain his sister, just like it seemed to me?"

"Yes. Her outpouring of power and his suppression ability were unbelievable." It was just the way Katsuto said it was. The truth of what was going on couldn't be discerned by those facing the stage; only those like Mayumi who were on the stage were able to clearly see what happened.

Possibly, it was a practical application of "Gram Demolition". A structure of Psions instantly displayed—without having to work it into an information body with Eidos, Psions themselves were the product of molded External Systematic Magic—in the form of an aura. A large amount of Psions wrapped around her running wild in a chaotic manner; that overwhelming power was compressed and poured back into Miyuki's body.

Psions were not something exuded from someone's body, but the body was the medium used for Emission or Absorption. The activation sequence formation used by CADs was an example of similar modeling.

Tatsuya had taken the Psions Miyuki had scattered around and, without any cooperation from her, poured them back "inside".

"It doesn't matter how good someone is at External Systematic Magic, it doesn't matter if they are blood relations, can someone really manipulate someone else's Psions that easily? At that time they were completely out of Miyuki's own control; that's another matter for consideration, but…"

These were a list of Mayumi's concerns.

"Wasn't that one of his ancient magic techniques? I think that there is an 'Art of the Sage' that is excellent for controlling Psions…"

Mari put forth her guesswork as an answer; however,

"No, no matter how well an ancient magic technique is mastered, it takes time to put it in motion. The Art of the Sage you're talking about is an extremely time consuming system of magic."

Katsuto indirectly refuted Mari's guess with a "that doesn't explain everything" type of answer.

"Even looking at his sister's power, as I expected, I think their genetic makeup cannot be ignored…"

"But he himself denied 'that he was a member of the ten master clans' right?" And this time, Mari presented the counter argument to Katsuto's logic.

"Ah. He didn't seem to be lying."

As they ran into that dead end, Mari and Katsuto tilted their heads.

"…Let's stop already. This conversation. It is not good to inquire about bloodlines."

Mayumi suddenly proposed a halt.

Mari and Katsuto, both felt Mayumi's sudden change in attitude was unnatural; however, for magicians, inquiring about bloodlines was certainly a minor crime, so they were unable to express their objections.

Of course, Mayumi did not divulge to the two of them what she was secretly thinking.

Her own belief was that if Tatsuya was an "extra", then that inquiry was forbidden.

—And this is how Tatsuya and Mayumi, both without ever conspiring, together became co-conspirators in order to keep Tatsuya's background concealed.