School Rules

Entering the school assembly hall, Keith found that people looked at him with strange eyes.

'Hm, why am I garnering such attention? Did I do something wrong?'

"Hey-!"

Keith was suddenly approached by the girl who claimed his seat earlier. He looked back and replied.

"You're cutting the line."

"It's fine, it's fine. And you have a lot of guts to tell me the rules after you just slapped Sir Adren…" she leaned forward and whispered.

"Is that against the rules?" Keith genuinely asked.

Back where he's currently living, no one dares to touch him without his permission. The people there gave everything he wanted, but Lutze, their head, told Keith that he had to accommodate if he tried to blend in.

Since he suggested he'd go out, Lutze has taught him the basics of human behavior to blend in well. Having human emotions, it was easy for Keith to understand Lutze's explanation.

There are societal rules and legal rules. These are different. As for what Keith did, he did it in a 'head for an eye'. His version of 'eye for an eye'.

"Hahaha, you're so funny!"

The girl smiled and patted Keith's back.

'She's laughing while hitting me… Is this violence?' Keith pondered and was about to act when he remembered, 'Ah, no, I think there's no intention of harm behind it. Maybe, it's one of those complicated things… teasing….'

'But I don't know why she called me funny.'

The girl followed Keith into the assembly hall, talking about everything as if she was just released into the civilization after being stuck in a cave her whole life.

Keith just nodded and tried to understand the point of her words until they all assembled inside the hall. He still doesn't get what this girl was saying.

There was a cacophony inside the assembly hall even though teachers and staff had already arrived. Sir Adren was there with his arms crossed. His face was still red while nerves were popping out.

It's obvious he's still quite furious before the school day has officially begun.

After a while, a middle-aged woman took the stage and stood behind the podium. However, the noise has yet to cease. The woman tapped the microphone in response, and an ear-splitting noise echoed inside the hall.

The most unfortunate ones were those who were standing near the speakers. After that loud screech-like noise, everyone was now looking at the stage, some with furrowed eyebrows, thinking that was over the line to make them quiet. The woman didn't even attempt to speak and grab their attention first!

"Good morning. My name's Allesa Minal, your principal."

The principal then gave the opening speech, which is a little anti-climatic considering her wild 'entrance.' After the speech, she then introduced:

"And, students, meet your Supreme Student Council President, Flora Kaur."

Principal Allesa came down from the podium to give a spot for Flora Kaur. With three men and two women behind her in the shadows, she stepped into the spotlight behind the podium.

"Hello, I'm Flora Kaur, your senior and SSC President for this school year."

A calm and confident voice came out of lustrous red lips. The spotlight accentuated her pristine white skin as her long black hair mirrored it.

Have you seen a woman so beautiful it leaves you dazzled for a good few seconds? Even women are victims of the SSC President's beauty.

While the student body was still spellbound, Flora continued her speech without a trace of nervousness. It's doubtful that she's just two years older than them.

"As your senior, let me tell you the few school rules we have here in LeiSan."

Behind her, a monitor presented texts [School Rules], and below that headline were five rules in bold.

"First rule, grades are everything."

Flora pointed one finger and spoke as if the first rule was common sense.

"Second rule, grades are composed of academic scores and extracurricular activities such as sports participation and volunteer work."

Third rule, each top student is privileged to 'tutor' another student and grade them accordingly.

Fourth rule, physical violence without consent from the other party and the third party, which is the school, is punishable. Based on the act's severity, special penalties may apply."

There are five rules on the monitor, but Flora stopped at the fourth rule and looked around the hall as if looking for somebody.

"Eh? Is she looking at me?" Guleno pointed at himself and flustered.

"No, you idiot! You're shortsighted, I think she's looking at me." his friend said, and chaos soon followed.

Only when Keith and Flora established eye contact did she continue, stopping the farce and silencing Guleno and his friends.

"There are severe consequences in inflicting violence."

Upon hearing this, Class 1-C immediately knew who the president was talking about. They all looked at their classmate, whose face was hidden.

"Later on, you will all receive your handbooks. You will see more details regarding the rules I mentioned, for example, the penalties for breaking these laws. I will not name you, but for attacking your advisor on the first day of school, you are ineligible to earn Character Grades which is a whole 10% of a LeiSan student's total grade. I hope you learn from this mistake."

No students there took it seriously as they had no idea just how heavy these words meant.

"I see… then what I did is against the school rules…." Keith nodded, understanding his actions.

He glanced and saw Sir Adren looking at him with a large grin.

"You can still joke even when you get special attention?" the girl earlier smiled and patted Keith's back again.

"What is he doing, taking all the attention like that?" Bunny whispered, looking at Keith as if he were an alien.

Afterward, Flora then continued to the last rule.

"Fifth rule,-"

"Wait!"

The SSC President was interrupted. The school staff, the principal, Sir Adren, the people behind her, and the rest of the school body looked at the source of that interruption.

"Yes?" Flora asked, turning her eyes towards Keith again.

"H-hey…" the girl besides Keith was startled when he raised his hand. However, he didn't care and spoke aloud for the president on the stage to hear him.

"The fourth rule says physical violence is forbidden if without consent, is that correct?"

"That's correct." the president nodded and made the whole assembly hall be filled with buzzing whispers.

They didn't notice it earlier, but does that mean it's not forbidden if there's consent?

"What a weird rule…."

"Yeah, but it's not like anyone would give their consent to be hurt."

"I know, but why phrase it that way?"

The noisy murmurs of all freshmen filled the hall until Flora tapped the microphone again, just like what the principal did earlier.

"Be quiet," she said, and everyone did.

Keith raised his hand again and continued what he was saying.

"Can you agree that to inflict violence, you give your consent?"

The majority who heard him raised an eyebrow. What does that mean?

To this question, Flora nodded again and answered, "Yes, if you initiated the said violence, you are consenting it. In other words, the 'victim' will have the privilege to return what they received without breaking any rules."

"Then-"

"No, you broke the rule." Flora didn't let Keith continue as she knew what he would say.

"Don't let ignorance make you a fool. When every single one of you enrolled in this school, your parents or guardian have signed the contract in which it states; any school staff is permitted to physically harm the students if they deemed it a productive reinforcement on behavior."

The moment she finished her sentence, a wave of shock went through the school body.

"I-is that true?"

"That must be a joke! How can anyone sign that kind of contract?"

Ignoring them, Flora continued;

"By signing this contract, your parents are giving consent, and therefore, you broke the rule."

Since the president said it coldly, no one can treat it as a joke anymore. They all looked at the school staff, thinking that any one of them should stop the president. However, what they saw were stern expressions on their teachers.

Shouldn't this be a school of delinquents? They thought the rules here were lax. Did they change it this year? But even so, this is too much!

"Alright, understandable." Keith nodded and replied to the SSC President.

"Understandable!?" all of his classmates looked at him as if he were stupid.

"You're really a joker, huh…."

The girl beside him patted him again, but this time, without a smile.

"We've stretched this far enough. Now, let me finish." Flora's cold and calm voice silenced everyone again,

"Fifth rule, what happens within the school grounds stays within the school grounds. Special penalties will apply if broken. I assure you, as your senior, expulsion is better than a single specialty penalty.

"..."

No first-year student could understand what she meant by that. What's worse than expulsion?

"Be careful, and thank you." Flora then stepped down from the podium.