Chapter 94: Aria, the Future Student Council President.
The auditorium was full, but even so, Noah and Ren had managed to get two seats in one of the side rows, from where they could watch the stage without too much trouble.
At the front there were four podiums, each belonging to one of the candidates for student council president.
Noah recognized Aria Celestia right away, the one in the center, not because the spot was reserved for her, but because even among the other candidates it was hard not to notice her presence first.
She kept her back straight, both hands resting on the podium, and a calm expression.
Unlike the other candidates, she didn’t look nervous.
Ren leaned a little toward Noah.
"It’s already over."
Noah frowned.
"What?"
"The election."
"The debate hasn’t even started."
"Exactly."
Ren pointed at Aria.
"Look at her."
Noah looked again and realized Ren was right.
One candidate kept checking her note cards, another was drinking water, and the third was tapping her foot nervously.
Meanwhile, Aria was simply waiting.
"Do you know her?"
Noah asked, pretending he didn’t already know the answer, and Ren stayed quiet for a moment.
"By name."
Noah looked at him, the pause seeming strange, but before he could ask anything else a teacher walked up onto the stage and began explaining the debate rules.
Each candidate would have time to introduce herself, then answer questions related to high school problems, and finally they would be able to question their opponents’ proposals.
The first candidate began.
She talked about improving sports activities and increasing the number of cultural events, which drew some applause.
The second proposed cutting certain expenses and using the remaining funds to modernize a few classrooms.
The third focused on improving student support services.
Then it was Aria’s turn. She walked to the center of the stage.
She wasn’t carrying any papers or a tablet.
"Good morning."
Her voice carried clearly through the entire auditorium.
"Over the past three weeks I’ve spoken with students from the seven main buildings, club representatives, library staff, teachers, administrative workers, and members of the safety committee."
Noah raised his eyebrows slightly as Aria continued.
"The problem mentioned most wasn’t a lack of events."
The first candidate lowered her gaze a little.
"It wasn’t the aesthetic modernization of the classrooms either."
The second candidate did the same.
"It wasn’t even a lack of new services."
The third candidate tensed.
Aria smiled.
"The main problem is that services already exist that aren’t working properly."
The screen behind her changed. Graphs appeared.
"We have a library whose hours don’t adequately cover exam weeks."
She advanced to another slide.
"A south building with repairs pending for months."
Another one.
"Unsafe routes for students leaving campus after nighttime activities."
A fourth slide.
"Budget allocated to programs that don’t use the full amount of available money."
Aria looked at the audience.
"We don’t need to promise fifty new things if we still can’t make the ones we already have work correctly..."
The applause was much stronger than before. Ren crossed his arms.
"Told you."
Noah nodded.
"She’s not playing around."
The debate continued and one of the candidates tried to challenge her.
"Celestia, a lot of your proposals depend on money that isn’t currently available."
Aria answered immediately.
"That’s incorrect."
"But the official reports show..."
"The official reports only show the allocated budget."
Aria kept her gaze on her.
"They don’t show the actual spending of each program over the last two years."
The candidate fell silent. Aria continued.
"I did review that data."
The screen changed again and a table appeared.
"There’s enough margin to fund the first three stages of my proposal without increasing the overall budget."
The other candidate tried to respond. Aria didn’t interrupt her and let her finish, then corrected every point with dates, figures, and department names.
Noah started to feel a little sorry for the other candidates.
Another one tried attacking from a different angle.
"Your campaign has resources the rest of us don’t."
Aria smiled.
"That would be a valid criticism."
There were murmurs, but Aria continued.
"That’s why I filed a formal request so that every candidate would have access to the same audiovisual equipment, the same advertising spaces on campus, and the same limit on printed materials."
Noah’s eyes widened, and so did the candidate’s; she looked surprised.
Aria tilted her head slightly.
"If I win, I want it to be because my proposal is better."
There was a lot of applause.
Ren let out a small laugh.
"That was cruel."
"What?"
"She just took away the only excuse they had."
Noah couldn’t argue with that.
The rest of the debate went the same way. Every time someone tried to attack her, Aria had data.
Every time a candidate proposed something, Aria could explain how much it would cost, how long it would take, and what administrative problems it would run into.
When they asked her about safety for male students on campus, Aria answered with a detailed plan to reinforce routes, lighting, and accompaniment.
When they asked about the clubs, she already had a list of available spaces.
When they asked about students with financial difficulties, she mentioned underused funds and support programs almost no one knew about.
By the end, Noah no longer had any doubts.
Aria had demolished her competitors, not through insults, but simply by proving she was better prepared.
When the debate finished, the candidates said their goodbyes and Aria started to leave the stage, but then she looked up.
Her eyes swept across the auditorium and, for a moment, stopped on Noah. He stayed completely still. Aria smiled directly at him.
Noah got a bad feeling, and Ren looked at him.
"Does she know you?"
"No."
"But she smiled at you."
"Maybe she was smiling at this area."
Ren turned.
"There’s no one behind you."
"Thanks for the help."
Noah’s phone vibrated. He looked down and the Golden Clover icon had appeared on the screen.
His expression changed.
’No way.’
He opened the app discreetly and a message appeared.
[NEW MISSION]
[TARGET: ARIA CELESTIA]
[MANDATORY RECRUITMENT]
Noah closed his eyes.
’Of course.’
Noah stood up and Ren looked at him.
"Where are you going?"
"Bathroom."
"It’s the other way."
Noah changed direction.
"That’s what I was about to say."
Ren watched him walk away.
Noah found an empty classroom in a low-traffic area, closed the door, and opened the app again.
"All right, you can show up now..."
A small animation appeared on the screen and the goddess emerged sitting on her throne.
"What a bad attitude."
"I’m busy."
"I know."
"Then make it quick."
The goddess smiled.
"You have to recruit Aria Celestia."
"I already got that."
"Perfect."
"And the object?"
A light appeared in front of Noah. He had to hold out both hands and a small object dropped into his palms.
It was a decorative piece shaped like a golden star, surrounded by small fragments of white crystal.
Noah looked at it.
"With this she’ll awaken her powers."
"Yes."
"Anything else?"
"Yes."
"What?"
"Have fun."
The screen went dark. Noah put the object away.
"I would’ve preferred something that actually helped me."
He left the classroom and, while walking toward the cafeteria, started thinking.
’I need to give it to her without raising suspicion.’
With Yume it had been complicated, with Luna not so much, and with Iris it had ended with him escaping a kidnapping, but Aria represented a different problem.
She was a very well-known person and always had people around her, staff, students, campaign members, probably private security.
’How am I supposed to approach her?’
He could pretend he wanted to talk about the student council, maybe ask about some proposal and then look for an opportunity, but the problem was explaining why he wanted to hand her a strange object.
Noah reached the cafeteria. It was crowded, and Aria was at a table off to the side.
She wasn’t alone. Two members of her campaign were with her, while another woman reviewed documents.
Noah started to approach, but he didn’t get far. A woman in a suit stepped in front of him.
"Are you Noah Reed?"
Noah stopped.
"Yes...?"
"Miss Celestia would like to speak with you."
Noah blinked.
"With me?"
"Yes."
"Now?"
"If you don’t mind."
Noah looked toward Aria, who was already watching him.
’This is way too convenient.’
Noah accepted.
"All right."