Chapter 349: Gentleman
Leon stood before me, his face as neutral as it could have been.
"Discuss? I have made my stance clear to the instructor, President Leon."
If this guy had any thoughts of trying to corner me—
"I am not talking about the fight."
Hm?
"There are several things on which we can have a qualitative discussion—"
Leon paused before moving closer to me.
"It’s for our mutual benefit."
Whispering close to my ear, Leon took a step back before flashing me a faint smile that looked quite sketchy.
The rest of the students were still observing us, so I chose not to give any reply as that would have been counterproductive, given the situation I had just been in.
"Meet me in the office."
The words felt more like an order as Leon gave a last glance to his surroundings before walking away.
Seeing that the president was now gone, Ashlyn, who had been standing on the side, closed the distance with me, and so did the rest of the disciplinary committee members.
"Was there some hostility between the two of you?"
Well, that was an expected question, given that the fight between Noah and me was more intense than some classmate rivalry.
"Hostility? What reason could I have for being hostile towards someone like that?"
I remained ambiguous in my response, prompting Ashlyn to give a sigh in return.
And honestly, there had never been a reason for me to be actively hostile towards Noah.
It was just that he hadn’t been worth the effort, that is until now... and which was why I had taken an indifferent attitude towards him.
Maybe that attitude was what had irked Noah more.
For some reason, it felt satisfactory to know that even my indifference had such strength in it.
Noah was someone with immense potential, but it was difficult to manipulate him if he had the backing of the world as well as all the other main characters in it.
Even after fighting the protagonist, Victoria was still worried about him, which just went on to show the way in which the world always tried to create allies for its blessed child.
It was as if Noah was bonded to the world by strings of fate that were condensed around him, and no matter what... the people who were destined to be with him in the game would somehow always end up with him.
To change that was a monumental task for me.
Brute force was the worst choice to solve the situation.
And trying to create a divide between Noah and his allies through direct intervention could backfire in some cases, so I had to be subtle in everything.
I always had the chance to kill Noah and remove him from my path altogether, but I knew better than to directly challenge the world even before its blessed child had been fully equipped.
I had no interest in taking the world’s wrath on me, and that too before becoming capable of handling it.
Surely, with my current strength, even the mortals could kill me, let alone the world on which even the Immortals depended.
Then again, killing Noah was like wasting a good pawn.
And I wasn’t petty enough to remove the pieces only because they had some thorns in them.
I just had to make sure that the thorns didn’t end up harming me, and everything else would automatically fall into the place I wanted it to be in.
If Noah was killed before the full maturity of his potential, then that could very well invite the world’s wrath upon me, but if the protagonist was killed after his maturity, then he would only end up as a disappointment in the eyes of the world, thus saving me from any sort of extreme consequences.
Still, everything was just an imaginary calculation on my part, and I couldn’t know for sure if the world would really retaliate against me for killing Noah in his current state.
But being the main character around whom the entire game was built, I had no interest in letting the system collapse due to any sort of impulsive decision on my part.
That was why I had still kept the protagonist alive and would continue to do so in the future.
Using him would be safer than outright killing him, though there was a high chance that I may end up regretting my decision in the future.
But well... that was for my future self to worry about.
For now, keeping Noah alive felt like a reasonable choice while weighing the pros and cons of the decision.
"Just a word of advice."
Hm?
Interrupting my thoughts was Ashlyn’s voice. The girl hadn’t left yet.
"Be careful while dealing with him."
She uttered the words in general, but tracing her line of sight, I could see Leon’s back as the guy made his way to... his office.
"Thanks... I guess."
I hadn’t asked for the advice, but there was no loss in being grateful for it.
Ashlyn, on her part, just blankly stared at me, as if I had said something—
"Never knew you were such a gentleman."
What was that supposed to mean?
"I had always been—"
"Leon doesn’t like to wait."
Interrupting me, Ashlyn began to order the disciplinary committee members standing before me.
Noah’s fight with Victoria and then with me had resulted in quite a bit of property damage, though no buildings were harmed.
Still, the ground would have to be repaired, along with some of the surroundings that were affected by our fight.
But all things aside, I couldn’t help but observe Ashlyn, who now felt a little different than before.
Was this her way of warming up to me?
Honestly, it felt quite rude, but I wasn’t petty enough to be offended over it.
Sigh.
Knowing that delaying the meeting with Leon could indeed cause some complications, I made my way towards the student council room.
I didn’t know where Leon’s so-called office was, but if I had to take a guess, it would be some small room adjacent to the council’s main hall.