Chapter 38: Princess Mia... Becomes an Accomplished Woman...

“Hmmm... Mmm... Hnnnngh...”

Mia’s groans reverberated throughout the student council office. As the new president, her first task was to staff the council. Since her actual administrative abilities approached zero, assembling a team of close aids was an urgent priority. Now, were Mia your typical unqualified leader, she’d opt to surround herself with yes-men to ensure that it’d be nothing but smooth sailing during her term in office. However, Mia was not typical; she was, in fact, acutely aware of where she stood.

“If I choose the wrong people... I’m going to get the ax!”

She meant it literally too. After all, she sat in a seat that Rafina had willingly given to her. Had she won the election, it would have been possible to blame her failures on the voters for choosing badly, but Rafina had entrusted her with the role, and the trust part of entrust was what scared her. If she were to betray Rafina’s trust...

“I only barely managed to make her forgive me for what I did at the Cleansing Spring. If I goof up again... Oh, merciful moons...”

She recalled the sight of Rafina with her bloodshot eyes and shuddered. Frankly, she had no idea why Rafina had decided to concede the president’s seat to her. The one thing she did know though, was what would happen if she botched her new job. She knew it with visceral certainty; she could feel it in her neck.

“I-I’d better do everything I can to live up to Rafina’s expectations... or something very bad is going to happen!”

Therefore, she had to choose carefully to ensure all the seats in the council were filled by the super competent. Basically, she needed a team of Ludwigs. That way, she could just take the steady stream of well-considered proposals they offered up, throw in a few superfluous remarks about their appropriateness, and send them off to be put into action. Her ideal administrative workflow was to have everything work on its own, so all she had to do was stamp her approval on every recommendation that came her way. Indeed, Mia’s goal was not to surround herself with yes-men; it was to be the yes-man. Well, yes-girl.

“First things first. I need Rafina to be one vice-president...”

Rather than waiting until she caused an irreparable mess that left everyone mad at her, it’d be better to have Rafina point out her errors early on. This also had the secondary and considerably less laudable effect of allowing her to claim “It was partly Rafina’s fault too!” for anything that went wrong.

“As for the second one... It’s got to be Sion.”

Her rationale for appointing (read: implicating) Sion was the same. If it weren’t just Tearmoon but also Sunkland that screwed up, who could really give them any flak about it?

“More importantly, there’s no way I’m going to let him be the only one who has it easy!”

Mia’s modus operandi was all about dragging everyone else in to deal with her problems...

“I’ll make Abel the president’s assistant so I can keep him near me...”

...While she slyly satisfied her own whims. When it came to those matters, Mia took the initiative.

“Then, Tiona can be secretary, I suppose, and as for Chloe... I’ll make her the treasurer, since they both helped me a lot during the election.”

These appointments were meant as a show of appreciation for their contributions to her election campaign.

“Huh. Somehow, this is becoming the same bunch of faces I see during our anti-Chaos Serpent meetings. Hmm...”

That was when she remembered something.

“Oh, right. I should get Sapphias in here too. I think I’ll have him be an assistant to the secretary.” A wicked grin spread across her lips. “It’s pretty obvious he’s connected with the Chaos Serpents, so rather than letting him roam free, I’d be better off putting him right there beside me in the council where I can keep an eye on him. Let’s see how he likes being surrounded by anti-Chaos Serpenters. Heh. That ought to keep him squirming...”

Feeling pretty proud of herself for coming up with such a great idea, she started humming a jolly little tune.

“Oh, poor Sapphias. He has no idea what he’s in for... I’m going to work him to the bone! He’ll be so busy he won’t have time to hatch any evil plots!”

Obviously, it’s extremely not obvious that Sapphias is in any way connected with the Chaos Serpents, but Mia could not be bothered with such technicalities; she had jolly little tunes to hum!

Rafina readily agreed to assume the role of vice-president, writing back in affirmation as soon as she received Mia’s request. It was, in her opinion, an extremely sensible staffing decision that would ensure a smooth transfer of responsibilities.

“And... it might also be a move to stabilize public sentiment?”

The Duke of Belluga’s daughter being displaced from the president’s seat was already a big deal. If she were absent from the student council entirely, it’d cause too many problems. Granted, it wasn’t ideal in terms of lightening her own workload, but she’d still have a significantly easier time being vice-president.

“It’s all thanks to Mia that I feel more at ease now, so I don’t mind staying around to help her out a little, but...” Her gaze wandered upward as she reflected on Mia’s staffing decisions. “I have to say, you’re sending out one heck of a message with those choices.”

When it came to staffing the student council, it was customary to select students with limited ties to Tearmoon and Sunkland. Mia’s roster was almost an open denunciation of that unspoken rule.

“I didn’t think she’d choose Prince Sion. And Prince Abel too...”

After the election she’d heard that the two princes had a hand in putting together Mia’s platform.

“The two of them helped her with her campaign pledges, so they’re asked to assist with their delivery as well. That seems natural enough, I suppose. Then, in a similar vein, Tiona and Chloe, who put in a lot of work during her campaign, are also brought into the council. On the surface, these certainly seem like reasonable appointments. But...” Her eyes narrowed. “This could also be seen as a declaration of sorts to those in the know. That Tearmoon, Sunkland, and Remno are joining forces with Belluga in the fight against the Chaos Serpents.”

To Rafina, this seemed like a clear expression of Mia’s intent to gather all the members of the anti-Chaos Serpent coalition into the student council, facilitating communication and coordination while they went about their daily lives as students.

“And to cap it all off, she brought him in too. Sapphias Etoile Bluemoon will be a member of the student council...”

She closed her eyes and focused on recalling her prior interaction with Sapphias. Coy and fidgety, the boy’s manner had conveyed not dependability or integrity but rather the petty slyness common to small-time cheats and crooks. Frankly, the exchange had left her with a rather unfavorable impression of him.

“He hardly seems like a desirable candidate... but by giving him a chance like this, he’ll have no choice but to work his tail off. That, perhaps, is her intention?”

Mia didn’t fault him for his past failures and instead promoted him to a position of responsibility. While a confounding decision at first glance... it’d be worth it if it motivated him to rise to the occasion.

“For someone in her position, it’s arguable that sooner or later, she’d have to bring in someone from the Four Dukes. In that sense, he might actually be the easiest one to handle.”

The discovery that one of the Four Dukes might be connected with the Chaos Serpents had of course been brought to her attention, but she definitely didn’t think Sapphias was it.

“Other than that... I suppose this is also a message to the other Tearmoon nobles. And all the other students, really.”

This was probably Mia’s line in the sand. She was making it clear how much preferential treatment the empire’s nobles could expect to receive. Doing absolutely no favors for her fellow countrymen would be seen as bizarre. It was possible for someone in Rafina’s position to uphold the highest standards of impartiality, but a princess of the empire becoming student president and appointing none of her own nobles to the council would be exceedingly unnatural. There was of course Tiona, but she’d been supporting Mia since her campaign’s inception and was likely to be regarded as a direct subordinate. Someone else had to be selected alongside her to keep up appearances.

“Honestly, it wouldn’t even be that strange for her to bring in the children of all Four Dukes, but that’s likely to cause some backlash. Appointing just one of them, then... Hm, I see. She’s really threading the political needle, isn’t she?”

The more she thought about it, the more apparent it became that Mia’s decision was based on a careful and comprehensive evaluation of the current political dynamics. She let out a breath of quiet awe.

“So, she can do politics too...”

Rafina bumped up her assessment of Mia, who now sat comfortably on the rung labeled “accomplished woman.”

...Meanwhile, the accomplished woman in question had no idea her perceived level of competence was experiencing significant inflation.