Became a Dark Merchant in the Academy - Chapter 212



211 – Student Council President Election_15

The host and the audience are the judges.

Pros and cons are lawyers and prosecutors.

The incident is a topic.

Rules are law.

Guilty or not guilty is a matter of victory or defeat.

To be honest, if you look at it from a slightly different perspective, debate and trial are so similar that it seems like they might be Iranian twins, if not identical twins.

So then what role do I play?

Since you are in a position to stand on stage and shout for and against, are you a lawyer or a prosecutor?

Or will you be one step away, Judge?

‘No way.’

Until just a moment ago, either possibility was possible.

Not anymore.

For reputation, for the sake of the unknown.

Also, for Olivia, a key to future plans.

Because I’ve found myself in a position where I sometimes have to defend and sometimes have to prove something in a given case.

No matter how much I thought about it, there was no role that suited me right now.

But if I have to say it.

‘A bat… or is it a witch?’

Since you’re a man, I think werewolf might be a more accurate answer.

Because you are always in a disadvantageous position and have to prove what cannot be proven.

It was a good thing, though.

Anyway, there was a bit of a commotion, a bit of scheming, a bit of fighting, but that’s always what happens when people get together and talk.

The discussion began on time, with someone receiving a very small penalty.

“Candidate Lee Seong-hyeon agreed to provide special scholarships to all students. How do you plan to raise the budget for that? Surely you wouldn’t block it with a budget that should be used elsewhere…”

The candidates went up to the podium and stood in front of their respective lecterns assigned to them on the podium.

Beneath the stage, numerous cadets and broadcasting equipment began to take shape.

And the lights on the ceiling gradually disappeared.

Olivia’s eyes waver in the meantime.

But there was no Saddam.

“Would you mind telling me?”

The first topic chosen was the special scholarship promise mentioned in Park Yul-cheon’s pledge.

The position given to me is yes.

“Didn’t candidate Lee Seong-hyeon say that he agrees, or rather, that it is possible to implement the pledge to provide special scholarships to all students without touching the budget?”

The podium located on the left side.

A man whose name was probably Woo Sap-gyeop or Woo Sang-cheol looked at me with a bitter smile.

Obviously, there were people other than me who agreed with this opinion, including Park Yul-cheon and Xiaolong, who were rumored to be able to unify with him.

He was aiming straight at me.

It seemed like he was still thinking about what happened earlier.

If not, this might have been easier than the big guys.

‘It’s difficult.’

This was a topic that was bound to come up, so I prepared for it.

Both for and against.

One of the basics of debate is to guess and analyze what the other person is going to say and then devise a way to counter it.

But my position was a little strange.

First of all, there was talk of unification with Tachibana Rie.

In that situation, if I were to give an answer that would convince everyone gathered here, it would mean giving strength to Park Yul-cheon, who could be called my number one enemy.

In that case, his relationship with Rie Tachibana could have become strange.

It was clear that the mastermind would also be a little more cautious.

There was also a problem when unifying the country.

That was to be expected, because later on I would have to refute my own words.

Of course, there was a way of saying that it was like that back then, but it is not like that now.

Some of the things I’ll do after becoming student body president will require everyone’s trust, so if I change my words so quickly, who will trust me?

The word ‘self-contradiction’ was appropriate for this situation.

In that case, I think it would be better to just back off.

Why did I insist on using normal election methods rather than expedient methods, such as teleportation or subordinates?

I was worried that what I had would be exposed, but wasn’t it to show that I deserved to win the election and to remove any doubts about my rise to power?

But if I showed my incompetence here, it was obvious that anyone who wasn’t a die-hard supporter would be disappointed in me.

That disappointment would naturally lead to a decline in approval ratings.

So, I have to be competent without being incompetent, and I have to be able to speak coherently while still leaving room for digging.

Considering other situations, I had to do moderately well and moderately badly.

‘Contradiction follows contradiction.’

really…

“Why is there no answer? Was it really a lie that you said it was possible?”

Let’s have some time to ponder, as there are many things to think about.

Woo Sang-cheol asked with a slightly deeper smile.

Perhaps he decided that I had nothing to say.

At the same time, Olivia’s anxious eyes and the worried expressions of the support group members below the stage were visible.

“Please speak…”

“it’s possible.”

“What? No… Hmm. Is it possible?”

“Yes, it is quite possible.”

All eyes were on him.

“How…”

From noble mtl dot com

“Let me ask you again: Why do you think it is impossible?”

The other side is gaining momentum before they can respond.

“That’s… no, didn’t I ask the question first?”

Woo Sang-cheol raised his voice slightly, seeming angry at being interrupted.

“That’s why I’m asking. Shouldn’t you tell me why you think it’s impossible so that I can answer that? Or, you didn’t come out to oppose the opposition without even considering whether it’s possible or not, did you? Mr. Woo Sang-chu, candidate.”

Either way, I kept going.

If it’s a problem if I say it, why don’t you just make it so that it’s not a problem?

A commotion tends to be buried in a bigger commotion.

That was the simplest and most effective thing of all.

“Ah, lettuce. Ahem… This is Sang-cheol Woo. Candidate Seong-hyeon Lee.”

“Oh, I don’t remember the name very well. Anyway, please tell me why you said it was impossible, Mr. Woo Sang-chu.”

“My name is Sangcheol…”

A slightly agitated reaction.

I called out his old nickname that I had known in advance in order to induce even a small mistake, and the effect seemed not bad.

The information that he was teased a lot about his name as a child seemed to be true.

“Whew… Why is it impossible? Of course not. The budget doesn’t fall from the sky. The Academy’s budget is limited, so in order to keep the promise of providing special scholarships to all cadets, it would be impossible without taking budgets allocated elsewhere. However, candidate Lee Seong-hyeon can provide scholarships to all cadets without taking any budget…”

“I guess I can just take it out.”

Park Yul-cheon’s pledge never included a promise to not cut the budget from other places.

But most people were not fully aware of it.

Even those who knew didn’t show it.

Because he is the son of a wealthy family.

Because I’ve been involved with the student council president up until now.

Because there was a reasonable basis for thinking that it might be possible without touching the budget.

Based on that, they committed fraud under the pretense of trust.

And that’s not all.

Why did he add that promise at the end?

Wasn’t it a hit-and-run that didn’t give anyone time to think about the shock?

If you take the budget from somewhere else, the one whose budget is disappearing will not be able to sit still.

In addition, he probably knew what kind of promises the person who would come after him would make…

‘No, to be exact, I would say it was induced.’

“Does that mean you’re going to eliminate budget that could otherwise be allocated elsewhere?”

“Didn’t you say that it was possible if candidate Woo Sang-chu left it out?”

“No, lettuce. No, that’s just an example. I’m not saying that it should be done that way. And if we do that, doesn’t that make the promise that it can be done without taking the budget from other places false!!”

“But it is possible.”

“No, that’s why…”

“If possible, then yes. And I don’t think there was any mention in that discussion that the budget would not be taken from other sources.”

There is nothing wrong with what I said.

“What… It’s definitely in the topic…”

Woo Sang-cheol was fiddling with the paper on the podium.

“Ahem, then where do you plan on taking it from?”

And then shortly after, he changed his attack point.

“Well, first of all, we need to get rid of it where it is useless.”

This is where it got important.

Pretend not to know.

Pretend to make a mistake.

Induce feeding.

“A useless place… Should I take that to mean that there is a useless place within the Academy? Candidate Lee Seong-hyeon?”

The induction was successful.

If it wasn’t induced, I would have tried to raise the rating a little bit.

After speaking, I made a face as if I had made a mistake, and the way he immediately rushed at me was like a moth to a flame.

There seemed to be no need to raise the rating.

‘You look like you’ll ride well.’

A debate is not a trial where the lawyer and the prosecutor argue each other’s objections, shout out for a moment, and argue fiercely with each other’s arguments, citing accurate evidence, laws that do not deviate from the truth, etc., and try to turn the tables after a fierce argument.

Of course, that doesn’t mean they aren’t important, but the essence of the discussion is to convince and persuade.

They are just nice extras to have.

What is important is the understanding of those who are trying to convince and those who are trying to be convinced.

That was public opinion.

And there was no reason not to lie and incite to lead public opinion in the way I wanted.

“Yes, I don’t know much about it. An example would be a place like Mutubu, which candidate Woo Sang-chu said was useless before.”

Throw fire on dry firewood.

The target was Mutoubu, the place with the most members in Laplace Academy.