A Tyrant's Will

Volume 1: Chapter 1.1 - Welcome to Class C

Human life is nothing but a hierarchy of power, strength, and status. From the moment we are born, we are thrown into a division of invisible tiers, where we try our best to fit in or rise in the rankings.

Hierarchy is all around us. It's important, too. It establishes order, lawfulness, and a sense of conformity.

Most human beings are aware of the hierarchy they are thrown into and willingly accept their position. 99 percent of human beings fall into the lowest tier. Only those who possess the ambition, the drive, and the strength will rise up the ladder.

Those at the top of the human hierarchy can be labeled as powerful. So that leads to the big question: What does it mean to have power?

One might say it's to establish control over others, or to possess authority. Some might also say it's how famous a person is or how much respect they command. Of course, a part of that may be true, but it doesn't cover the entire picture.

I think that the biggest component to being powerful is to have influence.

This is especially true in the modern era, where one's relationships and connections play a major role in power dynamics. In fact, those of a lower social standing may have more power than those above them simply because they hold more influence among their peers. 

A title is only a title unless the person holding it can actually influence those below them. What is the point of being a student council president when you have no impact or control over your subordinates? You might as well be a teacher's pet, except this time you're sucking up to the entire school, not the teacher. In other words, the school is simply using you for their own benefit.

If you are in a position of power, do the absolute best you can to push that authority to the limit. Those who have power and choose not to use it are fools. Make it so that everyone acknowledges you as someone worthy to be respected, and start earning the recognition and influence befitting of your title. 

There are many ways to gain said influence. Throughout the course of history, violence was a common factor in many leaders' rise to power. They used force to control the masses, censoring any opposition.

That's right. If I want to establish a foothold in this school, I'm going to have to seize control of my own class first. I'm not gonna have them follow me out of respect or anything like that. Instead, I will use intimidation and brutality to get them to obey my every command.

Besides, this way is much faster. And more efficient, too.

I don't have time to be all buddy-buddy and be friends with all of them, anyway. I'll pick out the useful ones to be my underlings, and we'll take control from there.

I walked toward my seat in the classroom and looked around. My spot was located in the top left corner, next to the window. From just a quick glimpse, it looked like your average high school classroom. There were forty desks and chairs, a teacher's podium, and a group of lockers at the back. Nothing too out of the ordinary.

I arrived pretty early, so there weren't many individuals in the classroom as of yet. As more and more students started trickling in, I observed each of them carefully out of the corner of my eye.

Many of them seemed ordinary upon first inspection. Of course, a cursory glance isn't enough to gauge one's entire character and strengths. However, I do pride myself in having good intuition, and many of them seemed like the type to just go with the flow.

It would be easy to convince these punks to follow me, as I anticipate many of them would be too scared to fight back. On the other hand, I really hoped that there would at least be some competent classmates. It would be a huge pain in the ass to do everything by myself.