A Tyrant's Will

Volume 1: Chapter 7.1 - The Merciless Siege(Preparation)

After explaining the plan to my five subordinates, I went to the podium and got everyone's attention.

"Listen up. I want all of you to follow Class C around for the next few days. Do whatever you can to harass those fools. Block them, provoke them, insult them, intimidate them. We're gonna make their lives as miserable as possible."

"What? Why would we do something like that?" Voices echoed throughout the classroom.

"In case you've forgotten, my order is absolute. You will do as I say, no questions asked. You all saw the terrible fate that befell upon those who opposed me. Isn't that right, Ishizaki, Komiya, Kondou?"

"U-uh...yeah..."

"Er..., I hope you still don't hold that against us, Ryuuen-san."

The three quickly mumbled their responses and averted their eyes. The rest of the class began trembling as they remembered that day. Nobody dared to respond.

"By the way, I'm not asking you to do this for no reason. We're gonna be performing a little experiment," I affirmed.

"Experiment?" The whole class looked confused.

"That's right. We're gonna push the school rules to the limit. Obviously violence is prohibited, but what about simply bumping into someone? Or getting into someone's face? I wanna see how the school reacts to these provocations. By putting them into practice, we can see what type of behavior crosses the line, and what's considered borderline acceptable."

"There's got to be a better way to go about it, though. Why don't we simply ask the school or Sakagami-sensei?" Oda suggested.

"How boring. This isn't just some half-assed study. We're also doing this to put pressure on our enemies. Did you forget that we're now competing with one other? This isn't a place where you can be all friendly and shit anymore. If you have acquaintances in other classes, cut them off. You never know when they'll stab you in the back, after all." I broke down the situation for the entire class.

A couple students gulped upon realizing their peaceful lives were shattered as a result of the class competition.

"But Ryuuen-san, are you sure that we won't get in trouble or have our class points penalized?" Sonoda asked.

"Don't worry. As long as things don't get physical, there should be no problem. And the school wouldn't punish us for something as trivial as this. The most they would do is give us a warning, but it probably won't even come to that. Class C is also filled with a bunch of snowflakes. I bet they're not even gonna do anything in response."

Everyone listened silently. Some of them still looked unconvinced, despite everything. I guess it's time to pull out that card.

"Still being stubborn, huh? Remember what I told you on the first day of school? I ordered you to accept me as your leader and obey my every command. In return, I won't do anything to drag the class down. You know that my statement still applies, right? If you don't do as I say, I'll start using my phone during lessons and misbehave. I'll ensure we never rise up the ranks."

"You can't do that! This will impact all of us, including your points! Don't you care about reaching Class A?" Oda jumped up and protested heavily.

"I came to this school for one reason, and one reason only...to compete against the elites of this nation. I don't need this school's guarantee of a future job or university or whatever. That shit's probably a scam anyway," I said.

"So, that's the reason you were so adamant about being our leader. I thought it was a little strange back then, but I think I see now. You wanted to establish control in order to battle against the other classes, right?" Sonoda asked.