Leuko : Blind to the Sunshine

Chapter 35: Tasteless Soup

Chapter 35: Tasteless Soup

After her speech, Geeta left us alone to enjoy the banquet as tables suddenly formed themselves out of meltan in the middle of the room, with servants filling them with food...but I don't think anyone here was in the mood for the festivity. Everyone was either eating their food silently, or they weren't even eating their food and were making connections with each other. All of them were clearly doing it as an act of self-preservation, instead of truly trying to socialize with each other.

The reason was very simple, no one was convinced by Geeta's words, as they couldn't even imagine themselves beating an archon no matter how much effort they put behind it. Geeta was simply considered an exception to the rule, or an actual Archon in hiding.

She wasn't of course, but some still believed it.

Most were anticipating that Lance would quickly stand up from his defeat and try once more to force his authority among the students. And when this happened, none of them wanted to be unprepared.

Yet, at the same time, I knew that none of their effort could really protect them from Lance, and I'm sure some of them already understand it. As some were only trying to make an action that wouldn't antagonise Lance in anyways, simply showing their defiance against his emprise to make their surrender look more like a favor they did toward him than anything else.

Of course, that would happen to everyone usually, only those carrying a large amount of pride. But the first problem was that almost everyone filled this requirement. The second problem however was that those who weren't, they still didn't want to be in the order of Lance, especially after what he showed how quickly he was to get angry. No one really wanted to be under him, so they tried what they could to at least lessen the blow.

So all of these people were left with three options to save protect themself.

The first one was to try to make themselves in group with other people, under the reasoning that Lance won't try to subdue them if they are too much to control. This was for me probably the stupidest idea available, as Lance is already planning to subjugate the whole world, it's not their little number that will stop him from acting. Especially when there were very few cohesive groups in the room, with the biggest group without an archon in their rank only numbered five people. Of course they think they're not stupid, so they will try to make other groups join their group to boost their number. But then, who will be the leader? No one wants to lose their authority, they are full of pride after all. So they will try to force the other group to submit to them.

But would the defeated party really accept to join a group they were defeated by? Of course not, which is why they will instead ask for the help of another group to defeat them instead, without thinking they will pay the same price. And who would be waiting for them? Lance.

Most people who composed this group were the mundane people, those without any power, probably because they weren't affected by Lance's speech yesterday, so they don't realise how hopeless it is to fight him. But the few esper who did try to form a group were immediately passed around as hot potatoes, as everyone desired them, but it was hard to make a deal with them as they had nothing to offer to. So they ended up alone.

I decided to call them the Bunch of Fools.

The other option was much more pessimist, yet it at least gave the value of not being stupid. It was simply to try not to worry about it while hoping that Geeta or someone with similar power would take care of Lance's movement. She did show that as a dean, she had full authority over Lance's actions, and she also showed opposition against him. However, the problem is that they lack information, as despite Geeta being currently the highest-ranking member of the academy, she was still under the order of the other government, so she couldn't do as she wished. Beating Lance publicly was probably the most she could do right now, as at least it had the justification of beating someone who try to usurp her authority, but anything more than that would be considered excessive and would be punished by a higher power. So right now the best she can do is to act to keep order inside the school grounds. But Lance's plan can't be considered as plunging it into chaos either, so she can't be too excessive about it either.