Golden Melody (Editing)

Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Student Council or Student Torture?

Zatariel's POV

I should've faked a fever.

Or staged a minor disappearance.

Or simply passed away quietly and left a tasteful note.

But no.

I walked into the Wayne Academy Student Council Office.

Voluntarily.

The room smelled like floor polish and unresolved superiority complexes.

Apparently, there's a "tradition."

"All newly elected officers must undergo rituals to prove their dedication to the student body."

Translation?

Humiliation with branding.

The second I stepped inside, a whistle shrieked directly into my ear.

"ON YOUR KNEES, NEWBIE PRESIDENT!"

I blinked at them.

"No."

The vice president—a senior named Harold with too much school spirit and not enough therapy—grinned like a maniac.
"No? You dare disrespect tradition?"

"Tradition is dumb," I muttered. I already regretted having vocal cords.

Did that stop them?
No.

First came the "presidential crawl." We were ordered to crawl across the office floor while seniors chanted slogans like they were summoning a minor demon of school spirit.

Yeah. I wasn't alone in this humiliation.

Beside me, the new secretary—a freshman girl named Jillian—was already crying into her collar.

"WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE IN STUDENT COUNCIL?" a senior barked in her face with a megaphone.

"I—I d-don't know anymore—!" Jillian sobbed.

Behind her, Marcus, a sophomore treasurer, was trying not to hurl in a bucket after being forced to do thirty "loyalty squats" while singing the school anthem backwards.

Then Harold stepped forward, holding a spoon and hot sauce.

I stared at it.

He smiled. "You will ingest the Flame of Responsibility."

"I'm allergic to spices! What the fuck?!" I screamed

Harold beamed.
"One full spoon. No milk. If you cry, we upload the video to the school forum."

"This school needs psychological intervention," I muttered—right before—

"AHHHHHHH—!"
The sauce torched my throat. I felt like I was being exorcised.

Laughter exploded around me.

Marcus was lying on the floor whispering, "I see the light."

Jillian was fully dissociating.

"THIS IS ABUSE!" I coughed violently, fanning my mouth with a scrap of paper.

Somewhere behind me, a junior officer was being interrogated about the school's waste management system. He didn't know the answer. They made him wear a trash bin as a hat.

"WHO IS THE MOST INSPIRATIONAL FIGURE IN YOUR LIFE?" someone bellowed at another poor soul.

"...My dad," the boy whimpered.

"UNACCEPTABLE!"

I sighed. My head throbbed. My mouth still burned.

I leaned against a mop, coughing smoke.
"I just wanted to sleep through high school..."