God Vessel Online

Chapter 42: Sport Bureaucracy

The student council assignment for Erika and Sophia involved checking on sport clubs. They had to ensure that the lineups of all teams were agreed upon, for the upcoming regional high school tournament.

For the most part, these matters were handled by the teachers responsible for the clubs. However, the student council had to supervise that there were no clashes between different factions.

A problem often arose when one student was sought by two different clubs, which had overlapping schedules in the tournament. Each side conveniently ignored the fact that no matter how skilled the athlete was - he couldn't clone himself to be in two places at once.

"But he's our strongest striker! Our team's power will be cut by half without him! Tell them to find somebody else!"

The manager of the soccer team yelled, unwilling to hand over his ace.

"I definitely understand your position, sir."

Sophia nodded in agreement, but she nonetheless argued back.

"However, Mike can definitely win multiple awards in track competitions. If he merely plays soccer, then he's limited to getting only one award for the school."

"What do you know, girl? Soccer is the real star of the whole event!"

Such debates often led nowhere in Erika's experience. Each club claimed itself superior to the rest and pretended to be the pillar of the whole tournament.

"My, these are such unfortunate circumstances."

Erika meditated between Sophia and the soccer manager.

"This is clearly above our heads. We'll arrange you a meeting with the manager of the track team. Please, sort out this issue with her."

Erika smiled politely toward the manager and made him accept the offer. Sophia didn't feel in peace with this resolution, however.

"Are you absolutely sure about this, Eri? The deadline is Tuesday, we definitely can't leave any conflicts of this sort."

"Don't worry, Sophy. There are over two weeks until the event, we'll have enough time to sort things out."

Erika smiled casually, contrasting Sophia's uptight posture.

There were many good things which could be said about Sophia. She was a diligent girl, always meeting deadlines and flawlessly executing her tasks. Alas, she had one glaring flaw: she was wired like a robot.

The deadline for the task was on Tuesday, therefore everything had to be perfectly settled by then. The slightest error was going to stain Sophia's reputation for life and to make her lose face in public.

Sophy is such a worrywart.

Pushing some issues beyond deadline wasn't the end of the world. The student council existed as a semi-club in order to let its members support each other, not to punish. But, for some reason, it was impossible Sophia to see things this way.

Sophia sparked heated arguments with club managers in order to secure the deadline, instead of redirecting the issues to the right channels and relieving herself from misplaced responsibility. Hence, she made poor progress and Erika often had to help out.

"My, this was so much trouble..."

Erika spat a sigh of relief once they cleared up most of the big conflicts. Thanks to Erika's support, Sophia was able to "resolve" many of the problems... by pushing the responsibility onto the club managers themselves.

"Thank you for the help, Eri."

Sophia wasn't entirely content with these resolutions, but she had to submit to Erika's reasoning. No matter how strongly Sophia willed it, the student council had no position or power to handle real clashes between authority figures. They could bring the issues to everybody's attention, but nothing more.