"By the time I was a senior, the Academy's rankings had finally stabilized, and the pressure on me greatly eased. During this period, Serasilence, due to conflicts with other Student Council members, had been removed from the Council. As I was preparing for the Winter Festival Gala, I decided not to burst this bubble and resolved to deal with the matter after the Festival,"
"Now, with the new year starting and the Winter Festival Competition long over, it seems it's time to address the Serasilence issue. However, due to instructions from the Academy's board, a girl with exceptional talent approached me to take over my position."
"What do you think? Should I handle this personally, or should I give you the chance to quickly establish your own prestige and become familiar with the qualities needed for this position?"
This... It turned out that the reason actually originated from myself.
She sighed, nodded her head, and said, "Although I understand the President's good intentions, I have never dealt with this kind of situation before. Can you tell me how to handle it?"
"Good, I thought you might just blindly go ahead without even asking," Amors said with a smile at the corner of his mouth, and then he picked up the coffee in front of him.
"There are many ways to deal with Serasilence: simply and forcefully ordering her to dissolve her clubs, ruining her reputation by publicizing her misdeeds, or gently persuading her to reform. All can achieve the desired outcome."
"However, the key is whether each method will succeed and whether you can bear the consequences."
"Of course, our Student Council can forcibly dissolve clubs, but if we don't provide a convincing reason, it is undoubtedly shaking our own authority, invoking skepticism from the campus students and complaints from parents outside the school."
"Publicizing her misdeeds may shake her, but it won't be fatal and could even trigger her furious revenge. A small misstep could lead to major trouble."
"Gentle persuasion, even if it fails, won't have any adverse effects, but the downside is that it's almost impossible to succeed with an extremely low success rate."
"Does it seem tricky? The obvious methods are not very practical." Amors began to teach Tilan the art of struggle.
"But what if you have other conditions? For instance, high prestige that everyone in the Academy believes in and respects. Even if she despises your proposal, neither she nor the people around her would want to confront you. Thus, they would persuade her, and as the environment supporting her disappears, she alone would find it difficult to resist such a tide and could only accept your arrangements and directives."
"Of course, what I'm describing is the most ideal state; in reality, establishing such prestige is not easy. I'm only trying to tell you that with high prestige, dealing with internal conflicts and issues becomes extremely easy, and many conflicts might not even arise."
"Everyone would think it natural to comply with your arrangements and wouldn't feel insulted. Instead, they might even feel honored."
"Schemes and tricks, as the outsiders imagine, might sound powerful, but they have significant drawbacks. Not to mention the energy you'd need—constantly planning and calculating is inefficient, and once it's exposed, it could be a huge blow to your image and future, possibly leading to a downfall."
"The most universal righteousness is to establish prestige and qualifications through actual achievements, using them to clear away various obstacles in your path, and then combine that with appropriate appeasement to unite everyone around you."
"Appeasement, or understanding human nature, is something I presumably don't need to teach you. What you lack now is the establishment of prestige."
"During your guidance of the 'Hat and Short Sword' club, they've become your loyal followers, which has given you some degree of reputation, but it's not enough to overpower Serasilence."
"Now you have two paths: one is to continue to win the trust of other clubs within the Academy, expanding your influence. The other is to break the internal pillars of support for Serasilence one by one. Once those voices that support her vanish, she herself will become weak and easy to subdue."
"Of course, you could pursue both paths simultaneously if you have the energy and capability."
In the Student Council office, two generations of Student Council Presidents were engaged in a new round of knowledge transfer. Under the tutelage of the old fox, a naive girl gradually came to understand the perils of struggle. Although she might not use these means, understanding them could only benefit her survival on the stage to come.