"Dude, she is our senior and the student council president on top of that," Max muttered in a low tone. "You can’t just address her by her real name."

Turning to Seraphina, he continued, "Good evening, Miss President. What pleasure do we owe that you came to see us personally?"

Seraphina rested her chin on one hand while supporting its elbow with the other and said, "There are some delinquents among the freshers who ruined the Orientation that we had carefully prepared over several days."

Her pink gemstone eyes narrowed at Vlad as a serene smile formed on her face.

"I’m here as the ’Delinquent Catcher’ to teach them a lesson."

Vlad instantly flinched at her words. His head locked onto the ground, his hand pressed to his forehead in a futile attempt to hide his face.

"Delinquent Catcher?" Chloe tilted her head, her index finger moving to her chin. "I’ve heard that before."

’Damn it, she remembers everything. We were too young back then. Why are her memories so sharp? Oh right, it’s been so long. I can just act like I don’t remember anything from back then.’

Vlad nodded to himself, making the decision. He raised his head, composed a calm expression on his face, and said, "We don’t understand what you mean, Miss President." 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"Oh..." Seraphina chuckled as if amused and surprised by the tone and words Vlad had chosen. "Something tells me that you know exactly what I mean, my cute...delinquent...juniors."

’I have never seen someone appear this terrifying when they smile,’ Vlad gasped inwardly before answering, his voice firm but respectful, "If you mean how we claimed all the books and traded them, we didn’t break any rules. All the freshers started from the same point; everyone had their own advantages. We didn’t use any unfair means or steal anything from anyone."

"You monopolised the entire syllabus of your peers."

"There was no rule that explicitly stated we couldn’t. We even shared the books with other students instead of submitting them all for first place."

The smile on Seraphina’s face lessened, a frown creasing her forehead. Max placed his arm around Vlad’s shoulder and whispered in a nervous tone, "Bro, what are you doing speaking back to the President?"

"I didn’t say anything wrong."

"Still, bro! She is our senior, and the President on top of that. We’ve already offended our batchmates; we can’t afford to offend our seniors as well. Our life in the academy will turn into the deepest hell. Just let me handle it from here, bro."

Vlad seemed completely reluctant. He clearly didn’t want to suffer punishment when he hadn’t done anything wrong.

"Please, trust me this once, bro," Max pleaded again, his voice turning almost desperate.

Vlad released a tired sigh and agreed. He also didn’t want to make his impression any worse than it already was in Seraphina’s eyes.

"Miss President, I understand that our actions resulted in a completely opposite outcome to what you had originally intended through this Treasure Hunt," Max said in a calm tone. "Still, as we haven’t broken any rules, we are prepared to accept any punishment, as long as you don’t confiscate the rewards we earned from the contracts."

"Oh my~ I would never do such a thing to my cute juniors who exposed the loopholes in our game," Seraphina let out a small gasp. She moved closer, her every step carrying a quiet grace. Once she reached Vlad, she said, locking eyes with him, "I just need to administer a small punishment, as a Delinquent Catcher should."

’Crap! Crap! She surely doesn’t mean the same punishment I gave her ten years ago,’ Vlad screamed inwardly.

She carefully moved her shoe closer to Vlad’s toe, pressed down on it hard, making sure Max didn’t notice, and declared, "Our Vice President will inform you of the punishment after the orientation. Now, move to the front of the Main Building."

From Seraphina’s heel, Vlad felt a hot pressure against his toe inside his shoe. Even so, he kept his expression neutral.

"I didn’t hear a yes," Seraphina said, the temperature on Vlad’s toe rising even higher.

"Yes, ma’am," Vlad muttered, forcing his voice to stay level.

"Good boy~" she chuckled, finally removing her foot from his toe. She moved past him toward Chloe, who had been glaring at her from the moment she stepped in front of Vlad.

She leaned close to her ear and whispered, "I learned this a long time ago. If you don’t eat your berries on time, someone else might snatch them."

For a moment, Chloe was left frozen by Seraphina’s words. A smile of satisfaction curled on Seraphina’s lips as the expressions on unreadable Chloe’s face became as clear as day from a single sentence.

She moved past her. A moment later, when Chloe regained her composure, she turned to say something, but Seraphina was nowhere to be seen. Only the dense trees of Grimveil Forest remained, their leaves rustling in the cold breeze.

"Woah! Was that a teleportation spell?" Max gasped as Seraphina vanished without a trace. "I heard someone in the Student Council has an affinity to aether, the rarest element. So it was actually tru — Oh god, Vlad, what happened to your foot?"

Max exclaimed, his eyes dropping to Vlad’s foot, where smoke was rising from his shoe and his reddened toe was left bare.

"Nothing... I’m just feeling a little hot."

Once Seraphina was gone, the trio set off down the stone path where the lamps had begun to light up as the moon’s glow slowly overwhelmed the last of the sunrays.

An hour passed before they reached the front of the main hall. The other freshers had already arrived. Vlad’s group was the last to return, and naturally they were welcomed by hundreds of sharp, dagger-like stares the moment they appeared.

The entire area was now enclosed by three parallel strips of cloth tied to wooden poles at regular intervals, with only a single entrance. A senior student in academy uniform stood at the entrance. The freshers submitted their treasure maps and presented their earned treasures to the senior before being allowed inside.