Lady Misfortune: Daddy, I'll Be A Righteous Villainess!

Too caught up in the confrontation between the 'Shadow Kings' and the Student Elite Society, everyone has briefly forgotten about Ms. Verosica's presence. 

Some of them eventually noticed the mood she's currently in, though – she's downright seething. They figured it out only when she stood up from her seat at the back and paced towards the members of the technical team. She demanded them to cut off the broadcast, and from there, she started asking for other unreasonable things. 

"We're not sure what she really wants, Ms. Belle. First, she wants us to stop recording in the middle of the interview, then she wants to go in there and take the SES's place..." said the club officer who reported to Belle.

"Her tantrum is making our empty stomachs feel worse."

"Ughhh… How bothersome…" Belle groaned before handing over the box of popcorn to the club officer.

"You may have that. Eat some. I'm afraid her tantrum's just gonna get worse."

"Oh, thanks. But what do you mean?"

"We cannot end the broadcast nor can we let her join the interview."

Belle isn't going to allow Ms. Verosica to ruin this. It's still too early for Weiss and Fallon to show what they have up their sleeves. 

The student council was the one who asked for this in the first place. Sooner or later, they would have to confront one another, anyway. It would be better for them to bear with it for now and finish it all today than suffer more tomorrow. 

"Then, are you trying to tell us that our members are lying?"

"We're not trying to. We're really telling you," Fallon deadpanned.

"Hah. I wonder what the others have to say about that. Between the school officers and a problem student, who do you think they'll believe to be the one doing the bullying? You're just defending her because both of you are close to her. For all we know, you've been pulling strings from behind just to keep her from getting punished for her offenses." 

"Speak for yourselves, SES. Who's the one that's been giving special treatment to a non-member?" Weiss sneered.

They stiffen at that. They know what he's talking about.

He doesn't really plan to bring up Sarah too much, though. Lady doesn't want her to get involved in this kind of situation, after all. However, it's just simply impossible for Weiss to stay quiet when they're badmouthing her.

The student council is now trying to force in a different subject. He can tell where this exchange is going. They're going to put the focus on Lady's two-year rift with Sarah - to demonize her. He already predicts that they'll discuss some of the instances a commotion happened because of that.

And that they did. 

'Those guys really like talking about people who aren't here, huh…?' Belle thought as the Student Elite Society went on and on about how Lady kept harassing and mistreating Sarah.

'A piece of advice. Don't dig your own graves.'

It's too late for that, though. Everyone can see it, except for them. 

Fallon is more than ready to commit murder, and Weiss is already planning to prepare a funeral.

"Frankly speaking, she should have been expelled a long time ago!"

"Hey, I've been thinking…" Fallon began again, scowling menacingly.

"Why is the executive board the one doing the interview? Where are those members who're involved in the incident? Shouldn't they be the ones explaining themselves right now?"

"As their upperclassmen, we have a duty to look out for them." 

"Oh, so does that mean you'll also take responsibility if they come out guilty…?" Weiss inquired with a foreboding smile.

"Are you willing to take the fall with them? We would've understood if you wouldn't want to side with them, you know. Then again, they're the ones at fault. Since you've said this much, however, I believe you're okay with sharing the price for covering up for them?" 

"We're not going to take any punishment, of course! They're innocent."

The boys sigh at that. 

Perhaps, it's about time. This is going in circles. Not like they didn't give the opposing party a chance, anyway. This is enough.

Weiss briefly exchanges looks with Fallon before turning to Belle.

"Well, okay then. Will you please show it to us, Belle?"

"Sure thing, Weiss."

And then plays a certain CCTV footage.

It suddenly pops up on every screen around the school. In the broadcasting room, it's being flashed on a widescreen TV at the center front of the studio. 

All attention is instantly on the appalling scene.

"Don't think you can act all mighty just because you're a CEO's daughter."   

"You have to learn how to treat others with respect regardless of their social status, Ms. Mireille."

"What makes you think you're that big of a deal, anyway? You're no match for Sarah at all. What gives you the right to treat her the way you do? You literally have nothing to be proud of."

"Her social circle, perhaps? She's close with the Chairman's son."

"Oh, right. Her family name, too. Doesn't that make her seem like leeching off, then? It's probably all she's good at." 

"While having that much influence is an important trait, I think that conduct should always come first." 

Seeing the Student Elite Society in a state of shock makes Weiss and Fallon feel satisfied to an extent.

It gets better when some of them can no longer look at anyone properly. Others try not to unveil too much by acting bamboozled – they're only making themselves appear dumber, is what Belle thinks. The true colors of their fellow student officers have already been exposed. No use pretending at this point.

'I didn't expect that Weiss would prepare this much, though…' she pondered quietly as she continued to watch how the horrid event unfolded.

'He managed to get a hold of a strong piece of evidence even only after less than twelve hours. This is the CCTV footage from that coffee shop – it'll be difficult to prove it unauthentic. Not to mention, he enlisted the aid of the employee who was working at the time. He also gathered up the testimonies of those students who witnessed the incident. I wonder how the SES will counter all of that.'

Belle had asked him earlier why he could not just go straight to the student council and slap the evidence on each of their faces instead of dragging the issue. Weiss had simply told her that there'd be less impact if the student council would not give a response first.       

'It's fine if they decide to apologize to Lady right away, but if they choose to turn a blind eye on their members' misconduct and show everybody just how foolish they can be, it will have a negative effect on their image as student-leaders. Either way, they'd all be taught an important lesson, won't they?'

Leave it to this ever calculating boy, and he'll make it a huge comeback.

Belle understands, though. They had hurt Lady, after all. Weiss is only doing the right thing.   

"If you're wondering if she really did anything bad to Sarah Gracelyn just like your members claimed, we can play the video from the very beginning," Weiss muttered. 

From that point on, the whole place is enveloped in deep, heavy silence.

---

"Is that… all you've got for lunch, Sarah?"

Lady is nonplussed upon having a look at Sarah's lunch box.

There's a bunch of bread inside. Only plain, dull bread, though.

Hartigan is also surprised. It's not an unknown fact that Sarah is from an ordinary family. Still, eating nothing but bread for mealtime is a little bit too much – or so what Lady is most probably thinking at that moment. 

The three of them are spending the remaining fifteen minutes of lunch at the rooftop. They would have still had at least half an hour if only there weren't too many flies around. The cafeteria just happened to be filled with people who kept giving them judging looks.

So, they ended up at the stairwell near the rooftop, which turned out to be one of Sarah's favorite places to eat lunch.

"I know what you're thinking. Spare me the deets…" she grumbled underneath her breath while rolling her eyes at the two of them.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm so poor I can't even afford to buy myself a proper meal."

"No wonder you look like a walking stick sometimes…" the other girl commented absentmindedly, earning an annoyed huff from her. 

"But no. I don't think that. Here. Try some of mine."

With that, Lady went ahead and shared her food with Sarah. 

She gave her a portion of her exquisite lunch without even bothering to ask her first. Sarah can't help but be taken aback, wondering if she's feeling unwell today. She would've never expected that Lady would share something with her. It's already hard to believe that they're actually eating together, and even though they're getting along so far, it's still taking a while to let it all sink. 

Hartigan, on the other hand, simply smiles at Lady's act of concern for Sarah.