Three cold-looking young girls stood at the door.
They wore identical uniforms with black badges pinned to their chests.
Three red characters were inscribed on the badges: Student Council.
The atmosphere turned suffocatingly heavy in an instant.
Adela and Tao Tao shared an identical expression—first shock, then sheer terror.
Su Ling felt a surge of ecstatic joy when she realized it was the Student Council.
Su Yao must have reported the situation.
She was finally saved.
However, something bizarre happened next.
Adela and Tao Tao suddenly clung to each other, acting incredibly intimate.
“Ahhh! Why are you breaking into a private residence?! We’re a couple!”
“Exactly, exactly! Get out! Get out right now!”
Now it was Su Ling’s turn to be bewildered.
The Student Council members at the door seemed used to such sights and simply rolled their eyes.
The girl leading the group directly held up a pair of handcuffs.
“A couple? Hah. Can you even say each other’s names?”
“Her name is Tao Tao, and her favorite food is extra-spicy turkey noodles!”
“Adela! Her name is Adela! She’s a failing novelist!”
The two of them huddled together, crying and jumping around in a truly ridiculous display.
“Oh, you two certainly know each other well. But isn’t she Qing Luan? She was just locked up last month.”
The leader watched their performance quietly while twirling the handcuffs.
“And what about her? Tsk, tsk. This junior is quite pretty.”
The three of them looked at Su Ling and simultaneously let out a rowdy wolf-whistle.
Su Ling felt her skin crawl.
‘Are these… Are these really people from the Student Council?’
‘They feel more like a bunch of local thugs.’
“Take them all away.”
“Nooo!”
“Waaaah, please don’t!”
Adela and Tao Tao felt as if the sky were falling.
It was as if being taken away by the Student Council was equivalent to being dragged into a bottomless abyss.
***
Su Ling quickly understood why everyone feared being taken by the Student Council.
In the thirty minutes she was interrogated, she was slapped with an unbelievable number of accusations.
Things like “mass partying,” “filing a false police report,” “disturbing public order,” and so on.
Su Ling hadn’t realized she was so “capable.”
“No, I’m the victim here,” Su Ling explained until her throat was dry.
“Heh, every criminal likes to paint themselves as the victim.”
The Witch conducting the interrogation sneered.
At the same time, her gaze swept over Su Ling’s body without any attempt at concealment.
Su Ling felt exhausted.
No wonder.
No wonder those Witches turned pale at the mere mention of the Student Council.
If reporting a crime could turn you into a criminal, who would ever dare deal with them?
“Of course, it all depends on your sincerity, Junior—”
The woman winked at her.
Su Ling felt a wave of discomfort.
‘Is she trying to solicit a bribe or something more?’
“Sigh… How much do you want?”
“Oh, you’re quick on the uptake. It’s not expensive. 100,000 Moni.”
“How much?!”
Su Ling stood up abruptly.
‘I’m the victim, and I have to give you 100,000 Moni?’
Tsk. She suddenly remembered what the girl group in the noodle shop had said.
“Once you report something, you’ll never want to do it a second time.”
“Of course, since you’re so pretty, there are other ways to pay. For example… hehehe—”
Su Ling fell silent.
“By the way, that’s your sister outside, isn’t it? Junior, you wouldn’t want anything to happen to her…”
Blatant intimidation.
Su Ling suddenly missed the Superintendent Department back on Azure Star.
Though those police officers ignored the Lower City, at least they actually did their jobs.
These Student Council members were no different from bandits.
“Huh? She’s your mother? Hehe, even better.”
After looking at the files, they let out a cry of surprise followed by excited laughter.
Su Ling took a deep breath.
“Let her go… I… I…” She bit her lip.
She could produce 100,000 Moni.
However, she had already paid 60,000 for rent, and her annual tuition was also 100,000.
If she gave this money away, her future would be very difficult.
Just as she was agonizing over the decision, the interrogation room door was suddenly pushed open.
“Release her. Someone paid the bail.”
“Yes, Ma’am!”
Su Ling walked out of the Student Council headquarters in a daze.
They just let her go?
“Ling Ling!”
Su Yao lunged forward, hugging Su Ling as she burst into tears.
If she had known these Student Council people were such monsters, she never would have made that call.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. See? I’m perfectly fine,” Su Ling said, patting Su Yao’s back to comfort her.
At the same time, she was filled with doubt.
Who exactly paid her bail?
“Are you Junior Su Ling?”
At that moment, three figures approached them.
Behind the leader stood Lilith and Qing Luan.
Both of them looked incredibly embarrassed.
After all, they had boasted grandly before accepting the mission, yet they had been utterly humiliated by Adela the moment they met.
The Truth Sequence was simply too underhanded.
The students of the Academy of Truth preferred peace and quiet, and the two of them simply lacked experience.
The person in the lead was an older girl with pink hair.
Her long pink hair looked like melted cherry blossom frosting, with several translucent crystal feathers hanging between the strands that trembled slightly with her breath.
Her amethyst-colored eyes curved into mischievous crescents, and a faint pink blush bloomed at the corners of her eyes.
Her smile seemed to make the very air turn sweet.
Her dress was a blend of pure white and gold, adorned with shimmering amethysts at the chest.
The hem was cut into sharp, petal-like fragments edged with radiant gold.
She raised a hand clad in a white silk glove, her slender fingertips catching a stray lock of Su Ling’s hair.
She brought it to her nose and inhaled softly.
“Ling Ling, she’s the one who helped us,” Su Yao whispered, pulling on Su Ling’s sleeve.
“Tian Tian. That’s my name. I’m the manager of Witch’s Hut 07,” Tian Tian said with a smile.
The sweet, heavy scent clinging to her made Su Ling’s face flush.
“Thank you so much. About that 100,000—”
“It wasn’t 100,000. It was 500,000.”
“!”
Su Ling’s eyes widened into ovals.
Wait, how much?!
“Ha, it seems those people told you that you could leave for 100,000, right? Oh, it’s all a trick. Once you actually pay, they’ll come up with a mountain of other excuses until they’ve sucked every last bit of your savings dry before letting you go.”
“Doesn’t anyone do anything about this? What about the teachers?”
“It’s understandable that a freshman wouldn’t know.”
Tian Tian, Lilith, and Qing Luan all looked like they were struggling to hold back their laughter.
“The Student Council is the law here. Who’s going to stop them? Even some of the teachers are afraid of them. Besides, more than half of the taxes the Student Council collects end up in the pockets of those teachers. Why would they interfere?”
“Does no one report this to the Dean?”
Su Ling thought of the Dean.
The impression she had of the man didn’t fit this kind of situation.
“It’s useless. The reporting channels are monopolized by the Student Council and certain teachers. Even if a report goes through, the Dean is so busy he doesn’t have time to deal with it.”
Tian Tian shrugged, her face full of helplessness.
Furthermore, the Student Council was only greedy for money.
Once they drained you, they left you alone, which gave many Witches a sense of false security.
Some Witches who had been scammed even developed a vengeful mindset.
‘Since I got screwed over, everyone else should too.’
Consequently, the most ironic part was that if someone tried to report directly to the Dean, the first people to move against them wouldn’t be the Student Council—it would be the friends and classmates they spent every day with.
Su Ling felt a deep sense of powerlessness.
At the same time, she suddenly realized the identity of the person in front of her.
“Um, about that… the 500,000 Moni… I…”
The Witch’s Hut!
“Sigh, it seems today is another day of being misunderstood.”
Tian Tian pressed a hand to her forehead and sighed.
“Our Witch’s Hut does offer loan services, but this 500,000 is something I personally fronted for you. It’s not a loan.”
“Of course, you still have to pay it back, but there’s no rush.”
“If you really can’t afford it, Junior, you can come to my place and work off the debt with your salary.”
The trap was finally revealed.
Su Ling’s heart sank.