What Do You Mean, A Retainer?
The start of the new semester was an especially lively day for Saihagakuen Academy.
After the students who had just arrived at school gathered briefly in their classrooms, they immediately headed toward the gymnasium, where the entrance ceremony was held to announce the beginning of the new semester.
As a first-year high school student who had advanced from the academy's middle school section—and the top student among the first-years at that—Luo Zhen was scheduled to give a speech onstage.
Although Luo Zhen had really wanted to skip the speech just as he had back when he was at Onmyo Academy, letting whoever came after him take his place, things were different now. Luo Zhen was enormously popular at Saihagakuen Academy and admired by practically every student. On top of that, his older sister was a teacher at the academy. So, both to avoid embarrassing her and to keep from disappointing the students who were eagerly anticipating the event, Luo Zhen still went onstage and delivered an outstanding speech in front of the entire school.
If this had been in the past, Luo Zhen absolutely would not have been able to do something like this.
If he had been asked to hold a prewar military conference or deliver a declaration of war, Luo Zhen would have been quite comfortable. But having him give a speech at a school's entrance ceremony for the new semester was not his style at all. Even if it was not beyond his abilities, it was still far too much to ask of him.
Now, Luo Zhen had already developed considerable skill with words. Combined with his perfect public image and impeccable, almost aristocratic manners, his speech transformed what should have been an extremely dull entrance ceremony into something resembling a