The Melancholy of the Fake Saint
It was around halfway of the election period.
“Mia-sama, the election contest so far… we’re losing.” Chloe announced in a somber tone.
Mia and her crew were in an empty classroom that they borrowed for their campaign headquarters.
Oh well. No surprises there.
It wasn’t a shock to her. In fact, it felt quite reasonable to her. After all, Mia can’t think of any way that she can beat Rafina. The election pledge was made with the cooperation of Abel and Sion. That’s why she was able to make something as solid as Rafina’s. But that was it. Not better, nor worse than Rafina’s pledge. But running against Rafina means that she has to produce something better than hers.
Too many things outside my calculation happened…
That’s right, Mia had a tentative strategy. She had intended to prepare a solid list of pledges and to establish an atmosphere where she was seen as someone who could realistically be a the council president. Meanwhile, she would be buying votes from Tearmoon and Sunkland factions behind the scenes. However, this plan of hers didn’t come to fruition.
The great announcement by Tiona not only alienated her from Sapphias, but also to the whole Four Dukes faction.
And so, it has come to this.
Even if one of the Four Dukes might be a Chaos Serpent, she still needed their assistance to rally the Tearmoon nobles for her votes. Worse yet, if she could not secure all the Tearmoon votes, then the Sunkland votes would be a lost cause. Who would support a candidate who could not even convince her own nobles to vote for her?
Of course, Sion has also stated that he will take a neutral position… something Mia can’t do anything about.
The result is in the preliminary survey, most of the support is in favor of Rafina.
“Currently, the ratio of supporters is nine for Rafina and one for Mia.”
Wow! 10% of the student body supports me?! Mia was surprised at the fact. So there are still people who doesn’t mind riding on the sinking ship. Hohohoh!
She had reached the self-deprecation stage of grief.
“Somehow, we have to do something to recover.” Chloe said to which Mia replied with a wry smile.
“Even if you say so, that is easier said than done.”
There was something in the room that she knew so well. It was the smell of defeat. She remembered it vividly…
Oh, these faces… It’s similar to the faces of the Imperial Guards during the final days of the revolution.
She remembered the look of resignation on the faces of the soldiers who knew that they won’t come out of it alive. And still, they went for the final charge against the Revolutionary Army. The students in the room all wore the same expression. These were the faces that looked at Mia.
Maybe it’s better to assume that we have lost and start preparing for the aftermath…
The mood in the room was infectious and Mia was also about to give up. The only ones who seemed to believe that she could still win were Abel, Tiona, and Chloe.
“Does anyone have any concrete ideas?” It was Chloe who is acting as a moderator now. She was undeterred by the air of defeat in the room.
Tiona Rudolvon’s hand shot up in answer to Chloe’s question.
“How about we decide on a color to represent us?”
Tiona’s question earned her puzzled stares from everyone in the room.
“People who support Her Highness will wear the same color. It may be difficult to do that with all our clothes though…”
“I see, it’s an easy-to-understand branding. We could use scarves. Scarves of the same color wrapped on the arm. I think it will be effective. Appearances matter after all.” Chloe nodded and explained that such a strategy was used in an election in some country before.
Then Abel added.
“Its also effective on the battlefield. I hear that there is an unrivaled order of knights whose whole body is solidified with jet black, and showing that they are allies in an easy-to-understand manner also bolstered their solidarity. Then the question is what color to use?”
One of Mia’s entourage answered Abel’s question.
“Rafina is white in terms of imagery, so what about a quiet color? Like some shade of blue?”
“Blue…”
Hearing that, Mia winced. It reminded her of the failed revolution in Remno.
What were they called again? The Blue Scarves…
It’s really ominous. She felt like she won’t be able to win with such a color.
Well, I can’t win originally anyway.
Mia was still stuck in self-deprecation mode. After that, ideas for various colors such as yellow, green, pink, and orange came out …
“We are actually limited by dyes. So if we want to get this done quickly, there are only a couple of colors that we can realistically choose from.” Chloe’s realistic view narrowed the options.
As a result, it became a decision between yellow or red.
“If we go for red, then it will be dyed with dye form twilight-rose dye. As for yellow… uh… this color…”
Chloe the produced a handkerchief. The yellow was so yellow, a flashy yellow, that it hurt the eyes of everyone there.
We are going to look like idiots if we wear that color.
The only thing they can achieve with such a flashy yellow color is to be labelled attention-seekers. That was definitely not a good branding. So their real choice was the other color, twilight-rose red.
“Red, sure. Whatever…” Mia muttered with disinterest. It wasn’t until a few days later that she regrets this decision.
“This color is …”
The color came from twilight-rose dye… which was a color of deep red that it is usually called by another name, guillotine red. It was obvious where the name came from, but it evoked an ominous memory to Mia.
“Ah! This has to be a sign. I am done for… Ugh…”
Mia collapses on the spot which caused Anne and the others to panic. Thus the fun election campaign was coming to an end…
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