CHAPTER 430: 0428 YOUTH IN FULL BLOOM

The goddess of Saint Szechka Academy, the future business empress, such laudatory labels have long been draped all over Anna.

Similar to Severa, though Severa’s situation was somewhat special and people were more frenzied, because she was Mr. Wardrick’s only child and was destined to inherit a vast business empire.

In comparison, Anna’s title seemed somewhat... less stable.

But even if it was less stable, it wasn’t something that others in the school could easily match.

As she stood there, the girls surrounding Lynch all disappeared; they didn’t want to cross her, not only because of her family background but also due to her position as student council president.

That was a position of significant power, where even school leaders had to yield at times, let alone the ordinary students.

At the school gate, the two stood facing each other, and Anna still felt a bit flushed from the peculiar flavor of her earlier words.

"I’m flattered (I didn’t expect to have such a beautiful lady waiting for me here; it’s my honor)!"

Very naturally, the two almost simultaneously turned and walked inside the campus; some of the young boys and girls who were watching this couldn’t help but feel a bit of envy.

Though everyone feared Anna’s power in the school, they also wanted to be close to her. The girls did so purely to expand their social circle, believing that if they could become close friends with Anna, they could gain some better opportunities later on.

Opportunities in career development, and chances to meet higher-status men.

As for the boys, their thoughts were akin to those boys during Severa’s school days: get her pregnant, and straightforwardly become a son-in-law of the Akiner Clan...

Now, the situation seemed a bit subtle.

Standing slightly behind Lynch, Anna gently touched her slightly flushed cheeks, "You’ll be speaking at 9:10, are you prepared?"

She decided to break the ice with the most common question; if Lynch replied that he already had his speech prepared, then she could rightfully, as the "student council president," ask to find a quiet corner with Lynch to review his speech.

In a relatively closed environment, young and restless hearts would only draw closer.

If he replied he hadn’t prepared, well, as the "student council president," Anna had extensive experience organizing and participating in various meetings and could easily write an appropriate speech.

The two would certainly end up sitting together, debating the diction and phrasing, and perhaps, during some inadvertent moments, there might even be some physical contact.

A perfect plan; Anna couldn’t help but applaud her own cleverness!

However, Lynch’s response left her somewhat at a loss.

"Need preparation?" Lynch tilted his head towards the girl, "I’m not used to those rigid scripts; human thoughts change every second."

"Every passing second, we gain an additional second of life experience, emotional accumulation, and hence our thoughts change too."

"Using thoughts from a few hours ago, or even several days ago, to encapsulate my current thinking, I consider that a desecration of the word ’thought’."

Anna felt a bit unsure, not quite understanding, and cautiously asked, "So you mean... you haven’t prepared a script?"

It seemed the plan could still work; they had half an hour to spare.

Lynch maintained that captivating smile, shaking his head slightly, "I enjoy impromptu speeches; you could say I prefer speaking off the cuff."

Off the cuff...

Not only had he blocked Anna’s two plans, but he also almost killed the conversation. However, fortunately, the girl was experienced—being the student council president, she had ample experience handling various unexpected situations.

She quickly calmed down, "What do you plan to talk about?"

"What else do young people pursue?" he grinned, his white teeth and that smile making one a bit dizzy, "Of course it’s ideals!"

"Ideals?"

If it were someone else discussing this word, she would scoff and use a "Do you deserve to talk about ideals?" look to kill them.

But when Lynch said this word, she was momentarily distracted.

Perhaps not many people knew, but in just one year, Lynch had gone from a deadbeat relying on his girlfriend in Sabin City to where he was today; even novels wouldn’t dare write it like this!

Yet it was a true story; perhaps this was why he could succeed?

Because of ideals?

The girl decided not to say more; there would be more opportunities to interact with Lynch in the future, and she also believed that a beautiful girl pursuing him was not something he could resist!

The girl responded earnestly, "I’m looking forward to your speech..."

At nine o’clock, the auditorium of Saint Szechka was already packed.

The school didn’t have a large number of new students each year; the expensive tuition was one reason, and another was the high admission standards of the Saint Harmony Alliance Academy.

They primarily accepted high school students who had already begun to make their mark in their respective fields, and descendants of Saint Harmony members; they didn’t recruit many ordinary students beyond this.

This resulted in the student population being around a thousand each year, sometimes even less than that.

An auditorium was sufficient to accommodate all of them, a dense crowd beneath the stage, including students and many teachers.

Many of these teachers were transitioned from students; they might have initially applied for research projects in the student council, received allocated resources, and somehow, a few years later, found themselves becoming professors.

But after being in such a closed environment for a long time, many young teachers hadn’t realized they had completely transitioned from their student days and still considered themselves students. So, during every freshers’ gathering, these teachers would gather here, sitting with the students.

On the stage, there was the school administration, student council leaders, and a few individuals ready to speak, including Lynch among them.

He represented the freshmen, someone else needed to represent the seniors, and there was a teacher’s representative, as well as a parliamentary legislator they had invited to speak.

There were indeed reasons why everyone wanted to squeeze into this event, but unfortunately, many could only hope, just hoping from outside the walls for their entire lives.

The principal was delivering an address; next in line was the teacher’s representative, followed by the senior’s representative, the new student’s representative, and lastly, the parliamentary legislator.

The previous speeches were standard, mainly emphasizing that the school was a place to pursue the truth, and everyone fortunate enough to enter should have reverence for knowledge and approach every subject with a rigorous and scientific attitude, swimming in the sea of knowledge.

The senior’s representative speech generally focused on how joyful learning was, how learning made everyone a "wealthy person," fulfilled their understanding of the world, promoted scientific development, and drove social progress. They advised the freshmen not to waste time on indulgence but to do something meaningful.

To Lynch, it seemed all these words could never match the straightforwardness of "Study hard and make progress every day" hanging in the background.

Fortunately, his enthusiastic applause didn’t reveal his daydreaming during others’ speeches, and the sure and slightly excited look in his eyes made the speech representative next to him display a proud and satisfied smile.

"Next, let’s welcome the freshmen representative, Lynch..."

When the host turned around to look at Lynch, they suddenly froze for a moment.

Earlier, whether it was the teacher’s representative or the senior representative, they all held a script in their hands.

Even the parliamentary legislator resting in the lounge would hold a brief script, but Lynch, who had already stood up, had nothing in his hands!

The host looked towards the principal, who was also puzzled, and he inconspicuously glanced at Anna, hoping to gain some insight.

Given that the entire process of Saint Szechka’s fresher’s event would be recorded, and privately, recordings of fresher’s events among the alliance academies would be exchanged.

Though they hadn’t established a competition to evaluate whose fresher’s event was better, students had their own opinions on who was better than whom.

The principal didn’t want today’s event to turn into a joke. Fortunately, Anna was aware of some truth and gave him a reassuring look, which allowed the principal to breathe a sigh of relief. By the time he communicated this to the host, Lynch was already beside him.

"It seems our lovely host still has some things to say..." Lynch made a little joke, stirring the auditorium into laughter.

This could count as an event accident, and the host, along with the student council’s relevant departments, would be held accountable. The speaker was already on stage, yet the host hadn’t left the podium; it was too obvious.

But Lynch’s little joke broke the potentially tense situation.

The host expressed genuine gratitude through their eyes, bowed, and stepped back a bit, handing the podium over to Lynch.

Even though Lynch helped her, a mistake remained a mistake. It wouldn’t be corrected by someone’s actions turning it right.

Standing at the edge of the podium, Lynch displayed his hands, as if surrendering, then slightly adjusted the microphone, "I need to clarify, our lovely host wanted to remind me not to forget my speech script just now."

"It’s obviously a little misunderstanding, because I don’t have a script, and that is exactly my core theme here today!" he looked at the young faces in the auditorium, "Flamboyant youth need not be confined!"

A seemingly inconsequential statement was suddenly inserted into the speech topic, causing a momentary distraction for the student council members and school management.

He turned too quickly, and his transition was fast too! Plus, incorporating a minor mistake in the event without making it awkward, all while speaking off the cuff...

Terrifying!

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