Chapter 48 – Club (1)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The next day, at lunch.

I gathered with the party members who had conquered the dungeon with me at the bench I frequented, both to sort out the incidents that had happened so far and to discuss what to do next.

Rather than agonizing over it alone, it would be much more efficient for the people who had shared the incident to put their heads together.

On top of that, two of the four people here were geniuses competing for first and second place in the academy. And Chloe, of all people, was a member of Auditore, which was deeply involved in this whole situation. I had more than enough reason to gather them.

It was a somewhat heavy topic, but this place was sparsely populated anyway. The only person I had ever met here was Abel, the first time I met her.

Since then, I had not seen a single person passing through, so I picked this place.

Besides, it felt like I would be having to meet with these people often from now on, and I could hardly book a cafe meeting room every single time.

Chloe, who had been discharged only yesterday, attended as well. Maybe her cold had not completely left her yet, because she coughed dryly behind a mask.

Her complexion was pale too, so she looked to be in fairly poor shape. When I asked in concern, Chloe answered that she was fine, drawing crescent eyes as though moved by my concern.

I gave her a faint smile.

“So it seems like there may be enemies inside the academy targeting this bastard Geom-ma, and during the midterm….”

“Ah, enough. I told you I get it. Weapon, why are you always rambling so long when you explain things? Just hit the main points. Isn’t that why you can’t be top of the class?”

Apparently Speed Weapon had explained things to Ryozo right before we gathered, since she did not know the detailed background. It must have been too much explanation, because dark circles had settled deeply under Ryozo’s eyes.

“Hah, Saki, it looks like you’ve gotten too cocky just because you’re smart. No matter how smart you are, you can’t beat someone who works hard. Do you think you’ll stay first forever? Just wait for next week’s written exam.”

Saki shook her head as if utterly fed up. Ignoring Weapon’s resolve, she glanced sideways at me. Then, when our eyes met, she awkwardly averted her gaze.

She slowly rotated only her eyes back again and watched my reaction. As though worried I might be disappointed in her. Her pale blue eyes, half-visible, stared at me intently.

It was probably because of what had happened yesterday after homeroom. But I didn’t really think much of it.

We were at the age where you naturally got interested in that kind of thing. I wasn’t such a narrow-minded person that I’d be disappointed in someone over something like that. Rather, it would be the duty of a proper adult to guide them in the right direction.

‘……’

But then again, if I thought about it, the body I was in now was a teenager too.

When I woke up yesterday, it had taken quite a long time to calm down the proudly risen tent and get it to settle back down.

I had almost gone past the thirty-minute building-closing time because of it.

For the first time in a long while, my uplift as a male, my excitement, and my self-esteem had all surged upward. On top of that, this body was tall at 183 centimeters and had a lean build.

Whether it was actually true or not, Kang Geom-ma had at least proven that one rumor floating around the internet.

‘Lucky.’

Clearing my throat, I swept my eyes over the party members and said.

“Saki, you heard the explanation too, but the situation’s gotten pretty tangled up. No matter how much I rack my brain by myself, I don’t really get much out of it.”

“I told you to call me something other than Saki.”

Ryozo muttered in a low, sulky voice, pushing out her lips.

“…Ryozo. Is that what you wanted?”

Only then did she show a satisfied expression. At some point, the laziness had vanished from Ryozo’s face. I let out a short breath.

“Anyway, I thought about what we should do right now in my own way.”

Weapon pulled out a notebook from the bag slung over his shoulder and opened it. It was full of colorful highlighter marks and neat, careful handwriting.

Weapon rubbed the bridge of his nose and loaded up his explanation. Saki already looked exhausted.

“I organized it based on what we know so far, partly to get a better picture of what’s going on. First, the fact that the academy’s elder council is targeting you, Geom-ma. Second, the appearance of the female instructor we heard about through the checkpoint employee. Like that.”

Weapon looked over our faces. I tilted my head to show him to continue.

“But thinking about it, the fact that we know these things isn’t actually all that important. Since even the order from the elders has unclear intent, Auditore is just going to toss it out anyway, right?”

Weapon turned his gaze toward Chloe. Chloe coughed shortly and nodded. Just as Weapon was about to continue, Ryozo cut in.

“Ah, and for reference, that female instructor the checkpoint employee talked about. I definitely remembered seeing her, but I didn’t know her name. So I broke through the academy’s internal security and cross-checked my memory against all 546 academy instructors, from the head instructors down to the assistant instructors. But I still couldn’t identify any woman with that appearance.”

“You can do stuff like that too?”

“In a world overflowing with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, shouldn’t you have at least one or two skills like that?”

When I asked with my eyes wide, Ryozo answered calmly. Weapon shrugged as though he’d already known.

“But you sleep all the time. When did you even have time to do that?”

“The most vulnerable time for network security systems is dawn, because even the network staff have gone home by then. You have to aim for that gap and attempt the hack if you want any chance of succeeding. Even for me, breaking through this academy’s security system isn’t exactly easy.”

“…Then all that sleeping during class was also?”

“Right. It’s not like I’m a sloth. How could I possibly just sleep all day?”

Ryozo smiled with an innocence unlike her usual self. I had thought she really was the very embodiment of laziness, sleeping every single day without fail.

As I reflected on that inwardly, a question rose up. …Could it be that was also how she found out my phone number, even though I never told her?

“Anyway, the point is that nothing has been clearly revealed yet. And it’s not like we can just storm into the elder council and start threatening them right now.”

Weapon quietly turned his head toward me. Then, with a hollow little laugh, he muttered.

“…Well, maybe you could, Geom-ma.”

He seemed to be misunderstanding me in a pretty serious way.

“And even if we did, it wouldn’t solve anything. It’d just make the situation worse.”

“Yeah, I agree with that too.”

“I-I think so too.”

Ryozo also agreed. Chloe, who had been listening quietly, added a word as well.

“So what I thought of is that we should make our own club.”

“A club? Why suddenly a club?”

I blinked. The word had come out so suddenly. Then Ryozo, who had been half-leaning against the bench languidly, explained in Weapon’s place.

“Clubs at Hoakin Academy have a special status. Not only do they have freedom of movement, they also get activity funding. As you know, Geom-ma, this place emphasizes cooperation between cadets no matter if it’s actual combat or anything else, right? So they encourage group activities and give fitting perks.”

A perfectly organized explanation. I nodded and listened carefully to Ryozo’s words. She raised her index finger to emphasize the point.

“As part of those perks, clubs here are treated as Hoakin Academy-affiliated institutions. In other words–”

“–just by belonging to a club, you receive protection from the academy side.”

Weapon quickly snatched up the end of Ryozo’s explanation, as if he had been waiting for the chance. Ryozo pouted and sharply turned her head away.

“Being academy cadets alone isn’t enough, since there are over two thousand enrolled students. The academy can’t take care of every individual, but the number of clubs is much smaller. On top of that, there’s even a special department that handles nothing but clubs. So for us, with enemies both inside and out, it acts as a second breakwater.”

Miracle’s Blessing M was a game set in an academy, so naturally it had a club system.

But inside the game, it was just something used to flirt and raise affection with romance characters. Because of that, it had been treated as a niche feature for those kinds of people only.

Who could’ve guessed it had this kind of practical function in reality. Just going by Weapon’s explanation, it obviously appealed to me.

Were there separate conditions for founding a club?

“For now, you need at least five people, and then you write up a Club Founding Proposal and submit it to the relevant department.”

“The procedure isn’t as strict as I expected.”

“That’s because the academy actively encourages it. Even so, most cadets find club activities annoying and don’t do them. It doesn’t directly affect grades either.”

Weapon answered while scratching the bridge of his nose.

‘…A minimum of five people. We’re one short.’

As I thought about it for a moment, an idea suddenly came to me.

“By the way, are you all joining this club too?”

“Hey, don’t make it so disappointing. Of course we are. If we weren’t going to do it together, I wouldn’t have brought it up in the first place.”

With an embarrassed expression, Weapon rubbed under his nose with his index finger. I shifted my gaze toward Chloe and Ryozo.

“You two as well?”

“Of course! If it’s something that helps Geom-ma!”

“Well, I basically owe you my life once after the dungeon. And besides, shouldn’t a group like this have at least one brainy person in it?”

Chloe answered with a cough mixed into her voice. Ryozo tapped her temple with her index finger and agreed too. Seeing them like that made emotion surge up strongly inside me. The older I got, the more human relationships had become a series of calculations.

In a society filled with people who befriended and cast others aside while chasing only profit, these people, who had barely even known me for that long, believed in me and followed me.

And in a world where high and low status undeniably existed, at that.

For the first time, I might have felt satisfied to have fallen into this world. The single feeling of being trusted was enough to stir even the part of my heart that had been quiet for a long time. I forcibly suppressed the feeling and looked over their faces.

“Thanks, all of you.”

Weapon asked with a bright smile.

“Then should we start by deciding on the club name? We still have to write the proposal, and we still need to find one more member, but it doesn’t seem bad to decide the name in advance to build momentum.”

“Hmm, let’s see.”

Chloe pressed a finger into the cheek hidden behind her mask while thinking. Then her eyes lit up.

“Memories of Assassination! With the idea of assassinating corrupt forces! What do you think?!”

“…Mm, I don’t think that’s it.”

“Hng.”

Her voice drooped sadly. Meanwhile, Ryozo let out a sleepy yawn and casually threw out a suggestion.

“Well, how about something like the Kasukabe Neighborhood Watch? Club activities are basically just kids playing house anyway, aren’t they? And is the name really that important? Just make something up.”

“…Saki, seriously, shut up.”

Weapon snapped at her mercilessly, looking disgusted. Ryozo stuck her tongue out and then sprawled out on the bench. I rubbed my chin and thought for a while before quietly opening my mouth.

“How about something like a travel club? One that also clears dungeons and goes around outside a bit.”

Suddenly a film from Earth with the same name came to mind. I didn’t really have any name coming to me, but that was at least the result of using a little imagination. I awkwardly scratched the back of my neck.

“…Does it suck?”

“Hmm, a travel club. It’s simple, which might actually make it better. I’m for it.”

“I-I think it’s good too!”

As if she’d been waiting to say it, Chloe nodded immediately. On the other hand, Ryozo just stared straight at me for a while as though measuring something. Then, after a long moment, she too nodded primly.

“Not bad.”

At the time, I had no idea that this club, so insignificant now, would later have such a huge impact on the very end of the story.