Hmm.
What the hell was this crazy guy talking about?
He suddenly shoved his face toward mine and scared the crap out of me.
Good thing everyone had gone to lunch and there was no one around.
If anyone saw this?
I had no idea what kind of fucked-up article the imperial family would put out this time.
He suddenly leaned in with that expressionless face, so I wondered what was going on, and now he wanted to do it?
Do what?
As all kinds of thoughts came pouring in at once, the sheer volume overloaded my brain, and I stopped thinking altogether.
"...I-I mean. I want to spar again."
I did not know whether that was fortunate or not, but apparently she was not talking about that sort of thing.
Or was she?
Sparring sounded more exhausting, actually.
My body had not even recovered from the beating yet.
Everything hurt like hell right now.
And it kept cycling between hurting and not hurting, hurting and not hurting. What a fucking mess.
If it hurt clearly, I could just say it hurt, but this vague sort of pain was even more fucking annoying.
If I had an ordinary person’s body, no one would say a thing even if I holed up in the infirmary all day.
But the biceps blessed by [Dragon Strength] possessed such ridiculous regenerative power that it was irritatingly bearable.
The cuts carved into me by sword techniques had healed mere seconds after the sparring ended, so going to the infirmary would have been awkward too.
I did not know whether to resent my sturdy body or the girl standing before me, who had beaten me senseless while using sword techniques.
Being tough was not always a good thing.
"Right now, my body is..."
"Ah, sorry... It must be difficult, then?"
Angelica lowered her head, shrinking into herself.
What was this...?
Was she always this kind of character?
Where had that Angelica, who stood alone above and below heaven, gone?
Why was there a black retriever standing here instead?
"Right now might be difficult, but I can keep you company tonight."
I was in pain right now, but I had no intention of avoiding sparring with her.
I still needed more experience points.
I was holding out to some extent with my raw stats, but without sword aura, I would eventually reach my limit.
To survive the events ahead, stats alone would not be enough. I needed sword aura.
I had to reach at least level thirty.
At the academy, unless the knights handed out Dreamland tickets again, sparring was the only way to gain experience points.
Besides, I had confirmed that I could gain experience points even from a draw.
And most importantly, if I kept avoiding sparring, my title could be revoked.
In the end, if I wanted to keep my title, a certain amount of sparring was essential.
If I kept building affinity with her like this, she might show me another secret technique as well.
I would have to suffer from sore muscles for quite a while, but—
"...Is that okay?"
Color came to the face that had been expressionless at my answer.
It was an extremely subtle change, one I would not have noticed without looking closely.
Did she really enjoy sparring with me that much?
I nodded and turned my attention back to the clubs.
It was not because of that whole, "You need to join at least one club to graduate," thing.
Joining a club was not a bad idea if I wanted to gain experience points through hidden pieces or club-specific events.
Especially now, when ways to gain experience points were limited, it would be better to join one.
However... if there was one condition, I needed to avoid clubs where the male leads gathered around the protagonist whenever possible.
Not for some narcissistic reason like the cliché in web novels about extras, where the heroine falls for me.
I knew my place very well.
In this romantic fantasy overflowing with pretty, delicate-faced men, did I seriously think my face would get anywhere?
I was nothing more than a third-rate extra destined to get crushed by the protagonist.
No matter how I thought about it, I should have reincarnated into a fighting manga instead.
Putting that aside, the real reason was that the male leads needed to farm experience points too.
In a game, I could clear things solo, but this was reality.
There were four protagonists now, but every bit of fighting power still mattered if we wanted to reach the true ending.
But what if I stole the male leads’ opportunities for growth?
The experience they failed to gain would go straight to the heroine, and eventually I would have to run around in place of the male leads to stay alive.
Playing at chivalry was more than enough hardship already.
"Are you going to join a club, Angelica?"
"No."
Angelica shook her head at my question.
Well, she was just a pure young woman who liked sparring.
She probably was not interested in clubs.
Dolnesia did not particularly seem to have any interest in the male leads either.
I was not sure about Isabella.
She had only recently broken off her engagement.
Then all I had to do was avoid clubs Iris belonged to.
She had seduced at least three people already: Prince Charles, Prince Ars, and Asdel.
Then which club should I join?
The swordsmanship club?
I already had Angelica, a top-notch instructor, at my side.
So I would pass on a swordsmanship club that seemed like it would only smell of sweat.
A magic discussion club?
Without a magic circle, I could not copy magic, so that was out too.
Flower arranging? Baking?
Of course, any club Iris might join was out.
Something was missing.
I wanted somewhere that seemed like it would be full of gloomy men rather than anything pink and romantic.
Somewhere that looked utterly removed from even the first syllable of romance.
I needed to join a truly obscure club—the most fucking obscure of the obscure.
After looking through the club recruitment sheets, I found one.
There it was.
The Ancient Documents Club.
I had never seen it in the game, but—
Just looking at it, its old-fashioned, shabby name gave off the scent of veteran nerds.
The description said it was a club that studied forgotten magic, ancient ruins, and artifacts.
At a glance, it looked far removed from socializing or romance.
More than that, the words artifact deciphering caught my attention.
If I joined this club, there would probably be events where we researched artifacts. Maybe I could find a clue to unsealing Carnwennan...
Though it was a little worrying that the club had only one member, the president.
I had to wonder whether this club was even functioning properly...
Still, this was the one.
I casually tore off a club application form.
It took three people to establish a club and at least five to keep one active.
So if membership dropped back down to three, the academy gave the club a grace period to bring its numbers back up to five. If it failed to reach the minimum of five within that period, the club would be disbanded.
If I joined, that would make two.
We needed to find at least one more person just to qualify for a grace period...
Should I lure Dolnesia in too?
"Are you going to apply for that?"
"Yes, it looks interesting. And since I have come to the imperial academy, I thought I should try joining at least one club."
Angelica stared quietly at it, then tore off an application form for herself as well.
"Are you joining this club too, Lady Angelica?"
"Yes. I suddenly became interested."
She suddenly became interested in a club?
This young woman who only liked sparring?
But rather than coming here, would it not be better for her to join the club Prince Charles joined?
"Would it not be better for you to join the same club as Prince Charles?"
"Why?"
Why, she asked.
"You came here because of Prince Charles, did you not...?"
After hearing me, Angelica rested her chin in one hand as though considering it.
"Not really. The first prince is not a child, after all."
Less than a few seconds later, she shook her head as though it were nothing and shrugged.
In short, she had boldly declared that she would neglect her duties!
Hmm... The Karl Kingdom was going to be all right, wasn’t it?
#
After finishing all my afternoon classes, I found myself standing before the Ancient Documents Club’s clubroom.
When I slid open the door with a scrape, what I saw was an ordinary classroom.
Apparently, it was no lie that the president was currently the club’s only member. The room was incredibly quiet.
But that was not all.
"I haven’t seen you before. Are you freshmen? Or prospective members?"
Sitting there was a beautiful woman with dazzling golden-blond hair and golden eyes.
But she looked awfully familiar.
The female student sitting there looked vaguely familiar, as though I had seen her somewhere before.
Maybe in the game...
Who was that young lady again?
Ah! If Kyle got gender-swapped, he would probably have exactly that sort of vibe.
【Eileen de Astoria】
◈ Level: 44
◈ The target is feeling expectant.
Ah, right.
It was starting to come back to me now.
Eileen de Astoria.
A second-year at the academy and the Empire’s first princess.
Her backstory had been that all the upperclassmen in the club she joined had been fourth-years, so by the time she became a second-year, they had all graduated. She was left alone, and the club was eventually disbanded, forcing her to leave it.
To think that disbanded club was the Ancient Documents Club.
Then I could say I had found the right place.
Sorry to the upperclassman, but—
The fact that it had vanished before it could even appear in the game meant it was not a popular club!
It was obscure as fuck, even among obscure clubs.
At the very least, there was no chance Iris would come here.
But could a club that included a princess really be obscure?
It seemed harder for it to be disbanded without anyone even noticing.
I pulled out my application form.
As I took out the paper, Eileen stared at me even more intensely with expectant eyes.
"I came here to join the club."
"Both of you?"
When I nodded, her face brightened with delight.
"Yes! I can finally breathe easy! Come sit down, freshmen! Shall I bring you some tea?"
"...No, that’s all right."
It was difficult to keep up with the princess’s sudden high energy.
Was this really her usual personality?
I remembered her as a character who had been somewhat gloomy in the game.
Could it be that she had been depressed because her club was disbanded?
"Then why did you two come to the Ancient Documents Club?"
"Well, I am interested in artifacts..."
Bang!
Eileen slammed both hands down on the desk.
Whoa, she was about to smash that desk to pieces.
"Artifacts! Our freshman knows what he’s talking about! Here at the Ancient Documents Club..."
Eileen suddenly seated Angelica and me in chairs, then started rattling off a barrage of unnecessary information.
If you wanted to shatter your image of royalty, all you had to do was look at Eileen de Astoria.
I never imagined Eileen was an artifact nerd...
A wave of useless facts began pouring from her mouth, enough to make me suspect the club was on the verge of disbandment because everyone had gotten sick of the president’s rambling and fled.
I could not interrupt a princess, so all I could do was use the strategy of letting it go in one ear and out the other while waiting for her torrent of trivia to end.
I had not picked the wrong club, had I?
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