Ch.25Club Activities – 1

Well, it wasn’t entirely wrong. After all, look at everything Rosaria had done.

Until just two weeks ago, she was happily torturing nuns, but the moment she entered the Academy, she was being revered as a true saint. From the Pope’s perspective, it must be quite confusing.

Of course, he didn’t know that Shin Yu-ra, the possessor trapped in Rosaria Leone de Michaela’s body, had regained control after meeting me.

‘It’s not my concern anyway.’

Obviously, it wasn’t my problem. Whether they had suspicions or not was irrelevant to us. There was absolutely no reason to listen to whatever they were saying.

“What should I do? If the Pope comes here, I’ll definitely be dragged away…”

Rosaria trailed off with a gloomy expression. I glanced to the side. Aria and Brunhild were still playfully bickering.

“Listen.”

There’s always a solution. Since we can’t predict when or how the original story’s events might twist and appear, it’s essential to always have a Plan B ready, whether things happen earlier or later than expected.

“You have one? What is it?”

Her blood-red eyes sparkled with hope.

“Ignore it.”

“…Huh?”

That hope quickly turned to confusion.

“I-ignore it? That?”

“Yeah. Don’t send a reply, don’t even pretend to worry about it, just act like you normally would. Whether you write back or not, the nuns beside you will report everything anyway.”

The Pope wouldn’t have sent escorts for no reason. They’re likely monitoring Rosaria as well.

It might be surprising to both the Pope and the nuns that they don’t need to replace the reduced numbers.

“I’d like to do that, but… what about the consequences? That bastard is really persistent and nasty. Will it be okay? I’d hate for you to get caught up in this…”

“He can’t come.”

When I only heard information from Priscilla, I didn’t realize it, but after adding Rosaria and cross-referencing their accounts, I discovered something.

Even a regressor who has only followed what they perceive as the original storyline might unintentionally have some distorted understanding of the truth.

Like now, with Rosaria’s misconception about the Pope. In the future Pope subjugation battle, Rosaria doesn’t directly confront him but instead handles the surrounding forces.

“Can’t come? Why… ah.”

I spread my palm flat and tapped it lightly. Seeing this, Rosaria stopped mid-question and closed her mouth. This was our signal, meaning this conversation was only for possessors.

Rosaria nodded and was about to extend her palm when she froze, checking the nuns standing in the distance. All of them were staring intently in our direction.

After hesitating awkwardly, Rosaria turned her body, positioning her hip near my right ear. Then she slightly spread her legs, exposing her inner thigh.

“What are you doing?”

I looked up in surprise at the sudden scent of milk. Rosaria, her face bright red, stammered a response.

“W-well, I have no choice. They’re watching me from over there. If I extend my palm and we communicate with mana, they’ll get suspicious. From this angle, they can’t see my inner thigh, so write on it with your finger.”

“…That’s not… I was just going to tell you later.”

“Oh.”

Why did we need to talk about this here? The lecture would end in just two hours.

“Besides, over there.”

I gestured with my eyes to the side. Brunhild and Aria, who had been bickering, were now staring at us with wide eyes. Of course, if the angle was hidden from the nuns, it was perfectly visible to them.

It meant they had clearly witnessed what we just did. Rosaria flushed red and hurriedly closed her legs, but the damage was already done.

“The professor is calling. I’ll be going now.”

With a crimson face, Rosaria fanned herself and hurried away. Watching her retreat, Brunhild asked in confusion:

“What were you two doing just now?”

“Ask her directly. I have no idea.”

I sold out Rosaria without a moment’s hesitation. It wasn’t a lie since I genuinely didn’t understand why she had done that. You’d have to ask her what she was thinking.

At my suggestion to ask the Saint Candidate directly, Brunhild backed down. She seemed uncomfortable with the idea of talking to Rosaria directly.

Anyway, what I had wanted to tell her was this: The Pope’s health was so poor that he wouldn’t leave the Vatican for anything less than critical matters.

One might think persuading a Saint Candidate would be critical enough, but that’s only if you don’t know how severe the Pope’s condition is.

He had personally told this to the three who fought him. His chronic illness had worsened to the point where he couldn’t even walk properly since two years ago, during the Hero and Aria’s first year.

After bestowing a blessing on the Hero, he couldn’t even get up for a month and vowed revenge.

‘And yet he tried all sorts of things to avoid erectile dysfunction, of all things…’

The point is, someone who can barely stand on his own feet, who blessed the Hero and then was bedridden for a month, wouldn’t venture out recklessly.

Especially since he currently thinks this is just Rosaria being fickle.

“Miss Mira.”

Aria, who had been staring at me, asked:

“Do you like thighs?”

“…”

In the end, after a long persuasion based on Rosaria’s attire and actions, I finally managed to clear my name.

In the process, Rosaria gained the reputation of being a pervert with serious exhibitionist tendencies, but I had only spoken the truth, so I wasn’t at fault.

After all, it was true that she usually wore just a few scraps of cloth, that her second outfit was a skintight sweater with no pants, and that she had just exposed her inner thigh to me.

“It’s already club recruitment time. Looks like the restrictions have been lifted.”

Priscilla remarked, picking up a flyer. The main road in front of the first-year dormitory was now filled with tents for club promotions and new member recruitment.

Second and third-year students were enthusiastically promoting their clubs in front of the tents, while first-years gathered in small groups to discuss which clubs to join.

“Now? After three weeks since enrollment?”

“It’s an Academy tradition. Enrollment is on the first Monday of March, and club promotions start on the third Monday after enrollment. There’s no particular reason; apparently, the chairman came up with the concept of clubs around that time.”

“…For something that starts on the third Monday, today is Thursday.”

“It’s because of the incident in the Bellium Forest; the atmosphere was tense. So it kept getting pushed back, and since the mood seems to have improved and they couldn’t delay it any further, permission was granted yesterday. I heard it from a friend.”

So Priscilla did have other friends. I was slightly surprised but didn’t show it. It wouldn’t be strange for her to have made a friend or two in the original story.

“Hmm… I think it’ll continue like this for the next couple of weeks? Since there was an incident, they’re giving a more generous budget as compensation.”

I looked around. The atmosphere seemed to stimulate desires that weren’t there before, as there were quite a few people. Some clubs had prepared something special for recruitment.

Like a club that brought a punch machine-like damage measuring dummy, or a club that made potions meant more for fun than practical use.

The most crowded one was a club that had set up a temporary dungeon resembling a maze. A quick glance showed quite a long line.

“Becoming an official club has many benefits. Besides activity funds, there’s a separate club support fund, making the budget more abundant. And you know those non-credit elective courses? You can skip those and do club activities instead. Though you need to get permission from the professor in charge at least a day in advance.”

“And it’s equally difficult to become an official club?”

“Naturally. You need to show results and maintain a certain number of members. Ah, but depending on the club’s nature, they sometimes approve one or two-person clubs. The Alchemy Club is a one-person club, for instance. Those types don’t even bother with promotions. Instead of promoting, they lock themselves in their club room for one more experiment.”

The fact that there were separate buildings and grounds just for club activities showed the scale of Bellium Academy.

“Traditionally, certain clubs are always popular. The Alcohol Club, and…”

Priscilla stopped mid-sentence. As we entered the main road properly, we felt intense gazes.

And they all had unsettling looks in their eyes. Looks that said they wanted to recruit me somehow.

But they seemed hesitant to approach because of Priscilla. The original Priscilla Agnes, before meeting me, had a personality that made it difficult for people to approach her casually.

Plus, she was the daughter of Duke Agnes.

“See anything you like?”

“Not really. Nothing that catches my interest. What about you, Priscilla?”

“No. Never did. Instead of doing things like that, I’d rather lock myself in my room or the lab and research magic alone.”

I felt like I shouldn’t have asked.

As we walked in the now quiet atmosphere after our conversation ended, I noticed Priscilla’s hand trembling slightly.

“Don’t want to hold hands?”

“…It’s okay. I can endure. For now.”

Priscilla had made progress too. Recently, she was trying to minimize physical contact in public.

The catalyst was almost accidental. She had heard some people criticizing me for being close to her while also hanging out with Brunhild and Aria.

Even such a small thing was an action for my sake, not hers. After hearing her reason, I patted her head and caressed her cheeks.

In exchange, the physical contact when we were alone had become much more intimate, but it was still at a level where she could maintain her rationality.

“…Is that Aria over there?”

“Looks like it.”

As we neared the end of the path lined with promotional tents, someone caught our eye. It was Aria, surrounded by people, looking half-tearful and at a loss.

“How about our club? It would suit you perfectly, don’t you think?”

“I-is that so?”

“No! Our club would suit you much better than that shabby place! Don’t you agree?”

“That’s also… ah, no, I don’t mean those people are inferior… I mean…”

Given her personality, she was unable to properly refuse the club invitations coming from all directions and was haphazardly accepting them. Priscilla looked at this scene with great disapproval.

In the future, Aria often showed unnecessary kindness out of pity, and when things got complicated or escalated because of it, the people around her had to work harder to resolve the issues.

Having seen this countless times, it was natural that such an indecisive attitude wouldn’t look good.

“Ah, hello, Miss Mira. Good morning.”

With her arms full of club application forms, Aria wobbled precariously towards us and bowed in greeting.

“Ah!”

Seeing the topmost application form flutter, Aria panicked, and in her confusion, she misstepped, her legs tangled, and she staggered sideways.

“Be careful.”

I supported her falling body from the side. Aria, with a surprised face, was momentarily dazed before saying, “Th-thank you,” and bowing her head.

Priscilla didn’t seem pleased with this either. I took a bunch of application forms from Aria, almost forcibly, and asked:

“Where’s Brunhild?”

Normally, Brunhild would have been beside her, acting as a barrier.

“She was summoned to the Imperial Palace for a while. She said she’d be back around lunchtime.”

Right, she was the Hero. I inwardly clicked my tongue and shook the armful of application forms.

“Why are you accepting each one of these? Just refuse them.”

“B-but… they gathered the courage to approach me, so it feels mean to reject them outright…”

It was a sentiment I couldn’t understand. I examined one of the application forms.

“What’s this? Fishing Club? Do you like this?”

“N-no. I don’t like it, but I don’t dislike it either…”

“And what’s this? Hiking?”

“I-I don’t particularly like climbing mountains, but I don’t dislike it either…”

After sorting through all the “things she doesn’t like but doesn’t dislike either” as I named each club, only two remained from the armful of application forms.

The Reading Club and the Tea Ceremony Club.

I threw the rest in the trash. I could feel burning gazes from around us, but I ignored them. They couldn’t do anything besides glare anyway.

“…”

Even those glares didn’t last long, scattered by Priscilla. Aria, for some reason, was the one who seemed more apologetic and flustered.

‘How did she become the protagonist with this personality?’

Could it be that she just maintained a kind image while the other three handled all the cleanup?

I handed the last two application forms to Aria. She carefully took and stored them.

“Choose between these two. These are things you clearly said you liked, not things you neither dislike nor like.”

“…Yes. I’m sorry, Miss Mira. I’m so tactless…”

Beside me, Priscilla was glaring at Aria with a look that seemed to say, ‘If you knew you should be sorry, you shouldn’t have done it in the first place.’ I gently tickled her chin to calm her down.

“Oh? So you’re interested in club activities too? This is unexpected.”

‘Ugh.’

The voice of the person I least wanted to meet rang out. I silently cursed inside and turned around. There stood the Crown Prince, wearing his usual meaningful smile.

“Interested clubs… none, I’d say.”

His red eyes narrowed slightly as they scanned my empty hands. His eyebrows curved gracefully.

“What brings Your Highness to a place like this?”

“It’s the season of clubs, isn’t it? As someone involved in something similar, I couldn’t just pass by. Besides, I had something to tell you, so this is perfect timing.”

Couldn’t he have just passed by? I swallowed the words I wanted to say. The Crown Prince, undeterred, continued while keeping his gaze fixed on me.

“Mira Crate.”

The Crown Prince, who had somehow approached close enough to touch, moved even closer.

“I’ve come to make you an offer you can’t refuse.”

“…”

Where did this confidence come from?