25 Chapter 25: Bullying (2/2)

”Uh…thanks?” I blocked a sword strike from him, and then easily twisted it out of his hand. My duel partner was not focusing on training, which slightly annoyed me. Not to mention, being first years who had no experience in fighting, they were a far cry from the second and third years I usually dueled against.

Let's be honest…if I were to participate in matches now, I could still easily climb the rankings by preying on vulnerable, inexperienced first year students. In fact, many schoolmates in my year, or my seniors did exactly that, challenging a huge number of the new students in order to boost their own rankings.

However, I was not despicable enough to take advantage of that and exploit the new students. I had been a victim of that last year, which contributed to a significant fraction of my ninety-nine losses. It was damaging to the self-esteem, but I tried to deal with it by mastering advanced summoning spells in hopes of getting revenge. Obviously that didn't turn out as I hoped.

Pausing, I gestured for my opponent to pick up his fallen sword and waited patiently. Harvey snatched it up and readjusted his stance before lunging at me. I easily parried his strike and tripped him up.

”Whoa!”

Harvey stumbled, but I didn't seize the opportunity to finish him off by hitting his back. This was training, after all, not a life-and-death duel, or a ranking match.

”By the way, Senior…”

As Harvey righted himself up, he turned to face me.

”Which society are you in? We've been asking around, but it doesn't seem like you're in any of the clubs.”

”I'm not,” I confirmed.

”Eh? Oh…” Harvey's face fell. I knew why he was asking. Like I said, I somehow had a group of fans after my impressive performance last week, and he wasn't the first one to ask me about it. There were quite a few first year students who adored me and wanted to join the society I was in, even though they didn't really know me that well, or the truth.

I tried to return his attention to the duel by slashing at him, but Harvey only blocked it half-heartedly.

”The recruitment for the societies will be soon, though. All the societies will start organizing booths and stuff to recruit first year students over the next few days.” Harvey stared at me. ”Are you sure you aren't…?”

”Nah. I am not worthy enough to be in a club.”

I knew what he was talking about. I had seen the other second and third year students begin to set up booths for their societies, such as Black Roses. Dong Fang Yue Chu had also tried to ask me again, but I rebuffed him.

I wondered briefly if he would ever succeed in recruiting any members into his society.

Oh well…it wasn't my problem. For now, I had my own things to worry about.

*

Probably because of all the societies setting up booths to recruit the first year students, I didn't receive any challenges today. So I decided to head to my personal training room to polish my raw skills, and review the lessons I had learned from both combat magic and summoning. I was hoping to become a combat summoner.

After my self-training, I left my room and headed home. As Harvey mentioned, all the seniors were setting up booths along the campus courtyard. I could see them constructing tents, moving props and banners, and basically doing everything. Several were plain and simple, many were colorful and extravagant. The bigger the club, the larger their budget, and the more capable they were in putting together the materials for recruitment.

Not that it was any of my business.

While thinking that, I headed for the school gates. Before I could reach them, though, I heard a loud crash.

”H…hey!”

A familiar voice cried out in protest. I turned around and caught sight of Dong Fang Yue Chu sprawled over the broken remains of a tiny booth, and surrounded by several burly guys. I recognized them as being from the Iron Fist Society.

”Get your ass out of here, loser!” one of them snarled, his meaty hands on his hips.

”But…but this slot has been allocated to me…” Dong Fang Yue Chu's lips were quivering. One of the Iron Fist Society guys kicked him.

”So? Who cares? It's not like your society officially exists, anyway. You'll be disbanded by next week.”

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”No, we won't!”

”Stop lying!” Another of the Iron Fist Society guys stepped forward and backhanded him. ”You need at least five members to form a society. You have only one. And there's no way any first year student will be stupid to join your trash society. You might as well give your slot to us.”

”Shoo. Go away.” A fourth guy chased him away with a dismissal wave of his hand. Dong Fang Yue Chu bit his lip, but didn't move.

”You want us to bodily throw you out?” one of them reached out to grab him. But before he could touch Dong Fang Yue Chu, I grabbed his arm. All five members turned to gawk at me in shock.

”That's enough,” I told them firmly. ”The Iron Fist Society, right? I remember you guys sending me a challenge. I'll take all of you on right now.”