31 Chapter 31: Prestige (1/2)
Unsurprisingly, we didn't get any new recruits the next day. Okay, that was an exaggeration. About three more first year students showed up near the end of the second day, begging us to let them join.
The reason was pretty obvious. They had been rejected by the other societies, mostly because they were viewed as having no potential or talent, and thus not worthy of membership. In this way, our Ultimate Outcast Society literally became a society for the outcasts…the castaways, the exiled, and the rejects.
Dong Fang Yue Chu didn't seem to care about that, however, and was only too happy to accept the new members. To him, as long as we met the quota and had the minimum of five members, our club wouldn't be disbanded. That was more than enough reason for him to accept anyone who wanted to join us.
”We're safe!” he exclaimed in joy. I forced a smile, not feeling as much enthusiasm. While I had no reason to reject the new members, I was a little worried about the future of our society. I wasn't looking down on our new members, and I was sure they could prove the others wrong, but I was under no illusion as to what a difficult task that was.
Honestly speaking, I couldn't handle that. We needed to find a proper mentor, someone who could help us teach the new members how to fight. Hell, I needed a mentor as well…on the other hand, I had my Dad, so I wasn't that worried about myself.
”All students…the society exhibition has ended. All students are dismissed. Societies, please pack up your booths and make sure to clean up the area.”
”You heard them.” getting into his role as the president, Dong Fang Yue Chu was happily directing our new first year students and getting them to dismantle and pack the booths. Of course I helped as well.
It would set a bad precedent to slack off and leave the jobs to the first year students. As their senior and a founding member of our society, I had to do my part.
The booths and materials for the society exhibition were provided by the school, so we just needed to return them to the staff, who directed us to a storage space in one of the back buildings. After we put away all the stuff in storage, I raised a hand.
”Before you all go home, I should show you where our clubroom is.”
”Oh!” Dong Fang Yue Chu was looking really hyper. ”At long last!”
”Awesome!” Harvey was also staring at me in admiration, mistakenly believing that I had somehow secured the room by myself. Actually, it was given to me by Alicia when the Black Roses were sorting out their inventory.
”Interesting.” Stanley Lee nodded thoughtfully. ”I assume it has training facilities?”
”Yeah. I train there everyday. You'll see.”
I led the strange procession of outcasts into the back building. When they saw where I was heading toward, they exchanged looks of trepidation. Except Harvey, of course, who remained shining with excitement.
”Cool!” he exclaimed. ”This seems like a secret base!”
”Secret base my ass,” Stan muttered. ”More like a room nobody else wanted. We really are nothing but outcasts, are we?”
”Why do you think our society is named as such?” I asked dryly. ”But Harvey is correct. We will rarely be bothered by anyone, because hardly anybody comes here. We basically have almost the whole level to ourselves.”
In the past week of training, I realized that the building was practically deserted. Nobody came to this building, or even if they did, they didn't head to the level we were at.
Climbing the stairs, I reached the level where my personal training room was at. As I thought, it was deserted, but then again it had been a busy two days for the societies, and hardly anyone was going back to their clubroom after such a strenuous event. As I said, though, during the past week I was training here, I hadn't seen anyone.
Taking a mental note of that, I turned to Dong Fang Yue Chu.
”If possible, we should ask the staff if we can make use of the entire level as our society's clubroom.”
”Eh? Okay, leave it to me!”
That wasn't strange, to be honest. The great societies such as the Black Roses and Holy Saints had entire buildings to themselves. The larger societies that were just under them in the hierarchy had several entire levels dedicated to their club activities. Even the smaller ones could afford to have a level or several rooms for their training and other purposes.
However, for a club just starting out like ours…
”This is better than I expected.”
Stan's voice cut through my thoughts as he entered the room I had been using alone for the past week. Harvey and Wang Fei gaped at the state-of-the-art training facilities and elegant interior that stood out in contrast against the gloomy exterior.
”Amazing…”
”Whoa! This really is a secret base!”
”I guess you can call it that,” I agreed with a laugh. Then I turned to face the whole society, which currently consisted of eight members. ”Now that you know where our clubroom is, you can start reporting for club activities here, from tomorrow onward!”
*
After what seemed like a promising start, I was brought back down to earth the next day when Dong Fang Yue Chu approached me with bad news.
I was in the middle of sparring with Stan. Unlike Harvey, who was a swordsman, Stan was a gunslinger. He was wielding dual pistols and firing off energy projectiles at me. I dodged them as quickly as I could, summoning my Gemini twin swords to deflect them.