“Wh-what the…?”
When we arrived, we were confronted by a shocking sight.
“Hya-ha-ha! Student Council, comin’ through! Why’re you wimps being so well-behaved? Last year, you didn’t listen to a word we said!”
“You’re free to try all the aggressive, loud, dirty recruiting techniques you want. There’s just no telling what our secret boss will do when he hears about it.”
“Eeek…!”
“D-don’t worry! Everything’s above board this year!”
Lilim and Tirith were walking through campus threatening all the clubs they passed. And they were using my name to do it…
“…Lia, Rose. I’m gonna go talk to them.”
“O-okay,” responded Lia.
“Remember they’re our seniors, so go easy on them,” Rose said.
I nodded and walked toward the two troublemakers from the Student Council.
“Hey guys, do you have a moment?” I asked.
“What the hell do you…want…?” Lilim said.
“You got somethin’ to say to…us…?” Tirith said.
All the color drained from their faces.
“You two are clearly having fun,” I said.
“Sh-she who retreats lives to fight another day…!” Lilim said.
“We’re goners if we don’t get outta here…,” Tirith said.
They both ran away as fast as they could without sparing me a second glance.
“Dark Shadow,” I said, summoning dark tentacles that stretched out like amoebas and wrapped around their legs.
“Eeeeeek…! Someone, hel—hnnh!”
“H-he’s gonna kill m—mmph!”
I gagged them both with darkness to stop them from screaming anything that would get me in trouble.
“All right… We’re drawing too much attention here, so let’s move somewhere out of sight,” I said.
““Ngh! Hngh! Hrmm!””
Lilim and Tirith tried desperately to resist, but they couldn’t break free from the darkness.
“Oh my god… He’s gonna kill those two Student Council members…”
“Don’t stare. You could be next.”
“That’s the scariest smile I’ve ever seen…”
I carried Lilim and Tirith behind the school building, where no one would see us, and began to scold them.
“What do you think gave you the right to do that? You can’t say things to hurt a person’s reputation when they’re not around—”
“I know… I’m sorry,” Lilim apologized.
“I promise not to do it again…,” Tirith said.
They were both near tears, but I had little doubt they’d forget all about this after a good night’s sleep.
“Haah… I’ll be much angrier the next time you do something like this, okay?” I warned them.
My scolding done, I left them and rejoined Lia and Rose.
“Sorry for the wait.”
“It needed to be done,” responded Lia. “Talk about a disaster.”
“Those two never change,” said Rose.
With that issue taken care of, we wandered around casually observing more clubs. We were about to return to the Student Council room…
“P-please stop!”
“Wh-what do you want…?”
…when we spotted trouble right in front of the main school building. I looked closely and realized that a group of brawny guys wearing white martial arts uniforms had surrounded some first-year boys.
“You’ve got rock-hard pecs, strong quads, and well-developed hamstrings!”
“There’s no doubt about it! You guys were born for judo!”
“What’re you waiting for? Join the Judo Club! Our holy land, the Judo Hall, is right this way!”
Some Judo Club members were clearly harassing the young students to join their club.
“S-sorry, but we’re on our way to check out the Swordcraft Club…”
“If you’ll excuse us…”
The first years tried to get away, but the physically gifted older students wouldn’t let them.
“Just hear us out! The Judo Club is holding a great campaign for new members!”
“If you join during the campaign, you’ll get a month’s worth of special protein powder and a shaker bottle free!”
“You can’t pass that up, can you? If you’re still not sure, we have a trial membership, too!”
This was as pushy and underhanded as recruiting could get.
“That doesn’t look good,” Lia said.
“They’re clearly breaking the rules,” Rose said.
They both looked at me.
“Yeah, let’s go talk to them.”
Lia, Rose, and I walked up to the aggressive Judo Club members.
“Sorry, but do you guys have a moment?” I asked, speaking on our behalf as the Student Council Vice President.
But then…
“…Tessa?”
“A-Allen…!”
It was Tessa Balmond, my Class 2-A classmate and old friend. I had never seen him behave this way. He grew flustered, his gaze wavering as he looked at me.
“Wh-what…? Why are you doing this?” I asked.
During last year’s New Student Recruiting Period, Tessa had sadly been forced into the Judo Club because he couldn’t resist its aggressive recruiting methods. He should’ve known as well as anyone else how uncomfortable it was to be on the receiving end of this kind of behavior. Why was he now doing the same thing to new students?
“Y-you’ve got it all wrong, Allen! There’s a reason I—,” Tessa began to explain, but he was interrupted.
“Well, if it isn’t the Student Council. I knew you bastards would be back this year to pester us again!” said a giant, muscular guy so tall I had to look up. “I’m Maul Bison, the president of the Judo Club, which has a long and proud history here at Thousand Blade!”
Maul Bison had close-cropped black hair, thick eyebrows, and a large nose. He was nearly two meters tall and looked completely comfortable in his white judo uniform. He seemed like an intense guy.
“I’m Allen Rodol, the vice president of the Student Council. I want to talk to you about the Judo Club’s overly aggressive recrui—”
But Maul cut me off.
“Hmph! It’s always rules this, rules that with you all! Are the rules really so important?!”
“Yes, they are,” I said.
Thousand Blade’s rules existed so its hundreds of students could live comfortably during their time here. If it became a lawless place without any rules, students wouldn’t be able to study swordcraft in peace.
But more than that, I simply found bothering people with overly aggressive recruiting methods to be immoral.
“Grr… I’m sick of you stuck-up Student Council members and your constant blabbing about ‘being on your best behavior’…! It’s because you see us as your enemy and put all this pressure on us that our numbers have fallen in the first place! Do you have no compassion at all?!”
“Uh, I don’t think the Student Council has anything to do with that…,” I responded.
Years of overbearing recruiting were naturally going to harm the popularity of the club.
“Gah, I can’t take this anymore! Allen Rodol, I challenge you to a match!”
“Uhh, why?”
“If you win, I’ll immediately quit the Judo Club!”
“No, you don’t have to do that. I just want you to follow the ru—”
“However! If I win, you’ll promise to ignore our slightly intense recruiting methods!”
“But I have no experience with ju—”
“We’ll perform our match in the Judo Hall! It’s too late to back out now! Strict oppression gives rise to strong resistance… The Student Council has gone too far!”
…He wasn’t listening to a word I said. I was at a loss for what to do.