“Exactly! And the Horacio family is a venerable and prestigious marquis family that has served the kingdom since ancient times! They are the elite of the elite and most of the knight commanders leading the kingdom’s knights, who guard the royal family and the royal capital, have come from their family! Not only does the Azure Lion have strong magical power, he fought bravely as a soldier himself! And when he was entrusted with command of the cavalry, no enemies could withstand his orders! Plus, he was super active in the Sphylian War! It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that he is the paragon of a perfect knight!”
Leticiel had absolutely no idea how to respond to Hilmes’s overwhelmingly zealous explanation, which left him out of breath. In fact, she was a little weirded out. “W-Wow, I didn’t know the headmaster had such a cool nickname. I’m genuinely surprised.”
Zeke gave her a half-troubled, half-exasperated smile at her overly blunt response. “Just who do you think the headmaster is, Miss Drossell?”
“Well, in any case, you may come again as long as you promise not to share what you see here with others.”
“Really?!”
“Yes. It’s all right as long as you keep your prom—”
“Thank you! I promise! I won’t tell anyone about what I see here!” Hilmes nodded with so much energy that it was a wonder his head didn’t go flying off. It was good that he was motivated, but Leticiel was worried that he was a little too passionate.
Showing off his happiness, Hilmes started humming and picked up his wooden sword, swinging it around. Mirandalette watched him with a mixture of exasperation and resignation before turning to Leticiel and saying, “Miss Drossell, I’ll be sure to keep a close eye on Leif, as well.”
Hmm, so she’s used to this sort of thing. “Yes, please do,” Leticiel replied.
Hilmes spun the sword a little too eagerly and it slipped out of his hand, spinning away into the air. Leticiel’s anxiety grew deeper as she watched him shout, “Waaait!” and chase after it. After capturing the sword, Hilmes returned and giddily announced, “Now I’m part of Miss Drossell’s club too!”
Leticiel was taken aback by his puzzling declaration. “My club?” she echoed.
“Huh? Don’t you come here for your club activity?” At Leticiel’s bewildered look, he asked, “Wait, am I wrong?”
An awkward silence fell over the four. Leticiel met Zeke and Mirandalette’s gaze, the three only now realizing that their after-school activities could be mistaken for club activities. Hilmes, who was left out of the silent exchange, had a visible question mark hovering over his head.
“Hilmes, may I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Did you come here because you thought we were a club?”
“Yeah, I did. Why?”
Leticiel let out a sigh at the casual “What about it?” expression written all over Hilmes’s face. But her exasperation wasn’t aimed at him; it was aimed at herself.
“It was a blind spot,” she said. “I completely forgot that those club things exist at this academy.”
She remembered Lucas explaining them quite a long time ago, but they had slipped her mind. She didn’t necessarily have a problem with people assuming they were in a club, but it didn’t feel right when they hadn’t created one to begin with.
Suddenly, Zeke suggested, “Why don’t we make a club, then?”
Leticiel and Mirandalette looked at him. “I don’t mind either way, but is there merit to forming one?” Leticiel asked.
“Well, I’m not sure if you could call it a merit, but by forming a circle, we’d have priority use of spaces and tools necessary for our club activities. We could use this space without worrying about others.”
“Without worrying about others, huh?” Leticiel’s mind raced. Just as Zeke said, they were a group of students actively staying behind at the academy to further their studies. Because of that, the likelihood that they would be interrupted by weird students like the Intermediate student from earlier was fairly high.
Of course, she could slap them down when they came to pick fights, but to be honest, she didn’t care about them and they were annoying, so she didn’t want to get involved with them. It was true that if they met officially as a club, they wouldn’t have people quibbling with them, trying to find fault in what they were doing.
“You have a point. In other words, it would be both a breakwater and a place for us to hide out.” Leticiel nodded shortly. They faced the birth of new enemies (a.k.a. those who wished to join the club) if they went through with it, but if she were to beat them up in a match and call it an entrance exam… No, she just had to say that they had failed it.
Making her mind up, Leticiel said, “All right. Well, it’s best to strike while the iron is hot. Let’s go to the student council room and create a club.”
“Wait, we’re going right now?!”
Mirandalette and the others exchanged wry smiles at Leticiel, who immediately moved to act, but still they followed after her. She didn’t forget to lock the entrance to the booth with sorcery so no one could take their practice space while they were gone.
“You said we’ll need an application for club creation, was it? Where can we get one of those?”
“They have them at the front desk in the entrance. You just have to fill it in and submit it to the student council.”
“Will they still be at the academy at this time of the day?”
“I think so. The student council is in charge of checking all the locks in the academy, so they’re here until the final bell rings.”
Following Mirandalette’s advice, Leticiel and the others arrived in the academy’s entrance hall. Though the front desk had already closed, there were documents placed outside of it that anyone could take freely.
“The members will be myself, Miss Mira, Zeke, and Hilmes, correct?”
“Yeah. You only need three people to create a club, so we’ve already met the bare minimum requirements.”
Leticiel frowned at the troublesome application form, which was covered in empty lines that asked them to write the club’s name, members, the activities they’d be doing, as well as the place and days. Apparently, it wasn’t as easy as announcing that they’d be making a club.
To keep the existence of sorcery a secret, they named the club the “Magic Lovers’ Club.” That way they could practice sorcery without arousing suspicion from other students.
“By the way, who will be the club representative?” Leticiel asked her friends when she caught sight of the empty “Club Representative” space on the application form while they were walking toward the student council room.
The others silently shared a look before turning their gazes to Leticiel.
“You, Miss Drossell,” Mirandalette said without a shred of hesitation.
“Yeah, it’s gotta be you!” Hilmes chimed.
“Huh?” Leticiel’s jaw dropped, and she laughed awkwardly with her mouth still half-open.
“You’ll be the one teaching us in the club, so I think it’d be most appropriate for you to be the representative,” Zeke added for an additional blow, though he did seem to struggle to get the words out.
“…What?”
Apparently, Leticiel had been unanimously nominated as the club representative from the very beginning.