Chapter 56: Chapter 56

The owner, who I still wasn’t sure whether he was Eus or Borden, looked at me with a suspicious expression on his face.

Then he turned his head towards Digron and asked, “…Digron, who is he? Is he a new student in your department? I haven’t heard of a new student like this in the Summoning Department. He’s almost at Clare’s level, right?”

It seemed like everyone in the Summoning Department knew my second sister.

Digron looked at me and managed to say, “D-Dane Sogres…”

“Ah. Sogres. I know. Yeah, rumors. I heard the rumors. You’re Clare’s brother, right?”

After that, the atmosphere became quite mild.

“Yes. That’s right.”

“I heard you’re in the Autonomous Department. So it was true that you passed the exam with Summoning. Ha!”

The shopkeeper looked at me in disbelief and muttered, “In this store, even Clare wasn’t able to hold a staff as a freshman…”

I think my second sister was in her second or third year when she bragged about her staff?

He crossed his arms and looked at me as if he found me very interesting, unlike before.

“You have talent.”

“It seems so.”

“What on earth do they teach at House Sogres? How can all three children be geniuses?”

I still didn’t know whether he was Eus or Boden.

The man stroked his chin and mused, “A freshman with a staff, huh… Oh, are you fourteen, by any chance? Did you enroll a year late?”

“I’m fourteen years old.”

“Damn, why are kids so big these days?”

I was a bit big. I’d never seen a freshman taller than me.

“But who are you? Eus or Boden?”

“Ah. Eus is sleeping inside right now. By the way, I never sell anything to anyone who confuses me with Eus, so keep that in mind. Damn, how did we end up in business together?”

Eus—no, Boden looked inside, where Eus was supposed to be. Then he suddenly pointed to the staff I was holding and asked, “So, are you going to buy it?”

“No.”

“What? You can use it, so why don’t you buy it?”

“Because it’s awkward.”

There was no reason to use it right now. After all, I didn’t need it. Of course, I could put it in my subspace and carry it around…

“And the magic power storage capacity seems to be small.”

If I wanted, I could get something better than that. I could just go and buy it when I needed it.

“…That seems like it has a low magic power storage capacity?”

However, Boden’s reaction was a little strange.

“It feels like it.”

“What are you talking about? How much magic power do you think that magical crystal holds? It should hold the magic power of an average fifth or sixth year student and still have some left over.”

Was that so? But it felt small to me. It was like filling a small bucket of water with a well’s worth of water.

“Anyway, I don’t need it. I’ll just buy this.”

“Why are all the children of House Sogres like this? Even Clare wasn’t this bad.”

“How was my second sister?”

“Once students reach their fourth year, everyone is excited to carry a staff, but she thought it wasn’t cool and was the only one who didn’t carry one around.”

As expected of my second sister.

Anyway, I took out a few silver crowns and paid for the food before putting it in my subspace. Boden let out a disbelieving scoff.

“There’s a subspace like that? That’s amazing. It’s easy to open and take things out of… I’ve never seen anything like it.”

I shrugged in answer and pocketed the change, saying, “I’ll come again next time.”

“Yeah. Don’t come when Eus is around. He’s incredibly curious. He’ll probably annoy you a lot.”

That was worthy advice. I went outside with Digron, and that was when I noticed his awe-filled eyes.

“You… You really are an incredible genius, aren’t you?”

Why was he acting like this all of a sudden?

“I’ve never seen someone use a staff from their first year!”

“Is that so?”

Digron asked, his eyes sparkling brightly, “How high can you summon? Is it possible to summon 4th-rank or higher? Oh right, it’ll be hard since you don’t have the sign yet. However, you can also strengthen your summons, so if you get a sign, summoning up to 4th-rank… ”

I didn’t know because I hadn’t tried. After all, I didn’t have any formal contracting authority.

“Is there anything else you need? Um, maybe I should show you around our department facilities? Or…”

“I’m going to go have lunch soon.”

“Oh, r-right! Sorry! I was too oblivious. Ha. Haha. I guess I should go back, too.”

I looked at Digron blankly and asked, “Never mind the Summoning Department facilities. Do you happen to know of any dessert shops?”

“Hmm?”

“A place that makes good tarts, while we’re at it.”

Was it because I used magic? I was really craving sweets.

“If you’re looking for desserts…Ah! I know a place!”

“Where?”

“It’s a place called . I’ll show you around!”

I tilted my head at Digron’s odd words.

“I told you I was going to eat.”

“Oh, that’s right… Enjoy your meal!”

Digron turned away with a very sullen look on his face. Should I have just invited him to a meal? Well, we could eat together later.

By the way, after eating, my class was…

“It’s a liberal arts class.”

Leila said that the professor would finish orientation in less than five minutes, so I could quickly finish and go back to the dormitory.

By the way, why were my ears so itchy? Was someone talking about me?

“There you are! I found you, Dane Sogres!”

Ah, it was them.

I was speechless as I looked at the students from the Physical Beauty club blocking my way.

“We’ve been looking for you all day!”

Why did they walk around with their tops off? No, why were they taking off their clothes in front of me?

I couldn’t bear to watch the twitching muscles any longer, so I closed my eyes tightly.

“I’ll say it again. You, join our Physical Beauty Club! If you add muscle to that natural bone structure, you can have the most beautiful body in the world!”

‘Oh my god, his trapezius muscles wiggle every time he talks.’

“Would you like to create a world filled with beautiful bodies with us? If the genius freshman of House Sogres joins us, the world will view these muscles more positively… Oh, wait. It’s time to drink a shake.”

Muscle Man, I mean, the person whose name I couldn’t even remember because of his muscles, suddenly stopped talking, took out some kind of water bottle from his subspace, opened the lid, and started gulping it down.

Was it some kind of poison? Why was he frowning like that?

“Khuh… As expected, the taste isn’t that great because it’s ground chicken breast. But this is also an ordeal for great muscles!”

I stared blankly at him and said, “I’m not joining.”

“No. I’ll follow you until you say you’ll join!”

That was stalking.

“Dane Sogres, not having someone as talented as you join our club is a great loss to all of humanity!”

How did we go from not building muscles to a loss for the entire human race?

“Alright. If you join our club, we will consider you positively for the next president position.”

The students next to him were terrified.

“P-president! You said you would give me that seat!”

“Th-that happened to me, too!”

“You said you would make me the honorary president!”

Were they giving out the presidency in some order of stupidity?

“In addition to the presidency, I can also give you priority for using the exercise equipment!”

“President! How can that be?! That is an incredible privilege!”

“That’s right! How can you give priority to a place that everyone uses?”

I eventually lost my patience and snapped, “I’m hungry, are you going to keep blocking the road?”

“Oh! Then how about some chicken breast shakes with us?”

It couldn’t be helped. It would be hard to break through them with brute force.

Then—

“Oh, he’s running away!”

“Catch him! We’ll definitely bring him into our club!”

I chose to run away.

I ran towards the alley nearby.

To be exact…

“Wh-where did he go?”

“I definitely saw him go into this alley!”

I used the stealth skills I learned from my mother’s assassination lessons.

First, stealth.

Assess the situation. There were three places to hide in the alley I discovered in an instant.

The big trash can.

Behind the wall.

And…

The eaves of the two-story building, which was where I was currently at.

Second…

“Helden, find him quickly! I knew this would happen, so I brought Helden with me! Helden has sensed several students and succeeded in enlisting them!”

Hold your breath and put your magic to sleep. The world is wide, and hiding is often seen through.

“Helden, what are you doing?”

“I-I can’t detect him? We’re alone here?”

“It can’t be!”

Minimizing one’s presence and stopping the flow of one’s mana was also an assassin’s skill that was used to hide from detection.

I was doing it perfectly now. There was some luck involved, too.

“Helden! What’s going on?!”

“Ugh, I suddenly feel dizzy…”

Helden, who had been searching hard, couldn’t hold out and stumbled and fell to the ground.

“I-I felt dizzy after sensing for so long…”

“Oh no! You’re definitely anemic! I told you to take your iron supplements on time! Otherwise, you’ll get dizzy when you lift weights!”

“Let’s go and feed him some iron-rich food!”

What the hell…? No, they’re talking shit.

“But President, where did Dane go?”

“It seems like he ran away, so let’s stop here for today. But we’ll definitely get him! We’ll search again starting this evening!”

“Alright!”

“Don’t forget to stop him at all costs if he ever tries to join another club. It’ll be a big problem if he does!”

The group of muscleheads left the alley.

I remembered the last words the muscle-bound president had said.

It would be bad if I joined another club? Was it true that students who joined a club couldn’t join a second one?

If that was true…

“Look at this kid. Not lowering your eyes? You mad…?”

“Hey, just beat him near death. This little shit is a coward. If I beat him up a few times, he won’t be able to talk.”

“Hey, what’s wrong? That guy from yesterday isn’t here either.”

Hold on.

I listened to the sounds coming from the other alley.

“I-I am not afraid of you guys anymore.”

It was Ernest. I was certain of it. That thin, trembling voice…

And the others…

“Haha! Hey, did you hear that? He said he wasn’t scared.”

“He’s shaking like he’s going to wet his pants at any moment… Hey, you want to die? Do you know what kind of shitty dream I had last night because of yesterday?”

“You’re dead. We drank our potions, you see? Just to kill you one day sooner. Huh, how dare you hit me on the chin?”

Aha.

Those minions from back then. But it seemed like the leader, Bronn, was nowhere to be seen. The others drank potions and came out to seek revenge, but was Bronn too shocked by what happened?

“Who wants to go first? We’ve got plenty of time anyway. I looked out of the alley here, no one’s coming.”

“I’ll go first. My jaw still feels numb even after taking the potion.”

“D-don’t come over here!”

“Hey, hey, look at this loner Ernest with his fist up! Hahaha!”

Without hesitation, I immediately got down from the eaves and jumped over the wall.

“Hello.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

I greeted them warmly.

“Y-you!”

“Oh, oh, what happened?! You said no one was coming!”

It was good that it was before lunch. If I exercised a little, food would taste better, right?

By the way, look at them. I counted how many there were with a blank face and continued speaking.

“That’s right. No one’s coming. That’s good. Right?”

I raised my magic power. I had never cast magic directly on another person before, so this would be a good opportunity.

A good opportunity to check the power of my ancient magic.