Evil Avalon - Volume 1 - Chapter 12

Chapter 12: The Club Fair

Afternoon classes got canceled to let students visit a club fair in the school’s lecture hall. My classmates chatted excitedly about which clubs they’d join.

As said during the orientation session, the clubs at Adventurers’ High were geared toward dungeon raiding. Those like the Swordcraft Club and the Archery Club were for students who favored particular weapons. Others, including the Wizarding Development Club or the Warrior Development Club, focused on specific jobs. The school also had popular clubs for students interested in a future career or research position, such as the Item Crafting Club and the Blacksmith Club.

The kids were excited to meet students following the same path as themselves who could give them valuable advice.

First-year students from Class A to Class E had gathered in the giant lecture hall. The dimming of the lights signaled the event start, and a male student sitting on the student council took to the stage.

“We’re about to begin the club fair,” he announced. “Joining a club will bestow many privileges and can sometimes improve your grades. I’m sure the most promising students will have already received invitations from several clubs. But use this fair to weigh your options. With that said, let the fair begin!”

From what I knew, no one had invited a Class E student to a club. My classmates whispered nervously to each other, and it seemed they were also aware of this.

I bet the other classes want nothing to do with us.

I’d expected Class E would have formed relationships with other classes a few days after the entrance ceremony. Given our status as external students or our reputation as weaklings, the rest of the classes were on bad terms with us. If we had formed a relationship, it was a hostile one. They looked down on us. From what I gathered, this wasn’t unique to our first-year class. The second and third-year Class E students received the same treatment.

The clubs in the hall practically tripped over each other, trying to poach students from the higher classes, but not Class E students. They weren’t turning down my classmates when they offered to join, but they weren’t welcoming them with open arms either.

But in among all of this—

“First-year Class E students!” called a girl wearing a hakama. “You’re all welcome in the Fourth Swordcraft Club! We don’t have any sponsors, but unlike the other clubs, we won’t treat you like indentured servants. If you want a fulfilling club experience and strive for improvement, why not stop by for a sample session?”

The girl was a significant character in the protagonist’s story, a second-year subheroine called Cuddles... Or that’s what the fans had called her. Her actual name was Yuna Matsuzaka. She was a strong-willed woman who, along with Akagi, had led the Fourth Swordcraft Club in a mighty war against the First Swordcraft Club.

Cuddles explained that whenever Class E students had joined clubs run by the higher classes, they’d only done menial tasks instead of training, and bullying had been a problem. Because of that, students had set up clubs run exclusively by and for Class E students, the Fourth Swordcraft Club being one of them.

In contrast to her pleasant speaking manner, the subject matter was dire, and my classmates were more cautious about joining clubs that let in people from other classes.

“Go on, losers, join the losers club!” a student from another class jeered, interrupting Cuddles.

“Nah, then who would we get to scrub the floors?” another asked.

“Exactly!” a third agreed. “And I suppose we can provide a tiny bit of training.”

It was hard to believe how disrespectful these first-years were toward their senior.

I sighed and thought, This is why so many events in the game revolved around Class E getting stronger and making these guys eat their words.

In the game’s story, the other classes constantly picked on the protagonist, Akagi, which led to several duel events. If I recalled correctly, Class A would shoo Akagi away when he tried to join their First Swordcraft Club at this very club fair. After that, Cuddles and the other Class E second-year students would take Akagi into the Fourth Swordcraft Club, and he’d train like hell to get payback. Reaching the end of that storyline would boost Akagi’s stats, but the journey would be fraught with difficulty and darkness. I wished him luck, anyway.

Majima, my classmate, tutted, “They get a little head start in the dungeon and think they’re God’s gift to adventuring.” He was a proud boy from a proud family.

Of course, he wasn’t alone in resenting the other classes because everyone in Class E felt the same way. Even if we all worked together, we wouldn’t stand a chance against the other classes. Just look at Class D’s Kariya. He had the Fighter job and was already level 11, while most of us were at or below level 3. He could knock anyone from Class E on their backs with a single punch.

I’d raised my level from 1 to 5, and the accompanying physical enhancements were powerful enough to defeat an ordinary martial artist in a fair fight. The difference a single level made to each of your abilities individually was slight. Due to how your dynamic visual acuity, raw strength, stamina, and endurance all increased simultaneously, the overall effect on your fighting ability was notable.

My classmates were staring at their feet, brooding and frustrated. They clearly wanted to fight back but were too weak to do anything.

If a club performed well at the Arena Tournament or competitive fair, the school would show preference to its members when deciding which students advanced to a higher class. The blunt and dismissive attitude of the other classes made joining a club set up exclusively for Class E students seem like the preferable option. However, the clubs that Class A students joined were of far better quality when you looked at their facilities and instructors based on funds provided by their sponsors. For example, I remembered being amazed at the First Swordcraft Club’s room when I saw it. It was basically a luxury condominium! It was cruel to dangle that in front of Class E’s eyes, then tell us not to join!

Conversely, the Fourth Swordcraft Club got crammed into a shoddy apartment outside the school that they’d had to rent because the school had refused to house them, citing a lack of space. To compound this, the upper classes had monopolized the good training locations within the magic field. The Fourth Swordcraft Club would have to go out and beg whenever they needed somewhere to train. It wasn’t their fault though since the higher classes and student council were pulling strings to keep them out.

The students of Class E who’d joined the school hoping to rise to Class A and had worked so hard faced bigger issues than just figuring out which club to join. They had the odds stacked against them.

***

Class E had been so excited when the fair had started, but a deep sense of gloom stuck to them as it ended. When we got back to the classroom, hardly anyone said anything. A few of the kids were sobbing into their hands.

“Are we just going to let that go?” said Oomiya, tears welling in the corners of her eyes. “It’s true. We’re not very strong at the moment. But come on, guys! We can change the way they look at us!”

Honestly, I wasn’t happy with the elitism and discrimination rife in this school either. I’d been able to shrug it off and enjoy the game back in my old world, but not here.

“I’m all for setting them straight, but we don’t have a hope of doing that unless we can get stronger,” a student said.

“Yeah,” another agreed. “I wish we could knock them down a peg... But we’re too weak right now.”

“I’ll show them,” said a short-haired girl, clenching her fists. “I’ll get strong enough. Just watch!”

The problem was the higher classes also aimed to get stronger. Students in Classes B to D worked as hard as they could to rise to the ranks of Class A. These upper classes had six years to battle it out, from the start of middle school to their high school graduation. Class E only had three years to catch up. Unless you had knowledge of the game, it would take more hard work than most were capable of to accomplish that.

Although, this year’s Class E is a special case, I thought. It has the protagonist and heroines like Pinky who are on another level, and even a foreign agent. I bet they’ll turn things around even without my help. 

“I think I’ll take a look at the First Swordcraft Club,” said Akagi, the charming protagonist. “Sure, we’ll have to prove ourselves. But we were gonna have to prove ourselves anyway.” He was as optimistic as ever. It looked like he would sign up for the hotbed of Class A students after all, which meant his childish optimism would end soon.

Tachigi had been deep in thought for the past few minutes with his brows furrowed. I only prayed that he, Pinky, and Kaoru would be there to support Akagi through this. Otherwise, Akagi might have a breakdown.

My thoughts turned to Kuga, an American agent and highly skilled compared to the rest of Class E. She rested her chin on her hand and stared out the window, uninterested. Advancing to Class A meant nothing to her, which made sense. But she might get involved depending on how the story played out, so I’d need to keep an eye on her.

While I was watching the rest of the class, Nitta, who sat at the desk in front of me, turned around and looked at me through her glasses. “So, Narumi, did you find a club you liked?”

Like Kuga, she didn’t appear worried about what had happened at the club fair.

“There’s no rush, so I’m gonna take my time to think about it,” I replied.

“Yeah, me too,” she said. “I was gonna join the First Archery Club, but if it’s too much for me, then maybe I’ll go to the sample session for that Class E club instead.”

The truth was that I wasn’t interested in joining a club and didn’t intend to. I wasn’t bothered about attending Adventurers’ University, and rising to Class A mattered little to me. While a few competitions required being part of a club, missing out on those was a minor disadvantage. There was no need to join a club, and I preferred to spend my time leveling up in the dungeon. My enthusiasm was high as I had found an incredibly efficient hunting spot that would speed up my leveling.

I’m so excited, I thought.

But I was so caught up in my plans that I failed to notice how intensely Nitta stared at me.