The Star Society

"Junior, would you consider joining the student council?"

"Junior, think about joining the anime club. You're so handsome, it'd be a shame if you didn't."

"Don't talk nonsense. Look at those muscles—this junior must work out all the time. Join our fitness club. We guarantee we'll get you even bigger muscles."

Wuling stared silently at the senior's enormous trapezius muscles.

They're almost as big as his head. I wonder how he trained them to look like that.

The senior noticed Wuling's gaze, but instead of showing the slightest discomfort, he laughed heartily.

"To me, muscles are for making you stronger. I don't care whether they look good or not. All I want is to become the strongest."

Before he knew it, Wuling blurted out, "Even if you end up looking like a gaming chair?"

"Even if I end up looking like a gaming chair!"

The gaming-chair senior flamboyantly clenched his fists, his tone utterly resolute.

...He's a real man.

Wuling sighed to himself, but politely waved his hands at the seniors gathered around him.

"Sorry, seniors, but I don't have much free time. For now, I'd like to join a club that's relatively laid-back. If there isn't one, that's fine too. It's not like I absolutely have to join a club, so I'm sorry."

The seniors looked a little disappointed when they heard that. They shook their heads and turned to recruit other freshmen.

The trapezius senior, however, clapped him heartily on the shoulder, and not lightly.

"Good. It's a good thing to know your own mind. If you ever change your mind, just let me know. The fitness club's doors will always be open to you."

With that, he strode away to look for his next promising recruit.

...What a hearty guy. I probably won't forget you for the rest of my life.

Wuling stood alone amid the crowd, out of place in the bustle around him.

The Shorekeeper Butterfly, visible only to him, rested quietly on his shoulder. Her pale blue glow was hidden from sight, and gentle traces of spiritual energy lingered around him, helping to muffle the surrounding noise a little.

Over the course of the morning, he had raised the Shorekeeper Butterfly's development level to five. She still had no skills, but she could at least block out a little sound.

Wuling had also discovered that doing certain things for the first time gave the most development points. For example, if the Shorekeeper Butterfly needed ten experience points to rise from level one to level two, the first gift Wuling gave her raised her affection by ten points. The second gave only six, and after that it would drop to one.

Of course, he couldn't give her just anything. Wuling had once tried giving her a handful of weeds from the roadside, only to find that he couldn't do it at all. The weeds simply couldn't be given to her.

It seemed she had her own set of standards, but Wuling had no idea exactly what they were. He could only figure them out gradually later. It was all Abu's fault for not making the instructions more detailed, leaving him to work it out himself.

Wuling continued walking, passing one club after another.

The archery club, painting club, music club, gaming club, and a whole series of others passed before his eyes, but he chose none of them.

If it were simply a matter of preference, Wuling would have loved to join the swordsmanship club. After all, who hadn't dreamed of being a martial arts hero as a child? Of course, he still did.

Unfortunately, just like with the earlier clubs, the schedule was too packed. He simply couldn't make time for it, and in the end he had to drop the idea.

He walked for a long time without finding a single club that met his requirements. Just as Wuling was about to give up, he suddenly spotted a club in a corner.

Since he was already here, he decided to go over and see what kind of club it was. Maybe it would meet his requirements.

When he got closer, he saw only a petite senior with twin tails sitting at the table, asleep with one hand tucked under her head. She was even drooling.

Wuling hesitated for a while but ultimately decided not to wake her. He knew how unpleasant it was to be suddenly woken from a sound sleep.

However, just as he was about to get up and leave, the sleeping senior's fingers twitched slightly. She sat up, stretched, and instinctively wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth.

Wuling stopped right where he was, feeling that he could neither leave nor stay.

Fortunately, after spending a moment in a daze, the senior noticed him. She jumped off her stool and hurried over to him.

While Wuling was still wondering what she was going to do, she took his hand and pulled him toward the long table.

Wuling wanted to pull his hand away, but he was afraid of hurting her, so he could only let her drag him along.

Once she had pulled him to the table, the twin-tailed senior took out a sheet of paper. She pressed Wuling's thumb into the inkpad beside her, then directly onto the paper.

Then she let go of Wuling's hand, picked up the paper, and looked it over with satisfaction before putting it away.

"Hello, junior, welcome to the Star Society. My name is Nabomo, and I'm the president of the Star Society. If you have any questions, you can come to me anytime. Of course, leaving the society is the exception."

Wuling: ?

When I'm the one with a question mark, it's not me who has a problem. It's you.

Who goes around forcing people into a deal like this? We haven't even met before, have we? You don't even know my name, and you've already dragged me into your club?

"Senior, aren't you being a little too hasty?"

He finally couldn't hold back and spoke, his voice full of helplessness.

"I haven't even said I want to join, and you haven't asked what I want. Doesn't making me leave my thumbprint like that count as forcing me into it?"

Hearing this, the twin-tailed senior named Nabomo raised her head and blinked her wide, innocent, clear eyes, looking utterly self-assured.

"There's no need to ask."

"Anyone who makes it to the Star Society's booth and is willing to stop is someone fated to be here!"

"Those who are fated to be here are assumed to be joining of their own free will! That's how the rules have been since ancient times!"

Wuling: ...

What do you mean, that's how it's been since ancient times? Didn't you just make that up on the spot?

"Then may I ask to leave the society?"

"I already said you couldn't, didn't I?"

"The academy doesn't seem to have a rule against leaving a club, does it?"

"Of course the academy doesn't have one, but it's a rule I made."

"...I'm telling a teacher."

"Don't, junior!"

Nabomo immediately wrapped her arms around Wuling's leg and looked up at him with large, watery emerald-green eyes, pleading through tears.

"Please, junior, don't go. If you leave, the club will have fewer than twenty members and be forcibly disbanded. Please don't go, okay?"

"Even if you really have to leave, please wait until after the next inspection. Otherwise, the Star Society will be finished. Please, junior, help your senior out. I'll agree to anything you ask."

Wuling had originally intended to leave, but that last sentence immediately perked him up.

"You just said you'd agree to anything I ask, right?"

"Yes, right, that's right, as long as you don't leave now."

Hearing her affirmative answer, Wuling's lips curled into a wicked smile.

Since she's put it that way, I should enjoy this to the fullest.