Things had changed considerably within the school. There were club duels to compete for club rankings and at the end of each week, the student council would visit the last place club in order to see if they should remain.

Within the first week, five clubs had been disbanded. But for some reason, no one was too upset. It seemed that the students were working extremely hard and they were beginning to show their passion. Some had to figure out if they wanted to continue in a low ranking club or attend a better club and also work on studying.

Others could easily find the most popular clubs when they would attend the school in the future. The second years were upset, but they tried to use these rules to undermine the RtP club.

“Haha! The last club that doesn’t even have an allowance! No funding! What is the point of even keeping it?!”

Pedro, a second year from the coast. His father runs a ship building business and also helps run an auction house. In the game, his antics were pretty much like a thug working for the Crown Prince. Abysmal. He also ended up being a sort of antagonist towards Bucco whose family also deals with making ships.

He and some other students with hardly any status had come to the club room in order to duel it. They had picked a time when Nolan, Zack, and Yidris were still in the council room. However, that meant Abigail and Bucco were still there. They were packing their things and about to head towards the Dungeon City when they got stopped.

“We can keep our club since the school is not supporting it. The Rise to Prominence club is funded by our own efforts.”

Abigail was grouchy, so she spoke harshly. However, Pedro smirked at her and looked her up and down. Abigail stood out like a sore thumb since she looked like an adult. And a hot one, especially.

But before he could say something lewd, he was interrupted.

“You wanna duel? Come on, then!”

As he turned, a huge chunk of something blocked his vision. Then, he was sent flying into the yard outside. It was good that the clubs were situated in the outside buildings, or the main building would have had a hole in the wall!

Most duels used the concepts of their purposes instead of brute force, but sometimes, that was the best deterrent. Besides, the Rise to Prominence club focused on gathering knowledge of the game world. How was it to satisfy that purpose? They had already screwed everything up!

On Bucco’s back was a large buckler, but he held a large hammer in one hand and an ax in the other. He readied himself and let loose a loud yell, scaring the other second years.

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“Che! Damn! What are you waiting for, get him!”

“Oh? I thought it was a duel. In that case, let me join in.”

Abigail swung her hand gracefully, sending a wave of fire outwards to push the guys back. They felt the heat of the fire at such a close range, one of them actually fell backward and started sliding away.

For someone looking at the situation, it could be said that the second years were weak, but that would be wrong.

It normally took people ten years just to hopefully master one style. For example, it was normal for people to master something by the middle of their lifespan.

So for these people, the members of Rise to Prominence and the other main characters, to be over level six in anything, they were considerably strong. Even in the game, they were strong people.

But why?

Well, in the game, Bucco had suffered something terrible that he couldn’t stop, so he ended up focusing his entire life in order to become a knight. Abigail was used as a pawn in order to spy on the western region by the northern region, so she had to deal with a lot of issues.

But now, Bucco had managed to stop his sister’s murder and Abigail ran away from the northern kingdom herself. In a sense, they were probably even stronger than their original selves!

Actually, the same could be said for Yidris. She was confined to the Princess, but now she was free to perform her hobbies. Even Nolan had saved Hector and stopped Emeril from turning twisted.

As the two pummeled the upperclassmen, several other people were watching from the shadows.

One was the Crown Prince, Julias. He was also being escorted by several strong looking knights. The other was a young boy. Although, he could have been mistaken as a girl.

“Are you sure this will work? Every single member of that club is strong. And three of them are on the student council. Adding on the toughest freshman, the student council is probably the strongest it has ever been.”

“Oh, hush. If you hadn’t proven useful, then I would have just ignored you. See, I can do this much myself.”

“…True. I find it hard to believe your story, but I must, after witnessing your efforts over the months we have worked together. I see. Then what do you think we should do? My sister is getting too strong.”

“Look, all you need to do is get rid of Emeril. His father is the Prime Minster, yes? Surely you can pull some strings in order to get him to do something dangerous during the summer. Then I can go along. Since no one suspects me, then I can get close and finish him off.”

The cute smile of the boy made Julias shudder, but he nodded.

“Alright, if you can do that, then I can find a way to have you marry Ophia.”

“Don’t forget Josine! And Yidris! Ahaha!”

The cute boy’s demented laughter filled the room, while the knights put their hands on their blades out of caution.

“Huh? Are you getting antsy?”

“Stand down.”

One knight didn’t react fast enough, unfortunately, to the prince’s command. The boy jumped up and smacked the knight in the face, sending him into a strange state.

“I apologize for my men’s actions. Please remove that strange spell!”

“Only because we are partners, okay?”

The boy smiled sweetly and flicked the knight in the head. He woke up as if he had fallen asleep standing up and cowered before the boy.

The Incubus walked away while swishing his tail, ignoring the whimpers of the knight behind him. As a demon related to one of the factions against the Demon King, the child, a soon-to-be freshman, was happily waiting for his first day of school. He unfurled his small wings and dashed away, his powder blue hair swaying softly in the breeze.

This was Gideon, the person who would cause trouble for Zack if he had decided to head down the Gina route.

And he wasn’t the only one. It would seem that with another year, another batch of players would arrive.