If You Really Need Proof
If there's one thing worth confirming, it's this—
Eloni Academy had as many clubs as it had races. The most representative of them all was, naturally, the Archery Club. Just as the celestials were called the race of the spear, elves were called the race of the bow, blessed with a special affinity for archery from the moment they were born.
The talent of Ria Elfosis, the girl I was inhabiting, proved it—she handled a bow far better than she ever handled magic.
'Magic is hardly a matter of talent for her, to be honest.'
She simply manipulated mana a little better than average; her actual spellwork was thoroughly ordinary.
At any rate, that was why Eloni Academy boasted no fewer than four separate Archery Clubs. So many students wanted to join that the academy had assigned clubs accordingly. From what I'd heard, the four of them even competed with each other...
"I think this is the place."
[Lily's brand, right there]
[Uh, aren't we going to the hammer club?]
[She's here to register a club]
And there I stood, in front of the academy's one and only Spear Arts club.
Compared to the combat clubs—swordsmanship, hand-to-hand, magic—or the non-combat ones like cooking, crafting, and nature observation, its clubroom was remarkably small. And judging by its location, it was tucked away in some forgotten corner of the building.
Knock knock.
—...Come in.
The door creaked open, and a clubroom in a truly lamentable state greeted me. A floor that groaned underfoot. Bookshelves buried in dust. Beside them leaned a few rusted spear shafts—without even their blades. The sofa was pocked all over as if rats had been gnawing at it, and at a table in the far corner of the cramped little room sat a gloomy woman, hunched in melancholy.
Not an elf, at least.
"...Are you here to join the club?"
"Yes."
"Leave."
"Excuse me?"
[Getting turned away at the door lmaooo]
[So rude. Kill her]
[lolol]
[lololololol]
Telling me to get lost the second I walk in. There had to be a reason behind it, though.
"The Spear Arts Club is scheduled for disbandment. You look like a first-year—go look into other clubs."
"Why is it being disbanded?"
The academy had countless clubs, among them things like 'Research and Exploration of the Unknown' or 'A Study of Alcohol'. They sounded respectable enough, but in truth they were just playrooms invented by students who liked goofing off. The latter was practically a booze party every single day.
The problem was that the academy's club regulations weren't nearly strict enough to police and manage all of that.
The woman, who looked to be an upperclassman, let out a long sigh.
"We don't have people. This club has exactly two members."
"...And the other one?"
"Took a leave of absence. Lost a bet to a freshman in the Swordsmanship Club and was too embarrassed to show his face, so..."
Her jaw tightened, teeth grinding, and she dropped her head with another sigh.
...She looks extremely depressed.
[oh no]
[A leave of absence lmaooo]
[Can't argue with shame, I guess]
[Let's just leave. This place is hopeless]
[Hammer club, go go]
[Why not just try the magic club?]
[Poor girl]
"We've been receiving official notices for over a year now, telling us to keep our numbers up. But we couldn't."
"Why not?"
"Because nobody wants to join."
Unlike the non-combat clubs, which allowed multiple memberships, you could only ever join one combat club. The trouble was that elves gravitated to archery, nymphs went to magic or spirit-related clubs, beastfolk to their own weapons or martial arts, and dwarves didn't have the height to wield a spear anyway...
The idea of a golem wielding a spear was a joke in itself.
In the end, the spear arts were doomed to unpopularity.
"The humans and beastfolk from the few remaining tribes used to join now and then. Ha... but eventually they all quit or drifted over to swordsmanship or some other department. The spear simply doesn't have any meri—"
"What do you mean, the spear has no merit?"
Swish.
THUD!
I planted both hands on the table and slammed them down hard. Startled by the sudden shift in atmosphere, the woman snapped her eyes up to me.
"The spear is a weapon that lets you attack and defend at once. Compared to any other close-range weapon, it has overwhelming reach—and in a pinch, the shaft doubles as a staff."
"U-uh..."
"And that's not all. Its mana cohesion and efficiency are superb. It's a weapon capable of producing dozens of outcomes from a single movement—and you're telling me it's inferior to a mere sword?"
[Lily lmaoooo]
[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]
[How DARE they disrespect the spear lmao]
[whoa lmao]
[Cooldown needed]
[hahahahaha]
[I mean the spear IS crazy good though, it's not even that hard to handle]
[Spears are great]
[Lily's eyes have gone feral lolololololol]
[At the high-master level spears do get tricky, but as a weapon they're absolutely busted]
How could anyone undervalue the spear this badly? The hammer, fine—I'd grant that its satisfying heft gives it some appeal. But from a purely technical standpoint, the spear utterly dominates the hammer. You don't wield a hammer because you have great technique; you wield it to brute-force your way through with overwhelming strength.
'Finally, you've come to see the spear's true worth. Yes. The spear is the greatest weapon in all the world.'
...Granted, that wasn't entirely his doing. It's simply a fact that spears are good.
Swish. The woman raked a hand through her hair and swayed unsteadily, looking a little dizzy. Loose strands drifted aside to reveal ears that were slightly blunted.
'...A half-elf?'
"I—I know the spear is good. But! We can't beat them!"
"Who?"
The half-elf squeezed her eyes shut as if recalling that day.
"The Swordsmanship Club..."
The club that had stolen their members and kept an endless rivalry burning for more than fifteen years.
The Spear Arts Club and the Swordsmanship Club had been rivals for fifteen years now.
It all began when the two club presidents—once friends—held a friendly exhibition match. What had started as a joke, just something for fun, soured with every successive victory for the Swordsmanship Club. And then—
'I'm transferring to the Swordsmanship Club.'
When their best member—a third-year, second only to the president himself—defected, the tide of battle turned completely. Before, the combined strength of their president and that third-year had won them one or two matches out of every ten. After the defection, they didn't win a single match, spiraling all the way to the brink of disbandment.
And so the Spear Arts Club decayed, decay upon decay, until finally it was driven to the very edge of extinction from lack of members.
"...Our old president left nothing behind but an apology. She couldn't even graduate—she just withdrew from the academy. I was the youngest, so I got swept along into the presidency. And the senior we still had left... no, not anymore, I suppose. That member..."
"You said he took a leave of absence."
"Yes. I'm the only one left."
She ran her hand bitterly across the table—the only thing in this dust-choked room that was actually maintained.
"In three months, the auditors come. When they do, I'll have to give up this clubroom and walk away. Fifteen years together, and..."
"......"
"It can't be helped. The Swordsmanship Club is just so stro—"
"How many members does a club need to stay open?"
"That would be five..."
"Five."
Headcount was something I could fill. My influence right now was rocketing through the stratosphere, and plenty of students hadn't yet committed to any combat club. If I asked to borrow their names, they'd lend them without question.
"I'll fill your roster. It'll be names on paper only, but since you don't strictly need activity records, it should work."
"...Pardon?"
"Do you need any special documents?"
"Uh... there are membership forms, but..."
"Give them here."
The woman—the club president—fumbled about and pulled a stack of papers out of a drawer in the corner of the table. As expected from something untouched for so long, they were caked in dust. I snatched them away, skimmed them roughly, and signed on the spot.
"And with that, I am officially a member of the Spear Arts Club."
"What? No, wait a second."
"The friendly match with the Swordsmanship Club is in a few days, right?"
"We decided to cancel that..."
THUD!
"...Uwaah?!"
"When is it?"
"A-a month from now, as far as I remember..."
"A month, huh..."
I brushed the dust off the sofa with magic and settled into it, thinking things over.
"Can I manage it in a month...?"
It would be tight, but with a few all-nighters, it might just be doable. And for the rest, I could always lean on the episode skip function.
[Lily, enraged by spear slander LOLOL]
[Possible for what exactly??]
"Why, our club president's skill improvement, of course."
I fixed her with a long, level stare.
"U-um, senpai...?"
"What's your name?"
"Ene Lizua. No wait, that's not the point—"
"What year?"
"Third... third year..."
"Good. Club President Ene, then."
President of the Spear Arts Club. Third-year, Ene Lizua.
Whether this girl possessed great talent didn't matter to me. What mattered was that she was the president of the Spear Arts Club, and that she had at least some conviction and resolve regarding the spear.
"You want to win, don't you? Against the Swordsmanship Club."
"I mean, yes, but... could you explain a little—"
"No need. Then it's settled."
That was enough. Even if she lacked talent, all she had to do was take her beating until she didn't.
"I'll make you win. No—I will make you win."
However brutal it got, however close to death she felt, I would make sure she protected this club.
The only escape is through.
The Spear Arts Club was coming back to life. The member count that had clung to two for over a year on the strength of my single word ballooned by a full seven in just five minutes.
Which brought the Spear Arts Club to ten members in total. Only about two of them actually intended to study the spear properly, but since filling the quota had been the goal, it hardly mattered.
The problem, though—
"...Did I mishear that?"
"You heard me perfectly."
"Not me—you're the one who's teaching? And teaching me, of all people?"
Ene Lizua looked past bewilderment into sheer absurdity. She let out a scoff, then quickly fixed me with a far more serious glare.
"I've heard the rumors about you, senpai. Famous for your magic, they say."
THUD!
"But whether you're qualified to teach the spear—that I don't know."
She drew out her green spear and took a stance, poised to strike at any moment.
Well, then. If there's one thing worth confirming—