After somehow staggering through the excruciating nightmare that was Tuesday, Wednesday finally arrived.
Soren slumped in his seat, his body still sore from the previous day's classes.
His shoulders ached, his thighs burned, and every step he had taken that morning felt heavier than it should have.
He yawned, long and slow, then stretched his arms above his head until his joints popped.
The classroom around him was calm, more or less.
A few students were chatting in low voices, comparing timetables or complaining about professors.
Others rested their heads on their desks, still clinging to the last remnants of sleep.
Soren turned his head and looked out of the window.
The sky was cloudy once again today, a soft blanket of grey that made the light filtering into the room feel muted.
The air had turned a little colder over the past few days, not enough to be uncomfortable, but enough that he could feel the seasons shifting.
It made the academy feel slightly different.
He stared out at the cloudy sky for a while, letting his mind drift.
He almost missed the sound of someone approaching.
"Soren."
He turned his head and saw Olivia standing next to him, holding a notebook to her chest.
"What's up?" he asked.
She hesitated for a second, then spoke.
"Have you decided on a club yet?"
Soren blinked.
"...Oh."
With everything that had happened recently, the deadline for club registration had slipped completely out of his mind.
He remembered Lilliana's warning from homeroom, something about turning in the club application by Friday evening or else being thrown into the vice principal's study club, but he hadn't decided on anything.
"No, I haven't," he admitted.
Olivia nodded slowly.
"You have the afternoon off today, right?"
Soren thought for a moment, then nodded.
His Wednesday afternoons were empty, reserved in his mind for rest after the early-week rush.
"Want to look around together?" Olivia asked. "We can check the clubs before you decide."
"Wouldn't you rather go with Alex?"
It was an honest question, since the two of them had been practically glued together lately.
"He's got classes until the evening, so he can't."
"Ah."
That made sense; Alex's schedule really was insane.
Soren leaned back in his seat.
"Then sure," he said with a small shrug. "Why not?"
A faint smile appeared on Olivia's face.
"Okay, let's meet by the main entrance after classes, then."
"Got it."
She nodded once, then headed back to her seat as the professor entered the room and class began.
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
The rest of the morning passed in a blur of lectures.
By the time his last class ended, Soren's mind was buzzing slightly from all the information, but his body felt mostly fine.
Compared to Tuesday, Wednesday was merciful.
He left the classroom and walked to the main entrance of the building.
Olivia was already there, waiting near one of the pillars; she straightened when she saw him and came over with a small smile.
"Sorry to keep you."
"It's fine," she replied. "I just got here too."
They fell into step together and headed toward the area of the campus where most of the club rooms were located.
"So, what are you interested in?" Soren said as they walked.
He already knew what the "original" answer was supposed to be.
In the game, Olivia would have joined the duelling club with Alex.
She had taken on the role of support there by healing; it had been an important part of her growth.
But this wasn't the game.
"Uhm," Olivia hesitated, fiddling with the hem of her sleeve, "I wanted to look at the culinary club and the crafts club."
Soren blinked.
That was… different.
Surprising, but at the same time, not completely strange.
So much had already changed.
The people around him weren't following the script anymore; they were making their own choices.
He nodded.
"That's fine. It's not like I have anywhere in mind."
They walked together in silence for a while, their footsteps echoing faintly in the corridor as they moved from the main building toward the club building.
Halfway there, Soren spoke.
"Hey, Olivia?"
She turned her head.
"Is something wrong?" she asked.
"No."
He looked forward as they walked, watching the doors and windows pass by.
"I just… wanted to say thanks," he said quietly. "For summer break."
Olivia blinked.
Soren kept his eyes ahead.
"You spent a lot of your time taking care of me," he continued. "I realised I never actually thanked you properly for it."
During that time, he had been in a very dark place.
His body had been alive, but his mind had been clouded, numb, and knotted up with things he couldn't control.
He hadn't cared about himself; he had barely cared about anything.
If Olivia hadn't shown up and spoke to him.
If Alex hadn't quietly stayed nearby and helped.
He honestly wasn't sure what would have happened.
"It was no problem," Olivia said, her voice soft.
"I mean it," Soren insisted. "You helped a lot. I'm… not sure what would have happened if you weren't there."
Olivia glanced down, her bangs shifting slightly across her forehead.
"I'm just glad you're doing better now."
Soren exhaled.
"Is there anything I can do to repay you?"
He wasn't just saying it politely.
If either she or Alex asked him for something, he would do whatever he could to make it happen.
The same went for Lilliana, Amelia, Louise, Esper and even Felix.
They had all helped him in their own ways.
They had given him reasons to keep moving.
He owed them.
"Uhm…" Olivia pressed a finger to her chin, thinking.
Then, after a few seconds, her cheeks turned slightly pink.
"Just… keep helping me and Alex."
Soren couldn't help but smile at that.
"I was already going to do that," he said honestly.
"T-That's enough then…" she murmured.
He snorted lightly.
"Pfft. Alright. Then, for starters, why don't you try asking him on another date?"
"!!!"
Olivia's face went bright red.
"I-I can't!" she sputtered. "That's too forward!"
Soren rolled his eyes.
"Sure~ You keep thinking that way~"
"T-Then! What about you!" Olivia shot back suddenly.
"Huh?" Soren blinked, caught off guard.
"You're engaged!" she said, flustered. "Yet you… you keep…!"
Her words tangled in her throat.
"Ugh, never mind!"
She stomped her feet once, then sped up, marching ahead with a puffed-up expression.
Soren watched her for a moment, confused.
'What did I do?'
He shook his head and followed.
Still, he was smiling.
'Well, whatever,' he thought. 'I'll make sure it works out between them somehow.'
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
"Wow, that sucked," Soren muttered.
He and Olivia stepped out of a clubroom and into the corridor.
The door clicked shut behind them.
"What kind of—! Ugh!" Olivia hissed, grinding her teeth as she glared at the closed door.
Their first stop had been the culinary club.
In Soren's mind, he had pictured a warm room filled with the smell of food, people chatting and laughing as they tried new recipes, an atmosphere where cooking was shared and enjoyed.
Reality was different.
The culinary club had been more like a miniature restaurant with an oversized ego.
Snobby noble students stood at the front, arms crossed, watching critically as the other members cooked dishes assigned to them by a "menu committee".
There was no freedom.
No experimenting.
Just orders and judgment.
The moment he heard one of the senior members criticise the smallest mistake one of the younger members made, Soren had mentally checked out.
Olivia held it together until they left the room, then exploded.
"Cooking should be fun!" she fumed. "Not… not whatever that was!"
Soren silently agreed.
He was fairly good at cooking himself.
Back on Earth, he had cooked because he had to, but somewhere along the way, he had grown to like it; his favourite part had always been watching Aria smile after tasting his food.
That was it.
Simple, straightforward.
Seeing cooking reduced to a tool for gaining favour or status points rubbed him the wrong way.
Their second stop had been the crafts club.
He had expected a room filled with half-finished projects, yarn, fabrics, clay, wood shavings, a place where people worked at their own pace, making whatever they wanted.
Instead, they found neat rows of tables covered with identical projects.
Students worked with mechanical rhythm, using magic tools to mass-produce scarves, gloves, baskets and small accessories.
A ledger on the table listed prices.
"...So you sell these?" Soren had asked.
One of the seniors had smiled proudly.
"Of course. It's an efficient way to support the club's budget and give our club members some extra change on the side."
Olivia's expression had darkened with every word.
Now, out in the corridor, she kicked lightly at the floor.
"Crafts are about creation!" she ranted. "You should do it because you enjoy making something! Not because you're trying to sell ten identical scarves in a day!"
"Agreed."
He found her rare anger oddly entertaining.
It wasn't like he couldn't understand the business side of things; he knew clubs needed money, but something about seeing "crafts" treated like a factory line rubbed him the wrong way.
He pulled a folded sheet from his inventory and opened it.
The list of clubs was printed in neat rows.
"What next then?" he asked.
"Ugh! I don't know!" Olivia grumbled.
Soren snickered, then held the list out in front of her.
"Here's what there is," he said. "I refuse to join a physical club, so we can cross those off."
He crossed out a few names with a pen, any clubs that involved sports, combat training, or heavy physical activity.
"Have you got anything?"
Olivia frowned, scanning the list.
"...Just… remove all of the creative clubs…" she said quietly.
Soren chuckled and drew a line through the culinary and crafts clubs, plus a few others that sounded similar.
"That leaves us with…" he muttered. "Choir, Tea Ceremony, History, Debate, Gardening, Spirit, and the Book Club."
He turned the page toward her.
"Should we go check them out?"
Olivia sighed, but nodded.
"Let's at least try," she said.
They set off again.
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
"I'm done," Olivia declared.
She slumped down on a bench in one of the academy's small courtyards, shoulders drooping.
Soren sat next to her, letting his bag rest by his feet.
To put it simply, their adventure had been a mess.
The choir club had turned out to be less of a singing group and more of a devotional group.
Instead of practising harmonies or fun arrangements, they had walked in on a circle of students in white robes, singing solemn hymns as an instructor explained how their voices could "better carry their prayers to the heavens".
Soren had backed out slowly.
The tea ceremony club had been worse for Olivia in particular.
The moment they stepped through the door, a group of noble ladies turned to stare at them.
Their gazes slid over Soren briefly, then settled on Olivia's commoner uniform with thinly veiled disdain.
"Can we help you?" one of them asked, her tone smooth but cold.
They lasted all of two minutes before leaving.
The history club had at least been neutral.
But almost every student inside had either fallen asleep at their desk or slumped over, a dead look in their eyes, while the club president droned on about ancient wars in excruciating detail.
And the debate club…
Even Soren had no idea what was going on there.
Within seconds of entering, he and Olivia had been surrounded by students arguing at high speed, throwing terms and references back and forth like spells.
The topics shifted constantly, and the intensity was overwhelming.
The two of them had left quietly before anyone could drag them into an argument.
The spirit club hadn't even given them a chance.
A member standing guard at the door stopped them with a polite smile.
"We're sorry," she said. "Entry is for contracted spirit users only."
Soren and Olivia looked at each other, then turned away without complaint.
The only half-decent clubs had been the book club and the gardening club.
But even those had problems.
The book club did have shelves of novels and essays, but the selection was disappointing.
Most of the fiction either leaned toward flowery, drawn-out romance where noble ladies and common-born knights suffered endlessly for love, or male-oriented power fantasies where some overpowered knight or mage slaughtered enemies and gained more titles while women fell for him in predictable ways.
The language was often so over-decorated it felt like wading through syrup.
Soren had picked up a random novel, read three paragraphs, then put it back.
'How do you even come up with that many adjectives and metaphors to describe rain…?'
As for the gardening club, Soren had entered with some hope, thinking of Lilliana's careful tending of flowers and her gentle touch with plants.
Instead, he found students going through the motions.
They watered everything on a schedule, regardless of the state of the soil.
They trimmed for symmetry more than health.
A few plants even looked overwatered, their leaves sagging.
No one seemed particularly attached to what they were growing.
It wasn't bad, exactly, but compared to what he had gotten used to, it felt… hollow.
So now, they were here.
Olivia exhaled and leaned back on the bench, staring up at the patch of sky between the buildings.
"Hey, Soren?"
"What's up?" he replied.
"Should we just go to the study club?" she asked, sounding defeated.
"Fuck that," Soren responded automatically.
Olivia let out a small laugh.
It wasn't that Soren hated studying; he didn't.
He could sit and read for hours without issue, but in his mind, a club wasn't supposed to be another classroom.
A club should be a kind of rest.
A space where you could relax, have fun, and grow closer to the people around you.
Even if you learned something, it should feel different from regular lessons.
Maybe that was an idealistic view he had gotten from reading too many romance novels, but he didn't care.
He wanted that.
"So what do we do?" Olivia asked.
"No clue," Soren replied.
He leaned back and closed his eyes, letting the cool autumn air brush against his face.
The breeze ruffled his hair and carried the faint scent of fallen leaves.
For a few minutes, they just sat there in silence.
Students walked by now and then, their footsteps echoing on the stone, the murmur of distant conversation mingling with the rustle of the trees.
Then Olivia spoke.
"Couldn't we just create our own club?" she asked.
Soren opened one eye slightly and directed it toward her.
"What are you on about?"
"Well, think about it," Olivia said, sitting up a little straighter. "To create a club, we need a professor to be the supervisor and eight students to register as members."
"Uh-huh?"
"You're close with Professor Roseblood," Olivia continued. "And she isn't supervising any clubs yet, since she's new."
Soren nodded slowly.
That was true.
Lilliana had mentioned she wasn't attached to any clubs yet.
"Then, for the students," Olivia went on, "we have you, me, Alex, Felix, Esper, Amelia and Louise. That's seven."
Soren straightened, paying more attention now.
"So all we need is one more student," Olivia said, "and then boom. We can make our own club."
Soren imagined it.
A club where they could sit around, drink tea or coffee, talk, study, train a bit, and rest.
No strict structure, no nobles looking down on anyone, no mass-production quota.
Just… them.
"That… actually could work," he admitted.
"Unless you'd prefer to go to the study club," Olivia said with a bright smile.
"Sorry, did I say could?" Soren corrected himself immediately. "I mean, it will work."
Olivia chuckled.
"Great, I'll leave it to you, then," she said.
"Huh?"
Soren frowned.
"You aren't going to help?"
Olivia raised an eyebrow.
"...How would I help? You're the one who's close to everyone. I'll just convince Alex."
"..."
"Good luck, President," Olivia said with a playful smile.
Soren stared at her for a second.
"...You really aren't going to help?" he asked again.
Olivia just kept smiling.
Soren let out a long, tired sigh.
————「❤︎」————