Chapter 35

After school, I headed to the clan house assigned to the clan I belong to for our first clan activity.

The school provides clan houses as activity venues for recognized clans, but clans with many registered members, like the student council or the discipline committee, are given standalone houses.

However, it seems that small clans like ours, which have no track record, are assigned unused classrooms.

So, our clan house is a small classroom in the old school building.

"Let me introduce you. This is Christophe, and this one is Peron. This one is Clara, and this one is Pritz."

Carla introduces each of them, and everyone greets each other.

Clara and Pritz both have blonde hair and blue eyes and look very similar. In fact, they are twins.

Pritz, who has more feminine features, would be indistinguishable from his sister Clara if he were dressed as a girl.

It could work, you know.

Don't ask me why.

Oh, everyone is looking at me... Ah, greetings.

"I am Christophe von Brütsels. Please call me Christophe casually."

"I am Clara von Hekart. May I call you Christophe-sama?"

"You can just call me by my name. Carla does it, and I prefer a more casual approach."

Carla has been calling me by my name even before I gave permission.

"That's great. I hate formalities. This is Pritz, my brother."

"I am Pritz. Incidentally, I am the older brother in the household. Please ignore Clara's wishes."

It's just a wish.

Clara seems to be protesting, but it seems Pritz is right.

That makes sense.

"Now that the introductions are over, let's start the first activity of our clan 'MI Cool'!"

Everyone claps to boost Carla's enthusiasm, but this is the first time I've heard the clan name 'MI Cool'... Who came up with it!?

I look at Peron and the Clara siblings, but they shake their heads.

"I am the clan master, Carla von Adachi. The deputy master is Peron Cook!"

"Huh! Me?"

Peron didn't know he was the deputy master until now.

"Peron is the deputy master, so please get along with him. Pritz is in charge of accounting."

"Me..."

Pritz didn't know either.

"Christophe and Clara are regular clan members!"

"Whaaat, Pritz has a role but I don't?"

"Then, let me switch with you."

"No way!"

"I can't trust Clara with the finances!"

That's quite a harsh statement.

I can kind of tell their personalities.

Clara is carefree and a bit rough. ...Maybe "clumsy" is more fitting.

Pritz is reserved and seems to be good at detailed work.

They look the same, but they are completely opposite in character.

If you add them together and divide by two, you get a perfect balance!

However, this clan has lively women, and the men, other than me, are reserved or shy.

I need to be the one to maintain the balance!

"Christophe, are you listening?!"

"Huh, what was it again?"

"Really, you. We're registering for the clan competition in June, so get pumped up!"

"Got it. ...So, what is the clan competition?"

"You..."

Not only Carla but Peron also looked at me in disbelief.

I don't know, so what can I do?

"The clan competition is a match where clans compete using magic and sorcery. It's basically a competition of combat power, but not everything is combat. There are also events where you earn points by completing given tasks, and the winner is decided by the points. If we place well in the clan competition, we get more activity funds, and you know what that means, right?"

"...Less activity funds, huh?"

"Exactly! So, we need to go all out to get the activity funds and enhance our magic item research! Everyone, got it?!"

"「Yes」"

Everyone answered under the pressure of Carla's intensity, but I got the gist of it.

"Before that, about Christophe's duel, are you prepared?"

"Pretty much. I'm actually quite good at magic and sorcery, you know."

I don't know how I look, but the fact is that I'm a cheater when it comes to magic and sorcery.

I have a variety of self-made magic items!

When I'm designing or making magic items, I imagine the pain of the bumbling fool... *cough* *cough* ...I even felt sorry for him.

"If you get seriously injured, you won't be able to participate in the clan competition. Our clan 'MI Cool' only has five members, so if even one is missing, we can't participate!"

You're worried about the clan competition, not my health!

Everyone looks at me with sympathetic eyes.

"I don't plan to get injured, so please don't worry."

"I'm not that worried about you, Christophe, but anything can happen, so please be careful!"

"Understood."

For some reason, neither Carla nor Peron seems very worried about the duel.

I don't know where this trust comes from, but I think it's better than being bombarded with questions.

So, it seems my abilities are trusted!

Now, the conversation, which had veered off track, returned to the topic of clan activities. All four of us have written magic arrays ourselves, but none of us have original magic arrays.

An original magic array is one that you create from scratch, not by copying someone else's, through trial and error.

"Does Christophe have an original magic array?"

"...Yeah, I do."

Incidentally, the magic arrays listed on the magic items sold by the Brütselshausen Trading Company, which are based on Japanese, are registered as original magic arrays with the Sorcerer's Guild.

While registering with the Sorcerer's Guild doesn't provide patent-like protection, my father advised me to register them to avoid trouble if the magic arrays on the magic items I sell are unknown and unregistered.

"That's amazing! What kind of original magic array do you have?"

That's a trade secret...

But, it's fine.

I took off the ring of power I was wearing and handed it to Carla.

"This ring... Wait, this is... from the Brütselshausen Trading Company?"

Pritz, who was peering over Carla's shoulder, immediately recognized that my ring was a product of the Brütselshausen Trading Company.

It's impressive that he could tell at a glance.

"Christophe, this ring is the power ring sold by the Brütselshausen Trading Company, right?"

"What? You scared me. You're showing us something you bought to trick us!"

Clara insists that it's something she bought, but Carla and Peron seem to have reached a different conclusion.

"Christophe, isn't the Brütselshausen Trading Company the trading company of the Brütselshausen Margrave family?..."

"Um, not exactly. The Brütselshausen Trading Company is my trading company. I am the chairman."

"「Whaaat!」"

When they learned that I am the chairman of the Brütselshausen Trading Company, the four of them bombarded me with questions.

By the time the questioning was over and we were ready to leave, it was already night outside.