Chapter 16

Chapter 16

I Became the Academy Mafia, Chapter 16Recruiting the club members, which had been the most urgent matter, was finally finished.

Since the minimum number required to establish a club was four, all that remained now was to obtain consent forms from the other clubs.

I planned to use the club tour period that would begin soon to obtain the consent forms as efficiently as possible.

“Um... but is it really possible to get all three consent forms within today?”

Before we left for the club tour, Kim Se-ah, one of the people gathered around my seat, cautiously spoke up.

“Just from what the instructor said, it doesn’t sound like getting the consent forms will be easy. Is there anything I can do to help?”

It was understandable that Kim Se-ah would think that way.

Until now, there had never been a case at Seoul Hero Academy where someone obtained all three consent forms in a single day.

However, I possessed abilities that put me on an entirely different level from ordinary students.

Namely, the fact that I had been a player of this game. And the fact that this body was Eugene Han Calione.

If I used those two conditions, obtaining three consent forms in a single day was entirely possible.

“Don’t worry. I’ve already made plans for how to get the consent forms.”

And what they saw would further deepen their trust in me.

“If Boss is saying this much, let’s just watch. Boss will handle it somehow. Right?”

Perhaps noticing the worry that still lingered in Se-ah’s heart, Jin-woo raised the mood with a bright voice and smiled playfully.

Sharp bastard.

Thanks to him, Kim Se-ah’s expression brightened somewhat.

“Yes!”

“Good, I’ll show you again this time. Then, it’s about time...”

When I checked my wristwatch, the hour and minute hands pointed to 8:59. The Academy’s first period would begin soon. Club tour.

As I rose from my seat and heard the bell ring at the same time, I spoke to the club members.

“Let’s go.”

“Great! Show us what you can do, Boss!”

“We really just have to stay behind you, right?”

“Let’s see how our club president handles things.”

Mixing in with the students from our class who were beginning to leave the classroom for the tour, I stepped outside and headed straight toward the first club I had marked out.

“Eugene. Where are we going first, then? I still don’t really know my way around the Academy...”

Kim Se-ah, who had been trailing behind us like a duckling following a mother duck, quietly asked me.

“The first place we’re going is the board game club. It’s a Bronze-rank club in the basement of the club building.”

“The board game... club?”

“Yeah, board games themselves are a pretty niche genre, so it’s not a popular club. It isn’t very far, so we’ll arrive soon.”

“It’s nice that it’s close. Ah, is that it?”

The building was far too enormous to simply be called a club building. The other kids couldn’t close their mouths at the sheer scale, like they were looking at a department store.

“This is the club building. Most of the clubs inside the Academy have their club rooms in this building.”

“Th-this whole building is where the club rooms are gathered?”

“Wow, it’s seriously huge. Boss, we’ll get a club room in there too, right?”

“...

The scale is completely different.”

Then, as though something suddenly felt strange, Kim Young-je looked at me and asked.

“But isn’t there way too few people around the club building for club tour time?”

“Most clubs set up booths to attract freshmen. They’ll probably all be gathered around the athletic field or auditorium.”

“Then shouldn’t we be going there too?”

Hearing that most of the clubs were elsewhere, Kim Se-ah raised a question.

“The board game club doesn’t advertise during this period. There are too many clubs competing. So they usually try to recruit freshmen who fail to get into another club.”

“Ohhh, Boss, you know this stuff really well?”

“I made sure to do my research if I was going to create a club.”

After immediately entering the club building and heading down to the basement, the kids’ expressions changed sharply.

“It’s a lot darker than the first floor.”

Young-je muttered while looking around.

Unlike the brightly lit first floor, he had immediately noticed that the atmosphere changed the moment we entered the basement.

Flickering lights, the damp smell of the basement. Even trash scattered here and there along the corners of the hallway, as though no one ever cleaned.

If someone saw this scene, they might ask what kind of slum this was.

“The basement is mostly used by lower-ranked clubs, so they have no choice but to keep their club rooms in this kind of environment.”

Kim Young-je nodded as though he understood after hearing my explanation.

After walking for about four more minutes, we finally arrived in front of a room with a plaque that read Board Game Club.

“Wow, even the entrance looks gloomy as hell.”

“What are you going to do if they hear you saying that right outside? Keep it down a little.”

Jin-woo immediately spat out a harsh comment the moment we stood before the entrance.

At that, Kim Young-je frowned and said something to him, and Jin-woo grumbled to himself as he approached the door.

“Boss, I just open this, right? I’m opening it?”

I nodded to indicate that he should, and Jin-woo flung the door wide open. At the same time, the interior of the board game club spread before our eyes.

Countless display cases reminiscent of a library were lined with more board games than I could count.

“Ugh, smells like dust.”

As I waved my hand around and stepped inside, murmuring voices came from behind the display cases.-...

Right?-...

Should we?-...

Isn’t it tradition?

-If people... come...-...

Because... right.-...

Huh?

As we slowly walked toward the source of the voices, we finally saw a group gathered behind an enormous display case.

Six people were sitting in a circle around what appeared to be a board game.

Perhaps sensing our presence, one of them raised his head and looked at us.

“Hm? Huh... why am I hallucinating...”

The man met my eyes, then suddenly began rubbing his own eyes.

Then he looked at me again, jumped in shock, and fell backward.

“P-president! P-people! People came!”

The guy who had fallen backward pointed at us and shouted, and the man wearing red glasses also raised his head to look at us.

“Huh? Wh-what! Four?! Four peeeople?!”

Only after even the president reacted in shock did the other club members all turn to look at us.

“I-it’s real! Actual people came!”

“Freshmen? Newbies? Are they really newbies?”

“Everyone calm down first! They might have come to challenge us to a club war!”

As the atmosphere descended into chaos, the president stood first and calmed everyone around him.

The atmosphere gradually settled. When the murmuring had finally died down completely, the president of the board game club cautiously spoke while looking at me.

“Um... what year are you?”

“First-years.”

“Eek! Th-they really are freshmen! What do we do?! What do we do?!”

At the words first-year, the president became flustered all by himself and started bouncing around while looking at his members.

“President, calm down first!”

“Right! F-first, let’s ask why they came! They might not have come to join the club! M-maybe they got lost?”

“R-right? That must be it, right? O-okay! I’ll ask first!”

No, you’re talking loud enough for us to hear everything.

The president turned back to look at us.

“Um... did you come here because you want to join our club?”

“Unfortunately, no.”

“...

As expected. Then did you really just get lost?”

“No. We came here specifically looking for the board game club.”

From that moment, the president seemed to sense that something was strange, and his expression turned serious.

“You came here specifically for us? Why would freshmen come to our club?”

Apparently, he had concluded that we weren’t here to join.

At that point, I chose to get straight to the point rather than talk in circles.

“We came to obtain a Bronze Club consent form.”

“What?”

The air around us instantly turned cold.

“...

You came to ask for a consent form?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“You said you were freshmen?”

“I did say we were freshmen.”

“And you want an authorization form?”

“Yes.”

“Puhah─!”

At my answer, the president suddenly burst out laughing.

“Puhahaha! Freshmen asking for a club authorization form. Don’t tell me. Are you that type too? Freshmen running around trying to make a club?”

The president chuckled, wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, then raised his head and looked at me.

“You know what it means for us to issue a club authorization form, right?”

“Yes, as I understand it, it’s something similar to acting as a guarantor. If the club created using your consent form fails to survive for half a semester, your club will be shut down along with it.”

That was another reason why clubs didn’t spring up all over the Academy like weeds.

In other words, it was also the Academy’s way of telling clubs to only issue authorization forms to those they acknowledged.

“And you still want a consent form?”

“Yes.”

“What exactly are we supposed to trust about you?”

There it was. The statement that signaled the start of that ‘event.’

“I’m seeing you for the first time today, and you’re asking someone like me to give you a consent form? Honestly, don’t you think that’s a little too shameless? So────.”

The president plopped down into a crouch and smiled at me.

“────let’s play a game.”

An aura that made it hard to believe this was the same man who had been flustered by the appearance of freshmen just moments ago began radiating from him.

No matter how weak the club might be, he was still the president responsible for a club. That meant he possessed enough power to protect it.

“The condition is simple. Your friends play board games against our club members. We play five rounds, and whichever side wins three first is the winner. How about it?”

“Hmm, deciding it through board games...”

“Why? Think that’s too much? But you’re the ones who need something. Frankly, we lose nothing even if we don’t sign it, so I think this much is a reasonable proposal.”

He spoke with a carefree smile, looking completely relaxed.

The guys behind the president were already having a heated discussion about what games they should play against us.

Interesting. Shall I play along a little longer?

“Let’s say we receive the authorization form if we win. What happens if we lose?”

“If you lose?”

Grin. The corners of the red-glasses-wearing president’s mouth stretched wide on both sides.

“All of you. Join our club.”

As expected, that was how this would go.

This was one of the methods the board game club used to recruit freshmen, the ‘Dark Board Game.’

They made wagers with conditions on both sides and used the result to force people into joining the club.

“Of course, you could accept and then try to quit after losing, so you’ll have to remain in our club for at least one year. We’ll let you leave once you become second-years. How about it?”

He said it like that, but it wasn’t a condition anyone could easily accept at face value.

Because the president grinning wickedly over there and the members behind him would do everything imaginable during that one year to teach us how fun board games were.

That was why I smiled and declared the end of their little game.

“──I refuse.”