That day, under the personal supervision of Yukinoshita Yukino, the Service Club was dissolved and officially renamed the Mystery Affairs Club. The activity room remained the same, still lacking any special facilities, but Leo and the others didn't need them anyway.
The president of the Mystery Affairs Club was naturally Leo, and the vice president was undoubtedly Yukinoshita Yukino. Yuuki Asuna and Kasumigaoka Utaha wrote their application forms on the same day and joined the Mystery Affairs Club as members.
This matter quickly spread throughout the entire Sobu High School, leaving many people stunned.
They weren't surprised that the Service Club was dissolved; this club was never a popular one at Sobu High School. If it weren't for the fact that the founder was Yukinoshita Yukino, the Sobu High School's flower of winter, few people would have even known about the club.
The Service Club had recently gained fame, but that was because Leo and Yuuki Asuna, two prominent figures, had moved in and out of it freely, seemingly having a close relationship with Yukinoshita Yukino. In other words, it only became famous because of rumors and gossip.
But this time, the Mystery Affairs Club was different.
"Yukinoshita Yukino, Yuuki Asuna, Kasumigaoka Utaha... three flower on a high peak actually joined this Mystery Affairs Club together?"
"And the president is still Erigor, the senior who ranks first on the popularity list. What exactly is going on?"
"Why did the flower of winter dissolve her own club just to make way for him?"
"I'm more curious why Kasumigaoka Utaha, the flower of autumn, agreed to join this club. Not only is she already a third-year, making it a bit late to join a club, but even if it wasn't late, the Literature Club wanting to invite her, a popular new light novel author, could line up outside the school gate. Yet she didn't join any of them. Why is she joining a newly established Mystery Affairs Club now?"
"The Mystery Affairs Club... a club that studies the occult and inexplicable incidents?"
"How can this unpopular club manage to attract several flower on a high peak?"
"What exactly did Senior Erigor do?"
Everyone discussed this heatedly, and even the teachers were puzzled and joined the conversation.
Some even suspected that Leo used improper means to bring all this about, or that the members of the Mystery Affairs Club had some inappropriate relationships. Because of this, even the School Board Member of Sobu High School received some reports, but in the end, no one took any action.
Although unwilling, Yukinoshita Yukino had already notified her older sister. Yukinoshita Haruno said she would talk to the School Board Members, and Leo also called a few of the School Board Members, said a few words, and then the matter was dropped.
In this small corner of Chiba, Leo had long established significant connections through years of demonic activity. Even if none of these contacts were a School Board Member of Sobu High School, they would know one or two of them, perhaps even having a good relationship, allowing him to have a say with the School Board Members.
The remaining commotion was just internal school gossip, which Leo was too lazy to manage, letting others speculate.
If someone asked, Leo only had one sentence.
"Kasumigaoka and I already have some friendship, and I have some connections with Yukinoshita and the Yuuki Family members. Now I'm starting a club on a whim just for fun, so is there a problem with inviting acquaintances to join?"
Is there a problem?
There's a huge problem!
For example... Is your club still recruiting?
President, do you think I'm suitable? I actually have some research into the occult... Both those who usually had some friendship with Leo and those who didn't expressed this, only to be met with Leo's chuckle.
Are you really trying to study the occult? I'm too lazy to expose you!
It was impossible to let anyone join. The purpose of the Mystery Affairs Club was to provide cover for their daily activities at school. In the future, he would only allow his Retainer to join. Even if someone knew their identities, if they couldn't provide positive assistance to their activities, he would not allow them to join.
Therefore, Leo claimed that there were enough members now and he had no intention of recruiting new ones for the time being, but if there was a need later, he would consider their talents appropriately... Of course, it wasn't just Leo; the other members of the Mystery Affairs Club were also pestered by people around them for a while.
Yukinoshita Yukino was fine; her social circle at school was not wide to begin with, and hardly anyone would try to cozy up to her. But Yuuki Asuna and Kasumigaoka Utaha suffered. Those who had decent relationships with them couldn't resist coming to ask about their situation, leaving the two of them busy dealing with the inquiries for quite some time.
Kasumigaoka Utaha, in particular, had the widest social network among the three Retainer at Sobu High School.
Yuuki Asuna was new, having only recently transferred, so even though she was beautiful and had a good personality, she couldn't develop a strong network quickly.
Kasumigaoka Utaha was different. At first glance, she seemed aloof from everyone, but she was a literary girl who had even written scripts for the drama club. Many Literature Club had connections with her. Now that she had been poached by a newly established club, countless people in the Literature Club were stamping their feet in frustration.
Their underlying message was simple: "If you want to join a club, come to ours! Why would a talented literary girl join the Mystery Affairs Club?"
What kind of study is the occult?
Is it literature?
Maybe it has a slight connection, but what do we lack?
They felt extremely wronged.
Back then, they begged Kasumigaoka Utaha for ages, but they couldn't persuade this literary talent to join their club, begging from her first year to her second year. It wasn't until Kasumigaoka Utaha entered her third year that everyone reluctantly gave up, believing it was too late for her to join a club and that she truly had no intention of doing so.
And yet, at this late stage, she suddenly turned around and joined a club that studies the occult?
Why play like this?
Thus, Kasumigaoka Utaha could only deal with these aggrieved Literature Club with a considerable headache.
What Kasumigaoka Utaha didn't expect was that after she finished dealing with the Literature Club, someone else came looking for her.
"Did you really join that Mystery Affairs Club?"
The person who blocked Kasumigaoka Utaha's path in an empty corridor and unceremoniously threw out this opening line was a slender girl with golden twin tails, clear blue eyes, and porcelain-white skin, whose delicate features were in no way inferior to Kasumigaoka Utaha's.
The girl stood in front of Kasumigaoka Utaha with her hands on her hips, her beautiful eyes glaring at her, causing Kasumigaoka Utaha to stop.
"Isn't this Student Sawamura?"
Kasumigaoka Utaha spoke with a smile, crossing her arms.
The girl blocking Kasumigaoka Utaha's path was none other than the second-year student at Sobu High School, the ace of the school's art club, known as the flower of summer—Sawamura Spencer Eriri.
She was a very popular beautiful girl.
In the eyes of her classmates, Eriri was a student who had the delicate demeanor of a rich young lady but was kind-hearted, making her very popular among both her peers and older students.
However, this kind-hearted young lady, standing before Kasumigaoka Utaha at this moment, displayed a bossy side that others rarely saw.
"Didn't you say you had absolutely no interest in school clubs and only wanted to write quietly?" Eriri questioned Kasumigaoka Utaha in an almost accusatory tone: "Why did you suddenly join that inexplicable club?"
Kasumigaoka Utaha appeared completely unconcerned by Eriri's blunt attitude.
Because she knew this was Sawamura Spencer Eriri's true personality; her usual good-girl facade was just a disguise, one she only tore off in front of acquaintances.
And no one knew that Kasumigaoka Utaha and Eriri actually had a very deep private relationship.
The reason was simple: Eriri was secretly an otaku. On the surface, she was the ace of the school's art club, but secretly, she was a famous doujin artist under the pen name "Kashiwagi Eri," drawing very popular erotic manga... Eriri had always hidden this side of herself deeply until Kasumigaoka Utaha debuted as a new light novel author, and her debut work, love metronome, required an illustrator for the artwork, which is when the two connected.
Introduced by Kasumigaoka Utaha's editor, Eriri arrived before Kasumigaoka Utaha as the illustrator for love metronome, thus exposing her true identity... Since then, the two appeared to have no connection at school, but they had long started collaborating in private. And because Kasumigaoka Utaha often used her sharp tongue to criticize her for pretending to be a good girl, and Eriri was frustrated that Kasumigaoka Utaha had discovered her true identity, the two either avoided meeting or fought whenever they did meet.
That is why Eriri behaved so impolitely in front of Kasumigaoka Utaha.
Kasumigaoka Utaha also dropped some of the perfunctory politeness she used with outsiders when speaking to Eriri and slowly began to speak.
"Is there a problem?" Kasumigaoka Utaha made no effort to hide her desire to tease the other party, saying, "I suddenly had a change of heart and wanted to join a club for fun. Is that not allowed?"
"Who are you trying to fool?" A vein popped on Eriri's forehead, and she said angrily, "If that were really the reason, why didn't you join one of the Literature Club instead of choosing a newly established Mystery Affairs Club?"
"Don't brush me off! I'm not like the others! I won't be fooled by your sweet talk!"
Saying this, Eriri pointed at Kasumigaoka Utaha, looking like a detective elementary school student about to uncover a shocking truth, only missing a classic line.
"Even if there's a reason, why are you so nervous?" Kasumigaoka Utaha knew she couldn't fool Eriri, so she said, "It has nothing to do with you. Or are you actually worried about me?"
"Huh?" Eriri jumped up like a puppy whose tail had been stepped on and shouted, "Who cares about you, fatty Kasumi?!"
A vein instantly popped on Kasumigaoka Utaha's forehead as well.
Who are you calling a golden-haired loser?
I am not fat at all!