The day after the sudden deathmatch, the destruction of the abandoned school building, and everything else that had happened—I skipped class today and spent the entire day training.

"15,620, 15,621, 15,622, 15,623, 15,624────"

In the now-familiar backyard of the student dormitory, I focused solely on my training as if to rid myself of stray thoughts. Since early morning, I had been swinging my sword mindlessly, without taking a single break.

Weiss, as usual, had warned me with a "Don't overdo it" before heading off to class, but there was no way I could listen to him, and before I knew it, I had been training for this long. He must have thought I was still dwelling on yesterday's events—trying to forcefully burn off the heat that hadn’t completely dissipated.

In reality, I was indeed affected by my duel with Jade Calamity yesterday, but that wasn’t the only reason I skipped class.

────Finally, my mind is sharpening...

When my thoughts get tangled up in a mess, there's nothing better than mindlessly swinging my sword to sort them out. The main reason I decided to train today was to focus and clear my head.

────Normally, thinking about other things while training would earn me a punch...

But the old bastard isn’t here, and today’s topic is something that might determine my future. I had no choice.

As I continued training and organizing my thoughts, time passed quickly, and before I knew it, it was already after school.

"Alright, guess I should go check out the rest."

Even from the dormitory, I could tell the school buildings were getting noisy.

I abruptly stopped my practice swings. As planned, I was going to visit the remaining two factions that existed in this academy.

"Die, you bastard!!"

"You die first!!"

"...No one even bothers to hold back their insults anymore."

The school buildings were lively as expected. Occasionally, stray magic spells from duels would go flying, causing collateral damage.

I dodged or dispersed them as I made my way to my destination. This time, I had already gathered information about the last two factions. After the blunder yesterday, I had been reminded of the importance of prior research, so I was well-prepared.

As expected, these two factions also didn't exist in my first life. Good thing I investigated beforehand. With that in mind, I headed to the back of the second-year school building, where one of the factions was based.

"Let's get this over with quickly..."

Otherwise, who knows when I might run into that group of perverts again and get harassed?

Suppressing a recently formed trauma, I tried to distract myself by recalling information about the faction I was about to visit. Since I was at the second-year school building, it meant this faction consisted of second-years. I had also heard they hadn't yet filled their five-member roster, so depending on negotiations, I had a high chance of joining.

────But who knows what kind of trouble awaits...

Simply joining a faction wasn't enough. It had to be a meaningful decision. I hoped for a promising outcome, but...

"Sigh..."

A sigh of exhaustion escaped me. My body felt heavy, and I could barely keep my posture straight. At this point, I probably looked like an undead zombie wandering the academy in broad daylight. That’s how drained I was—both in posture, expression, and my dead-looking eyes.

As I mentioned, it was still only evening. I had checked out both factions as planned, but as my reaction suggests, the results were disappointing. To be blunt, even if I joined one of them, I wouldn't achieve the results I desired. That much was now clear, and my choices had been forcibly narrowed down to one.

────I figured it would come to this.

In my second life, nothing has ever gone smoothly when it comes to things like this. I really must be hated by the world.

And yet, part of me still wants to resist. Even if it's futile, even if it's meaningless, I want to rebel. Call it childish... though, if we count my first life, I'm already over thirty years old. But no one else knows that, so it doesn’t matter.

"Well, no point whining about it now."

Worrying about things beyond my control is the biggest waste of time. Instead of indulging in negativity, I needed to think ahead.

"That means, after all..."

"Ah! There you are, Clay!!"

Just as I was about to turn back toward the dormitory, a familiar voice called out from behind.

"Freesia?"

Sure enough, the battle-crazed noble lady stood there, hands on her hips, looking excited as she approached. Then, she held up the amulet hanging from her neck right in front of my eyes.

"Look! Just now, I finally reached Fourth Rank!"

"Oh."

Just as she said, the amulet she held was now silver. With her abilities, advancing to Fourth Rank was no surprise. But given the timing, it felt like more than just coincidence.

────Things only ever seem to go smoothly at times like this.

For once, I nearly complained about how conveniently things were unfolding, but it was still better than nothing going right at all. At this point, I might as well go along with it.

"Now I can finally stand on the same level as you—"

"Freesia."

I interrupted her just as she was about to excitedly continue. As I adopted a more serious tone than usual, she seemed to sense something and fell silent.

"What?"

She asked, tilting her head slightly. I took a breath before continuing.

"Have you decided which faction you're joining?"

"Not yet, but...?"

"Then, why don't you join mine?"

"!!"

Despite the serious atmosphere, I made my offer in a casual manner—almost like inviting someone for tea. But Freesia widened her eyes in surprise. Well, of course she would. Out of nowhere, I had just asked her to join my faction.

Still, it didn’t take long before she grinned, eyes gleaming with excitement.

"So you’ve finally made up your mind... So? Who do you want to beat up?"

"Choose your words more carefully, Duchess... No, never mind."

She was as battle-crazed as ever. As long as it involved fighting, she was always eager to jump in, no matter what I said.

But this time, that enthusiasm felt reassuring. Without that level of determination, we wouldn’t be able to take down that faction.

"This time────"

And so, I began explaining the situation to Freesia. But her answer was already clear—before I even finished speaking, her expression told me everything.

The first recruit—Freesia, the battle-crazed noble lady, who had conveniently reached Fourth Rank just now, was now part of my faction.