Chapter 73 : An Occult Club?
Chapter 73: An Occult Club?
This was how Yul saw Lucian.
First of all, he had a gentle personality, so he got along well with just about anyone.
He even chatted from time to time with the second-year triplet oddballs of the Department of Magic Engineering, who went around committing all sorts of eccentric acts, and among the magic engineering students, there were very few people who didn’t know him. He also seemed popular with first-years.
That didn’t mean he was endlessly accommodating. He had a clear line, and once someone crossed it, he cut them off cleanly.
No one had taught him that, yet he seemed to have learned it on his own. He must have been taken advantage of quite a lot during his formative years.
Second, he possessed a fierce passion.
Lucian didn’t show it outwardly, but there was an inferiority complex buried deep inside him.
His father was a great mage, while he himself was a half-cripple who couldn’t use magic because of a heavenly affliction……. That kind of thought lay at his core.
Because of that, he studied all the more obsessively. He dug deeply into things others would simply pass by.
That was probably why he was trying to pursue a double major in the Department of Navigation as well.
There seemed to be a more specific reason, but he hadn’t explained it to Yul in detail yet.
In any case, despite being such an outstanding magic engineer, Lucian had an unexpected side to him.
“Our Occult Club is about to be shut down! Aaaah! What do I do? I’m the only member left!”
“…….”
The club he belonged to was the Occult Club. And it was on the verge of dissolution due to a lack of members. Only a single person remained.
The origin of this situation—something you’d expect to see only in a youth drama synopsis—lay with Lucian’s seniors. They had all disappeared as a group.
“Wait, start from the beginning and explain it properly. First of all, what even is this Occult Club?”
The Occult Club, apparently, had never been very popular to begin with.
This club wasn’t one that studied urban legends, but one that studied ghosts.
“Then why did you join such an unpopular club?”
“When I was a first-year, I was full of motivation and thought I’d try everything……. And then I happened to see a flyer for the Occult Club…….”
“Wow.”
When he joined, the Occult Club had more members than expected, so it seemed fine at the time.
“And it was mostly made up of nobles.”
“So why did the seniors disappear?”
“They said they wanted to see heroic spirits, so during winter break, they secretly looted the royal tombs together. They got caught in the process.”
“No, why would they even loot that place to begin with?”
Needless to say, in a monarchy, grave-robbing the royal tombs was tantamount to suicide.
“Well…… explaining that properly would take a while. First, I need to explain that necromancy is forbidden in the Kingdom of Britain.”
Spirit invocation was only sanctioned in a very small number of countries.
In the three coastal kingdoms—Britain, Frangia, and Aragon—necromancy was strictly prohibited.
However, the more something was forbidden, the more alluring it became.
The Occult Club, which had originally gathered ghost stories and monster data, changed its direction during Lucian’s seniors’ time and began focusing intensively on ghosts.
“They even had a convenient excuse called the Soul–Body Identity Theory.”
The Soul–Body Identity Theory (靈體同一論). A magical theory stating that the soul and the body are identical, and that if one disappears, the other must disappear as well.
According to that theory, the existence of ghosts was a complete anomaly……. And the Occult Club had gathered to investigate that.
In truth, it was nothing more than an excuse.
“……I see. So did all your seniors die?”
Were the club members physically erased?
“Anyway, the seniors are alive. A count’s child, a marquis’s child……. Well, they had good backing, and Her Majesty the Queen was also merciful enough to forgive them.”
Instead, they were suspended for a year……. And during that time, the club was slated for dissolution.
“So anyway, all the third-year seniors were wiped out. The two fourth-years withdrew from the club because of their graduation theses.”
“Why not just switch clubs while you’re at it? Why stick with that one?”
“I can’t do that! The Occult Club is a club that boasts a long tradition and history from before Wigma Academy was relocated to the sea! I can’t let it end with my generation.”
“What is this? Do your seniors have leverage on you or something?”
“Please don’t say such awful things!”
It really sounded like he had leverage held over him, but he vehemently denied it.
“Here. One more student added.”
Yul tossed his student ID in front of the screaming Lucian. He threw it as if he’d just picked it up off the street, but Lucian knew that this wasn’t something you could obtain so easily.
“Wh—!? This is a Weimar Wigma student ID! Department of Magic Engineering, first year?”
“That’s right. Professor Quentin Blackmoore gave it to me.”
“You’re a Seaborn, and you can still be a student?”
“According to Professor Quentin, since no Seaborn in history has ever become an academy student, there was room for a loophole.”
“My goodness. A student ID……. Don’t tell me you also have leverage on Professor Quentin…….”
“Did they seriously have some leverage on you?”
“N-no!”
Did the Occult Club seniors have bunny-girl Lucian photos at home or something?
“I can help you solve this, you know?”
“No. It’s not as serious as you’re imagining.”
When Yul asked seriously, Lucian shook his head. If it were truly dangerous, he would’ve helped, but apparently that wasn’t the case.
“Well, fine then. Anyway, that makes two members now, right?”
“If Yul joins, that’s incredibly reassuring!”
“Now we just need to gather a few more.”
“Three people.”
“Hm. How do we gather them? No one in the Department of Magic Engineering is interested?”
“Yeah. Even the ones who are interested already belong to other clubs.”
“I see. Then we’ll have to recruit from the first-years. Want me to roll up my sleeves and help elsewhere, too? A single flyer should do the trick.”
“That would be great.”
“But in exchange, help me with one thing.”
“What is it?”
“I’m looking for magic materials. I need something with an enormous storage capacity. But it has to be small in size.”
“Hm. Understood.”
“Good. Deal. Do you have any flyers or anything?”
Since it was the beginning of the semester, recruiting club members should still be possible.
Once the deal was struck, Yul obtained a bizarre poster—one he doubted Lucian had made himself.
He then went outside and wandered among the academy students who were busy promoting their clubs.
“Can you really recruit someone with this?”
It looked like a third-rate 80s horror movie poster with bizarre staging.
A vivid red background, almost blood-colored, with an effect like flames and black smoke wavering beneath a crimson sunset, and large embossed lettering.
The Sword of the Hero King!
—The fighting spirit of a ghost clinging to the blade’s edge! The royal heroic spirits await you!
‘What is this? A wuxia novel?’
At this point, it had nothing to do with an occult club anymore.
At the bottom, in tiny letters, it said that this was an Occult Club promotional poster.
“Club recruitment?”
“Ah, yes.”
Someone was showing interest. When he turned his head, it was a face he’d seen before.
A pretty woman strolling around in a flashy party dress.
Languid-looking black eyes. Red hair tied up, and in her hand, she was holding a carbuncle.
‘Huh? That’s not a carbuncle.’
Flinch.
Sensing Yul’s gaze, the carbuncle startled and burrowed into the woman’s arms.
“That’s strange. It usually isn’t shy around strangers. Guess it doesn’t like you.”
“That can happen.”
“Putting that aside, the club looks fun. I’ll join.”
“……Huh?”
After saying that once, she walked off with an easy, graceful stride.
“What are you doing? Show me the way.”
“……Alright.”
To think someone would want to join just from seeing this……. Or maybe Yul’s sensibilities simply didn’t match this era.
As they were about to enter the clubroom, someone suddenly dashed out.
“What? Wasn’t this the Necromancy Research Club?”
“I told you, that’s forbidden in the Kingdom of Britain!”
“Tch. Then it’s pointless!”
Looking at his face, it was someone familiar. That Prince Brodin, was it? And the one trying to persuade him was Lucian.
“But we’re the only club in this academy where you can study ghosts.”
“……Really? Can you do astral projection too?”
“Probably…….”
Lucian trailed off, apparently unable to bring himself to lie outright.
“I’ve recruited a club member.”
“I came after seeing the flyer.”
“Pardon? You came after seeing that?”
Lucian’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Um, your name?”
“Yera Mull.”
“Here, this is the membership consent form.”
Yera took the consent form and started filling out various fields. Yera Mull, first-year of the Department of Communion.
Watching from the side, Brodin let out a low hum.
“Hm…….”
Judging by his reaction, he seemed to know who Yera was. He began to edge away, glancing around.
Yul placed a hand firmly on his shoulder.
“Where are you going?”
“What do you mean, where am I going……”
“You owe me, don't you? I saved your Seaborn. Join the club and consider it as repaying the favor.”
“Ugh, argh.”
Brodin was added to the club as well. Yul went back outside to abduct one more person. Now then, who would be good?
A first-year magic engineering student walking with quick, small steps. A squirrel-faced girl was wandering around holding flyers. Ah. Wasn’t she the girl who’d been harassed by the triplets before?
Yul approached the girl.
“Hi.”
“Ah, hello. You’re Senior Lucian’s Seaborn, right?”
“Call me Yul. What was your name again?”
“I’m Frenda Utenia.”
“Do you have a club?”
“Huh? Ah, not yet, I’m still looking.”
“Good. Then come to our club.”
“Pardon? So suddenly, uh, uh.”
Squirrel, you’ve been abducted.
“A new member!”
“Huh? Where am I?”
“This is the Occult Club.”
“Whaaat?”
Now that he had kidnapped her, he would handle the rest, right? As expected, Lucian was earnestly pleading with Frenda.
He told her they were short one member, and without her, the club was facing dissolution.
“Pleasejoinourclubrightnowifwedon’ttheclubwillbedissolvedandourlongstandingtraditionwillbelostifyoujoinwe’llhelpyouwithallkindsofassignmentsandstuffwejustneedfourpeopleandyou’rethelastone.”
Something like that, more or less. Yul felt a chill and was reminded of the first time he’d met Ian. This guy Lucian really was the spitting image of his father.
“B-but I’m not really interested in occult stuff.”
“Then you can just stay until we recruit new members. During the first month of the semester, you can switch anytime.”
“Oh.”
Thanks to Lucian’s powers of persuasion, the abduction was a success!
* * *
And, as if by some cruel joke, not a single new club member was recruited even after a full month had passed.
And so, they held a celebration party.
“Well, we’ve got five people now, so at least we avoided dissolution, right? Have a drink.”
“B-but I was forced into this.”
“Come on, you too. Drink up. Clubs are basically for building connections anyway.”
Yul filled Frenda’s glass to the brim. The Occult Club room was tucked away in a pretty secluded spot, so even if they drank, there was no one around to supervise them.
“I got tricked, too. There’s no such thing as astral projection techniques.”
“Perhaps it could be implemented through magic engineering.”
“I’m a student of the Department of Navigation, so I won’t say magic engineering is bad, but creating ghosts is a whole different matter, isn’t it?”
Prince Brodin seemed to be drinking simply because he liked alcohol, but he had at least realized that researching ghosts was completely different from necromancy.
The only person who had joined this club of her own free will was Yera Mull. And she was sitting in a corner at the club party, sipping her drink alone, with no intention of joining the conversation.
Anyway, let’s dig into the topic.
“Why did you even become interested in astral projection in the first place?”
Yul asked, since he seemed more interested in astral projection than in souls themselves, and he replied,
“Well, obviously, because I was wondering whether you could go down into the deep sea.”
“Hm?”
“I’ve always wanted to go deep beneath the ocean. If you were in an astral projection state, maybe those limitations would disappear.”
That was an interesting topic.
“The sea is so sensitive to magic that if you drop magic stones into it, they melt and vanish immediately. Would it really be possible to dive with just the soul, without a physical body?”
Lucian thought it over carefully before answering.
“Probably.”
“I once actually saw a being that moved around in a genuine ghost state. An orca ghost.”
At Yul’s words, everyone looked at him in surprise or with keen interest.
“W-what? Really?”
“How was that even possible?”
“Rukit possessed divinity. A kind of qualification, something that allowed one to become a god.”
“A god…….”
“Since divinity sounds like an implausible story, how about something like this instead? Using magic engineering to sink a ship beneath the sea.”
“……!”
What is this, the Flying X-man Ship? It can even submerge now.