"Good morning, Aoi. Have you had breakfast?"
At the front door, Klaus's Grandma greeted Aoi with a warm smile.
"Good morning, Grandma. Thank you for the offer." Aoi bowed respectfully and proceeded to put away her shoes.
"I boiled a few eggs for breakfast. But it might not be much for you and Klaus..."
Aoi shook her head, implying that she didn't mind having a boiled egg for breakfast. She intended to leave immediately for school with Klaus as soon as she had a simple breakfast. Then again, they only had to walk to school, so there wasn't any need for them to hurry—more so when they had an hour left before the school gate close.
"Hey, you're early!"
Klaus went into the kitchen and sat next to Aoi with a huge smile. His hand reached for a spoon on the dining table and dug into his hard-boiled egg.
"...You look suspiciously happy today. Did something happen?" asked Aoi with an expressionless face.
"Alice just texted me. She said she would give a complete list of the school clubs."
"She texted you?"
"Yeah, we chatted a bit through DM last night. I never knew she likes manga! Oh, and there's this group chat that she had created, and the whole class is in it."
"I see." Aoi listened to her friend disinterestedly, somewhat nodding a few times at his ardent explanations. Still, her chest tightened a bit as a realization clicked uncomfortably in her mind.
Klaus had made a friend before she did. To exacerbate her mood further, this friend of Klaus was a girl—an arguably beautiful one at that. Arisu had her looks going for her while she didn't. A strange, uncomfortable feeling surged up within her, and she shook her head in protest.
"Aoi...? Hello? We should get going."
The silent girl blinked a few times as Klaus waved a hand in front of her face. Somewhat annoyed by the gesture, she stood up from her seat and strode out of the kitchen without saying a word.
"We'll be home by five, Grandma!" Klaus said as he picked up his school bag with one hand.
"By five?" Grandma had a puzzled look on her face. "You'd joined a club?"
"We might join this evening. Alright, we're off!"
On their way to school, however, Aoi kept ignoring Klaus, refusing to engage in a conversation with him. Was she upset? Klaus only managed to elicit a simple response from her when he poked her shoulder. She cast a sidelong glance and continued walking, much to Klaus's utter confusion.
The last morning class session ended with the teacher's reminder of the upcoming exam. Most students shrugged at the reminder, thinking that studying at this point would be too early. They weren't wrong, but meticulous and careful preparation could ease their stress during the exam.
"See here, Aoi," Klaus pointed at the PDF file displayed on his phone.
Without thinking much, Aoi brought her chair next to Klaus and gazed at his phone. An organized list of clubs, segregated into their respective categories, popped up after Klaus tapped on the PDF file's icon.
"We could check the soccer club and the basketball club after lunch. After that, we'll swing by these obscure ones on the list," stated Klaus.
"...The occult club seems weird, and this English club seems boring."
Aoi squinted her eyes as she tried to find clubs that would interest her, even a little bit. One by one, she shook her head, culling the clubs she knew she wouldn't join even if Klaus begged her to do so.
"You're not against joining these outdoor clubs..." commented Klaus when he noticed that Aoi hadn't dismissed any sport-related clubs on the list.
"How about you, Klaus? Do you have a club you want to join?"
"Don't change the topic. I'd promised that I would join any club of your choice, and I don't intend to renege on it."
"...I feel like I want to join the theater club."
Klaus jerked his head when he heard the girl. The theater club? She "felt" like she wanted to join the theater club?
"You feel like you want to join? Are you sure?"
"I mean, you would be happy if I decide to sign up for it, right? Arisu would be glad that she'll meet you, so much," Aoi said with a noticeable sharpness in her tone.
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
Aoi bit her lip, trying to deaden the emotions welling up inside her. What was she thinking? Without a doubt, she felt jealous when Klaus brought up Arisu's name a while back. Yes, she needed to calm down and recomposed herself.
"...Forget what I just said, Klaus. I don't know what's happening to me today."
"You seem out of it. How about we go to the nursery office?"
"No, no. I'm fine."
"...Let's hit the cafeteria. I'll buy you what you want," said Klaus as he stood up.
"...Thanks."
After lunch, the duo headed towards the auditorium hall to look for Kitabayashi Arisu. Truthfully, Aoi wanted to join the theater club so that she could get to know Arisu better as a classmate.
Klaus wanted her to have a female friend, and she knew it. The best chance to achieve this outcome was to be acquainted with a classmate. Arisu was a nice person, and she only knew her name out of all her female classmates. However, doing this could also lead to a different outcome, one she knew she didn't want to see.
"..." Once the hall's double doors were within sight, Aoi began to have her doubts.
"Isn't the occult club in that classroom in the hallway?" Aoi twisted her body and veered sharply to her right, walking to the said classroom.
"Huh...?" Klaus raised an eyebrow, somewhat confused. "Didn't you say that you want to join the theater club?"
"I-I changed my mind. I think the occult club would help us a lot, you know. Didn't you say that you're one of the reincarnated people and that you've been dragged into a library night after night?"
"You're saying that me joining the occult club could give me more clues about Brynhildr and the Personal Dimensions. But would they believe me?"
"I'm sure they will. What's there to lose here?"
"...Except for time, and people's opinion on us joining this kind of club, I can't think of anything else."
Slowly, Klaus slid the classroom's door open and found one person looking out through the window. No one else was inside except for him, and here he thought a club was supposed to be comprised of at least two students.
This student was seemingly spaced out since he didn't turn his head when Klaus and Aoi entered the room. He was about an inch taller compared to Klaus and had his dark hair covering a part of his face. When Klaus prodded him in the ribs, he yelped in surprise.
"W-Who are you!? When did you get in!?" he said, switching glances between the two intruders. "I-I asked Mae to not let any strangers in!"
Klaus apologized on behalf of both him and Aoi, somewhat regretting that he didn't knock first. Anyone would be nervous when he was entreated by two strangers out of nowhere.
"I'm Klaus Weber, and she's Akeno Aoi. We've come here to join the occult club."
"N-New members? Are you sure you want to join this club?"
"Yeah. Can we?"
"O-Of course, of course! It's just that we haven't had new members for a few years, and I'm about to graduate. Our advisor had long given up on getting first-year students to join, so only time would tell before this club I created would disband, permanently."
Klaus pulled out two club application forms from his bag and showed it to the club president. "We need your signature after we fill in these forms."
"O-okay... Oh, why don't you two get a chair for yourselves?"
The club president realized he hadn't introduced himself to the new members.
"I-I forgot to introduce myself, how rude of me. I'm Omura Tanyu, a third-year student."
"I assume you're the president," said Klaus as he filled in the details of his application form on a desk.
"Yes, that's correct. The vice president is not here at the moment, but she's also a third-year just like me."
"...I have a question, Omura. Has it always been the two of you here in this club?" asked Klaus.
"There used to be more of us. Some graduated and left the club, while the rest walked out on their own. You see, we as a club are quite in the shadows compared to the rest of the indoor clubs. The manga club, for example, is based on a real-life hobby, job, interest—whatever you want to call it. The occult club's purpose is to seek out events that are not real."
Omura continued his explanation with a sad tone, "Most people don't believe in the occult. And, students want to join a club that would be considered 'fun' to them."
"Seeking the unreal seems fun enough to me," said Klaus with a smile. "Here's our application forms."
Omura looked over the club application forms and nodded happily. "I'll hand this over to our advisor. Oh, and you two can go home if you want to. We don't have any activities planned for today, and perhaps for the rest of this week."
"So, we'll be coming in here next Monday, is that it?"
"Y-yeah. We rarely do anything here, but since we have you two now, we can plan for actual club activities by next week. We also need to get everything prepared for that, so come back by that time, okay?"
"Alright, thanks for your time, Omura," said Klaus.
"And w-welcome to the occult club! I've always wanted to say that..."
○ ○ ○
Night after night, Klaus Weber dived into the Personal Dimension and fought D-rank Draugrs. He'd hoped that he could better his understanding of the Draugrs themselves, and of course, improve himself in fighting these creatures. Getting accustomed to his ability to create objects was achieved after some time, but this wouldn't be enough to get far.
Klaus's usual method when dealing with Draugrs was to conjure an absurdly huge object to crush them with ease. It worked for weak Draugrs without question. However, C-rank Draugrs would need a bit more effort to deal with if he wanted to fight them without getting himself into danger.
"Graaagh!"
Two dark wolves lunged at Klaus behind his back, their jaw wide open ready to maul his flesh. Their jaw snapped shut, but Klaus had rolled out of harm's way in time. A guillotine's blade fell onto the wolves the next second, and their body immediately disintegrated.
"Huff..." Klaus sat on a couch and breathed a sigh of relief. Dealing with the D-rank Draugrs didn't improve his fighting capabilities much. They were too weak for him to gain any worthy experience.
Like Brynhildr had said, he needed to fight stronger Draugrs and get loot from them. The plan seemed simple at first, yes, but those C-rank and above Draugrs have to come to the Personal Dimension for him to fight them. Klaus had waited for four days and wasted the same amount of time without encountering any beside D-rank Draugrs.
"Brynhildr..."
She had visited him only once during these past four days, though it was a rather brief one. From the looks of it, she had been busy with helping the other reincarnated people, perhaps including Freda herself.
At least for a week, Klaus would have no help from the entity with his training.
She wouldn't be able to save him.
The next day, Klaus waited patiently for a C-rank Draugr to appear again. He sauntered over to a bookshelf as a floral scent greeted him wherever he went. He had noticed a long time ago that every time he arrived here in the Personal Dimension, the condition of the library returned to its original, undamaged state.
He doubted that the "reset" was Brynhildr's doing since she rarely comes here after all.
"Huh?"
"Growl!" Four wolves appeared out of thin air and approached Klaus menacingly. Unfortunately for them, Klaus wasn't planning to be their meal anytime soon.