Prince Calisto was a bit nervous about meeting the people of [Beast Brotherhood]. That was normal when you took into account the fact that he was about to refuse their invitation to instead follow Bloed.
However, it was not as though he could simply ignore them. The leadership of [Beast Brotherhood] was generally composed of important young nobles from the beastmen countries, so even him, a prince, had to treat them respectfully.
In the end, after he stared at Bloed and the others with a pitiful gaze, Bloed, Regina, and Liu Ying decided to accompany him.
Besides them, Aya and two of his bodyguards also followed the group.
When they arrived at the waiting room, they found the people of [Beast Brotherhood] waiting for them.
Their leader was a wolfkin young man. He had sharp features and a peaceful presence, but his narrowed eyes glowed with wisdom and determination way greater than a common person.
Just a glance was enough for Bloed to determine his strength.
Peak B-Rank.
Moreover, his aura was very stable. He probably was as strong as Aya, Rana, Rhone, and the others. A genius within B-Rank.
He was a bit older, though. Around twenty-something years old. Compared to Aya, who had the same cultivation and was around five years younger, it was obvious who was better.
Even so, it was clear that he was not your average young man.
Behind him, a bearkin young man and a tigerkin girl were standing quietly with respectful expressions. Both of them were Peak B-Ranks as well, but they were noticeably a lot weaker than the wolfkin.
"Prince Calisto, you are here." The wolfkin young man stood up with a smile when Prince Calisto entered the room. Almost instantly, though, he noticed Bloed, Regina, and Liu Ying.
A startled expression appeared on his face, followed by a flash of recognition, but he quickly recovered and greeted them with the same polite smile.
"I guess you three are the famous newcomers that caused a commotion when you entered the city. What a surprise, I did not know you were staying with Prince Calisto. Nice to meet you, my name is Arlan Whiterock. I'm one of the four sub-leaders of [Beast Brotherhood]."
"Nice to meet you." Bloed and the others greeted back, each one of them introducing themselves.
Once they were done with their introductions, The young wolfkin sat down on his seat and focused on Prince Calisto and Aya.
"Prince Calisto, Miss Aya, I think you already know why I'm here; however, allow me to explain it anyway. In the name of [Beast Brotherhood], I would like to invite you to our club, to join us in showing the rest of Academy City the pride of the beastmen."
Once Arlan finished speaking, the bearkin young man behind him took a step forward and extended his hand towards Prince Calisto and Aya, holding two luxurious invitation letters on it.
To his surprise, though, neither Prince Calisto nor Aya grabbed them.
Instead, Aya remained standing behind the prince with a deadpan look and Prince Calisto put on an awkward look.
"About that, Mr. Arlan… I think I'm not going to join."
"Huh?" A blank look appeared on the wolfkin young man's face for a brief instant.
Not just him, but also the bearkin young man and the tigerkin girl were stunned.
In the next second, the wolfkin's eyes turned sharp, and an ice-cold glow flashed through his pupils.
"Can you repeat that, Prince?"
"… I-I'm not going to join [Beast Brotherhood], Mr. Arlan." The young prince stuttered slightly, but his expression was firm.
"I see. Can I ask about the reason?"
The prince was about to open his mouth, but suddenly, he shut up.
He had just realized that if he revealed that the reason he was not going to join the club was Bloed, then it was very possible that they would hold a grudge against him.
The young prince hesitated briefly, but at that moment, the voice of a young man cut in.
"He is planning to follow me," Bloed said with a calm expression, answering instead the little prince.
The sudden interruption surprised the people of [Beast Brotherhood]. Instinctively, Arlan looked in Bloed direction and narrowed his eyes.
For some reason, though, he said nothing.
However, his subordinates were different.
"What is the meaning of this?" The tigerkin girl said with a look of fury. "Prince Calisto, how can you follow a human instead of coming with your brethren? Do you know the implications of that? And you, do you think you have what is necessary to mess with [Beast Brotherhood]? Just because you showed a bit of strength during the entrance test you think you are something? You–"
"Elena, enough." The wolfkin young man suddenly cut her off.
"But captain, something like this is–"
"I said enough," Arlan said again, his cold voice shutting up the tigerkin girl immediately. He then looked towards Bloed and the young prince before nodding slightly.
"I think miss Aya's choice is the same then, is it?"
"It is." Aya nodded.
"I see. However, you should think about it a bit more. The welcome ceremony will be in three days, I hope you can give me your final answer after that. I think it's time to take our leave then. It was a pleasure to meet you, Prince Calisto."
"Yes." The little prince nodded politely. "Aya, please accompany the guests to the door."
"Understood."
After Arlan and his two subordinates left, Prince Calisto looked at Bloed with an apologetic look.
"… Big brother Bloed, sorry. I ended involving you in something troublesome."
Bloed smiled gently and shook his head.
"Don't worry about it. I expected something like this since the moment I decided to let the two of you follow me. Plus, to be honest, I'm not afraid of them."
"Haha..." Prince Calisto could only smile awkwardly.
…
At the same time, outside the mansion.
The people of [Beast Brotherhood] left the mansion with a heavy atmosphere.
Arlan sported a heavy and cold expression, so cold that neither the bearkin young man nor the tigerkin girl dared to talk to him.
It was only five minutes later that the tigerkin girl gathered the courage to open her mouth.
"… Leader, I don't understand. Why did you leave like that? You should know we can't allow something like that! The repercussions our club will suffer if this spread will be too huge! It could even mark a precedent for the future, making other beastmen to choose other clubs instead and leading to the weakening of [Beast Brotherhood]."
"I know." Arlan nodded. "However, the situation is a bit complicated this time."
"Huh?"
"The young man that spoke up for Prince Calisto, I know a bit about him. After I learned of his results during the entrance exam, I investigated his background."
"Is he some kind of bigshot?"
"Something like that," Arlan said with a sigh. "That guy is part of Moonlight Glow, and according to my investigations, he is very close to the Saintess. However, that is not the most important. During my investigations, I read about one of the young man's battle records… Apparently, he used one slash to kill more than ten B-Ranks and A-Ranks."
"!!!"
"That is impossible!" The bearkin young man and the tigerkin girl were astonished. "Something like that is impossible! Does that mean he is as strong as a demigod!?"
"Of course not." Arlan shook his head at the tigerkin girl's words. "If I'm not mistaken, he probably used some kind of forbidden technique with a heavy backlash, or perhaps he made use of some powerful treasure. Either way, it's a fact the young man is very powerful. Even I'm not confident in defeating him."
The bearkin young man and the tigerkin girl opened their eyes wide in surprise. They looked at each other and saw the disbelief in their faces.
They knew how strong the wolfkin young man was. He stood in the upper rank of the geniuses in Academy City.
However, someone like him admitted he was inferior to a young man several years younger than him.
When Arlan saw the expressions of his subordinates, he sighed.
In truth, there was something he did not tell them.
He did not investigate just the young man. He also investigated the girls that follow him.
And in the information he found, it said that the silver-haired girl behind the young man was, in fact, a demigod; and a powerful one.
Furthermore, she was still in her twenties!
That was something that even he found hard to believe!
"If they are truly that powerful, it's better not to offend them easily," Arlan explained. "It's better to become friends than enemies with that kind of person."
"Then, are we going to give up just like that?" The bearkin young man asked unwillingly.
"Of course not." Arlan snorted. "I'm sure we are not the only ones that got hold of this information. The other clubs in the city should know about it as well. I'm sure many of them will try to recruit them like crazy.
"However, only one club will be able to get them. What do you think the other clubs will do then? They will not tolerate the existence of such a danger."
"That is–"
"Killing is forbidden in the city, however, there should not be a problem if they injure him slightly heavily to hinder his cultivation. Once that happens, we can invite the prince to join us again. I'm sure he will not insist on following him after seeing that."
The two followers looked at each other and nodded in understanding.
"… But, what if they fail?" The tigerkin girl could not help but say.
"Then, we will just agree to the prince's wishes. Anyway, it should be good to keep a good relationship with that kind of genius." Arlan shrugged. "Three days late will be the entrance ceremony. The other clubs will most likely act that day… Mm, we should also spread the news about the prince's intention around our club. Some of our most hot-headed members will surely try to have a friendly spar with Mr. Bloed Norman after learning about that."