"Euna! Are you leaving as well? B-But, if you leave, t-then–"
"Sorry Toby, I can't continue like this. This club has no hope. I received an invitation from Knowledge Seekers two weeks ago, and I decided to agree."
"B-But, But…"
"I'm sorry, I have to leave."
"Euna! Wait, Euna!"
Toby extended his hand helplessly to stop the young girl from leaving, however, she ran off without looking at him again.
"… So she also left, huh."
Smiling bitterly, Toby sat down in a nearby chair.
Actually, he did not blame the girl for leaving. She was right, this club did not have hope. He sometimes thought about leaving as well.
However, he never did.
Perhaps it was because he was nostalgic, or perhaps it was because this was the first place where he felt he belonged.
Toby was a seventeen-years young man. However, he seemed much younger than his age. Actually, he was sometimes confused for a child.
He arrived at Academy City two years ago. But although he was a student of Academy City, he could not be called a genius. In fact, he was just at the initial stages of C-Rank.
Perhaps his cultivation would be a bit impressive in some parts of the world, but here in Academy City, that was below average.
But Toby did not mind it. He was already used to being considered below others.
As the bastard child of a human noble, he had grown under constant abuse and discrimination.
That was the reason he left home and came to Academy City.
He wanted to escape that life. He wanted to be in a place where nobody would mind his identity as a bastard child.
A new home.
And he found it here.
Not much after he entered Academy City, he joined the Golem-Making Club. Actually, he was fooled into joining. Back then, he remembering grumbling when he learned about the nature of the club.
However, now that he looked back at these times, he thought he was lucky.
Because the Golem-Making Club soon became Toby's new home.
Back then, the Golem-Making club was not like this. Although it could not be considered a strong club, it kept its place as one of the top one hundred clubs firmly.
All that was due to Toby's senior. A talented human lady that literally supported the Golem-Making Club singlehandedly.
She loved building golems and use them to fight. Her talent on it was enough to make her one of the thirty strongest students in Academy City.
She was the one that recruited Toby, and also the one that helped him to discover his talent in making golems.
For Toby, there were the bests years of his life.
Unfortunately, the good times did not last.
One day, he received the news that his senior had died.
She was killed by a monster during an expedition.
After that, everything changed.
Without his senior watching over the club, the Golem-Making Club was nothing. Although it had several members, none of them was strong enough to help it to keep its position.
Moreover, many of the members of the club were in it due to his senior. Half of the members left during the first week after her death.
The rest continued leaving after that.
Today, two months had passed since then, and only four, no, three members remained in the club.
Even the teacher in charge of the club had stopped coming. Although the teacher had not resigned yet, it was obvious he did not care about it anymore.
Toby could not help but smile self-deprecatingly.
"It looks like I can only watch as the club is disbanded, huh."
Toby did not have hopes of retaining the club's position as one of the top one hundred clubs. In fact, he was happy as long as the club was not disbanded.
But with only three members remaining when the minimum required for a club was five members, it seemed that there was nothing he could do.
At that moment, he heard a commotion coming from the entrance.
Frowning, he went out, only to see one of the three remaining members of the club leading several young men and women towards him.
Toby's eyes brightened immediately.
"Julius? Did you manage to convince someone to join the club!?"
However, Toby soon frowned.
Because he noticed that Julius was avoiding his gaze.
'It can't be…'
With a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, he looked at the people behind Julius.
"You are…"
"You must be Toby, right? We are members of [Flying Leaves]. From today, your club will merge with us."
Toby's face turned pale.
He immediately understood the situation.
He knew Flying Leaves. It was a new club that had been rising to fame recently. Apparently, its leader was a talented A-Rank student.
However, because it was a new club, it had not managed to get a place in the top one hundred clubs yet.
Moreover, getting a place in the top one hundred clubs was very hard. Even though [Flying Leaves] was a bit famous recently, it did not mean it could get a place easily.
That was the reason they were here.
They planned to merge the two clubs together and that way Flying Leaves could take the rank of the Golem-Making Club.
Actually, although it was called 'merging', the truth was that the Golem-Making Club would disappear completely.
Toby bit his lips. His eyes turned red, and he could not help but look at Julius with an expression of rage.
"Julius! How do you dare to do something like this!?"
However, the young man called Julius did not reply. He just looked away with an awkward expression.
"Stop making a fuss, boy." Said one of the young men behind Julius. "Your club is going to disband anyway. At the very least, it can be of some use this way."
"You…!"
"Stop standing in our way, okay? We want to see our facilities."
"Do you think I will allow it!?"
The young man in front of him frowned. Immediately, his gaze turned sharp, sending shivers to Toby's spine.
"Move away!"
Toby shivered. However, he did not move.
He did not want to let things end like this.
"I guess I'll make your move then." With a grunt, the young man filled his body with mana.
B-Rank surged around him, pressing against Toby and making his face ashed white!
But when the young man was about to make a move, a voice reached his ears.
"Is it the Golem-Making Club?"
The young man frowned. Turning around, he saw a blue-haired young man approaching them followed by several people.
"Who are you?"
"Oh, sorry, allow me to introduce myself first. I'm the new president of the Golem-Making Club, Bloed Norman."