110. The New Member of the Muses

After Eli Ayase left, the tense atmosphere that had hung between the two naturally dissipated. Jiang Yu exhaled deeply and instinctively directed his gaze toward one of the only two familiar faces in the auditorium—and the very reason he had come here today—Kotori Minami.

At that moment, Jiang Yu noticed that she seemed to be looking right at him—or more accurately, everyone present was now looking at him. He smiled and nodded in her direction.

The girl with flaxen hair returned his gesture with a warm, heartfelt smile.

The others, observing this exchange, all silently wondered: Were these two really that close?

Jiang Yu then rolled up his sleeves, preparing to help the girls tidy up the venue. After all, it had been a small concert, albeit with just one song performed, but some equipment had been used and needed to be put back in order.

Once the cleanup was finished, the girls changed into their school uniforms and waited by the auditorium entrance. Before Jiang Yu could approach, Honoka Kosaka excitedly waved at him and called out, “Jiang-kun! Over here!”

Seeing the cheerful girl acting so familiar, Jiang Yu tapped his head with a slight frown and slowly walked over.

As he neared, he caught sight of a familiar splash of red and asked with mild surprise, “Maki Nishikino, you’re still here?”

Maki frowned, her purple eyes clearly expressing displeasure. The look seemed to say, “Do you think I came here on my own?”

Realizing he had misspoken, Jiang Yu awkwardly smiled at the red-haired girl.

Honoka, noticing this, draped her arm around Maki’s shoulder and grinned brightly, “Maki-chan’s our great heroine. There’s no way we’d just let her leave so easily!”

At this, Maki’s expression softened, and she gave Jiang Yu a light, reluctant hum, indicating she wasn’t exactly here by choice.

Kotori stepped forward to smooth things over, saying, “By the way, thanks so much, Jiang-kun, for coming to watch our performance and for speaking up for us.”

Jiang Yu waved his hand casually. “It’s nothing—I didn’t really do anything important…”

“Not true! You talking to the student council president like that was really impressive! I don’t know why, but she kinda scares me,” Honoka said energetically before sticking out her tongue playfully, then lowering her voice in a mock pout.

Jiang Yu chuckled. “I suppose you must be… Honoka Kosaka? Kotori mentioned you to me. She said you’re always the one leading everyone forward.”

“Jiang-kun—!” Kotori pouted, clearly a bit annoyed that he had revealed her opinion of her friend.

Amused by the girls’ adorable antics, Jiang Yu shook his head with a smile and shifted his gaze to Umi Sonoda, who had been silent until now. “So this must be Umi Sonoda? Kotori… ahem, alright, never mind.”

Feeling Kotori’s warning stare, Jiang Yu cleared his throat and dropped the subject.

Umi nodded slightly in greeting. Though she appeared aloof, inside she was incredibly nervous, completely unsure how to hold a normal conversation with a boy her age.

Jiang Yu noticed her tightly clenched fists, knuckles paling—an obvious sign of her inexperience with interacting with guys. He wasn’t upset by it.

After all, that was the perfectly normal reaction for a girl from an all-girls school suddenly encountering a strange male.

Shaking his head, Jiang Yu looked at the figure before him—Honoka, brimming with the spirit of a passionate youth—and sighed. “Actually, your student council president is a pretty good person.”

“???” echoed from the four girls.

“What are you talking about? Even though she’s a senior, she’s always just been in the way, hasn’t she?” Honoka said, puffing up her cheeks in irritation.

Kotori and Maki exchanged puzzled glances with Jiang Yu. Though they didn’t say it aloud, it was clear they agreed with Honoka.

Umi, who had been silent since Jiang Yu arrived, suddenly looked thoughtful.

Facing their bewildered eyes, Jiang Yu explained, “As the student council president, she’s mostly just fulfilling her duties. And if she really thought you were just causing trouble, wouldn’t she have stopped you from holding the live concert in the first place?”

“Besides, there’s something uniquely infectious about your songs. Maybe even you haven’t realized it yet, but you—especially Honoka—have the ability to inspire those around you, to lead them fearlessly forward, undeterred by setbacks.”

Jiang Yu chose not to voice these heartfelt thoughts directly. Instead, seeing the girls either puzzled or suddenly enlightened, he changed the subject. “Oh, by the way, about that person earlier…”

“That’s senior Eli Ayase,” Maki reminded him.

“Right! Eli, what’s up with your club not having enough members yet? Surely you don’t mean there are only three of you in the whole club?”

Since he hadn’t really participated in clubs before, Jiang Yu’s knowledge came mainly from hearsay in his previous life. For example, the classical literature club, led by someone whose catchphrase was “I’m curious!”, apparently had to reach four members to avoid being on the brink of dissolution, and some clubs required at least five members.

Speaking of which, wasn’t the service club, where the big teacher stayed, made up of only three people? Jiang Yu had never been clear about these matters.

Honoka showed a slightly embarrassed expression as she whispered, “We’re just the three of us… The school requires at least five members for a club to be officially recognized and to have a dedicated activity room.”

Jiang Yu rubbed his chin, his eyes casually catching Maki’s nonchalant fingers twirling her hair nearby. His eyes lit up, and he clapped his right fist into his open left palm, exclaiming, “Isn’t there already a member right in front of you?”

“Huh? What do you mean? That makes no sense!” Maki stopped playing with her hair, looking somewhat flustered as four pairs of eyes fixed on her.

…

“Let’s just bet on whether Muse can succeed or not. The wager is that the loser agrees to a reasonable request that doesn’t violate any rules. How about it?”

Eli Ayase sat before her computer, recalling the bet made unilaterally by that boy named Jiang Yu she had met earlier today, along with his somewhat irritating flippant attitude.

Frowning, she uploaded the edited video onto the campus idol group Muse’s homepage. While waiting for the upload to complete, she lightly tapped her fingers on the desk.

Well then, let reality decide whether they can succeed or not.

With that thought, Eli Ayase clicked “YES” to confirm the video upload.