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Seeing that the boy could do nothing but crouch while holding his wound, the committee member announced the conclusion of the battle.
Becoming unable to fight due to merely losing some arm was only a thing in battle between first-year students.
「Alright. Here’s his badge. Good job.」
What was handed over by the committee member was the badge of the boy who was having a potion administered to his shoulder to reattach his arm, his legs still turned to jelly.
The losers who had their club badges collected would be given an × badge, which was the proof of losers.
In order to participate in the main round of the interclub tournament, 10 club badges would be required, including the badges that were distributed to them.
Clubs that participated in the main tournament would be given a rank of『C』, while clubs that failed to collect enough badges would automatically be given a rank of『F』.
This was a qualifying round to shake off the small fry in the system known as clubs, which could be founded at will.
Putting the badge in her pocket, the girl moved her legs toward the stairs, ignoring the gazes of those around her.
Even without skills such as appraisal, she could tell that there was no one in that place who could fight her.
There was no need to be on guard.
It had ended up eating up some time, but her comrades should still be waiting for her in the student cafeteria.
「Souvenir. Danna-sama, I wonder if he’ll be pleased
.」
A warm smile floated on her ever cold lips.
◇ ◇ ◇
「First of all, with this we’ve got the third one, huh. It’s going well.」
「Things like holding back my magic, it’s such a pain though~.」
「So boring. I want to challenge someone more challenging.」
Placed on the table are the badges that the club members have hunted.
The badges are printed with the crest of each club in an easy to tell manner.
This『Crest』 is the so-called symbol mark of the club, which is registered with the academy when the club is established.
Perhaps it can be easily understood if we take it like the logo of a baseball or soccer team.
The crests have many different designs, but a lot of them seem to be that of deformed designs with a touch of anime or manga.
As someone who has a calling for collecting, there are collector’s items that make me want to collect every single one of them.
Incidentally, the crest adopted by those of us of the Order of the Divine Workmen (Adept Orders) is a crest designed by Anzu-senpai, which won the contest of intra-club public exhibitions.
It’s a little bit fancy, but it’s a pretty cool design, like that of chivalric order.
「You are not allowed to pick a fight, Touma-san.」
Another ruthless notification from Shizuka-san.
「Hmm. Our club sure has many bloodthirsty members, doesn’t it? Really.」
「Ahaha. Be sure to not overdo it okay, everyone.」
In addition to the usual members, everyone registered as players has gathered during today’s lunch.
However, the reserves, Mikan-senpai and Rinko-senpai, will not be able to participate in the survival battle until the regular players are eliminated.
Well, I have no intention of letting them participate until the end, though.
「For the second year, I wonder if there are any F-rankers who will try to pick on me~. I could be the one who challenges them, but that would be immature of me. So I guess I’ll just wait and see for a while.」
Otoha-senpai, who has a set of a plate of club sandwiches and black tea, shows a smug face.
I’d like her not to let her guard, so that she won’t fall into a kuh, kill me situation.
「Well, if we take it too easy, I suppose the number of people in possession of F-Rank Club badges will dwindle.」
「To achieve the borderline of collecting 10 badges, once we get to the last day, everyone will surely become desperate, right.」
If you lose the battle, your badge will be taken away, but if you don’t fight, your count will only be that of five badges.
If you are undefeated in a row, you can go to the main tournament in five battles.
Even if, for argument’s sake, you lose all of your club badges, as long as you win 10 badges, you can advance to the main tournament.
The important point is how many badges you have at the end of the qualifying round.
The bottleneck is that once lost, the taken badge will still be counted as that of the winning club, even if the winner who takes it loses afterwards.
The number of badges, the target of plundering, is decreasing steadily.
Ultimately, it’s fine as long as you have 10 badges in your hand, and battles are occurring one after another, following the line of thought of rather than picking a fight against those who look strong, they’d rather pick a fight against those who look weak.
「The stray battles are mostly that of between F-rankers, though.」
「The faces of the representatives of the top clubs are known, and since their cards are on the table, I suppose they are being cautious.」
From the lowest, the badges that are handed out to the C-ranked clubs and above are color-bordered according to their rank.
F-rank is blue, C-rank is yellow, B-rank is silver, A-rank is gold, and S-rank is rainbow, it seems.
In particular, the badges of the B-rank and above clubs seem to be worth at least two badges, so even if they don’t win any of the other badges, as long as they keep theirs, they will automatically participate in the main tournament.
Well, the more badges you collect, the more seed rights you will be able to get in the main tournament, so I’ve heard that there are also some top clubs that are attacking vigorously from the qualifying round.
Shouldn’t we be attacking too, I wonder?
「Like I told you, what’s the point of standing out unnecessarily? Going at it moderately is fine, for us.」
「
 but there’s the possibility of us running out of enemies to crush.」
「You are no good. Go reflect on the case of the other day.」
That was force majeure.
It doesn’t seem like they’re going to listen to my plea.
I wonder if someone could challenge me to a fight with a direct nomination.
We welcome everyone.
Perhaps ending up getting disappointed with the fight against those of F rank, Saki, who seemed to be of the same mind and was eager at the beginning, shows no reaction.
She is in a warm mode, slurping udon noodles together with Miharu and Natsumi.
So enviable, I want to be in disappointment too, thinking that it was one boring battle.
「After all, if we are impatient and end up getting our badges stolen, there’s nothing that can be done.」
「I heard that even if we have our badge stolen and end up with × badge, we still have the right to challenge.」
「
 That’s no good. Rather than letting such a thing happen, I suppose I’ll step up.」
At Rinko-senpai’s words, Mikan-senpai also nods strongly.
Loser’s come-back, or rather the use of special rules seems to be a no go.
The players who end up with × badge don’t have a badge to bet, so they won’t be challenged to a battle.
However, it’s possible for them to challenge an opponent who has a badge.
If the challenged opponent approves of the battle, they can bet the『item suggested by the opponent』 instead of the badge.
For example, sen or magic items, or according to the booklet, there were even precedents of those betting their own body or partner.
As long as the committee member approves of it, it’s even possible to bet or make others bet those instead of their badge from the beginning.
Even if the opponent refuses, it can still be compulsorily enacted, like this limited-time student duel (Mensur).
It seems that the ladies and gentlemen of the interclub tournament executive committee are mostly members of the student duel committee, so I guess the borders about those parts have also been clearly defined.
「Well, be sure to stay put okay. Once the main tournament starts, you’ll get to fight even if you don’t to, after all.」
So Seiichi says, but there are rules here, so it can’t be helped.
If I show off my badge, someone out there, at least one of them should come to challenge me to battle.
◇ ◇ ◇
Just why?
I wonder why no one has called out to me.
My craving is so dissatisfied that my heart is turned on.
Anyone is fine, I wish someone can come and challenge me to a battle already.
I’ll give them this badge in exchange.
It’s already Friday, on the verge of the conclusion of the qualifying round.
I want to fight a challenger who comes attacking me to take away my precious ones.
Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry.
「The case of Touma-kun radiating tingling bloodlust with bloodshot eyes.」
The battles that used to animatedly take place in the academy grounds are now sporadic.
I think the number of students who wear badges ostentatiously has also decreased significantly, at the very least among the first year students.
Now, feel free to take a look.
There’s prey over here.
Feel free to pounce on it without reservation.