Volume 2 Chapter 60: Invitation From the Rose Society
Translator: The Light
Currently, neither Ivy, Angel, nor Mia seemed to have realized Charlotte’s true gender and didn’t pay any more attention then necessary. Noesha and Betia, however, seemed to have noticed something and exchanged a few whispered words before deciding to keep their silence.
“What brought you here, president Charlotte? Everyone here is a girl, there aren’t any boys for you to tease here, you would have more luck over there with the members of the brotherhood?”
“Jenny-nee, I just wanted to discuss something with this nee-san over here. I’ll be taking my leave now but here, have this, nee-san. It should have some use to you, think of it as a token of my appreciation for you taking your time to talk with me.”
Seeing that Jenny had returned, Charlotte didn’t stay any longer and left after handing Bella what seemed to be a storage ring with a rather peculiar design. Bella left out the breath that she had been holding during the entire conversation with Charlotte, if that fake loli had stayed any longer, Bella might have offered her own soul to the devil. This world sure was dangerous, why was it a boy could be more beautiful than most of the girls here?
The ring that Charlotte gifted Bella was engraved with strange runes that didn’t seem like they were from this world. Noesha and Betia came up and asked to borrow the ring to investigate, they wanted to use this ring as a breakthrough point to uncover Charlotte’s secrets.
“d.u.c.h.ess bellina, you should know that the cutie that you were just talking to, is a genuine male? Don’t be fooled by his appearance. Charlotte’s a second year student just like me, I didn’t know that he was a boy until it was almost the end of our first year...”
“It took me a while to notice too, Jenny, is their your a.s.sociation’s territory? Are these girls all your members, is there no one else?”
“There’s only five of us and no one else, our president also doesn’t want anyone with any ulterior motives to join us. So far this year, all of those that have wanted to join us have all come after our wealth or beauty, there’s no one that wants to genuinely join us.”
Through a short introduction from Jenny, Bella learned that the student a.s.sociation that Jenny belonged to was the Rose Society, ranked 3rd in the entire Olsyvia Academy. Of course, this ranking was based on the combined wealth of the a.s.sociation and not their amount of members. Ranked 1st was the legendary Brotherhood and 2nd was the Cross-winged Angels, which the fake loli Charlotte was the president of.
The entire Rose Society was only comprised of 5 girls, the daughters of the richest person in each of the 5 human empires. Their similar experiences brought them together and they created the Rose Society to stay together. Due to the fact that they were all the daughters of an empire’s richest person, as well as all being their respective parent’s only successor, there were too many people who wanted to pull the 5 of them to their own a.s.sociations. Eventually the five of them got tired of turning down all the people annoying them, so they decided to simply create their own a.s.sociation.
“Jenny, why don’t you girls join another a.s.sociation? Like the Brotherhood or the Cross-winged Angels, you relations.h.i.+p with president Charlotte seems pretty nice.”
“Most a.s.sociations are just after our money, they’re only inviting us to become their a.s.sociations’ sponsors. There are also a few a.s.sociations that are even more unlikable, it was quite evident that they were thinking of something filthy when they came to invite us. We’re not dumb little girls that get tricked with just a few pretty words.”
“Anyways, since you’re new you might not know much about the Brotherhood yet, but you’ll learn what you need to after reading this guide. Charlotte’s Cross-winged Angels is also rather small in population, but are even wealthier than us and they’re allied with the Brotherhood. We don’t want to get too close to them.”
As a new student, Bella began reading the [New Student’s Survival Guide to the Olsyvia Academy] that Jenny had opened to the section about the academy’s student a.s.sociations. The first page of the section was the introduction and information about the Brotherhood. From reading through the next few pages, Bella learned that the Brotherhood was the academy’s largest student a.s.sociation and undisputed 1st in both power and wealth, having been around since the academy’s founding and possessing a much stronger and stable foundation than the new rising stars, the Cross-winged Angels and the Rose Society.
The Brotherhood only accepted male members, and they had to be good looking ones too. The guide even had magic images of the Brotherhood’s current president as well as each of their ã??Four Heavenly Kingsã??, even Bella had to admit that these five were actually really handsome. Perhaps if Bella’s heart was that of a real girl, she would have fallen in love with them here and now.
After scanning through a few of the Brotherhood’s recruitment posters, a strange expression crept onto Bella’s face. There was no way that such â?? philosophical â?? depictions could be pa.s.sed of as interactions between normal male friends. Even through the medium of the handbook, Bella was blinded by the â?? fervorous â?? pa.s.sion that radiated from the magic images. No wonder why Jenny wanted to limit interactions with the Brotherhood, it was very likely that this Brotherhood didn’t need any females at all.
What was more overbearing was that there were more requirements to entering the Brotherhood than just looks, those males without much power or authority were all but barred from entering. In this world it seemed that even to become a pract.i.tioner of â?? philosophy â?? required one to be of good birth.
After reading through the part about the Brotherhood, Bella didn’t choose to read much further. There wasn’t much information about the Cross-winged Angels or the Rose Society, due to their rather small size and the fact that they had always refused interviews and visits from the academy’s News & Information student a.s.sociation. All that was written on [New Students Survival Guide to the Olsyvia Academy] about these two student a.s.sociations were two sentences: New students should avoid getting too close to these two student a.s.sociations, or else beware of getting too much negative attention.
The Cross-winged Angels aside, if any male student managed to sneak their way into being a member of the Rose Society, they would probably be beaten half to death by dawn the next day. The jealousy of the ma.s.ses was quite strong and any male that entered the Rose Society would basically be halfway to becoming the successor to one of the five empire’s richest people. The only way to deal with this kind of winner at life was to beat the c.r.a.p out of them early, before he had the ability to turn the tables on them.
“d.u.c.h.ess Bellina, have you considered which student a.s.sociation that you would join yet? The Olsyvia Academy asks that every one of its students takes part in a.s.sociation activities and it’s mandatory for a student to join at least one student a.s.sociation.”
“I actually didn’t know about that rule... so, I haven’t thought about this at all... do you have any suggestions as to what a.s.sociation for me to join, Jenny-senpai? There’s just too many to pick from and I’m not sure what which would be the best suited for me.”
“Why don’t you consider joining our Rose Society? I just talked to our president and she expressed that she would love to welcome you joining us. If you don’t mind, come eat lunch with us in our a.s.sociation office after this meet and greet is done, we’ll fill out your entry forms as well.”
“Is it really okay, Jenny-senpai? I’m not the daughter of an empire’s richest like all of you, I’m afraid that I might not fit in!”
“Don’t be so humble, d.u.c.h.ess Bellina, you have to remember that you’re the first female to hold the peerage of Duke in the recorded history of the 5 empires, our a.s.sociation has always lacked someone with actual power. Even though all of our fathers are Dukes themselves, but all of their peerages all bought and we don’t really hold much actual power. Without someone with actual power, those with actual power can quite easily pick on us. The 6th ranked a.s.sociation, Golden Legend, and the 10th ranked Dark Mask had always been plotting against the Rose Society, they’ve been making small moves on our territory ever since the Rose Society’ naissance.”
“But my peerage was also bought...:
“But your victory over the forces of Duke Brandon was legitimate, even though most of us don’t know how you did it. The important thing is that you have your own armed forces, n.o.bles with their own army can already be considered to have real power. Our Rose Society’s real intention, is to become your sponsor and for you to become our s.h.i.+eld, we just can’t trust any males with this task, which is why we chose you.”
“All of my forces are back at my fief of Saniyah, there’s nothing that they can do while we’re at the Olsyvia Academy? The two a.s.sociations that you mentioned don’t seem to be very easy to deal with!”
Bella looked down at the guide’s section for these two a.s.sociations, the 6th ranked Golden Legend was another a.s.sociation that was also based in the Filomina Branch. Golden Legend was also composed of various students from extremely wealthy families, different from the Rose Society, Golden Legend’s members were mostly male. From the difference in ranking, it was quite evident that Golden Legend wasn’t as wealthy as the five girls from the Rose Society, Bella wondered why the two a.s.sociations didn’t get along, was there some sort of bad history between them?
As for the 10th ranked Dark Mask, they were an a.s.sociation based in the commoners’ Francis Branch. From the bits of imformation on the guide, Bella realized that Dark Mask was basically a large gang under the guise of a student a.s.sociation. Of course, Dark Mask only really exerted its power over the Francis Branch where the students there didn’t have much power or background and had yet to turn their eyes on any of the Olsyvia Academy’s other branches, simply because their own background couldn’t match up to the n.o.bles of the Filomina Branch or the royalty from the Euphemia Branch.
So theoretically speaking, the Dark Mask shouldn’t have the guts to set their eyes on the Rose Society, as even though all of the Rose Society’s members were female, they were still an a.s.sociation based in the Filomina Academy and they were all personally successors to the peerages of Duke from their fathers. Bella inferred that the Dark Mask was secretly backed by the 6th ranked Golden Legend and that was the reason why they dared to test the Rose Society.
“d.u.c.h.ess Bellina, I know that these two a.s.sociations are quite formidable opponents. However, not too long ago you faced the Disciplinary Committee’s hdead chair, Natasha, and came out unscathed. You may not know this yet, but Natasha has never let off any student that broke the academy rules, you’re the first to have done so. So how about it, are you interested in joining our Rose Society? Our president wants you to become our security consultant, in return, we can help in the growth and development of the Saniyah Duchy.”
“I guess I could, but could you ask your president to give me the authority to accept new members? The two a.s.sociations we’re facing outnumber us quite a bit, and it isn’t like I can use my own Duchy’s forces within the academy. There’s just not enough people in the Rose Society to face the Golden Legend and the Dark Mask!”
“I’ll ask the president later, but she shouldn’t have any problems with you taking in new members as long as you promise that you only accept girls and can guarantee that they’re not here for our wealth.”
“I can promise that, the girls that I’m thinking of inviting are all ones that I’ve known for a while and I trust them with all my heart, no need to be worried.”
Jenny and the other members of the Rose Society had invested d.u.c.h.ess Bellina quite a bit and knew of what she had done after arriving at the Olsyvia Academy. They knew that d.u.c.h.ess Bellina had connections with princesses from all five empires and were quite intimate with them, their relations.h.i.+p having reached the point which they all lived together in the same dorm. Among those princesses, the two with most influence and power were the Octavian Empire’s 10th princess, Octavio Lisha, as well as the Gabriel Empire’s 1st princess, Mathilde Kriss, these two princesses held actual power and weren’t as useless and powerless as most other princesses.
The dancers and singers on stage had already been preforming for almost two hours before they finally stopped, Bella was quite admirable of these students from the Antoinette Academy, being able to dance for such a period of time without running out of stamina. The seats around the stage had already been completely been filled, meaning that members of the Filomina Academy’s 1st year elite cla.s.s were already mostly here. This meet and greet wasn’t only open to 1st year students, this was also an opportunity for the new students to meet the second year and above elite cla.s.s students who had showed up for the occasion.
The seats at the very front were reserved for the high ranking student a.s.sociations. The Rose Society which Bella was part of as well as the neighbouring Cross-winged Angels were both comparably small in number and it was quite something for several entre rows of seats to be ‘occupied’ by only a few people.
To the right of the Rose Society sat members of the Brotherhood who attended the Filomina Branch’s elite cla.s.s. Bella snuck a glance at these members and noticed that the rumours about all of their members being quite handsome was actually true, there were also quite a few different types to pick from as well. This was only a portion of the Brotherhood’s members, as quite a large part of their members were either not in the Filomina Branch’s elite cla.s.s or attended the royalty’s Euphemia Branch, including their president. The one who led the members of the Brotherhood here was only their vice-president.
Of the top ten most handsome males in the Olsyvia Academy, over half were high ranking members of the Brotherhood, this 1st ranked a.s.sociation has never accepted females. If the script was any different and the one who transmigrated to this world was an actual female, Bella might have tried to find a way to sneak into the Brotherhood and create her own ‘reverse harem’, it was a shame that there was absolutely no way that the current Bella would find herself attracted to a man.
Bella wasn’t a real girl so all she could do was keep her distance from the Brotherhood. She had just overheard someone pa.s.sing by talking about how this morning there was the son of some marquis wanting to report something to the main student council but was intercepted by members of the Brotherhood and taught a lesson in philosophy, and had been forced to the advanced cla.s.s instead. She had also overheard them talking about the unfortunate lad’s name, it seemed to be Jarvan or something.
After a bit of thinking, Belal finally realized that this was the name of that dumba.s.s who claimed to be Ivy’s fiancé! If it wasn’t for the fact that she wasn’t familiar with the members of the Brotherhood, Bella would have written a letter of appreciation to the Brotherhood’s president for their service. They sure helped Bella with a problem that had been bugging her ever since she and Ivy had parted ways with jarvan earlier in the day.
Some distance away from where she and the Rose Society were sitting, Bella saw her new a.s.sociation’s strongest enemy, the Golden Legend. The Golden Legend had both male and female members, but the majority of them were male, all of their male members were at least decent in looks but none of them gave off the impression of being a good student. Beside each one of the Golden Legend’s male members were at least two female servants, the kind that seemed to think that wearing less than the other was better.
The president of the Golden Legend, Philip Carlos had long noticed d.u.c.h.ess Bellina who had unexpectedly showed up in the territory of the Rose Society. Carlos had always wanted to annex the Rose Society, and he had his eyes on the Rose Society’s 5 rich beauties for quite a while now. Carlos had used the excuse of discussing business to try inviting them out many times, but they had always turned him down.
Seeing that his approach wasn’t working, he began using the Golden Legend’s wealth to back the 10th ranked Dark Mask to make some trouble and force out the members of the Rose Society to negotiate with him. At that time, all Carlos needed was some of a mysterious elixir and he would be able to obtain great wealth as well as well as some outstanding beauties.
“That Golden Haired beauty is the lord of the Saniyah Duchy, d.u.c.h.ess Bellina? Wasn’t she rumoured to be an ugly woman, a muscular one at that? Which b.a.s.t.a.r.d spread that rumour, I want to beat his face in! Abbot, how many invitations did we send out for the Golden Legend’s party in seven days, are there any more open spots?”
“They’ve already been sent out, but there’s one that couldn’t be delivered. It’s the one that was supposed be for the Johnston families’ young master, Jarvan, but he just ran himself into some trouble with the Brotherhood and was forced to the advanced cla.s.s. I was afraid that inviting him would get us on the bad side of the Brotherhood, which was why I didn’t send him the invitation.”
“That’s good, Abbot, change the name on the invitation to that of d.u.c.h.ess Bellina, have someone deliver it to her later!”
“President, this... isn’t it a bit against etiquette? These invitations should have been sent out 10 days ago. Anyways, giving someone an invitation that was supposed to be for someone else is quite disrespectful to a n.o.ble, especially to one holds the peerage of Duke like Bellina. I’m afraid that we might get on her bad side like this.”
“What’s there to be afraid of, her peerage was bought and if she doesn’t come, it means that our Golden Legend doesn’t enter her eye. In my three years at the Olsyvia Academy, apart from the Brotherhood, the Cross-winged Angels, the Gate of Enlightenment, and the Iron Cross, there’s no a.s.sociation that our Golden Legend needs to fear. Not even the head chair of the Disciplinary Committee, Natasha, could do anything about me, so what can a little girl who bought her peerage do to me?”
“Understood, I’ll go and prepare the invitation right now, president.”
“Wait, while you’re at it, go and look into d.u.c.h.ess Bellina’s connections, if there aren’t any worthwhile ones, hehe... get me some more of that mysterious elixir, I’ll make her mine later as well.”
“President, you really are... too smart, I’ll go prepare now. However, d.u.c.h.ess Bellina’s maidservants are to my liking... president, would you mind giving them to me later?”
“You d.a.m.n lolicon, Abbot. Alright, you can have them after I’m done with them.”
“Thank you, president Carlos, I’ll go and prepare immediately.”
From this moment on, Carlos’ Golden Legend chose to stand on the other side of Bella’s Rose Society, a battle unkown to the ma.s.ses would secretly take place between the Filomina Branch’s student a.s.sociations. Carlos didn’t know it yet but, this decision that he made using his other head would eventually cause the downfall of the Golden Legend altogether...