Chapter 64: 64. Demoness Clubs
The club system is a significant component of Witch Academy.
Dorothy recalled that in her previous life, her school also had various clubs, which were essentially student groups formed spontaneously by students with common hobbies or ideals.
However, in the country she lived in during her previous life, the prevailing idea was that a student's primary job was studying, and everything else was a distraction, so clubs weren't particularly emphasized.
Dorothy remembered that she didn't truly encounter clubs until college.
But even then, after she finally joined an anime club, she barely received any notifications for club activities over the four years after registering; it was like she joined for nothing.
Most of her impressions of clubs came from anime works featuring youth campus themes.
Well, it was pretty much about a group of young students who didn't study properly, often slacked off in clubs, and even started dating early, all under the guise of enjoying their youth.
Only occasionally would there be a rare work that genuinely depicted club activities, truly fostering hobbies and pursuing dreams.
However, the Demonesses' clubs differed somewhat from the clubs in Dorothy's memory.
Regarding club establishment, the difference wasn't significant; as long as the minimum standard of five members was met and a club base was found, one could directly apply to the Student Council.
If there were no special circumstances, applications meeting the standards were usually approved.
But in terms of subsequent club operations, there were some differences.
Small clubs with fewer than a hundred members were more similar to the concept of student clubs in Dorothy's memory, where young people spent their days slacking off, dating early, and enjoying a peaceful daily life of youth.
However, starting from medium-sized clubs with hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of members, the nature changed.
The structure of such medium-sized clubs had transformed from casual hobby groups into rigorously structured organizations, more akin to unions or companies in Dorothy's impression.
As for large clubs with hundreds of thousands to millions of members, or even super-large clubs exceeding a million members, they were even more similar to conglomerates or even nations.
Although it sounds a bit exaggerated, there's no helping it; the Demonesses' definition of a club is actually more biased towards the Prototype of a society (a Demoness version of a company or enterprise).
In the Demonesses' way of thinking, a club isn't just a place to enjoy youth; those lazy Demonesses who just want to chill naturally don't care and can just have fun.
But if you truly hope to achieve something after graduation, then a club should also be a transitional platform for underage Demonesses to hone their abilities, expand their network, find future companions, and build the prototype of their future team.
Many well-run clubs would directly transform into official Demoness Societies upon their founders' graduation, formally commencing business activities.
However, their former clubs wouldn't simply disappear after they graduated; instead, they would shrink in size and remain within Witch Academy, serving as a recruitment point to provide fresh blood to the Societies.
This way, if a Little Witch wanted to join a certain Demoness Society after graduation, she could first join the corresponding club to start an internship early.
Consequently, the various clubs currently in Witch Academy spare no effort to compete for new students and attract more high-quality Little Witches, often engaging in various overt and covert struggles, creating quite a lively scene.
Every year during the new student enrollment season, a fierce battle for recruits erupts.
Now it was another new student enrollment season, and as expected, when Dorothy and Audrey arrived near the huge Community Squarespecifically used for club recruitment, they saw the bustling, crowded scene from afar.
This enormous square, which had an ultra-large spatial extension spell applied to it, making its actual internal space capable of accommodating tens of millions of people—so large it could be called a plain—was now packed with people.
Dorothy looked down from above and saw a vast, dark mass, truly feeling like Demonesses were as numerous as ants.
Because the application difficulty was so low, who knew how many clubs currently existed in Witch Academy.
Now, large and small clubs had all swarmed out to recruit, and just the registration points of the various clubs roughly seemed to number in the tens of thousands at a glance.
"Two students, please wait, are you interested in learning about our Void Sea Fishing Club?"
"Student, student, do you want to check out our Sky-Piercing Drill Club? Mechanical drills are a Demoness's romance."
"Excuse me, ladies, I see you've had some bad luck recently. How about learning about the Divination Club?"
"Would you like some fantastic beasts?"
Dorothy and her companion had just approached the Community Square and hadn't even landed yet when a large group of people on broomsticks surrounded them, shoving various flyers into their hands.
At this, Dorothy looked helplessly at her beautiful junior sister beside her.
The reason they were directly blocked was none other than Audrey's overwhelming beauty; she seemed to carry a spotlight wherever she went, always becoming the center of attention.
This caused them to be targeted by countless people as soon as they appeared; who wouldn't want to bring such a peerless beauty back to their club to be a Post girl ?
With such a poster girl, there would be no need to worry about recruitment targets; new students would surely flock to them like moths to a flame.
However...
The two were now so surrounded and squeezed by the crowd that they were almost pressed together, and this junior sister, who already had severe social anxiety, had never seen such a scene.
She was almost scared senseless, instinctively grabbing Dorothy's clothes and trying to hide behind her.
Although the feeling of such a beautiful girl actively clinging was quite comfortable, even through their clothes, Dorothy's keen senses allowed her to clearly feel her junior sister's softness.
However, the sight of the beautiful girl trembling was truly pitiful.
Alas, it was a miscalculation; she hadn't expected this Community Square to be such a nightmare—it was completely a social anxiety hell.
Let alone Audrey, even she herself felt a little flustered seeing so many people at this moment.
But this was the time to demonstrate wondrous magic.
"You can't see me, uh, never mind, you can't see us."
Dorothy let out a low Dragon Language roar, and the Dragon Languagemagic immediately enveloped both of them, causing the Demonesseswho had been frantically rushing to recruit because of Audrey's charm to suddenly lose sight of them.
"Uh, is that the Forest Witch's Akalin Technique? So, Senior Sister, you're also a fan of the Forest Witch?"
Dorothy had just finished casting the spell when she heard her junior sister's puppet voice beside her.
However, this time, even through the emotionless metallic synthetic voice, her excitement and agitation were palpable.
It was as if a crazy fan had met a fellow enthusiast, feeling even closer than meeting family.
This left Dorothy with mixed feelings.
Goodness, I didn't realize you, a socially anxious recluse, were also a crazy fan of mine.
Tsk, if you knew I was the Forest Witch, what would happen then? You'd probably be groveling.
The thought of this troublesome junior sister clinging to her every day made Dorothy shiver violently.
"It's not that I particularly like her; I just find her spells quite useful," Dorothy said, maintaining a calm demeanor.
"Yes, yes, I love her so much."
The little fox's ears twitched excitedly, and her nine fluffy tails behind her wagged like a dog's tail.
When the topic came to this, she seemed even more interested than with puppets, and her words suddenly increased.
At this, Dorothy's feelings became even more complex.
Tsk, although she had indeed wanted to find some common topics to bridge the gap between senior and junior sisters, she never expected that common topic to be herself.
"Mhm, right, right," she began to perfunctorily agree with her junior sister, who had inexplicably become excited.
However, the socially anxious little fox clearly lacked the high-level skill of reading expressions; she didn't sense Dorothy's perfunctoriness at all and continued to control her puppet, gushing about how amazing her idol, the Forest Witch, was.
This made Dorothy, a self-obsessed trash Demoness, feel her ears burn red.
Oh my, is this some kind of execution program? My heart feels so tired.
The Little Witch covers her face in embarrassment.
It's too difficult; people keep saying there are too many settings.
This chapter had a lot of settings cut, at least 2000 words of discarded draft.
Anyway, I've given up; if there are many settings, then so be it.
It's just my writing habit, and I can't change it.
It is what it is; you can read it or not, sob sob.