That day after school, Elysia visited the Accessory Crafting Club again and filled out an application form.
The club president welcomed us with a delighted expression.
“Have you really decided on our club?”
“Yes. I still have much to learn, but I look forward to working with you.”
Elysia bowed her head politely.
The president immediately shook his head.
“How could you say that? You’re a Double Crown. And Haku is too…….”
He stopped mid-sentence and looked at me.
I narrowed my eyes.
Don’t say anything weird.
The president immediately corrected himself.
“……We will prepare a dedicated cushion so Haku can rest comfortably.”
Good.
Very good.
I wagged my tail in satisfaction.
Elysia wrote her name on the application form.
Elysia von Valerion.
Affiliation: Department of Magic Knights, First Year, Class A.
Crown Rank: Double Crown.
Accompanying Familiar: Haku.
The moment I saw that line, I felt a strange sensation.
Accompanying Familiar.
By now, those words had become quite familiar.
In this world that had been nothing but unfamiliar at first,
before I knew it, I was attending classes, taking exams, and even choosing clubs with Elysia.
It was truly a strange thing.
And not entirely a bad one.
That evening, when the news that Elysia had joined the Accessory Crafting Club was shared at the Valerion ducal residence, the family’s reactions were varied.
Leopold raised his eyebrows slightly, as if surprised.
“The Accessory Crafting Club, not the Swordsmanship Research Club.”
Elysia was a bit nervous but soon answered calmly.
“Yes. I intend to continue swordsmanship and aura training through classes and personal training.
I want to learn something a little different at the club.”
Leopold looked at Elysia for a moment, then nodded.
“Not bad.
A knight shouldn’t only know the sword.
One must know how to handle, care for, and what to adorn their own blade with as well.”
Isolde smiled gently.
“A fine choice. Elysia must have needed some time to breathe easily as well.”
Lucius spoke with interest.
“If it’s the Accessory Crafting Club, it would connect to the Sacred Light Festival too. There may even be a connection to Haku-related competitions.”
I flattened my ears at his words.
That didn’t need to be said.
Camilla practically cheered.
“Big sister is making accessories herself? Then can you make decorations for Haku too?”
I immediately shook my head.
‘No.’
Camilla pouted her lips in disappointment.
“Can’t you make them a little cute?”
No.
Absolutely not.
Mina said with a smile,
“Then on days when you have club activities, I shall prepare some snacks so that Lord Haku does not grow tired.”
As expected of Mina.
That night, Elysia placed a sword ornament on her desk and gazed at it for a long while.
“I hope that someday I’ll be able to fix things like this myself.”
I sat quietly beside her.
After receiving the Double Crown badge, Elysia seemed to have stopped trying to prove herself through swordsmanship alone.
She would take up the sword, but would not be trapped by it alone.
Though she was the daughter of Valerion, she would not be crushed beneath that name alone.
That first step being the Accessory Crafting Club was a little unexpected, but perhaps that was precisely why it might be all the better.
I gently touched the small silver thread spool on the desk with my front paw.
Elysia smiled.
“Will you help me too, Haku?”
I thought for a moment, then nodded.
‘Of course.’
Just don’t use my fur as material.
Elysia gently stroked my head.
“Thank you.”
I quietly closed my eyes.
And so, Elysia and I joined the Accessory Crafting Club.
At first, I had only intended to try it out.
In the end, the most unexpected place became the most comfortable spot.
Truly.
At this academy, almost nothing goes as I expect.
And so, starting the next day, Elysia and I began going to the Accessory Crafting Club after school.
When classes ended and students scattered to their club rooms or training grounds,
Elysia held me in her arms and headed toward the annex where the Accessory Crafting Club was located.
I was a bit worried at first.
No matter how fine the trial period had been, the atmosphere could change once we started attending officially.
But the Accessory Crafting Club was a more peaceful place than I had imagined.
Inside the club room, small workbenches were lined up in rows,
and on the wallside shelves, materials like metal thread, ribbons, small gems, mana stone fragments, decorative cords, and glass beads were neatly organized.
There were none of the mana fluctuations fierce enough to make your head throb like in the Magic Engineering Department,
nor the analyzing gazes directed at me like in the Familiar Behavior Society.
There were only quiet hand movements, hushed conversations, and the occasional small metallic sound.
“Lady Valerion, shall we practice basic knots today?”
“Yes. I look forward to it.”
Elysia was serious from the start.
It was a slightly different expression from when she held a sword.
During sword training, Elysia was always tense.
The thought that she couldn’t afford to make mistakes, the pressure to live up to the Valerion name, remained on her shoulders.
But at the Accessory Crafting Club, she was a bit different.
Of course, she was clumsy since it was her first time doing this.
She tangled the thin silver thread several times while tying knots, and dropped small decorative parts from her fingertips while trying to pick them up.
Even so, she strangely looked at ease.
It was something she could redo if she got it wrong.
A time when she didn’t need to force herself to prove anything.
Perhaps that was what Elysia had needed.
I sat on a small cushion prepared in one corner of the club room and watched her.
At first, I thought I could just rest.
But that wasn’t the case.
“Haku, could you look this way for a moment?”
“Could you curl your tail a little?”
“Would it be alright if you tilted your head slightly?”
Before I knew it, I had become something like the club’s official model.
Of course, unlike my previous worries, no one tried to force ribbons on me, take my measurements, or harvest my fur.
They were merely quietly sketching me sitting, yawning, or perched on Elysia’s lap.
That much wasn’t bad.
I just had to stay still and strike a brief pose now and then.
Occasionally, students couldn’t help but murmur “cute” softly, but they still kept their boundaries.
Perhaps thanks to the Sacred Light Society’s contact regulations, no one reached out carelessly.
However, when work dragged on, some club members would cautiously ask for permission.
“Haku, may I pet you just once? I’ve ruined the decorative cord three times today…….”
I looked at that student’s exhausted face and pondered for a moment.
Then I looked up at Elysia.
Elysia smiled and nodded.
“If Haku is alright with it.”
I nodded slightly with an air of resignation.
Then the student carefully stroked my head with the face of someone who had been saved.
“Ah…… I’m revived.”
No, was it really that bad?
I was inwardly dumbfounded, but I didn’t dislike it.
At first, students coming to touch me had been nothing but burdensome.
But now, I thought I understood a little.
These kids were all struggling too.
Exams, training, assignments, houses, Sacred Light Festival preparations, Crown ranks.
Each of them carried their own burdens.
If those students could smile for a moment while stroking my head, that much should be fine, shouldn’t it?
Of course, if they touched my ears roughly or pulled my tail, I planned to run away immediately.
And so, the after-school hours passed more tranquilly than expected.
Elysia learned basic knots and became accustomed to smoothing small metal decorations.
At first, her fingertips were awkwardly stiff, but after a few days, they gradually became more natural.
Hand movements different from when holding a sword.
Not powerful cuts, but delicate movements of weaving and fitting.
That kind of practice seemed to be helping Elysia instead.
“Amazing.”
One day, Elysia muttered softly.
I raised my head from her lap.
“Even when holding a sword, if too much strength enters your fingertips, the flow is cut off, right?
But this is similar too. If I hold too tightly, the thread breaks; if I hold too loosely, the knot comes undone.”
She carefully pulled the silver thread caught between her fingertips.
A small knot was firmly secured.
“I feel like I’m learning how to let go of strength.”
I quietly wagged my tail at those words.
It was a good change.
What hadn’t worked well no matter how much she was told at the sword training grounds was gradually loosening up, unexpectedly, at the Accessory Crafting Club.
Elysia hadn’t come here to grow stronger.
But perhaps what she learned here might connect to her sword as well.
What she made that day was a very small decorative cord.
It was a simple form woven from silver and pale blue thread.
There were still clumsy parts, and the length was slightly uneven.
But Elysia gazed at it for quite a while after completing it.
“It’s crude since it’s my first time making one.”
I shook my head.
It’s fine.
‘Everyone’s like that at first.’
Elysia smiled.
She pondered for a moment, then placed the decorative cord in front of me.
“This isn’t good enough to put on you yet, so I’ll keep it as practice.”
I let out a sigh of relief.
What a relief.
I had thought she might suddenly tie it around my neck.
The club members who saw that laughed softly.
“Haku, it seems you still dislike ribbons.”
“Then would a badge be better?”
I immediately looked that way.
Stop.
Please stop.
It’s true that the Accessory Crafting Club is the most normal place, but I still can’t let my guard down.