After hesitating for a moment, I took off the ridiculous frog-eye sunglasses and admitted who I was.
Just like the guard we'd captured earlier, the bunny-suited student in front of me lit up the instant she saw my face, covering her mouth as she let out a string of quiet gasps.
Then several more girls who looked as though they'd just come from the battlefield hurried over. After scolding their companion for abandoning her post, they immediately gathered around me and began bombarding me with questions.
Questions like whether Schale was busy, when new duty students would be recruited, why I had time to visit the Golden Fleece, whether I needed a guide or personal bodyguard, whether I could give them autographs, and if they didn't have paper, signing directly on them was fine, actually even better...
In short, I was receiving a level of enthusiasm I'd never experienced at any other school.
Although it was my first time aboard the Golden Fleece as well, it somehow felt like returning home after a long absence. My heart felt warm.
Of course, I knew this was survivor bias.
If they didn't admire me, why would they sneak away to meet me before even defeating Neru?
That blonde guard had said earlier that there were several thousand passengers aboard this ship. Given Kivotos's martial culture, maintaining order on board would require at least several hundred Odyssey students.
As Kivotos's public idol, if I didn't have at least a handful of diehard fans among those hundreds, that would be the truly strange thing.
But as time passed, I began to realize something wasn't quite right.
More and more Odyssey students kept arriving.
One after another, without end.
The crowd only continued growing.
Students who arrived early and managed to get my autograph barely had time to exchange a few words before newcomers pushed them aside. Left with disappointed expressions, they could only return to fill the vacancies in the siege against Neru.
There were even guards among the fans who had clearly been beaten to the point of losing combat capability by Neru and had only managed to reach me with the support of their companions.
Yet after merely shaking my hand, they seemed to receive a shot of adrenaline and instantly recovered their spirits.
As though their previous near-death state had merely been an act to earn my sympathy.
Later, several students who appeared fairly influential, possibly members of the ship's management, arrived as well.
But instead of dealing with the disturbance, they organized the crowd, had tables and chairs brought over for me, instructed Odyssey students to line up and take numbered tickets, and naturally claimed the first numbers for themselves.
Wait a second.
Why was this starting to look like some kind of fan meeting?
And did it really have to be this exaggerated?
Why did it feel like I'd somehow become a human buff machine?
I couldn't help but wonder if this was some kind of conspiracy.
Perhaps a plot specifically designed to provoke Neru...
At this moment, the orange-haired girl had clearly noticed the strange situation on my side.
She kept letting out unwilling roars and repeatedly tried to break through toward me, but remained unable to shake off the bunny-suited guards surrounding her.
In fact, Neru, Millennium's absolute ace, was gradually being pushed onto the defensive.
There were several reasons for this.
Neru wasn't familiar with the terrain.
The guards possessed both numerical superiority and home-field advantage.
Their morale had also skyrocketed because of my presence.
But there was an even more important reason.
She was wearing high heels she'd never worn before, and they didn't fit properly.
Earlier, she'd jumped too high and landed carelessly, twisting her ankle.
Unfortunately, halos didn't protect against that.
Even with Neru's physical abilities far beyond those of ordinary students and the iron will forged through countless battles, her greatest strength, her mobility, inevitably suffered a severe reduction.
Some sharp-eyed guards noticed this and shamelessly informed their companions, who then exploited the weakness extensively.
As a result, Neru's battle became increasingly difficult.
More importantly, support from the other C&C members had yet to arrive.
If things continued at this rate, Neru's defeat might simply be a matter of time.
Though I desperately wanted to help her, I knew there was something else I needed to do right now.
"Thank you! Thank you so much!"
An Odyssey student stood before me with excitement written all over her face, her joy clearly genuine.
"You're welcome."
I smiled as I replied.
Using a waterproof marker, I had just signed my name across her chest.
Although I'd only written "Schale," as the organization's sole representative, signing the department's name wasn't really any different.
Then I casually asked,
"By the way, it seems most of the people lining up are students from Odyssey Maritime Academy?"
This was something I'd noticed earlier.
Naturally, there were far fewer crew members than passengers aboard the cruise ship.
Yet among those waiting in line, while there were indeed quite a few passengers either following the crowd or genuinely familiar with my exploits, their numbers were nowhere near those of the former.
"Ah... y-you noticed...?"
The student fidgeted for a while.
After glancing back at her equally embarrassed companions, she blushed.
"A-Actually... nearly all the crew members aboard the Golden Fleece are your loyal fans..."
...What?
Only after further questioning did I finally understand how this situation had come about.
Unlike the passengers who came seeking excitement and dreams of sudden fortune, the crew members of the Golden Fleece were the creators and maintainers of the rank system rather than its direct beneficiaries.
Although they received excellent salaries, life at sea was ultimately very different from life on land.
The repetitive and unchanging routine was undoubtedly dull for the crew members, who were students themselves.
Under such circumstances, they naturally craved spiritual nourishment and gradually developed hobbies outside of work.
In the past, the trend aboard the Golden Fleece had been collecting publicly released activity reports from various academies or educational BDs documenting tactical operations, often purchased at high prices, then studying and applying the advanced techniques contained within.
It was precisely because they spent their free time honing their combat abilities that they possessed enough skill to legitimately use human-wave tactics against someone like Neru.
Then one day, a crew member accidentally discovered an activity report released by the Federal Investigation Club Schale.
From that moment onward, a brand-new trend swept through the entire Golden Fleece with astonishing speed.
They had finally found a new source of spiritual sustenance.
Or rather, someone they could wholeheartedly admire.
Schale's Sensei.
In other words, me.
After hearing the explanation, I sat there bewildered.
"S-So that's how it is... I completely understand now."
I absolutely did not understand!?
Sure, it was probably a good thing.
It was reasonable of course, cuz it's me.
In Kivotos, it was probably normal.
But wasn't this way too strange!?
My thoughts in complete disarray, I used my Authority to force myself to calm down while wrestling with whether I should take advantage of these girls' admiration to accomplish my mission.
However, at that moment, a burst of cheers suddenly erupted nearby.
Along with a familiar, suppressed roar of frustration.
It was Neru.
She had been subdued.