The atmosphere in the Imperial Academy that day was far from studious that day, as almost everyone was either discussing the suddenly missing Don and Braxy, or Emilia's interview.
In class C, the main topic was of course the TV interview of their already famous bully exterminator.
The voices of the students were filled with giddiness and excitement.
"Did you watch it too?"
"Yeah, I couldn't believe it when I first saw it. She handled it all so calmly, like a real celebrity!"
Although there were all types of students in the Imperial Academy, over half of them were actually somewhat introverted. Just imagining being on a stage in front of hundreds of people was enough to send them shaking at their knees, not to mention being live on TV.
Knowing that thousands, if not millions, would be watching her, and still being able to act so calm and collected, they couldn't help but feel both envy and admiration for Emilia's level of confidence.
But that was only the thought process of some. For the rest, their 'admiration' stemmed from something completely different.
"I mean, yeah, but did you see her older sister? She was so HOT!"
"Ewww… trust you boys to focus on something like that when discussing something so important!"
"I mean, can you blame me? I was almost about to hump my screen, but my family was there, so…"
This was of course meant as a 'joke', but unfortunately some of the girls seemed to take it literally.
"Disgusting!"
"Ahahaha…"
Of course, most of it was just an exaggeration. Just because they said Emilia or Samantha looked good enough to make them lick their TV screen didn't mean any of them was stupid enough to actually do it, right?
Besides, everyone looked good on TV. Just look at those news reporters, or celebrities. The only reason they felt so hyped was because Emilia was someone they could see in person on a daily basis.
For the regular, unrelated people, her fame was still far from reaching the level of even a small show host, since most attributed 'her achievements' to the White Deer corporation.
If there was one person who was the happiest in their school right now, that would be Penny.
Forget about going around to beg people to join her 'Princess Emilia's Royal Knights' club, she now had far too many people begging her to accept their applications. Far more than the actual upper limit her club could handle!
Thinking about the hardships she had gone through, the hoops she had jumped, just to rope in a single member in a day, Penny felt as if she might burst into tears.
The growth of the club couldn't be solely attributed to Emilia's interview, though, because her popularity in school was already good. It also had to do with Penny's change of approach.
Penny had a small 'heart to heart' talk with her mother after watching Emilia's interview, and ended up confiding all the little details of her recent activities to her mother. And after listening to her advice, Penny realized a very important thing.
Why would anyone join her club?
There was simply no benefit in doing so. They could still admire Emilia the same even without joining her club. In fact, for any normal girl, being a member of such a stalker-like organization would only make her more averse to letting you approach her.
Of course, how could her glorious Princess Emilia be measured on the same scale as a normal girl? Penny may have only started following her because of her beauty, but her heart had only been won over after meeting her in person.
Her goddess not only did not disdain her presence, she even allowed her to linger around, answering some small tidbits of her curiosity, and letting her bask in her glow.
According to her mother, this should provide Penny with plenty of 'exclusive merch', such as 'Princess Emilia's forgotten hairclip', or even… 'Princess Emilia's lip balm that I never returned'!
As soon as she made this 'possibility' known, it instantly led to an explosion of perv—ahem, cultured students, joining her club.
Even though Penny was not good with terminology, she decided that titles were still necessary to indicate hierarchy. After all, how could devout worshippers such as herself be in the same category as those perverts who only wanted Emilia's candid photos or forgotten wearables?
That would have to wait for later though, because currently she had more pressing concerns, such as the limited member slots. She had already taken over fifty 'applications' after arriving at school, and this was still before the first class.
By the end of the day, Penny was sure she would have over ten times the number of applicants as she was allowed to have members.
Penny clenched her fists tightly. 'How can the cul—I mean, club, dedicated to our glorious princess have only twenty people? Unacceptable!'
It wasn't possible to get in touch with her mother right away to seek advice, nor was it possible to delay the matter by even a single moment. Penny couldn't bear losing even a single cultist because of her delayed response, after all!
So she could only rely on her trusty little sidekick, Dorothy.
After brainstorming over the issue with her reliable chubby friend and fellow cultist, Penny decided to form an unofficial 'honorary' membership for the students who couldn't be accepted into the 'official' core of their 'club'.
These 'honorary' members would also be kept up to date on their activities and included in their 'cult', but they would mostly have to depend on an online group chat since they couldn't come to their in-person official meetings.
Of course, Penny planned to hold some larger meetings including all the members from time to time, as well. Just to keep them from feeling too excluded.
"But Penny, which ones are you going to accept as the main twenty?"
Penny had already thought about it, of course, since this was pretty much all she thought about the entire day, anyway. "One position is already taken by one of Princess Emilia's close followers who agreed to join earlier, and I think I'll reserve a position for the other two as well. So that leaves only fifteen slots after counting the two of us, actually."
"Huh… then how about we do a random lottery—"
Just as she was about to continue, however, they heard a slight commotion from class B, and Penny suddenly had a bad feeling.