Chapter 201
『Translator: RainTL』
༺ A Perfect Plan (1) ༻
There were three weeks to go until the start of the Autumn Harvest Festival. Two weeks before that, which was in one week’s time from now, was the yearly exam.
Normally, students would have around two weeks to prepare for the Harvest Festival but…
“I’ll give up on the yearly.”
“...Are you serious?”
“Bro, I don’t think that’s a… good idea.”
Ren and Ron, who I called over to the sunroom of the dormitory for a strategy meeting, were dumbfounded by my strategy.
“There’s no way around it. I don’t want to disappoint them.”
“...You do know that you are reaping what you sow, right?” Ron said.
“Uhk…”
I couldn’t deny that anymore so instead, I yelled at him.
“Buddy! Don’t think you can fool me about what’s happening with you too!”
“Sorry? What have I done?”
“You know! You are quite popular among the freshmen girls, aren’t you?!”
Even from an objective standpoint, Ron was a handsome boy. He looked like a middle schooler on the outside, and each of his gestures must have been quite appealing to the girls. There were even some freshmen girls who wanted to talk to me because they were interested in Ron.
“I don’t stick my octopus legs out everywhere like you do though, Bro.*”
“Where did you learn to say such things? Who taught you these mean words?!”
“More importantly, Boss. There must be a reason you called us here, isn’t there?”
Ren asked while looking up at me with calmness in her eyes. She still looked like a 9-year-old on the outside, but she was far more mature and rational than Ron in many areas.
So why was it that she wasn’t growing physically to match her mental growth? For someone like me who was aware of her future appearance, it was a big unanswered question.
“Simply put, I have to win five contests to acquire the same number of golden ribbons.”
“Don’t you still get a ribbon by coming 3rd?”
“That’s a bronze ribbon though. Same for the 2nd place – they get a silver ribbon. They’ll be disappointed if they get a different color…”
“So that’s the mindset of someone with octopus legs, huh?”
“Uhk…”
Basically, all of the ribbons I earned had to be golden. I had to win 5 contests and give the same ribbon to all of them.
“Is there anyone else you have to give a ribbon to, Boss?”
“...For now, no.”
Just in case, I asked Lunia if she had any thoughts of participating in the Harvest Festival.
『There are errands to run during the Harvest Festival, and I would rather not add any more burden on my fiancé.』
『M, Ms. Lunia! No! Let me call you, Lunia-noonim…!』
『Plus, I am looking forward to beating my sister right as she is in the midst of her joy.』
『...Lunia-noonim?』
I saw a glimpse of impure intentions, but what was important was that Lunia wouldn’t be attending the Festival as a contestant.
“What about the Serpent Princess?”
“Miruam has to run a festival at the royal capital so she’s out! The princesses each have their duties, after all!”
Therefore, all I had to take care of were Marie, Alicia, Hua Ran, Estelle, and Master. Saying, “All I had to take care of,” for five of them was a bit funny though.
I opened up the Festival pamphlet that had the dates of various events and all the contests.
“This is the list of contests that will be taking place during the Festival. They will start accepting participants from the day after the yearly exam, and for some of them, you can even join on the day of.”
“Looks like there are some contests with prizes and no ribbons.”
“The Tournament is one of the main examples. There are a lot of interesting events apart from that. Ah, maybe you guys should join the Design Contest. There is a senior called Elza in the grade above me who likes making clothes, and she wanted to have you guys as her model.”
“How about you stop meeting more girls?”
“...She’s just a friend.”
It seemed that the misunderstandings about me were running deep. She and I were just friends who sometimes went to the cafe, had meals, and went shopping together.
“Kuhum…! Anyway, I picked the five contests that I would be joining.”
I pointed at the events that had been circled with a colored pencil, which Ren and Ron looked at with intrigue.
“Hunting Contest, Food Sales Contest and… the Auction Contest?”
“The Auction Contest is basically a popularity contest, and it’s one of the things with a high chance of me winning so I have to do it.”
“Anyway, apart from that is the Mock Trial Contest… which I can understand because you are a JP, but… Magic Exhibition? I don’t really understand the last one.”
“Yeah, bro. You are not a mage.”
“There is a way around it. Anyway, the reason I called you guys is to ask for help during the Hunting Contest.”
“The Hunting Contest?”
They tilted their heads not knowing how overpowered they would be in this Hunting Contest.
“The contest is literally about hunting. There will be unique demonic beasts scattered intentionally across the Hunting Grounds and you have to compete against others by the number of points.”
“You can’t join this contest as a group though?”
Right. The Hunting Contest indeed only allowed 1 person entries. ‘1 person’, that is.
“In the Hunting Contest, you can use professional hunting dogs.”
“...”
“...”
The two of them turned stiff over time as they looked at each other and back at me. I drove in the final nail.
“Me, hunter. You, hunting dogs.”
“Oh wow.”
“Boss. Is that how you thought of us…”
“I do know that this is a little questionable! And I do feel very sorry! But no matter how I think about it, this is the best solution left for me!”
Ren and Ron were golden wolves – in other words, they were the best innate hunting dogs. If they were to beastify into their golden wolf forms, then no other hunting dogs would dare reach their level!
“Of course, I’m not asking for your favors for free. I will do anything you want! So please, just this once! Help me out just this once!”
“...How about you ask Doggo for help?”
“He told me to f off.”
Doggo was the first one I went to.
That little guy…! All he does these days is wear loads of branded clothes and hit on the female dogs around the town! He doesn’t know anything about being filial to his parents!
“...What do you think, Ren?”
After some thought, Ron asked Ren, showing that he was willing to follow her opinion, and Ren came to a conclusion in a bit.
“Alright. I’ll help you.”
“Ohh, Ren…! My little cutey!”
“You’ve done a lot for us, after all.”
Yes! With this, the Hunting Contest will be mine!
“Do you have plans for the other contests too?”
“Fufu, of course. I have a perfect plan for all of them.”
“...Most of your plans fall short in strange areas though.”
“I guess that’s true if you put it that way but…”
The only downside Ren had was that she was too negative! She ought to be more positive like me.
“By the way, Senior Hua Ran has two personalities, right? Shouldn’t you give her two ribbons?”
“...”
“...”
That’s a horrifying conjecture. No way right…
“No. It can’t be. She’ll… understand.”
She… will, right?
Think positively! Think positively!
***
Ever since the Mound incident last time, a change had struck the slave mages. Some mages were now stationed at the Korin Guardians office.
It was a system that allowed the elite prisoners of each cult to take a breather.
Only 5 from each cult, for a total of 35, were allowed to come outside, and it was a benefit that was only granted to less than a tenth of all the slave mages combined.
It was nothing compared to their glorious days at the Tower of Mages, but everything was subjective. The mages who were finally allowed to breathe in fresh air without having to do the horrendous salt mine work did not want to give up this part of their life.
“You guys have to make the exhibition work for this Magic Exhibition Contest.”
As a result, they had no choice but to obey Korin’s commands.
“For the… Exhibition Contest of this festival, is it?”
Professor Zollin of the Red Cult tilted his head at Korin, who suddenly blurted that out after gathering all the mages into one place.
“Umm… we don’t have enough time. There’s only three weeks until the Harvest Festival…”
“You can’t do it? Oh right. That’s understandable.”
Seeing him back down like that made Zollin anxious because he had already experienced many times that this lunatic had a different thought process from others.
“I’m sure there are some that will be willing to do it. Let’s see… I wonder who I should choose from the list of office mage applicants—”
“W, we can do it!”
“Please let us do it. Three weeks! No, even two weeks will be enough!”
“I haven’t even told you about the topic yet. Well, it still makes me glad to see how enthusiastic my guild members are!”
Korin said while casually tapping on the shoulder of the middle-aged mage who looked twice, at the very least, his age. Zollin was deeply humiliated by it but was smart enough to hide it.
No one would know how hard he had to work to gain the right to be stationed here. He definitely did not want to go back to the days of baking salt day in and day out until sunset!
“Our goal is the grand prize of the Magic Exhibition Contest! I don’t care about the means, but we need to acquire the golden ribbon.”
“Mhmm… It won’t be easy to achieve that with anything normal.”
“I have everything planned out already.”
Korin opened up the plan he had drafted.
“Hohh… this is!”
“How revolutionary. What an idea!”
The mages responded positively. Korin gave them an idea from Earth, which they could re-enact through the power of magic. The resulting item was one that would certainly gain the spotlight in the Exhibition Contest.
Besides, it wasn’t hard for the mages to understand the principle and structure of the design.
Although they were nothing more than slaves now, they had been and still were the top intellectuals of this world. The group was full of elites, and therefore analyzing a rather elementary design of a person from modern Earth was not too difficult.
“But this structure. Although it is mindblowing, it is hard to imagine how we can make this possible.”
“I am not sure if our metallurgy technique can catch up to this idea. Theoretically, we would need thousands of pumps to be done in a single minute.”
They agreed that it was a great idea, and in fact, there was something similar in existence already, and this was just a smaller and more compact version of it.
The problem, however, was this – how were they supposed to create this revolutionary item?
“So how do we make this?” one of the mages asked.
“Why are you asking me?” Korin replied.
“Hnn?”
“Huh?”
All the mages, who had been in admiration for his revolutionary idea, turned to him at once but Korin simply shrugged his shoulders in response.
“That’s something for you to work out from now on.”
This fucker…
The mages barely held their tongues in place.
***
There were a total of five contests that I had to compete in during the Autumn Harvest Festival.
The first of them was the Hunting Contest.
So long as I had the best partners, Ren and Ron, the Hunting Contest was going to be a no-brainer. Besides, I also had the magic spear Gae Derg, which excelled in hunting beasts.
The second of them was the Magic Exhibition Contest.
Although it was going to be submitted under the name Korin Lork, the mages of the Tower were the ones who would be making it.
I just gave them a rough idea and told them to make it, but victory was guaranteed as long as they could make something basic. I knew that because Park Sihu had won this contest last year with the same idea.
In the first place, the Magic Exhibition Contest was designed for the player to be able to win with relative ease. None of the other contestants made anything grandiose.
I guess Professor Deina would be the only other person with a notable project? She might get the second-place prize or something.
Normally, because the Tower of Mages was still around during this time of the scenario, they were the ones who normally grabbed all the prizes related to magic. If the player didn’t join the contest, they would have been the ones winning it.
The thing about the Magic Exhibition Contest was that it was a place to show off your potential and future possibilities, instead of creating something perfect. There was no need to create the finished product to win it.
Apart from the Hunting Contest and the Magic Exhibition Contest, there were three others. The Auction Contest, the Food Sales Contest, and the Mock Trial Contest.
The Auction Contest was like a popularity auction, where knights and mages put themselves up as the prize and had a meal with the highest bidder.
The money used in the auction would be used for the poor, and the prices never went over the top, so it was easy to win even with a little bit of money.
I was going to put myself up for auction and I was going to buy myself; of course through another person.
Five gold coins should be enough. There’s no way people would be stupid enough to spend more than that for a single meal, right?
I guess I will stop Marie from going to the auction though, just in case.
Everything related to money would become a mess with her in the fray, and I wasn’t going to leave any rooms open for surprise anymore!
With that out of the way, the remaining two contests to worry about were the Food Sales Contest and the Mock Trial. The Food Sales Contest was quite literally a contest where students put up food stalls and competed for profit. This should be an easy win for me, just like the last iteration.
And last but not least was the Mock Trial Contest.
This was something I decided to attend after studying as a Justice of the Peace.
It was quite an interesting event where Professor Edgar Linton would toss out difficult conundrums for a mock trial between lawyers and prosecutors.
The other reason why I chose this contest as the final one, was because I wasn’t confident in winning the other contests as much as the Mock Trial Contest.
I couldn’t attend the [Crossdressing Contest] and stuff, right?
Ah, actually, we did do it in the last iteration, but it was Park Sihu and not me.
He won because as the player, he looked quite feminine yet handsome.
Besides, even the cross-dressing contest was just a popularity poll. Speaking from my experience as the one who dressed Park Sihu, I could say that winning the contest wasn’t that difficult.
There aren’t many proper contestants and the prizes are decent but… I ain’t doing it! Never in my life!
I wasn’t crazy. There was no way I would join the crossdressing contest and embarrass myself like that!
『Sihu. Trust me, you can do it, okay? To be honest with you, you look really pretty. So just take that in as a fact and be confident. We can do it!』
…Hmm, I suddenly feel like a piece of trash for saying that in the last iteration.
But seriously, crossdressing did suit Park Sihu quite well. Even though he swore every second sentence and had zero manners, he looked like an angel when dressed like a girl!
It was an easy win so why wouldn’t he do it? Right? It was only natural that I ended up thinking that way.
As opposed to that, it was impossible that I would look good dressed like a girl. Look at me – these awesome biceps and triceps; the fruition of working out!
Crossdressing would only work for feminine-looking guys like Park Sihu and Ron, and it would be horrible for a person like me.
“Maybe I should ask Ron to do it.”
It would be a sure win if Ron were to do it. He didn’t even need to wear makeup. He looked the same as Ren except for the flat chest, so as long as we put him in a dress…
……
…
“Uwek. No. Were you… looking at me like that, bro?”
“What are you thinking, Boss? How can you ask him for something like that!”
“...Wait, you’re making me look like a piece of trash now! I’m telling you; the prize is pretty good, so let’s halve it between us!”
“Why would we halve it!? Even if we were doing it, we would have to take the whole thing!”
Tch. As expected of Ren, she was clever despite her childish appearance.
It seemed that I had no choice but to give up on this round’s Crossdressing Contest.