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Chapter 285

“Uh, excuse me, teacher.”

“I’m not a teacher, but yes. Do you have more to say, Reinhart?”

‘Please don’t say my name out loud! I’m somewhat famous, and someone might recognize my name!’

There were students all around me registering for various contests, but I was the only one standing at the empty cross-dressing contest registration desk.

The other kids were casting suspicious glances at me.

—Oh, look at him... He must be entering that contest.

—Unbelievable.

—This is big news!

—He must be embarrassed. That’s why he came with a hood on. But won’t you have to show your face during the contest anyway?

They were staring at me with a very specific sort of look...

“Uh, you know, about the cross-dressing contest... Could you keep my identity, uh, a secret...?”

“Oh, you mean you want to enter the cross-dressing contest but keep your identity a secret?”

‘Don’t say it so loudly!’

The receptionist smiled kindly, as if she understood perfectly.

“Please refer to this pamphlet for detailed contest information, Rein... Ah. Ahem.”

‘Please don’t look at me like that... Is there anyone else like me entering the contest...? Probably not, but I have a good reason!’

Since the reward of Achievement Points had not been enough to entice me, that candy vendor jerk decided to change the reward to a 5-point increase in my mana. How could I refuse that?

After completing the registration, I hurriedly left the main headquarters of the Temple, hoping no one would see me.

“Damn it... Damn it...” I muttered to myself as I hastened away, worried that someone might recognize me.

‘This is so messed up. I can’t believe this is happening. It’s so messed up!’

Fortunately, I didn’t run into any familiar faces.

***

If it became known that I was participating in the cross-dressing contest, I would be finished.

People would ask me “Why in the world did you enter that contest?” and I wouldn’t have any good excuse to say.

If word got out that I had entered after calling everyone who entered or watched such contests a pervert, it would be a disaster.

I would be committing social suicide.

I could see it already. “I didn’t know you were into... that kind of thing...”

Ellen, Harriet, Olivia, Vertus, Charlotte... Everyone who knew me would be shocked.

However, there was no way I would get caught. I had asked for my identity to be kept secret, and they would introduce me as “Anonymous Cross-Dressing Participant 1” or some such. It was even written in the participant pamphlet.

[If a participant requests identity protection, the organizers will definitely guarantee confidentiality.]

The organizers were well-prepared, and were willing to keep the identities of any participants secret, even someone with a sinister hobby.

Still, I planned to change my facial appearance with the ring. If I got caught later on, I could just say that my makeup was too good... But ideally, I wouldn’t get caught at all.

Since I would be participating with a different face, no one would recognize the anonymous cross-dresser as Reinhart. Besides, there was no reason for any of the Royal Class kids to come and watch the cross-dressing contest.

As long as the host didn’t suddenly announce, “Now, here is Reinhart, a first-year student from the Royal Class!” I would never get caught. I just needed to be careful of weirdos like Connor Lint.

Might it be better to threaten to kill him if he went to watch the contest? No... saying something like that might make him suspect that I was participating.

A 5-point increase in mana and enhanced magic resistance... It was a huge step towards Mana Domination, and I had a feeling I knew why the rewards had been increased.

It was ultimately a good thing, and I had a very high chance of winning. But why couldn’t I be happy about it?

Why did this candy vendor always make me go through such nonsense when he wanted to give me something? Why couldn’t he just give it to me for free? Why was the reward always greater when I had to endure humiliation instead of risking my life in battle?

“Next, the preliminary match between Reinhart from the Royal Class, first year, A-11, and Oranken von Istua from Dardia Class, first year, C-32, will begin. Both students, please take your positions.”

My mental state was so shaken that I couldn’t even focus on the situation in front of me. It was the preliminary round of the first-year tournament to select the finalists. Matches were being hosted all around the massive preliminary arena.

I couldn’t see my opponent’s weapon or face clearly as I was too agitated. I felt like I was going to lose my mind.

“...”

My opponent seemed quite intimidated by the fact that I was from the Royal Class.

“Begin.”

At the referee’s signal, I immediately tossed aside my training sword and charged at him. It did not feel acceptable to be wielding a sword in my state.

I went in with my fists.

I had just heard his name, but I had already forgotten it.

‘Sorry, nameless friend.’

Whack!

“Ugh!”

“Reinhart wins!”

‘Anyone who meets me today should consider themselves unlucky! I’m very sensitive today!’

***

Thud!

.

.

Whack!

.

.

Wham!

.

.

Thud!

A monster was rampaging through the location where the Group C preliminaries were being held.

“Who... who is that guy...?”

“They say he’s from the Royal Class...”

He had no weapons. No matter if his opponent had a sword, a club, or a spear, he would charge at them with such speed that it was hard to follow with the eyes, disarm them, knock them down, or deliver a knee strike to the abdomen.

He ended each match in a single move.

Weapons were fundamentally used to establish reach, and the combatant with an advantage in reach usually held the upper hand. Therefore, in a fight that involved weapons, it was obvious that wielding a sword was more advantageous than bare hands, and using a spear was more advantageous than a sword.

However, this monster embraced the overwhelming penalty of being unarmed, and in a fight in which a single effective hit would result in a loss, he continuously charged in and subdued each opponent without giving them a chance to attack.

“He may be from the Royal Class, but he’s still a first-year like us...”

“They say he’s famous even in the Royal Class.”

Like most students, they looked up to both the Royal Class and the now-defunct Orbis Class. The Orbis Class wasn’t a big target of jealousy; those in it had earned their place through effort. However, there was a different perception when it came to the Royal Class.

Talent—students were admitted into that class solely based on that.

Therefore, they were always looked upon with jealousy and envy, even if there was a healthy amount of admiration mixed in.

However, watching this monster who finished every fight in five seconds with a perpetually grim expression, as if something was deeply bothering him, changed their perception.

Here was someone with an overwhelming physical ability that rendered all the weapons training they had undergone so far meaningless.

‘Is this what the Royal Class is truly like? What have we been learning all this time? What have I been training so hard for?’

The existence of the Royal Class felt unfair, but seeing the skills that they possessed with their own eyes made these ordinary students doubt themselves.

What was the point of aspiring to be a knight or specializing in close combat? There was no way they could stand on the same level as such a monster.

Though they hated to admit it, they had to accept it in the end.

If he was that good, it was only right to treat him that way.

If these monsters who possessed skills so far beyond the mortal realm existed, then it was only natural for the empire to give them special treatment.

“... I-I’m going to forfeit. How can I defeat someone like that?”

Many students forfeited without even fighting. Even if he wasn’t their immediate opponent, if they were in Group C, they would eventually have to fight that monster.

***

Group C—that was my preliminary group.

Participants were split into groups for the preliminary rounds. Participants in each group were pitted against each other in a tournament format, and the final winner of each group advanced to the finals.

There were a total of thirty-two groups. The preliminaries for these thirty-two groups would be held over the weekend, and thirty-two finalists would emerge..

I fought wherever I was told to, advancing through the preliminary rounds.

Before I knew it...

“... The final opponent has forfeited his match. The winner of Group C is Reinhart, A-11 from the Royal Class.”

I stood there, looking on as the guy who couldn’t even think of fighting me walked away from the match area. Only then did I look around.

All the students who had been eliminated in the preliminaries were staring at me as if I were some kind of monster. I checked my state—no sweat, no injuries.

So, this was the distance between myself and the other students in the arena, who were looking at me with a sense of awe.

‘Is this what distance means?’

I had once said that there were individuals in the Royal Class who were no different from the general student population. In the end, though, this experience had proved to me that the Royal Class was a place for those with talents and skills far beyond those of the general class population.

Even Erhi de Raffaeli, whom I dismissed as hopeless and who lived in self-pity, would have easily subdued these guys if he participated in these preliminaries.

I saw the sense of distance in their eyes.

These guys were very far away from me.

I was distant from them.

I knew that gaze. I knew what that gaze meant.

It was the same gaze I sometimes had when I looked at Ellen.

At some point, I had become someone whom others looked at with that gaze, rather than being the one who looked at others that way.

The eyes of these students were filled with this sense of distance.

They could not even acknowledge me as a human being similar to them. They saw me as a being of a different dimension.

I was no longer the same as them. Not now, not ever.

***

I emerged at the top of Group C and easily secured a spot in the finals.

The finalists would be divided into four groups, A, B, C, and D, with eight participants each. The winner of one group would be pitted against the winner of another in the semifinals, and the two participants that remained after the semifinals would compete for the championship trophy.

I hadn’t encountered any ex-students from the Orbis Class or Ludwig in the preliminaries.

The organizers had probably been mindful to keep each group relatively balanced. They wouldn’t have made the foolish mistake of putting all the strong contenders in the same group.

After all, this tournament was one of the standout events of the festival.

It was unlikely for the strongest contenders to be placed in the same group for the finals either. That probably meant that I wouldn’t meet Ludwig or any ex-Orbis Class participants in the group stages of the finals.

If anyone from the now-defunct Orbis Class was participating, it would likely be A-1, Gladen Amorel.

If events had followed their original path, he would have beaten Ludwig but lost to Ellen in the finals, emerging as the runner-up. I wondered if he had entered.

If he did, could I defeat him?

If my Mana Reinforcement worked properly, I felt like I could take him on.

I would definitely beat Ludwig, but I would have to take Gladen Amorel seriously.

The finals for each grade-level tournament were to be held on Monday and Tuesday. The group matches for the finals were scheduled for Monday, and the semifinals, finals, and ranking matches would be on Tuesday.

On Wednesday... was the cross-dressing contest.

On Friday, the final day of the festival, the Mister and Miss Temple Contests and the Open Tournament finals would be held.

The Open Tournament was actually the biggest attraction, and the preliminaries were also being held on the same days as the other tournaments.

The winners of the grade-level tournaments would be decided on Tuesday, and the Open Tournament finals would begin on Thursday.

I was only thinking of participating.

I wondered how Harriet was doing. She would be going through her preliminary rounds as well.

I had easily emerged victorious in my group because my opponents were first-year students, but it wouldn’t be surprising if Harriet was eliminated in the group stage of the Open Tournament, since most of the participants were upperclassmen. If she didn’t make it to the finals, she might feel hurt.

Contrary to my expectations...

“I won,” Harriet said with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders.

I stared blankly at her. “How?”

“What do you mean, ‘how’? I won all my matches, so I won.”

‘How on earth did she do it? Did Harriet actually manage to defeat upperclassmen in close combat and win her group?’

Harriet stuck out her tongue, saying she wouldn’t tell me, and quickly left the dormitory. She seemed to be heading to the Magic Research Club estate.

Could she have changed that much in just a few days?

No, it wasn’t that.

I remembered what she’d said before.

“I just wanted to try harder.”

Harriet had been striving to become stronger for a long time. Even before she said those words to me, she had been upset about not being able to go to the Dark Land with us.

Harriet had been continuously working hard to become a competent mage. More precisely, she had been working hard to get used to fighting. This had to be the result of her efforts.

‘By the way, did she come to the dormitory just to brag about winning her group preliminaries to me?

‘Why is she so cute?’

***

It was Sunday.

“... Your Highness, I think I misheard you.”

“You heard me correctly...”

“...”

I had said many shocking things to Eleris before, but it seemed that, this time, even Eleris couldn’t accept what I was saying.

I understood her. I really did.

“You need a dress...?” Eleris asked.

“That’s right...”

It would be even weirder if she was okay with it.

The cross-dressing contest... I’d been coerced into participating, but I couldn’t just show up without any preparation.

I needed clothes. I would also need a wig. Although I could use Sarkegar’s ring to grow my hair long, I still needed a wig.

If it were Riana, she might be horrified at the thought of me doing something so bizarre, but she would probably laugh and have fun dressing me up. But of course, I couldn’t choose that option.

The thought of being teased by her for life, and how I would have to face Ellen and Cliffman, made me want to strangle myself.

Unfortunately, I had no fashion sense.

And so, the only person I could confide in and complain to was Eleris.

‘Pick out a dress for me. Please!’

“A cross-dressing contest... you say...” Eleris muttered.

“... It’s a long story... but yes.”

Eleris’s lips quivered. “Why on earth... would you do that?”

Her gaze said it all. ‘I know my kid was a bit off... but now he’s become even stranger...’

“Look, it’s really important and necessary for me. It’s hard to explain in detail.”

“... Is it related to the future?”

“Well, you could say that...”

To be precise, it was related to my personal growth.

Eleris was still confused.

“Um... I can’t possibly understand how... Your Highness cross-dressing is somehow connected to your preparations for the future...”

The utter incredulity in her eyes was hard to bear.

‘Eleris... Trust me... I’m a thousand times more distressed than you are!’

“Still, Your Highness must have a plan.”

I did have a plan...

A ridiculous plan in which some jerk promised to boost my stats if I won the cross-dressing contest...

“Well... Um... Good luck, Your Highness.”

Eleris could see that I was dying inside as well, and seemed to understand that I wasn’t thrilled about this either. She patted my shoulder as I sank deeper into despair.

Indeed, Eleris was the only one who understood my feelings.