novelraw Chapter 174
Chapter 174
Chapter 174
I took Evangeline and headed for the first floor of the Academy, which had been turned into the festival grounds. At first we walked side by side holding hands, but since there was such a big height difference between us, her arm looked like it hurt.
Suddenly she pulled her hand away and, stretching out her cute little arms toward me, started bouncing up and down.
“Horsey! Horsey~!”
My head was apparently her personal seat.
But since she was cute, I let it slide.
I grabbed Evangeline under the arms and put her on my shoulder.
Once she had claimed her desired spot, she giggled with delight, then pointed with a finger at one place and shouted.
“Over there! Let’s go over there!”
“All right, all right.”
The place Evangeline pointed to was the stage set up near the main lobby. It was where the singers invited by the Student Council performed and where various talent-show events were held.
Current time: 10:00 a.m.
Guests were starting to gather and the festival was about to begin in earnest. On the stage at that time were the three academy principals, the Academy administration, and the whole Student Council… and, of course, Iri was there.
Even while Raina was on a date with Silence, she seemed to be fulfilling her duties faithfully as Student Council President.
After the principals from government, corporations, and the private sector finished their speeches in a relatively solemn atmosphere, it was Iri’s turn.
The moment she grabbed the microphone, the mood lightened instantly and the students began to get excited. Some shouted and whistled.
-Waaaaaa!
-So pretty~!
-President!!
-Date meee!!
Who the hell was that last kid.
Damn. If that guy had kept his voice out for one more second I would have caught the culprit with a high-sensitivity biometric sensor module, but he cut it off at the perfect moment and I couldn’t trace him.
Just you wait, bastard.
I would find you and I would kill you.
I was spewing hostility as if I were facing the kidnapper taking a daughter away, when Iri tapped the microphone to calm the crowd.
She’d only been Student Council President for a short while, but she looked quite natural. I felt quietly proud of how she was steadily growing, even though she’d somehow taken on a position that didn’t match the original story.
“Iri is so pretty…!”
Evangeline whispered into my ear and made a fuss. Yeah, it was only you who noticed that Iri was really pretty.
It had already been more than half a year since I’d come to this world, and I still didn’t really understand what people here considered a ‘beauty.’
People like Nana and Serena certainly fit the standard of beauty, but on TV, androgynous witch-like types were appearing as popular entertainers.
Meanwhile, Iri was treated like an ordinary girl for her looks, which I couldn’t quite understand. Maybe life simply never went the way you expected.
Lost in that thought—
“Iri looks prettier than usual.”
“Really?”
“She does. Like a hundred times prettier!”
At Evangeline’s words I looked again closely, and only then did I notice that Iri had put on light makeup unlike usual. It was natural makeup so subtle you could hardly notice it unless you looked carefully, but even that made her look noticeably lovely.
That I could tell Iri had worn makeup from this distance. Maybe even little Evangeline was a girl after all. I found it a bit impressive.
‘She dressed up a bit for the festival.’
Maybe she’d taken an interest after Serena had done her makeup back at West Skyline University. In the original, she only started to show interest after falling for the protagonist, but—
[……I hereby declare the opening of the 1st Trinity Academy ‘Dawn Light Festival’!]
Not long after, Iri declared into the microphone. At the same time, the excited students’ cheers filled the performance hall.
There were quite a few love-calls for Iri mixed into the cheers, suggesting the Student Council President’s approval ratings weren’t bad. After all, it hadn’t been long since she took office and she’d held such a grand festival—she must be a hero to them.
Anyway.
With Iri’s declaration, the festival officially began.
Our Trinity Academy’s festival was quite different from the West Skyline University one I’d been to previously.
West Skyline felt like various departments and clubs had taken the lead opening booths and the festival felt like it was being run ‘by the students themselves,’ albeit with somewhat rough craftwork.
The Academy’s ‘Dawn Light Festival,’ on the other hand, felt like a professional theme park, with companies selected by the Student Council opening a large number of booths.
‘There aren’t really clubs at the Academy, so it was probably unavoidable.’
This year was the first festival, and if they’d suddenly told the students, ‘You go prepare the festival yourselves,’ nothing decent would have come out.
We had no choice but to spend a little more of the budget to attract external vendors, but fortunately the overall quality of the festival seemed to have improved because of it.
The food and goods on sale were better, and there were many more attractions and things to enjoy than Serena’s university had.
‘Just be careful that it doesn’t lead to corruption later and it might not be bad.’
It was fine while Iri was Student Council President, but a future council might collude with vendors. I could advise Iri later about systems to prevent that.
Lost in thought, I suddenly realized something.
Ah, I was quite the workaholic myself.
I had chosen this body because I didn’t want to work, but when I came to my senses I was working harder than anyone—
“Aaron! Aaron! Look at that!”
“Hm?”
At that moment Evangeline tapped my head and pointed. Following where the little princess was pointing, a familiar face came into view.
It was none other than Maria.
I had thought she would be working in the Foundation office, but she had come down to enjoy the festival too.
For employees of sponsor companies with offices at the Academy, today’s festival was an event to escape a boring routine.
But...
‘Why… is she dressed like that…?’
Her clothes were the women’s suit she usually wore, but she had something strange covering her face. Precisely, novelty round glasses with a fake mustache attached.
On top of that, a magical-girl frill on her head.
She was even holding a half-bitten hot dog bought from a street stall in one hand. With the other hand she was carefully picking out a toy magic wand for girls that was on display.
“…….”
Uh… right…
The image of ‘perfect secretary Maria’ in my head had just shattered. But I decided to turn a blind eye with a broad heart.
Well, Maria was human too; it wasn’t strange for her to get carried away in the festival atmosphere for a bit.
As I turned my head to ignore it and move on—
Our eyes met.
Apparently the biometric sensor module she had equipped had activated. Normally she would have noticed a bit earlier, but she’d been so absorbed in choosing the wand that her recognition was delayed.
“……”
“……”
“……”
“……”
Say something, Maria.
The surroundings were certainly noisy, but for some reason it felt as if only this spot had fallen eerily quiet. After an eternity-like five seconds of silence, she moved away with an awkward, malfunctioning-android sort of motion.
She was clearly attempting the “you must have the wrong person” strategy. It felt a bit contrived, but I didn’t have the stomach to handle this awkward atmosphere, so I let it go.
All right, today was as if nothing had happened.
Ah… nothing happened…!! (blood gushing)
“……Let’s go somewhere else.”
“Hm? Why aren’t you wandering together? Surely it’d be more fun if we—”
“Evangeline.”
“Yes?”
“Were you planning to kill Maria…?”
A child’s innocent straightforwardness sometimes manifested as a kind of cruelty. I trembled thinking this might be one of those moments. Evangeline… a scary child….
That aside.
Even after seeing Maria in such a shocking state, Evangeline’s attitude of indifference struck me as odd.
When I asked her about it, she answered,
“Have you ever seen Maria’s wardrobe?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“I found it once while playing hide-and-seek. There’s a hidden button in that wardrobe. If you press it, a secret room pops out, and in there are dozens of magic wands like the one Maria was holding—”
“Stop. Stop.”
I decided not to dig any further for Maria’s sake. I pretended I hadn’t heard and hurriedly moved on.
After that, I wandered all over the festival grounds with Evangeline on my shoulder. Along the way I ran into quite a few twists and turns.
First, the students.
The students who recognized me as Aaron were puzzled by the presence of “Evangeline” perched on my head.
-Isn’t that Chairman Stingray?
-Is that his daughter on his head?
-I thought the Chairman wasn’t married.
-Whoa. No way…!
I had a feeling strange rumors about me would start spreading soon. Well, they’d probably die down quickly, so no need to worry.
Second, Silence and Raina.
Even though the festival grounds were fairly large, I kept running into the two of them on their date.
Raina gripped Silence’s wrist with the force she used to hold a minigun handle, wearing a face full of unbounded happiness, and Silence looked half-dead as he was dragged along by her.
Each time, Silence wrote “HELP ME” across his LED mask and sent the message to me… but I ignored it.
It just looked more fun to let it be.
Third, Evangeline.
She was very curious for her age, and she nagged me with “let’s go!” and “buy it for me!” about anything that sparked her interest.
That was fine up to a point.
Festivals were meant to be enjoyed like that, and my wallet was the most accommodating thing in the world, so I could indulge her little whims.
The trouble started at the ball-throwing game.
“Why, why won’t it hit!”
The game was about throwing a ball to knock blocks off a shelf to score points. But Evangeline’s throws kept flying wildly past the target.
I checked to see if the owner had rigged something, but that wasn’t it. She was just terribly clumsy at throwing.
The owner, feeling a bit sorry, offered to give the largest stuffed toy in the shop for free, but that just stirred Evangeline’s competitive spirit.
“It only counts if I do it myself!”
With tears welling up, she kept throwing the balls. It was extremely cute, but I had to start the main “scenario” in the afternoon, so I couldn’t hang around all day.
What should I do?
Just as I was thinking of a way to soothe her and lead her away—
“Hey!”
Kwarrrrrr—!
Someone at the next booth had toppled the blocks Evangeline had been aiming for. The culprits were two boys around Evangeline’s age, and Evangeline looked like a dog chasing a chicken.
“Ah, Aaron… that—!”
“Don’t cry. Things like that happen.”
Evangeline pointed at the toppled blocks as if wronged, but the blocks didn’t belong to anyone in particular, and indulging every tantrum would make her bratty.
As I knelt and stroked her head to comfort her—
“Kya hahaha!”
“You really can’t throw!”
The two little boys began to jeer. Judging by their age they looked like kids who had just started elementary school, probably wandering the festival after slipping away from their guardians.
I was going to brush it off as typical childhood mischief, but when I saw Evangeline’s face on the verge of tears, something inside me snapped.
At the same time my mouth started moving on its own.
“Evangeline. Try throwing again.”
“B-but—”
“It’ll be fine.”
I handed her another ball and smiled.
“Shouldn’t we teach those brats a lesson?”