Now that I think about it, this outing really was a rest chapter, wasn’t it?’
It was as if my worries about the Original Author tossing plausibility to the wind and spawning another Demonic Realm were all for nothing.
Even while we left the teahouse, took four-cut photos, and rolled bowling balls to work up an appetite before dinnertime.
Not a single Demonic Realm appeared, nor did anything resembling an incident occur.
For reference, ‘bowling’ itself is a hobby that fits the world view.
They say bowling was already popular and widespread in real medieval and early modern Europe. And the period when bowling was introduced goes back even further than that.
Perhaps that’s why, here too, bowling has firmly established itself as one of the social sports enjoyed by nobles.
However, the setting was that commoners rarely enjoyed it because they were too busy trying to make a living.
Pret, who had many tricks involving balls, claimed he learned bowling as part of his circus training.
‘As for Vigdis, it seems she first experienced it last semester while hanging out with Hailga…!’
This was because Count Shalbrady didn’t look favorably upon his daughter enjoying active pastimes.
It’s common for most nobles to learn all the basic social sports, including bowling.
After all, that way, when an opportunity to join a good social gathering arises, they can seize it without letting it slip by.
Though for Karbaldr, a scion of a Ducal House, such ‘opportunities’ weren’t really necessary.
Given Karbaldr’s personality, I think he probably did learn bowling.
Because being the only one who couldn’t do something everyone else could would be a blow to his pride.
And because he wanted to be a perfect, proud son to his father.
‘Still, if Pret hadn’t been here, I would’ve just honestly said I’d never learned it because I wasn’t interested…’
Fortunately, pretending I’d learned bowling was easy.
I’d never bowled even once, but it was possible to carefully observe others’ postures and imitate them.
Of course, just because you copy someone’s form doesn’t mean you can copy their skill, so the ball kept ending up in the gutter.
‘I passed it off as my skill not showing because it’d been so long, so no one should’ve suspected anything!’
I’m even more confident of that since I managed to get a lucky strike in the middle.
“That was fun, right?”
As we left the bowling alley and faced the darkened streets.
Reysir approached me with the above remark, subtly trying to drape his arm around my shoulder.
To be honest, if I were to state my true feelings here, I’d agree that it was fun.
Especially the moment I succeeded in getting a strike—it felt thrilling.
I barely managed to hold back a cheer by hugging Yor and sharing the joy.
‘But that’s that, and the shoulder-hug is another matter entirely!’
As I thought this….
No, by the time I had this thought, I’d already instinctively dodged Reysir’s arm.
‘It seems I simply have no good memories associated with others putting their arms on my shoulders…’
Reysir is extremely playful, but he doesn’t play rough with me.
So I know there’s no chance he’d suddenly put strength into his arm, put me in a headlock, and squeeze the breath out of me.
But the very fact that such a thought comes to mind immediately is the problem in itself.
“…Hmph!”
Before Reysir could question my reaction.
I shot him a look that said don’t even try such absurd things, then wrapped Yor’s long body around my neck like a scarf.
The sensation of cool scales that couldn’t possibly belong to a human touched my neck, and it gave me a strange sense of relief.
“Honestly, you’ve gotta appreciate a cold shoulder when you see one.”
The Protagonist of Another Novel snickered and muttered such nonsense.
Which let me know I’d successfully gotten through without arousing any suspicion.
I thought it was a good thing I’d been acting cold toward him all along.
“Enough nonsense. Just walk.”
“Alright, alright. Let’s hurry up and go eat dinner!”
As I mentioned at the start of this chapter, no incidents worth mentioning occurred today.
However, I couldn’t boldly skip over the dinner scene.
Because an event worth addressing in an academy story was brought up.
“Come to think of it, since the academy closed, didn’t the whole academic schedule get pushed back a week? So is the festival also opening later than planned? I was really looking forward to it.”
“The festival period remains unchanged. I know full well that many people deliberately left their schedules open to see the festival that day, so there’s no way I can change the festival period.”
In response to Pret’s question, Fjodra answered like so and popped a small-cut piece of steak into her mouth.
I could see a faint smile spreading at the corners of her lips.
It was a reaction she could afford because, since it was obvious she’d be the one paying for dinner anyway, I’d picked a high-end restaurant that would suit her palate.
Then again, the rest of us had eaten so much that we had to move our bodies diligently to digest it.
Fjodra, on the other hand, had only eaten one bowl of salad for brunch and drunk a cup of black tea at the teahouse.
I don’t know for sure, but she must have been quite hungry.
It was only natural for a smile to bloom on her face now that she could finally eat satisfying food.
“Ah! That’s true! Since Valhalla Academy’s festival is held across this entire Commercial District, it’s practically a city-scale festival. There’s no way they could tell all those countless visitors to readjust their schedules.”
It seems the Original Author is using this dinner scene to explain the festival and plant a sense of anticipation in their readers.
Around this time last year, Reysir was being bullied by Karbaldr, so it wasn’t a situation where they could enjoy the festival.
Between the pre-remake and post-remake, this is likely the first time the academy festival has been mentioned in Nas-e.
Which means the Pre-Remake Original I read never mentioned the festival at all.
But I already knew information about this festival from long ago.
Among the ‘information I memorized after possessing Karbaldr that he needed to know,’ the ‘academic schedule’ is included…
‘Since club recruitment is done during the festival period.’
Regular clubs allow free joining and leaving, but the Library Club isn’t like that.
Because they’re selecting personnel to manage the Library, one of the academy’s public institutions.
They only accept joining applications for exactly one week starting the day after the festival ends.
So while memorizing the schedule, I also read the information about the festival in detail along the way.
As Pret said a moment ago, the festival venue isn’t inside the academy, but the Commercial District where we currently are.
I heard it’s a measure for professors and Research Students who want to quietly focus on their research even during the festival.
Of course, regular students who aren’t interested in the festival don’t have to participate either.
‘So last semester, I’d planned to hole up in the Private Training Hall for the entire festival…’
I stabbed a cremini mushroom served as a garnish with my fork and brought it to my mouth, casually scanning the expressions of those sitting with me.
They were openly shining with expectant eyes, exchanging words about how they wished the festival would start soon.
Fjodra didn’t join the conversation, but she didn’t show any sign of objecting to us enjoying the festival.
‘What the Original Author doesn’t want is for us to be holed up in the training grounds inside the academy for the whole festival.’
Since they’ve committed to the academy story route, they can’t skip out on a big event like the festival again.
And ultimately, it’s not like we can keep causing Demonic Realms on academy grounds and repeating leaves of absence, right?
So the Original Author needs to draw us out of the academy grounds.
From this perspective, a festival held in the Commercial District is the perfect opportunity for the Original Author.
‘Or maybe they set the festival to be held outside the academy from the very beginning for that purpose.’
In short, it’s best to set aside any expectation that the festival will end without a hitch.
An incident will definitely happen.
The reason no Demonic Realm appeared while we were wandering around the Commercial District today was probably so one could be created during the festival period.
‘This is a pretty big deal, isn’t it?’
It’s not just commoners who come to watch the Valhalla Academy festival—nobles swarm in by the dozens too.
Some come to meet family members living in the Dormitory and check on how they’re doing.
Some come to recall their own academy days and immerse themselves in nostalgia.
Some come with the goal of expanding their connections through chance encounters with high-ranking nobles.
Of course, there are plenty of people whose only purpose is purely to have fun.
‘They even say foreign nobles come to visit…’
If a Demonic Realm occurs in a place swarming with people, it’s impossible to have zero casualties. Even if high-ranking nobles of the Empire died in droves, that would be a huge problem for maintaining the nation. And if a foreign noble came to visit and ended up dead, there’s a high risk of it escalating into a diplomatic issue.
‘And the current Emperor is the kind of person who, just to avoid responsibility, would shove all the blame onto the Awakened Special Class and the Awakened Professors, and would use even his own daughter Fjodra as a disposable card.’
This is a problem.
We can’t exactly say we should just train instead, since a Demonic Realm will break out if we enjoy the festival…
‘Or is it the opposite? Would a Demonic Realm breaking out at the festival site while we’re holed up in the training hall be the bigger problem? Because we couldn’t respond immediately?’
No matter how much I mull it over, there’s no answer.
So I was gulping down tea to cool my churning stomach when the Protagonist of Another Novel tossed an utterly carefree remark at his childhood friend.
“Oh, right! Helly, didn’t you say you were planning to enter the Beauty Contest?”
“Ah… Did I…?”
Hailga’s pleasantly smiling face instantly turned sour.
“Why are you reacting like that?”
“No, it’s just… I just realized I forgot about the Dress Alteration, you know? So this year, I’m thinking of just giving up.”
“Even without the Dress Alteration, you can still enter the contest, can’t you?”
“That’s true, but now that I think about it, the Imperial Princess is at the academy too, right? Vigdis unnie is super pretty too, and Senior Risi is adorable. I guess I just started wondering what kind of confidence I had to even try entering a Beauty Contest.”
Hailga rolled her eyes this way and that, spouting a rather flimsy excuse.
The Original Protagonist stared at her with a deeply dubious look….
“S
ay no more. I have no intention of participating in any contest whatsoever. The Imperial Family is supporting the prize money, so there’s no way I could take it for myself.”
“I have no intention of entering either. I despise wearing uncomfortable dresses for long periods… And in my opinion, Hailga is far more beautiful than I am. It’s true that Senior Risi is cute, as Hailga says, but Hailga is just as cute. So I think you can go into the contest with confidence.”
Fjodra and Vigdis responded like so.
It seems they didn’t notice that Hailga had mentioned them as an excuse because she didn’t want to enter the contest.