Editor : Amethyst00



“You’re participating too?”

Celia looked at Abad with an incredulous expression.

In response, a same-year girl from the Department of Magic—standing beside Abad—gave a confident thumbs-up.

“Of course. A beauty pageant is being held and Abad doesn’t enter? That’s a sin. A sin!”

“Haa… I feel like the two of us are going to embarrass the Lordren Empire all by ourselves.”

Celia pressed a hand to her forehead as if she had a headache.

At that reaction, Abad laughed.

“If the two of us win together, wouldn’t we be able to bring glory to Lordren’s name?”

“You’re really optimistic, aren’t you?”

Celia shot him a sideways look, then folded her arms.

“Fine. Winning… if I'm participating anyway, I might as well take first.”

With her natural competitive spirit ignited, Celia swept her hair back.

Sure, there was Nella—the one praised as the greatest beauty of their year—but Celia had no intention of handing her the win.

Beauty standards differ from person to person.

Of course, if you judge purely by looks, Nella is beautiful.

But everyone has their own tastes, and depending on how you present yourself, the kind of charm others feel can vary wildly.

If I dress up too, it’s not like I have no chance.

Celia, after all, had looks that drew praise as beautiful from just about anyone.

If it were someone on a completely different level—like Elena—there’d be no hope. But against Nella, depending on how she styled herself, Celia believed she could still take the win.

Seeing Celia’s motivation shining through, Abad laughed.

"I'll be looking forward to it."

"Hmph!"

Celia snorted and headed back to the women’s waiting room.

And the moment she stepped in, the first thing to catch her eye was an elf with white hair.

'That elf… come to think of it, I feel like I’ve seen her somewhere before.'

White hair, red eyes.

A beauty so striking that even another woman couldn’t help but admire it.

But even before that, Celia was feeling a strange, unexplainable sense of familiarity.

“Heh heh heh! As expected of Celia.”

Just then, Eliana sidled up beside her with a meaningful little laugh.

“What is?”

"You're trying to eliminate the strongest rival, aren't you? You really are the embodiment of competitiveness."

“I’ll admit she’s a strong rival, but I’m not trying to eliminate her. We should compete fair and square from the start.”

“No, no. You don’t have to be embarrassed. Our class rep taught us that if you want to win, you shouldn’t be picky about means or methods!”

At Eliana’s words, Celia wore an incredulous expression.

It was true—Leo was thoroughly practical when it came to real-world situations.

'In a fight where your life is on the line, the winner is justice.'

Back in her first year, there had been times when Celia felt a bit of resistance to Leo’s way of thinking.

But now, on the verge of becoming a fourth-year, Celia agreed with him completely.

Still, she didn’t apply “do whatever it takes” to every kind of conflict.

And neither did Leo.

'No—if you don’t care about means or methods in every contest, that’s not “pragmatic.” That’s just being a low, villainous cheat.'

Watching her friend smirk after twisting her cousin’s words, Celia hesitated—'Should I stop her?'—when she suddenly met Nella’s eyes from afar, where Nella had been observing the situation.

Nella shook her head side to side.

It meant there was no point trying to stop her.

'Yeah. Even if she says she’ll “do whatever it takes,” well… is she really the kind of person who can go that far?'

Even if she had a sly, devious side, Eliana was—subtly… no, very—clumsy.

Even if she had some bad scheme in mind, she couldn’t carry it out properly, and it was obvious she’d end up getting burned instead.

While Celia let out a small sigh, Eliana walked right up to the white-haired elf—Leo.

“Hello!”

She greeted him with a bright, sunny smile.

Leo, who had been sitting with his legs crossed, flicked his eyes toward Eliana.

Eyes meeting Leo’s, Eliana muttered to herself.

'Wow. She’s a real elf… and she looks like such a delinquent.'

If Eliana had to name the elf she knew who was closest to a full-on troublemaker, it was none other than Lunia.

She might have looked perfectly normal on the outside, but Eliana could never forget her first meeting with Lunia.

'That look on her face when she grabbed the class rep by the collar and barked at him….'

She looked like a straight-up thug—no more, no less.

But even compared to Lunia, the elf in front of her looked several times more intimidating.

Swallowing hard, Eliana forced a bright smile.

“You’re truly beautiful! What made you enter the beauty pageant?”

Trying to build rapport, Eliana dragged over a chair and sat down beside the elf.

'Know your enemy and know yourself, and you’ll win every battle! If I can figure out this elf’s weakness… um… um…'

Eliana’s train of thought hit a wall.

Since it was a competition, she’d thought she should find a weakness and exploit it—but then she realized… what would you even do with someone’s weakness in a beauty pageant?

'Threaten her into quitting…? No, that’s way too evil.'

Just as Celia predicted, Eliana had charged in first—and now she was flustered because she had no idea what to do next.

In the meantime, Leo poured the liquid from the bottle beside him into a cup.

Glug-glug-glug—

“Want some?”

“Ah, thank you! I was just getting thir— pffft! This is alcohol!”

Thirsty, Eliana had taken a big gulp of what Leo handed her—but the moment she realized it was strong liquor, she sprayed it out.

“N-No, why are you drinking alcohol right before the contest?!”

“Life’s too damn hard to stay sober.”

Leo answered flatly and took a small sip of his drink.

Eliana stared at him with wide eyes.

An elven woman who carried the air of an adult who’d tasted every bitterness life had to offer.

Not realizing that “she” was Leo, Eliana found her cheeks flushing without meaning to.

“Th-That’s… cool.”

To Eliana, Leo’s demeanor looked almost like her ideal.

Seeing her like that, Leo hesitated.

“Hey.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t copy stuff like this.”

Saying that, Leo took the cup out of Eliana’s hand.

She was already the type to pick things up easily—if she got “infected” by something weird and then hit a late puberty phase, it could turn into a real headache.

Thinking that, Leo took another small sip of his drink.

Watching him, Eliana’s eyes sparkled brightly.

'Looks like she’s already hooked.'

This was the same Eliana who’d been acting like a flawless top student in front of the first-years this year.

In truth, thanks to Eliana’s act, it had been easier to keep the first-years under control.

But if next year she suddenly started acting rebellious and getting snippy with her juniors—

Imagining Eliana rebelling for no reason and wearing a cynical smile, Leo clicked his tongue.

“Miss.”

“Yes?”

“Everyone has their own charm. You know that, right?”

“U-Um… y-yes?”

“Good. So if you’re thinking of copying me, stop.”

Caught with her thoughts exposed, Eliana’s eyes went round.

“Why? You’re incredibly cool.”

“It doesn’t suit you.”

Leo gave a small smile.

“And you’re already very beautiful, just as you are.”

“Beautiful? Me?”

Eliana cupped her cheeks, her face lighting up—completely tempted.

bl

“Isn’t she… kind of a good person, in her own way?”

“Yeah. I was worried she might pick up something weird from her.”

Watching from a distance, Celia and Nella murmured in admiration.

“What are those two doing right now?”

Chen Xia approached with her brows furrowed.

“Hm? Eliana was going on about ‘eliminating’ that elf and all that, and now she’s getting life advices.”

“Life advices?”

Chen Xia tilted her head.

Then, seeing Eliana beam after being told she was pretty by Leo, her face turned sulky.

A moment later, Chen Xia walked up to the two of them.

“What are you talking about that’s got you so happy?”

Smiling, Chen Xia sat down in the empty seat.

Seeing her, Eliana grinned.

“Xia, Xia—this Sis(unni) told me I’m pretty! Like, really pretty!”

“Pfft!”

“What?! Why are you laughing at me?! Sis! She’s making fun of me!”

Eliana whined tearfully to Leo.

“I wasn’t laughing at Eliana— pfft— no, I wasn’t. Pffhh—! ‘Sis’! It suits you. It really does!”

Chen Xia shook all the way to her shoulders, barely holding back her laughter.

Seeing Leo being so naturally called “Sis” by Eliana was just too funny.

Leo looked at Chen Xia, then said to Eliana,

“Your friend has quite a nasty personality.”

“She does. She’s kind of… twisted.”

Eliana pouted as she agreed with Leo.

“I wasn’t laughing at you, so don’t sulk too much. It’s true that you’re pretty, Miss Eliana.”

“See? I knew it.”

Cheered up by Chen Xia’s words, Eliana broke into a broad, happy grin.

“By the way, Elf Sis. What do you think of me?”

Chen Xia smiled gently.

Knowing who Leo really was, Chen Xia felt a little—

No, quite a lot—

jealous of Eliana, who’d just been praised for her looks.

Seeing Chen Xia so blatantly fishing for praise, Leo smiled.

At that crooked little smile, Chen Xia clicked her tongue.

'Ah. This old man’s going to react in that all-twisted way again.'

Just as Chen Xia was clicking her tongue, recalling Leo’s personality—

"You're pretty."

"…!"

At Leo’s sincere words, Chen Xia unknowingly made a blank, dazed face.

“Huh? Xia, your face is bright red. Are you sick?”

“N-No. This is… I mean… um… ah—!”

Caught off guard, Chen Xia’s ears turned red too. She ducked her head and covered her face with both hands.

Watching her, Leo furrowed his brow.

'What was that?'

Leo looked down at his own hand.

He felt something strange.

In response to Chen Xia—who was clearly fishing for a compliment about her looks—he’d given his honest impression.

But if it were his usual self, he would’ve answered with something twisted and snarky.

But Leo answered honestly, as if guided by instinct.

And more than that—

At Chen Xia’s question, he had the strange feeling that an unfamiliar yet familiar memory had overlapped with the moment.

'Déjà vu?'

With that unsettling sense of familiarity, Leo narrowed his eyes.

'Hyper-senses? No… that doesn’t seem like it….'

“Hm?”

Letting out a puzzled little sound, Leo rose to his feet.

“Where are you going? The preliminaries are about to start.”

When Chen Xia asked with a confused expression, Leo gave a small smile.

“Do you know where Carl is?”

“Carl…? He should be over by the men’s division waiting room.”

At Chen Xia’s answer, Leo nodded.

Then he flicked her a quick look—an unspoken signal.

Meeting Leo’s eyes, Chen Xia’s face turned serious.

'Did something happen?'