RATH 91
TL: Eevee

11. Not a myth, but a legend (4)

[Arucia’s… vice-president, Arietta rul Meirae! I love you so much!]

“He’s drawing attention alright.”
“Twue dat…”

I was watching the imperial festival from a secret hideout using a magic video tool that I’d hurriedly brought with me, and out comes a public confession.

It was something I saw every now and then in my past life, but this was the first time I saw it here.

In the thing called high society, public confessions were things that never truly left the conversations of nobles, regardless of whether they succeeded or not.

Now what sort of brave hero would risk that embarrassment and make a public confession?

“Then ‘zat mean pres’s a hero in a way?”
“He is. An incredible hero with no sense of shame!”

Or he could be a hero who submitted to the evil archdevil, the metal bat!

“Pres’s so pitiful if he gets rejected like that…”
“True, but he probably will get rejected. Because it’s none other than an Arucia student, which he destroyed himself. Plus he’s confessing to their student council’s vice-president. It’s an impossible match.”

But on the contrary, that was the reason why it would burn even brighter.

Why was Romeo and Juliet so sad?

Why was it that in so many Korean soap operas that the main love interest was actually the son or daughter of the main character’s parents’ arch nemesis!

Because love was something that was even sweeter the more trials and tribulations there were to defeat!

So it went without saying that it was all but certain that Nerkia would be rejected, but the stories that would spread from there would be that much more…

[Uwuuu… Ne, Nerkia… what are you saying out in the open like that… it’s embarrassing…]

“Wut?”
“What the?”

But the person being confessed to, Arucia’s vice-president, was red-faced and at a loss for what to do.

But her expression was clearly that of a maiden in love.

As I looked on at her, whose face was crimson with shyness and unable to even face the other person properly…

“Damn it.”

I found myself automatically looking for a bamboo spear.

What is this, even?

“Owner, even if you’re a loser who couldn’t even get married, making an annoyed face like that just because one of your students has a girlfriend is pathetic.”
“No, it’s not like I didn’t have a girlfriend! I was confessed to a few times as well!”
“Aru’s question time! Does owner want to date said confessors?”
“They’re not people who you could even think of dating to begin with?”
“And therefore it’s owner’s loss!”
“I can’t deny that!”

I despaired at this overwhelming feeling of defeat.

Why was it that there were no normal girls that approached me in this life!

“There’s no way that a normal person would get near a person who spent half his life in an evil organization. Even if she did, she’d be lucky to not get backstabbed by owner on some assignment.”
“Was that the problem all along?!”

Damn it, to think that Howling, the place I thought was the best workplace would actually be interfering with my love life.

Now that I think about it, Sia, the princess, or that crazy High Elf.

All three of them were women I met while working for Howling.

This was all vice-adm…(1) I mean Howling’s fault! This was all Howling’s fault!

Good riddance, Howling!

“I think owner keeps denying it’s owner’s fault Howling went bust.”
“An evil organization that ruins their workers’ love lives, it’s alright for them to go bust!”

In a certain hero-hating manhwa(2) their evil organization’s boss actively encouraged his subordinates to find love, but Howling was interfering with mine.Serves them right if they went down.

“I think Howling’s boss’ll come find you from the dead out of anger f’ that…”

As I ignored the metal bat and kept looking at the screen, the salt-rubbing flirting between Nerkia and Arucia’s student council vice-president were reaching unwatchable levels again.

[Nerkia… But we are enemies. We are destined to fight each other!]
[Why… why must this be our fates…]
[It’s alright, Nerkia. We’re both people in charge of our respective academies… so there’s no other choice… but if you dare go easy on us because of that… I’m going to get angry?]
[Alright Ari. I’ll… kuhk]
[For fucks sake, keep a lid on it you asshole!]

And as if he couldn’t take it anymore, the whole drama was brought to a close by Risen’s attack.

Good job, Risen!

Next time you have reason to get hit by the metal bat I’ll tell her to hit you three times less!

[Kukk, what was that f… kuhgh?]
[Die, die, die!]
[Where are you thinking of getting off to date the enemy?]
[This isn’t because I’m jealous, it’s to make our idiot president that can’t tell between friend or foe get his head on straight!]

Starting from Risen, the other male students took turns stomping on Nerkia in extravagant coordination with each other, and to me it almost seemed like they like an organization that would wear hoods labelled FFF.(3)

If there was a point of difference, would it be that the female students very quickly took action to hide the scene of violence?

[Wa, wait! What are you doing to Nerkia!]
[Arietta, that’s another academy’s affairs. That’s not something we can do anything about.]
[Right. Yugrasia has Yugrasia’s laws.]
[Surely they wouldn’t kill their own president?]

Arucia’s vice-president was shocked, and she tried to stop the other students that were stomping on Nerkia, but Arucia’s other students shook her heads and convinced her to stop.

But looking at their expressions, they seemed like they were satisfied by Nerkia getting stomped on, and so you could say that Arucia and Yugrasia made peace thanks to a single couple.

As always, no matter where you went, the solo brigade would always exist!

[Ri, Risen. This was your idea! You said this was the best plan!]
[Yeah, it was. Because exactly like my genius brain expected, this was the best way to get everyone’s attention! But you should have just stuck to verse one, how far are you going to rub it in our faces!]

And so Risen’s kicks of anger continued until the end of the match.

[Wi, Winner Yugrasia?!]

Although unfortunately that didn’t take very long!

#4 Their story: Risen de Roa’s story

“What?!”

The Arucia student council president had been leisurely watching the other side’s school violence through their human wall, when he suddenly made a shocked face .

As I savoured his stupefied expression, in the middle of the Yugrasia students that were equally stunned, I laughed like a winner.

“Ahahahaha! You fools! This is the power of expert strategy! The moment this fool drew your attention, I had a student specialised in infiltration collect every single one of your flags!”

This event was basically Day 2’s Capture the Flag event on a much bigger scale.

Well, although a couple of other rules were added in, the end win condition of capturing the flag remained the same.

And therefore, when the pres asked me this morning how to pull attention onto him for his survival, I immediately came up with this plan.

“When all your eyes were drawn elsewhere thanks to our goddamned president’s confession, the match had already begun! The referee had already entered, and the event had long since begun! But thanks to this retard, not a single person paid attention to our academy’s movements!”

The person I had move in secret was a god-class summoner.

Because people might have caught on if I’d disappeared, I gave that role to the person I’d earmarked as my successor if her personality fit, Lady Aris’s friend, Lady Siir ril Reia, and had her carry out a mission unknown to everyone else.

“This is the god Hermes’s strength! You have already lost!”

Loki had said that in terms of speed, Hermes was a god that was comparable to him.

Like Loki’s shoes, Hermes also owned a pair of shoes capable of flight, and the most important thing was that Hermes was also the god of thieves.

What was this perfect successor!

Was what I had thought, but unfortunately, that person was an ordinary noble girl.

Yugrasia had a one-man organization that boasted of a long and distinguished history.

She still didn’t have the abilities to be anointed as the successor of the head of the meetings of ladies and gentlemen of culture.

I wanted to bequeath my information and distribution network of my easy mon- I mean, customers to her, but would a normal noble lady want to do such a thing?

And so in order to do so I corrupted… no, that’s not it… dyed her in darkness… no, not it either… did my best in guiding her as a good senior!

And so my plan to teach her the pleasure of blindsiding everyone… er, no, I mean the pleasure of claiming victory without anyone the wiser went absolutely perfectly!

And although the original plan ended here, thanks to that damn pres’s salting flirting I came up with a new idea!

“Yes, everything was… none other than the idea of our great president of Yugrasia, Nerkia! You were only used, Arucia’s vice-president!”
“Wait-mbb!”

I knew the pres’d try to jump out the moment I said that.

And so I pressed my foot down on his face, to be accurate, right on the kisser.

‘You guys get it?’
‘Risen, you…’
‘You fearsome bastard.’
‘But, the pres overstepped his boundaries.’
‘Yeah, let’s take this opportunity… to make the pres walk the path of solos like us!’

All of the students that met eyes with me nodded.

The power of Yugrasia students, who could communicate with each other with their eyes alone in crucial moments had activated right here.

“Gyahahahaha! There’s no way he’d publicly confess right here!”
“That’s right, this is all our president’s strategy! He became the target of your aggression and fooled you all!”
“He will do anything for the sake of victory, this is the Yugrasia student council president, the worst of them all, Nerkia!”
“Is… is… that… that really true?”

Giant tears flowed freely from the eyes of the Arucia vice-president that had been openly flirting only seconds ago.

“Ah… mmff… you… aaagh!”

Although he couldn’t see her, but Nerkia could hear her, and he tried to lift his head at her tearful voice, but we didn’t let him.

-Let’s do this, Loki.
-Wow, holy shit. I guarantee it. Out of all my contractors so far, you’re the first to ever use my Descension to pull off shit like this.
-But it’s fun, isn’t it?
-Yes, yes! I hated watching that couple flirt salt into our wounds as well! So I will help you, contractor!

I used Loki’s Descension, a skill that I hadn’t used for any of other the imperial festivals I’d been involved in, purely for the sake of breaking up a couple.

“It was. This was all part of my plan.”
“Sob… but I… I was so happy… I was… really happy!”
“Sorry, but I am Yugrasia’s student council president. For victory… I am Nerkia, a bad boy who can even toy with your heart!”

I didn’t open my mouth. But a voice came out anyway.

And in a perfect rendition of Nerkia’s voice!

-This is the power that even swayed gods with a single tongue, my power, Loki’s!
-Absolutely flawless, that’s my summon!

“Nerkia… where are you! Show me your face! If it’s true… then say it to my face!”
“I’m sorry, no matter how much of an evil man I am… I can’t show you my face right now.”

Loki’s and my tongue, no, to be precisely accurate, Loki’s tongue started talking as smooth as if it’d been painted in grease.

“You asshole, this is all a… kuhhk!”

For a brief moment, the pres pushed off the students that had dogpiled on top of him with superhuman strength, before he fell once again to the attacks of the other students.

The vice-president Karen, in particular, was very skilled at it due to all her practice in pinning me down.

Her skill in instantly skewering a person into the ground was the peak of art.

‘End. Him.’
‘Yes ma’am!’

For a moment, my eyes met the vice-president’s, which was filled with bloodthirst, as she drew her thumb over her neck.

Now that I thought about it, the vice-pres was a solo as well. And a forever alone at that.

Thanks to the pres’s flirting AOE taunt, a normally formidable enemy had become a trustworthy ally, as I asked Loki to finish the job.

“Sorry, Arietta.”
“Nerkia? Show me your face! Right now! Or else… we’re done!”
“Mmfhhmm!”

I could hear the pres’s muffled screams in response to the girl’s voice filled with anger and resentment, but a number of people beside the president immediately used silencing spells to stop any noise from getting out.

“Sorry…”

A voice that had traces of lingering longing.

It was definitely coming from my throat, but it really felt like it was the pres that was saying it.

“It can’t be.”

Her appearance as she fell sobbing to her knees was a bit pitiful, but with this, a couple had disappeared, and two solos had appeared in its place.

That was what I’d thought.

But next day, I realised that my thinking was short-sighted.

That he, was a student of Yugrasia… and the person that could be said to be in the highest position among us students.

And that person… had fled from the night study even before me, and was the very first person to attempt to do so!

Meaning, he acted like a normal person, but he was actually more insane than anyone else in Yugrasia!

And on the final day of the imperial festival, we felt that fact keenly through our bones.

“Come at me, Yugrasia!”

As we looked on at him, betraying Yugrasia despite being the student council president.