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Chapter 275 [Illustration]

To prepare for any eventuality, the imperial family had dispatched her to handle any potential outbursts of Charlotte’s power.

There was also another reason why Charlotte was staying in the dormitory instead of the Spring Palace.

It concerned me.

Charlotte was staying in the dormitory so that I could intervene in any emergency while keeping me from being exposed.

Of course, being a dormitory supervisor wasn’t a bad job, but it was highly unusual for the captain of the empire’s First Knight Order to suddenly become a Temple supervisor.

Both Vertus and Charlotte seemed to have anticipated this outcome, and while I found it rather unexpected, it still felt like the right move.

The captain of the First Knight Order was a significant role, but the safety of the First Princess was a more critical issue that warranted her temporarily stepping down from that position.

—The captain of Shanapell...?

—Why would she...?

Those who knew about Sabioleen Tana were all taken aback. It seemed no one could understand the situation.

Who could easily accept such a situation? Without knowing the circumstances, one might think it was some bizarre April Fool’s joke.

Ellen Artorius was the only one who seemed clueless about the situation. ‘I should have eaten a bit more breakfast,’ her face said.

Sabioleen Tana stood in between Mr. Effenhauser and Ms. Mustang, wearing a two-piece suit instead of her usual knightly armor.

“Just calling me ‘teacher’ is enough. Additionally, if needed, I can also oversee your personal training.”

At the prospect of the world’s strongest person overseeing their training, those interested began to sparkle with excitement.

The most notable one was Ludwig, who looked thrilled beyond measure.

***

There usually wasn’t a dormitory supervisor for each grade. Dormitory supervisors were assigned without regard to grade, and patrolled all floors.

However, Sabioleen Tana had been given the unique position of being the dormitory supervisor for only the first-year students.

Her primary concern would naturally be Class B, where Charlotte was, so she wasn’t going to pay much attention to Class A.

In addition to the newly-introduced dormitory supervisor, the final exam period had begun.

After the general education exams on Monday, many students spent their free time chatting.

Of course, someone like Connor Lint seemed to have no interest in the exams, and was only thinking about enjoying the upcoming festival.

“Aren’t you excited about the festival?” he gushed.

“I’ve only heard about it. What exactly happens during the festival?” Erhi asked.

“You don’t know? There’s a beauty pageant!”

‘Of course he’s interested in that.’

He seemed to think that the beauty pageant alone gave the festival immense value.

The official names of the competition were Miss Temple and Mister Temple.

There was also a cross-dressing contest.

Usually, students from the Royal Class would be busy training for the showmatch as well, but now that the Orbis Class had been terminated, that event had been canceled altogether.

I knew the student council was struggling to find an alternative.

Because of this, there wasn’t much for the Royal Class students to prepare for, and we could just enjoy the festival.

Connor Lint was so excited that he even spoke to me. “Reinhart!”

“Yeah, what?”

“Aren’t you entering the tournament?”

“The tournament?”

“Yeah, I mean... with your skills, you could probably place pretty high, right? They’re opening applications today.”

Although the showmatch between the Royal and Orbis Classes had been canceled, the Temple-wide tournament was still taking place.

There were grade-specific tournaments and an unlimited class tournament open to all grades.

I had no plans to enter the tournament because I didn’t think I had a good chance of winning.

However, the rewards for completing the related challenges were substantial.

[(Festival) Open CategoryLimitless Tournament Victory - 15,000 points]

[(Festival) First Year Tournament Victory - 10,000 points]

With the Orbis Class now disbanded, the chances of the ex-Orbis Class students participating were very low, and even if they did, I had awakened Mana Reinforcement, Incantation, and also had Self-Deception.

Realistically speaking, in my current state, no one but Ellen could beat me. Of course, this was assuming that my Mana Reinforcement would work properly in a tournament setting.

My abilities were particularly effective in real combat, but would Mana Reinforcement work in a sparring match like the tournament?

In the Spring Palace, it had worked immediately once I tried it.

Ellen had previously said that she wouldn’t participate because her victory seemed too certain.

Final exams aside, it seemed like entering the tournament was the right move.

Achievement Points aside, winning the tournament also meant receiving a trophy and a prize from the emperor.

“Hmm, should I give it a shot then?” I said.

The three troublemakers looked at me.

At some point, they had begun to see me with a sense of reverence.

Of course, there was someone else I needed to get a definite answer from first.

I approached Ellen, who was sitting in the front row. “Hey, Ellen. I’m going to enter the first-year tournament.”

“Okay.”

“But you shouldn’t enter.”

“Okay,” she replied as she nodded coolly.

‘Does this mean my victory is guaranteed?’

The expressions of the three troublemakers changed. ‘This punk. He’s fixing the match!’

There was no way I would ever win the tournament if Ellen participated, even if my life was on the line.

Second or third place meant nothing. If I didn’t win, I would get nothing except a few coins. I had to eliminate Ellen as a variable beforehand.

And just like that, with a single short conversation, I had prevented a strong contender from entering.

It felt a bit like cheating...

Ellen stared at me, then said matter-of-factly, “If you don’t win, I’ll be mad.”

“Wait! Last time you said just getting to the quarterfinals was enough!”

“The situation has changed.”

It seemed that Ellen’s expectations of me had grown substantially

Successfully mastering Mana Reinforcement had its downsides.

Our strongest rivals, the Orbis Class, had been disbanded, and its remaining members dispersed into the other regular classes.

I didn’t know if any of them would participate or not, but without Ellen’s participation, I would be a strong contender to take the win.

Somehow, it had come to this.

—Isn’t anyone from our class entering Miss Temple, though?

‘Hey, moron. If you’re going to talk about that kind of stuff, do it quietly so everyone doesn’t hear!’

Harriet and Riana shot disdainful looks at Connor Lint for his random comment.

‘You need to realize that you’re cutting your own throat in a different way than I am.’

“Ah, n-no! I just... thought they might be good candidates...”

‘Just shut your mouth already!’

Slam!

“Reinhart!”

All of a sudden, the door to the first-year classroom burst open, and Olivia Lanche appeared.

‘Why isn’t she studying during the exam period? Why come here in person?’

She ignored the stunned reactions to her sudden entrance, hurried over to me and thrust a piece of paper in my face.

I glanced at the top of the paper and was struck dumb.

[Miss Temple Application Form]

“I’m entering Miss Temple!”

I stared blankly back at her. “W-What’s that got to do with me?”

“You’re going to vote for me, right?”

‘What is this woman thinking, entering something like this?’

“Ughhh! Why are you coming to me about this?!”

‘What does telling me all this accomplish?’

She even tried to rub her face against mine, but I pushed her away in disgust.

‘No! The kids are looking at me weirdly again!’

This woman was even causing a scene in the classroom.

When I finally managed to push her away, she glanced around the now chilly classroom.

“Hmph. It doesn’t look like I have any competition here.”

“...”

“...”

“...”

Riana, Ellen, and Harriet’s expressions all turned bizarre. ‘Why is she suddenly picking a fight with us?’

I couldn’t understand what was going on. ‘Why is she drawing attention like this?’

Olivia laughed gleefully at the sour expressions of my classmates, caused by her provocative remarks.

Then, she suddenly strode across the room.

She halted when she reached the front row, right next to Ellen.

“Aren’t you entering?” she asked.

Ellen glared at Olivia, dismayed by the sudden provocation.

“Why would I enter something like that?”

Olivia covered her mouth and looked down at Ellen. “Are you afraid you’ll lose?”

“What?”

“Do you think you’ll lose without even trying?”

‘No! Why do you always pick on the quiet ones?! Just leave her alone!’

I was about to step in and say something when—

Grasp!

“Ah!”

Ellen stood up and grabbed Olivia by the collar.

The other kids stared at them in shock, and my reaction was no different.

Ellen had snapped.

Ellen held Olivia by the collar and glared at her.

“I don’t know why you’re like this to me, but get lost. I don’t want to deal with you,” she said fiercely.

“Oh my... Now you’re trying to hit your senior...?”

Just as I was about to intervene and prevent Ellen from causing trouble, something unexpected happened.

Squeeze!

Ellen’s eyes widened in shock.

“Just remember that the world is a big place.”

Olivia, smiling brightly, grabbed Ellen’s wrist.

With just her grip strength, Olivia effortlessly pried Ellen’s hand off her collar.

Ellen was the strongest among the first-year students, and recognized as an extraordinary monster...

Everyone watched in shock as Ellen, despite ranking highly in terms of stats, was overpowered in strength. Olivia, having removed Ellen’s hand, smoothed out her clothes and smiled.

Poke!

She then poked Ellen’s forehead with her index finger.

“I know you’re confident in your skills, but there’s always someone better than you. Remember that, okay?”

“...”

Ellen was staring at Olivia with wide eyes.

“So, do you want to face me in the Beauty Pageant or the Open Tournament? I’m confident I can beat you in both Miss Temple and in the tournament.”

Leaving the stunned Ellen behind, Olivia looked over at me.

Wink!

Olivia winked at me and then left the classroom.

Ellen stared blankly at the door Olivia had exited from. The others looked back and forth between the dazed Ellen and me.

—I used to envy that guy...

—He definitely won’t die a natural death...

That was Erhi and Kaier, muttering away quietly.

Connor Lint patted my shoulder.

“Hey... hang in there.”

I never thought the day would come when I received sympathy from that guy.

No matter how strong I had become, I still couldn’t even think of challenging Ellen.

And Olivia Lanche, who was clearly stronger than Ellen in terms of raw strength...

Everyone seemed to believe that I would be crushed between these extraordinary individuals, like a shrimp caught between two whales.

Anyway...

‘Sis. We need to talk. You’re dead.’

A little later...

“I told you to stop picking on the quiet ones!” I exclaimed.

“I-I’m sorry! I won’t do it again!”

I stormed into the fifth-year classroom and exploded at Olivia.

“Do you want me to flip out? Should I flip out? Do you want to see it? Do you need to see it?”

“Okay, Reinhart! I went too far! Okay? I’ll apologize! Should I apologize to her?”

“Forget the apology, just leave her alone! Are you going to keep acting so immaturely? Huh?”

“Okay! I’ll leave her alone!”

All the other fifth-year seniors stared blankly as a much younger student scolded their senior like a misbehaving child.

In the end, I made Olivia cry and beg for forgiveness.

I didn’t expect her to actually cry, so I was a bit taken aback myself.