The Hwangyeon Festival
You’re really doing this too?
The academy’s most anticipated event. Hwangyeon. A grand athletic competition enjoyed by students of every grade, and a festival where they could make their names known for the sake of their futures. If you already had a family to pledge yourself to, you could simply enjoy it for fun. But for those who didn’t, this festival was a chance they’d obsess over to showcase themselves.
The first-years still had plenty of time, so most of them felt relatively relaxed. The third-years had mostly already chosen their families, so they tended to approach the festival with light hearts. That meant the ones truly burning with desperate effort during Hwangyeon were mostly second-years.
But did that mean only second-years took it seriously? Not at all.
“So, starting today, we’ll begin training for Hwangyeon!”
Why was it that every school had those people who got unusually fired up for sports day? Our class had one too. Her name was Reglia Einstro. Despite coming from a family associated with the image of ice, she was currently burning with passion as she stood at the lectern giving an enthusiastic explanation.
“…And that’s why! We’re going to win the first-year division of this Hwangyeon and spread the name of Class 1-A far and wide! Everyone, please follow your class president well!”
Unfortunately, since she was the class president, we couldn’t easily ignore her opinion. She probably held the second-most influence in the class after Professor Garein.
“Hey. When did we even elect a class president?”
“We did it last time, remember?”
The class president election hadn’t been that long ago. It was decided through nominations and voting. The candidates had been Reglia, Kena, and a guy named Code who was generally friendly with everyone in class. The result was exactly what we were seeing now—Reglia’s victory. She had a solid family background, top-tier combat ability, and a personality without any major flaws, so it made sense that many had chosen her.
Oh, and for the record, I had voted for Reglia too.
“Alright, the events you can participate in are listed here. The basic rule is that each person must participate in at least one event. Points will be awarded to first, second, and third place in each event, and the team with the highest total points at the end will be the champion.”
As she spoke, she spread out a large sheet of paper on the blackboard so everyone could see. There were quite a few events that hadn’t even appeared in the game.
“Eating contest? Can’t we know what kind of food will be served in advance?”
“I only heard that it would be flour-based dishes.”
“Miss Einstro, does the three-legged race require mixed-gender teams?”
“It’s not necessary.”
“Class president, I want to do the group jump rope.”
“I’ve also sent a survey about the events to your watches, so please fill it out and submit it.”
Tap. Tap-tap.
While I was looking through the various events on my watch, I could hear the conversation between Cheonma and Hoya beside me.
Cheonma looked utterly disgusted at Hoya’s bizarre description of (O_O). I chuckled inwardly at the sight and immediately excluded both events they had mentioned.
I had already decided which events I would enter. In total, I planned to participate in three events during this festival.
“First, this one and…”
Athletic competitions. Even if it wasn’t an ordinary school sports day, it had been a very long time since I’d been able to enjoy something like this.
“Huh? Zeon, you’re entering this one?”
I selected two events I personally wanted to join and the one mandatory event, then sent them to Reglia. She immediately sent me a confirmation with her face strangely pale. I realized the reason was my choice for the mandatory event and awkwardly scratched the back of my head.
“Yeah.”
“No… you’re serious?”
Yeah, I could understand why she was reacting like that. I knew it was ridiculous too… but this was an unavoidable choice.
Both Cheonma and Hoya were looking at my selection with slightly horrified eyes. I get it. I totally get it! Just endure it. This was nothing more than a small humiliation for the sake of the future.
“U-um, then we’ll finalize Zeon as participating in these three events total.”
“Why does the class president look so flustered?”
“This is the first time I’ve seen Miss Einstro like that.”
“What event did he pick to make her react like this?”
“Isn’t it the battle tournament?”
“Nah, that wouldn’t be surprising enough, right? He’s already the strongest in combat.”
Battle tournament my ass. I had zero interest in an event that was just fight after fight after fight. Besides, the battle tournament was one of the events considered the best opportunity to make a name for yourself, so the waiting list would be insanely long.
The events I chose were the personally interesting treasure hunt, the partner contest where you teamed up with your summoned beast or pet, and…
“Mir, what are you signing up for?”
“First, the eating contest, tug-of-war, short-distance sprint, the cooking competition, and…”
“That’s quite a lot.”
“And finally, the TS cosplay contest!”
I flinched. What? Why was Mir entering that?
My final event had just come out of Mir’s mouth, and I was genuinely shocked. Wait, Mir had that kind of taste?
It wasn’t just me who was shocked. The kids around Mir were also staring at her with dumbfounded faces.
“Huh? What’s that?!”
“Why are you entering that?”
“Just because! It looks fun! And if I win first place, it gives points to the class too!”
“Well… not many people will probably enter that event.”
“It’s a strategy, huh.”
Mir’s explanation unintentionally saved me. Even Reglia looked at me with an expression that said she finally understood. With this, the humiliation I would suffer had decreased significantly.
Both of them were overflowing with confidence in their appearance. If we were going to do this, basing the concept around the two of them would be ideal, but unfortunately, my face didn’t really match either of them.
“Huu…”
“Then please decide by the day after tomorrow and let me know. Since it’s first-come-first-served, please choose quickly. That way we’ll have more time for practice too.”
“Let’s just decide right here.”
“Yeah! Why waste time worrying? It’s first-come-first-served anyway.”
What they said wasn’t wrong. But for the more introverted kids, this probably wasn’t a very good situation.
“If we decide right here, we might regret it later. That’s why I’m suggesting we take a little time.”
“Then just give us one day. One day is honestly more than enough.”
Reglia paused for a moment and scanned the class. Her eyes met with a few students. As far as I knew, they were the typical introverted ones.
She’s making eye contact with the kids to coordinate opinions, huh.
Still, it seemed Reglia wasn’t going to be swayed by those opinions and wanted to accommodate everyone’s thoughts.
Cheonma shook his head at Hoya’s attitude and whispered quietly.
I nodded. Yeah. Just like Cheonma said, Hoya had made a pretty big mistake this time. Since I was somewhat introverted myself, I immediately nodded in agreement.
“Then I’ll change the deadline to one day. You’ll also have time to make changes during that period, so please think carefully before choosing. I’ll announce immediately when an event fills up, so keep an eye on the notices while you decide.”
And so we gained one day of time… Oh my god.
TS Contest: 2/2 participants — FULL
Reglia had updated the events right away, but the problem was that the TS contest was already at capacity.
“What? The TS contest is full?”
“One must be Mir. Who’s the other one?”
“Wow. There’s actually someone else entering that?”
“Who submitted their choices right away…?”
One student trailed off mid-sentence. Then all eyes turned in my direction.
“Ah.”
“Zeon?”
“Oh my.”
“This is unexpected.”
“Might actually suit him?”
Damn it. That ice cube Reglia.
“Whoa! So the last spot was you, Zeon?”
“Don’t talk to me.”
“Let’s do this properly together! How about I be the prince and you be the princess?”
“Go away.”
“Since the two of us have similar light and dark vibes, a hero and demon king concept would work great too.”
“Just go.”
Is this public execution for real?