Chapter 64: Even So, the Ministry of Education's Clock Keeps Ticking.
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 64: Even So, the Ministry of Education's Clock Keeps Ticking.
“I’m a genius, right?”
“Aren’t you just… average?”
Alicia started getting on my nerves, completely oblivious to the mood. Feeling annoyed, I smacked her on the butt.
Slap!
“Hieek?! I told you not to hit my butt!”
“I don’t care! Stupid Alicia! Class is over!”
I had finally succeeded in summoning water into thin air for the first time today, but that total moron of a vampire wouldn’t even humor me.
She protested with a flushed face while rubbing her backside, but to me, she just looked like she was asking for another hit.
Suspecting this was some kind of scheme to turn me into a spanking machine or the King of SM Play, I immediately fled to the room where Grasha was.
“Come here! Be the villain!”
“I’m the Green Brachiosaurus Beta…”
“Be the villain!”
The youngest was too strong. Holding back my tears, I was forced to pick up the pathetic Three-Headed Demonic Dragon Great EX (transformable) instead of my favorite robot.
Mom was still preoccupied with catching the island sex slave criminals, and while Alicia was at home as our babysitter, she spent most of her time laughing like a jobless loafer while looking at TVs and magazines.
She was a vampire who was truly, detrimentally bad for a child’s education. I was worried Grasha would pick up her habits. It was during a cozy dinner where we were eating delivery food behind Mom’s back.
“I’m going to a commercial shoot tomorrow. Want to come?”
“No!”
There was no reason for me to bother following her there. I might have been curious if it were Mom working, but I had zero interest in celebrity nonsense.
“Go!”
However, our youngest seemed interested.
“Grasha, if you go there, they make you film the same thing over and over, and the older sisters get all angry and stuff. It won’t be fun.”
“Go!”
She was so hard to persuade.
“Besides, everyone there is weird. They’ll put tons of clothes on me and do strange photo shoots. You still want to go?”
I saw Alicia’s body flinch. I knew it.
“Go!”
But to our youngest, such circumstances meant nothing.
“And another thing, I…”
“GO!!!!”
The youngest shouted. It was a voice full of intimidation, laced with mana. Everyone doted on my older sister and my younger sister, calling them incredible talents; it only made me sad that I was the only mediocre one.
“Grasha, if we don’t go, I’ll play with you all day…”
“GOOOOO!!!!!”
I couldn’t beat the youngest.
“The one we shot last year was so popular that they’re asking for just one more shoot. It’ll be over quickly. The directors are all so curious about how our Yong-hwan is doing, you know? Besides, Morian and Hindel already gave their permission, so it’s fine!”
Only Alicia was grinning, prattling on about tomorrow’s schedule.
“Did Mom give permission?”
“...S-She did, right?”
It felt like she was making me do something weird behind Mom’s back.
“Y-You see? I heard the Green Brachiosaurus Beta XII S2 was on TV recently, and I managed to get a prototype two months early. I’ll give it to you if you go, okay?”
“...Do you have the Alpha Tyranno too?”
“I’ll call the director!”
Alicia made a call somewhere. Come to think of it, I remembered a Tokusatsu director among the ones who were talking nonsense to me last time.
***
“My Venus is finally here! Would you shoot a shoe commercial with Noona this time? Our boss says you absolutely have to be there. Noona will wrap the shoot quickly, so could you spare us just a little time?” “It’s been a while, Yong-hwan! How have you been? Auntie missed you so, so much that I couldn’t sleep properly for a single night. How about filming a tokusatsu show together? I’ll give Green Brachiosaurus Beta more screen time!”
“Hello, Yong-hwan. I’m a producer for a children’s program. Could you appear in just one episode of our show? It’s not much—once a month... no, even once a quarter. I’m begging you.”
“The movie is almost finished, and you’re the only child who can play the role in Auntie! I’m begging you—please give me two days. No, just one! I’ll make you the most famous child actor in the world!”
“Could you possibly film the ‘King’ one more time? So many people want you... mmph! Mmph!”
One person talking crazy was dragged outside.
Anyway, as soon as I stepped onto the set, the lunatics started clinging to me again. I put on a smile, hiding the fact that I didn't care about their gibberish, and gave answers like, “I’ll have to ask my Mom.”
Or rather, I was going to.
“Green Brachiosaurus Beta’s screen time…?”
“That’s right! I heard our Yong-hwan really loves Green Brachiosaurus Beta. If you appear, I’ll create a special transformation form—and if you keep appearing, I’ll have Green Brachiosaurus Beta defeat Alpha Tyranno and become the main character!”
Now this was starting to sound tempting.
“Please send the details to Alicia Noona, Director!”
“Yahoo!!!! I might’vebeenlivingjustforthisday. Hey, let go! Let go of me, you crazy bitches! Yong-hwan is going to be in my Tokusatsu show! Get lost! Get lost! Don’t ask me to share!”
The director, who had dashed off in joy, began to be dismantled as the other directors caught up to her.
“...Wow, they’re really intense. Our cutie is quite popular, huh?”
“Not as much as you, Noona! You’re the best movie star, after all!”
Sometimes, I had to do a bit of affection grinding. Alicia covered her mouth and giggled, clearly delighted. She was so easy.
“How about filming a movie? I think this one will turn out great.”
Alicia started waving the plot for a movie called Auntie in front of me. It was something I’d seen before. I’d seen a movie with a similar name, and the plot itself was the kind of common story you’d see anywhere.
“If you tell me to do it, I will, Alicia Noona! Because you’re a super~ movie star!”
Seeing how many people were trying to strike up a conversation with Alicia compared to the attention focused solely on me, it seemed she really was an amazing actress, despite being a useless freeloader who just ate up all our food at home.
I struck the poses the director wanted, and Grasha—who had been eating snacks given to her by the older sisters nearby because she was cute—suddenly ended up taking photos with me. Aside from her falling into the illusion that filming was fun after being swayed by the adults' praise, there were no major issues.
“ALICIA!!!!”
Of course, there was the minor incident where Mom stormed into the house after receiving a vivid testimony through her internal intelligence network—“Alicia Noona took us to the filming set to take pictures!”—and proceeded to repeatedly tug on Alicia’s long, distinctive ears, but that wasn't a problem either.
So, what was the most important issue for me?
“Now, now, we have the inter-class dodgeball tournament. Everyone, practice with your friends and aim for the win~!”
The most important issue was the confrontation between me and Im Su-yeon in the finals. The preliminaries for the 16 classes hadn't even started yet, but looking at the bracket, Im Su-yeon and I were destined to meet in the final match.
That monster losing?
I couldn't even imagine it. But I was a mana user now. Handling mana perfectly was a matter of talent. Or perhaps it was because the lineage Mom gave me consisted of trashy elf genes that had nothing going for them except for looks—I could still only perform physical reinforcement for a split second.
You ask why I’m calling elf genes trash when Grasha is called a genius?
Grandma is a legendary swordmaster, and Mom is a famous blade-wielder too. The fact that I have no talent for the sword and my mana learning speed is only at the level of an average girl must mean I was given garbage genes!
Otherwise, it made no sense for me to lose to Im Su-yeon. It was definitely Mom’s fault.
It was more likely the fault of the original guy who had the Black Dragon factor or whatever, but since Mom just gets more and more erotic as she ages without her looks changing, I cursed her a bit because she was the one at fault.
I was happy that Iris was a cowardly member of the Incest Squad, but Mom—who hadn't even been answering my calls lately while her stock was crashing, yet still came by once every two weeks to thrust those massive breasts of hers at me—was the bad one, so let’s end the excuses there.
“Yong-hwan, it hurts!!!”
“Shut up! You have to dodge this for us to win! From today on, you guys are staying after school!”
“Waaaaaaaah!!!”
The children started crying, perhaps out of joy.
“Dodge properly! Don’t take your eyes off the ball! Wait until the opponent makes a mistake!”
A brat who got hit in the face by my fire shot wailed.
“You’re girls, stop blubbering!!!!! Fight back like women!!!! If you’re gonna blubber!!!! Go get yourselves some peppers! Peppers!!!!”
At my shouting, the children whimpered and lined up again.
The conclusion would likely be a one-on-one fight against that monster Im Su-yeon, but I needed to train the kids at least to conserve my stamina and concentration.
The children cried for a week preparing for dodgeball, I got angry, and there was a slight issue where two players had to be replaced due to injuries, but since getting hurt while playing is common for kids, Alicia came by to apologize, took a couple of photos with the parents, and wrapped things up nicely.
And we took 2nd place in the inter-class dodgeball tournament.