Chapter 136:

“Oh my god, Shushu!”

Hazel, who had just arrived back with her makeup, placed it down next to her and ran over to me. She looked touched as she held my cheeks in her hands.

“Ah, I’m so happy! Dressing you up makes me so excited, you know? I especially designed the outfit based on the song and the mood of the dance. Seriously, it looks perfect on you!”

She designed it herself? An incredible amount of pressure landed on my shoulders, but I hid it behind a toothy smile.

Hazel pulled all of my hair back to one side, then placed a crimson flower-shaped jewel near my ear. She used colors that were hazier and of lower saturation to create a calm yet sultry look. It was weird to say sultry with my own mouth, but that was just how great Hazel’s skills were. All of the colors that she chose gave me a dreamy, mysterious feeling.

Hazel made me put on a bracelet and an anklet too, but they were all crimson and black. The bracelet and anklet made a pretty jingling sound whenever I moved.

Hazel really held me for a while. Because of that, I had to immediately go on stage without a moment of waiting.

Once she was done with getting me ready, she was panting. She looked kind of blank and almost out of it, so I just thanked her and left.

“This is…legendary……..”

Hazel muttered with her hands over her mouth, shocked. I hurriedly picked up both of my swords as I ran to the stage. It seemed like the presenter had called my name twice already.

“Shuraina West! Where’s West?! She was just there before, right?!”
“Hey, hurry up and look for her! She couldn’t have hid because she didn’t want to do it, right?”
“If it’s Shuraina, it’s possible! But she can’t!”

Behind the stage, all of the students presenting were in a panic because of my sudden disappearance. I hurriedly walked towards them.

“Sorry I’m late.”
“Shuraina! You’re late. Hurry up and get o…….. Huh?”
“The presenter’s making dirty jokes and trying to give you more tim………Holy shit.”

The students frowned and turned to me at my voice, then suddenly looked out of it. I hunched over, waiting for the barrage of insults that I thought were going to come my way, but everyone just wordlessly looked me up and down.

“H-hurry up and go ahead……please.”

The students all looked out of it as their tones became polite.

I was a bit taken aback by the students who suddenly became polite, but I was the wrongdoer, so I just headed up on stage.

Everyone’s reactions to my dolled up face were weird, so I held up the see-through fabric and put it on like a veil as I headed up. When I hid my face behind my makeshift veil, people glanced at me less. I was very pleased.

“Who has any leftover recording devices~.”
“Did something happen to Shuraina? She’s taking a while.”
“It looks like she’s coming out soon, though? Isn’t that Shushu’s foot? That’s a pretty anklet.”
“Oh, you’re right. I just wish the presenter will stop making those stupid jokes of his.”

Thanks to how long the stage had been empty, the crowd was extremely loud.

The presenter saw that I was ready to come up on stage and shot me an elated smile. He looked shocked for a moment when he saw my face covered by the veil, but soon introduced me to the crowd.

“Shuraina West is done with her preparations! Now, swordsmanship class representative, please come forward!”

The presenter tapped my arm and told me good luck, then ran behind the stage. I didn’t know what he had been doing before, but the entire crowd was completely exasperated.

But as soon as they were told that the next presentation would happen soon, all of them became lively again. They were glaring at the presenter as he ran away, but they looked warm and welcoming when I came out.

“We! All! Love! You! Our! Goddess! Our princess* West!”

The crowd was….a bit too excited, more than cold and angry.

The festival’s ‘final presentation’ was something that only the students could enjoy, so it was much more free than the other kinds of presentations throughout the festival.

A group of male students from the swordsmanship class had their hands linked on their shoulders as they rocked left and right and chanted my name like a mantra.

The group of students cheering my name were friends of Eric’s and Patrick’s–students who were famous for being bad. Behind them, Swanhaden watched them carefully with his arms crossed. When I came out, he looked to my side before turning his head back.

Thank goodness I was covering my face with the veil. To be completely honest, I didn’t have the mental fortitude to do this bare-faced, which was why I had prepared the mask. Hazel had snatched it away, though.

Anyway, I was covering my face, so nobody could see it become red.

I now understood why Cory had asked if he could use effects. Multi-colored magical lights made me shine brighter and more colorfully. I thought I had heard fireworks when I appeared–it seemed like he had used fireworks. I couldn’t see it because of my veil, though. Anyway, it was chaos.

The front row was the loudest. The front row seemed to be pretty wide, but there were only familiar faces in that spot. Everyone else took their seat from the second row and back. I wondered why it was so loud, but Hestia’s and the swordsmanship boys’ cheers were something else.

“Shuraina’s up on stage presenting…….”

Hestia even looked touched. Hestia looked like she had an issue with how I had covered my face with a veil, but she cheered loudly and told me that my outfit was beautiful.

I nervously raised my hand amidst the loud cheers. When I tried to move, Swanhaden chucked a shoe at the students and told them to shut up. At Swanhaden’s order, they immediately quieted down and focused on me.

I felt like my mind was going blank, but I blinked my eyes wide open to concentrate as much as I could.

When I raised my hand into the air and pulled, the devices that had the music I would be using slowly came towards me. When the performance was about to begin, the area grew incredibly quiet. Cory had even stopped munching on his snacks.

There were a total of seven music devices, and they had been programmed to play the music I had saved whenever I touched or destroyed the devices. The music would grow more and more expansive as I destroyed each of the devices.

Bam!

I destroyed the device closest to me with my sword, signaling the start of my dance.

With the sound of the device shattering into pieces, a rhythmic beat filled the hall. Boom, boom, bo-boom, boom! My body moved with the beat and my sword moved as well. The beat started slow, then soon began to go faster.

The only sound accompanying me was the beat, so I moved powerfully and with precision at the beginning. My steps were wide as my attacks flew towards the invisible enemy, moves wide and open. I swayed to the rhythm as I moved.

When the first dance ended, I approached the second device. It was just about when the beat was growing old.

Bam!

After a long time of dancing, I destroyed the second device on an off-beat. This time, the melody of the song began to flow. The off-beat rhythm flowing shifted my movements and the flow of the dance. Whenever I moved, the flowy parts of the dress followed after a beat and chased my form.

Sword dancing had to do two things: it needed to show the movements of the sword, and it needed to do its job as a performance and as a dance, so there were a lot of needless movements included in the dance. For example, body waves and head movements. After adding a lot of different elements in the dance, it kind of reminded me of when I danced in costume for my jobs in my past life. …Never mind. This was probably a lot more elegant.

Bam! Bam!

I destroyed two more devices and added more of the melody and the beat to the music. The music grew more and more expansive, and the people grew louder and louder. It was full of excitement, almost on the brink of chaos. People were excited because of the festival, and the music was loud and exciting. Maybe it was also because of the dance? Anyway, people were waving their arms in excitement.

“Shushu! Shushu! Shushu! Shushu!”
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

I couldn’t see well because of the veil, but the people in the front row were so loud that I could almost physically feel the excitement. There seemed to be a huge commotion, but I had to focus more on my dance than the commotion so I tried to ignore it as best I could.

The excitement had wavered slightly, and it was right then, when the exciting music was about to turn more soulful.

I needed to hit the device that would slow down the music, so I had stepped over another device and stretched my arm high–that was when it happened.

Everything was fine when I hit the device that would slow the music down.

“……damn.”

The problem was that the veil that had hidden my face all this time had slid back.

The fabric that had been hiding my face had slid off of my shoulder, and I was forced to expose my face.

My vision grew clearer and I could see each and every one of the people in the crowd. The music had already slowed down. The music wasn’t completely slow, but the beat was much slower than earlier.

I couldn’t stay shocked–I hurriedly continued my movements. This was the most embarrassing pose, which made my current situation suck.

The only thing that had changed in the equation was my embarrassment, so I just bit my lip slightly as I continued my dance.

As soon as the slow music began to play, the chaos from earlier quieted down. The sound of cheers and my name being called became quiet, hushed whispers. I felt like the mood had shifted weirdly when my veil disappeared, so I couldn’t help but hunch slightly. I was kind of nervous, but the sheer amount of practice I had done ensured that my body continued to move without a hitch.

When my vision became completely clear, I was finally able to take a look at my surroundings. I looked around the crowd and tried to figure out why everyone was so quiet.

The first thing I was able to see were the familiar faces in the front row. Hestia, who had been cheering loudly and screaming her voice hoarse, was completely quiet. Her face looked like Hazel’s face from earlier.

Cory, who had been quietly cheering me on from his seat, had stopped moving and was just staring at me. Next to him, Hylli continued to drink out of an empty cup. He was biting his cup with his bunny costume head next to him. He looked shocked.

Anyway, everyone was staring at me with a bit too much thought. Yves, who had finished his school tour, had joined the crowd and was watching me with his chin resting on the armrest in front of him. He wasn’t staring at me with a glazed look in his eyes like the others, but he still looked more surprised than before.

Swanhaden seemed like he had been near Yves earlier, but he was gone when I tried to look for him. He was gone, and the only thing I could see to prove that he was there were the recording devices he had brought earlier floating in midair. I wondered if he had gone to the restroom.

I had barely been dancing properly because of how embarrassed I was from the veil revealing myself.

When the slow beat of the music grew faster once again, the hushed whispers had also calmed down. But when the tempo grew faster, the cheers became deafening.

Chapter 136:

“Oh my god, Shushu!”

Hazel, who had just arrived back with her makeup, placed it down next to her and ran over to me. She looked touched as she held my cheeks in her hands.

“Ah, I’m so happy! Dressing you up makes me so excited, you know? I especially designed the outfit based on the song and the mood of the dance. Seriously, it looks perfect on you!”

She designed it herself? An incredible amount of pressure landed on my shoulders, but I hid it behind a toothy smile.

Hazel pulled all of my hair back to one side, then placed a crimson flower-shaped jewel near my ear. She used colors that were hazier and of lower saturation to create a calm yet sultry look. It was weird to say sultry with my own mouth, but that was just how great Hazel’s skills were. All of the colors that she chose gave me a dreamy, mysterious feeling.

Hazel made me put on a bracelet and an anklet too, but they were all crimson and black. The bracelet and anklet made a pretty jingling sound whenever I moved.

Hazel really held me for a while. Because of that, I had to immediately go on stage without a moment of waiting.

Once she was done with getting me ready, she was panting. She looked kind of blank and almost out of it, so I just thanked her and left.

“This is…legendary……..”

Hazel muttered with her hands over her mouth, shocked. I hurriedly picked up both of my swords as I ran to the stage. It seemed like the presenter had called my name twice already.

“Shuraina West! Where’s West?! She was just there before, right?!”

“Hey, hurry up and look for her! She couldn’t have hid because she didn’t want to do it, right?”

“If it’s Shuraina, it’s possible! But she can’t!”

Behind the stage, all of the students presenting were in a panic because of my sudden disappearance. I hurriedly walked towards them.

“Sorry I’m late.”

“Shuraina! You’re late. Hurry up and get o…….. Huh?”

“The presenter’s making dirty jokes and trying to give you more tim………Holy shit.”

The students frowned and turned to me at my voice, then suddenly looked out of it. I hunched over, waiting for the barrage of insults that I thought were going to come my way, but everyone just wordlessly looked me up and down.

“H-hurry up and go ahead……please.”

The students all looked out of it as their tones became polite.

I was a bit taken aback by the students who suddenly became polite, but I was the wrongdoer, so I just headed up on stage.

Everyone’s reactions to my dolled up face were weird, so I held up the see-through fabric and put it on like a veil as I headed up. When I hid my face behind my makeshift veil, people glanced at me less. I was very pleased.

“Who has any leftover recording devices~.”

“Did something happen to Shuraina? She’s taking a while.”

“It looks like she’s coming out soon, though? Isn’t that Shushu’s foot? That’s a pretty anklet.”

“Oh, you’re right. I just wish the presenter will stop making those stupid jokes of his.”

Thanks to how long the stage had been empty, the crowd was extremely loud.

The presenter saw that I was ready to come up on stage and shot me an elated smile. He looked shocked for a moment when he saw my face covered by the veil, but soon introduced me to the crowd.

“Shuraina West is done with her preparations! Now, swordsmanship class representative, please come forward!”

The presenter tapped my arm and told me good luck, then ran behind the stage. I didn’t know what he had been doing before, but the entire crowd was completely exasperated.

But as soon as they were told that the next presentation would happen soon, all of them became lively again. They were glaring at the presenter as he ran away, but they looked warm and welcoming when I came out.

“We! All! Love! You! Our! Goddess! Our princess* West!”

The crowd was….a bit too excited, more than cold and angry.

The festival’s ‘final presentation’ was something that only the students could enjoy, so it was much more free than the other kinds of presentations throughout the festival.

A group of male students from the swordsmanship class had their hands linked on their shoulders as they rocked left and right and chanted my name like a mantra.

The group of students cheering my name were friends of Eric’s and Patrick’s–students who were famous for being bad. Behind them, Swanhaden watched them carefully with his arms crossed. When I came out, he looked to my side before turning his head back.

Thank goodness I was covering my face with the veil. To be completely honest, I didn’t have the mental fortitude to do this bare-faced, which was why I had prepared the mask. Hazel had snatched it away, though.

Anyway, I was covering my face, so nobody could see it become red.

I now understood why Cory had asked if he could use effects. Multi-colored magical lights made me shine brighter and more colorfully. I thought I had heard fireworks when I appeared–it seemed like he had used fireworks. I couldn’t see it because of my veil, though. Anyway, it was chaos.

The front row was the loudest. The front row seemed to be pretty wide, but there were only familiar faces in that spot. Everyone else took their seat from the second row and back. I wondered why it was so loud, but Hestia’s and the swordsmanship boys’ cheers were something else.

“Shuraina’s up on stage presenting…….”

Hestia even looked touched. Hestia looked like she had an issue with how I had covered my face with a veil, but she cheered loudly and told me that my outfit was beautiful.

I nervously raised my hand amidst the loud cheers. When I tried to move, Swanhaden chucked a shoe at the students and told them to shut up. At Swanhaden’s order, they immediately quieted down and focused on me.

I felt like my mind was going blank, but I blinked my eyes wide open to concentrate as much as I could.

When I raised my hand into the air and pulled, the devices that had the music I would be using slowly came towards me. When the performance was about to begin, the area grew incredibly quiet. Cory had even stopped munching on his snacks.

There were a total of seven music devices, and they had been programmed to play the music I had saved whenever I touched or destroyed the devices. The music would grow more and more expansive as I destroyed each of the devices.

Bam!

I destroyed the device closest to me with my sword, signaling the start of my dance.

With the sound of the device shattering into pieces, a rhythmic beat filled the hall. Boom, boom, bo-boom, boom! My body moved with the beat and my sword moved as well. The beat started slow, then soon began to go faster.

The only sound accompanying me was the beat, so I moved powerfully and with precision at the beginning. My steps were wide as my attacks flew towards the invisible enemy, moves wide and open. I swayed to the rhythm as I moved.

When the first dance ended, I approached the second device. It was just about when the beat was growing old.

Bam!

After a long time of dancing, I destroyed the second device on an off-beat. This time, the melody of the song began to flow. The off-beat rhythm flowing shifted my movements and the flow of the dance. Whenever I moved, the flowy parts of the dress followed after a beat and chased my form.

Sword dancing had to do two things: it needed to show the movements of the sword, and it needed to do its job as a performance and as a dance, so there were a lot of needless movements included in the dance. For example, body waves and head movements. After adding a lot of different elements in the dance, it kind of reminded me of when I danced in costume for my jobs in my past life. …Never mind. This was probably a lot more elegant.

Bam! Bam!

I destroyed two more devices and added more of the melody and the beat to the music. The music grew more and more expansive, and the people grew louder and louder. It was full of excitement, almost on the brink of chaos. People were excited because of the festival, and the music was loud and exciting. Maybe it was also because of the dance? Anyway, people were waving their arms in excitement.

“Shushu! Shushu! Shushu! Shushu!”“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

I couldn’t see well because of the veil, but the people in the front row were so loud that I could almost physically feel the excitement. There seemed to be a huge commotion, but I had to focus more on my dance than the commotion so I tried to ignore it as best I could.

The excitement had wavered slightly, and it was right then, when the exciting music was about to turn more soulful.

I needed to hit the device that would slow down the music, so I had stepped over another device and stretched my arm high–that was when it happened.

Everything was fine when I hit the device that would slow the music down.

“……damn.”

The problem was that the veil that had hidden my face all this time had slid back.

The fabric that had been hiding my face had slid off of my shoulder, and I was forced to expose my face.

My vision grew clearer and I could see each and every one of the people in the crowd. The music had already slowed down. The music wasn’t completely slow, but the beat was much slower than earlier.

I couldn’t stay shocked–I hurriedly continued my movements. This was the most embarrassing pose, which made my current situation suck.

The only thing that had changed in the equation was my embarrassment, so I just bit my lip slightly as I continued my dance.

As soon as the slow music began to play, the chaos from earlier quieted down. The sound of cheers and my name being called became quiet, hushed whispers. I felt like the mood had shifted weirdly when my veil disappeared, so I couldn’t help but hunch slightly. I was kind of nervous, but the sheer amount of practice I had done ensured that my body continued to move without a hitch.

When my vision became completely clear, I was finally able to take a look at my surroundings. I looked around the crowd and tried to figure out why everyone was so quiet.

The first thing I was able to see were the familiar faces in the front row. Hestia, who had been cheering loudly and screaming her voice hoarse, was completely quiet. Her face looked like Hazel’s face from earlier.

Cory, who had been quietly cheering me on from his seat, had stopped moving and was just staring at me. Next to him, Hylli continued to drink out of an empty cup. He was biting his cup with his bunny costume head next to him. He looked shocked.

Anyway, everyone was staring at me with a bit too much thought. Yves, who had finished his school tour, had joined the crowd and was watching me with his chin resting on the armrest in front of him. He wasn’t staring at me with a glazed look in his eyes like the others, but he still looked more surprised than before.

Swanhaden seemed like he had been near Yves earlier, but he was gone when I tried to look for him. He was gone, and the only thing I could see to prove that he was there were the recording devices he had brought earlier floating in midair. I wondered if he had gone to the restroom.

I had barely been dancing properly because of how embarrassed I was from the veil revealing myself.

When the slow beat of the music grew faster once again, the hushed whispers had also calmed down. But when the tempo grew faster, the cheers became deafening.