I Reject Quests

Exquisite Immemorial Palace.

In a certain room of the grand Palace, an old man was watching her granddaughter with admiration and a doting look in his eyes.

"Ayame is looking as great as ever." Looking at his angel of a granddaughter, he couldn't help but comment.

"Really?" Hearing her grandfather's compliment, Princess Ayame has a sweet smile on her face. "Can I request something, grandfather?"

The old man's eyes became serious. "If you want to participate in the event, then I have to deny this request."

Princess Ayame pouted her small mouth. She walked to her grandfather and swayed his hands. "Come on… please?"

The old man didn't budge. "No. If you want anything else, I could give it to you."

"You are so hateful!" Throwing a little tantrum, she went out of the room.

Looking at the back of his granddaughter, the old man sighed. 

*Swish*

Behind him, a tall man wearing black with a mask appeared. He was the kind of guy who shouts - "I'm an assassin" without verbally telling anyone.

"Your Majesty, is this alright?" The man in black half knelt near the old man.

"Follow her. She is one heck of a troublemaker. Make sure that she doesn't enter the competition by any means." The old man said in a commanding tone, completely unlike the time he was talking to his granddaughter.

"As you wish."

***

It was noon. The sun was…

'Ah, forget it. I'm too tired to even narrate how tired I am.' Rewen was someone who couldn't handle heat.

"Are you fine?" Hase didn't know why the young man beside him was sighing from time to time.

"I'm fine. Just a little heat intolerant. Can I buy an umbrella?" Rewen's eyes spotted a shop.

"Sure." Hase nodded.

Reza, who stood behind the two of them, didn't like something. "Heh! A weak fatass like you would always be a weak fatass."

'Is that supposed to mean anything?' Rewen didn't want to retort because his mind was too preoccupied with the thought of heat.

Some time later.

Holding an umbrella above his head, Rewen felt a little comfortable. 

"Remember, you are not allowed to enter the Palace with an umbrella on top of your head." Hase reminded him in goodwill.

"What a bullshit law." Rewen cursed without any regards.

Hase was about to berate him but then he remembered that the other party was a Central Noble. His family's prestige might not be any lower than the Royal Family of the Nation of Bandits.

Reza snorted.

Ten minutes later, the trio finally arrived at the Palace.

Rewen wasn't particularly shocked looking at the Palace. 'It looks good. Covers round three training grounds with three floors. Rather than a Palace, it looks more like a place where government meetings are held periodically. But hey, who am I to complain? Maybe it's the culture. Come to think of it, I haven't really visited my own family's Palace.'

"Shocked, eh?" Seeing that Rewen didn't say anything, Hase assumed that he was shocked and chuckled.

"Of course, he is shocked. A fatass like him deserves to be shocked." The gentle lady grinded her teeth. Somehow, looking at this fellow is enough to make her mad.

"Uh, yeah. By the way, is everyone that is coming here participants?" When Rewen looked around, he only saw youngsters entering the Palace. Not a single person from the old generation could be seen.

"Indeed. Only youngsters at the time of yearly event and the Old King's family are allowed to enter the Palace."

"Why is that so?"

"I don't know." Hase shook his head. 

"So there are things you don't know of?" Rewen said in a joking tone.

Hase lightly laughed. "There are many things I don't know about. The reason I could answer your questions is because they are basic stuff."

"Are you telling me that I'm the one who is stupid?"

"You only realized it now?"

"HAHAHA!"

"HAHAHA!"

Seeing them laugh and joke with each other made Reza frown. "Stupid. Laugh later. Let's enter. The celebration is about to start."

"Why don't you go first? Isn't Princess Ayame your friend?"

"Who's Princess Ayame?" Rewen asked.

"She's the granddaughter of the Old King."

"Oh, it's a nice name." 

"Hmph! A fatass like you can never understand a name!" Reza snorted and walked away from the two.

Rewen's face wasn't very good because of her annoying personality. He isn't a saint. If it were not for the fact that he is living under her father's roof, he wouldn't have held back.

"Rewen, I hope you can forgive her. She has always been like this." Hase could only wryly smile. On one side was his cousin. On the other was a Noble from the Central.

"It's fine. Let's go." Rewen slightly nodded.

***

Meanwhile, Reza made her way to meet up with her friends.

"Reza!"

Two girls waved at her from a distance. She recognized the two of them. The one standing at the right was the beautiful Princess Ayame and the one in the left was a Noble Lady she was close friends with.

"You both look absolutely stunning." Unlike the time with Hase and Rewen, the Reza right now was full of smiles.

"I'm the one who should say that." Princess Ayame smiled.

"Listen, Reza. Did you hear what happened?" The other Noble Lady jumped with impatience.

"What happened, Mari?"

"The Old King wouldn't let Ayame participate in the competition!" 

"How can that be?" Reza's face was full of disbelief. "After all the planning we did…"

It had to be known that Ayame and her group of friends had set up an alliance even before the competition began. Coming up with all sorts of tricks, planning and strategies over the phone. It was even set that the winner of this year's competition would be Ayame.

"What's wrong, all of you? Why are your faces looking so dull?"

Another two girls who arrived just now joined the conversation.

"It's like this…" Mari explained the entire situation to her friends.

"This is a huge problem!" Her friends exclaimed.

While everyone was stressing out, Reza suddenly said. "I have a plan!"

***

Main Hall.

Rewen was occasionally eating a bit of everything without getting embarrassed. 'I mean, I'm not the only one who is doing so.'

[How did the first volume feel?]

All of the sudden, the system asked an abrupt question.

'The story was good. The reality wasn't.'

[A good story is made out of tragedies.]

'I disagree. The entire Academy except for a couple of students shouldn't have been killed. If the objective of the sub-humans was to spread the evidence of their existence, they didn't have to kill absolutely everyone. Not to mention, they didn't give the nine students a way out. If it wasn't for Koshikawa's quick wits, the group would have been dead. So that's a plot hole.'

[Are you criticizing the story when you haven't even read one-tenth of it?]

'A good story is one where it hooks the readers from the beginning. And no, it's not like I hate the story or anything. If I want to make something of my argument, it would be nitpicking. All I'm saying that I have stayed in this world enough to consider this real and I don't want to see illogical things happening.'