CH 325.1

The main auditorium which became the venue for the regular practical exam. There are seats for the players by the wall.

(She looks so happy.)

This thought belongs to the girl wearing a crimson butterfly mask. She is now sitting with her arms and legs crossed and her chair tilted backward.

Black Tights-chan has made it through the second round and is now in the top four. She must be relieved because it means that she can participate in the training of the knight order.

(The next one is my turn huh.)

Hearing her own name gets called, the Plain Queen left her seat. The next one to leave their seat is a short-haired male student with a fierce face.

He was the opponent for the second round. The two of them are going out of here, but only one of the two can go back.

「Begin!」

The referee announced after he confirmed that the male student has arrived at the simulation cockpit.

At the same time, the short-haired boy made the Knight step across the ground and push his rectangular shield in front of him.

(Of course, he would do that.)

The starting position is already in the whip range. It is no wonder that the opponent chose to close the distance while fortifying his defenses instead.

A flash of the whip was thrown sideways to catch him, but the short-haired boy avoided it by hovering in mid-air. Without killing his speed, the short-haired man came at her, drawing a parabolic line.

(As expected from a team that made it through to the first round. Not like the scarecrows from earlier matches.)

The Plain Queen compared him to the Smirking Boy, who was defeated after she destroyed both his Knight’s elbows and knees without being able to move a single step.

However, there was no sense of crisis in her expression, and she swung the whip again to intercept him. But at that moment, her composure evaporates.

(……!)

The face under the mask is contorted in anger and the arm swinging the whip is changed from a simple vertical swing to a horizontal swing like a letter 八.

Immediately after, a barrage of high-speed strikes, incomparable to the first blow, struck the short-haired boy. The tip of the whip, breaking through the speed of sound, shoots out a sound like a machine gun that breaks the eardrums.

「Match over!」

Unable to break through the flak barrage, the short-haired male student’s miniature Knight fell to the ground directly below him and became motionless. Seeing this, the instructor acting as the referee raised one hand and declared the end of the match.

「Ah, hey you! Give your respect bow first!」

The referee yelled at the Plain Queen, but she just ignored him and went straight to the players’ seats.

She sat down on a seat by the wall, held her face with both hands over her mask, and began mumbling to herself.

(I screwed up, I let my guard down.)

Why is this so upsetting for her? And just what did the short-haired boy do to make her so upset?

(Gourmet of Gold. Even though I’ve tried not to look at him this whole time….)

The answer is this. The moment the short-haired boy’s Knight leaped into the air, he brought the honored guests’ seats behind him into view.

The special play that had previously taken place between her and the knight commander with the Kaiser mustache had left a deep and unhealed wound in her heart.

(My head–! My head hurts!)

The butterfly mask shook her head from side to side and the Black Tights-chan saw it and looked at her in puzzlement.

They are the only two students here. The other students are away for the match.

In the midst of all this, the Plain Queen’s thoughts go back to her origins, when she was just Plain-chan.

『Her twin brothers who have caught a common cold.』

This is the start of everything.

Her brothers were feverish and groaning painfully in their beds. The neighborhood healer who took turns examining them said, 『They will soon recover as long as they take nourishment and rest.』

However, Plain-chan could not bear to watch, and she wanted to use a higher rank of healing magic.

(I have to do something to get the money…)

It makes sense that the higher rank will cost more money.

However, despite being on the fringes, Plain-chan sits on the platform of a top-class brothel, Cassabell. There is no doubt that she is well paid.

Therefore, many of you may have wondered. After all, there was a circumstance behind it.

『Education for her twin brothers.』

This was the reason.

The family of Plain-chan is running a food stall in the downtown area. Originally, they would have sent them to a nearby, more ordinary school, just as she did.

「This job, please let me take it.」

Plain-chan, who was in need of a way to get some money, immediately went to her working place and requested the concierge.

It was a special order, one that had a high reward, but no one wanted to take it.

「Are you really sure? No, before that, do you understand properly what it says?」

The concierge, who could not believe his ears, asked her three times back then.

『Shown the way you serve it, watch when it was eaten, and listen to the reviews.』

The job description in a nutshell goes something like this.

「It’s okay. I just have to endure it a little bit, that’s all. Besides, I really need the money.」

With a strong light in her eyes, Plain-chan looked straight at the concierge. The concierge had no choice but to approve after looking at her determination.

「To think I would get the job as soon as I accepted it… I’m surprised, but it’s a good thing.」

Plain-chan thinks as she walks down the hallway leading to the suite for the play.

Less than an hour has passed since she accepted the order. And to her surprise, the customer decided to go to Cassabell immediately after hearing the news from the messenger.

(I’ll have the healer come as soon as I get home after this job.)

The reward was to be paid later. Since that was the condition, she wishes this is going to be a quick play.

(With this, I hope my brothers will be able to sleep soundly tonight.)

The two boys will recover from their illnesses, and she will forget about the 『Special Job』 and they will return to their normal lives with smiles on their faces.

That was what she thought at the time.

(Just how long will I remain his prisoner? Release me, Gourmet of Gold!)

At this point, we return from the past Plain-chan to the present Plain Queen who wears a butterfly mask. But this cry of the heart would be a false accusation.

(I know. I am the one who is to blame. I didn’t think it through, but…)

The look in the other person’s eyes when he ‘ate’ what she served. That light in those eyes that says, 『I know everything about you』 is something that she will never allow herself to forget.

The Plain Queen raised her face, which had been looking down all this time, and for the first time looked directly at the commander of the knight order in the honored guest’s seat.

(If I don’t settle things with you, I will never be able to take a step forward. I don’t care if it’s a grudge, I’m going to do it.)

She suddenly felt suffocated, but then she tried taking a deep breath and repeated it.

「Silence, the darkness in my heart! It is not yet time!」

The Plain Queen said as she placed one hand on her chest and squeezed it.

Black Tights-chan who was staring at her no longer had a dubious look in her eyes as she had earlier. But instead, there was a glint of understanding and more than that, a sense of wariness.

(I see. So that’s why she suddenly became so strong.)

Black Tights-chan gave a nod of understanding in her heart. She had lumped the unstable state of the Plain Queen on top of her own special moves.

『Middle-aged men crawled into her bed at night and enjoys her to their heart contents.』

It was the imaginary world inside the mind of Black Tights-chan. By being submerged in this world in her mind, she is able to draw out a great amount of magic power, albeit only temporarily.

By the way, this is a 『Last Resort』. Therefore, she has not told anyone about it.

(Then, she shouldn’t be able to use it for long either.)

She crossed her arms in front of her not-so-rich chest and put one hand on her chin as she thought.

The price of this magic boost is the exhaustion of her rationality. If she were to go to the imaginary world repeatedly within a short period of time, she would lose consciousness as her body would arch back and forth with an uncontrollable scream.

Just like when she was trained by her instructor in the brothel.

(That means there’s a way to win this.)

The slender Black Tights-chan continued making up theories in her head. However, that is not the correct answer.

Unlike her, Plain-chan has a large amount of magic power, to begin with.

『By switching her personalities, she is able to unleash her true ability.』

This would be the better way to explain it. There is definitely some mental exhaustion, but not as much as Black Tights-chan thought it would be.

On the other hand, the Plain Queen had no time to worry about her black-haired classmate. With beads of sweat on her forehead, she opened her slanted, distorted mouth.

(Someday, someday surely will come a moment for payback. Until then, we should wait.)

Although he’s infamous as the Gourmet of Gold, the Kaiser Mustache is also the knight commander of the knight order. He is an important individual in the nation.

If she were to attack him using her whip, what awaits her would be the destruction of her family.

That’s why she finds it impossible to break from the chain binding her heart.

(Just once is okay, I want to have the chance to fight him.)

Preferably in the brothel.

Whip him, throw him with verbal abuses, and make him scream profusely with a high-temperature candle for advanced customers. Finally, with a pinwheel smack in his back, her heart would be saved.

But the Gourmet of Gold will not visit Cassabell for 『Sin and Punishment』.

(As I thought, is fighting using Knight the only way?)

Imagining the power of the pinnacle of the kingdom’s military prowess, the Plain Queen bites her lip hard with a sad expression on her face.

But she shook her hair as if to brush the gloom away, and then looked up again and turned her piercing gaze toward the center of the honored guest’s seat.

(The me now is different from the me in the past. I even beat the Grim Reaper in the Divine Tournament in the Holy City.)

A real battle using a Knight would be very different from fighting in bed. Moreover, she is still just a student, and her opponent is a warrior who has fought many battles.

(I may not be able to do it now, but I swear I will catch up and surpass him eventually. You better prepare yourself.)

And thus, she managed to regain her composure.

Soon after, a soft-spoken female student appeared in the players’ seat. After a short pause, another female student with a cold look and a lack of expression also took her seat.

Apparently, the Jayanne duo, Light Cruiser-sensei, and Cool-san had just won their matches, just as it had been announced earlier.

『The second round has finished, and we have the top four players for the semifinals. It will start in the afternoon after a break.』

The hall was filled with the sound of the voice amplified with magic.

This was followed by the noise of the audience talking to each other and the sound of chairs being pulled out in various places. It was the same in the players’ seats.