Chapter 50

CHAPTER 1 And Then, I Was Forgotten “Heh… Well, that was a raging success!” After literally every imaginable thing went wrong, all the presidential candidates had wrapped up their speeches. As soon as they stepped foot in the student council room, Luna had dared to declare her victory. “You call that a success, Your Majesty?” Rintarou grumbled, facing a desktop computer and gripping the mouse with a gloomy expression. He was noiselessly working on something. “Can you point me to the part where we had even the smallest of wins? Spell it out for your stupid vassal, please…” “Don’t you get it?! Making any impression is a good impression!” Luna thrust her finger right in front of Rintarou’s nose. “After all this, I imagine I’ll be the only thing in their little heads!” “I think they’ve just about had their fill of you.” “Heh-heh-heh! Did you see that?! The other poor candidates can’t touch me! None of them stood out, and I don’t think any of the students will be able to remember their names or faces!” “I think you’re a little touched.” “Plus, all their platforms were so unoriginal and self-serving: ‘Beautifying the campus’? ‘Setting up a suggestion box’? I can’t believe they think they stand a chance!” “How are you going to keep your promises? Pledging to implement three-day weekends and abolish midterm tests might give you an advantage…but there’s no way you could actually make that happen.” “You’re so stupid! I, Luna Artur, would never lie! I will make it happen… Watch me…! …But remember, I didn’t specify a timeline to those suckers. In other words…I have a decade…or two…to deliver on my promises…!” “W-O-W.” “I mean, politicians lie about their platforms every day! History hasn’t taught us anything. Shame on you if you’re fooled! So, no problem!” “Let’s not even go there…” “Plus, I imagine no one is brainless enough to vote for me for my campaign! The most important thing is to show them I can bring them a big spectacle! Don’t you get it?! They’re voting for my potential!” “Well, I guess I get that, in theory…” “If you get it, hurry up and finish your work! Chop-chop! Have you finished the posters I asked for?!” Looking annoyed, Rintarou flicked his gaze back to the monitor. The image-editing software displayed an election poster with a photo of Luna. Her image had been heavily edited, smoothed, and enhanced with his skills. Since she was already pretty, she looked like a goddess in this picture. In fact, she was 120 percent more beautiful than before. In the photo, Luna was clad in a bathing suit, as if this were completely normal, flashing a sexy pose to make the pubescent boys go wild. She was weaponizing her looks for this poster—a calculated move. “I guess it’s too late for this, but are you sure you want to go this far…?” Rintarou cringed as he looked at his hideous creation. This nasty poster was like one of Michelangelo’s masterpieces: something that transcended time and space to capture the souls of people. It was like an optical illusion, ready to suck in the viewer if presented the opportunity. “Hey! That’s pretty good! Not too shabby, Rintarou, for a work in progress!” “What?! What else do you want me to do?!” “Huh?! Are you totally clueless? Boobs—duh! Huge honkers! You might as well make ’em bigger!” “Oh, come on! You’ve gotta be kidding! Since when are you a scam artist?!” “Someone has got a big mouth! The bigger the boobs, the better, obviously! Boobs always win! Some like ’em small, others might like ’em perky, but most men love a huge rack—statistically speaking! It’s the undeniable truth! Capisce? Now, get back to editing! I’m sure you can do it, Rintarou!” “Uh, well…I guess…I can, but…” “I trust you! I’ve got to go connect with the people! I think it’s time for me to get on the good side of the girls, too! Okay, student council! Roll out and round up some hot guys!” ““““Aye, aye!”””” With Luna as their leader, the members marched out of the room like a stampede. The space was finally quiet. “Aaaah…,” Rintarou sighed, swiveling back to face the screen. With his hand on the mouse, he started to work on editing Luna’s chest. Click-click-click… The room was silent save for his clicking mouse and the scratching of his pen as it slid across the tablet. He added a new layer over her boobs and got to work rendering. “…” The presidential election for the next term had been sprung on them, and Rintarou had found himself slowly dragged into the campaign, forced to participate in these incomprehensible activities. Look at him now: Even if this was just a picture, he’d been reduced to fiddling with the chest of a female student and friend… “What the hell am I even doing?!” Crash! Rintarou flung the mouse at a wall, letting out his inner voice. “Now, now, Rintarou. Calm down.” “That’s right. Those who are short to wrath have a short path.” Felicia and Sir Gawain patted him on the back. She was in their school uniform, and he was dressed in a suit. “Wait… Why are you here?!” “We used magic to create an illusion that we’re a student and teacher at Camelot High and infiltrated this school,” Felicia explained. “That’s right. At the request of your liege…Luna. It was a job for someone who could carry out their activities in secret without drawing anyone’s attention. And who better than us?” “…A request from Luna? …Huh. I guess she’s not just some ditz. She comes in clutch when we need her.” Rintarou smirked. “Seeing how things have gone, I was suspicious about that…about the chance that someone at this school is pulling the strings of the King Arthur Succession Battle… Huh. Luna must have asked you guys to investigate. I guess I was wrong—” “Our role is to slink around the school, stealthily pull down the posters of the other candidates, and put up Luna’s picture in their place!” “It would be horrible if anyone witnesses us! We must accomplish this in secret!” “—Fine! I was the idiot for thinking she’s changed!” Rintarou wailed, clutching his head. “Hee-hee-hee! Luna is so generous! She said she would reward us with a whole ten cents per poster removed!” “That’s right! With that, we can earn six dollars in a day! Which secures us a proper meal tonight, my liege!” “Absolutely! Oh, bless you, Luna!” “…Heh-heh-heh… Oh, that’s weird… Why is the monitor all blurry?” Rintarou was trying to hold back his tears after seeing master and servant genuinely ecstatic in front of him. “So we have to go fulfill her request!” “It’s a hard quest, but…we’ll get the job done—as if our knighthood and kinghood depends on it!” “Yes! Posthaste!” Felicia and Sir Gawain charged out of the student council room in high spirits. “Ahhhh…,” Rintarou sighed, watching the two go from the corner of his eye. Geez… We don’t have time for this crap… Alone in the room once more, Rintarou picked up his mouse and went back to work. Click-click, it went, as he was lost in thought. At the moment, the King Arthur Succession Battle was progressing on this man-made island of New Avalon. It would end with an enormous magical ceremony to revive King Arthur in the modern day. This was all to prepare for the Catastrophe—the impending apocalypse that would end all humanity. Luna was one of the eleven Kings participating in the battle for the throne, and Rintarou was advising her as a vassal. It had already been a month, which meant there had been some major developments. Mr. Kujou and Sir Lancelot’s faction had been crushed. Emma and Sir Lamorak’s group had been suppressed. Hitoshi Kataoka and Sir Tristan had been subdued. Reika Tsukuyomi and Sir Dinadan’s faction had been driven away. Who would have imagined Luna and Sir Kay—the weakest group at the beginning of the battle—would manage these life-and-death fights against the strongest candidates? It was practically a miracle. I’m not naive enough to think we’re the only ones battling the Kings… I imagine others are fighting each other somewhere on this island… Maybe other factions have been eliminated… Rintarou had requested the fairies living on the island collect information on his behalf. According to them, Ainz and Sir Bedivere had already dropped out after sustaining attacks from Hitoshi’s faction. Eleven Kings in total. We know four of them have been removed from battle, which means we have seven to go. Subtract our temporary ally, Felicia, and Reika, who’s MIA, and we have five Kings left. If they’ve been engaged in battle like us…we should have less than half of the Kings vying for the throne… In which case, the succession battle would move on to the next phase. The crux of this King Arthur Succession Battle was the quest for the four treasures. King Arthur’s four treasures are the Spade, Club, Diamond, and Heart—the Holy Sword, the Holy Spear, the Holy Stone, and the Holy Grail. The one who succeeds in obtaining all four will become the Last Round Arthur… In other words, the real fight is excavating these treasures and hijacking each other in the process… Up until then, there hadn’t been any sign of this quest beginning. His best guess was that the number of participants had to sink below a certain threshold. He was very close to confirming his theory. In other words, this was just the preliminaries. Now we’ll start the real thing…with the announcement of the quest. Moving forward, the fights would only intensify. After all, the four treasures were artifacts that concealed terrific powers. Having the advantage of a single one could be the difference between winning or losing. As if they didn’t have enough to think about, there seemed to be a witch scheming behind the scenes of this fight… And these suspicious antics were only increasing as the battle progressed. Even if he tried, Rintarou couldn’t predict the future. We need to get serious…and figure out our next moves, in which we’re careful but bold… One mistake could cost us our lives… He clicked the mouse. “…” The monitor displayed Luna’s poster, which he had just finished touching up. He didn’t realize her breasts had become so big. He could practically hear them go boiiing from the screen. The final edit was flawless—looking so natural, it was hard to believe it was edited. Rintarou regarded his own work with half-closed eyes… “What the hell am I doing…?” …Eventually, he slammed his face onto the desk. With no audience to hear him, he was stuck in a cycle of his own thoughts. “Good job, Rintarou.” Someone set down a steaming cup of tea in front of his nose. His eyes flicked up. “Nayuki?” When had she come back? Nayuki Fuyuse, the chief secretary of the student council, stood in front of him. She smiled gently. “Ah-ha-ha. You look exhausted…” “I am exhausted. Why is this my job…?” Rintarou pointed at the screen. “…Uh… That’s a whole lot of chest…,” Nayuki observed, peeking at the image and flushing red. She smiled at him, looking troubled. “Um… I suppose…you like busty girls, Rintarou…?” “What?!” “Well, these things can reflect the preferences of the editor… Oh, that’s too bad… I’m afraid I don’t really have much to offer… Waah…” Nayuki pretended to sniffle. “Hoooold it! Let’s quit the jokes! This was Luna’s bidding! It’s got nothing to do with me!” As Rintarou desperately tried to make excuses for himself, Nayuki playfully stuck out her tongue at him. Even though they’d only just met, they’d really warmed up to each other. Sometimes, it felt like they were old friends. For some reason, Rintarou just got along with Nayuki. “Anyway! Why am I stuck with the job of fiddling with digital boobs? Am I some filthy pervert? Dammit! I should be gathering information on the surviving factions! Or uncovering more intel on the treasure quests! There’s other stuff I should be doing! Right?!”