Chapter 44: Only Popular people like cultural festivals

One of the biggest events in high school: the cultural festival.

Each class and club creates and presents a piece of content to showcase to many people.

It’s the very essence of the genre of youth stories that includes manga, anime, and light novels.

But for an introverted loser like me, just hearing about the cultural festival is enough to make me feel annoyed.

Excitement? There’s no way I’d feel that.

After all, during the preparation period, I end up taking on all the hard work, and on the day of the festival, I can’t refuse requests, so I end up working non-stop without any break. Even if I do get a break, I have no friends to hang out with, so I’d just spend my time alone in some empty corner.

For someone like me, a professional introverted loser, wandering around alone isn’t a burden, but I don’t even feel the need to do so.

Well, the conclusion is that for an introverted loser, the cultural festival is just another school event without any emotion or happiness.

If there’s any advantage, it might just be that there are no classes…

“Alright! What should our class do for the cultural festival on October 26th and 27th? Anyone with opinions, feel free to speak up!”

Standing at the podium in front of the class, Miyauchi called out loudly.

Beside her were the homeroom teacher and the vice president, standing quietly, and behind the three of them was a sign that read, “Cultural Festival Preparation!”

The atmosphere in the classroom was the complete opposite of Miyauchi’s words urging everyone to speak freely.

Silence filled with everyone avoiding each other’s gazes.

Well, sharing opinions in this situation is more burdensome than it seems.

As a professional introverted loser, I know this well.

“Me! Me! I have a great idea!”

And the first to break the atmosphere was our class’s top socialite, Tateyama.

She seemed really excited about the cultural festival, her eyes sparkling with a big smile.

Was she quiet not out of pressure but in search of a good idea?

“How about a gender-swapping cosplay café?”

“…What?”

The voice that echoed in disbelief—whose could it possibly be?

It probably wasn’t just one person’s.

Looking around, most of my classmates, regardless of gender, appeared to be struggling to understand what they just heard.

“It was in the manga that Satchin showed us last time! The boys dress in maid outfits, and the girls in butler outfits, serving the customers at a café!”

“Huh? Haru?! You said that was a secret!”

“Who on earth would want to do something like that?!”

“Look at those guys in maid outfits; that’s totally torture…”

Thanks to Tateyama’s remark, the slightly hesitant atmosphere vanished completely, and a variety of opinions began to emerge.

However, in the end, our class decided to go with Tateyama’s initial suggestion of a cosplay café.

But the choice of whether to wear a butler or maid outfit was left up to each person.

What was I doing, you ask?

Naturally, I was using the power of my alias “Time Killer” to kill time without any thoughts.

I’ve recently discovered that if I recite the Heart Sutra in my mind, time passes incredibly quickly.

Isn’t that impressive?

The local monk must have been the first time killer in history.

How admirable…

As if it were only natural, Kayano was the first to leave the classroom as soon as class ended.

But among the remaining members of class 1-A, no one thought to stop her.

A little while later, Tateyama stood up, opened the back door, and peeked outside.

“Yep. She went down.”

Tateyama saw Kayano going down the stairs and returned to her seat.

“So, what do you want to say, Miyauchi?”

“Um, um.”

After taking a breath in response to Tateyama’s question, Miyauchi opened her mouth.

“As you all know, the preparation for the cultural festival starts tomorrow. So I wanted to decide in advance… What should we do about Kayano?”

No one could speak after Miyauchi’s words.

Kayano Mina.

The girl in class 1-A at Shiodome High School who always seems to stand out yet is at the center of attention.

For everyone in class 1-A, who consciously keeps their distance from her, that question was exceedingly cruel.

“Of course, we can’t exclude Kayano from the preparations for the cultural festival.”

Miyauchi’s statement was the voice of reason, and everyone remaining nodded in agreement.

“But Kayano’s been acting strangely lately, hasn’t she? Of course, it’s been over two weeks since it happened, but if something truly bad happened to her, maybe we should consider being accommodating.”

“What do you mean by accommodating?”

The question in response to Miyauchi’s statement came from the vice president, Okusa.

“Hmm. I think the best option might be to assign her tasks that she can complete quickly and easily by herself so she can go home early.”

“That’s not a bad idea, for sure.”

…Of course, objectively speaking, it was nonsense.

In a cultural festival where everyone is supposed to work together to create something wonderful, granting special treatment to just one person, no matter what circumstances they might have, is unacceptable.

Especially since we couldn’t even confirm whether there was a real problem.

As the class representative, it was definitely a choice that should not be made, and it would be normal for someone to oppose it.

…But that was only true in typical situations; Kayano’s circumstances in class 1-A were far from normal.

She was a beautiful girl who made classmates naturally look away when she walked by.

And that beautiful girl always exuded a cold atmosphere, as if she refused anyone who approached her.

Overwhelmed by that atmosphere, no one dared to approach her personally, and this situation had persisted for six months now.

Eventually, all of class 1-A began to feel a sense of guilt.

Was it our fault that Kayano felt isolated in class because we didn’t think to approach her first?

No matter how cold the atmosphere was, that didn’t mean it was acceptable to isolate a classmate.

Was it okay to let this continue for three years in the same class?

We could have been a little closer to Kayano.

Such thoughts had quietly settled in everyone’s hearts.

And that guilt ultimately led to this situation.

“Completely not assigning her any work would be unreasonable, right?”

“Yeah. And even if it were possible, I wouldn’t want to do that. Kayano is also a member of class 1-A. If we completely don’t assign her any work, it would surely make her feel lonelier. I hope she has at least some memories of enjoying the cultural festival with us.”

“That’s true.”

“Alright. Then let’s ask Kayano to help with making flyers and some simple decorations!”

“Wow!”

[Reading Maikaron! #StarsFlow #KainoIzumi #ChatBroadcast]

“Konozumi… the, the atmosphere maker, Kaino Izumi…”

• Hiizumi!
• Why do you look so tired?

“B-busy with things…”

Starting tomorrow, I’ll have to stay at school much later due to the cultural festival preparations.

I have to stay longer than usual at school, surrounded by those scary socialites.

Just imagining it was exhausting.

“Hmm. From tomorrow, I think my broadcast time will be late…”

=Coke JP¥ 5,000: How late do you think it will be? You’re not going to skip broadcasting entirely, right?

“Coke, thanks for the hyper chat. I think I’ll probably start around 9 PM, and it’ll be a maximum of two hours…?”

When I usually get home, it’s around 4:30 PM. Even on cleaning duty, I never stay past 5 PM.

So, my usual broadcast time on weekdays is around 6 PM.

But if the cultural festival preparations start, I’ll be staying at school at least until 5 PM.

Even if I hurry home, it’ll definitely be past 6 PM.

By the time I wash up and eat dinner, it’ll naturally be around 8 PM.

That means no matter how quickly I start the broadcast, it’ll be after 8:30 PM.

If I continue to accommodate requests from those around me, the number of tasks I have to do will only increase, and I might end up staying alone until 7 PM.

“W-well, I’ll definitely broadcast, at least…”

But during the broadcast, I’ll hardly chat and will focus mainly on game streaming.

After struggling among those socialites, there’s no way I’ll have the energy to chat when I get home.

Well, that doesn’t mean I’m going to completely shut up.

“Shall we start reading Maikaron now…?”

[Hiizumi!]

[(Self-proclaimed) socialite, ultra-cute girl atmosphere maker (in reality) a social outcast with low self-esteem, mental issues, and a terrible punching bag, VTuber Mei-chan has a question.]

[Are you using the fateful showdown Hercules you picked last time well?]

“…Is that a question for me, or are you trying to pick a fight?”

Just how long will the modifiers in front of me go on?

It wasn’t that I felt bad; it was just so absurd that I was about to laugh.

• Probably both, right?

“That sounds worse, though…”

Well, I was used to this level of bad remarks by now.

There were a lot of harsh words, but in any case, they were all messages sent by people who liked me, so…

“I’ve already done all the final awakening and skills. I tried using it in the farming dungeon, and it was really, really strong….”

Hercules was so strong that I thought, “Is it really okay to clear the recent high-difficulty missions this easily?” Having maxed out its limit break, it would be strange if it were weak, but considering that, it was still an incredibly powerful character.

Even the illustration was one of the best ever.

“P-poor people who couldn’t summon him, hehehe…”

• Are you trying to pick a fight?
• You want to try it?

“Ugh. S-sorry….”

I thought it would be fun to tease a little, but the reaction from the viewers was much stronger than I expected.

I didn’t realize there were so many players of Fateful Showdown among my viewers.

“L-let’s move on to the next topic…”

• You’re trying to move on because you’re scared.
• I spent 100,000 yen and still couldn’t get a single limit break.
• You’re really annoying today, Mei-chan.
• I should have noticed when you said the story of Part 2, Chapter 6, was better than the final chapter.

“Is it true that the story of Part 2, Chapter 6, is better, though…?”

No matter what, I can’t concede this.

The story of Fateful Showdown peaks in Part 2, Chapter 6.

• You should admit it if you lost to Yukari-chan last time.

“I refuse!”

Starting with that statement, I ended up talking non-stop about Izutomo and the Fateful Showdown story until the broadcast ended.

• Let’s not do broadcasts that only read Maikaron in the future…

I think that’s right.

But since it was them who first touched my pride, I think I’m innocent.