Vol 7 Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - School Festival Rhapsody II

──Queen Veil Girl’s Academy Student Dormitory, Top Floor.

The room of Rusalka’s leader, Miluše was in one of its corner. It was thanks to the privileges of being Queen Veil Girl’s Academy rank #3 that she was able to set up a living room on this floor. From the perspective of Mahulena, who was Rusalka’s youngest member and was unranked[1], one might say that it was basically a place like heaven.

But, even though Mahulena should have, since long ago, held yearning and envy for this place, such a thing had completely disappeared already. For better or worse, that was probably related to the fact that she was selected as member of the group called Rusalka which boasted the second highest popularity in Queen Veil Girl’s Academy.

(Sylvia-san is really amazing, but that person is…)

After Mahulena lightly sighed, she knocked on that room’s door.

“Geez, you’re late, Mahulena~”

Then the door was immediately opened and Miluše, who had puffed her cheeks, welcomed Mahulena with her hands on her waist.

“I’m sorry, I had a little talk with the board chairman.”

“Hmm, then it can’t be helped. Anyways enter, enter; Everyone is already here.”

As Miluše said so nonchalantly, she invited Mahulena in the living room.

Anyway, the person called Miluše ── or rather all the members of Rusalka did not think too deeply about things. No, if speaking of thinking, then they are thinking; but the depth of their thought was only comparable to that of a kiddy pool.[2]

Therefore, Mahulena who had a relatively good understanding ── although the person herself thought that it was to the degree of an average person ── was basically supposed to humbly listen to the message’s contents and convey it to the other members while plainly explaining it in a way easy to understand for them.

“Thank you, sorry for the intrusion…”

Just as Miluše said, Rusalka’s members had gathered.

Although Miluše’s room was quite spacious, articles were somehow scattered about in disorder and it was hard to say that the room was beautiful even as flattery. The sloppiness of living alone such as; upside down stuffed toys strewn here and there, magazines piled up haphazardly and clothes that were left untidy seemed to embody it.

Though it might look like this, the cleaning staff should be regularly tidying it up; but in most cases within three days, a disastrous scene much the same as this one occurred again.

Only the space around the table, where the members sat, was empty; but judging from the heaped-up mountain alongside the wall, they were probably things just piled up aside for the time being. Mahulena quietly sat down at the corner.

“All right, all the members have gathered!”

Miluše’s voice was indeed good as one would expect from her vocals.

“Well then today too, let’s begin the “what to do in order to oust Sylvia Lyyneheym” meeting!”

“Okay”

“Gotcha!”

“Yay~! I was waiting for this!”

“N-No, um…”

As usual it was a simple agenda, but surprisingly all the members except Mahulena were in high spirits and serious.

Moreover, this was the 73rd time they had such a meeting. If you wondered why she remembered it, that was because none other than Mahulena was assigned to keep the records of the proceedings.

Although they performed a live concert today in Sirius Dome and afterwards had a round of courtesy calls with the Integrated Enterprise Foundation’s main executives, who had come for an inspection of the school festival, it was a wonder where this stamina of theirs came from.

“Hey! Mahulena, are you properly listening?”

“Ah, y-yes. Sorry.”

As Miluše snapped her fingers, Mahulena hurriedly straightened herself.

“Today for sure, we must at all costs devise an amazing strategy which will render that Sylvia speechless!”

“Yes… I’ll do my best.”

Although she replied like that for the time being to Miluše who reinforced the meeting’s purpose while clenching her fist, Mahulena has inwardly given up thinking “no, it’s absolutely impossible…”

Of course, it wasn’t like she sold out Rusalka. They had published several world-wide hits and even when looking at the charts[3], it was no exaggeration to say that they had no rival other than Sylvia in the same generation.

But they did not seem to be pleased with it.

It wasn’t as if Mahulena did not think about how splendid it would be if they were to drag down Sylvia and stand on the top of the music scene, but their opponent was too much for them to handle. Sylvia Lyyneheym was a genuine outstanding talent… no, more than that, she was one which you would only see in 100 years. On the other hand although Rusalka was popular amongst the young people, the support became weak once a certain age group was exceeded.[4]

“Well, does anyone have any ideas?!”

Miluše looked around at all the members as she said so.

“Okay! Well then first I’ll have you listen to my good idea!”

The first person who bluntly raised her hand was Tuulia, the rhythm guitarist.

“Oh, how promising, Tuulia! Then, then?”

“We should right out go with the use of force! We should force her to a duel and crush her head on!”

“…No, like I’ve said, haven’t we all already tried that many times…?”

While being fed up with it, Mahulena remonstrated Tuulia who was next to her. As expected even the other members had dejected expressions.

It was no wonder, since Tuulia had proposed a use of force like this many times before — that if they could not win with music, they should at least stand against her in a duel like the students of Asterisk should. Furthermore, because Sylvia’s fame is great and also due to the fact that she was rank #1, it would certainly be a great blow to Sylvia if Rusalka won.

But, it wasn’t as if they haven’t tried such a simple thing before.

Not only Tuulia, but all the members of Rusalka challenged Sylvia to a duel and they were completely defeated ── by the way, Mahulena was reluctant, but unable to oppose the pressure of the other members, she reluctantly challenged Sylvia and it was an instant kill.

However, Tuulia waved her small index finger with a fearless smile.

“Tsk tsk tsk… Hear me out till the end. The truth is I, who am always contemplating on anti-Sylvia Lyyneheym measures, finally found her weakness!”

“Her weakness… Seriously!?”

All the members’ gazes were concentrated all at once on Tuulia.

“Yes, I’m dead serious. Listen, she needs to sing in order to use her ability, right? Then, if we drive her into a situation where she can’t sing, she wouldn’t be able to display her ability.”

“…It indeed adds up.”

Päivi, the drummer, who usually did not change her expression, deeply nodded.

“But, but, exactly what kind of situation is Sylvie unable to sing in?”

When Monica, the bassist, tilted her head to the side, Tuulia faltered (hemmed and hawed) with a somewhat bewildered face.

It looked like she had not specifically thought about it.

“Well that’s… for example, um, like… inside the water.”

“…Do you intend to duel while swimming?”

It wasn’t as if there has never been precedent of submarine warfare in an exhibition match, but such situation was hardly possible in usual duels and official ranking battles. If while fighting on the waterside, one were to drag a battle into water, it would still be understandable; but in the first place Sylvia would probably have many ways to deal with it such as flying in the air or freezing the water’s surface. Depending on the situation, if it was Sylvia she might as well divide the waters into two like Moses.

“Ah, then how about attacking her when she catches a cold and can utter her voice?”

“…There’s no way she’d accept a duel in such a situation, right?”

“Hmm, other situations where she can’t sing… ah, like in a vacuum?”

“……”

Honestly, they were more amazed to learn that Tuulia held knowledge about the fact that sound was not transmitted in a vacuum.

“All right, next!”

As Miluše gave up, she clapped her hands and made another fresh start.

“I have one bright idea.”

Having raised her hand was Päivi.

“If Sylvia’s evaluation were to drop, ours would relatively rise. What I mean is we should just spread information disparaging her even if it’s a lie.”

“You’ve a point, but if the like of false rumor goes too far, Benetnash might move, you know? Wouldn’t that be bad?”

For Queen Veil’s Espionage Organization Benetnash which was good at manipulation of public opinion, Rusalka had also been under their care one way or another. If there was something about Sylvia who was currently Queen Veil’s symbol, those girls (of Benetnash) would definitely move.

“Like I say, we should use a method to pull up a small abuse of the degree that they won’t have to move.”

“Hohou. And how specifically?”

“We could say something like we saw Sylvia pocketing 100 yen that fell on the ground.”

“…Another example?”

“Or something like we saw Sylvia ignoring a red light[5].”

It looked like it would take 100 years for Sylvia’s evaluation to reverse even if they pulled it up.

“Hmm, but, but, I might have quite a good idea.”

This time, Monica raised her hand.

“Even if Benetnash moves, it’s good as long as they don’t find out that it’s us who have spread it, right? In that case, how about spreading it through anon in the pro-media club of another academy, kyahah?”

Though appearance wise, Monica was the sweetest and prettiest girl among the members of Rusalka, she also had the nastiest character.

“I see… That said, even those guys wouldn’t believe in mere misinformation so easily, right?”

“Fufufu. But, what if it’s a genuine material?”

To Monica who complacently smiled, all the members’ gazes were tinged with seriousness.

“No way… did you get a hold of such thing?”

“It isn’t concrete information, but… there’s this shadow around Sylvie recently.”

When Monica raised her thumb, Miluše’s and Tuulia’s faces instantly turned red.

“D-D-D-D-Don’t tell me that’s…!?”

“A b-b-b-b-boyfriend…!?”

“If I can get the evidence, it’ll definitely turn into a big scandal. Even Benetnash won’t be able to erase it so easily.”

Certainly if it was true, it might become the first ── and fatal scandal for Sylvia.

“B-But, is it really true?”

“Who knows? Even Monica[6] only heard by chance the board chairman talking about something like that. Besides, I didn’t hear everything, so I don’t know more than this.”

Monica embraced a bear stuffed toy as she said so. That attitude of hers where she always continually refined her cunningness was to the extent where it would incite respect sometimes.

Miluše who was brooding over something raised her face.

“Speaking of which, she took a break during this school festival, right…?”

“Yes. Since Sylvia-san declined today’s live, we were asked to do it instead.”

“That has nothing to do with it now, right?!”

Though Mahulena just stated a fact, she was intently glared at by the other members.

“Anyway, what is important is to know what she is doing now since she took a break of three days during this event jammed with people.”

“Even you say that, we have no way to investigate privacy. We can’t possibly ask to Benetnash, either.”

“Ugh… t-that’s true, but…”

When Mahulena pointed out so, Miluše’s voice steadily got smaller; but she suddenly raised her head and lightly clapped her hands.

“Ah, that’s right! Then, we should just check it on our own!”

“Eh? C-Check…!”

“Like I say, we should ourselves investigate whether or not Sylvia really has a b-boyfriend. Tomorrow is a day off for us anyway.”

“Eeeeeeeeeeeh!?”

Mahulena unintentionally half-rose to her feet, but the other members were already completely enthusiastic to the idea.

“That’s a good idea.”

“Interesting! I’m on!”

“Kyahah! Sounds like it’ll be fun!”

“W-Wait, everyone…!”

Mahulena somehow tried to remonstrate them, but they turned a deaf ear to it.

“…I think that it’ll be more constructive to invest that time to practice though…”

Unrelated to the other members who were excited, Mahulena muttered, half giving up.

School Festival, Second Day.

Ayato was going around Queen Veil Girl’s Academy’s site led by Sylvia.

“When I look at them like this, be it the school buildings or the atmosphere, the appearance is quite different depending on the academy, as expected.”

“Well, yes. Still, I think that the atmosphere here is comparatively similar to that of Seidoukan. Well, as for Garrardsworth, if speaking about orthodox school, I guess that’s the one. Conversely, Le Wolfe, World Dragon ── and Allekant, which we visited yesterday, are rather quite peculiar.”

After having briefly gone around Seidoukan yesterday, they also set their feet to Allekant Academy; but as Sylvia said, it was certainly a peculiar academy.

Seidoukan and Queen Veil were academies which still felt schools-like, but as for Allekant, everything was made for functional importance and overall the mood unique to research institutes was strong.

Perhaps due to that, it was not as crowded compared with Seidoukan and Queen Veil.

“Speaking about the state of congestion, I would say this place is the most crowded at present… oops, sorry.”

Even while saying that, her shoulder hit a person’s who was passing by.

This area was the lakeside in the outskirts of the academy, and although the view was nice, there were no food stalls in particular; and yet it was overflowing with people.

“Well, no matter what you say, this is the secret flower garden after all. It’s a rare opportunity, so isn’t it normal for a person to want to peep if they’re a man, I wonder?”

Sylvia said that as if it was other people’s affairs, but actually Queen’s Veil today was packed with many visiting men. For Ayato it was hard to think that this was a scene of a girl’s school. And what stood out the most was not the tourists from the outside, but the figures of students of other academies.

“It’s good that everyone is so honest.”

Sylvia was chuckling, but she suddenly returned to a serious look and turned a sharp gaze behind.

At the same time, Ayato noticed it, too.

“…Are we being tailed?”

“Looks like it.”

“Is it me…?”

“Hmm… it might be me.”

Someone was clearly following Ayato and Sylvia.

They thought that it might be a fan or a person related to the media who saw through Sylvia’s true identity, but taking that into consideration, they were strangely good at erasing their presence. Perhaps because they realized that Ayato and Sylvia noticed their tailing, they immediately melted into the crowd.

“There doesn’t seem to be bloodlust, but what do we do?”

Ayato had an idea as such, but it looked like it was the same for Sylvia, too.

“It was a long-awaited date, but let’s temporarily part here. Like that, we’ll also understand which of us the target is.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?”

Ayato thought that it was not a bad plan, but separating also meant their force would be divided.

However, Sylvia revealed a wry smile to such words of Ayato.

“Though I’m thankful that you’re worried about me, I may look like this, but I’m the “I have heard about Ayato-san’s achievements. Although belated, congratulations on your