Heroes Festival (Part 2)

"Haah!? What do you want? Just scram!" A huge, slightly obese middle-aged man shouted.

The shout receiver is of course, Ren. He stood there blankly wondering whose son's nuts he broke to listen such insults for almost two minutes.

"Papa. Why is he shouting?" Beside the pitiful boy, stood a fair skinned little princess-like girl who is nonchalantly asking the same question for the past few minutes.

He had set out to participate in the sparring contest which is the biggest event of the Heroes' Festival. However, before he could even enter the Spring Pavilion, where the Festival would be held, he was stopped abruptly by a Guard who started swearing at him with unknown reasons.

Finally Ren's mouth twitched as he replied in a dry tone.

"It must be his that day of the month."

"That day…?" The little girl didn't understand the hidden meanings.

*Ting*

The huge man destroyed the beer glass that he holding in. Ren and several onlookers became horrified and Ren spoke with beads of perspiration on his forehead.

"Honorable Guard. This lowly one doesn't mind dying for someone as handsome and formidable as you but my dear mother always said to 'live for a reason and die for a reason'. Being filial, I can't disobey my mother. Can I?"

"Does your mother not love you anymore, Papa?" the little girl whispered.

"Shut up!"

"I don't understand filial piety. I'm an orphan!" Saying so, the burly man got up from his seat with the broken glass in his hands.

'Lady Luck dissed me…"

Just then, a young man with green hair came and walked to the burly man's side. He seemed to be bewildered about the current situation.

Ren suddenly became excited. When he was about to speak something-

"Hmm? Can you tell me what is going on?" He asked directly.

He is one of the members of the 2nd Rank Knights Order, Allius. Ren chatted with him a few times and found him quite honest and modest.

"This bastard fucking kidnapped the child out there!!" The burly man roared while pointing to Cyrola.

Ren naturally wanted to refute his claims but realized it's unnecessary because-

"Ah! No no no! You've misunderstood, Terk. That girl's relatives whereabouts are unknown so Hero Ren is currently her temporary guardian. Where did you get the idea that she was kidnapped?" Allius said in an amusing tone.

Ren felt that the answer to the last question was even more mysterious than secrets of the universe.

"Urgh… my apologies. I just happened to hear from Hero Rumi and her friends discussing about a little girl being taken by Hero Ren." Terk lowered his head and apologized sincerely.

'Those bastards…'

"It's fine. Just give me the entrance ticket." I waved my hand magnanimously.

"Thank you for your magnanimity." Terk's dark expression turned a little brighter and handed over the entrance ticket to me.

'Good that you know it.'

"If you are participating in the sparring contest, you'll see me." Allius then turned around and left.

Ren was obviously here to participate in the sparring contest to get his hands on the Low Grade Elemental Pill. He tried to learn the two skills he got from the Shuta Tribe Leader countless times but utterly failed. After all, his affinity is awfully low. He hopes to increase his elemental affinity with the pill.

Ren and Cyrola entered the Spring Pavilion which is… white… just white. There was no lustrous or beautiful designs. Even then, it made one to be in a daze just like the two of them are right now.

A moment later, Ren took out his smart phone and captured the beauty.

"Uhm! Uhm! Take my pictures!" Cyrola pulled Ren's sleeves and requested. Ever since she discovered that there exists an artifact(?) called smartphone, she had been constantly playing around with it.

Ren sighed and did what he was told.

"If only I had a charger… Maybe I could charge it with my Thunder affinity…" Ren sighed again and decided to keep these amusing thoughts for later. As he was looking around, a beautiful attendant came to him.

"Hero Ren?"

"Indeed."

"I'm in a hurry so I'll cut to the chase. Do you want to participate in the sparring contest?"

"Mhm."

"Oh, well. Then please come with me to register your name."

"I'll have to trouble you then."

She didn't reply. Ren and Cyrola followed her lead and finally registered his name. Apparently, it's the last event of the Festival.

"Are you going to participate in other events?" The attendant asked staring at me nonchalantly.

"No. I suppose… I'll just watch."

"Then I'll be taking my leave." With her usual expressionless face, she turned around and left.

…

..

Hero Satou's Waiting Room.

A cold snort escaped from Cicele who was chatting with Satou and his harem.

"Like I said, I'm not sure we can perform the skit very well but I'll try my best."

Opposite to them was the same beautiful attendant who was with Ren few moments ago.

"Hero Satou sure knows how to jest. I've often seen the rehearsals and I can guarantee that the skit will go as planned if not over our expectations." The attendant flashed a charming smile while talking with Satou which was the not the expressionless face she gave during her talk with Ren.

Satou and his harem are participating in a skit. The skit is based of the heroic deeds of Reuken with Satou portraying as Reuken.

"By the way, did everyone registered for the sparring contest?" Satou asked with a curious expression.

The attendant took out a small piece of paper and looked through it.

"It seems that everyone excluding Xie took part in the sparring contest. Tsk. That troublemaker turned into a coward." She did nothing to hide her contempt towards Xie.

In response, Satou remained silent. However, his friends are not that kind.

"Coward? Scum would be a more appropriate word." This time, it was Flora who spoke. Regarding the incident with Xie, Flora has the deepest grudge on him because of natural reasons.

"Y'all stop. It's not a good thing to talk about someone behind their back." Satou sighed.

The others present didn't continue on the topic and switched to another. Satou took the piece of paper the attendant was holding and looked through it.

"By the way, Ruti-san, why are there forty spots? Shouldn't it be thirty nine?"

"Ah! That's right! One of our friends, Liana, wasn't able to attend the school on the summoning day." Rumi replied with a thoughtful expression.

"Eh? Is that so? I have to inform this to His Majesty." The attendant, Ruti, replied and went off with hurried steps.

…

..

Ren was sitting on one of the front seats in the Spring Pavilion concerned over the battery on his smartphone. Cyrola, despite his warnings, pestered him to let her play games.

"If only I had a charger…" He sighed again with the same thoughts.

As he was sighing thinking over such matters, a hand suddenly touched his shoulders. Before he could even turn back, a voice came from behind.

"Eh? You didn't die!?"

It was a familiar voice for Ren. Looking back, he found the same old idiotic face. It was Xie. He was dressed in his same school clothes.

"Oi oi. Are your desires finally leaking out or something?" Ren said with a murderous tone.

"Ah… Let's talk about other things later, 'kay?" Xie muttered with a forced smile as he took a seat beside Ren.

Noticing Cyrola, he seriously looked at Ren. "I didn't think you have such tastes… The world is indeed a big place to live. Thank you for broadening my horizons."

Ren's face twisted as he smacked Xie's head as he explained to clear up the misunderstanding. As the misunderstanding was almost cleared up, a high-pitched voice suddenly rang.

"Look! Look! Papa! I made a new record in Subway S*rfers!"

Before Ren could even respond, Xie said with a loving look. "Aha… so it's that game! Quick, let me see you re-" But before he could even continue, a word lingered in his mind.

"Papa….. " Xie looked at Ren like he was the most disgusting scum alive.

The other party felt the need to desperately explain but suddenly, a voice rang I'm the whole pavilion.

"Welcome His Majesty and the Queen." An old man dressed formally in a knight's suit said.

Everyone stood up and greeted the King and his wife with respect. Nobody knelt. The king and the queen slowly made their way to the topmost position of the pavilion.

"Without any more delay, I announce the opening of the Heroes' Festival!"

…

..

Ren was quite surprised with the events as he, being an Earthling, found them quite enjoyable. The main focus of the Festival aside from the Sparring Contest was undoubtedly the skit Satou and his harem prepared.

Although, there were errors here and there, they were admirable for pulling it off because the skit contained "real" use of magic. Balancing them and give dialogues in between shows their hard work.

"The sparring contest will begin very soon. So, I request all the participants to make their way in here." The old man said nonchalantly.

"Are you participating?" Ren asked Xie with a neutral tone.

"No. I'll just watch." Xie smiled mysteriously.

A vein popped on Ren's forehead. "Just because you are a little strong doesn't mean you can act cool, okay?"

Xie groaned instead of answering.

Making his way up to the stage along with his classmates, he felt a little nervous and excited. The contest design was fairly thoughtful. As there were 38 participants, six of them must be eliminated. Twelve of them would be selected randomly and one-on-one would be held where the winner will proceed to the other rounds.

Fortunately for Ren, he was not that unlucky to be one of the twelve randomly selected person. He heaved a sigh of relief and made his way to the resting room instead of watching the contest to take preparations.

Even though Ren might not look like a smart and meticulous person, he was a perfectionist by heart.

"Let's see… the only problems I'll be facing in this contest are Rumi and Satou. I'm not confident in defeating Rumi since her level is obviously higher but Satou… maybe I could." He organised his thoughts as took a sip of water.

"But… I'd be a simpleton if I think that way. After all, why would Rumi join his harem if he isn't stronger than her? My thinking might be a bit twisted and chuunibyou-like but isn't it natural for a woman to like a stronger man?"

Ren finally sighed. "Anyways, even if he is stronger than her, he's going down very quickly. After all, he has the aura of a third-rate villain in an isekai novel…"

That day, Ren's chuunibyou-like qualities finally returned to him after three years.