episode_0061

When Ian saw the poster for the Lion King’s birthday celebration event, he crumpled it without realizing it. The poster stated that the role of this year’s Lion King would be played by Gilbert Lionheart.

Ian always thought Gilbert was beneath him. I thought that at any time, if I stretched out from hiding, my position could change all at once. Because it was always natural for the main character in the story to win.

However, although he finally opened up after being crouched during the competition, the result was a crushing defeat. Despite all his might, he could never reach Gilbert. Even though he used his characteristic skills to the fullest and used a vast amount of magical energy, it was impossible to defeat Gilbert’s giant soldier.

In the end, I lost the competition winner to Gilbert, and I finally had to admit what I didn’t want to admit. He was completely defeated by his current rival, Gilbert.

It was a rare development of thought for Ian, who has strong pride and lives trapped in his own world. The complete defeat he experienced for the first time in his life was an opportunity to awaken his arrogant thoughts.

“Respected, but hated enemy…”

Ian, who thought of Gilbert in the room, wrote down something he thought was good in his dictionary. The collection of sayings was already several volumes old, but I was thinking that even this was not enough for the future.

Many famous quotes still came to mind, but I postponed writing anything down until later. There was something else to do now.

After he stopped writing down the quotes, he started going back over and over again to the final against Gilbert. Although he admitted that he was defeated cleanly, he was trying to figure out if he had overlooked anything at the time.

But no matter how much I changed my fighting style, I couldn’t beat Gilbert, even in my imagination. Following his movements with a reaction speed that exceeded the limit was like a nightmare.

Ian’s expression distorted.

He thought that he was the main character of this world. It wasn’t just an idea, it was a good reason.

The family he was born into, the talent he possesses, and even his beautiful appearance.

All of that proved the fact that Ian was the main character of the world.

However, he could not do anything to Gilbert and lost. He was helplessly defeated in the art of manipulating a giant soldier, which he prided himself on being more talented than anyone else.

Ian couldn’t accept that easily. Along with his natural talent for piloting, he had a characteristic skill that was awakened as if God had given him wings. It didn’t make sense to lose with these two favorable conditions.

Of course, considering the growing horsepower figure, I thought that I might be overwhelmed by the horsepower amount. If you think of an academy cadet, Seraphina was in that category.

But it wasn’t Gilbert. Compared to this plan, the horsepower level was absolutely insufficient. So I thought I could never lose, but the result was different. Ian couldn’t beat Gilbert.

This means only one thing.

Gilbert’s talent was superior to Ian’s, to the extent that it outweighed the lack of characteristic skills. That was it.

Am I, the main character of the world, worse than Gilbert?

Ian gritted his teeth. My pride, which was high and strong like a tower stretching into the sky, collapsed.

No matter how strong Ian’s ego was, he acknowledged the fact that he couldn’t be good at everything. There were definitely things that even he couldn’t do skillfully.

However, it was definitely not the case when it came to gigantic soldiers. I couldn’t admit that I couldn’t match Gilbert’s giant soldier control skills.

“No problem. That won’t happen. It’s just that my rival is one step ahead of me. In the end, the one that reaches the end is Niall Ginger.”

My heart was still boiling, but I closed my eyes and calmed myself down. He had no intention of being crushed by this defeat like So In-bae.

After some time passed, he meditated and opened his eyes. I thought that perhaps this defeat might be a good test for him. I was conceited because there was no wall blocking my path until now. That soon led them to settle for the status quo, and as a result, they suffered a bitter defeat from their rivals.

He opened the first page of the collection of sayings he had closed. And it’s been a while since I uttered that first sentence.

“Heroes bloom from hardships.”

I hope you don’t lose your original intention.

May you not be afraid of adversity.

Don’t be complacent with reality.

It was a sentence written with the hope of those three things. But before he knew it, he was eaten by the monster called pride and lost his original intention.

match!

I put down the collection of sayings and hit my face with both hands. I hit him so hard that my cheeks turned red and a tingling pain spread across my cheeks.

“I will not forget this pain. This is a reflection on myself and my will to move forward.”

Having regained his original intention once again, he first picked up a pen. What I said a little while ago was so cool that I had to record it.

Ian wrote a collection of sayings with great care, word by word.

***

The day of the Lion King’s birthday celebration has arrived. Demeia Academy, which had been busy preparing for the event, is now starting to be busy in a different way.

This was because people flocked from all over the empire to witness the celebration, which was one of the empire’s biggest festivals. Not to mention famous aristocratic families, merchants who wanted to catch the season’s harvest, and commoners who came purely to enjoy the festival all came here.

Unlike usual, the cadets could not hide their excitement in the lively atmosphere inside the academy. This was the same for both cadets from noble families and commoners. Festivals were enjoyable regardless of social status.

In particular, the cadets could not help but be even more excited because all academy lectures were closed for the three days during which the commemorative event was held. It was because it was a sweet break from the bloody academy where every moment was an evaluation and competition.

The cadets took advantage of this break from classes to enjoy their own commemorative events, such as buying food at a temporary shopping mall set up inside the academy or watching a clown performance. The cadets, who had always disciplined themselves, enjoyed this brief moment of freedom.

Of course, there were always exceptions.

Gilbert was getting nervous due to the impending attack on the Academy. This was because I was preparing for tomorrow’s Lion King Parade and was even taking up my sleeping time to prepare for an attack that might come at any time.

In Tactical Combat, the academy attack occurred on the last day of the celebration, but it was not conclusive. The attack could have happened today, or it could have happened tomorrow.

Currently, Gilbert was checking around to see if there were any problems with the Academy’s security techniques, thinking that there might be an insider. Too much time was wasted looking around the inside of this large academy, as I couldn’t share this fact with anyone.

Even though I had seen it before the festival started, it seemed impossible to see everything in time as I had not seen it all yet.

It’s not easy.

Gilbert sighed as he looked at the academy crowded with people. Because there were so many people, it was now difficult to look closely.

At that point, I stopped looking into security techniques. It was impossible to find any laxity in the security techniques by looking further. I trusted the system and was looking for outliers, but perhaps due to my low level of magical knowledge, I could not find any problems with the security technique.

In the first place, it may have been impossible for him to find something that had been manipulated by someone who had access to Demeia Academy’s security technology.

My head became confused. He didn’t think it would be easy to find, but in the end there was nothing he could have done to prepare for the attack.

It’s the origin.

Gilbert shook his head roughly. It’s literally back again. Knowing in advance that an attack will occur is information that can give you an upper hand, but there is a limit to what you can do on your own.

Not only would no one believe me if I told anyone, but it was a headache to explain how I got the information. Moreover, as there were insiders inside, there was a high possibility that the plan would be postponed to a later date if the attack was made public.

If that happens, Gilbert’s image will fall further, and it will be unclear when the attack will occur. Not only that, but it was obvious that the wariness of Gilbert would increase enormously.

For this reason, it was a handshake to tell the full story of the raid.

In the end, the best I could do at the moment was to think of the academy attack part of Tactical Combat. It might not work out exactly the same, but at least we could get a clue.

A series of thoughts came to my mind, but I quickly shook my head. From now on, we had to prepare for tomorrow’s parade.

The place where the parade was being prepared was a large building where Demeia Academy’s main events were held. This is where the academy entrance ceremony took place, and it was currently busy with professors and cadets preparing for the parade.

High-quality maids were making costumes and items needed for the parade according to their needs, and a large blackboard had a list of candidates for music to be used in the parade, marching order, and method of movement.

“Are you here? Mr. Gilbert.”

“Um…”

He nodded slightly to the maid who greeted him at the entrance. Originally, he would also have participated and helped organize the parade, but in his role as the Lion King, he was specifically excluded from the task. However, you had to participate during parade practice.

“Gilbert’s costume has been finally completed.”

“I see.”

“That’s right. Shall we prepare prepared costumes?”

“Is it completed? Celine, hurry up and get ready!”

“Okay. Camilla.”

When I suddenly heard a voice, I looked there and saw a female cadet looking at Gilbert with her hands on her waist.

Gilbert somehow felt like sighing at that sight. I couldn’t help but feel like I was going to be a bother this time too.