Fated to Be Loved by Villains

Let’s go back in time for a little bit.

The morning of the D-day of the School Festival, the day of the showdown.

[By the way, what kind of event is the Elfante’s School Festival exactly?]

“…You were a student here, how the hell did you not know?”

[I didn’t even attend for a year before getting assigned to the military, how am I supposed to know?]

“Ah…”

[After I got into the military, I immediately joined the Guardian, so all of my personal information was kept confidential. How can I know what a School Festival or whatever is?]

I see.

Come to think of it, the reason why Iliya came here was because this was where his last traces could be found.

Alright, guess I’ll explain the gist of it since he didn’t know what was going on.

“Well, as I’ve said before, it’s something like a fair.”

I said while opening the curtain on the window of my dorm.

Yeah, it was something like a fair, but…

The scale was significantly bigger.

I looked up to see the huge letters written in the air with mana sparks.

It was as if a huge calligraphy was carved into the sky, reminding me of the skyshows I used to see back in my previous life.

[ Welcome to the Elfante’s 1022nd School Festival. ]

The extremely high number there was the number of times they had held this event—which was proportional to Elfante’s own history. While the number itself stood out, the thing that was worth more to pay attention to was the fact that they ‘spent all that money’ for this kind of thing.

To carve mana sparks of that size in the air, you’d need to pour mana as if it was water—which meant they’d need to spend a bunch of money. I didn’t know exactly how much, but they should’ve spent at least about a month’s worth of a big city’s operational expenses for this thing only.

Spending all that money only for a welcome message was basically a performance to match the ‘level’ of the people attending this event.

“…People from all around the Empire—no, from almost the entire continent gathered here. Because this event is not only one of the biggest events in Elfante, but also in the entire Empire.”

Actually, both the Holy Land’s Great Temple and the Tribal Alliance’s Forge of Struggle also held similar events, but Elfante overwhelmingly outclassed them in terms of scale and ‘quality’ of each booth.

They’d only hold the event every few years, but you could see all kinds of inventions and research results that you couldn’t see anywhere else all over the place during this event.

[…And an event of this scale is still called a School Festival?]

Caliban said, in a dumbfounded tone, but I couldn’t help but agree with his words.

Honestly, considering its scale, it wouldn’t have been strange if this event was held in the Imperial Palace.

“Well, they weren’t like this originally, but… You see, the Empire didn’t really have many things to ‘brag’ about to the other countries…”

In terms of technology, the Tribal Alliance beat them promptly, while in terms of academics, cultural achievements, and symbolism, they lost to the Holy Land—the latter two especially, considering that these guys were the ones who produced the First Hero.

While the present hero was an empire’s citizen, Iliya, it still didn’t feel like they got the upper hand against the Holy Land in cultural achievements by a great margin.

If there was one thing they could brag about as their strongest strength, it would be the quantity and quality of their ‘human resources’.

“That’s why they feel the need to show this kind of thing off every few years. Like, they want to tell everyone that ‘This is the one thing we’re the best at’ or something.”

You could say that they were trying to get the drop on the other countries.

The ‘quantity’ of their various resources was on a different level from the Holy Land and Tribal Alliance, as everything was big, massive, and luxurious.

Now, if they were to invest in such resources, creative and innovative things would naturally appear sometimes. That was why the other countries had no choice but to come and visit, even though they knew what the Empire was trying to do.

“…And the nature of this event is perfect for me to reveal what I’m trying to do.”

I could call it Dowd Campbell’s showcase.

It would be difficult to shake the ‘whole continent’ with what I had prepared unless I did a showcase in an event of this scale.

As I said so, I left my room to go to the booth assigned to the Exorcism Club.

And as soon as I left the dorm room,

“Oh, we meet again.”

I ran into the gentle Cyborg again.

“…”

From Caliban’s reaction when he heard the fact that he was the Magic Tower’s Marshal, I presumed that he was a higher up of the Magic Tower. Apparently, the entire Empire would freak out if they were to find out about him.

But why is he loitering around freely like this?

“Why such a bitter reaction? This is not the first time we met, no?”

“…Uh, well…”

I replied while scratching my head.

His name was… Alpha-11, right…?

As I trailed off awkwardly, the Magic Tower’s Marshal followed me until he was walking alongside me. From his gesture, he looked friendly.

I could feel the eyes around us were focused on us at once.

“…What brings you here?”

I asked, completely sure that there was no way he came here just to see the School Festival. Seeing the way he shrugged his shoulders, my guess wasn’t entirely off.

“I’m here to act as a guard. Since that person is overly eager to see you.”

“…”

Hearing his words, I could feel an ominous premonition.

I remembered what he said when he came to visit me a while ago. A certain burdensome person kept throwing hints that she would come here to make an appearance.

And as soon as I arrived at the Exorcism Club booth while shaking at the thoughts of such a fact…

My anxiety was proved right.

[Soooon—!]

“…Professor Astrid. Are you trying to kill your biological child?”

Even looking back on it now, the five meter giant robot, who was held back by Alpha-11 as she tried to hug me roughly, looked like something out of a sci-fi horror movie.

●

[Oh my, oh my~ Look at them all! They’re all beautiful!]

“…”

“…”

“…”

Seras, Victoria, Faenol, and even Iliya, could only stand there frozen, unsure what to say.

Then again, everyone who was in their position would make the same expression.

The biggest reason for their reaction would probably be the steel giant’s existence itself, talking loudly at the entrance since she couldn’t even get inside due to her size.

There was also another reason for it, and that was…

[Son, how did you gather all these beautiful women?]

“…”

[Son?]

“…”

[Son…?]

“…”

Dowd Campbell, who was trying hard to ignore the steel giant.

Acting like an iron wall, he completely ignored the steel giant’s pathetic attempt to talk to him.

“…”

However, even though he was keeping his mouth shut, inwardly, Dowd did have a lot to say.

A lot of things just don’t make sense…

If she could ‘communicate’ with me using this kind of method, then why hasn’t she come to see me all this time…?

Also, how did she expect me to believe that she’s my mother, especially when I’ve never even seen her ever since I was born? It’s only now that she has ever met me at all.

To put it simply, Dowd had more than enough reason not to welcome her existence, no matter how desperate she was acting right now.

But, the biggest reason of them all was…

…What about father?

Even though his father kept avoiding to talk about his mother, as his family, Dowd knew how important this person was to him, to the point that he could feel it in his soul.

Because his father’s room was still full of her belongings.

Since he was a child, until he became an adult, that one thing never changed.

All this time, his father had been meticulously taking care of her belongings.

Sometimes, he couldn’t help but wonder how much his father missed her.

And how much this person meant to him for him to be doing all that.

And yet…

Even though she was able to come to see him like this…

She had never…

Not even once had she come to that man.

“…”

Dowd Campbell’s frown only grew deeper.

Wearing an expression that suggested that he did not want to deal with her, he got up from his seat with a sigh.

“…I’m going to start my presentation.”

[Ah…]

Before the steel giant called Professor Astrid could say anything else, Dowd had left the booth without looking back.

An awkward silence soon filled the booth.

Not only the Exorcism Club members, even Alpha-11 could not help but try to read Astrid’s mood.

“…Are you okay?”

He asked worriedly in his synthesized voice. Professor Astrid let out a chuckle.

[Well…]

The steel giant crossed her arms while letting out a deep sigh.

[As expected, I seem to be unwelcomed.]

“…”

Only the quick-witted ones among everyone managed to notice the subtle ‘change’ in her.

The ‘emotion’ mixed in the steel giant’s voice became very subtle as soon as Dowd Campbell left.

[But still, he grew up well. I’m glad I came outside even though I have to strain myself like this.]

It was as if…

The person she had to ‘be wary of’ was not there anymore.

[…Although, from my memory, I could tell that I was very annoyed…]

The ‘warmth’ that was in her voice had completely disappeared.

Non-human, imperson—even worse, inanimate.

It was as if her ‘human nature’ that remained in a chiseled form was turned off like a switch as soon as Dowd left.

What came out of her was a terrifyingly inorganic voice.

[So…]

By this point, more people should’ve noticed the change in her.

While she did not look different on the outside, there was one thing underlying her words…

A deep ‘contempt’ towards someone else.

[These are the bitches who didn’t know their places, huh?]

—In a blink of an eye…

The air began to freeze rapidly.

●

Selim Bronx, a member of the Imperial Security Council, was extremely bored.

Since all kinds of people from all over the world gathered, Elfante’s School Festival was pretty much a hotbed of incidents. That was why elite agents like her were often deployed, since the Empire didn’t want this big event to get ruined.

…They did way worse than the previous School Festival.

However, even though she was entrusted with such an important duty, all she felt was a terrible boredom.

Because all the presentations she saw were either just bizarre discoveries with no clear applications, or pretentious researches without any semblance of practicality. There wasn’t even anything grand that could catch her eye.

Of course, since the School Festival wasn’t just any random event, there were a lot of things that she hadn’t seen yet, but since her first impression of it was already this bad, she found it hard to have high expectations on the rest of the event anymore.

Since she heard that even members of the Magic Tower would come to attend, she was actually quite looking forward to the event, but now she felt like she was just wasting her time here.

The number of the presentations that made her think so only increased as time went by, but then…

…Exorcism Club?

She spotted a club with a bizarre name.

Not having much expectations, she expected them to present another useless thing just like the previous ones she had seen.

Especially when the man who presented it seemed like nothing special, even as a student.

“Everyone.”

As Selim thought so while yawning.

“What do you think is the best way to get rid of wars from the world?”

Out of nowhere.

A very suspicious topic was brought up.