Chapter 51: Disqualified from the Competition
"Is she going to take long?" There are 20 minutes left until the competition ends, Marie is outside, she went to sabotage Esther’s project since I said that Esther’s project is probably the most difficult to sabotage, and it’s better to start with the most difficult, and she ended up accepting.
’The balls are running out...’ 97% of the balls have broken, I went to other rooms to check, and somehow Esther is managing to destroy everything, now I barely have any balls left.
’If it weren’t for the huge amount of balls, we would have already lost...what HELLISH skill!!’ I get irritated with this super overpowered and broken skill! Seriously, I’ll never fully accept that she has this ridiculously powerful ability.
"Haa...I wish I had won this" I didn’t win anything special, okay, when I became a living puppet, I gained some things I didn’t have before, but even so, nothing as broken as Esther’s ability.
"I’m back" Marie opens the door coming in here, I look at her curiously wondering what she did to sabotage Esther’s project.
"What did you do?..." I ask, noticing that the balls with her are already gone, I mentally count how many we still have, and there are only 5 of them left.
’5 of them...and there are 18 minutes left...’ We have to make these 5 balls last 18 minutes, a rather arduous task.
"I managed to damage Esther’s magic circle project, and I noticed that the painting Laplace and Lucien made has a small hole, it seems like it’s just the two of us left in the competition now," she says, staring at the ball on my dress.
"We have 5...do you think we can still win? It’s obvious someone is cheating and destroying them, my skills aren’t weak, there’s no way what I created could simply burst like this, especially considering the amount," she says as I agree.
"You’re right, Big sis, obviously someone is bursting them...but look, there’s not much time left...I think we can win, we just need to ensure the safety of one of the balls," I say with a smile as she nods.
While she was out, I tried a few things, but if I try to protect the ball by covering it with fabric, the "pressure" bursts it, which is pretty absurd, but it happens.
"Well, all we can do is wait, Big sis, there are two balls in other rooms, two with me, and one over there..." As soon as I point to the ball, it bursts, I’m not sure exactly what the reason is, Esther’s ability is just too convenient.
"Okay...we have 4..." I say as Marie’s gaze grows dark, and she lets out a sigh.
"Your idea was really good, if so many balls were damaged like this, my idea probably would have failed spectacularly...but the material is gone, if only we had 20 more balls, this wouldn’t be like this," she says tensely as I agree.
’We’ll have to make 4 balls last a few minutes...it’s not impossible...’ I have hope that we can win, if at least one ball survives until the end of the 24 hours, we’ll win.
After all, Esther won’t do anything when the competition is over, so in a few minutes, she won’t continue destroying the balls.
’I’m so excited for the reward!’ This reward is going to help a lot, the Demon King is usually very generous, normally giving a reward followed by money, and that money is what I’m going to use for various things.
...
...
...
"Augustus, it seems the time is up," I say, seeing our damaged project, it seems we lost, and that irritates me, but there’s nothing we can do, Marie’s ability is quite convenient, so it makes sense she managed to damage the globe without us noticing.
"..." Augustus doesn’t say anything as we go out with him carrying the globe, I see the others coming out too with their projects, Lucien has the painting and a confident smile without having noticed the small damage.
And there’s also Marie and Evelyn, Evelyn has a smile that really stokes my bad feelings, the smile of someone victorious who has trampled over others with strategy.
’One...just one was missing...’ I managed to destroy all but one, the one that Evelyn now holds with a smile as if she had already won even without the item being evaluated.
"I see everyone is ready, I’m the evaluator and I’ll see what you’ve built and say who the winner is," a woman dressed in black suddenly appears, speaking to us.
"I’ll start...with this one," She ignores us and goes to Lucien’s painting, which he displays with arrogance, but the evaluator soon notices the small damage to the painting, she pulls out a small notebook and writes things down.
"Disqualified, you can leave," She says this coldly, making Lucien get angry and Laplace stare at the canvas without understanding.
"This is an outrage!! We met all the rules, you can’t disqualify us like this and..."
"Your painting has a small damage, and that goes against the rules, each project must be complete within the 24-hour time frame, if you think this is unfair, take the painting immediately to the Demon King and discuss the result with him."
"I’m here only to evaluate and nothing else," She cuts him off in the middle of the sentence and starts ignoring him as she comes to us.
"No need to evaluate, our project is broken, the magic circuit of the artifact is too severely damaged to function as it should," I stop her before she wastes time, she nods and starts writing while I look at Evelyn, who has this confident and content smile.
’I refuse to lose, if I can’t win, she can’t either,’ I think in an extremely petty way and soon use my ability directly on Evelyn, she tries to walk to the evaluator to give her project, but she trips on her own feet and falls face-first on the ground, crushing the ball that can’t withstand the pressure and bursting it.
"..."
"..." We all remain silent, Marie’s face is pure anger at Evelyn, while Evelyn stares directly at me.
’She...knows?’ She gives me a hurt look, and that strangely makes me avert my gaze, I don’t know why her look bothered me, I look again, but she still has that hurt look.
Almost as if she was about to cry or as if she had been betrayed by someone she trusted, this makes me feel a discomfort I’ve never felt before.
"I...I’m leaving, I believe we’re done here," I tell the evaluator.
"Okay, the competition is over, and as I can see, no one fully meets the requirements," As soon as the Evaluator allows it, I turn my back and start walking, trying to understand what I felt.
’She was hurt? Why? And how did she know it was me? Did she notice?’ I ask myself several questions that I don’t understand, why did she know it was me, and how did she do that? My blessing is undetectable.
It’s not a magic or something similar that makes it obvious to use, the only way to notice would be if I was using it constantly all the time, then it would obviously be strange.
And why was she hurt with me? We’re not even close, what I do shouldn’t matter to her.
’I can’t let this go...damn hamster and her strange hurt look’ Because it’s leaving me confused, and because it’s something different, I feel uncomfortable not understanding.
"This shouldn’t matter..." I murmur, following the hallway and seeing the heroine Grace, that human who lives here now, I don’t know what she’s doing here, but I just ignore her.
"Hey, hey, hey, you’re Esther, right?" Grace gets up and comes towards me as I keep walking in silence, still thinking about Evelyn and her strange reaction.
’It’s like a puzzle...what caused this reaction? And why did it really bother me? Am I bothered because I don’t understand her reaction?’ I wonder if what bothers me is her reaction or the fact that I don’t understand her reaction.
"Esther?" Grace insists, making me stop.
"Human heroine, insistence is not an agreeable personality trait, it’s just annoying and generates irritation quickly," I say to her in a neutral way, not as an insult, but as advice.
"Really? But..."
"Heroine, no one likes someone who just keeps insisting on things, sometimes silence is best, while not always do people want to talk, so I, who am busy, do not wish to talk to you, do you understand?" I say, not attacking her personality, just not wanting to hear her.
"Okay, sorry, you can go, I’ll try to talk to someone else..." She says, taking a few steps back, soon I’m back to walking, still restless with Evelyn’s strange hurt.
’It’s so...strange...has anyone ever been hurt by something I’ve done before?’ I don’t know, I don’t remember ever seeing hurt directed at me before, I’ve seen fear, respect, cowardice, arrogance, and many others.
But I’ve never seen hurt directed directly at me in this way, and it causes sensations I don’t know.
’Since when do I care when I see someone about to cry? I may have been petty in losing and still making her lose...but that’s how life is’ This shouldn’t matter to her.
’Was it because I took something that was considered guaranteed? She didn’t expect me to be so petty?’ This takes me back to the question of how she knew it was me.
Her gaze was directed straight at me, she was obviously looking at me as the culprit, I know she’s smart, but knowing I was involved is quite complicated.
I decide to just go back to my room, I’ll try not to think about her look, if something bothers me or I make it disappear or I ignore it when it can’t affect me, I just need to ignore this strange feeling.