There were a lot of people betting on Hestia and me, too.
"Kyaaa!! Shushu!!!! 100 Augrans!"
"Hestia, get 'em! 200 Augrans!"
Most of the students betting on us were yellow-class students who knew us well. But there were still more students betting on Hylli and the principal.
I could see Yvnes among the crowd. It seemed like he came over from the other games after listening to the announcement. Yves looked at me, who had been dragged over by Hestia, and smirked.
Yves put his hand in his pocket for a moment before taking out ten blue Augrans.
"1000 Augrans to Shuraina."
The crowd began to murmur as Yves bet on my side. The more money was on the line, the heated the battle seemed to become.
When I turned to Yves with a surprised expression, Yves clenched his fist and made a "Fighting!" kind of pose. He looked like he was barely holding in his laughter. I felt exhaustion creeping into my bones at his cheering.
And then, the battle started. Hestia stood in front of the old principal and I was standing in front of Hylli.
"My god."
Hylli muttered, sounding like he wanted to be anywhere but here.
The band that had been requested for this party readied their instruments and began to play. Upbeat music with a fast beat and heavy bass began to play inside of the hall. Every single beat of the drum seemed to make my eardrums shake.
The other students began to stomp their feet to the beat as the tension began to rise.
Hestia, filled with intent, moved her body to the fast beat. But Hestia had a tendency to dance like a stiff puppet when it came to anything other than social dances.
Even as Hestia danced to the beat and the off-beat, she had a genuine, sincere expression on her face as she moved aggressively.
Creak. Creak.
Her expression resembled a professional dancer but her dance looked like she was directing traffic. I was genuinely awed. This kind of creation was possible? I learned something new every day.
This battle was decided by the amount of cheers that each person received.
A lot of people reacted to Hestia's funny dance, but the other side was a bit stronger–the principal was dancing, after all. When the principal did a sexy dance, the students yelled. No, were they shrieking? Principal, please, control yourself!
Seeing Hestia trying to hard made me think that I needed to try my best too. I didn't really want any of the prizes, nor did I want to be the queen, but there wouldn't be anything wrong with me trying my best for a school event, right? I began to warm up.
Everyone began stomping their feet to the rhythm as they pressured me to dance. It seemed like everyone had their hopes up after seeing me perform last time.
Under the gaze of everyone watching, I began to wriggle my arms in a wave.
"Ooooh! Shuraina! The arm wiggle!"
"How did she move like that?"
A bunch of students began screaming and cheering when they saw my arm wiggle. Their eyes were wide, as if they had never seen something like this before.
This wasn't the end.
I craned my neck away from my body and began shuffling my feet backwards. It was the walk that you did on the moon–the moonwalk. It was a bad rendition of it, but nobody had seen this kind of dance before. They were surprised. Everyone burst into loud laughter when I continued to show off my new steps and stupid looking dances.
"Hahaha! Shuraina, you're really! Puhaha!"
Hylli blankly stared my way as he burst into laughter.
The principal, no, Noirelle, frowned as if she was wary of me.
"Your highness! Do something! We're going to lose."
The principal seemed to be respectful towards Hylli, seeing that this was a public place. Hey, descendant, dance somehow. Hylli had an elbow shoved into his side. He returned to his senses and stopped laughing.
"...I shouldn't have bet more than half of my money..."
Hylli sighed as he began to warm up. He had a surprisingly large competitive streak. It seemed like he had a need to win, no matter how embarrassing it was.
Hylli put some power into his body to the beat of the drums as he pulled off a cool shoulder wave. Next, he popped his body forwards. When he faced up, his hair pulled back and exposed his face. I could hear people swallow thickly.
"Kyaa! Your highness! You're so cool!"
"Oooooh! Just as I thought! There's nothing you can't do!"
The male and female swordsmanship students screamed Hylli's name and cheered. My ears were so stuffed that I couldn't tell who was cheering for who at this point.
That, that wasn't something that just came from trying out the move once or twice. It was an incredibly casual dance, one that looked like something I'd see in my past life. Se-yoo danced like that. Hylli seemed to be following the rhythm instead of trying to do a particular dance.
Hylli was just too athletic–that kind of dance must've just popped out. I remembered the dance battles my siblings and I used to do in our home.
I felt my competitive streak kicking in as I thought of the past. I walked over to the dancing Hylli and shoved at his shoulders before stomping my foot on the floor to the beat. I received his dance and made a new dance. When I received the screams and cheers from the crowd, Hylli first laughed before his face stiffened.
"Sorry, but I'm a bit desperate."
I didn't really get why Hylli was desperate, but he didn't seem to have any intent to lose. He received my dance and then made another dance. He danced a bit more comically this time to garner the laughter of the others. Then, I danced something a bit more shocking. The crowd seemed to get a bit scared.
The battle, which had been focused on Hestia and the principal, was not changing to Hylli and my battle.
Hylli and I were destroying all the fundamentals of dance. We danced to the fast beat to some unknown dance. Everyone stared at us, but we were too busy receiving and creating dances to care.
…..in the end, I was the victor. I really poured my all.
In the midst of our dance, a group of swordsmanship class boys began cheering loudly for me, almost as if they had practiced this. As if they had been trained, they cheered for me with regulated tones–this swept the tide and made Hestia and I the victors.
Hylli had given his all and was basically completely spent. He laughed hollowly. The principal, as if he was just having a blast, was just smiling.
I won, so I got back the 5 Augrans that I had given the MC and received 500 more Augrans.
Hestia immediately ran to buy the book she had wanted after she received her Augrans, and Hylli just looked spent.
Hylli was staring intently at a single item in the prize display. I wondered if the reason behind his desperation was in the items, so I walked towards him.
[Dark Past Removal Coupon]
Hylli stared longingly at the coupon. It was a whopping 20,000 Augrans. It was basically a sign to not buy it, but Hylli and a lot of others were aiming for that prize.
I stared at the coupon before a chill ran down my spine.
There was no way that my dark past hadn't been recorded. My brain felt like it was about to melt.
"Yvnes!"
I began desperately searching for the investment king, Yves. I needed my teacher's help.
"Yves! Yvnes!"
I ran to Yves after the dance battle, who was currently sipping a fruit cocktail at the snack bar. Yves opened his arms wide when I ran towards him, but I folded his arms inwards. Yvnes, who ended up hugging himself, tilted his head curiously when I called for him.
"How did you already earn 10,000 Augrans?"
I asked Yves with a serious expression. Considering that he had bet 10,000 Augrans on my dance battle, he had earned a ton of money beforehand. Yvnes picked out the lemon on the cocktail cup and put it in my mouth before drinking the contents of the cocktail. When I scowled at the sour taste of the lemon, Yves laughed.
"That's…."
"Yves, here. A thousand Augran for now."
"Oh. Thanks."
Yves took the cup out of his mouth and was about to talk to me when a kid cut into our conversation. His hands took out something from his pocket–purple Augran, yellow Augran…he gave it all to Yves.
Yves calmly received the thousand Augrans from the student before continuing to drink his cocktail.
"What, why is money just rolling towards you?"
I didn't believe in the main character buff or anything anymore. My eyes grew wide as I stared–students approaching Yves to pay him.
"There were so many students who just blew all the money in the beginning that the party was just getting boring. So I helped the student body out some."
"…..how?"
"Um...loans?"
I was surprised at his words. What kind of party game had loans....
This party was going a bit too far in the name of being the final party of the school year.
It was even more hilarious when I learned of the details from Yves. Interest piled up by the minute. Moreover, students were able to declare bankruptcy if they couldn't pay it back. They did receive 10 Augrans to enjoy the bare minimum, though. Students weren't allowed to earn more money once they declared bankruptcy though.
When I asked if someone had to stand in as a witness when students borrowed Augrans, Yves thought about it for a moment before nodding.
The badge that Yves was wearing on his shirt caught my eye.
'Bank president'–Yves was one of the party presenters. Well, Yves had been the student body president two years ago, so it made sense that he helped with the party. I had a strong suspicion that Yves had suggested this party.
"You're really trying everything."
"Everyone's just having fun and experiencing things before they become adults."
"….what a thoughtful party."
This was truly Yves' plan, seeing how student motivation was forced via their shameful pasts. Exposing everyone's dark pasts definitely seemed like it came from Yves.
I narrowed my eyes at Yves. He smiled and carefully stretched his hand towards me and tugged my dress ribbon towards him.
"We even have a loan shark. The bank president is a pretty trustworthy person here, you know?"
"Who's the loan shark?"
"Swanhaden."
Yvnes nodded towards the left. When I looked to where he had nodded, Swanhaden was there.
When Swanhaden just stared intently at someone, they would stand up and pay up on their own. But wasn't this closer to a mobster than a loan shark?
"Mr. Swanhaden! Here's a thousand more Augrans!"
I stared as a student politely bowed and handed Swan a blue, 1000-Augran bill and nodded assuredly.
Mm, he definitely was a mobster. He even had a mob under him.
It seemed like some of Swanhaden's group were disguised as bank members. I had no idea where they got their hands on it, but they were wearing the bank member badge that Yves had on. They were hounding innocent people to pay back their money with interest.
Then, the students would see their badges and be fooled. They'd hand their money right over.
"Hey, I know an easy way to earn Augran…. I'm just telling you, okay…."
Hot diggity. They even had pyramid schemes. Swan, you're really incredible, huh.
They seemed to use every single trick in the book to earn money.
Anyway, why was Swanhaden trying to earn Augran like this, even going so far as to make his own organization? It didn't seem like it was because of Swanhaden's own past.
When I blankly stared at Swanhaden, Yvnes stretched his hand towards my face and made me stare at him.