My eyes roamed from left to right. Cory and Hylli were watching me with a worried look and everyone was looking at me from behind the two. Yves had a hand over his mouth as he snickered in the back, watching the whole thing. Yves, who usually just laughed with a smirk, was snickering loudly. It must've been incredibly funny. I'd rarely seen him like that.
When I approached him, Yves avoided my gaze as he laughed.
Yvnes muttered about how he was in big trouble as he put a hand on my shoulder.
"Shushu, what about the money you originally had?"
"All gone."
"Ahhhh."
Yves let out a short sigh and covered his face with his hand as he burst into laughter.
"Do you want a loan?"
Yves, who had been slowly breathing in and out to calm down, took out a hefty sum of party money and placed it on my hand.
"I won't ask for interest, so hurry. Before the party ends."
He gently tapped me towards the game area and smiled, laughter still on his face.
I was loaned sixteen thousand Augrans from Yves. I gazed at the coated papers in my hand before makinga fist.
The presenter was about to do one final run before the end of the game. When another round opened up, everyone who failed before ran.
And then.
"Eveeeen!"
I despaired from the odd side. The sixteen thousand was gone as soon as I got it.
I was so in despair that I just stared at the ceiling.
Yvnes and Cory tried to avoid my gaze as they laughed. Hylli didn't laugh. We were both on the same boat.
"Yves…."
"Why, what do you need. Just say the word."
"I need to declare bankruptcy….."
Yves clutched his stomach as he laughed and nodded before handing me ten Augrans. Yvnes tried to give me all the Augrans he had, but I was a loser so I just shook my head and took the ten Augrans.
I bought a candy for ten Augrans and placed it in my mouth.
It was almost over now. Hylli patted my shoulders and told me to just give up. I looked up to see Hylli. He looked like he understood how I felt, bone-deep. When Hylli put his arms on my shoulder, I also put my arms around his shoulder.
"Everything's almost over, what's he doing?"
"Where's he climbing?"
Most of the money-earning booths were closing, but the store was still filled with rare and tempting items. People were still roaming around the area, still yearning, when murmurs began to arise from nearby.
People started to point upwards. Swanhaden began climbing up to the highest point of the hall. He seemed like he was going up to where he could look down on everyone. There was a massive container strapped to his back.
People started to gain interest in his strange actions–everyone knew how Swanhaden had basically been hoarding money the entire time.
Swanhaden, who had successfully gotten to the highest point of the hall, sat on the railing and stared down at the students. The students, curious about his actions, looked up.
Swan had a bored expression on his face. He dusted off the pale dust on his neat black shirt and stared down.
Wheeeee!
He whistled loudly to gain everyone's attention. The sound was so powerful that it echoed. Everyone all looked up at Swanhaden. Swanhaden, who just stared at everyone with sharp, round eyes, innocently blinked a few times.
"Beg like a bunch of losers."
He raised the giant container on his hand and dropped its contents.
Everyone's eyes grew wide. There was no way to earn money, but money was falling from the sky. All of the coated papers rustled as they fell. The principal's face was everywhere.
It fell down like rain. As soon as Swanhaden dumped the money, everyone began to run towards his side.
Everyone tried as much as they could to catch the money, falling down like rain.
"Hey, you scumbag!"
The students shouted, even as they picked up money. Everyone was piled together like ants and were busy picking up the money from the floor. The students laughed at their desperations but cursed Swanhaden out at the same time.
"Were you trying to get every single bill in the hall to do this?!"
"Hey, you piece of shit!"
Everyone cursed at him, even as they were busy sweeping the floor for money. Swanhaden just stared down at them.
"Hahaha."
Swanhaden opened his mouth and made a laughing noise, but his expression was still bored. Nobody could tell what he was thinking. He put his hand in the container and threw more money at everyone.
"That crazy bastard….."
Hylli was cursing him too, but he was picking up money from the floor. Cory was holding Hylli back and telling him not to get swept up by Swanhaden's antics, but Hylli desperately just stretched out his hands.
"Do you have to make us get so low like this?"
More complaints flowed in.
"….."
Instead of responding verbally, he just flung some more money to the left. People flocked towards the left and became more animal-like as they picked up money. Swanhaden just flipped the container and emptied it, then threw it behind him.
When everyone became focused on grouping below Swanhaden and collecting money, Swan's groupies robbed the booths and stole their money. Everything devolved into chaos. But nobody really noticed in the heat of the moment.
I had no idea what was going on, so I just went where everyone was and began picking up money.
"!"
Swanhaden, who had been looking down on everyone, suddenly looked shocked as his eyes grew wide. He had discovered me, also picking up money.
Shuraina, uh, when...… Don't pick it up, that... Sorry. Hold on, this wasn't how it was supposed to go."
He suddenly looked shaken. He began to stutter unlike his usual self. He looked like he was going to jump down but hesitated because I was below him.
"Oops."
Swanhaden tried to shift back but soon lost balance and fell forwards.
As soon as he fell, the money became just pieces of paper.
Swan had been throwing counterfeits. He had been using it to distract everyone from his robbery.
Even if Swan was scary, it seemed like anger had overridden everyone's fear of him. People held their blank sheets of paper and ran towards Swan in droves.
"Catch him!"
Swanhaden calmly collected his belongings as he stared at the group coming for him.
He held the container and the rope, then neatly tied the container on his back and ran. People chased after Swanhaden, who was running away from them with a calm expression on his face.
Another rush of chaos erupted in the hall. This really was just a massive circus by now.
I watched this entire thing unfold and remembered my original goal before graduation. This was something that resonated within me through this party.
I had become a bit relaxed because life seemed to be easy, but I remembered that I needed to stay alert.
"No matter what, no matter what, I'm going to be a civil servant."
I promised myself this.
Swanhaden suddenly appeared from a window at the back of the hall. I had been standing there, so I was coincidentally able to hear the knocking. I found him and let him in.
The container in Swanhaden's back was filled with real Augrans. He had, quite literally, robbed the entire place of their cash. All of the money from the booths and the students' money–he had all of it.
He separated the Augrans in half and placed one in a separate container. He handed me one of the containers. I was a bit taken aback.
"Hold it for me."
Swanhaden and I each held a container and went up to the student body president. He took the container and dropped it on front of the president. The president looked a bit taken aback.
"Wow…. You're actually incredible."
The president said, swirling his hand in the container. He had no idea someone would collect this much.
"Then I can pick the two of you for the party king and queen, right?"
Nod nod. Swan's eyes sparkled as he nodded twice. I had suddenly become the party queen by just standing there. I had no idea what was happening so I just blankly stared at Swan.
Just like the junior party, the party queen and king received a reward. It was a crown for juniors and an accessory that the partners could share together. The ring was a simple silver ring, and there was a crown-shaped jewel that looked like a wine-colored rose that was embedded in the center of the ring.
"I missed being your first partner, so I wanted to be your last one no matter what."
And with that, Swan placed the ring on my finger. He put it on my left ring finger, so I just stared at him.
I wanted an explanation, but he just turned around.
His ears were red as he separated all of the money into a separate trash bin and organized the trash before carefully returning his cleaning supplies.
I thought about taking a few of the bills to buy a coupon but gave up. Regardless of who saw my dark past, the people who treasured me would continue to treasure me, and the people who didn't wouldn't anyway. I had been running around, desperate to hide everything from Swan, but he seemed like he'd be the former rather than the latter.
"An excellent, proper person is supposed to know how to take care of other people."
Swanhaden muttered this statement loudly in front of me, as if he was reciting a line, and picked up a piece of trash that someone else threw on the ground.
"Just like me."
"Puhahaha!"
"Wow, that kid's super funny! What's he doing?"
After that, we all got some leftover food from the party and watched everyone's embarrassing pasts together. Everyone was sitting comfortably around the hall and watching.
The yellow, green, red, and blue classes all mixed together and stared at the videos playing on the wall.
A lot of students' embarrassing scenes flew by. The traffic light kids and their fart scene flashed by, a student acting out a scene alone flashed by, and a student dancing horribly passed by.
Everyone's past was being blown into the public, so nobody looked at others weirdly. Strangely, having a more embarrassing past became something to be proud of, too.
If a student picking their nose flashed onto the screen, people would say, "Damn, what a handsome fellow," and if someone farted on the screen, people would burst out in, "I wish my digestive system was that healthy."
["I wonder why she was crying alone in such a place. What hurt her so, for her to have such a fragile expression…."]
It wasn't a video, but Hylli's voice suddenly rang loudly through the hall. The students began to cheer loudly.
Whenever Hylli's videos, recordings, or pictures came out, everyone tried to hold in their laughter and clapped respectfully.
"Honor to the future ruler of our empire!"
"Hurray to the future Orde Emperor, Hylli! Hurray!"
Hylli held his knees in his arms and buried his face into his knees at the loud cheers.
"Don't….."
Hylli's ears were bright red.