I didn't really think much about my own appearance because I was able to change it whenever I wanted with Sarkegaar's ring.
When I had originally set my appearance with it, I had made sure to make it so that I wasn't too ugly. I didn't make it so that I was so handsome that I could turn heads wherever I went, but I definitely had a handsome face. Until then, I had been living without thinking too much about it.
When Bertus had seen me consulting Kono Lint, he had told him that there was instead a more fundamental thing that he should take care of, although he had stopped his advice midway through.
He didn't say something like, "This doesn't have anything to do with something he does or says. Reinhardt is just handsome…" because he was afraid that it would hurt Kono.
Even so, Kono Lint tried to make something work that he wouldn't be able to pull off, so Bertus had told him directly.
"…S-so that's what it was…"
"Well, I'm not saying that you're ugly, Lint. Reinhardt is just… very handsome."
Kono Lint's mouth hung open; he was completely speechless.
I didn't need rhetorics or special methods.
'Reinhardt' was just handsome, so it was only natural that Kono Lint—who was comparatively less handsome—didn't get the same results.
I mean, it was obvious that a snake wouldn't get different results even if it tried to act like a stork.
"By the way, Reinhardt, it's a bit strange that you didn't notice this at all either. Have you never looked in a mirror?"
"Huh… What do you mean?"
"Haaah… Although you got into a lot of conflicts with your classmates, you still kind of get along in the end. I think your face plays a role in that."
I-is that what it was?
Did my appearance really play such a large role without me noticing?
Was that the reason why Liana, who wasn't really interested in me, still came along with me when I asked her out?
If I were really ugly, I would have already been treated unfavorably and completely ignored by the time I started teasing Harriet, but we were still on talking terms—was that because of my appearance-buff?
Then what about Adriana?
One's appearance seemed to be more important than I thought…
Even if I wasn't a super handsome man, I should have felt relieved that I set my face up to be handsome enough. Kono Lint remained silent for quite some time, then he turned his gaze towards me.
To be exact, he was kind of staring at me.
"Reinhardt…"
"…What?"
"You'll be every man's enemy from now on."
"What are you even saying?"
"Somehow, this guy who has such a terrible personality still manages to talk with all the girls! In the end, it was all because of your face, you fucker!"
Kono Lint jumped up in anger and shouted.
"I-I can't accept someone like yoooooou!"
He was making such a fuss that I couldn't even get angry at him. Rather, the situation was kind of funny.
No, I mean, if Bertus knew that this was because I was handsome, shouldn't he have noticed as well? Didn't he have eyes? It was kind of ridiculous that he was acting as if he found out about that only then.
"Huh… What's wrong with that idiot?"
"What else but him being innocent and pure?"
Bertus laughed as he said something rather uncharacteristic of him.
Anyway.
Starting the next day, the three idiot brothers' hostility towards me grew even stronger.
* * *
Reaper Scans
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'Reinhardt' was already pretty famous because of that duel with the senior at the start of the first semester. And, although it was originally supposed to be a duel with a second year, in the end he had to fight their champion, a third-year. He became even more famous because that champion lost hard against him.
That was a pretty positive image.
However, the atmosphere had changed subtly, as he was often seen hanging out with someone as famous as Olivia Lanze.
Who's that guy? What's with him?
That was what most people were thinking.
Olivia had walked the path of a priest of Towan, the god of purity. Therefore, there had never been any kinds of scandals surrounding her, although she had been subject to a lot of attention. Of course, it was publicly known that she had abandoned her faith, then questions about this man named 'Reinhardt'—who suddenly began to seize all of Olivia Lanze's attention—had started to be raised.
Of course, there was some hostility mixed in that curiosity. That subtle hostility towards 'Reinhardt' wasn't isolated to the first-years; it also rose up to the higher grades.
There were some clubs in the Royal Class—the largest one of them was a religious club called 'Grace', but there were many other smaller clubs, although there were only a few.
Among them, there was one called 'Monthly Royal Class', a journalism club that published newspapers every month which consisted of only three people.
Of course, a monthly newspaper published by only three people didn't really garner any attention from the students of Royal Class. Now, if we consider the faithfulness of the content when compared with the 'Temple Times', a media club belonging to the central clubs encompassing the entire middle school section, it was on the lower side. That club also had more than 50 members. No matter how special the Royal Class was, their sales number was absolutely lacking.
The content of the Monthly Royal Class was mostly just a summary of the Temple Times content or vague gossip—they were just trivial things such as who didn't get along with whom, who seemed to have a crush on whom, or popularity rankings divided by class.
However, no matter how indifferent everyone was towards it, it was still a really important matter to the members of the club.
What topics should they include in their newspaper? What news was circulating these days? What were people interested in?
However, all their featured articles they planned to publish went to nothing. The hot topic of the Royal Class at the moment was Olivia Lanze's renunciation of her faith and Reinhardt, her new favorite.
"Everyone has a skeleton or two in their closet."
"Of course."
And the president of the Monthly Royal Class, who was a fourth-year, Layton Zabry, hated the sudden rise of Reinhardt.
The other two were the same.
They even doubted that it wasn't him who corrupted the Saint of the Eredian district. Although the reason was something completely different, to those who didn't know the details about the incident, it was wholly possible for them to infer that Olivia gave up her faith because of the man named Reinhardt. In fact, Olivia had never treated anyone like she treated Reinhardt.
"Look into him. If you find any dirt on him, sink your teeth in it."
"Let's show him the power of the media."
"Yeah!"
These three were people who should never get involved with the creation of a newspaper.
* * *
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Except for the president, the other two members were dispatched to Year 1's Class A and B respectively to investigate the man called Reinhardt. They then talked to whoever they managed to catch, interviewing them.
They weren't rejected, as they were seniors.
"Reinhardt? Ah, he's my friend. He's really hardworking."
They interviewed Bertus first. His answer was rather simple.
The next one they caught to ask what kind of person Reinhardt was, was Kono Lint.
"…They say he's pretty handsome, but honestly, I don't really know. Tch, that parasitic bastard…"
Kono Lint, who praised 'Reinhardt' without realizing it, told them that he didn't want to think about it any further.
The third-year student, Edian—who was in charge of questioning Class A—had never actually seen that Reinhardt guy, so he added the question "Do you think Reinhardt is handsome?" to the list of questions.
"…I don't know."
That was Ellen's answer to if she thought Reinhardt was handsome.
Then she was asked what kind of guy Reinhardt was.
"…"
Ellen pondered for a long time about this question before she eventually gave him an answer.
"I don't know."
After Ellen answered, she turned around and went on her way.
"He's such a bad guy! I don't even want to think about him! He's bragging about being a beggar and is soooo annoying! He keeps bothering me!"
That was what the first-year Harriet de Saint-Owan said. Thinking that he had found some dirt, he started asking her more. She definitely hated Reinhardt.
"How exactly is he bothering you?"
"Eh… What? Oh, well… What do you mean? Why are you asking?"
"Oh, I'm a member of the 'Monthly Royal Class'. We're going to do a special segment about Class A's Reinhardt."
Harriet looked surprised at his words.
"Ah… So what do you want to ask me?"
"Then. How is he? Do you think Reinhardt… is a bad person?"
Harriet looked around and lowered her voice to make sure no one heard what she was about to say.
"Well… I don't think he's necessarily bad… I got a lot of help from him recently… That… That… I-I don't know anymore… He's a bad guy… but he isn't too bad…"
"I-is that so? Then I heard that Reinhardt was handsome. What do you think?"
"Y-yes?! T-that beggar? Handsome? How is he handsome? I-I g-guess he isn't th-that ugly a sight… Aaargh!
Harriet uttered some nonsensical gibberish before disappearing as if she was running away.
The next interviewee was No. 5 Cliffman. He said that he met him often because he was always practicing in the training hall but never actually talked to him before.
"… He's got a mean personality, but he's sincere. I consider him someone with a lot of guts. Seeing him keep going after getting beaten up so badly like that every day…"
Cliffman Highly praised Reinhardt's tenacity to continue training despite getting defeated by Ellen so overwhelmingly every day. Cliffman evaluated his appearance as okay.
Next was Cayer Vioden.
"That crazy guy… Wait a minute. You said you were asking this for your monthly edition, right? Then what I'll say will be printed in a newspaper, right?"
"Right."
"Then I didn't say anything."
Cayer thought that if Reinhardt found out later that he said anything, he'd get beaten up, so he just threw him out.
Then he met Liana de Grantz.
"Is he handsome? Well… I think so."
"Is there anything else?"
"He had a huge influence on the last group mission. His personality is a bit weird, but it's rare to find people who don't dislike someone hardworking, right? So rather than thinking that he's handsome, I feel like everyone kind of acknowledged him for that… I'm not really close to him, so I don't really know him that well."
It seemed that Liana had a moderate degree of favor for Reinhardt.
Then he met Erich de Lafaeri.
"…I don't really know a lot about him, but I think you would be better if you don't interview Reinhardt himself."
"Why? After interviewing his classmates, I was planning on interviewing Reinhardt as well."
"With his personality, he'll probably go crazy."
"No way… He wouldn't do that to a senior, right?"
"Did you forget that his duel opponent was in his third year?"
"Ah."
That was the moment he realized that it probably wasn't a good idea to interview Reinhardt personally.