Silveria

***

In the backstage room, approximately 12 minutes earlier.

“Please welcome our stunning young beauty, Zinia from 1.B!”

Liko’s announcement of her as the next contestant reverberates from the TV. Zinia readies herself to step outside but Fantasia intercepts her.

“Zinia!”

“What do you want?” Zinia responds, irritated, and turns around.

“I wanted to take one last close look at you,” Fantasia places her hand on Zinia’s shoulder, taking a piece of the cloth from her dress between her fingers.

“D-don’t touch me, m…. monkey!” Zinia recoils once she realizes Fantasia is feeling the fabric, while being reluctant to call her monkey.

“Woah~. When you touch it, it’s even more pretty~,” Fantasia is taken aback.

She falls into that familiar trance she experiences when she finds something captivating her, many times for no apparent reason.

But there was a reason. Zinia looked incredibly pretty to her, despite, or rather…, because of the plain dress she was wearing.

“Are you mocking me, bitch?!”

“That enchanting color, the way it perfectly embraces your model-like figure… I can’t imagine you wearing anything else,” Fantasia’s soothing voice intermingles with admiration and excitement.

Zinia struggles to fight back against that nonsense Fantasia spouted, being unable to ignore the genuine sincerity behind it. Why does she have such a sparkling face and the stars in her eyes, she asks herself.

“A-are you serious…?” Zinia’s voice softens, realizing Fantasia was never the type to lie. “This dress was the best thing I could afford, I had to sell a lot of goat milk…”

“Too bad you chose this hairstyle, your cute ears aren’t visible like this…” Fantasia focuses on what appears to her as Zinia’s strongest weapons.

“W-what are you-“ Zinia’s face turns red, touching her ears through hair.

“I think they enhance your beautiful face even more,” Fantasia continues with her compliments, causing Zinia to slip into a dream like state where her ideal and real worlds merge.

“Zinia? Are you not ready yet?” She is called out by Liko once more, which snaps her back to reality.

Zinia rushes towards the door, gripping the handle. Fantasia calls out to her again.

“Eli’s my best friend but… I will vote for you! You deserve to win the most!”

Zinia’s eyes get wet as she wonders if she heard correctly.

“Contestants aren’t allowed to vote, you dummy…” Zinia, not looking back, mutters for herself before stepping outside to walk the red carpet, “…and you look pretty cute yourself.”

***

Zinia extends her hand to Fantasia, helping her to regain her footing after she tripped. The stage lights illuminate the stage, so the lack of light beside it makes it difficult to see Fantasia from contestant’s perspective.

“Are you alright?” she asks with concern.

“Yeah! Thank you, Zinia! That was a little embarrassing, hahah!”

“Go get’em, cutie,” Zinia smiles warmly at Fantasia, providing her the confidence boost she needed after the stumble.

Zinia unintentionally positioned herself to block the contestants’ view of Fantasia.

Now is the time for Fantasia to take the spotlight. She steps carefully onto the stage, finally attracting all the lights, revealing her new look to the audience and the contestants.

Ravel’s eyes widen upon witnessing a surprising transformation from her usual appearance.

Today, she exudes an unexpected radiance, as if a hidden beauty has been unveiled. Her blonde hair is styled in her typical charming twintails, framing her face and drawing attention to her blue eyes accentuated by the black eyeliner. Leanna’s skillful touch has enhanced Fantasia’s normally drab features with a touch of make-up, emphasizing her unconventional charm. For the first time, she reveals her teeth without the dental braces she once wore, making her smile brighter than ever. Draped in a blue dress, a sentimental piece left by her late mother, and adorned with a delicate blue silk scarf, a cherished memento, Fantasia radiates a sense of elegance. In this moment, she embraces her individuality.

“She’s… beautiful…!” Ravel’s eyes well up as his heart rate quickens.

“Right?! I can’t be the only one to think she looks amazing!” Eleona says completely mesmerized.

“Hehe, I’m very proud…” Leanna chuckles softly.

“When I saw her, the word ‘monkey’ felt very, very wrong…” Zinia admits with a tinge of regret in her tone.

In the audience, Seko and Yutaka can hardly believe their eyes.

“I mean, she’s still very much the ugliest one from here, but…” Seko is leaving his statement unfinished.

“Yeah, it’s still like going from 1/10 to 3/10. Two points on the male scale is quite a lot,” Yutaka adds.

“I didn’t need to bribe the students…” Ares is for some reason trembling and completely unreadable to the boys.

Diantha takes the card with a number 10 in her hands, raising it in front of her.

“Wow, is this…???” Liko doesn’t hide her exhilaration.

After initial shock, especially from Ravel, Diantha tears the card in half, throwing one piece of it behind her and holding up the remaining fragment, displaying a number 0.

“I refuse to give such an abomination ANY points while judging her appearance!”

“But Diantha, you cannot award somebody 0 points, we can write down 1 point,” Liko counters Diantha’s act.

“NO! I refuse! I am a judge and I am making this call! If you put a make-up on a disgusting pig, it’s still going to be a disgusting pig!” Diantha cannot let go.

“Alright, if you insist… that’s our very first zero for the last 25 years of contests,” Liko attempts to downplay the situation.

“Okay, I think you deserve this, for fun. Prank.” Zhang raises his card with 4 points.

“Despite her surprising transformation in mere 60 minutes in the backstage, Fantasia’s in a tight spot! Let’s see what Queen Silveria thinks,“ Liko glances at Silveria, who is already holding up her score card.

A perfect ten.

“Oh my god, my princess got a perfect score from the Queen herself!” Ravel is more excited than he should be.

But wait… I still don’t understand her intentions at all. Why did she pull the strings during the ranking at the Student Council? What is her true goal?

After the entire vestibule processes the unfolding events, they begin sharing their opinions.

“Sure Fantasia looks better now, but she’s still a below average girl!”

“I think she’s cute, so the Student Council President might be trying to offset the poor scores…”

“Don’t throw dirt on this event by making illogical decisions!”

Illogical decisions? The judges have been quite illogical throughout the whole contest.

Fantasia hasn’t reacted in any way to any score yet. She keeps her warm smile and just quietly appreciates the lively atmosphere of such a fun contest.

“Allow me to explain, my dear piglets,” Silveria nods her head to a volunteer boy who operates the big screen behind the stage with his laptop. She stands up from her seat, taking the microphone with her, and moves closer to Fantasia and Liko. “The truth is I genuinely think that Fantasia is very beautiful. My score was honest.”

“President, don’t try to lie your way out of this, you’re disqualifying yourself…” Liko confronts her.

“Look at this,” the big screen behind them shows a photo of a younger girl, whose face couldn’t be really described as attractive. “What do you think about that girl on the screen?”

“Eh, I thought Fantasia would be enough for today…” Seko pretends to throw up next to his seat.

“Hmmm, something about that girl intrigues me… what is it…” Yutaka contemplates.

“Buddy, get some help when such young girls intrigue you.”

“I didn’t mean it like that, you li’l penisbreath!”

The majority of the audience agrees on the girl being ugly. They whisper the girl is almost as repulsive as Fantasia without her dress and makeup.

“That girl on the photo…” Silveria continues, “is me. Seven years ago.”

The audience goes silent after hearing the revelation, pressing her with their gazes to elaborate.

“Hey! I knew it! That’s the girl I was platonically in love with during the elementary school!” Yutaka stands up from his seat.

“What do you mean?” Seko is confused.

“True my face was full of acne, but I didn’t think I was that ugly. In fact, I considered myself quite pretty. But I was bullied because of my appearance. Every day I would stare into the mirror, wondering what’s wrong with my face. I didn’t see any flaws. I swore that I would show all of those guys, one day!”

Easy now, you’re ruining your moment with that overconfidence and aggression, Ravel thinks.

“But then, I was told by a random younger student at the school that I was the ‘hottest’ girl he knew. Nothing has made me happier back then… after that, as the years went by, my face got cleaner, my hair gained a shinier color, and I evolved into the girl I am today.”

CHAPTER 25: END