A Beauty Queen Is Born

“You idiot, why do you always choose the most inappropriate moment for stuff like this?!” Fantasia hides her face behind her hands.

“I feel like I haven’t done enough for you during this contest. I had such grandiose plans but it seems I cannot be as cunning as I’d like.”

“That’s not true, you gave me the courage to apply in the first place! If it wasn’t for you, I’d never be here!” Fantasia protests.

“My goal is to let the entire school know how amazing you are!” Ravel stands firm.

“Is this payback for our first kiss?!”

“You see, everybody, Fantasia is an incredibly strong girl. She cares for others and doesn’t take any negative comments personally. She possesses exceptional manual and technical skills, and she helps her father a lot. Yes, she can be very childish. But that’s exactly what I love about her. I wish you could see what I see inside of her,” Ravel’s voice softens.

Silveria seizes the microphone from the desk and directs her words towards Ravel.

“What do you mean, boy? You’re just blurting out the unnecessary. We all already know everything you said about Fantasia. We have witnessed firsthand the demonstration of her true self. Isn’t that right, audience?”

Silveria’s inquiry ignited applause and cheers throughout the vestibule.

‘Exactly! Fantasia is our cutie!’

‘I wish I were as strong as her!’

‘I’m so lame, I wanna be a skillful electrician like her!’

‘I for one have never bullied her!’

‘I misjudged her, she’s amazing!’

‘She proved to be a bigger person than us when we saw the picture of young Silveria!’

‘She was there for my classmate Leanna when I failed to stand by her!’

‘Without her, this contest might have ended early!’

‘You wanna date her? Then you better make her happy!’

‘If you break her heart, I’ll break your bones, you scumbag!’

Ravel can’t believe what he is hearing. His eyes widen, brimming with tears.

“Guys…”

“W-w-w-what is this about? Aaah, stop it, stop iiiit!” Fantasia turns her back on the crowd, burying her head.

“You see? Nobody here hates her. She’s a beautiful soul and I’m sorry it took this long for everybody to realize. Guess you should never judge a book by its cover, eh?” Silveria concludes, but her side personality emerges from within her again as some people keep shouting stuff about Fantasia. “Now shut up you piglets! How dare you speak when your Queen is having a speech?!” She shuts down all the voices so that Ravel can continue in his speech.

“One more thing. This beauty contest is a lovely tradition. But after 25 years, I think it is time to move on. Let’s not dwell on the appearance so much. Let’s rebrand this year-end competition and start looking for the personality queen and king or something. Why do we have to focus so much on the beauty aspect? We already ask these meaningful questions and evaluate one’s skills in the first two rounds, but we use only 1-5 rating, while on the beauty aspect, we use a 1-10 scale rating, as if saying the appearance is more important. And let’s encourage the male students’ participation more!”

“Hmm, that is an interesting idea. I can promise I will bring this up at the next Student Council meeting, but let’s not go into details now,” Silveria acknowledges Ravel’s thought process.

“Fantasia! So what is your answer?” Ravel doesn’t give up on her.

Fantasia turns back at Ravel and audience, “I… do I have a choice, you dummy? I love you, too! But the hyena inside of me is jealous since you made the first step! Next time, it’s going to be my turn! I’ll propose to you someday before you get the chance!”

Both Ravel and Fantasia look at each other, blushing more and more with each passing second. Such a grand statement has escaped Fantasia’s cute lips.

The whole vestibule applauds at the unexpected development. Ravel rushes toward Fantasia, hugging her tightly, while she allows herself to be embraced while seated.

Thank you, Silveria. There is no doubt in my mind that you were the driving force behind this. You are a strong leader that showed the people here the right way. And Eleona, Zinia, I am grateful to you, too. You showed us that body imperfections are nothing to be ashamed of. Leanna, you were the first one to acknowledge her here, ultimately breaking the ice. You’ve always been a kind girl.

“Hmph, I did my job as a judge, you don’t need me anymore,” Diantha, watching with a cold expression the situation unfold, leaves the desk and starts heading towards the entrance of the vestibule.

However, before she could walk away, Silveria intercepts her.

“Why did you make Fantasia trip in the hallways the other day?”

Silveria goes straight to the point, making Diantha halt and turn around to face her.

“How did you know?”

“I am the Student Council President, I have eyes everywhere.”

“If you saw it, then there’s no point in denying it. But I don’t think I need to reveal my motives.”

“You were jealous. You never found Fantasia ugly. If you did, there would be no reason for your pettiness. You consider her a love rival, just like Leanna. If Ravel dated you, then obviously he’ll date other special girls, you thought.”

“…”

“Well, no matter. What you did was wrong. I won’t make it public but I can’t let it go without a punishment. Expect to be summoned to the Principal’s office. And I don’t want to see you hurt any other student, understand, sweetie?” Silveria exudes an overwhelming aura.

“Hmph!” Diantha turns around and leaves the vestibule, while Silveria returns to the stage.

Zhang is already prepared with a sash that has “Vice Miss Bratislava High School” written on it.

“And the second most voted person out of our remaining 5 contestants is… Eleona of 1.B!” Liko announces a new holder of the title Vice Miss Bratislava High School.

“W-what…??” Eleona can’t believe it but soon she regains her composure, tilting her head upwards, as she dominantly says: “What else would you expect?”

“Way to go, Eli!! I’m so proud of you!” Fantasia applauds along the crowd.

“You deserved this, congratulations,” Zhang carefully drapes the sash over Eleona’s shoulder.

The charming tone of Zhang’s voice makes Eleona blush, as she looks him directly in the eyes. She is given the microphone to make a speech.

“E-ehm… I… t-thank you all, this means a lot to me,” she stammers, unable to express her words further and so she returns the microphone to Liko.

Eleona approaches Fantasia, as both joyfully embrace each other. Meanwhile, a familiar figure comes face to face with Ravel.

“Come outside.”

It’s none other than Ares with his signature cold look.

“What do you want? We’re about to witness a birth of a new Beauty Queen, I don’t want to-“

“We’ve already seen a Beauty Queen being born today. And Zinia is obviously going to be crowned next. So let’s go.”

Ares starts walking outside and Ravel reluctantly follows him. What could Ares want with him after everything he’s done? The way he’s so confident Zinia is going to win practically proves he bribed the students. Should I stop the coronation and expose him? No… I don’t want to spoil the fun of all these people. And it’s highly possible Zinia would win even without Ares’ help.

Before they both step outside, Ravel glances back at the stage over his shoulder, where Liko has just announced the new Miss Bratislava High School has been voted and it’s Zinia. Silveria crowns her with her tiara and a sash proclaiming “Miss Bratislava High School”.

Once the boys leave the vestibule, the eruption of the applause is reaching even their ears.

Ravel is following Ares, gazing at his muscular back and shoulders, “So what did you want to-“

He is interrupted by a sudden outburst of crying.

“I’m so sorry I failed to do anything for her!!!” Ares reveals heart wrenching tears, with snot coming out of his nose.

“Woah, woah, woah! What’s going on here??” Ravel is startled by Ares’ unexpected weeping.

“I did everything I could! But it wasn’t enough! I’ll never be able to repay her kindness like this! Waaaagghhh!!”

“Hey, calm down, man! I don’t understand what you mean, your girlfriend just won!”

“I’m talking about Fantasia!”

“…Huh?” Ravel tilts his head to a side.

CHAPTER 28: END