PHASE 61 - MY HIDDEN TALENT TO PICK UP GIRLS

For now, I will not worry about my next , which involves me being a head-only creature waiting to be tortured by the voluptuous Brightmore Witch. I’ll worry about it a night before the deadline, the same way I worry about my semester-long school projects.

I have a bigger problem shoving on my face right now.

It was the end of our Monday class. The afternoon sun rays are still hot, and it’s invading my desk. I want to get out of my seat as soon as possible, but somebody grabbed my attention.

“Mister Alaric Eisenhower…” It was a girl from the other class. She has a scarlet hair and white complexion, with freckles all over her face. Clearly a ginger Scottish woman. With a 5’3 height, she’s quite small, but not as small as Amy.

(Note to self: I will now use Amy as a scale whenever I see a dwarf. That pisses her off lol!)

I noticed that she’s holding a pink card with heart stamp, so I immediately assumed her purpose. I turned to the girl lazily and cut her before she’s able to continue.

“If you’re going to confess, you may want to look in the mirror first.”

Oh crap. I forgot that Tiara is still here beside my seat!

“Ouchack!” I screamed after she broke my nose cartilage with a swift jab. It was so fast that I just heard a swish of the wind! Anyway, being brutally punished is just a regular school day. Don’t mind me.

“H-How many times do I have to tell you to stop being rude, Rikkun!?” Tiara sermoned me. Then she turned to the girl and bowed. “I-I’m sorry about my friend here. He appreciates your courage!”

“U-Ummm…” The ginger made a forced smile. “T-The truth is, I’m not here to confess.”

The scarlet-haired girl opened the card and it revealed a shiny title: “SLEEPING BEAUTY”. It’s a play for the incoming cultural festival. It was filled with the story synopsis in a form of a poem. The background has a lot of heart logos that I mistook it for a love letter. Teehee! My bad.

“The Drama Club is inviting you once again to perform in the stage, Mister Alaric Eisenhower.”

“Wooooooow!” Amy entered the scene as she appears to be eavesdropping. And she was quite surprised and looked at me with mixed amazement and doubt. “I didn’t know that you have a talent aside from cooking like a mother…”

“Y-You didn’t tell us that you’re an actor, Rikkun!” Tiara pumped her fist as her eyes twinkled for me.

“Actually…” The red-haired girl continued. “He was our best actor in the last year cultural festival. We hired him for a fixed rate. Thankfully, our payment is worth it as his portrayal as King Arthur made a huge hit to the students, especially the girls!”

“That’s right.” Heushac turned around from his seat and forced himself inside the conversation while playing MOBA on his phone. “The whole opera dome was filled with deafening fangirl shouts when they heard Ric shout ‘EXCALIBAAAAAAA!!!’ before making a slash to the enemy knight, which was portrayed by … my sister, apparently.”

Yes, I remember that. Helena was also hired by the Drama Club to portray as Mordred because the club seriously has little members and no person can swing a sword like she do. Too bad she’s not here to perform.

<>

Let’s talk about me being an actor. Making facial expressions such as anger, confusion, and cute-charming-smiles-that-can-command-a-girl-to-drop-her-panties is easy, because of my natural talent. The only challenging thing to do is to cry because I’m a manly man.

The key to cry-like-it-was-real is to remember all that damn kitty said to me when she friendzoned me, and my eyes would produce ten gallons of tears immediately. Works every time. But actually, that’s no acting. That’s real manly cries.

Also, that King Arthur play made my life a lot harder. It may be a break for me, but my popularity among girls started with that specific event. From that day onward, I was subject to several confessions from creepy stalkers.

<>

Okay, let’s go back to the conversation.

“So, will you accept our offer to perform once again in the stage?” The ginger from drama club asked once again.

“I don’t want to. I went to a lot of trouble last year.”

“I know that you want to hide with a low profile.” The girl said. “But consider my offer first.”

The girl lent a folded piece of paper. When I opened it, a dazzling series of numbers blinded my eyes! It is a paycheck!

“Okay, when will our workshop start?” I immediately jumped and smiled at the Drama Club girl.

I heard Amy mumbling a side comment like “Are you really sure you’re not a prostitute?”.

Tiara gave a cute sorry smile while she mutter “Rikkun is really easy to bribe...”

“As soon as I have recruited the potential main characters, we’ll start the workshop. We’ll be performing this Friday, so we have a lot of time.” The ginger girl said.

“How many characters are you still hiring, Harie?” Amy asked.

Oh, I finally remembered. This red-haired girl is Harie, the president of the Drama Club. I forgot her name completely. Even without that memory-erasure side effect from the exorcism, I’m sure I would never remember a name so irrelevant. She’s just a side character.

Harie kissed her index finger while thinking. “Let’s see… Alaric will be the Prince Charming. We need Sleeping Beauty, the witch, and an evil prince. We’re kind of short for members after all.”

“That’s the key roles! Are you sure that the Drama Club have any members!” Amy shrieked.

“Well, the best actors got into an accident while rehearsing so…” Harie scratched her head, but then she shifted the topic with a smile. “Actually, I’m planning to hire you too, Jeannette. I would want you to fill the role of the Sleeping Beauty.”

“W-What!?” Amy and I yelled.

“Well, you caused a lot of ruckuses back in the Cosplay Convention. A lot of students wanted you to stand out more. So it will be your biggest break to be noticed by a guy you like~”

“N-Noticed by a guy I like…” Amy repeated the words as her eyes turned to heart. Wait, is she staring at me? She’ll get me pregnant!

“And you too, Tiara. I want you to portray the beautiful evil witch! A lot of guys will be shocked to know the yandere side of you!” Harie said.

Tiara bowed. I’m worried too because she might be offended for being offered to play the side of the witch.

“I-I’m sorry, I don’t have any experience in acting.” Tiara made an excuse as she held her aching heart.

“We will give you a gift certificate from a famous eat-all-you-can Mongolian barbecue buffet!”

“I accept!” Tiara jollily pumped her fist as she threw all her feelings away just for an offer of unlimited food!

The president of the Drama Club then turned to Heushac, who was still busy playing on his phone. “Mister Heushac Efilion. I’ve seen your fantastic sword fight with your sister last time. I think you will fit into the role of an evil prince!”

“I don’t think there’s an evil prince in Sleeping Beauty,” Heushac commented.

“Well to prevent the play for being boring, we added some new twists! The play revolves around the point of view of Prince Charming instead of Sleeping Beauty. We will document Prince Charming’s adventures as he will fight golems, dragons, and ultimately, the NTR Evil Prince! The Sleeping Beauty and the Yandere Witch will have less screen time, so you wouldn’t have to worry about acting and delivery of long lines. You guys will just set up a stage for Alaric so that the play attracts a lot of girls!”

I kind of regret the decision I made. But this paycheck is already signed and has my name in it. I can’t back down!

But I don’t want to be left alone with the girls again, so I wanted to have Heushac join. I suddenly had a great idea which I whispered to Heushac. After hearing me out, Heushac finally gave his answer to the Drama Club president.

“Fine. I’ll join.”

Then Heushac crossed arms with me. “This will be a helluva lot of fun, Ric!”

“You bet!” I said.

<>

So our drama practice went as days go by.

Rehearsals are more pain in the butt than the actual play. Literally.

There was a time when I slipped and accidentally hugged Tiara, and that darn puppy would freak out and punch me in the nose.

And every time we would practice the symbolic sleeping beauty kiss, Amy would be flustered and kick me in the balls. Seriously, these girls need to chill.

But I assure everyone that the play is worthwhile to watch.

….I think.