Masho no Otoko wo Mezashimasu

168.
Confirmation

Sponsored Content

School was over and I went back home.

After I arrived at my room, I fall into bed without changing clothes.

Strange? When I was trying to sit idly on the side, I suddenly got involved. In addition, the two heavyweights are forced me to be in a situation that would be disappointed if I fail to meet their expectations.

…… Why did this happen to me! Why is life so harsh?!

In my previous life, I wasn’t so high when it came to pride. But, my pride in this world is extraordinarily high.
Yeah, in here, I’m a person with a reasonably high pride.
I admit it. Therefore, if the man from Toukain and Seikagu get disappointed, even by just a little, and they start looking down on me even for a little, I can’t forgive them and myself… Dam you Fukushima! … You’re really a scary guy to be able drive me this far.

This is a battle where I can’t lose that easily. 

First of all, I should talk with Etou-san and get some information… somehow, I feel like those people from Toukain and Seikagu who seem to be collecting my information for some reason. But if I do it wrong, she might even think that I’m cheating, even if that is not the case, I would like to avoid doing anything bad as long as there is a possibility that the identity of the masked man could be revealed. Anyway, I’ve to get in touch with her and confirm about my application. 

I was reluctant, but I still picked up my smartphone and called Etou-san.

“Hello? Kohaku-kun? What’s wrong?”

After a few calls, Etou-san answered the phone.

Sponsored Content

“I’m sorry to call you when you’re at work.
So, when I went to school today, my friend said that he had filled the application form with my information, so I wanted to confirm that.”

“Ah, That thing.
I’m sure there was an application under Kohaku-kun’s name.
But the address and phone number are wrong, so I thought of confirming that later… So, is there something wrong?”

“Well, you see, my school classmate did that without my permission …”

“Oh, I see.
Umm … what should I do? Personally, I want you to participate …”

Etou-san said so with a sad voice.

“… Please accept the application as it is.”

“Eh? Are you sure?”

“Yes, I had to participate because of some elusive circumstances…”

“Really!? Wow, Yay!”

Did Etou-san inform the nearby staff of my participation? 

Sponsored Content

From a distance, I heard a voice saying, “One man that looks great on the screen confirmed!”

“Thank you Kohaku-kun! Everyone is happy!”

“I-I see.
Good then…”

And when I asked about what she planned with the masked man…

“I was going to announce that he failed in preliminary,”

Etou-san replied me like this. 

It’ll look pathetic if the masked man lost at the preliminary after saying so much right? But, it’ll be a problem if the masked man doesn’t fade out on the way. But still, I feel like it’s a waste.

“I see… if you like, if I passed the preliminary, could you make it the same for the masked man?”

“I don’t mind it, but Kohaku-kun, even if it’s you, playing dual role is too much, isn’t?”

“That’s right.
So just announce that the masked man is among the participants who have passed the preliminary.
I mean you aren’t lying, right? Well, I don’t know the event after the preliminary but, if the others think that the masked man is among them, the other participants would think twice to cooperate.”

Sponsored Content

Since they came to defeat the masked man, when there is a possibility of cooperating with him. It will be difficult for them to cooperate with others to kick off other contestants.

And if the winner is someone other than me, the staff only need to do one thing, that’s to tell that the masked man has been eliminated. If they ask the staff to tell them the true identity of the masked man, they can reject them and say that it’s impossible as to protect the person personal information.
If I win, it doesn’t matter, so they’re free to say it.
If they don’t want to tell the truth, we need someone to fake it, the problem is that someone who’ll be the masked man is limited to the participant who passed the preliminary.

As a result of telling Etou-san about my thoughts, she thanked me. It seemed that Etou-san and the other staff were worried about what to do with the masked man. And that was why they decided to announce his lost at the preliminary.

“By the way, when you called me the other day, you said that the number of applicants exceeded 1,000… is it still increasing?”

I casually changed the topic and decided to get some information. 

It’s just a small talk, so nothing is wrong, right? It just happens that she’s on the management side.
That’s all.

“Yes, it’s still increasing.
But as expected, the momentum has slowed down.”

“It seems that it’ll be difficult to decide what to do in preliminary if it increased that much, right? Have you decided on the content of the preliminary?”

“It became as what you told me before, that’s to compete for the overall academic ability, athletic ability, and appearance.”

“I see”

Sponsored Content

“It goes without saying that you can see your dedication in the academic ability test and your dynamic body in athletic ability and of course the appearance is important too… I’ll get a high rating with all of that content in TV!”

“I-I see…..”

“Ah, as for the appearance… I’m going to collect votes from the general public who came to the venue for the appearance examination.”

I see… So, if the appearance between the participants is not that much difference, it’s necessary to do some customer services huh… it means, you should be flirting with the customers, is it?

“I see, well then it’s bad to get in the way of your work, so it’s time to cut the call.”

“Eh! Ye-Yeah.
It’s okay to you call me at night too! Really! I don’t mind!”

“Tha-thank you very much”

I said so and hung up. 

Alright, what I need to do now is… study. I don’t feel like losing, but I have to reduce the risk of losing as much as possible.