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…Three days passed after Kou began receiving coaching in the public entertainment department.

This time she was able to go through the entire script for her part of the opening ceremony.

*I did it.*

The amount of corrections Kurono gave out had gradually decreased through the previous two days, and today she had not interrupted a single time through the whole performance.

Kou took a deep breath, hoping that she had finally managed to meet Kurono’s expectations, and slowly turned to look at her to see how she would respond…

“…Alright, you’ve definitely improved a lot.”
“Ah… Really?!”

Kou beamed a happy smile, finally receiving a compliment from Kurono. That strong reaction also made Kurono smile a bit as she patted Kou’s head.

“Yes, you’ve worked really hard. But I’d still consider this the bare minimum.”
“The…bare minimum…huh…”

Clearly those pursuing that career were hard to please, but Kou did not let herself feel down because of that, and instead tried to reinvigorate her motivation to keep going.

Even Haru and Ranka, who had read and acted out far more scripts than she ever would, had been arguing over her script until recently, suggesting changes and alternative approaches. She had also met other first-year students from the public entertainment department who had come to learn from upperclassmen like Haru, Ranka, and Kurono, much like what Kou was doing herself.

Seeing everyone there strive to improve in every possible way made Kou push ahead, she would not be left behind just because it was hard.

“But first you should take a break.”
“It won’t do to push yourself so hard you lose your voice after all.”

Haru and Ranka had just returned as well, having gone to buy drinks for Kou and the other first-year students there.

“Mhm, and you still have to practice your improv skills on stage so you know how to get things moving. But don’t worry too much about that, you can always let Haru handle it.”
“Ahahah, why are you pushing all the hard stuff to me now, hmm Ranka?”

After Ranka pushed more responsibility onto Haru, she gave a menacing smile while fighting back. But that only lasted for a moment, as she soon softened her smile and tried to reassure Kou.

“…*Ahem*, just don’t try to do something too strange up there… But I know you take things seriously, so I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

Saying that, Haru passed on the hot milk tea she had bought for Kou. By now it had cooled off a bit, so the warmth from holding it was rather comforting.

“And one last thing… Here, I’ll lend you this.”

While Kou opened the bottle and took a sip of milk tea¹, Haru went over to the jacket she had hung up in a corner of the room and rummaged through its pockets in search of something. After glancing around to make sure no one else was present, she took out a small box.

Haru then gave it to Kou and urged her to open it, and inside…was a small hairpin.

“Umm…what’s this..?”

It looked like it was made of brass, with a small gemstone inlay in its center and some etchings, but overall it would not stand out when worn.

“What should I do with this…?”
“Well, why don’t you just try to put it somewhere on your hair?”

Being urged on by Haru, Kou took a few strands of hair from behind her ear and clipped on the hairpin.

“Wh-What’s happening?!”
“Cool, isn’t it? It’s a mysterious accessory to disguise ourselves. All students here receive one from the principal for our debut.”

As Kou raised her voice in amazement, Haru puffed her chest a little as she replied.

…When she wore the hairpin, her hair had quickly changed to a soft black color, which almost appeared brown against the light. Kou ran up to a mirror set up nearby, admiring her own appearance with a different hair color.

“You know, just changing your hair color can do miracles to conceal your identity.”
“Ah…”

Hearing that made her realize something else.

There would be a lot of visitors from outside the school during the festival. And considering the public entertainment department there, the mass media would also come to report on their up and coming talents.

With so many eyes on her, it would take no time before it was reported that the Scarlet Demon Lord Crim was attending that school.

…Then again, considering the free flow of information online, it was only a matter of time before people found out, but Kou still wanted to delay that as much as possible.

Being able to change her hair color would help with that a lot.

After all, her pure white hair was her one feature that stood out like a sore thumb. Changing it to a more common color and styling it slightly differently would make it difficult for anyone to associate her with Crim Lua Cheia…hopefully.

She desperately wished so…

“How does this even work though..?”

Kou could not figure out the science behind that hairpin, which altered her appearance just by clipping onto her hair.

At first she assumed it was some sort of AR trickery with her NLD. But when she turned off her NLD, her hair remained black…at least until she removed the hairpin.

*It’s almost like magic.*

That possibility was not as crazy as it seemed, and Kou knew that better than most. The immense strength her small body could muster was proof enough of that. But then the question was why someone like principal Aureo possessed items like that.

“Hey… Just who is our principal anyway?”

Kou asked that, and Haru just shrugged her shoulders saying “I dunno.”