Chapter 140 – Catan

It was now November. The members of the drama club were present for the preparation of the competition that will be held on December.

Thanks to Sayaka and Ruriko’s convincing everyone that Haruka was not dangerous, the first year and second year members had safely returned to the club.

Both Sayaka and Ruriko was aware of Haruka’s terrible reputation, but it was clear to them that Haruka was taking the club seriously and is on his best behavior.

Haruka was quick on his feet, and just from watching him act it was clear to them that he was talented. There shouldn’t be any complaints about him if he could pull off the same quality performance in an actual setting.

“It’s been a while senpai…”

“Ah…”

Haruka greeted Owada Kazuma with a refreshing smile.

Owada gave a stiff smile in return. He found it preposterous that Sayaka, who was known to be very strict when it comes to acting was very fond of Haruka.

Not only Sayaka, but it looked like Ruriko had also accepted Haruka.

There was no time to be practicing alone, Owada thought.

Owada was an not amused in the least that his two senpai, both who were so attractive to the point that it was considered a miracle to be acquainted with them, was now doting on a junior that was not him.

“Everyone, we don’t have much time until the competition. We should practice as much as possible.”

Just as usual, the vice president Sayaka was the one who took the reigns and announced the start of the practice session.

★

(Impossible…)

Just a few minutes after their practice session had started, Sayaka was groaning while holding her head. Ruriko was also in a similar position, she had her hand planted on her forehead.

Aside from the serious Minase Eris, Futuba Nanami, Philia Mio, and Owada Kazuma were showing subpar performances.

“Did you guys really practice?”

“Of course I did.” Owada defiantly replied. But perhaps because of his lack of confidence, his words was lacking in vigor.

Owada had often practiced on his own, but his concentration didn’t last very long. He always ended up getting distracted by playing online games.

“Of course the prompter is useful, but think of it as a last resort in case you miss your lines.”

A prompter was an app that instantly displayed the next line to say in front of the speaker in case they forget.

However, it was best to not rely on it since using it excessively will only result in strange pauses during a performance.

Eris had memorized her lines delivered them perfectly, making her performance magnificent. Meanwhile Nanami had only produced an average result, she seemed to be uneasy on some parts. Both Mio and Owada had used the prompter a lot which made their performances awkward.

They were not good enough to perform and obtain a desirable score in the competition.

At least during the Spring competition, Owada was shown to be more competent. But that might be the result of Sayaka and Ruriko coaching him on a regular basis.

“For now, it’s best to set aside basic training and focus on improv.”

Saya calmly grasped the current situation and decided to abandon basic training that took up too much time in the real world. Instead she opted to focus on performing improvs inside the virtual world where the time rate was 20. All the club members followed after her.

All the members dived into the school’s server using the VR gear assigned for club activies. They proceeded to perform the script that they will use for the competition.

The script was a complicated love story centered on the main character that was played by Owada.

For some reason, the world had started looping just before the start of summer break.

[The time has looped again… Why?! At this rate summer break will never come!]

The main character played by Owada cried out in an exaggerated manner as he hung his head.

Owada’s character had confessed his feelings to his childhood friend played by Nanami, who ironically was also Owada’s childhood friend in real life. The latter ended up accepting his confession. Owada’s character had looked forward for summer break, but the world had suddenly rewinded in a loop making it as if his confession had never happened.

The difficult part of the play was that they had to repeat the same lines over and over again.

Both Ruriko and Sayaka were convinced that the current script, which was carefully composed in a way that the pacing wouldn’t be too slow and that the same plot development wouldn’t repeat too often, was the perfect play for them to perform in order to get a good score at the competition. The play’s difficulty level was naturally high.

Because of that, Sayaka’s ended up giving rigorous acting instructions to them at a high frequency.

Eris and Haruka had managed to respond to her well, meanwhile Owada and the others needed several attempts in order to get their parts right.

Although they were annoyed at Sayaka’s detailed remarks, they knew that she was being sincere. Owada and the others had no choice but to do their best.

The fact that Haruka, a first year student who had only started acting a little over a month, was meeting Sayaka’s expectations without any difficulty had made a dent on Owada’s pride.

As they were giving shape to their clumsy performance, the play was approaching the final scene.

Sayaka played the senpai character who was in love with the main character played by Owada. She finally gave up on her unrequited feelings and stopped the loop. She ended up accepting the deliquent who was played by Haruka.

[You’ve done enough… You should compromise with me…]

[Yes… I’m sorry it took me too long to realize…]

“Hold on a moment.”

Ruriko puts a stop to Haruka and Sayaka’s performance.

“Is something wrong?”

Ruriko then told Sayaka, who had a face that was confident that she played her part perfectly.

“Sayaka, you were grinning too much.”

“Huhー?! No I didn’t! I obviously had a teary smiling face on!”

Just as Sayaka stated, she had to wear a sad, lonely smile as she was being embraced by Haruka.

Sayaka was confident that she had pulled that off perfectly.

“… You were definitely grinning.”

Nanami muttered while averting her eyes away.

“Senpai looked too happy. Kinda like you got a happy ending?”

Eris mercilessly followed up.

“Mouー, that’s enough! Take two!”

Sayaka’s cheeks blushed red as she declared to act out the same scene again.

The result was the same.