CH 172

I could feel a ton of magic circles and magic on my way to the party hall. I looked around in amazement.

This senior party had a lot more planned than previous parties. I found a bunch of magic cameras hanging from a tree. The academy had recently bought a large quantity of magic cameras for partygoers for them to take photos of the party.

Unlike regular cameras that were hard to take care of, magic cameras were pricey items that printed the photos on paper. I was, once again, floored by how rich the academy was.

It seemed like Karim and I were also photographed. The pictures were immediately sent to those in the picture, and an extra copy was decorated on the road to the party.

“Nuna, do you want to take a look at some of the photos on display?”

Karim said, eyes shining as he looked towards the displays. Karim seemed intrigued at how the photos came out in sheets instead of orbs. I found Karim’s newfound intrigue to be adorable, so I smiled slightly and nodded.

I promised to look at the photos that had been taken of the two of us before heading in to the party.

I skipped the pictures of happy couples as the two of us tried to look for people we knew.

Out of all the photos, we were able to find photos of Hestia and Harun and Cory and Viedielle. They had been linking their arms together nicely as they headed over to the hall.

Karim was staring intently at the photo of Viedielle. He always talked about how he didn’t like her, but he was giving her a lot of attention. I smiled, pleased.

“Look at you.”

When I teased Karim, Karim shook his hands and said that I got it all wrong.

I also found Hylli amongst the photos. I was curious to know who Hylli had come with, so I peered into the photo.

Hylli was linking arms with the principal with an incredibly lackluster expression on his face. It looked like he was being dragged to the party. I ended up bursting into laughter. He had definitely been planning on coming alone before he had been dragged away by the principal, or, Noirelle, who had come down to play.

When I moved a bit sideways, another photo was soon visible.

It was a shaky picture that I couldn’t really make out. It looked like the camera had shook a lot when the photo had been taken. I couldn’t see it very well, but a silver-haired person was attacking an orange-haired person.

“That’s definitely Swan hyung and Yves hyung.”

Karim said. I nodded and agreed.

When I turned around and stared at a nearby trash can, two photos were shredded and thrown into the trash. I snickered with Karim.

Then, after looking through all of the photos, I was just about to head into the party when a notice on the door caught my eye.

[Let’s expose all of the dark secrets of this year’s graduates!]

The top of the paper was written in bold, and on the bottom was a note requesting that students bring their photos or videos of their friends’ dark pasts to the current student body president.

I excused myself to Karim and ran to the dorm to collect every single video and photo that I had.

The senior end party was different every year. It probably had to do with the fact that the party planner changed every year.

A month before the senior end party, the party-goers began to answer questions regarding their preferences.

When the student filled out their opinion forms, the student body would take that feedback and use it to form the party.

When they wrote down the band or orchestra they wanted most, they would try their best to schedule them, and if they wrote down the dessert or food you want, there was a high chance that the food would be in the party.

Just for the record, I liked upbeat music–I wrote down the name of a band that was breaking stereotypes and was creating rock-like music.

For my preferred deserts, I wrote snacks from the eastern continent, like honey rice cakes.

Eastern dessert chain stores began popping up in the city here and there. They were a bit pricey, but our school was rich. Fingers crossed.

The senior end party was student-centered, so it was a mess. A hot mess.

It had been okay during Yves’ year, but it seemed like students only got wilder and wilder by the year, so I assumed it would get worse from here on out.

And my assumptions were dead right when I opened the door.

“Odd! Odd! Odd! Odd!”

I had no idea what was going on, but students were pounding theirs fists on the desks and yelling.

In their hands were a wine-colored, laminated paper. What was that?

“Hey, go double!”

“No, let’s just go for it! Go all in, all in!”

“Life is all or nothing!! Let’s gooooo!”

Students were busy debating amongst each other.

Karim and I were so stunned that the two of us were just staring at each other. It wasn’t just me and Karim, though. All of the other students who had just arrived were tilting their heads in confusion at the weird sight in front of them.

“Hey! If you’ve just come in, take 10 Augrans over here!”

I was so confused that I had been staring blankly at the scene in front of me when a party attendant grabbed me by the hand.

The party attendant was screaming because of the loud music. I could barely hear their voice even as they yelled.

The person grabbed Karim and I and handed us something called ‘Augrans’. It looked like they were giving ten of these to each person who walked in. It was the wine-colored paper from earlier.

“What is this?!”

Karim yelled back through the loud music.

“It’s the currency of this party–try to get more through participating! The people with the most Augrans in the party will become this party’s king and queen! Even if you don’t become the king or queen, you can still buy prizes so try and get as much as you can!”

The party attendant left after giving us a brief explanation.

After learning a bit more, I learned that there were different colors for the different amounts of currency. 1 Augran was wine-colored, 10 Augrans were yellow, 100 Augrans were green, 1000 Augrans were blue, and 10,000 Augrans were red.

Karim and I blinked at the new information that had been relayed to us. We stared at the party currency in our hands.

On the wine-colored currency was the Augran flower of our school and the principal’s shy smile.

“What do they mean, earn as much as you can. All of a sudden? How am I supposed to…..”

I just dumbly stared at the money in front of me. I was a bit flabbergasted. Who knew that this was how the party was going to proceed?

I knew that worrying about how to increase my wealth was a dumb question. There were different methods written on the walls, huge font and all.

If you played a lot of mini games, you would get double or triple the amount of Augrans. There were a lot of different games. There were games where you could bet odd or even amounts of coins, a dance battle, and more.

In other words, it was a gambling site. I had no idea who planned it all, but it was quite interesting. I didn’t know where to start first, so I held onto the currency and just stood there.

“Shushu! Shuraina! Shushu, I need you so, so much right now!”

I had just been standing there when Hestia came running towards me.

Her flowy pale pink dress and her curly hair made her look incredibly beautiful. Her long, waist-length hair seemed to sway whenever she jumped.

Hestia was stomping around uncomfortably in her high-heeled shoes.

“I lost it all!”

What.

Hestia tearily grabbed my hands.

“One of my favorite authors’ signed copy is a prize, and I want to buy it so much! It was 100 Augrans, so I got up to 50 Augrans when Yves and Swanhaden took it all. Aaaaaaaaack!”

Hestia was just about to rip out her beautifully done hair, so I stopped her.

When I looked behind Hestia, Harun was slumped over a chair with an exhausted expression on his face. He looked like he had worked a lot. He had aged a ton.

“So let’s go do a dance battle together! If you’re with me, I feel like I can collect 100 Augrans, easy!”

I had no idea how things were going, so I just nodded. I moved to the dance floor alongside Hestia and noticed that Karim, who had been by my side all this time, was gone.

When I checked, it seemed like Viedielle had stolen Karim away. Viedielle also seemed busy during the party. Viedielle swiped Karim away and yelled, “Unni! Unni, find a new partner! There’s going to be a bunch! Thanks for bringing Karim!”

When Karim whines and tried to go back to me, Viedielle nagged, “Stop being dense!”

Viedielle seemed like she wanted to dance with Karim–she dragged him to the area where the orchestra was. Karim seemed as if he didn’t want to go with her but didn’t refuse her outright. I could see one corner of his lips curled up, so I just gave up on Karim and let Viedielle take him.

Most of the games were set up so that they were done with partners. Same with the dance battle, a lot of games needed to be done with partners.

I had left Karim go, so my current partner was Hestia. To earn money, everyone seemed to swap partners as the situation called. Hestia linked her arm in mine and clenched her fist. She was burning with intent.

Hestia took me towards where the dance battle was taking place. Hestia handed over every single Augran she had, and I handed 5 out of the 10 Augran that I had before requesting a battle.

“Oh, my! Another participant has appeared! Hestia and Shuraina, are the two of you participating together?”

The game MC raised their voice loudly as they introduced us to the students. The students cheered loudly when they saw the two of us together. I didn’t really get it, but it looked like a lot more people were beginning to crowd.

“The prince and the principal versus Hestia and Shuraina! This is going to be a legendary match!”

The MC excitedly yelled. Their voice rang loudly through the microphone and rang through the room.

Wait, who was my opponent? I looked at Hestia, surprised. Hestia was boldly staring at her opponents and I turned my head to stare that way.

Our opponents were none other than Hylli and the principal. Seeing an old, mature-looking old man wearing a dress and playing alongside kids seemed to give him unprecedented popularity and interest. Moreover, the royal prince was looking embarrassed next to him–Hylli was going to dance. Everyone was busting a gut laughing.

“500 Augrans towards Hylli!”

“Principal, you’re so cool! 200 Augrans!”

And that was how the bets began. I dumbly stared at Hylli. Hylli covered his