“Lord Gabiru, I shall assist as well, so let’s show the power of the research team!”

Oops, I got them unnecessarily excited and motivated.

I was somewhat worried that the executives would be aiming for victory instead of setting an example.

Oh, well.

While I was considering who else to invite as participants – someone made an unexpected remark.

“Oh, does that mean Vester will participate as well? That’s good. Well then, I shall participate as well, and have a match with that [email protected] just like old times.”

Kaijin grinned while making such a remark.

The three Dwarf brothers had support duties, but the blacksmith Kaijin should be free. I wanted him to be advising but if the person himself was motivated to participate in the competition, it was needless to prevent him from doing so.

“Then it’s decided. Kaijin will be participating in the obstacle race as well. The team divisions will be decided later, but the races will be separated to spread out the abilities and have a more fair competition. Since you and Vester are Dwarves, let’s be thoughtful and go in different teams.”

“Yeah, I’ll leave it to you, Master!”

The showdown that Vester did not know about was decided without his consent.

At that moment, Shion raised her hand.

“Shion, what do you have in mind?”

“Yes! Since I’m one of the cultural festival personnel, would it okay to be in charge of cooking?”

The question petrified the whole room.

No way it would be okay.

My eyes met with Benimaru’s. His gaze was more eloquent than any words could express, pleading me to stop her by any means necessary. I felt the same way, so I nodded in acknowledgment.

“Um, Shion, about that …. There are many simple food stalls at the cultural festival, right? Gobuichi, Miss Haruna, and Miss Lina will be supervising, but I want to give the students a cooking experience as well! That’s why —.”

“I see, that means professionals like me won’t have showtime, right?”

Huh?!

I was frustrated by her overconfident statement, but to avoid unnecessary tragedies, I thought it would be wise to go along with it.

“Y-yes. That’s right. So don’t worry about the cultural festival, but please participate in the competition, Shion.”

“Understood, Lord Rimuru!”

And as such, Shion became one of the participants in the obstacle race.

# # #

I was at ease since the cooking nightmare was avoidable without any victims. But then Shion turned toward Shuna and started chatting.

“Miss Shuna, it’s too bad. Professionals like us can’t participate in the cultural festival.”

I thoughtlessly shifted my attention toward Shuna and Shion with a severe look.

Perhaps Shuna was surprised as well, and replied, “Eh?!”

That would be the natural reaction, wouldn’t it?

In Shion’s mind, she had skills comparable to Shuna’s and was proud of it. However, Shuna must have felt like objecting from where she was standing.

Oblivious of the atmosphere, Shion kept whispering.

“Let’s leave the cheering to Benimaru, and we should participate in the competition. What do you think?”

Shuna was perplexed by such a proposal.

I was baffled by it, too. Shuna was supposed to help with the cultural festival.

Unlike Shion, Shuna’s cooking skill was reliable.

I was pondering what to do.

Rejecting that idea crossed my mind, but soon realized that I hadn’t heard Shuna’s response. Supposing she wanted to participate, I would be killing her initiative.

That would be awkward, but – at that time, my “Magic Sense” detected a strong glare.

In my line of sight were the three Dwarf brothers. Garm, Dord, and Myrd were mercilessly glaring at me.

No, that was not accurate.

They were using their glaring power to communicate something to me.

Garm showed me something from his chest pocket.

Those were — Bulma/girls’ gym shorts!!

Of course! In my previous life, those girls’ gym shorts had gone out of existence for some reason.

<<Solution. At that time, the lesson contents in schools were differentiated between boys and girls, so different genders attended their respective classes. However, since the standard national course curriculum had been revised, both boys and girls had the same lesson content. It seemed that boys and girls were allowed to attend classes with the same clothes, and it seemed that they had transitioned from Bulma/girls’ gym shorts to shorts —.>>

I see. So that’s how it was.

I was wondering if there were complaints, but turned out there was a good reason which resulted in the change.

<<Negative. The fact that girls’ gym shorts were seen as the target of sexual curiosity could not be denied.>>

I remembered. It was on the evening news.

I had completely forgotten how beautiful they were – wait, that was not the problem at hand!

Currently, Garm had already prepared them based on the reenaction of my memory. And the three brothers hoped that Shuna would wear them.

Now that Shion had invited Shuna, the probability for their wish to come true was high. But would it be okay to allow such an indecent idea …?

<<Notice. Incidentally, girls’ gym shorts themselves were not banned, so some schools had adopted them as their sports uniform.>>

— Huh?!

Then they should not be a problem.

Hold on a second. To begin with, this was a different world altogether. The ethics from my previous life would not apply here. It was one thing if the girls themselves did not like wearing them. But I did not see the need to deliberately establish rules to ban them.

I nodded in approval to Garm, and then went to call out to Shion and Shuna.

“It might be unbalanced if only Shion who participates. What are you going to do, Shuna? If you participate in the competition, I’ll take over the cheering part.”

Immediately after saying that, Garm and the others looked at me with respect.

Well.

If I put it that way, Shuna would not be able to refuse it, right?

I thought it was a sly move, but I could not disappoint Garm’s expectations.

Somehow or other … I wanted to see the girls wearing them as well!

I had lost my sexual desires as a slime, so that made my desire to enjoy beautiful things all the more excessive.

Besides … Shuna and Shion had been treating me as their dress-up doll habitually.

So shouldn’t I be allowed to wish for them to understand my feelings every once in a while, without being punished? I was thinking along those lines when ….

“If that’s the case, then I understand! I will do my best in the competition, so please cheer for me! It’s a promise, okay, Lord Rimuru!”

Yeah!

I made a triumphant pose in my mind.

Garm and the others joined shoulders happily.