After Ruki and I finished our race, we headed back to where Reina and Swordia were waiting for us.

Seeing this as a good chance, Ruki decided to introduce himself to Swordia.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Ruki Kouma. I hope we can be friends."

"A-ah, nice to meet you as well. I'm called Swordia Nihondou."

Swordia took Ruki's hand and shook it. It seemed good enough for a first greeting, but for some reason, Swordia's face was taking a confused expression.

"Excuse me if I'm being rude, but are you a devil?"

"Hm? I am. The child of the Kouma house. Ah, but you don't have to worry about noble titles and all that."

"I see. I'm sorry about that, it's just that your mana doesn't feel like the usual devil's, so I thought you might have been a human like Yuuto, or maybe a mixed-blood."

"No worries, it's no offense."

And with that, the introductions between Swordia and Ruki came to an end.

But I have to say, the more time I spend with Swordia, the more I'm interested in this ability to feel mana. It seems really useful. I wonder where she learned it.

"Say, Swordia, I'm really impressed with your ability to sense mana. How did you learn it?"

"It's nothing special, really. I may be more sensitive due to my lack of sight, but any half decent mage should be able to do something similar."

Ah, shot myself in the foot with that one, didn't I?

No, but I can also feel mana when a spell is being cast. I'll say that's the normal way to do it and be satisfied with myself for now. Keeping your self-esteem high is important.

I should probably try to change the subject before I lose what little respect I may have left. But what should I try talking about…?

"Yuuto-san, senpai just sent a message."

Phew, saved.

The message was from Lizel-senpai. She was with my parents and Miyako, as well as Stella and Neith, and they had been watching Miyabi's martial arts tournament. It seems they have also finished on their side and wanted to meet up now.

So our group moved to where Lizel-senpai and the others were. Luckily, it wasn't too far, and Swordia wasn't opposed to coming with us.

I thought she would have wanted Reina to guide her along the way, but she just took my arm right after we decided to go.

Well, I don't mind and I can hardly complain. I even found Reina's pouting face rather cute, but I could live without Ruki's smirk.

"That Ruki person, are they your friend?"

"I'd say so, why?"

Swordia suddenly whispered to me. I suppose she wanted to keep this talk private, so I also whispered my answer, though I didn't really see the need to.

"They seem to be hiding something. They claim to be a noble, but his magic circuits feel more like a mixed-blood's. In the first place, is this Ruki person a boy or a girl?"

"Well, he dresses like a girl, but he's a boy as far as I know. But why is that important?"

"Yuuto might not know this since you're a human, but devils have different magic circuits between male and female. That's true even for mixed-bloods. I should be able to tell if someone is male or female no matter what physical or magical means they use to hide it, but I can't tell his gender."

I remember Reina taught me about that. Humans have simple magic circuits that don't change depending on gender, lineage or whatever. But devils have complex magic circuits that are influenced by all that.

Going by that logic, Swordia should be able to tell someone's gender by magic circuits alone. But what does this mean in this case? Maybe it just wasn't as reliable of an ability as Swordia claimed it to be.

"Could something be blocking you?"

"I suppose this strange circuit I feel from both you and Ruki could influence it, but in his case it's more like… no, actually never mind it. It's not important anyway if you trust him."

Come on, you're going to stop there? You're just making me more curious! I can figure out that the "strange circuit" is probably from us being Candidates, but what else was she going to say?

I tried to get Swordia to talk, but she just wouldn't. I decided to drop the topic when Ruki started asking "what are you 2 whispering there?"

We met up with Lizel-senpai's group soon after.

"How did it go, Miyabi?"

"Ahaha, I lost. I happened to land in the same group as an old acquaintance and she just beat me to the ground."

"Flor has certainly become a… strong young lady."

I have to guess this Flor character is the acquaintance Miyabi mentioned. It's a shame she lost, but I suppose it's better to be defeated by someone you know, if you have to lose.

"By the way, Yuuto, who is that?"

With that question from Lizel-senpai started another round of introductions from Swordia. Also, I would only learn of his much later, but on that day Stella collected bets for if I would show up with a new girl.

After Swordia introduced herself to everyone and heard everyone's names, I felt a tug on my sleeve and heard a question "are there… even more Devil King Candidates here?" to which I answered "yes."

It was quite funny to see Swordia's confused face. I mean, who would expect that so many Candidates would be in 1 place and not trying to kill each other?

We started heading back to the Himekami family reserved spot. Everyone was chatting a lot, asking Reina how it went with her fight, where she met Swordia, how mine and Ruki's race went, and so on.

Overall, it was pretty nice. For a while, I even forgot about the Devil King War and Ibiza and everything else.

{Haaah, I feel this is going to be the most one-sided competition of this year's Festival. I mean, 1 side barely has willing participants, the other has the world's top idol. It's to the point even I feel a little… huh? It's already on? O-oh, t-the cheering competition participants are to come to the backstage. … And sorry about before, but everyone knows it's true.}

With that very unprofessional, but very Barbatos-like speech, Stella and the girls had to go get ready for the cheering competition.

"Get ready to be blown off your seat, Yuuto. Hehe, I can't wait to see your reaction after we come back."

Stella seemed really excited. I mean, she invested all her efforts on this competition, but I couldn't help but get a sense of uneasiness.

So the girls + Ruki left, only I, Swordia, my parents and Miyako remained. We went back to where we had been before the pledge of fair play. We would have a good view from here.

About 10-15 minutes passed until the Devil King showed up again on the stage. It was probably time to begin the cheering competition.

{Hello everyone, we'll begin the cheering competition shortly. Lovers' team will be first. The Candidate of Star, Stella Hoshigaoka, was in charge of this competition, so I'm sure it'll be quite something. Everyone, please enjoy.}

There really is a lot of expectation on Stella for this. Well, I suppose it's par for the course for the top idol.

No matter how much I asked, Stella refused to tell me anything about what she planned. I managed to get a little bit of information from my Cards, but not enough to give me any solid ideas of what to expect.

Even I have to admit I'm quite excited. I mean, this is basically an exclusive show. I'm not big on idols, but I can appreciate a good show.

"?"

A second later after Swordia's reaction, a barrier enveloped the whole stage and viewing area. I thought it might have been an attack at first, but it seems it was just to create a darker ambient for all the stage lights.

An idol's shows are usually held at night, or in a closed space, or both, because of such lights. Maybe something like this should have been expected, but a word of warning would have been nice. Surprises like this aren't good for my heart.

"Woooo! It's about to start!"

"To think our Yuu-kun would get the top idol to dedicate a show to him!"

"Please don't get too excited, mom, dad."

Well, there's going to be no end to it at this rate. Maybe I should just let them enjoy this.

Soon enough, the girls showed up on the stage. Since it was dark, it was like they had suddenly appeared.

… What a second, who are these girls? I don't recogni- no, wait, I can see that catgirl. What was her name again? Myaa, that's right. There were 14 girls on the stage, so they were probably Stella's Cards.

The lights went out for a second, and when they came back on, Lizel-senpai, Miyabi and Reina appeared. The lights went out again, and now Stella, Neith and Ruki were the ones that showed up.

{Everyone from Lovers' team, get fired up! You don't want to lose to Devil's team, right? So what if he's Lovers and a human on top of that? I'm here, that's all you need to know we'll win.}

I could have lived without that, but I suppose she's just easing up everyone's worries. People only really joined my team for this Festival because of the other Candidates that were on my side.

By the way, the girls are still in their bloomers. Are they going to put on their show with that-?

Just as I was asking myself, the lights turned off again, and the next time they turned on the girls were in cheerleaders' outfits. Did they change when the lights were off? Or were those clothes under the bloomers? I suppose, just like a magician never reveals his tricks, I'll never get Stella to tell me what happened.

I might say it's a cheerleader's outfit, but it's not as revealing as the stuff I've seen in movies. The skirt seems to have something under it that doesn't allow the panties to be seen, and even the shirt properly covers the whole torso.

How do I say it? After all Stella said, I expected something more… revealing, maybe? I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this seems pretty normal. Maybe what Stella meant was in regards to the song and dance.

As I was thinking that, the song started. Everyone started slowly moving and dancing. There were 20 people on stage right now, but their coordination was impeccable.

"T-that's-!"

"What wrong, dad?"

"Yuuto doesn't know?! That's Stella's most famous song! Surely you've heard of it."

Now that I think about it, it does seem a little familiar. I might have heard it before, but I definitely wasn't knowledgeable about it.

"You're wrong, dear."

"What are you-? Wait, you're right!"

"You can hear it, can't you? The slightly different beat and lyrics. This is-!"

"A remix!"

Eeh, I could never have guessed that. Guess my parents are bigger fans of Stella than I thought.

Still, I couldn't deny the quality of the show. The song was pretty nice, enough that I had to accept that it was Stella's #1 song.

Even the dance choreography was nothing to scoff at. You would have a hard time telling who was and wasn't a professional idol on that stage, unless you knew them beforehand, of course.

"Oh my, Miyabi looks so lovely."

I see even Miyako was enjoying the show. She looked pretty happy as she saw her daughter dance and jump around.

""""Wooooooo!""""

It felt like the ground was shaking with everyone's shout. As far as getting everyone fired up, you could say this was an absolute success. Maybe it was just a horde effect, but I also felt like giving it my all.

After a few minutes, the show ended. People started calling for an encore, but Stella apologized and left the stage with everyone. The barrier making the place darker was also taken down at that time.

I could see why Lizel-senpai, Miyabi and Reina always seemed so tired from training for this. I can't imagine how much effort it must have taken for them to learn the song and dance, and to coordinate with everyone else.

Even Neith and Ruki weren't left behind, Ruki might have been a guy but he looked right in place with all the dancing girls, and Neith, for as timid as she was, put up a great performance. Of course, Stella and her Cards also showed why they're professional idols.

I wonder what kind of performance Devil's team will put up. I might dislike Ibiza, but that's no reason to hate everyone on his team. A lot of people there simply joined him because they had no faith in me.

{Wow, that was really amazing. As expected of Star. Now is Devil's team's turn. Let's see what they've brought to the stage.}

After the Devil King said that, a bunch of girls entered the stage. They seemed amateurish, but that's in comparison to Stella's performance. On its own, there wasn't much to criticize.

{U-um, we're here to cheer for Devil's team. Go fight, go!}

In my opinion, they put up a fair performance, but there was a clear difference between theirs and Stella's performance just before. Of course, it was an unfair comparison, but there was no running away from it. If one had to choose the better show, the winner was clear.

{Thanks for the performance, girls. Alright then, we've now finished the first half of the first day of events. There will be a break for lunch now before the evening events, so please enjoy your lunch without rush.}

It was now time for lunch, but obviously we would wait for everyone to come back first.

But there was a surprise waiting for everyone before the evening events could start. A surprise I would only learn the nature of a long time later.