Chapter 151: Miss Dungeon (Part 2)
Link: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n7583de/
Author: Hirukuma
Translated by Zzonkedd
Edited by Gumihou
“Right, let’s start this emergency meeting on How to Win This!”
“Yeah–!” [1] Ramis cheered.
“Let’s do this!” [1] Shui punched the air enthusiastically.
Seeing three women of the same age gathered together was a gorgeous sight, even though it was already quite late at night.
The meeting was led by Hyurumi, with Ramis and Shui listening intently for now.
Apparently, Shui had participated in the contest with an eye for my products. Just as expected.
The ‘headquarters’ for this important meeting was Ramis and Hyurumi’s tent. There was a good reason why these three supposed rivals are now joining forces.
First, the Miss Dungeon Contest had drawn a much bigger number of participants than expected. That’s because the major prizes were not limited to my products. From what I heard, magic tools and precious metals (provided by Suori) had been included as part of the prizes, which quite a few women had their eye on.
The second, most critical reason was Shirley.
None of the women thought they could take her on one-on-one and decided to try working together to break the status quo.
“The first part of the contest involves greeting the audience. Each participant must appear on stage in regular clothes and give her greeting.”
“So, I just need to greet people cheerfully?” [1] asked Ramis.
“Hmm, sounds about right,” [1] said Shui.
“Well, that’s the basics of it. The most important point of the greeting is to show everyone your everyday self. The problem is the second part. The [2] Show Your Special Skills portion of the contest. So, as the name of the contest implies, this is not just a skills comparison contest, but an opportunity to show off your charm. Looks like participants are allowed to wear whatever we like here.”
In other words, it’s ‘Appeal Time [3]’, an opportunity for them to charm the audience.
Just before I migrated to this place, idols had been doing all kinds of things to stand out and gain votes during Appeal Time.
“Skills, huh? Well, it’s gotta be archery for me,”
So, the plan is to set up targets to show off her skills. Well, that’s a fairly easy-to-understand skill that could appeal to the audience.
“I guess I could lift heavy things?”
To show off her superhuman strength, Ramis could certainly lift heavy-looking things to leave a strong impact.
“Guess I ought to try and show one of my inventions.”
Hyurumi’s skill as a magic tool technician is sure to grab people’s attention. Though the jury’s still out on whether the impact is positive or not…
Hold on, aren’t these girls uniquely skilled? Surely they could place well if not win this competition?
“I guess, our main problem is… clothes, isn’t it?” said Hyurumi. “Aside from these clothes, I only have my casual wear and nightwear.”
“Ah, me too,” chirped Ramis.
“Same as the one on the right,” quipped Shui.
What a sad situation. Surely this isn’t something that girls their age should be saying? Does being a hunter or a magic tool technician make you so careless about taking care of yourself?
Well, I supposed that for Shui and Ramis with their high-risk jobs, it probably made sense to spend most of their money on armour and weapons. Hyurumi is more absorbed with her research and doesn’t seem to have much interest in these things in the first place.
“There is a clothing store on this floor, but with all the contestants flocking to it, all the more interesting clothes were gone.”
“What about combining or changing the clothes we have now? We could try reducing the fabric for a more sexy look!”
Increasing the exposed area is a straightforward but effective strategy. After all, there’s a reason why there’s a swimwear category in most beauty pageants. However, since proper swimwear as I know it doesn’t exist, people mostly just wear a plain shirt when they swim.
“No, don’t bother with that. Shirley has a clear advantage if it comes down to an exposure competition.”
The other two fell silent. All three had their arms crossed as they all groaned with their heads down. Have they all given up? Are you bowing your heads in defeat?
Personally, if it comes down to a healthy contest of beauty, all three stand a good chance of winning. Especially Ramis who doesn’t lose to Shirley in terms of bust size.
Still, I do hope they don’t expose themselves too much. Just imagining them in their underwear or swimsuits made me feel a little uncomfortable, as though there were some weird noises coming from deep inside my body.
“I guess we should just focus on the performance of our skills since that’s more doable. Although, I do think that clothes are pretty important in a contest of beauty.”
Looks like all three were ready to give up on the clothes part of the competition.
When it comes to clothes, the only things I had ever bought from vending machines were T-shirts and underwear. Although I did hear that there were some hospitals with vending machines that dispense pyjamas and slippers, none of the hospitals I stopped by have such vending machines.
Well, what I really needed now was stylish clothes, [1] so pyjamas and slippers probably won’t help anyway.
“There are more places that just sell fabric, so technically we can just make whatever we want,” [1] said Shui with a shrug.
“Eh? Shui can make clothes!?” exclaimed Ramis.
“Kind of. Everyone at the orphanage seems to like them. It’s kind of a pain to buy children’s clothes in a dungeon anyway.”
Oh my, so Shui could make clothes? That kind of skill doesn’t seem to fit her personality. Did she learn to sew for the sake of the children?
She is surprisingly domestic in many ways, I think she would make a wonderful mother.
“So, we just need to figure out a design for the clothes, huh? Well, can’t say I can help with that…” muttered Hyurumi.
“I- I don’t know much about that either,” said Ramis.
“I’m pretty good at making children’s clothes, but can’t say I know what’s fashionable out there,” admitted Shui.
Clothing design, huh? Ah, if they just want a sample, I do have a few fashion magazines.
Back when I was stuck at the hospital due to some illness, I found a row of vending machines next to the pharmacy in the basement. Among those vending machines was one that dispenses magazines.
There were health-related magazines, picture books, gossip magazines and fashion magazines.
I wasn’t really interested in any of the magazines but bought the fashion magazine since that was the one I thought was worth looking at.
Let’s see, first, let’s transform into the <Magazine Vending Machine> and… now where’s that fashion magazine, ah! There it is, that should do it. Now that the magazine’s in the dispensing slot, I used <Telekinesis> to float it over to the three girls and flipped it open.
“Hm? Why did you change shape suddenly, Hakkon?” asked Hyurumi.
“What’s this… wow, there are lots of beautiful pictures in this book!” said Ramis.
“These are… they are all wearing clothes I have never seen before!” said Shui.
Photos of models in all kinds of clothes beamed from the pages of the magazine.
“This outfit is really cute!!”
“These aren’t bad, huh? Are these clothes from where Hakkon came from? They look pretty impressive.”
“Ah, I like this one!”
All three of them appeared to have forgotten about me as they gasped and exclaimed over the clothes. Well, they were all women at the end after all. I felt a little relieved for some reason.
While it may be difficult to reproduce these clothes exactly as shown, it would be great if they could recreate something similar.
Although there is no shortage of stylish and distinctive clothing in this ‘other world’, it is vastly inferior to Japan’s clothing industry. The most important thing here is to choose the best clothes that show off [1] your personality and skill set.
Since the girls seemed immersed in their own world, there was no need for me to intervene any further. I can just be a regular bystander for now.
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The outfit discussion lasted until dawn. When it was finally settled, a bright-eyed Shui [1] left with the magazine and a promise to make clothes for all three of them.
With only a week left, she plans to shut herself away and work on the clothes non-stop until it is done.
As for the remaining two, they’d spend their days working and their evenings researching how best to showcase their skills. Shui’s busy with her sewing, so the flashy archery targets and performance aspects are left to Hyurumi.
While they were supposed to be rivals, their efforts ended up looking more like a joint project.
I have a feeling that they have somehow forgotten their initial purpose and are simply having fun together. But in the end, given all that’s been happening recently, a change of pace might be a good thing, right?
By the way, they refused to let me catch a glimpse of just what kind of outfits they had chosen. They even refused to let me see them practice their skills. I guess they really wanted to surprise everyone on the big day.
It was quite interesting to see the preparations being made for the Miss Dungeon Contest from my vantage point in front of the Hunter Association.
Banners were strung up and a stage was assembled at a prominent location. With so much wood collected from the Dark Forest Floor, there was no fear of running out of materials any time soon.
Apparently, over 30 contestants have applied. After a thorough review and documentation screening, the numbers were narrowed down to 10. Naturally, our trio made the cut.
That’s right, I heard that the judges for the actual event would be made up of Hunter Association directors from each floor. Sounds like a fair and impartial group. Still, it was a fairly eclectic mix of judges, so… good luck, everyone.
Aside from Shirley, I recognise a few others as those who had interacted with me. Director Bear gave me a cryptic smile and a ‘Look forward to the day’ remark.
I wonder, who will be up on that stage tomorrow? I know quite a lot of beautiful-looking people, so quite a lot of people would not look out of place in a beauty pageant.
Whilst I do hope Ramis and Hyurumi do well, I believe that in these sorts of celebrations, the one who has the most fun wins.
No matter who ends up getting the first place, I want to honestly celebrate their achievement.
Gumihou: There are some casual misogynistic thoughts here, but that’s pretty typical for ‘generic Japanese people’, so left them there. It’s mostly stuff like ‘Oh, she’s good at cooking, she’ll be a good mother’ kind of things. Also, it’s not like only men would think these thoughts since gendered roles are more obvious here
As for the single ‘fashion magazine’, it probably has some edgy, cosplay-ish elements alongside evening wear, fancy sportswear and modernized traditional wear. I find Japanese fashion magazines to be more interesting than Western fashion magazines due to their quirkiness.
[1] Add details
[2] Capitalised the words to properly demarcate the second part of the event
[3] ‘Appeal Time’ is the term used in the idol industry that basically means the window of time given to idol wannabes to come before judges and show off their charm for a set limited time. It could be quite brutal. You have to use this time to stand out from other contestants
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