My Gift Is “Beauty”. I Think It’s Useless, but It Seems to Be an S-Rank Gift With the Strongest Buff Effect for Beautiful Girls

Chapter 22.1.1: Epilogue 1 – Hayashido Hibiki

I—Hayashido Hibiki—was an ordinary girl.

No, maybe I still am just an ordinary girl, but I was nothing more than a typical girl you could find anywhere.

Even though I wasn’t supposed to have a sister, by the time I was old enough to understand things, someone like a big sister was already naturally in my life. She’s called a cousin, apparently, but she was my idol.

When I became an elementary school student, the girl friends I made seemed way more grown-up compared to kindergarten. I went along with it and started picking up girly things like love stories, beauty tips, and cute stuff.

Then one day—

“—Hibiki-chan, you’re kind of plain.”

Probably, what came after that was something like, “I think you could be really cute if you tried a bit more.”

But all I remembered were the negative words. After that, whenever someone said something to me, I started to think they were insulting how I looked.

Maybe the person who said it meant it as a compliment, like I was a diamond in the rough. But at the time, I just couldn’t take it that way.

“Mizuki-nee! Make me cute!”

I went begging to my dependable cousin—Hosaka Mizuki, who was two years older than me.

Mizuki-nee had always been cute and cool, fashionable, and beautiful since we were little.

How do I put it… just standing there, she gave off this aura that made her the center of attention. She was always full of confidence.

Her inner strength showed on the outside. That was part of it, sure—but back then, I really admired Mizuki-nee’s looks.

“Hibiki, leave it to me! If you’re related to me by blood, you’ll totally become cute!”

I was so happy to hear Mizuki-nee say that, and I started learning all sorts of things from her.

When I entered middle school, everything changed.

“—Hayashido-san, I like you. Please go out with me.”

A confession.

Even I could tell that I’d improved a lot in how I looked and became more fashionable.

That change must’ve shown on the inside too, because before I knew it, I was the most noticeable, cutest girl in class.

My negative personality faded, and I slowly became more like Mizuki-nee—cheerful and confident.

So when a boy confessed to me, I was really happy.

Ever since elementary school, I’d been into love stories, so this was seriously a huge moment for me.

But even though I got confessed to, I didn’t go out with him.

Because I didn’t know anything about that boy, and he just wasn’t my type.

My type is someone more handsome, like a prince.

Rather than a guy who’s all sweaty from club activities, I like cool guys who barely sweat at all. That’s the kind of person I like.

Even after that, I got confessed to now and then, but I never dated anyone.

The one who always listened to those stories was Kushima Koharu—my best friend now.

She had some heavy stuff of her own, but she still came to talk to me cheerfully every day.

Even though we were total opposites in both hobbies and looks, we somehow got along really well.

“Hibiki-chan, I think you should try getting to know the other person a little better. Sure, looks matter, but what’s most important is personality, right?”

She’s someone who gives me the opposite opinion—and a very important person to me.

All my other friends just agreed with me and only talked in ways that matched what I said.

Still, I wanted a cool, handsome guy.

If he had a good personality too, that would be perfect.

When I entered high school, I got into a school with a lot of cute girls, not just me.

But even then, my place in class naturally ended up near the top, and two especially cute girls became my new friends.

“Let’s go to a mixer!”

Motoya Himari and Ihara Umirin invited me, and I went to my first mixer.

And to tell the truth—it was the worst.

Hima and Umi looked like they were trying hard not to explode with rage as we left, and the second we split from the boys, they couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“That was the worst! What the hell! So gross!!”

“I blocked their numbers instantly!”

The guys were pretty good-looking. They might not have been our exact types, but they’d still count as handsome. They were students from another school, same age as us.

But those guys were super dirty-minded, way too touchy, and even tried to touch us the first time we met. They were clearly only after our bodies. Probably thought they could get lucky just ‘cause they had a decent face.

Because of that, while I still dreamed about romance, I started thinking guys were trash. I didn’t work so hard on my looks and beauty for creeps like them.

After that, Hima and Umi didn’t hang out with guys for a while.

Of course, I didn’t either. Hanging out with them and Koharu was more than enough fun.

Then something changed for me too.

When I turned sixteen, I became old enough to use my Gift—“Appraisal.”

I’d never wanted to become an adventurer or anything, so I just went to get appraised, hoping for something useful for daily life.

And the Gift I got was called “Desire,” along with a skill called “Grant Sight.”

This skill makes someone who matches my deepest desire glow with light.

But I didn’t really know what I was looking for.

I even wondered if maybe I’d find a real prince or something—but for a while, Grant Sight didn’t react to anyone.

Then came fall of my first year in high school.

“Hey Hiroyo, how’d your Gift turn out?”

“Haha, it sucked.”