Now, since I’d come to this rich-kid academy by choice because I’d wanted to learn, this didn’t apply to me, but many of my peers were sick of the mundane routine and constant learning of school. I’m sure the festival was developed, in part, for them to let off some steam.
Here I am, a jaded old man, and I’m getting excited over the idea. Imagine how the kids feel—
“Whoa! That’s so cool!”
“Ooh, I’d love to try my hand at running a real shop!”
“Quiet, class! Ahem… This festival is part of your mathematics course. Don’t slack off!”
—well, of course they’re excited.
The teacher tried to calm the class without much effort. Getting the students excited was probably all part of the plan, and the teacher looked pleased over how happy the kids were.
“For today’s math lesson, we’re going to decide what business we’re going to open for the Genius Festival. Let’s all put our heads together and find a winning idea!”
Our boring math class suddenly became a party-planning jam session. No way were things going to stay quiet for long.
“How about a clothing shop?! I know some great fabrics!”
“But wouldn’t a jewelry shop be better? We could hire a master craftsman to make us the finest products to sell!”
The classroom burst into a frenzy like a lit furnace. Our instructor watched silently and wrote the flying suggestions onto the blackboard.
I was impressed. It took talent to tune out the noise, pick out the most relevant information, and write it down.
“Ha-ha-ha! Imagine us, experiencing running a shop for real—what a fun idea!”
“Oh, that’s so true. I think operating our own business would be a valuable experience for us.”
Colette and Albert also sighed in awe (though their words were drowned out by the crowd and could only be heard by myself and a few others sitting nearby).
Royals like them would never have a chance to conceptualize and run their own businesses in the future, so they would surely find the festival appealing and entertaining.
“Isn’t this exciting, Miss Mylene?”
But, well—the ideas everyone was throwing out were quite basic for the nobility.
Not that there was anything wrong with that, but if you asked me, clothing shops and jewelry shops were no good. I couldn’t say so with confidence since I’d never run a store myself, but I doubted that luxury goods would sell well at this Genius Festival.
And the reason why? Because all the customers would be us rich kids.
Not many of us had any money of our own. It didn’t matter how good the merchandise was. If we couldn’t afford it, we wouldn’t buy it.
We may have been the offspring of the wealthy, but that didn’t mean we could spend their money as we pleased. For that matter, not every kid in the nobility was that well off either. Some of us were royalty and some of us came from families on the brink of bankruptcy. Zelfore Academy of Magic was that kind of environment.
Then add to that the festival atmosphere. Everyone was going to want to sample everything. And if there were several shops you want to go to, it would be hard to believe you’d spend it all on just one place.
I put a hand over my mouth and muttered under my breath, I ain’t a merchant, but now I get it… Thinking about this stuff’s actually fun.
The debate had already shifted toward finding the best merchandise to sell, but the way I saw it, there was only one way to win this festival—
“Miss Mylene!”
“Mylene!”
“Eh?”
Oops. Got lost in thought there.
My hand jumped at Albert’s and Colette’s voices, exposing the dazed look on my face. “S-something the matter?” But I somehow managed to regain my composure and hide behind a smile.
Albert smiled awkwardly and Colette snorted in frustration. They must have been calling my name a lot before I noticed. What a mess.
“Good grief—this isn’t like you, Mylene. You were really lost in your thoughts there.”
“If you don’t mind sharing, I would love to hear your idea, Miss Mylene!”
They probably called out to me because they noticed I was lost in thought. The next thing I knew, all eyes were focused on the two royals. The entire class was staring at me, waiting with bated breath.
Uh-oh…I’m stuck.
I thought it would be weird for an old guy like me to get excited about some festival for kids, so I was gonna keep quiet… But when you were pressed by two royals for an answer, refusing to speak was actually the more disrespectful choice.
It was in times like these that favoring my inconspicuous good-girl facade always bit me in the ass.
“But my idea is nothing special,” I politely declined. “I wouldn’t want to disappoint you all.”
Colette eagerly leaned forward. “I don’t mind! Any plan of yours, Mylene, is something I must hear!”
She meant that she wouldn’t take no for an answer. She wouldn’t be satisfied until her curiosity was sated. That was just how she ticked.
Albert was also bobbing his head in an eager nod. It looked like curiosity had gotten the better of his praise-singing fealty to me. Wait, scratch that—more like he wanted to make me the center of attention. Though this was just child’s play. It wasn’t worthy of any praise.
“All right… Then, with respect, I’ll offer my idea.”
Well, guess I couldn’t avoid it. Besides, I was kinda interested to see how well my analysis would be received. I took a long pause to make what I was about to say sound more important, then I began to speak.
The way your guy sees it—
“The way I see it, if we wish to receive high marks in the Genius Festival—”
To win, we needed to not compete for scraps of the same pie.
This festival may have been a gathering of wealthy students, but kids were still kids. Their wallets weren’t bottomless. That’s why if our class tried to sell the finest products just like all the other classes, we would wind up fighting with them over our peers’ meager spending money.
Therefore, something we could sell for cheap had the advantage. But if we made our own products to save money, they would come across as cheap. So how would we combat that?
“My idea is that we sell experiences, not things.”
“Ooh! Sell experiences rather than things? What sort of shop would that be, specifically?” Colette sounded like she was testing me, but the corners of her mouth were turned upward in curiosity of the unknown.
In other words, a person with a lot of influence was signaling her interest in my idea to the rest of the class. That made my job of selling it much easier.