“Hey! What do you mean by that? Wait, I mean, the courtyard concerns you as well, Your Highness. Isn’t that why you wished to sit here with us?”
A lonely little cart in the middle of the courtyard. It truly painted a bleak picture. And then there’d be the arrogant noble lady looking down on that from the school building. I don’t really mind being alone, since I’m a loner anyway, but having a shop stranded like that would definitely put us in the red. The sight of the princess and Mia being lonely in the courtyard would also be bad for my heart.
So let’s change the scene that our little Hilda is looking down on, shall we? In a way that fulfills the assignment she gave us, that is.
“In short, we just have to liven things up in the courtyard and make it the main venue of the festival, right? I’ve got an idea.”
“How exactly do you plan on doing that with a single cart?”
Lilka looked at me like I was some shady salesman.
“Of course, it’ll be useless on our own. We’ll solicit help from fellow unlucky—I mean, from comrades who are willing to work with us. Could you tell me about the companies who are unable to participate, especially those in the food business?”
“I feel like the conversation is going in a weirder and weirder direction... Is this still fine, Mia?”
“We’re still above the boundary line.”
“Really? Umm, the ones under the Kendalls are the Toritos, meaning me, Shirley’s family— the Velminis— and the Rustons. As for the independent companies, there’s the Dargans, the Pluras...”
Lilka smoothly began enumerating names. The Kendalls’ three companies dealt in dairy products, vegetables, and rare ingredients. Appropriate specialties for companies under the umbrella of the second largest company in the guild. As for the independent companies, they dealt in meat and confections. It’s looking good, isn’t that everything I need?
“They’re all names I’ve never heard of, though...”
“They’re all silvers, and way more famous than you are, Weinder. Just how little do you socialize here?”
“Well, a copper is treated as nothing more than an associate member, so...”
“Normally, you’d pay even more attention in that case.”
Lilka glanced at Mia. It seemed Mia was also indebted to her regarding the same thing, so I was quite grateful that she was here.
“Why is a copper sending two students to the Academy, anyway? It’s pretty weird when you think about it, right?”
“We got a hit on our first try with honey, is all.”
“And with just one hit, you can become the princess’s friend, and use the Great Sage’s room however you want?”
“We’re going off-topic. Putting together what we have so far, there’s a way we can all get by.”
I borrowed Lilka’s map of the Academy and spread it out in the middle of the table.
“For our tenants... Let’s see... We’ll aim for these six rooms on the first floor.”
“Aren’t all these rooms tiny? Those are only a third the size of the classrooms. Also, they’re pretty much all storerooms. The second floor is clearly a better choice.”
She was entirely correct. The first floor was largely used for cloakrooms and waiting rooms, so there weren’t all that many proper locations for a shop. However, there was no better choice when considering access to the courtyard.
“We won’t have guests in the rooms. Look, all six of these rooms face the courtyard. We’re going to do the cooking and arrangements for the food in these rooms, and then...”
I drew an ellipse with my finger over the courtyard.
“We carry them out to the guests waiting here. In short, we’ll create a guest seating area common to all shops.”
“Sharing the guests’ seats?!”
“The guests will order from various shops and sit in the courtyard. Then the shops will carry over what was ordered. For example, if you had two friends, even if they want to eat different things, they can each order what they want and eat in the same place. It’s got a festival feel to it, right? Furthermore, with six shops, there’ll be less wasted seating. And so, the Weinders will handle the management. That’s my ‘cart.’”
I listed out all my points before Lilka could object. She had a confused, “That’s not a cart, but what is it?” look on her face. If forced to answer one way or the other, it would be like one of those food courts run by large-scale commercial establishments in the other world. That was the foundation of my idea this time.
“My, it sounds so lively and fun, does it not?” Alfina said.
I actually did have a request for her with the precise goal of making it livelier. However, the little princess had been polishing her commoner sensibilities lately, so her intuition was fairly unreliable. Though in fairness, it had been fairly unreliable from the start.
“I would like to hear your opinion regarding this matter, Miss Claudia.”
“What will you do if it rains?”
Oof, she started with a tough one right off the bat. I drew a parasol on the slate board. Thinking of it as a connecting passage, we could create the bare minimum overhead coverage that we needed. If it were to come down too hard, though, we would just have to withdraw. Even if there were complaints, we could resort to using this room as a guest room.
It would work out one way or another with the sage’s room. The courtyard was forced on me, but they didn’t consider the trouble of dealing with rain. We could just tell the student council that we accepted the Great Sage’s good will. For better or worse, that geezer was basically untouchable.
If it were to reach that point, I’d just have to take responsibility and cover for everyone. I didn’t really care if I was disqualified. Besides, I planned on acquiring something of equivalent value from this.
“What will you do about chairs?”
“The shops need extra space to entertain the nobles, right? The classrooms should have plenty of spares. Lilka, your boss secured a portion of the auditorium too, right? Can’t they hand some over?”
“Well... if we ask, it may work out one way or another.”
“Alright. What else?”
“...Where do you plan on seating Her Highness?” Claudia asked.
“Hmm, I’d like you to create a management area for the courtyard around here... We’re basically setting it up so the guests who come to greet Princess Alfina have to walk through our seating area.”
“Do you plan on using the princess as a customer attraction?!”
“...All I need is for Princess Alfina to conduct herself as the supervisor of the courtyard. Nothing else. She doesn’t need to recommend any shops.”
“I’ll be more than happy to if it’s of any help. It may be a little hard on you though, Clau.”
“No... If that is what you wish, Your Highness... Ricardo, that’s all from me.”
“Thank you, Madam. So, what do you think so far, Lilka?”
It was different from what I expected of her, but Claudia put some proper thought into her questions. Now then, what’s the opinion of our experienced participant looking down at the map in anxiety?
“I’ve never heard of this being done before, but it certainly does solve the problem of space. Setting the table for dishes by overstepping the bounds between shops and bringing them to seated customers waiting for it... There’s a certain sense of novelty to the system itself. But... It’s no good. There’s still far too many problems.”
Lilka stood up and walked to the window, then pointed at the courtyard.