“We got all the rooms as planned. Everyone managed to pin down the ones on the first floor that we were aiming for.”
“I mean, nobody even contested us. They’re all just storerooms, after all.”
“Everyone was looking at us like we were idiots... At least we managed to cut down on expenses...”
“...”
Three days had passed since the meeting. Not a single member failed in their goal during the second round of bidding, and we gathered once more within the (temporary) Food Court Operational Headquarters, the director’s laboratory. Not that the Weinders had to participate in the bidding, seeing that we were given the courtyard as a special exception. But everything was going smoothly so far.
“Three rooms in the right building, two in the left. We’ve got all the right positions for surrounding the planned area of the Food Court,” Lilka said.
The schematics of the academy drawn on the slate board had the names of each company written around the courtyard in the middle, and an empty space in the courtyard was circled by a dotted line. Now then, it’s time to show my — or perhaps, our — skills to demonstrate what kind of “cart” we can create here.
“So? What do we do next?” Lilka asked, as if representing everyone else.
“I do believe that all of you have problems in mind regarding the Food Court. Could each of you tell me about them?”
I had confidence in the idea itself. It did come from the evolution of business based on the ideas of an uncountable number of people on Earth. However, we were trying to establish something in an entirely different world with an entirely different environment. There was a practical need for the senses of the members here who knew of the Academy Festival.
“Those prideful nobles won’t sit down just from the curiosity of having chairs put out there. And even if they do, how do we take their orders?”
“He’s right. Having so many shops in one place also makes it difficult to choose anything.”
Dargan started the debate, and Plura continued after him.
“We’ll have waiters from each shop going around, right? Leaving the explanation for our goods to people from other shops is rather...”
“...Y-Yeah. If they explain things in a weird way, they won’t understand the charm of our vegetables...”
Lilka and Shirley also chimed in.
At this rate, it would just become a disorderly mob. Both the shops and guests would be lost in utter confusion. The problem of waiters moving around the Food Court in particular was something that had completely slipped my mind.
“...At this rate, it would be safer to just do business individually in the same space.”
The taciturn Ruston added his own input. This point had to do with the way I spoke big and criticized Jean the other day.
“There’s a need to be able to inform our guests at a single glance what’s so enjoyable about this gathering of shops that they had never seen before. That’s what you mean, right?”
In other words, we needed some sort of promotional good. It was a far bigger problem than the physical restriction of space we had.
I went over the plan that I had prepared in my head again. After adjusting the order of priorities for each problem that originally slipped my mind in accordance with the feedback I had just received, I settled on a valid means to resolve them all.
“I have one idea. I want each of you to prepare your specialty dishes for the next meeting. But please adhere to this format.”
Mia handed out papers to each member. These weren’t recipes; they were specifications for the sizes of the dishes we wanted each of them to prepare. We also requested that the color of each dish be adjusted so that it didn’t overlap with the others.
“The Dargans sell meat, ya know? We brought out a whole roast last year.”
“Meat will do. How about sliced roast beef?”
“I mean, there ain’t enough food to be satisfied with such a stingy portion.” Dargan folded his arms and voiced his discontent.
“We’re selling a confection topped with colorful fruits and placed on a white mousse. If the portions are bite-sized, they won’t bring out the flavor.”
“Please have the toppings focused on a single point. Oh, and if you’re going with white, try to keep the cost in mind.”
“We can’t do bite-sized portions with salad... They’ll just think the vegetables are boring. Maybe we can harden some vegetables into an aspic or something... But then there’s the issue of managing the stock...”
“The only thing we can put out with this request is a single egg. I’ll do it if you say so, Weinder, but I can’t overlap with Plura’s white dish...”
“Please, just prepare these, regardless of whether it seems like I’m deceiving you or something. I can also use this to confirm the specialties of each of your shops before actually handling the management of the Food Court, right? Besides, we’re running out of time.”
I somehow got the five members before me to agree. The Academy Festival started at the end of August. We only had a little more than two weeks left. If all went well, this would become the centerpiece of the Food Court. It was a setup to both attract customers and appeal to the goods of each company. And at a single glance, too. However, there was still a need for us to play one more hand.
“Ruston.” I called out my silent classmate.
“...What is it?”
“There’s a certain fruit I’d like you to procure. I found it while investigating some books in the archive right before summer break... Are you able to get this?”
I showed Ruston the name of the fruit I jotted down on a memo.
“...I’m surprised you know of something this uncommon.”
Ruston looked at me in wonder. That’s my line. I mean, it doesn’t seem all that useful in the Kingdom’s culture.