The five of them ignored me and began discussing how to improve each of their dishes. Plura brought up the idea of drawing a pattern on the plate using a sauce made from junos. Now that I think of it, they did similar things in the other world too. I completely overlooked that. I guess that’s a specialist for you.
“Is this gonna work? It sounds like it’s gonna work.”
“All that’s left is the Food Court’s layout and design.”
“...Her Highness praised me...”
“...”
All the members were now full of motivation. Not that Ruston ever said anything beyond what was necessary. Well, a baguette’s just a baguette, so it helps that there wasn’t any weird emphasis that needed to be placed on it. However, I could tell that his ears pricked up when the aroma from the junos was praised.
Phew, looks like I somehow or other managed to pull off my role as the manager here.
“I’m glad that I came along at Miss Louisa’s request. Now that I think of it, you were also the one to introduce Lilka to her, weren’t you?” Maria came to talk to me as I stood to the side just watching over everyone.
“Please give your thanks to Mia,” I replied with a smile to the guest I didn’t invite. “More importantly...”
“I know. Miss Louisa did not make a request to the Kendalls themselves. Jean evaluated you quite highly, so I simply thought of taking a look for myself.” Maria put her finger to her chin and stared right at me. “Even though the administrative system behind the Food Court Firm is quite surprising, the concept behind this dish is also wonderful. Furthermore...” Maria then looked at the seats our noble guests were occupying. “You have outrageous connections. I’ll need to report this not only to Jean, but to my father as well.”
“Nothing of the sort. I didn’t even contribute a single item to the dish.”
“Weren’t you the one to give it further revisions? You created a single commodity by gathering five completely different companies. That’s not something a copper company is capable of. Your subordinate also seems quite talented. To think she can so easily digest the complicated finances of having all these companies gathered together like this... It’s to the point where that girl is all I ever hear about from Lilka. She told me to at least meet her and see it for myself.”
Maria directed her gaze at Mia. Does that mean they’re trying to headhunt my secretary? Well, I can understand from the viewpoint that she doesn’t look like someone who should be employed by a copper. From Lilka’s perspective, she surely thought it was for Mia’s own sake. Now that I think of it, I feel like she was far more antagonistic towards me before. But I’m not handing her over; the Weinders would go bankrupt without her.
“Say, do you have any interest in working for us?” Maria asked as she folded her arms.
Even though push-up brassieres didn’t exist here, it put a strong emphasis on her beautiful breasts.
“I have no intention of coming under the Kendall umbrella.”
Although, it was worth considering loaning money from them after I managed to get funds out of Euphylia.
“How regrettable. Truly...” She then looked over to Alfina. “By some chance, wouldn’t it actually be possible for you to do something about Archduchess Berthold too?”
“Princess Alfina is simply cooperating with us out of her personal responsibility as an official. Besides...”
“It won’t work out because of the conflict between the east and west.”
“Exactly. Umm, have you had any luck in approaching the more neutral Duke What’s-His-Name in the central region?”
“...Unfortunately not. Being closest to the capital, it’s all the more difficult to get a grasp of any future prospects he would latch on to.”
Maria looked at me with pleading eyes. I mean, I don’t even remember his name; how am I supposed to have a plan regarding that? The only thing I can do right now is liven up the courtyard during the Academy Festival. How this girl puts that to use is up to her.
“Oh well. I suppose we should be thankful for that, at the very least.”
“Please focus on enhancing a unifying force within the guild. You couldn’t even get past this point last time, right? If you can break through the preliminary phase and become a candidate, you should be able to preserve a minimum level of unification. Even after the Carlests become the representative...”
If the Kendalls were to lose the election, it would be troublesome if they didn’t have the minimum amount of power needed to oppose the Carlests.
“...Are you trying to say that’s what our main point of compromise was from the very beginning?”
“I’m sure there’s nothing better than actually winning. But realistically speaking, you’re holding back your expectations, aren’t you?”
“My, your insight knows no end... Our minimum line of compromise is, in fact, to fight for the seat of deputy representative to the death. We are, of course, aiming for victory, though.”
“Could you tell me a little more about how the rankings during the Academy Festival are determined?”
I forcefully changed the topic, and Maria narrowed her gaze. I did this fully intent on telling her that I had enough of that topic, but I was also seriously interested in what I asked about. I’d heard from Fulsig of the coins’ special nature, but I had no information at all as to how they were used.
“You should already have your hands full with the preparations for your shop alone, and here you’re even spreading your vision out towards the structure of the festival as a whole while keeping a keen watch for any problems that may occur.”
That was what planning countermeasures was all about, after all. Just like I told the other members, I had no personal interest in my own rank. It was fine if we were at the very bottom as long as we got the courtyard to be suitably lively and keep the Weinders out of the red. If a copper were to untactfully get a high rank, it’d be dangerous for my self-preservation.
However, the Carlests had already shown how overbearing they were willing to act. Even setting aside the Weinders, I had a responsibility as the manager regarding our other members’ ranks.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Hmm, that’s pretty good.”
After our members and the sampling party left, I paid Fulsig his rental fee for the room. But my conversation with the sage wasn’t about his one-plate lunch or the wine he had on the side. We were talking about my proposal for improving the ley line measurement antenna.
“Please focus. I’m keeping you company even though this is one of the brief moments of respite I have in between all my work. Firstly, the particularities... umm, the color of mana, was it? We need to be able to match that, right?”
Our current problem was the mana catalyst painted on the surface of our prototype parabolic antenna. Under normal circumstances, mana interacts with practically no substances. In short, even if the antenna caught mana, it would just slip through.
It’s like trying to catch electromagnetic waves with a teacup. If we couldn’t accomplish it, then we couldn’t make it wireless. If we were to try and use a metal that mana could flow through like brightsilver, not only would we not have enough, but it would just end up absorbing it all and we would lose information such as directionality.
To increase the precision, we needed the technology to increase both the efficiency of reflection, and the uniformity with which the dish was coated with the mana catalyst. I could tell this much even though I was blind to mana.
“How about matching it to that coin’s mana? We can focus our resources on theoretical verification without wasting any precious magicite,” I suggested.
“You sure do like to emphasize verification. Well, you have a point. We can’t make something perfect off the bat.”
“It’ll be a good form of insurance for me too, so if possible, it’ll be a big help.”
“The Academy Festival, huh? It’s just a big old pain in the butt for me, though... But if we were to use it as an experiment...”
After putting some thought into it, Fulsig was requested by the student council to give a lecture during the opening ceremonies. I could sympathize with that. Both with the unmotivated professor, and with the students made to listen to him.
What’s left now...? Oh yeah, gathering intelligence on the Empire. Let’s use our new employee of the year recipient. Jacob happens to be a former soldier, after all. He didn’t actually serve during the war with the Empire, but records of that time must have remained within the organization itself.