The commoner students were all gathered in front of the student council room on the top floor of the school building. Their bloodshot eyes were focused on the tentative rankings currently affixed outside the room.
It was a simple sales ranking using the specially allotted coins. There were what looked like strongboxes with numbers on them for each company on the other side of the rankings, which was where companies deposited their special coins made from sales every day.
Incidentally, this was converted into an operating expense and repaid to the companies after the festival. It was something along the lines of 70 percent being paid back, and the remaining 30 percent was considered a donation to the Academy.
Considering only the shops that were just dealing in food and drinks, there were 24 companies in all.
“Even if it’s just as you expected, it still ain’t looking good, huh?” Dargan muttered as he looked at the very bottom of the list.
All of the members of our holdings were grouped together at the bottom of the rankings. Even if the number of coins didn’t match our actual revenue, this only stood to reason, since all five companies here were in the red after the opening day. The Weinders were dead last by a large margin as well. The only proceeds coming in or out of this for us so far was one-sixth of the rental fee for the Food Court.
Just a little above us was an influential company formerly under the Dreyfan umbrella. Being practically forced to take a certain space, they ended up getting sandwiched between companies under the Carlest umbrella, and were apparently quite hard-pressed to do business.
“I see. That’s quite the plain split, isn’t it, Jean?”
Taking a closer look, the students running shops focused on food and drink were split into three clear groups. The first group was surrounding the Carlest siblings. These were those under the Carlest umbrella, the independent companies close to them, and the companies formerly under the Dreyfan umbrella who were absorbed by them. It looked like somewhere around 12 companies total.
The other group was us. We were standing next to Jean and Maria, so it looked like we were the Kendall faction. Three of us actually were, so that wasn’t entirely wrong. If you didn’t count the Weinders, seeing as we had no voting rights, that was a total of five companies. That made a difference of seven companies between them. Can I just stay neutral?
This here was a perfect influence diagram of the coming elections for the next representative of the Culinary Guild.
There were, of course, companies who were excluded due to the collusion between the Carlests and the student council, as well as companies who didn’t have children attending the Academy, so it wasn’t a complete picture, but still...
“Never mind the third you need, it looks like you’re below a quarter of the votes, huh?”
“There are those who are neutral and bear clear animosity towards the way the Carlests do things. Especially among the independent companies...”
I see, there are students looking at Dargan and Plura too. However, at only that level of interest, humans will ultimately try to stick to the strong. That’s because the continued existence of one’s shop is more important than mere animosity. Dargan and Plura aren’t really supporting the Kendalls, anyway.
Just then, the door to the student council room opened, and a schoolgirl with curly blonde hair came out alongside a schoolgirl with lustrous platinum hair. Behind them were Leonardo and Louisa.
“I’ve been quite busy with the preparations for receiving tomorrow’s envoys, as well as managing the school building, so I haven’t been able to come and see you. Nevertheless, it seems you’ve been doing your best, Alfina.”
Hilda lorded over the commoner students, but spoke to Alfina with a smile. She then looked at the ranking list with a meaningful gaze. It seemed she was confirming for herself that I was at the very bottom.
The location for each shop was quite thoroughly color-coded as well. Shops written in red were those located in the school building, placed neatly at the top of the rankings, as if they were crushing the blue names of those in the courtyard. Those in the gazebos were written in green and dispersed here and there above us as well.
“It looks like everyone from the Food Court is hanging in there too,” she said cynically, yet Alfina nodded back to her gently.
“It’s quite the considerable job managing such a large shop in the courtyard. Umm, Weinder, right?” Leonardo called out to me. He was the one responsible for putting together the rankings.
“We somehow managed to get things together. We must try harder so that we do not squander the kindness the student council has shown us,” I innocuously replied.
Leonardo had nothing more to say.
“Allow me to give you a warning, as your senior. A single curiosity will only attract attention in the beginning.”
“It seems that all the Carlest affiliates have placed in the upper rankings across the board. Congratulations.”
The Carlest siblings came over to give their greetings, completely ignoring all the bloodthirsty gazes the Food Court members were pointing at them.
“Of course. We are the group who will serve as the next guild representative. We cannot possibly afford to embarrass ourselves in the rankings.”
Theodore looked at the Kendall siblings. The actual decision on who the next representative would be hadn’t been made yet. He was acting somewhat hasty.
“Tomorrow, His Highness the Imperial Prince Dagobahd will be visiting as well.”
Hilda brought things to an end and left, as all the commoner students bowed to her. I was a little uneasy about the Empire too, but my priority right now was the management of the Food Court and dealing with our enemies within the Academy.
At any rate, I needed to change my plans for tomorrow starting now. I called out the Food Court members saying, “It’ll be bad at this rate, so I’d like to discuss things for tomorrow.”
We left the room and headed towards the courtyard. The gazes following us were clearly telling us, “Such futile resistance, and all just to try and diminish your losses.”