The third day of the Academy Festival, the last day of business.
As I entered my own tent in the morning, I carefully checked how things were inside. The crack on the jar of honey—the one Alfina damaged on her first social study day—as well as the wrapping for the lid, hadn’t moved at all.
“No signs of sabotage. I thought they’d do something during the evening, if they were going to do anything at all...”
I came out of the tent in a somewhat anticlimactic mood. I could see our Food Court members carrying in ingredients to their cooking spaces for today’s stock. And just as I started stretching out from that slight sense of relief...
“What are you doing?! W-Wait right there...!”
I could hear Plura yelling, along with the sound of something breaking towards the school building.
✦ ✦ ✦
“What’s going on, Plura? What’s this? It’s a total mess,” Dargan said.
As I ran over in a rush, all of our members had gathered in front of Plura’s space. And sitting in the middle, with scrapes on his knees, was Plura, along with an overturned wooden box. It didn’t just fall and break, there were traces of it being kicked too.
“I was receiving today’s portions of berries, but while I was carrying them over, someone pushed me from behind. They were wearing merchant-like clothing, but I’ve never seen him before,” Plura said in a vexed tone.
He had the only surviving package in his arms, which were also scraped at his elbows. It appeared he managed to protect one of them.
“...I lost sight of him,” Ruston said upon coming back into the tent.
Apparently, he took chase after the man running towards the school gate upon hearing the commotion. This was the time of day where all ingredients were being carried around to each shop. There were merchants of all sorts going about the school grounds. However, the man Ruston spotted didn’t seem to have the armband marking his permission to enter.
“Why was Plura targeted...?” I mumbled.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to target the copper managing the Food Court? Or even the companies under the Kendall umbrella?
“The top company under the Carlest umbrella is the Boulbernie Company. They’re a confectionery. We’re the ones in direct competition with them. I was being careful, but I was still far too naïve. I didn’t think they’d go this far.”
“Oh.”
I recalled the information I heard from Lilka. Theirs would be the sweets that Hilda loved that the Carlests were bragging about. So their target was the one who was most effective to hit and far easier to lay their hands on than any of the Kendalls...
“There’s only one box left, huh? Even if we tried stocking up more berries now...” Dargan grunted in frustration.
Easily perishable foods were circulated in particularly limited quantities. This applied even more to the high-quality berries used for confections.
Juices were seeping out of the broken box on the floor, and a sweet acidic aroma filled the air.
“At this rate, the one-plate lunch can’t possibly...” Shirley said, as she began picking up the ruined berries that had fallen out of the box.
With this, we wouldn’t be able to make the dessert which topped off the dish. If our featured product, the edible menu, were to vanish, it would deal severe damage to the entire Food Court. Dammit, I’m really getting fed up with my repeated chain of carelessness.
I brought my clenched fist up to my brow. Dargan and Lilka also looked glum. Even Ruston looked like he was blaming himself for letting the one who did this get away.
“Hmph. What’s with the long faces?”
The biggest victim, on the other hand, was smiling boldly. He stood up and showed us the box in his hands. Now that I think of it, why did he go so far just to protect that one box?
Plura opened the box, revealing the small red berries within.
“I managed to safeguard the share for the lunches.”
“Hah! Son of a bitch. That ain’t like you at all, dammit.”
“Plura...”
What’s going on? These members were only supposed to be united by their personal interests and their animosity towards the Carlests’ tyranny. Even my own goal here was just to use the Academy Festival as a testing grounds for the stock system. So when exactly did they all...?
“I suppose I can use the leftover berries to make a mixed berry sauce to offer up the minimum level of merchandise... The Plura company menu will lack in variety, though... I’ll need to talk this out with the head chef...”
Plura quickly began thinking up plans for getting his own shop back into working order. Now then, what’s my role here? I guess the first thing to think of is a way to retaliate against the culprit who brought this on. Not the perpetrator themselves mind you, I mean the puppet master pulling the strings behind them. My strategic target is the one who took on such an overbearing and violent method to accomplish their goals.
“Mia.”
“Yes?”
“Go get that from our tent. Let’s see... Just one bottle will do.”
Mia cocked her head to the side for a moment, but she seemed to have guessed what I was getting at from the way I was looking at Lilka and Ruston.
“Sir? I think it might be a little different from what you’re thinking, but I do have one suggestion. There’s something I’d like you to prepare alongside Lilka and Ruston.”
And so, I called out to Plura and the other members around him.