KUSHIDA, WHO HAD left for a period of time but recovered brilliantly, succeeded in keeping the long line of customers together.
However, the overcrowding caused a shortage of staff. The maids, who had taken a one-hour break, were still tired, and their movements had slowed considerably. The men had extra hands, but it was still a struggle because they could do the backstage work but couldn't stand in the hall.
There were a total of eight maid outfits prepared for the event. Two of them were basically considered as spares, so no more than six maids could work at any one time.
Except for breaks, Sato and Mii-chan were the aces of the team, working hard all the time. Horikita, who was not initially supposed to be in charge of the hall, started serving customers in the middle of the day and was now moving around. The remaining three were Ishikura, who had substituted for Matsushita, Kushida, as well as Inokashira, who specialized in handing out flyers.
Kushida was working in the hallway to keep people from leaving, so in effect there were only four people running the hall. Normally, additional staff should be brought in, but there was no one to fill the position.
It wasn't enough to say that any girl would do.
This wasn't a matter of looks or charm; it was also largely a matter of consent. Sonoda and others approached some of the girls, but the embarrassment of wearing a maid's uniform and the rigors of the work led them not to volunteer for the job.
"Ayanokōji-kun, the waiting customers may have grown bored. I don't think we can keep them tied up like this forever."
In between, Kushida peeked into the room from the hallway and called out to me. Horikita, who was serving customers (though mainly carrying food) in this emergency situation, also saw Kushida and approached her.
"What's going on at the end of the line?"
"We told them that they would have to wait for a long time, and while some of them will wait, most of them will leave."
And if they saw a long line, they weren't going to wait, even if they didn't want to. The guests who were staying now were not just customers, they were just guests who came to the festival. I didn't expect them to stay because they felt that the time they had to wait was a waste.
That was why Kushida was acting as a wall, but it seemed to be on the verge of collapse.
"You had two extra maid outfits, didn't you?"
It may be time to pull out the spare outfits for the day's emergencies.
"Yes, but what's the point if there are no girls willing to do it?"
"Yeah, why not Karuizawa-san?"
Kushida suggested. I guess she thought that Kei, my girlfriend, would listen to my instructions. Certainly, it would not be impossible if I forced her to do so.
But….
"As I recall, she has a break at 2 p.m., right?"
"Yes. She's on break right now, and even if we had her change her clothes after returning at 3:00, it's doubtful to what extent she'd be able to be of any use."
What they didn't know was that you can't have her change in a simple locker room. Worst case scenario, it would be another 20 or 30 minutes to get back to the dorm and then back.
"Hey, can I talk to you for a second?"
Ike, who had brought the food back and forth for I don't know how many times today, called out to me.
"What's wrong? Any trouble?"
"Oh no, I heard you say you're short on staff right now. .... I was wondering if you could leave it to Satsuki."
"Shinohara-san? But I wonder if she's up to the task."
"I think she'll be fine. Besides, she was practising to be a maid, even if only lightly."
The three of us looked at each other as we heard this for the first time.
Shinohara was working on the cooking side of the stall.
"Can you call her right now?"
"Sure! I'm on it!"
Now I'm just grateful to have a student who was willing to wear a maid's outfit. Later, with a recommendation from Shinohara, he strongly persuaded Azuma. It was decided that she would join us.
"Ayanokōji-kun, as you know, I have to take a break at 3:00. I'm going to need some manpower after I leave."
"I've thought it through, don't worry."
Fifteen minutes later, Shinohara was asked to go to the hall, and Azuma was asked to join Kushida in the hallway to hold up the customers waiting there. But Kushida's expression in the hallway was grim, and it was not a development she seemed to relish.
"It's hard to say if she's the right person for the job, because Shinohara-san
doesn't make much of an impact visually, and she's not very good as customer service."
"There's an emergency."
"Hasebe-san is still unavailable?"
"Before I say 'not available,' she's been gone since this morning. She's formally participating in the festival, but she might be back at her dormitory."
"You mean payback for Sakura-san's expulsion? You participated in the preliminary discussion, right?"
"I was just observing."
"Still, that means you know more than Shinohara-san, Azuma-san and the others, right?"
"That's why it was an effective way to get back at Haruka and Akito who seemed to be along for the ride, since we were making our plans based on the calculations of our strength."
"I see. If you knew that much, I would have thought that you would have considered the possibility that those two would not participate and thought of another way."
"Even if you knew that, you can't increase the class size. Besides, if we moved with another strategy from the beginning, Haruka and Akito would've got the hint. We decided that it would be more of a disadvantage to have them go on an unexpected sabotage by doing so."
"It would bother us, but that's it. It's not an action that can be called revenge."
"If only this were the case."
"What do you mean?"
"Haruka and Airi were looking forward to the cultural festival. That's why they were going to see it through until the end. Since that's over, there will be no reason to continue staying at this school."
"You mean they're going to drop out of school?"
"Probably, if two students voluntarily withdraw from the school, in addition to the simple disadvantage in numbers, a significant drop in class points will be inevitable. The class would be severely damaged."
"How much damage?"
"I estimate 600 class points for the two of them combined."
"Six hundred?
"Nothing surprising. Expulsion under the normal rules of this school has traditionally been penalized by that much."
Excluding limited circumstances where the risk of expulsion was high due to
strict special exams, this was a natural step.
"If two people really drop out, it means that my path to Class A is doomed."
The fact that she said "mine" was typical of Kushida, but she was right.
"It's going to be almost impossible to get back in."
"I wonder if they're just going to sit back and watch."
"I was going to come up with a way out of this."
I look down at my phone. Unfortunately, I haven't received the notification I was hoping for.
"I guess there was some unforeseen trouble, or maybe the trump card never arrived."
Haruka's strategy of sabotaging the festival, or rather voluntarily leaving school, was basically like an unstoppable ultimatum. No matter how many countermeasures were devised, there was no way to prevent it completely.
If Haruka herself had intended to stay at the school and repeatedly sabotaged the festival in desperation, as Kushida had done before, she could have used the special exam rules to force the students to leave. It was not difficult to derive a strategy that would go above and beyond the smallest of tricks. But Haruka did not take an unreasonable strategy. She knew that her skills were not as good as mine, so she chose the most efficient strategy.
"Are you sure you want to continue like this?"
"That's not for me to decide; that's for Haruka and Akito to decide. If they want to continue with their non-participation in the festival, then that's also what they're going to have to do."
"I don't think Ayanokōji-kun really thinks that way, though."
"Do you understand?"
"Do I understand? You're not going to abandon Hasebe-san and the others, are you?"
Apparently, Kushida could see what I was about to do.
"The reason you didn't try to persuade her until this time was to test the two of them?"
"I didn't know what they were aiming for. Were they going to ruin the festival or not? But from the fact that they've done nothing so far, I had a pretty good guess. I'm going to make contact now."
"Do you have any idea where they are?"
"That's why I'm having my contact figure things out"
I showed her my cell phone screen and showed her someone's message with Haruka's current location.
"You have a reliable ally. I guess it's thanks to this person that you found out
where I was."
"Ah. They're the perfect person to look or keep an eye on someone."
They always knew where Haruka and the others were.
"But at the end of the day, there's only so much I can do. Whether or not I can make those two people's hearts beat is another matter altogether. I'm leaving."
I left the situation to Kushida and the others and headed for Haruka.