"Welcome!"
Satō's cheerful voice echoed in the classroom, or rather the maid cafe. At the same time, the first guest to enter the store was a man who appeared to be in his 40s.
A total of six maids waiting in the store responded all at once as they had been trained to do.
"Let me show you to your seat."
Satō's voice was cheerful, but her movements were stiff, since she wasn't entirely comfortable yet. Still, thanks to the rehearsal the day before, there were no major mistakes, and after showing the guest to their seat, she took the menu list and cold drinks to his table.
The only way to get back to the practiced routine was to repeat the process and let them get used to the guests. Then, slowly but surely, the number of guests began to increase. The age range was similar, but sometimes teenage boys and girls who appeared to be the guests' family members began to shyly walk in.
"A good start, huh?"
It wasn't suddenly full, but it was nice to see that the seats weren't all empty.
My cell phone was constantly receiving calls and reports from my classmates
scattered around the school. Which exhibits were attracting the most people and which were deserted.
Since the sales of each class were unknown until the end of the festival, we had no choice but to gather information personally. Fortunately, all students were required to take a one-hour break, so there were always a certain number of students who were not busy.
That is why, of course, our class was always being scouted as well.
After watching the room for a while, I decided to take a look at the hallway.
It seemed that many guests had already made their way to the special wing, and as far as I could see, the guests outnumbered the students.
If that man was behind this, it's possible that he's already in view.
I don't think he would be looking for me on the day of the event without having done his homework, leaving no stone unturned. But so far, I haven't seen anyone suspicious. Besides, with so many adults, students, and children in the area, it would not be easy to make contact with me.
For now, the focus should be on the current students rather than on them.
Yoshida from Sakayanagi's class was peeking into the maid cafe without trying to hide.
There was no sign of student's from Class C at the moment, but they would likely come to check the situation at some point soon. The classroom door opened vigorously, and Ike and Hondo came out in a hurry.
"We took the order as fast as possible! I'm going to the food stall to get it now!"
"That's fine, but please be a little more calm."
Some of the guests were surprised by what happened.
"Oh, right. Sorry!"
It was not an ideal situation for customers or potential customers to watch a flurry of restaurant personnel run to get their food. With a warning, the two looked at each other, nodded, and began to move, albeit at a rather fast pace.
With this being the first delivery, we couldn't afford to be late.
Today, this kind of back-and-forth repeated itself every time an order was placed.
"Ayanokōji."
I turned around when my name was called and saw Kanzaki approaching me.
"Looks like you're already thriving."
We had gone through the preliminary phases, but Ichinose's class's offering was, as I recall, sweets-based. They dealt things like crepes and chocolate bananas.
"What about you?"
"The kids love them. But the adults are not as receptive as we thought they would be, so we're not sure if we can aim for the top spot in terms of sales."
"You may have a hard time, then."
"Probably, but my priorities have shifted so I'm not entirely concerned about this festival at the moment."
Apparently, the first step towards change with Himeno may have worked.
"I'm going to the gym now. I want to learn what I can from the third years for the future."
"I see. See you later."
After seeing Kanzaki's walk off, I decided to return to the maid cafe and start working. I didn't have much to do until "noon" arrived, though.
In a small partitioned off corner of the classroom, I stood by to deal with any problems that could arise. I'm also in charge of taking pictures of guests who want to have their picture taken. Within a few minutes, after the first photo shoot, the guests who had been watching began asking to be photographed in rapid succession.
I'm not saying that there weren't adults out there who would like to make some fun memories with high school students, but it was better to assume that the guests were taking advantage of the festival's purpose and dropping money on us.
In a sense, it seemed that quite a few of them decided that this was also their job.
Nevertheless, conversation and laughter gradually spread throughout the maid café, and it began to show aspects of a lively, ubiquitous café.
"New customers, please show them around." Horikita's inorganic voice reached the classroom filled with laughter. Satō immediately approached to serve the customer and began to lead him to an empty seat.
"Sato-san will show you around. "
"Well then, if you'll follow me...."
Being one to shy away from showing affection, Horikita was in charge of outdoor advertising. Although she was dressed as a maid to attract customers'
attention, she did not smile in person.
If this were a real maid cafe, Horikita would have been fired during her training period after passing her interview.
Then again... the idea that Horikita would interview for a maid cafe was unlikely to happen.