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It was time for the second day of the school festival to start.

There was a long queue of people, which only made other people curious about it and lined up as well. Because of that, the cafe Kou’s class had opened, Fantasy Cafe: Nightmare House, was gaining even more customers than the first day.

An increase in people also raised the possibility that bad actors could be amongst them. Especially considering this school was known as one for rich kids, there were plenty of people with deranged ideas like wanting to hit on high school girls, and it was impossible to weed all of them out.

Because of that, only the families of students could give out invitations to enter, but even then…

“Hey you, you’re pretty cute. Wanna go hang out later?”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that.”

Since Hijiri had a gentle and calming appearance, she had likely been seen as an easy target, as an assertive young man who clearly looked like some playboy, old enough to be in college, was trying to hit on her.

Because it was an affluent school, usually people like him would not manage to get in…but sometimes they would find ways to do it anyway.

There was one girl who watched all that happening…and she twisted the metal tray in her hands in anger.

“Don’t be like that… Huh?”

Despite Hijiri’s clearly negative reaction, the man continued to insist, until a small shadow got in his way. It was Kou…who somehow had managed to keep a business smile.

“Can I take your order?”

She spoke with a really stiff voice, doing her best to deal with the situation diplomatically, not realizing that the man only became more excited now that there were two cute girls there.

“Oh, you’re pretty cute yourself, you should come too…”

The instant he said that, all of Kou’s classmates turned to look at the man with blood in their eyes, but Kou raised her hand to stop them.

“Can I take your order?”
“Who cares about that, we should instead—”

Even Kou was about to snap from his stubborn insistence.

“Can I. Take. Your. ORDER?!”

Halfway through the question, Kou’s face seemed to transform into a visage of fury which transcended the AR overlays, and the man went pale in an instant.

“A…a…a cheesecake please.”
“A cheesecake it is then. And black tea for your drink?”
“Ah, yes…please…”
“Very well then. Hijiri, let’s go.”
“Okay!”

The man timidly gave his order after he saw Kou’s murderous eyes, and then Kou took Hijiri’s hand and they went to relay the order to the kitchen.

“Are you okay, Kou…?”
“Don’t worry, somehow I’m still in control. I guess mom’s training paid off.”

Kou smiled at her, saying she was fine.

Somehow, only that playboy had noticed Kou’s stare, while everyone else remained concerned about the girls’ safety, at least until they saw them walk away and finally sighed in relief. Kou had managed to keep her emotions in control, and in a way that made her look really dependable.

“I see… Eheheh, thank you.”

Hijiri giggled a little, looking at Kou’s small frame walking in front of her, their hands still linked together.

◇◇◇

There were only a few troublesome clients like that, and other than that, things went swimmingly for the school festival… There was also a moment when Amari opened a spot in her busy schedule to go check out Kou’s vampire cosplay…something akin to emotional torture for Kou… And before they knew it, it was already the afternoon.

“Bye bye, vampire princess!”
“Take care.”

A mother and daughter that were just leaving waved at Kou, and she waved back at them. Most of the other serving staff also went out to the corridor to see their last customers leaving.

“…It’s finally over!!”
“Good job everyone!”
“I’m beat!”
“Ughh, all of this makeup is starting to feel stuffy!”

Some also celebrated being able to rip away their costumes to free themselves.

…There really had been way too many clients.

They had baked way more cakes than the first day in anticipation of the many clients, but even all of that had been sold out completely.

Near the end, word had also spread that clients could turn off their AR overlays to see something terrifying, and they came looking forward to experiencing that as well.

Realizing that, everyone from classroom 1-A decided to also go all out to answer those expectations, which led to even more exhaustion… But in the end, it was worth it knowing their clients had a good time.

That type of fatigue was always nice to feel, but they had to fight against it as they cleaned up everything in the classroom, shutting down the Fantasy Cafe: Nightmare House for good.

“All that’s left now is the closing ceremony in the hall, right?”
“Mhm, we should change and go there too.”

Kou and Hijiri spoke as they cleaned up the classroom.

“You’re looking forward to it too, right? The Princess Award?”
“Bleughh…”

Subaru then brought up that award, which Kou had completely forgotten about, and just thinking about it made her scowl.

“Prez, do you know if you can only vote for girls for that award?”
“Not really. Technically you can vote for anyone, boy or girl, it’s just that no boy has ever won it before.”
“I mean… I can already imagine the chaos if a guy won such an award.”

Reo also joined the conversation after Kasumi’s explanation. He was also not very fond of princes and princesses titles, and for once had no intention of competing against Kou.

They continued talking about such things until they finished taking off all the decorations.

“Either way, the votes are already closed and the result is about to be announced. Complaining about it here won’t do anything, so let’s just get changed and go.”
“True…”

Subaru was right. The votes were already being counted and the results would come out soon. There was nothing Kou could do to change them.

As Kou headed to a spare classroom to change, she could not help but feel a bad premonition creeping up her spine…