Chapter 19: Part 2 – The End of the Festival

12 minutes

The student council room had been transformed into a rectangular conference space with long tables. About forty participants from various companies, along with Leonardo and four other student council officers, took their seats. I found my place among them, observing the scene unfold.

After everyone was seated, Alfina and Hilda entered the room.

“To think you could liven up that empty courtyard like that. Alfina, you’re really something,” Hilda remarked.

“It’s all thanks to you entrusting me with such a wonderful space, Hilda-senpai,” Alfina replied with a sincere nod.

Hilda responded with a strained smile. I could almost hear her thoughts: “I accidentally used an honorific with her name.”

“I-I see. Looks like the student council will be in good hands after I graduate,” Hilda said aloud.

The once-empty courtyard had given birth to new trends like one-plate lunches and French toast. It had become a hotspot of popularity. In the late afternoon, it was the busiest of the three sections. The student council president must have been quite surprised by this turn of events.

“Now then, this year’s Consort’s Festival was a great success. First—” Leonardo began explaining the overall numbers in neutral terms. It seemed that both the rule that pushed out mid-tier companies and the pump-priming that allowed small rooms to participate were achievements of the student council.

“I was surprised by Vinder, who managed the food court. Especially considering he’s a copper. He surpassed several silver companies to reach the 30th position,” Leonardo continued.

Oho, unexpectedly fair praise. But I didn’t let my guard down. A self-preservationist like me remains wary of all comments, whether praise or criticism.

Was this just plain distrust of others? No, given how Carst was grinning in this situation, it should be called certainty about human nature.

“However, there are a few issues with your methods—” As Leonardo continued, I saw Theodore rise slightly from his seat in my peripheral vision.

“Please wait. I have an objection regarding the current rankings,” Theodore interjected.

“…What do you mean?” Leonardo’s voice lowered.

Carst, who had started to stand up, sat back down. The companies buzzing with discontent were likely those ranked slightly above me. They must be thinking I would say something like, “Given the handicaps I overcame, I should be ranked higher.”

Don’t worry, I thought to myself. I never intended to compete with you in the first place.

“Vinder was allowed to participate thanks to the generosity of President Hilda and Leonardo-senpai, and unlike other companies, he was exempted from paying for his spot,” Theodore began. “Furthermore, Vinder didn’t actually sell anything at this festival. His profits came from the food stalls using his food court. In other words, he skimmed off the top of Dalgan-senpai and others’ earnings. It’s not appropriate for him to boast about an undeserved ranking. Therefore, I believe Vinder should be excluded from the rankings this time. For me, it’s enough that I was given this valuable experience this year.”

“Th-that’s very humble of you,” Leonardo said, his cheek twitching. He was probably caught off guard, as Theodore had said exactly what he was planning to.

In contrast, I could see the silver-ranked companies I had surpassed sighing in relief. The “official” results of the Consort’s Festival would be announced to all students after the summer break. They must have been terrified of being forever gossiped about for losing to a copper-ranked company. I don’t have time to deal with their jealousy anyway.

Besides, for what I’m planning to do next, I need to keep the neutral students on my side.

“In that sense, the stalls that utilized the courtyard probably deserve an even higher evaluation, haha,” I added casually.

I saw Zeldia’s face contort. She was probably planning to criticize our operation style and then use that to find fault with all the members of our holdings.

“That’s right,” Hilda chimed in. “No matter how hard he worked, it’s hard to say it was the same conditions when he was piggybacking on other companies. Let’s just praise Vinder’s efforts here and leave it at that.”

There’s no way this woman would want Alfina’s copper-ranked friend to become famous for outperforming silver-ranked companies.

“S-so, we’ll exclude Vinder from the official results and look forward to next year,” Leonardo followed up. As I thought, this man becomes weak once his script is disrupted.

“And now, for this year’s Consort’s Festival, the first place goes to Carst—”

“Excuse me. I have doubts about Carst’s reported earnings,” Jan interrupted, raising his hand. Leonardo’s glasses twitched.

Jan, as the owner of the stall next to Carst’s, began explaining the customer traffic on the final day. When he mentioned a 20% decrease compared to the previous day, the participants started to buzz. Even with the student council’s backing, many companies held grudges against Carst after this festival.

“Stop this slander,” Theodore barked. “Know shame for trying to overturn the fact that you fell behind our company with such baseless words.”

He sounded like he was trying to encourage Leonardo, who was sweating as his planned script fell apart.

“Th-that’s right,” Leonardo said, wiping his sweat. “It’s not right to speak of accounting fraud without solid evidence. Can you provide clear proof, not just impressions about customer traffic?”

He must have realized that such evidence couldn’t possibly exist. The final sales figures—the amount of coins circulated during the Consort’s Festival—are only known to the student council who collected them from each company. After all, the student council, composed of noble students, is “neutral” (ha!).

Moreover, the person in charge is Leonardo, the prime minister’s second son. They think it’s impossible to doubt him. It is impossible. Not just for us commoner students, but even teachers might hesitate. At least, through normal channels.

“Excuse me for a moment,” a voice interrupted.

The door creaked open, and everyone’s eyes turned to the entrance. An old man walked in, holding an antenna in one hand and a stack of papers in the other—a rather surreal sight.

“Oh, Sage! What brings you here? Ah, yes, we must thank you for the special lecture organized by the student council,” Hilda said.

Apparently, the lecture Fuglsig had complained about was Hilda’s idea. She wanted to emphasize that Fuglsig, not the Saint, was the academy’s true contributor in defeating the monsters.

“No, no. I’m here to verify the results of an experiment,” the Sage replied.

“Experiment? Verify?” Leonardo echoed, voicing the confusion of all the students.

I could sympathize with his discomfort. One unexpected thing after another was happening. I used to hate it too. It’s how I developed my habit of desperately gathering information.

“You see, I’ve been improving my detection device to predict monster floods more accurately. I’ve been test-running it during this festival,” the Sage explained.

Hilda nodded enthusiastically. “Oh, that’s wonderful! After all, your measurements were the key factor in preventing the recent national crisis. We’d be honored to assist. How can we help?”

“It’s simple. I’d like to know the amount of coins each location received,” the Sage said.

“The coin amounts? That should be fine. We’ve tallied them to determine the rankings. Leonardo, show him immediately,” Fuglsig ordered.

Hilda looked puzzled. It seems she wasn’t involved in this accounting fraud.

Is she truly just a figurehead? And an oblivious one at that? If so, the connection between Hilda and Leonardo is shallower than I thought. And there’s also the noble-commoner gap between Leonardo and Carst.

This structure might be easier to dismantle than I initially thought.

“What?!” “N-No way…”

As expected, Leonardo turned pale. He almost dropped his glasses.

The Carst siblings also looked incredulous.

“Hmm, strange,” the Sage mused. “The coin amount from classroom two is clearly less than what the magical energy suggests. The others are as expected.”

Classroom two, of course, was Kenwell’s tenant.

“Let me check the actual coin count,” the Sage said.

“Th-that’s…” Leonardo stammered.

“Don’t worry,” the Sage smiled. “This is still a prototype. I know there’s a possibility of error. That’s why I came to verify in person.”

Three safe-like boxes were opened, containing the earnings of Kenwell and two randomly selected companies. First, the coin counts of the two unrelated companies were checked, matching the Sage’s predictions with minimal error. The room filled with sounds of amazement. And then, of course…

“Hmm, the coin count from classroom two also matches my measurements. Your figures must be incorrect. There’s about a 20% discrepancy,” the Sage declared.

At the mention of 20%, all eyes in the room turned to Carst.

“What’s the meaning of this, Leonardo?” Hilda glared at her subordinate.

“Well, th-this is… Yes, Carst must have reported incorrectly,” Leonardo stammered.

“Leonardo-sama!” “How could you!” The Carst siblings cried out, their voices almost a shriek. Looks like Plura’s fruit payment came at a high cost.

“Then, let’s correct the mistake and recalculate the rankings…” Leonardo suggested. Carst would not only be surpassed by Kenwell but drop to third place. However, we couldn’t let it end with just that.

“Leonardo-sama, as a representative of the merchants, I must say that allowing such fraud to pass with just a slap on the wrist would damage the credibility of the entire Consort’s Festival,” Jan interjected.

Many participants nodded in agreement. They were out for blood. There were companies outside the Food Guild, and the independents had little connection to Carst. Above all, their methods must have bred resentment. Carst had no allies here.

Hilda feigned ignorance while Leonardo’s eyes darted back and forth, desperately seeking an excuse. Though his guilt was obvious, we couldn’t bring him down with just this accusation. Unless there was evidence of him receiving money from Carst, which was unlikely.

In fact, it probably wasn’t that kind of arrangement at all.

“Leonardo-senpai is from a ducal family. He might not be familiar with merchant practices,” I spoke up. “It’s understandable if he overlooked errors in the ledgers presented by merchants.”

“Th-that’s right,” Leonardo jumped at the lifeline.

“Then, how about this?” I continued. “We examine Carst’s ledgers right here to see how the fraud was carried out. If we merchants verify it among ourselves, it will serve as a deterrent for the future.”

“I see, letting the merchant associations resolve it themselves. That’s a good idea,” Leonardo agreed without hesitation. This way, it became a matter between commoners. He could escape regardless of the outcome.

“Wait! Showing our ledgers to other associations, even if it’s for the Consort’s Festival… And to Kenwell, of all people!” Theodor slammed his fist on the table. Zeldia was pale and trembling. Understandable. Having your ledgers exposed was like being stripped naked in public.

“Then, how about having Vinder, who’s in a neutral position, take on this role?” Maria suggested.

“Y-yes, that sounds good. Vinder’s fair attitude was just demonstrated earlier. I think that’s fine,” Hilda agreed.

“Indeed, Vinder, being uninvolved in the rankings, should be able to judge fairly. Hand over the ledgers, Theodor,” Leonardo ordered.

The two student council members were desperate to contain the situation. Theodor’s shoulders slumped in defeat as he glared at me.

“Mia, help me out,” I said, seating Mia next to me as I began flipping through the ledgers. I pretended to verify some figures while Mia pretended to compare them with Fuglsig’s experiment results. I didn’t really expect to find any more fraud. What I wanted was information.

“The results match the Sage’s experiment. I’ve determined there’s no further deception beyond what was already revealed,” Mia announced.

Carst seemed confused by how quickly it ended. They didn’t know that Mia could memorize groups of numbers like a photograph, seeing them as patterns with height and color. With our Holdings’ data and Kenwell’s cooperation, we could grasp their movements to some extent.

“We must say that Carst’s responsibility for deceiving even the student council is significant. We’ll disqualify Carst and report this to the academy,” Hilda declared, striking a pose like the Goddess of Truth adorning the law courts. She could at least feel some supervisory responsibility.

The name that had reigned at the top of the list was crossed out. Accounting fraud committed by the heir at the Consort’s Festival, where the capital’s most renowned merchants gather. Their reputation would plummet not only within the academy but also in the Commerce Guild.

◇◇

“To think you’d help not just Riruka and the others, but us too,” Jan said.

“I really can’t believe it. To think they had such a trick hidden. So that’s why they wanted the coin information,” Maria added.

“They targeted members of our holdings. As the manager, I had to counterattack,” I replied.

“That’s not the thinking of a copper-rank… Well, how should we repay you?” Jan asked.

I nodded at Jan’s words. We needed to deal with Carst’s potential grudge.

“I have two requests. First, please spread a rumor that Kenwell is recommending Vinder for silver rank.”

“It doesn’t have to be just a rumor,” Jan said.

“That’s right. The independents who worked with you this time would agree too. With Tritt, Belmini, and Roston, we’d have enough recommenders,” Maria added.

In the traditional Commerce Guild, promotion isn’t just about size or performance, but requires recommendations from guild members. And not just one or two.

“I’m not interested in silver,” I said.

“Copper is essentially a provisional member. A weak existence that a guild executive like Carst could manipulate at will. As a silver, even if they try something, various procedures would be needed, and we’d have more time to intervene,” Jan explained.

“I see. Then, my second request: If Carst tries to use their vice-president authority against Vinder, could you inform me in advance?”

“We’re going to use this blunder to start pushing Carst out anyway. That’s fine by us,” Jan agreed.

“Then, thank you.”

Now, how will Carst respond?

If parents get involved in children’s quarrels, there can be no mercy. Not for the children, but for the parents.


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