Unlike the Founders' Festival, as a large-scale event involving the entire school, even though there was still some time until the Founders' Festival, one could already feel the restless atmosphere, as if a holiday was approaching, permeating the air.
Some classes with stronger initiative had even begun preliminary renovations of their classrooms.
Asakura walked in the club building.
The campus, bathed in sunlight during the day, was like it had a golden filter applied. The midday sun streamed through the windows onto the wrinkled posters on the bulletin board. Outside the window, a somewhat stuffy wind, heralding the arrival of summer, blew through the courtyard, and the leaves rustled like gold foil.
From deep within the hallway came the muffled thuds of the Handicraft Club nailing display stands. Each hammer blow vibrated the ribbons hanging from the atrium. Clearly, the club building here had more competitiveness during the Founders' Festival period than the teaching building.
At this time, undried paint could be seen everywhere in the hallway. Warnings and rectification notices from the Student Council drifted in the crosswind like out-of-season snowflakes. It was unknown which audacious club had thrown them out like trash.
Not far away, from the classroom normally used for home economics classes, which served as the Cooking Club's activity room during extracurricular hours, wafted a melody of caramel intertwined with white miso.
Asakura glanced out the window. The trees in the courtyard were covered with cheap windproof lanterns, and unhidden wires were visible among the fallen leaves, like dying plastic snakes.
The paint footprints left by the Art Club on the lawn snaked to the back door of the gymnasium, where mountains of stacked cardboard boxes oozed the sweet stickiness of carbonated drinks, giving a sense of déjà vu from the Founders' Festival—Asakura and his classmates had done similar things when preparing for the Founders' Festival.
He withdrew his gaze from the distance, preparing to go to the Service Club activity room for lunch, when he saw Yanami Anna, with red bean paste still on the corner of her mouth, turn the corner in front of him.
"Asakura!"
The girl called out solemnly.
"Huh?"
Asakura was stunned for a moment.
The girl's uniform bow tie had dark edges from sweat, and the pleats of her skirt, pressed by her knuckles, rippled with fine lines. It was clear that her emotions were stirring intensely.
Her fallen bangs cast a jagged shadow on her nose, and her long eyelashes, like small brushes, trembled slightly in the early summer sunlight.
Suddenly, the girl lifted her small face, gazing at Asakura, her clear blue eyes in her pupils moistened by nervousness to the color of the sea.
A faint peach color bloomed on the girl's cheeks, and along with it, the sweet and sour scent of 'youth' diffused.
She took a deep breath, nodded slightly as if having made a decision, then took another deep breath, mustered her courage, and with her cherry-colored lips slightly parted, she spoke loudly.
"The rabbit dango is too delicious! How about we change our club's regular snacks to rabbit dango from now on!"
"…You stopped me here so solemnly just to say that?"
Asakura's eyebrows furrowed slightly, his expression looking a bit strange.
"Is there anything wrong with saying that?"
The girl seemed unaware that the scene just now was exactly like something out of a youth anime; she merely asked with innocent confusion.
"No, now that I think about it, since it's you, it's not that surprising."
Asakura sighed.
Although the temporary class meeting during lunch break had already decided that the tea shop's desserts would be provided by Rabbit House, it concerned the entire class's arrangements for the school festival. So today, Asakura first brought the signature rabbit dango and the more classic three-layered cake to the class for everyone to taste. The result, naturally, was unanimous praise.
However, while others were still battling with their insulin, Yanami had already finished her share of dessert and even wanted several more. Even Asakura had to call her the strongest in terms of appetite.
Asakura even felt that Yanami was probably the same type as Fujiwara Chika, who could directly break into the fox shrine's barrier in the mountains by relying on her own life energy before it was strengthened.
"Then the desserts…"
Seeing this, the girl thought Asakura had agreed to her request, and her eyes sparkled with joy.
"No."
But Asakura flatly refused: "Ordinary small snacks are fine, but rabbit dango are merchandise; it's impossible for me to give them to you for free."
Although, in a sense, most of the raw materials the house elves used to make rabbit dango were actually from Yanami's portion of rations…
"Hmm… then which shop runs it? What's the price? If it's under 500 yen, everything's negotiable!"
Yanami took about three seconds to overcome her reluctance towards money and pressed Asakura, asking.
"Rabbit Desserts, over in Toyama Shopping District…"
Asakura was intimidated by her aura, as if she was going to devour him too. He subconsciously said a couple of sentences, then quickly added: "But it's no use going now, because it's not open yet. But you can rest assured about the price, I… ahem, they operate on a low-profit, high-volume model."
"Gulp, I can't eat it right now…"
Hearing this, Yanami immediately became dejected. Asakura wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but he thought he heard the girl's stomach rumble.
Are you kidding me? If he remembered correctly, hadn't she just finished her bento plus a serving of rabbit dango? Is your stomach really a bottomless pit?!
"There's nothing I can do with you. I still have one rabbit dango here; it'll be 200 yen…"
Because the girl's disappointed look seemed too pitiful, Asakura sighed helplessly, then pretended to pull a rabbit dango from his empty pocket.
The reason he didn't give it to her for free was that, after spending time together, Asakura had vaguely come to understand that Yanami was the type to take an inch when given a mile. Being too good to her would only lead to her taking advantage.
"That's great!"
The girl pulled out two copper coins and slapped them onto Asakura's hand with great satisfaction. Only then did she snatch the rabbit dango, tear open the wrapper, and start eating it in big bites.
However, then the girl suddenly felt Asakura's expression become strange. His whole body seemed to freeze as if he had seen something incredible.
"What's wrong? You have an expression like, 'I ran to the final boss's dungeon to complete a collection quest, finally found the target, and then realized the items needed for the quest were right outside my home.'"
The girl asked casually.
"…In a sense, it's pretty much like that."
Asakura sighed weakly.
Just now, when the girl slapped the two copper coins into his hand, the quest that had been stuck for a long time was finally completed.
In other words, it wasn't as Asakura had initially thought, requiring a certain amount of revenue. The key should have been on 'opening the shop.' As long as all the elements for opening a shop were complete, no matter how much money was earned, the quest would count as completed.
Thinking about it carefully, when he first tried to sell the dishes made by the house elves, trying to take a shortcut to complete the quest, he indeed hadn't decided on the shop's name nor had he resolved the interior environment issues.
And then, during the process of preparing to operate, Asakura hadn't collected money from anyone else again, which meant that these two conditions had clearly been met long ago and the quest could have been completed at any time, but it was dragged out until now.
Thinking about it this way, he had indeed wasted a lot of time…
And the reward for the quest that had held him up for so long was a small but exquisite glass bottle, containing a drop of golden liquid, like molten gold. The explanation given by the Nameless Magic Book was also concise and easy to understand.
[Felix Felicis (Potion)]
[Mysterious Property: Can greatly enhance the Keeper's luck]
[Note: 'After drinking it, just rely on instinct; things you couldn't normally do, you can do. Everything will become smooth.' — Scar-head]
Although he couldn't be sure how much 'greatly enhanced luck' actually meant, since there was only one drop and no way to test the potion, such an occult item definitely had to be treasured. It was a good item to keep as a trump card.
Incidentally, after completing this quest, the quest on the Nameless Magic Book updated to [Quest: Pass the Trial].
So now I have to go fight a moldy pink octopus? Asakura thought to himself.
"Asakura… nom nom… are you going to… nom nom… the Service Club room?"
Perhaps sensing that Asakura had returned to his normal state from his surprised state, Yanami Anna asked.
Only a few seconds had passed, but the rabbit dango, which was bigger than a baby's fist, had completely disappeared. However, considering that Yanami could eat hot spring manju in one bite, this level of eating speed seemed quite normal.
"Can you swallow before you speak?"
Asakura looked at the chipmunk-cheeked Yanami with disdain: "You're going to spray saliva."
"A beautiful girl's saliva is also a reward in the industry!"
"What a dirty industry."
"That's how the adult world is."
Although Asakura verbally disliked the girl, he didn't actually keep his distance from Yanami and still went with her to the Service Club room.
However, upon opening the door to the club room, Asakura's expression froze.
Besides Yukinoshita Yukino, who always respawned there, there was another person in the Service Club room.
"Oh, it's Asakura! Do you have any more of that rabbit dango?"
The girl named Yanami Anna was rummaging through the snack box in the club room.
"What? Is there someone else in the club room?"
The girl named Yanami Anna peered out from behind Asakura to look inside the club room.
At this moment, the two Yanami's looked at each other without warning. They stared at each other, and then…
"Eek?!" Why is there another me?!"
They both let out a shriek as if they had seen a ghost.