Volume 3 - CH 7

That day, taking classes had felt depressing since morning. The sky visible through the classroom window suggested that it might start raining at any moment as if it was fully mirroring my mental state.

The reason for my mood was yesterday’s incident, when Lady Sophia saw Alicia and I holding hands.

I was unaware of it, but I had probably been staring into Alicia’s eyes with that look she described as ‘The gaze that causes young Ladies to die of cuteness.’ Having witnessed that, my Lady was in an extremely bad mood.

Normally, her eyes would tinge red and brim with displeasure but then they’d clear up again immediately, just like a brief storm. And yet, Lady Sophia was still in a bad mood, even in the morning of the next day.

‘When you are happy it goes without saying, but, even when you get lonely or when you are in pain, I will always be by your side. I will always, always protect you as your ally.’

Even though I was the one who promised her that, I was also the one who upset her.

“Are you listening, Cyril? Try and explain what I just talked about.”

The history teacher called out my name and I stood up.

“The Flamefield Empire is by no means a wealthy country, but it is remarkable when it comes to magic—especially, the invention of magical devices—and they are an important neighbor of our kingdom.”

“A-alright. As long as you were listening.”

“No, I apologize. I was thinking of my master.”  

“I-I see. It’s not a bad thing for a servant to always have their master on their mind. And honestly, you were able to answer while thinking about something else, you’re really…”

For some reason, the teacher’s expression looked strained, but, since I seemed to have been somewhat forgiven, I sat back down. By the way, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that multitasking was an essential skill for servants, as they had to keep an eye on their master while doing their own work.

The bigger issue was how I could improve my Lady’s mood. Up till that point, I would always coax her with desserts or flattery. But that was because my Lady had been adorably jealous all those times.

I felt as if this time was different from the usual. I believed that, if I were to say something like: ‘I made you a dessert, so please forgive me,’ I would be going about it the wrong way somehow. As I kept thinking about this, in the blink of an eye, lunch time had arrived.

“Listen, Cyril…”

As I pondered about what I should have for lunch, Raymond was watching me for some reason, slightly exasperated.

“Is something the matter?”

“It’s not that something is the matter… it’s… you know?”

Raymond awkwardly looked over his shoulder. Luke and Chloe were also watching me, looking like they had something to say as well.

“Is something the matter with you two as well?”

“Oh, for crying out loud! If you’re worried about something, we’ll hear you out, okay?”

“That’s right! We owe you a lot.”

Luke lunged at me right after Chloe, saying that they’d give me some advice. When I tilted my head in confusion, not understanding what they meant, Raymond ran his fingers through his red hair before asking me, “Do you have no self-awareness?”

“Listen, you’ve been staring at the sky all morning and you’ve been called on by the teachers almost ten times.”

“Huh, it was eight times though.”

“…That’s it, that…”

“What?”

Say what you may, there was no way to discern anything from such an incoherent conversation. When I said as much to Raymond, he told me, discontented for some reason, “I’m kinda relieved that you’re a normal person, because, even though you’ve been completely spaced out, you haven’t made a single mistake. How many teachers’ prides do you think you broke today because of that? Cut it out.”

“I see…”

I considered multitasking a normal thing but… it might certainly seem a little too difficult for students who were aiming to become servants in the future. Moreover–

“Not paying much attention in class certainly isn’t something to be praised for. Did you come talk to me to teach me that?”

“No, I just brought that up on a whim. What I wanted to tell you is what Luke and Chloe were talking about at the beginning. What did you do to Lady Sophia?”

“I- I haven’t done anything?”

“It’s weird for you to get to the point of stuttering though, isn’t it? If there’s something troubling you, talk to me. You might think of me as someone unreliable, but I’ll at least hear you out.”

Not only Raymond but Luke and Chloe also were nodding along. I see…They were worried about me because I was acting strange?

“Thank you, you three. But really, I’m fine.”

“You can’t rely on us that much?”

“No, it’s nothing like that, not in the slightest.”

It was just that Lady Sophia was in a bad mood because she saw Alicia and I acting affectionate. I definitely couldn’t tell them anything that might turn into a scandal for my Lady. Moreover, most importantly–

“This is something that I have to resolve by myself.”

Why did Lady Sophia react differently than any other time before? I had to find that out by myself, so it wasn’t something that I should get told by someone else. 

“But I appreciate the thought,” I added.

“…So, you’re alright?”

“Yes. I’m sorry I’ve made you worry. I promise that I won’t space out anymore.”

“If that’s the case, then there’s nothing else I need to say. We should start our discussion soon.”

I immediately recalled the matter of the party that Pamela was organizing. From time to time, parties organized by the students would be hosted at the Academy during off-days. These parties served as both a place where noble children could get used to high society, as well as a place where they could find their future servants.

For Pamela’s party, both class A and B of the servant course were suitable. Thanks to Lady Sophia’s influence, our class A was the one in charge this time. It was an opportunity for us of the servant course to showcase our abilities.

However, this party was a bit peculiar. Pamela’s—the host’s—family was a Count household, so they weren’t that well-off. Not to mention that the funds she could use, as someone who wasn’t even a direct successor, were limited, so there wasn’t even that much money we could spend on the party. Therefore, we had to hold an impressive party with very little funds. Since we were wondering among ourselves how to do that, we decided that we would each share our ideas. And so Raymond was the first to speak.

“I was thinking that we could narrow down the number of dishes and try our luck with novel desserts, like the crêpes. If we do that, we should be able to reduce the costs considerably.”

By the way, this didn’t mean that crêpes were cheap. But, since the price of sugar was noticeably higher, making it stand out from the other ingredients, the truth was that crêpes were comparatively economical since they used less sugar than the other mainstream sugary desserts.

“Okay, so my idea next, right? How about we don’t call the orchestra but invite students from the regular courses that major in music under the pretext of offering them a chance to perform?”

Next up was Chloe’s idea. There was a convenient phrase called ‘noblesse oblige’ that the nobility used. Although it meant ‘duty imposed onto people of status,’ generally, it was often used when nurturing a talented commoner.

In short, inviting a professional musical group was costly. So, we would invite students justifying it by saying that we were giving commoner students who aimed to become professionals an opportunity to perform, and would get them to perform for free.

“While I believe that this reasoning is effective… are we only going to allow students to perform the whole time? Won’t the party lack some kind of climax?”

“Hey, don’t we have some people who aren’t on a student’s level for that?”

Chloe gave me a meaningful look.

“By some chance, are you telling me to perform too?”

“Your skills couldn’t be better, Cyril, so if you were to perform… you know?”

“…I see.”

If I were to perform, it was very likely that not just Lady Sophia, but even Prince Alforth might participate as well. No one could say that the performances were shabby if Royalty joined in as well as Lady Sophia, who was exceptionally skilled.

“Alright, it’s my turn then. I was thinking, what if we got Lady Sophia’s backing? Considering her connection to Lady Pamela, I believe that the chances of success are pretty good. What do you think?”

Luke was asking me for my opinion but I didn’t think that it was a bad idea at all. Pamela belonged to Lady Sophia’s faction. Because of that, the other faction members, starting from Lady Sophia, would be attending as well. So if the party was shabby, it could end up bringing shame upon Lady Sophia.

“There’s one problem. Given her position, Lady Sophia can’t show Lady Pamela too much favoritism. What are your thoughts on that?”

Pamela herself didn’t become a member of the faction right during the first term and, while poor, her family was that of a Count. If Lady Sophia supported her extensively, it could easily be seen as favoritism by the other members.

“To tell the truth, I hadn’t thought as far as how to prevent that. But I was thinking that, as long as we put all our heads together, we might come up with a good idea.”

“I see…”

His idea would have been perfect if he had thought as far as how to prevent these consequences, but considering that he was a student, I could say that it was satisfactory. Most importantly, that idea was very close to a thought that I had considered myself.

“Well then, allow me to tell you my idea. If we don’t have the funds then we should just make them.”

“Make them…? Don’t tell me you want to make Lady Pamela’s household pay up?”

Luke had a puzzled expression.

“Of course not, I wouldn’t say something as unreasonable as that. I was thinking that we could offer Libert parents’ business, the LaCour Company, a deal.”

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“Don’t tell me you want to make the LaCour Company provide us with capital?”

“Yes, I want to do exactly that. Luckily, there’s profit in it for Libert as well.”

The LaCour Company had plans to start selling the very same crêpes that Raymond wanted to focus on, large-scale. We should propose that, if we didn’t have to make the crêpes ourselves but were provided with them instead, we would advertise the shop’s name. Of course, they couldn’t do this every time, but it was a considerably feasible method due to the timing.  

“But if they just provide us with the crêpes, that wouldn’t be really providing us with much funding, would it?”

“It wouldn’t be just crêpes. Since his family owns a huge company, we’d also showcase their expensive furnishings and if we received an advertisement fee for that, wouldn’t we have more than enough funds?”

“No… that’s impossible, isn’t it?”

Bewildered, Luke exchanged a look with Chloe and Raymond.

“Why do you think that it’s impossible?”

“No, I mean… It’s just a small-scale party among students. Setting selling crêpes aside, there’s no way that expensive furnishings would sell. And if the advertisement is meaningless, then they won’t give us any advertisement fee.”

“Then, do you believe that if the expensive furnishings did sell, they would give us the funds?”

“That’s… well, yeah.”

Us students of the servant’s courses knew the price of expensive furnishings and how much it cost to make. Considering the difference between this cost and price, it wasn’t hard to imagine that the capital would be enough to make a small party magnificent.

“If that were the case, the rest would be easy. So we should promise them that at least one piece will definitely sell.”

“No but, if we can’t sell it, then what do we do?”

“Wait—”

Chloe held up her arm as if she was trying to block Luke’s words. It seemed that she was the first one to realize my plan.

“So that’s what you’re planning?” Chloe asked me, her eyes narrowing. “…Geez, sometimes you come up with really outrageous ideas.”

She sighed as she shrugged and, from her expression, it was impossible to tell whether she was praising me or whether she was just exasperated.

“Don’t just keep it to yourself, explain!” Luke hounded her for an answer.

“Cyril is saying that if we are provided with the capital for the party, we will advertise the goods by showcasing them, and purchase a piece of the expensive furnishings.”

“No, but, who would–”

‘–buy such expensive furnishing?’ The rest of Luke’s unasked question hung in the air as Chloe pointed at me.

“We just have to keep up appearances. It’s not like it’s an exam or anything.” 

He also wanted to make the party a success for Lady Sophia’s sake, but offering direct support was difficult. Therefore, Lady Sophia would shop at the LaCour Company. Using these profits, the LaCour Company would provide funds for Pamela’s party as an advertisement fee. And everything would be resolved.

“In addition, let’s consider everyone’s proposals as well. If we manage to apply all of them well, we’ll be able to hold a party that no one will have any complaints about.”

Thus, we thrashed out the details of Pamela’s party. We all shared our ideas and were able to somehow overcome the first hurdle, but–

“Cyril, I would like to talk to you about something.”

When I returned to the mansion, I bumped into another hurdle in the form of a confrontation with Lady Sophia.