32 Chapter 32: The Last Day of the Festival

The first two days of the Festival passed by without anything interesting happening after that meeting and subsequent request with Carla. Unfortunately, the Queen had to leave for the Royal Palace soon after she was dragged away by Julius to his café, so we didn't get to interact further. But I had accomplished my main goal with her visit already, so it wasn't a big issue.

We had to keep our café open for both days and barely got any visitors, but it wasn't an empty house by any means. There were times when almost all seats were occupied and Angelica and Olivia got their full share of waitress work, enough to keep them content. And no more annoyances showed up, though some customers tried to act gung-ho and were promptly shut by either my glare or Angelica's.

The two workers boys also worked really hard and I took a little pity on them. The poor fellas kept talking about their non-existent chance of getting a marriage prospect and a happy life, sheesh. So, I gave them some bonus on top of their share of the funds we earned from the café. That made them cry tears of joy and thank me.

All in all, Mr. Beans was moderately successful. Nothing compared to the prince's café cum host bar next door but good enough to not be a complete waste of everyone's time and effort.

And yes, I'm counting my efforts as well. Managerial duties aren't as simple as they look, damn it!

During my free time on the second day, after Angelica and Olivia went out to get some crepes they'd heard a lot of praises about, I was reading the reports Eris gathered.

First was the standard report on Utopia. It was done. Completely ready for business. I could open it whenever I wanted. But since I had already given an opening date to everyone, I had some down time on that.

Not gonna lie, I was excited about the opening.

I couldn't help but imagine the jawdrops my wonder island would cause.

Would be a damn proud moment.

Oh, and of course the World Points. I could almost hear them raking up from the popularity Utopia will gain.

The second report I got was related to Gilbert Fou Horus and his family, mostly about his father.

The guy was your typical noble. Pompous, Self-entitled, and just so full of himself. It was as if the guy didn't have much of a personality trait except those three or so traits. However, I might be biased as the report was supposed to only list his negative and exploitable traits.

Still, the fact that I got not one but a dozen or so things I could use against him, was enough of a telling.

The second thing I wanted to know— about their house's connection with Ava— didn't bear much fruit. But from what little Eris could gather, it affirmed that Ava wasn't at all happy with the marriage, and Gilbert's father and the Horus Matriarch were throwing their weight around and using old favors Gilbert's father oh-so-benevolently bestowed upon her as a pressing point. Ava didn't have any real backing or support to be able to deny it.

So, in conclusion, I felt no remorse for what I was about to do with all the gathered evidence.

"Eris, could you do me a favor a write a letter addressed to the Horus Patriarch. Add in a copy of all of these documents and tell him, in clear and bold words, to fuck off and don't associate with Ava Fluer Wendelle ever again. Tell them if they dared to ask anything of her, try anything on her, much less force a marriage on her, I'll have all of it sent to the Queen's table before they could even begin planning the marriage ceremony."

[Understood. Will the letter be Anonymous?]

"Hm. It'll have a much better effect that way. Getting threatened by a young boy, even if he's an S-ranked Adventurer and a Viscount with great potential versus an Anonymous threat. I'm pretty sure the latter would be much more effective. Let them walk on eggshells trying in vain to figure out who is threatening them. Their own imagination will create a threatening image and keep them in check."

[Very well. And what if they don't comply?]

"…"

"… If they don't comply… even at the risk of most of their misdeeds being leaked, then I'll go with option B."

[Option B? Ah, I see. I understand. I pray for their own well-being that they don't do something so dumb as to ignore this threat. Though the patriarch of the Horus house seems to be a bit of a coward and slimy sort of guy, so he might tread carefully and accept the terms, if begrudgingly.]

I didn't reply, moving on to the third and last set of documents, also the smallest of the three.

"Tsk. I see."

My face contorted into one of annoyance.

"That girl played me well with her acting. Right, I forgot about her. Carla Fou Wayne. She was one of the retainers of the Offreys. So, this whole sham was a trap after all, huh.' 

I knew something was suspicious about it. But didn't care as it was a minor issue at best.

"I can still demolish the Sky Pirates and get some decent World Points from it."

[From the surveillance, she was seen near both that purple blazer Offrey girl and once inside Brad's room.]

"Brad. Is he the red one?"

[The purple one, actually.]

"Ah. Also, that purple blazer bitch was from the Offrey household?" 

'That makes so much sense now. I remember that one now. She was one of the worst.'

"I don't think the punishment she got from the Academy's administration was enough, then. If she can still send her minions to do her bidding while in an official house arrest, then it's a pointless punishment. She won't stop being a nuisance till the end. And she'll likely aim at Angelica and most probably Olivia since she has realized she can't do shit to me. And given she can oh-so-easily plan for someone's murder like this…"

I left the sentence hanging, feeling no desire to complete it.

That girl was utterly petty, cruel, heartless, and basically the irredeemable sort in the game. And even in real life, she seemed to be no better—maybe worse, perhaps.

[That would seem so. What would you like me to do, then? Should I eliminate her? Nothing good will come from her attempts at harming or outright attempting to murder you and your friends, even if you can prevent any harm coming your way.]

I raised an eyebrow at her words.

'Sure, just casually talk about killing a girl because she's an utter nuisance and possibly trying to kill us… She does have a good point, though. That'll be an easy way to deal with her… but I don't know about straight-up killing her.'

"Haa… I mean, sure she has an absolutely shitty personality, but she's mostly a product of her surroundings. Never got a good spanking for her trashy behavior. Plus, the main problem is the Offrey Household itself. It's coz of them that she can be gung-ho and throw around her weight."

It was probably the normal part of me hesitating to kill a girl so easily. It wasn't something I could just do casually. Not yet anyway. But it wasn't like I was morally bound either. So, I didn't immediately deny the idea.

[Then, eliminate her Household? Leave her with no support and she'll be a mere pariah in the Academy, assuming she's even allowed to stay here. No house equals no support. She'll be utterly helpless.]

I snorted grimly.

"Talk about a cruel punishment… but in this case, I can actually see the benefits. I'll tell you what, get me a detailed report on all members of the Household that have committed crimes. And I mean crimes based on the laws you had in your time. Not this stupid Kingdom's dumbass laws that ignore or simply shrug off most cases against Nobles."

[Very well. I'll get to it immediately. I already have the report on Offrey's Patriarch, but I'll add it to the final report instead.]

"Mm-hm. Thanks, Eris. You're a godsend. Best AI ever."

Eris's metal ball projected a smiley emoji in response.

[I'm happy to help, Ian.]

"Hm… I wonder what Livia and Angelica are doing. They sure are taking their time buying a crepe. Must be looking around now that their job is finished."[1]

I relaxed on the comfortable office chair I had Eris installed.

"Well, at least they're having fun."

'I think I'll take a small nap.'

"Wake me up in 3 hours, Eris."

[…]

My eyes were closed by then, so I didn't see the silent deadpan of my AI companion as her eye lens stared at me for a whole minute before she floated off to do her work.

I did snort once she left, though.

'Heh, that gets her every time.'

***

It was the last day of the Festival.

And that meant I was free! No more café work.

Also, there were all sorts of events and competitions going on. In particular, the Airbike race was the talk of everyone, with most students seemingly interested in betting on the possible winner. The laws of this country freely allowed such biddings, even by children. It was kind of messed up, but also whatever. Not my problem if these dumb brats lose their life's savings and clothes in senseless betting.

Personally, and I've probably mentioned this before but, I found the airbikes here to be nothing but glorified jet skis, too fat for my liking.

The one I received as a gift from Clarice was much sleeker, supposedly one of the newer models, and after Eris got her metallic tentacles on it, it was modified to high heavens.

I had yet to properly test it though, except for a simple test drive once to sate my AI companion's requests-cum-demands. Didn't have any good chances to use it, really.

Eris seemed to love the bike though. She treated it as a cute pet, which was odd, but it wasn't the first time she behaved in a way that surpassed my expectations or just confused me. Then again, I'm pretty sure it was also a human-like behavior; growing attached to an inanimate object and personifying them.

Anyhow, since I was free for the day, I let Angelica drag me with her and Olivia as she went around to do her observation duties, which basically boiled down to us chilling in one of the observation rooms watching the on-going competitions.

The three of us sat and watched the on-going race.

"So, who's racing down there?"

I asked idly, eating popcorn which I got from… somewhere.

I idly brought some close to Olivia's mouth, causing her to sputter and blush, but she also reflexively opened her mouth and accepted it.

'Heh, cute.'

Angelica had turned her attention from the race to me—and promptly saw me feeding Olivia like a little kid, causing her brain processes to halt for a moment before she pretended to just ignore it and spoke.

"From the first years, Jilk is representing. Then, the other major players are Don and Fred from the second and George from the third year. Among them, Don is the one expected to win because of his precious records. But Jilk is among the crowd favorites this year. I'm quite sure the bets were slanted in Dan's favor though."

I ate some more popcorn as I heard her explanation, half-listening and half-focused on the sweet caramel taste of the popcorn.

Caramel popcorn is the best kind of popcorn. Someone prove otherwise, I'll be waiting.

Seeing her take a pause from her explanation, I picked a popcorn and brought it near her mouth, watching her reaction.

Like Olivia, her face heated up slightly, but her expressions were much more control.

"Y-You don't have to do that."

"Oh, come on. Try it. It's really good. Right, Livia?"

I turned to our mutual friend who had just finished chewing hers.

She swallowed and nodded.

"I-It is. Really sweet and nice. It's my first time eating this kind of popcorn."

I blinked.

'Huh. Right, I forgot she's poor. Sheesh. That's it, I'm feeding her the rest of it as well… after I'm done with Angelica.'

I did have a large bucket on me, and I doubted I could finish it all by myself by the time we were done watching.

Angelica made a few weak protests but caved in soon and accepted it, her blush deepening as she silently chewed on the popcorn.

"It's good. It's really sweet as you said. Goes well with the light flavor and texture of the usual popcorn."

"Mm-hm!"

While Angelica was giving her best Master Chef impressions, I showed a couple more in my mouth and proceeded to feed Olivia who accepted it much more easily this time, though she still felt a little embarrassed by the whole act.

Their expressions were amusing to watch but what wasn't amusing were the few death glares I could feel at the back of my head, likely from the other male students present in the room.

Right, I had sort of ignored their presence entirely.

Oh well.

"Damn it, look at him doing lovey-dovey stuff like that in public. Have some shame."

"That damn normie."

"I hope he explodes!"

I turned to glare at the one who called me a normie.

The fucker crossed a line. I wasn't a normie, damn it!

…

… I think…

Maybe…

Ahem. Anyways, ignoring the totally baseless accusations and death threats by impotent fools, I focused on the ongoing race which had picked up pace.

From the looks of it, Jilk was doing pretty good. But then suddenly, a few of the riders steered off their course and started harassing him.

"Huh. Is that even allowed?"

They were basically doing the Airbike version of Road Rash, minus the weapons and stuff, obviously. However, I did see one of them try to subtly hit Jilk's left leg when they were close. Unfortunately for him he missed and hit his Airbike instead, probably hurting himself if his subsequent shaking and unbalance was any indication.

Angelica, who was frowning at the scene, while also chewing on the popcorn I had just fed her, spoke after she swallowed.

"Not really, but they're not being called out by the referees, so…"

Either they paid off the referees, or the referees were incompetent or blind. There was no way this was within the competition rules.

"He should just do a break-and-dash maneuver and use his boost to leave them in the dust."

I commented off-handedly, realizing shortly after that there was a flaw in my idea.

Normal airbikes didn't have the boost good enough to accomplish that. I had forgotten Eris modified my Airbike to allow for that. I basically had a large capacity compact NOS tank installed on my Airbike for that extra boost. It was very effective.

"Right, actually nevermind."

We watched as Jilk used some sort of boost and performed a mid-air wheel roll, using the momentum and his remaining boost to leave the others in dust and reach the finish line.

'Guess I wasn't the only one with a modified Airbike. Not sure whether mine's legal or not. Probably not. But nobody seems to care, so eh.'

Jilk was then helped by others as he limped toward the medical bay. Guess he still got hurt from all that.

"Right, I… should go and check up on Jilk."

"Hn? Committee work?"

I turned to look at the blonde in inquiry.

"Yes, I am the first year's manager. I'll need to check and make sure Jilk can participate in the upcoming race."

Seeing as there wasn't anything interesting to do here, Olivia and I decided to tag along.

I threw the now empty bucket of popcorn in a nearby dustbin, casually ignoring the gazes of casual virgin plebs, and followed the two blondes who were animatedly chatting along.

It was a surprisingly relaxing day. Everything was going pretty nicely. For us three, I mean. Sure, Jilk got hurt and stuff, but I didn't much care for the guy in the first place.

When we reached the wing, everything seemed to be fine. Well, other than Marie making a scene and yapping. Jilk was hurt, sure, but nothing serious. He was able to participate in the upcoming race. So, we left their group fussing over the hurt ranger who was getting healed, heading out to look for something else to do while the next race started.

Probably buy more sweets and stuff. My two blonde companions were very much interested in trying out all sorts of things at the festival. Mostly sweets.

But on our way to the stalls, we met with an unexpected group.

***