Ch.236Epilogue. The Festival (2)

Clack.

I placed a cup of coffee in front of Kagami with a polite demeanor.

The attitude, atmosphere, and decor were all fairly elegant. I even put some effort into selecting the coffee beans. Truthfully, I don’t know much about taste, but the shop owner recommended these as excellent, so I bought them.

This was possible because with the increasing number of students and preparing a reasonably large-scale event for the cultural festival, we had a decent budget allocated.

“By the way, when does your shift end?”

“…We do not respond to flirtations directed at maids.”

“Oh, come on. It’s not like you’re working all day, right?”

I think the next table might hear us.

I glanced sideways.

The people at that table weren’t looking at us too strangely. Although Kagami was speaking formally to me, the atmosphere between us wasn’t awkward.

I’m not sure if they could tell she was my mother, but it seemed obvious that we were close from the beginning.

“Well? Well?”

Kagami rested her chin on her hand and pressed me.

I let out a deep sigh.

“…I’ll be done in 20 minutes.”

“Then I’ll wait until then.”

It’s not at all pleasing when your mother uses lines like an outdated drama protagonist.

No, even if a man said that, it wouldn’t be pleasing. It’s just annoying.

I grumbled internally as I turned around.

And then I made eye contact with the other maids who were watching me with very pleased expressions.

The literature club room was large enough to fit all the club members, but it wasn’t exactly spacious. Usually, we pushed the desks together to use the space efficiently, but when you put several café tables inside, the space efficiency naturally decreases dramatically.

So we couldn’t keep all the supplies in here. Instead, we borrowed another classroom next door and stored everything else there, taking things out as needed.

This hallway was overflowing with maids from the corridor to here. Outside, Izumi Ikeda and Kaoru Kaneko were busy organizing the line, while inside, Koko Kurosawa, Yuka Yuuki, Tsuneda, and I were serving.

We couldn’t prevent all club members from enjoying the festival. And there was the issue of limited space in this classroom. So we decided to take turns serving.

Izumi Ikeda and Kaoru Kaneko… seemed to want to spend their last activity with the literature club.

After all, this place held three years of memories for them.

I should make sure they get to enjoy the festival by tomorrow, but right now there are too many customers to let them go.

“Get to work, work.”

“Yes, Head Maid.”

Who’s the Head Maid?

I really wanted to object to Yuka Yuuki’s comment, but since I was indeed acting as the leader at the moment, I couldn’t bring myself to deny it.

*

“Have fun~”

“We’ll hold down the fort, so don’t worry!”

“…I’ll do my best.”

Mako Miura, Harumi Fukuda, and Yuu Yamashita said in turn. All three were extremely unique maids.

Moreover, these three had been wearing these outfits while walking around the festival earlier, saying it was commemorative. It’s amazing nothing got stained.

“Shall we go then?”

Kagami Kurosawa asked, looking extremely excited.

“We’ll be back later.”

“Yes, yes, have fun.”

“Eat lots of delicious things.”

Kaoru Kaneko and Izumi Ikeda, dressed in maid uniforms, smiled brightly as they said goodbye, so we waved back to them and left.

For now, our group consisted of quite a few people: me, Koko Kurosawa, Yuka Yuuki, Tsuneda, and Kagami Kurosawa.

In fact, it was awkward for us to split up. Yuka Yuuki’s father and grandfather had stopped by earlier, but they seemed content with sitting in the café and taking pictures with Yuka Yuuki rather than walking around with her. When her grandfather smiled bitterly saying, “I don’t think there’s anything here for me to enjoy,” I could understand why.

Most of what was being sold were sweet things. Due to cooking restrictions, most items had to be made using pre-made products.

Many elderly people don’t particularly like sweet things.

Of course, Yuka Yuuki didn’t take those words at face value, and she quietly told me, “I’m planning to walk around with them tomorrow.”

Well, family time is necessary too.

Koko Kurosawa was naturally someone who would walk with me, and Tsuneda… although she seemed to have made friends in her class, she still preferred to hang out with us first, which is how our group came to be.

“Oh, don’t those crepes look delicious?”

“Should we go get some?”

We had been selling pre-purchased cookies at the café earlier, but Kagami Kurosawa had only been drinking coffee. She probably wanted to walk around with us and try various foods.

In her very good mood, Kagami Kurosawa generously bought crepes for all of us.

Since they were made by students, it took a little time, but we didn’t have to wait too long.

“This is good.”

Since there’s a risk of spoilage, they couldn’t use real cream, and it was probably whipped cream made from vegetable oil.

Well, at festivals, everything tastes twice as good. Which also means if something tastes bad here, it’s really bad.

I felt happy watching Koko Kurosawa, Yuka Yuuki, and Tsuneda eating.

“That’s cool.”

When I said that to Kagami Kurosawa, she became even more elated.

“So, where should we go next?”

“How about the haunted house?”

“Haunted house?”

I smiled.

School haunted houses have their limitations. The students don’t know how to do special makeup, and they can’t use an entire building.

It’s just walking through a classroom made as dark as possible, seeing awkwardly dressed ghosts, and trying to enjoy it.

Oh, I’m not saying I dislike it. When you go to a haunted house in a place like this, you don’t expect it to be truly scary. The fun of a school festival is seeing the effort that went into it and appreciating how hard they tried.

“Sure, let’s go.”

I answered with a smile, and Kagami Kurosawa smiled back.

*

No matter how awkwardly made a haunted house is, a haunted house is still a haunted house.

To make a not-so-scary place feel as scary as possible, they can’t let too many people in at once.

Since there were five of us, we split into groups of two and three.

Kagami Kurosawa insisted on going with either me or Koko Kurosawa, so in the end, I went with Kagami Kurosawa alone, while Koko Kurosawa went with Tsuneda and Yuka Yuuki.

Fortunately, the other kids didn’t seem to mind. Koko Kurosawa liked Yuka Yuuki and also cared for Tsuneda, who was her junior.

She still preferred to stick with me the most, but seeing her learn to spend time with others made me proud of Koko Kurosawa.

“Shall we go then?”

Kagami Kurosawa linked her arm with mine and moved forward.

I smiled bitterly at Kagami Kurosawa’s childlike voice as I walked beside her.

Outside it was still midday. However, they had managed to find blackout curtains and covered everything thoroughly, so except for the occasional sliver of light that came through the very bottom of the curtains, the classroom was completely dark.

They had made paths using desks, set up pillars with thick paper, and draped cloth to create walls, which must have required quite a lot of effort—

“Eek!”

Before I could be startled by the hand that suddenly shot out from between the cloth, I was more surprised by Kagami Kurosawa’s scream beside me.

Looking up at Kagami Kurosawa, I saw her clinging to me with an expression that didn’t look scared at all.

“S-scary.”

Come on, I can see right through your act.

You wouldn’t even blink if a real ghost appeared.

But… well, this is also a way to enjoy the festival. I didn’t intend to say anything about it.

It took just over 5 minutes to get through the winding path they had created.

Along the way, ghosts that popped out randomly gave us riddles and rewarded us with candy, a bloodied zombie with no wounds slowly chased us from behind, and we saw several more hands that jumped out without any particular meaning.

Kagami Kurosawa hugged me in response to all of these, pretending to be startled.

Halfway through, I gave up and pretended to be surprised too.

And honestly, it was quite fun.

“Thank you for your visit!”

As we passed through the curtain at the back door, a female student in ghost costume greeted us with congratulations and gave us a commemorative card. It was something like a certificate proving we had survived the terrifying haunted house.

Kagami Kurosawa received it preciously with both hands as if it were something valuable.

“How was it?”

“Better than I expected.”

I’m not sure if it was creative or not, but decorating the classroom like that must have taken quite a lot of time.

We were exhausted just setting up the café, so I wonder how hard this must have been.

Kagami Kurosawa and I smiled at each other.

“Screaming so much feels like it cleared my mind.”

I know what you mean.

Similar to how you feel after visiting a karaoke room, I suppose.

After waiting about 5 more minutes, the three who had entered after us came out.

Yuka Yuuki, of course, didn’t look scared at all, while Tsuneda seemed to have been a bit tense. Koko Kurosawa was patting Tsuneda’s head.

“Good girl, good girl.”

I wonder who she learned that from.

Obviously probably from me.

“Was it fun?”

“Yes!”

Koko Kurosawa, who answered like that, probably didn’t even realize that the place was designed to be startling.

Well, I guess it doesn’t matter.

Everyone enjoys things in their own way.