As soon as the maid cafe opened, a literal flood of people poured in.
Yeah. Apparently, opening a maid cafe at a high school cultural festival really does have that much of an impact.
“One omelet rice for Table X!”
“Table X delivery complete!”
The kitchen was basically a war zone of cooking right now.
There were more customers than expected, and since our staff was limited, we were severely short on cooks.
So I was in the kitchen too, working hard to become a human omelet-rice-making machine.
“Omelet rice for Table X!”
“Okay! Three minutes!”
Wearing a butler outfit and standing in a sweltering kitchen, stuck in front of the stove the entire time, it was a complete sauna.
Sweat beaded on my forehead and ran down my face; my clothes had been soaked through for ages.
“Miyuki! Things seem to have settled down, so can you go hand out some flyers out front?”
“Got it.”
Once the crowd thinned a little and things stabilized, I was reassigned to handing out flyers outside the cafe.
Relieved that I’d finally escaped the sauna, I silently cheered and headed outside to pass out the flyers.
“Hey, young man! How about visiting our maid cafe?”
Usually, the male customers showed the most interest.
“Miss! Why don’t you stop by our cafe?”
And occasionally, I even managed to reel in some female customers too.
While I was busily handing out flyers, I felt someone’s gaze from a little ways off.
“Miss...?”
There, Tokisaki was looking at me with a candy apple in her hand.
I’d never shown her my female form before, so the fact that she was looking at me as if she recognized me made me feel a little uneasy.
Did I... see that wrong?
But then a male student walked past Tokisaki, and her figure vanished.
I was so dazed that I wondered if I’d just dreamed it for a second, but I still had work to do, so I shook myself awake and continued handing out flyers.
“Looks like things are going pretty smoothly, Hiki.”
If not for Murasame's voice from beside me, that is.
She’d come all the way to the maid cafe herself, probably to check on my situation.
“Ah, Murasame-san...”
Seeing her like that, I couldn’t even finish my sentence.
There was nothing wrong with Murasame herself, but the person who came with her was the problem.
“Y-Yoshino?!”
Beside Murasame was Yoshino.
“I came to visit too.”
And then there was Rinne as well; I felt my mind drifting off to Andromeda again.
“Um, uh... You’re pretty...”
Hearing Yoshino praise me while I broke into a cold sweat, I felt like I wanted to crawl into a mouse hole and hide.
“P-Please don’t talk to me so kindly when I look like this...”
“Eh~? I’m complimenting you, though.”
“Since Hieta is a man, maybe he’s embarrassed by how he looks right now?”
Just as Rinne said, I was feeling an enormous amount of shame.
At the very least, I hadn’t wanted anyone to see me working in a maid cafe. I really hadn’t wanted to...
“Oh my, the noble one is dressed as a girl?”
The Fire Keeper, whom I hadn’t even noticed arriving, had spotted me too.
I fought back tears in my mind and clung to my sanity as hard as I could.
“Eek! The noble one looks good as a girl too!”
The Fire Keeper, completely unaware of my inner suffering, simply hugged me and told me she liked how I looked.
That made my sanity struggle even harder to escape.
“Uuugh...”
“Um, Sachi? I think Hieta’s kind of broken right now...”
“My, this noble one’s appearance is not bad either.”
“......”
At the Fire Keeper’s comment that even my broken state was nice, Rinne lost the ability to speak and looked at her with a slightly frightened expression.
Hey, you’re not supposed to do that.
I still remember what you said when you first showed up, back at the bathhouse.
“I-I’ll be looking forward to the stage...”
Yoshino, who had approached me while I sat there in despair, seemed to understand my situation and left me with a word of encouragement before heading back inside the cafe with the others.
Once they were gone, I let out a long sigh and stood up.
“Haa...”
I was mentally exhausted.
Yeah, I really should’ve left this to Itsuka-kun.
Just as I was thinking that, I spotted a group of Rindoji Girls' Academy students walking this way.
And of course, [Diva] was at the front.
“...Miku.”
“Hello, Miyuki. Looks like business is going well.”
“Thanks for the compliment.”
“Hehe. That outfit suits you. It might be fun to have you wait on people in it.”
“Huh? Sister?”
At [Diva]’s words, the girls following behind her started whispering among themselves.
To their reaction, [Diva] said something short and simple.
“[Please move aside.]”
Then the students drifted away from [Diva] with weak, dazed steps, as if they’d been bewitched.
So that really is her ability.
I could roughly figure out what kind of power [Diva] possessed.
At the very least, it was some kind of mind-control ability.
“Now things are more comfortable.”
Her shameless attitude after using her power was infuriating.
“That’s a pretty bold way to scout someone.”
“That’s not it. I came to invite Miyuki on a date.”
“Ha.”
I laughed.
After hearing that yesterday, she was bringing up a date now?
How shameless.
[Hiki. Accept it for now. There’s no downside to raising her favorability.]
I clicked my tongue.
I didn’t want to accept at all, but with the commander’s orders and for the sake of the strategy, I agreed.
“Here you go, Miyuki.”
After the date started, [Diva] bought two crepes from a booth and handed one to me.
I hesitated for a moment over whether to take it, but since there was nothing wrong with the crepe itself, I accepted it.
“Mm! Mmm~ I can’t resist~”
[Diva] took a bite of her crepe and wore a blissful expression.
Thanks to that, I almost spat the crepe in my mouth right back out.
That smile was just so disgusting.
[There’s no downside to raising her favorability, so even if it’s gross, you have to endure it.]
“I know.”
I know.
That’s why I’m putting up with this date while trying to look as unbothered as possible.
“Miyuki! Miyuki! Look at that! It’s ring toss!”
[Diva], who had gone ahead of me, stopped in front of another booth and pointed inside.
“Do you want anything? I’ll win it for you.”
At that, I almost reflexively said no.
I didn’t want to accept anything that bastard gave me at all.
Still, for the sake of the strategy, I looked over the prizes and pointed to the most harmless-looking one.
“That cat plush.”
“Got it. Leave it to me.”
[Diva] immediately took three rings and threw them at the cat plush.
But not a single one of those three rings landed on it.
If anything, the last ring she threw was merely the closest.
“That’s hard.”
“Obviously.”
Those things are hard by nature.
Distance control and hand movement matter, so if it were easy, it wouldn’t be a game.
“So, I’ll wi—”
“[Please give me that cat plush.]”
Just as I was about to say I’d win it, [Diva] used her power again.
The employee, caught by [Diva]’s ability, told her to wait and then simply took the cat plush from the display.
“Here you go, Miyuki.”
After receiving the plush, [Diva] immediately handed it to me.
“You’re more insane than I thought.”
[Hiki!]
That move was so absurd I was genuinely speechless.
“If you’re going to get a prize, you should win it fairly by throwing the rings.”
“Hee~? Then what if I can’t win it?”
“Then you give up and move on. That’s basic manners. Not this garbage you’re doing now. Don’t you even feel bad for the people who prepared this?”
Just participating in an event is already hard enough.
That’s even more true when there are prizes involved, like now.
From preparing the prizes to deciding how they’d be awarded, and then worrying about clashes with other booths, there was a lot to think about.
She’d basically wiped out all the effort these students had put in with her power in one stroke.
“Feel bad? If I can give them a gift, wouldn’t those kids be happy too?”
“......You—”
“It’s fine, isn’t it? Humans are just my toys and playthings anyway. There’s no need for the Miyuki I’ve acknowledged to worry about them.”
It was just disgusting.
As expected, [Diva] saw humans as her toys.
Just disposable things to play with until she got bored and threw them away.
“You really look down on humans. Humans are all just toys to you, huh? Go ahead and let your guard down like that. A human will be the one to beat you.”
“Hee~? Then shall we test that? Let’s end today’s date here. I’ll be waiting on the stage, okay? If you can even stand on it, that is.”
[Diva] said that and walked off.
Fine. Keep letting your guard down like that.
That’ll be the reason you lose.
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