Volume 14 - CH 2

Chapter 2: The Eve

Location: Atlantis Time: 4:03 PM

“As a result, Yang Yang, your class decided to open a tea house and observation house?”

On Saturday afternoon, a few black robes with nothing else to do sat down in the hall to chat. I, who originally only wanted to get tea, was also dragged into the chatting group for some reason, and all they talked about was the school festival.

The table was set with dessert boxes that someone contributed. Inside were cakes and similar things. Nile stood by the table to help everyone make tea, and an aroma from a completely unknown scented tea drifted through the entire hall. Even the things inside were starting to stir a little restlessly.

I just wanted to say that I have to go to the library in the afternoon after getting tea, to check if there were any information about the Dark Cult. I’ve been too busy since starting school these past few days and didn’t have time to go. Looks like today I won’t be able to go again.

Can that sort of information really be found?

After coming to my senses, the others were still staring at me.

“Uh, that’s right, there’s another that seems to be goldfish-scooping.” The reason I said “seems to be” is because I think we definitely won’t be scooping something as simple as a little goldfish. Speaking of which, even now, I still don’t know what an observation house is. Since it was accepted as soon as someone in class mentioned it, I don’t even know what the hell it is.

“That’s quite nice, the college department won’t be having a school festival until June.” Sitting on the other side of the sofa, senior Randall curved into a strange smile. I couldn’t tell what kind of tone it was, but in short, it didn’t sound like envy at all.

“Oh right, Senior, what kind of store is your class opening?” Looking at my audience, subtracting Nuelle and Andy since they aren’t students, and apart from Randall, who’s in the college department, only Senior is in the high school department like me.

Picking up a high-grade porcelain cup with blue patterns, Senior’s red eyes swept over to glance at me, “Haunted house.”

Haunt, haunted house…So normal?

I suddenly felt a large gap in expectation, because I thought Senior would say something earth-shattering, but it was just a haunted house…It’s alright, anything that isn’t a screaming murderous house and the like is alright.

“All three stores were opened up and made into a haunted house.” Senior then added on this sentence.

Three?

Wait a minute, all three stores can be opened up and made into a single large room?

Then why did we think of three different ones, so many!?

I suddenly felt like I was tricked by the school. If I’d known this, I would’ve suggested that three rooms be opened up into one big dim sum house in class. That way we can also avoid unnecessary dangers.

“Oho, that must be very worth seeing.” Nuelle said with a smile, “After all, Class A has always prepared very meticulously.”

What do you mean by that “meticulously”? Making a haunted house look more like a haunted house?

I suddenly had a spine-chilling feeling. That house definitely won’t be as simple as an ordinary haunted house.

“We’re also coming to visit on that day. Good luck, you two.” Holding a teacup, as an administrative staff, Andy smiled and said, “I heard that someone submitted an auditorium for this year’s shopping street. It’s an archaeology research society.”

Auditorium?

That thing that can be the equivalent of a hot spring is actually being opened by someone?

“Ah, I heard about that too.” Nuelle enthusiastically bagan discussing it as well, “It’s not a theatrical society yet they opened up a theatrical shop. I heard they invited the administrative staff as friendly sponsors for their opening, but it’s unknown who they invited.”

The school’s administrative staff?

“Oh right, do you guys want the invitation cards?” Shifting his gaze away, Andy conjured up a big stack of beautifully designed paper cards, “The students brought them here. Attached to them are photos.”

Stage photos?

I took one of them and flipped it open to see. A small stereographic projection of human figures appeared in the card. It was the back of a man and woman. The two were sitting somewhere that looked a lot like a city wall.

The city wall was white and splattered with bloodstains, which speckled over the two’s clothes. Not long after, snowflakes began to float down around the two people in the projection, falling bit by bit and then disappearing. For some reason, as I looked at that man’s back, I felt like he was very familiar. Could it be I know him?

“Winter City? Could it be that story?” Looking at the title on the card, Randall raised his eyebrow.

“It is that story. The script has already been submitted.” Andy smiled and nodded.

That story?

What story?

“A very ancient story.” Senior put down the card and glanced at me, “The story of a princess and a prince. In the end, both of them died.”

Thank you for your explanation, but I still don’t understand.

“On that day, they will only perform it once, at two in the afternoon. There will be another on another morning, but it looks like it’ll probably be a very simple show. It’s going to be a small play performed by the students of the club.” Flipping through the invite, Nuelle said.

I’ll just continue thinking about what that story is.

It sounds like a rather tragic story.

I wonder if Miao Miao and the others know.

“Winter City? I know it.”

On Sunday, when the people in charge of the dim sum house got together to discuss the menu, I raised this question to Miao Miao. Miao Miao was responsible for the overall planning of the dim sum house, and the class rep was the financial advisor for the entire class. Everyone all ran to her if they had anything they didn’t know; she’s simply more useful than the teacher.

“How come you suddenly thought of asking about this story?” Beside us, Chifuyu pushed his glasses and put down his pen that was listing the menu, “This story is from long ago. It’s a story similar to this world’s fairytales.”

Fairytale?

I suddenly thought of the kind of story like Snow White and Cinderella.

After passing the invites around to everyone and letting them take turns examining for a while, Miao Miao’s enthusiasm appeared right away, “What a coincidence, I wanted to go see this. I must change shifts at two in the afternoon, and have someone else make the dim sums. If you don’t give me a break, I’ll go on strike.”

She immediately revealed a threatening smile.

The rest of the classmates who were doing small things instantly had black lines falling down. Since Miao Miao is both the integrative planner and the dim sum chef, everyone all acknowledged that there is no one better at making dim sums than her in the class.

“What kind of story is that?” I pulled back the conversation topic that drifted away and continued to ask.

“Nn…I guess you could say it’s a story of a princess and a prince dying.” Chifuyu gave the above statement that was equivalent to nonsense.

“…Please describe it in detail.” Only a ghost would understand it like that!

“Ha! You’ll know if you just ask this uncle.” The five-colored rooster head, who should be in the goldfish-scooping team and appeared in the snack team for some reason, flashily came onstage, with one foot on the desk, before striking the standard “don’t forget about me” pose, “Long, long ago, in…”

“Long, long ago, in a country known as the Snow Kingdom.” Immediately cutting off the other person’s words, Chifuyu directly moved in front of me and began to speak, “The Snow Kingdom had two princes. The eldest prince was intelligent and shrewd, and the second prince was brave and skilled at fighting; yet the two princes were kindhearted and friendly, receiving the admiration of all the people in the Snow Kingdom.”

Pushing aside Chifuyu, the five-colored rooster head squeezed over, extremely unresigned, “Then one day, news from outside came to the Snow Kingdom. It was a cry for help from another kingdom. The demon king had descended on the other end of Mizukawa, destroying an entire kingdom. In order to keep the Snow Kingdom safe, the Snow Kingdom’s king decided to seal the kingdom and isolate it from the world.”

“But the second prince did not agree with this, and under the opposition of everyone, he brought the army out to battle.” Viciously punching the five-colored rooster head off to the side, veins appeared on Chifuyu’s face, and he actually continued to speak, “At the same time, there was also a kingdom on the other side that similarly received the cry for help. Their king had a prince and princess below him. The two simultaneously asked their father for a battle assignment, and during the Snow Kingdom’s second prince first victory, they arrived and joined the second prince’s forces.”

With a crash, the five-colored rooster head flipped the table on the spot. The classmates who were originally making crafts on the floor scattered in a panic like birds or wild animals, while hugging the half-made products, “Little bastard from the Yukino Clan, if you have the guts, let’s have a one-on-one fight and settle all our grudges today. The winner gets to continue talking.”

With a boom, Chifuyu threw a chair over to hit him. Miao Miao hastily rescued the menus on his table, “Who’s afraid of whom, don’t cry if you lose.”

“Who’s crying!?”

“Whoever loses will cry!”

In complete disagreement, the two people, who shouldn’t be put together in the first place, went straight to fighting.

In less than thirty seconds, half of the classroom was directly smashed.

“Yang Yang.” Nearby, Miao Miao beckoned to me, and I saw a teleportation array appear beneath her feet, “We have to change classrooms.”

“Oh.” I quickly ran over, and it was only then that I noticed the other classmates had all pretty much disappeared already.

The two enemies in the classroom were still exchanging blows.

A second later, as soon as the scenery before my eyes changed, we’d switched to another practice classroom, which was vacant and had no one using it. The classmates in our class started to appear a few at a time, continuing their unfinished work.

Miao Miao kicked the ground, and a couple of sets of desks and chairs immediately rose up. She put everything in her hands down, “Honestly, thank goodness they weren’t broken.” She examined the menus and let out a sigh of relief.

You were so anxious to teleport just to protect these menus?

“Do you still want to keep hearing it?”

A gloomy cold atmosphere suddenly drifted over behind me, “Waah!” I ran several steps forward and turned my head, before realizing that Ryan was standing behind me.

Has he been standing behind me since before?

Disregarding my surprise, Ryan pulled a chair over and sat down, “Where were we just now? Ah, that’s right. After the prince and the princess joined, the royal army began to attack again.”

He actually continued to talk about it.

“Later, Heaven did not disappoint those who try, as the second prince and his party finally defeated the demon king and saved the world. After everyone returned to their own country, the princess, due to being in love with the second prince, went to the Snow Kingdom to find the prince. But because the prince was cursed by the demon king while vanquishing him, he became as hideous as a monster and carried an evil aura. All the people in the Snow Kingdom were afraid of him and didn’t dare to get close, so the prince already left the Snow Kingdom so as to not make other people afraid.

The resolute princess began to search for the prince everywhere and finally found him in a deep valley. At first the prince was very unresponsive to the princess, but due to the princess’s efforts, the prince’s heart was finally broken through and he lived together with the princess. The two of them lived an uninterrupted, happy life for a long time.

But good things don’t last long; just when they thought they would spend the rest of their lives like this, on a frigid snowy night, the prince’s curse intensified. The evil aura eroded him nonstop and, at the same time, also invaded the princess. The princess rapidly weakened and started to become unable to get up from the bed, her body growing weaker and weaker by the day. And the prince was the same; his face became even more hideous and unbearable.

One night, the prince chose to take his own life in order to protect the princess and died.

The grieving princess survived alone. After giving birth to a little prince in her belly, she returned to the Snow Kingdom, and on that same night, the princess left the country. When she was discovered by the people a few days later, the princess had already sat down by the prince’s gravestone and quietly fallen asleep, never to wake up again.

The two countries were full of sorrow after knowing the news, mourning the princess and the prince throughout the countries.

So the poets wrote the story down, chanting it for generations up to now.”

Briefly saying the entire story in one breath, Ryan finally paused.

Sounds like it really is a rather tragic story.

I feel kind of sorry for the hero of the story. It’s bad enough to be cursed by the demon king while attacking him, but to even flee to a valley alone to avoid people; that prince really is unlucky.

“It really is a heart-achingly beautiful story.” Miao Miao’s eyes shone, clasping her hands together as she said, “Yang Yang hasn’t seen the whole picture book. It has many of the spell-based techniques and chants used at the time recorded inside, and it’s a lot more entertaining than the oral accounts. Miao Miao has collected the entire set of hardcover editions there. Next time I’ll bring them here so you can read.”

“Oh…thank you.” The entire set?

How long is that story?

“That’s right, Yang Yang, how do you feel about cherry pie?”

Miao Miao abruptly threw out a completely unrelated sentence, causing me to temporarily not know how to receive it, “Cherries can be brought in from the original world, for sweet and sour pies and scented tea. The fragrantly baked parts will have a sweet taste. There will definitely be many people who like them.” Not waiting for me to speak at all, she was already happily lifting her pen and writing down a few large words on the menu.

Turns out she was asking me about the menu?

“Did you add the rice balls?” Ryan moved closer to see the menu, trying to find the familiar words from above.

“Yeah, it’s Miao Miao’s special three-colored rice balls. The boxes will also include a cup of tea, exactly as per Ryan’s request.” Miao Miao pulled out a list and handed it to him, smilingly saying this.

I saw sunshine and flowers appear behind Ryan’s back.

Glancing at the menus on the table, most of them could all be considered very ordinary dim sums. In addition to them, things like almond tofu, spring rolls, Black Forest cake and the like were also on her list, “Miao Miao, you know how to make roast duck?” I pulled out a list and asked.

Does roast duck count as dim sum?

“Yeah, Miao Miao is very good at making all kinds of snacks from different countries.” She once again happily wrote down “grilled fish.”

Wait a minute, what we’re opening should be a dim sum house and not a fast food restaurant, right?

Just as I was about to tell Miao Miao about this fact, the door of the practice classroom was suddenly kicked open hard.

“It’s done!”

I saw a group of people rushing in.

“The dim sum house’s uniform samples are done.” The group of classmates responsible for the costumes happily poured in, and the classroom became noisy all of a sudden. Five or six girls had a white uniform that looked somewhat like what a pastry waiter wears draped over their hands, “This is the male sample, and the other is the female sample.”

Someone abruptly flung something, and I saw a white blouse and brown crinoline skirt explode before my eyes.

Wait a minute, why is the girls’ uniform a crinoline skirt?

And also, aren’t you guys a bit too godly!? Didn’t we just decide what store we’re going to do yesterday!?

“I think we’re missing something…” Miao Miao looked at the two uniform samples and narrowed her eyes slightly, “This type of clothing is so ordinary. Wouldn’t it have no distinguishing feature?”

“How about guys and girls switch clothes?” The costume group made a suggestion.

“No way!” Instantly flipping the table, Ryan tied his hair up and changed faces, his whole body exuding an endless murderous aura, “The warrior can be killed but not insulted. The Yukino Clan and Scar Clan will not allow their dignity to be trampled upon!”

[T/N: I love how he automatically dragged Chifuyu into this]

Boss, things shouldn’t be that serious, right…And you’re missing a family again.

“We’re not wearing the girls’ clothing either.” The boys who were doing small things issued protests as well.

“That’s strange, it’s not like a skirt is very difficult to wear.” Miao Miao blinked as she looked at the boys, who would rather die than give in, without understanding, “Right, Yang Yang?”

A wave came crashing over and completely hit my head. I saw a bunch of resentful eyes turn toward me, and this made me 100% sure that my corpse would be left out to bleach on the spot here if I didn’t agree, “Uh…I’ve never worn one so I don’t know. Miao Miao, do you want to consider changing to another style? This kind of clothing seems to be used by many dim sum houses and tea houses. It might crash with the other classes’ when the time comes!”

“That is true now that you mention it.” The costume group began to look at the clothing samples and contemplate, “Then how about we switch to the same design as the original world’s Tang clothing or kimonos?”

Miao Miao tilted her head and thought for a long while, “I think that could work too. Our dim sum house has a bit of an oriental feel in the first place anyway. This way it just so happens to be a complementing set.”

I heard many people secretly let out a relieved sigh.

“Okay, then we’ll go remake it.” The costume group with the strong momentum once again slammed the door open with a boom and charged outside.

To be honest, I was also a bit relieved. Because if white clothing gets stained beyond help, it’s impossible to handle it right away.

Ascertaining that he doesn’t need to change to the girls’ clothing, Ryan took off his hair tie, and his presence instantly disappeared again.

Sorting the menus on the table, Miao Miao counted them, “Like this, there will be a total of twenty-eight snacks available. Will that be too little?” She looked around at everyone, asking for their opinions.

Too much, I think.

Normally, which school’s anniversary dim sum house would have twenty eight types, the hell.

“For the types of tea, there are twelve kinds. Is there anyone else who wants to propose a new tea list?”

The surroundings were silent. Clearly everyone had no objections.

“Okay, then the menu has been decided like this.” Miao Miao happily sorted out all the lists and put them into her storage bag, “On that day, the schedule order will be the kitchen group, cashier group and the foreign affairs group. We’ll rotate every two hours, and only rotate once every shift. In the afternoon, other people will come to support us and we’ll be able to rest for one hour.” Pulling out another list, she said, “The kitchen group needs five people per shift, the foreign affairs group needs six people per shift, and the cashier group needs one person per shift. After everyone has decided on the group they want to go to, remember to come to me to register your name.”

I saw Miao Miao registered the names for the kitchen group first.

“Eh? Will there be enough people like this?” I suddenly thought of an issue and hurriedly asked Miao Miao, “The dim sum house doesn’t seem to have that many people, right?” Based on her calculations, we need at least thirty or so shifts to be enough.

“There’s enough.” Miao Miao looked at me with a smile, “Right now there are less people for preparations, but on the day of the school festival, the observation house will only need six cashier group members to split into three shifts, and the goldfish group will also only need six people to be split into three shifts. The remaining people will all come to help out at the dim sum house.”

“So that’s how it is.” I nodded. If you consider it like this, there is more or less enough people.

Of the three stores, it seems like the dim sum house is the busiest.

“Yang Yang, ABC, choose one.” Miao Miao suddenly inexplicably asked me.

“A, A?” Completely bewildered, I very instinctively answered.

What is she asking me?

“A is the kitchen group. Yang Yang has the same shift as Miao Miao.” Miao Miao cheerfully lifted her pen and wrote it down.

Wait!

Wait a minute!

I was tricked!

“I don’t know how to make dim sum!” You want me to become a murderer!?

“Don’t worry, you’ll know once you go in the kitchen.” Miao Miao used a it-doesn’t-matter-if-other-people-die way of speaking to answer me, “At any rate, they can’t die from eating it. If they do die, Miao Miao can help them revive.”

I’m more afraid of me dying.

From being hacked to death by the customers.

“Chifuyu and I can be in the cashier group…” Ryan slowly raised his hand.

“Miao Miao, I really don’t know how to make dim sums.” I want to try my best to turn the situation around.

“Relax, I know how to make them so it’s fine.” Miao Miao patted her chest and said proudly.

Then why did you abduct me in?

“So tomorrow morning, everyone has to come to class early. Miao Miao will bring all the samples of the dishes and tea to school for everyone to try. If you’re late, there won’t be any left.” Happily continuing to the next step, everything was settled just like that by Miao Miao.

I’m still thinking about what I could possibly do in the kitchen.

Wash the dishes?

Could it be burning the charcoal…