The Club Fair That Calls the Storm #3
The ideal is to work during the day and rest in the evening. A balance between labor and leisure. They call it work-life balance, don't they? If I could live a life where that balance was perfectly maintained, there would be nothing better. But sometimes life gets so busy that you have to work both day and night. That was exactly the purpose of this club training camp.
Preparing a massive amount of ingredients even in the evening. The new menu items developed because the stock of the Spice Pool had run low—“Tteokbokki,” “Rabokki,” and “Army Stew”—all required far more prep time than expected. In a factory setting, that might be different, but here at Ludens, I had to handle everything from making the sauces to prepping the ingredients myself.
Until now, I had done it all alone. But if I wanted to increase the volume of sales going forward, help from others was absolutely essential. Especially during the Club Fair, when crowds of people would swarm in to taste our club’s cooking. Some of them would become customers. And some might even become new club members… or rather, new pairs of hands.
“With that in mind, I intend to improve every member’s cooking skills so that all of you can mass-produce these dishes. That is the goal of this training camp, to be completed before the Club Fair.”
Teaching others to cook wouldn’t be easy, but with the Skill Shop I had obtained through the club system, nothing was impossible.
Perhaps curious about my ambitions, the Nymph delegate Arnoi immediately raised her hand.
“…So when exactly will the courage test be held?”
…Courage what?
Where in my explanation or this conversation had a courage test suddenly appeared?
“There will be no such thing.”
“My energy is completely drained…”
At my firm answer, Arnoi visibly wilted. Enio, who had been listening, also shook her head. “That’s a bit disappointing…”
No, why had a courage test suddenly come up?
As I was reviewing our previous conversation, Arnoi spoke again.
“This old school building is famous for being haunted…! To hold a training camp in a place like this and not do a courage test… That means losing half the fun of school life…!”
“Is that so.”
“Nike, the club president, said so…! She said this old school building hides a terrifying secret…! In fact, it is counted among Ludens’s Seven Great Mysteries…!”
I see. From Arnoi’s strange passionate speech, I finally understood where the courage test idea had come from. While I had been away getting approval for the camp, the girls must have had some kind of conversation among themselves.
I had heard the rumor that ghosts appeared in the old school building. Even in D&A, if you walked through the hallways or parks, you would occasionally hear NPCs muttering things like, “Did you hear? Someone saw a ghost in the old school building…!”
However, having reached 87.5 percent achievement score, I knew it was nothing but a MacGuffin. It was only ever mentioned and never actually appeared. I had spent several days living in the old school building’s warehouse, yet I had never once heard a ghost’s laughter.
—Squeak. Squeak. There were plenty of mice, though.
—Keong-keong! Of course, since Keong-keong the wolf-spider had been blocking every mouse that tried to enter the warehouse, sleeping had become quite comfortable lately.
Nike said, “Victor! It’s not every day we get to camp out in the old school building! Can’t we do a courage test? Wouldn’t it be fun? Please?”
It was almost the first time Nike had ever asked me for anything. Did she like scary stories?
“Now that I think about it, Nike, you were the president of the Mokemoke Occult Club.”
“Y-yeah. It got shut down because there weren’t any members…”
The one who had shut it down was none other than Victor himself. Still, it seemed Nike still had lingering feelings about the occult, and everyone else appeared to be secretly looking forward to this courage test, so I nodded.
“Very well. We can do it for one hour. After all, you are the president of this Cooking Club, Nike.”
* * *
The old school building. A dilapidated, abandoned structure. It was no wonder that students’ footsteps grew scarce once night fell. It really did look terrifying enough for ghosts to appear.
Of course, I wasn’t afraid of such things. The only thing that truly terrified me was my bank balance. But the other students seemed to feel differently.
Crackle. Crackle. A bonfire had begun burning in front of the old school building. As we sat around it in small groups, Enio shivered.
“I usually go back before sunset, so I didn’t realize… but once night falls, it feels like an entirely different world. Are we really the only ones here?”
Teacher Domina, who had been steadily roasting and eating sausages skewered on sticks, replied, “Well, any diligent student wouldn’t come to a dangerous place like this at this hour, would they? By the way, these sausages are delicious. I thought they were just ordinary ones, but the taste is completely different.”
Of course they were. I had added my own seasoning, mashed them, and remade them, so there was no way they would taste the same as store-bought ones.
The problem was right here.
“Domina, just how many are you eating by yourself? Stealing all the students’ food. That’s not something a conscientious teacher should do.”
“…W-well, I’ll treat everyone once payday comes! Just one more week—”
Teacher Domina, who had been frantically making excuses, suddenly fell silent. A strange wind had begun to blow.
Whoosh— Uwooooo— It sounded like wind passing through a thick pipe. Domina narrowed her eyes and scanned the surroundings.
“Kids, didn’t that sound just like a ghost?”
“It is merely the sound of wind entering and exiting the old warehouses. There are many abandoned warehouses around here.”
At my conclusion, Enio nodded. “Victor is right. There are tons of abandoned warehouses around this area. Warehouses left untouched by anyone’s hand. Now that I think about it, it does feel eerie.”
At that moment, Nike asked, “Do you know why these warehouses and the old school building were abandoned? It feels a bit suspicious to say they simply moved to the new building because the facilities got old, doesn’t it?”
“Well…”
Enio shook her head as if she had no idea. The one who spoke up was Arnoi, who had been poking the bonfire with a stick.
“This Arnoi knows…! Back when this Arnoi was still an innocent first-year… a rather scandalous incident occurred in this old school building…!”
“A scandalous incident? Arnoi, what is it?”
Nike showed interest. She definitely liked these kinds of stories.
“It is… the story of students who suddenly began disappearing one day…! A considerable number of students vanished, so in the end, they closed the building and left it abandoned…!”
That story. It had existed in D&A as well. Many veteran players had spun all sorts of theories around this MacGuffin. I had even written a few posts based on my own headcanons, but eventually stopped because there was no way to prove any of it.
“Even now, they say the missing students are somewhere scratching at the walls—scratch, scratch—filling the old school building with that sound…!”
That was one of the Seven Great Mysteries surrounding the old school building. “The Vanished Students and the Ghostly Sounds,” was it?
Sssss— The wind blew again. Perhaps because of the scary story, everyone’s conversation suddenly died down. Were they scared?
Teacher Domina at least tried to rally some energy and clapped her hands. “…Alright then. Shall we eat dinner now?”
She just wanted to eat. Just as I was thinking there was nothing to be done and was about to put water in the pot—
“G-ghost! A ghost has appeared…!”
Arnoi suddenly shouted, holding up a burning piece of firewood, foam practically forming at her mouth. When I looked where she was pointing, something pale was floating toward us. And it was coming this way.
“The rumor that talking about ghosts summons them was true…! This Arnoi hasn’t even graduated yet and doesn’t want to be captured by a ghost…!”
The whitish thing drew closer and closer. Realizing its true identity, I said lightly, “What is it? It is just Victorica.”
“…Then who did you think it was?”
I had been slightly hoping a real ghost would appear. Anyway.
The identity of the whitish thing was indeed Victorica. Her face, illuminated by moonlight, was exceptionally pale, making her look like a ghost or spirit.
Nike approached her and sniffed. “Victorica, you smell nice. Is it soap? No, this smells like perfume… Wait, it’s the smell of cosmetics! Victorica, you’re wearing makeup!”
I see. So she had put on makeup. Victorica’s face was already as white as a full moon; with makeup on top of that, it was no wonder she looked like a floating face in the dark night.
Victorica replied grumpily, “My skin was just dry, so I borrowed some lotion from my sister. There’s no need to make such a fuss. Everyone puts on lotion, don’t they?”
She had received lotion from Flora? It looked strangely white for mere lotion. Suspiciously so.
“Victorica, you look better with nothing on your face.”
It would be best to wash it off so she wouldn’t be mistaken for the ghost of the old school building. Whether she understood my intention or realized her own mistake, Victorica blushed and said, “If you’re going to put it that way… then I’ll wash it off…”
* * *
The only bathing facility still operational in the old school building. After dinner, we decided to wash up lightly there. As I was undressing, I heard voices from beyond the wall.
“Victorica, those underwear are incredible…! The straps… mmmph—.”
“Shh, Mokemoke! Be quiet!”
Straps? What straps?
“So the makeup was just a distraction. This was the main event, Victorica.”
“Enio, you be quiet too.”
“Oh my, how scary. Teacher Domina, Victorica is bullying me.”
As expected of an old facility, there was zero soundproofing. Thanks to that, the women’s chatter traveled all the way to the men’s bath on the other side of the wall.
“Victorica, just what have you been eating to get….”
“This Arnoi is also curious…! It looks like an eighth-year… no, a ninth-year…!”
“M-Mokemoke, don’t touch them randomly!”
Splash. Splash.
“They’re bigger than Enio’s.”
“…Mokemoke, have you touched Enio’s before?”
“No, you can tell just by looking.”
“That’s true. Mokemoke, you really know your stuff, huh?”
“…I’m starting to dislike all of you.”
It was incredibly noisy. After washing first and waiting in this atmosphere, the women finally emerged.
“Victorica, your face isn’t as white anymore.”
“Why? Do you have a problem with that?”
“No, none at all. Now that we’ve eaten and washed up, we’ll quickly finish this so-called courage test and then pass on Lower Cooking—the true goal of this camp—to everyone.”
There was no time to waste. It was already eight o’clock.
“So, how exactly are we doing this courage test?”
When I asked, Nike, who had been drying her pink hair by the bonfire, answered, “How about we have to retrieve an item from the old school building? There’s a science lab on the fourth floor. We just need to bring back a beaker or a flask from there!”
“Simple and good.”
Beakers and flasks could be cleaned and used for all sorts of things around here. The moment I thought that, I couldn’t stay still.
“I will go first.”
But Teacher Domina stopped me. “Wait. No matter what, going alone seems dangerous. It would be better to move in pairs. We have exactly six people, so that makes three teams.”
Teams of two, huh?
“Then how should we divide the teams?”