The Festival Opens
Having successfully completed their inspection of the stadium, Simon and Mayrin boarded a carriage and set off for their next destination.
Jane had told them they'd worked hard enough and should head back to rest—but in truth, there was hardly a spare moment to relax. The moment they were in the carriage, they were already on their way to the next stop.
"Whooaaa!"
This was the central district of Roke Island. It had once been nothing but an empty lot, but in the weeks before the Dark Festival, countless stalls were springing up across it.
"This is the stall district!" Mayrin announced in a bright, lively voice. "The heart of the festival! Once the Dark Festival starts, you'll be able to buy all kinds of food and goods here!"
"Yeah, I can see that." Simon smiled wryly. "……But why are there so many students?"
The stalls weren't supposed to open until the first day of the festival, yet the half-constructed district was already crawling with them. First-years who'd slipped out during their lunch hour were the most numerous of all—the word had clearly spread far and wide.
"How does it taste?"
"So good!"
"I'm definitely coming back once the festival starts!"
Since the official festival period hadn't begun yet, vendors weren't allowed to sell food for money. So the stall owners handed out this dish and that as a kind of taste test, and the students got to fill their bellies for free.
It was advertising, pure and simple—the vendors were banking on word of mouth to carry them through opening day.
"Should we put the boxes here?"
"Oh, bless you, that's mighty kind."
Some stalls were run by elderly couples, and kindly enough, students were summoning skeletons to haul materials and push carts for them. Heartwarming little scenes played out all across the district.
'Still, though….'
Simon happened to spot a familiar face.
"Materials comiiiing through!"
Among the construction workers was a girl with a familiar tangerine-colored head of hair. And she wasn't just volunteering—she was dressed exactly like the laborers, commanding her undead as she directed the whole work site.
Simon walked over.
"Eshu, what are you doing here?"
She spun around, and her face went white as if she'd seen a ghost. "Waaah! P-people can be mistaken for other people, you know!"
"……You're Eshu. I know it's you."
"No I'm nooot! P-please, just don't report me!"
Backing away with her hands raised, she tripped over her own feet and toppled to the ground with a strangled squawk.
Simon asked, his expression flat, "Don't tell me you're getting paid to work here?"
It went without saying that during the preparation period, any transaction of money between students and outsiders was strictly forbidden.
"N-no! I'm just helping out of the, uh, pure goodness of my heart—!"
"Hey! Student! How long are you planning to lie around on the job?"
A middle-aged man, grunting as he hauled materials, shouted over at her. "You said you'd do the work of five men if I paid you five times the going rate! Get moving, will ya?"
"A-aaajussiii!"
Busted.
Simon walked up to where Eshu sat slumped on the ground, the corner of his mouth curling upward. "Pure goodness of your heart, huh?"
"……Ngh!"
Drenched in sweat, she finally threw her head back and wailed. "F-fine! I begged them to hire me because I'm broke! Happy now?"
"……Broke?"
"Completely! I spent every last coin buying an Abaddon set for the Dullahan Special Lecture! No materials means I can't keep up with class, and if I can't keep up, I won't survive the semester—I'll get expelled!"
'Ah.'
It was a fact Simon had momentarily forgotten: Eshu was poor.
Her family had struggled so much that as a child she'd worked as a maid in Lorraine's household. Her naturally exuberant personality never let it show, but she had her own quiet burdens, same as anyone.
She'd even applied to be a paid work-study student at Kizen, arriving earlier than everyone else to scrub down the swimming pool or the lecture halls before class. She carved time out of her sleep and her studies just to make ends meet.
'But rules are rules. If it's not allowed, it's not allowed….'
The moment that thought formed, a certain voice echoed through Simon's head.
*You kids are just going to transfer departments again anyway, aren't you?*
*The Summoning Department? Please! You're a transfer-prep department, the lot of you! Hahaha!*
The corners of Simon's mouth twitched uncontrollably with dread.
Her true specialty was the Curse Doll.
She'd declared herself a Summoning major because she wanted to focus on controlling the 'doll' type of summons, but honestly, she was more than capable of holding her own in the Curse Department.
It wouldn't match the studies she actually wanted, sure—but if the alternative was falling behind for lack of money and getting expelled, transferring to the Curse Department might genuinely be the better option.
'Ugh.'
He didn't want that to happen.
He'd grown close to Eshu, and if she left, morale in Group 10 would crater for Lorraine and Toto too.
And above all, he worried about Aaron's heart—Professor Aaron had suffered deeply in the past when his students had transferred out en masse.
Just as Simon's worry was deepening, Eshu stuck out both arms in a look of utter resignation and offered them up to him.
"Do your worst."
"Huh?"
"You're going to arrest me red-handed anyway, aren't you?!" she shouted, waving her outstretched arms. "You'll have your undead minions drag me off and throw me straight to the Disciplinary Committee!"
The problem with this girl was that she sprinted so far ahead on her own flights of imagination that she left everyone else in the dust.
"Simon, is something going on?"
Mayrin, having caught wind of the commotion, came over.
'Oh no!'
Simon stiffened, and Eshu—still slumped on the ground—shrunk back even further the instant she spotted the Student Council armband on Mayrin's right sleeve.
*If it's Mayrin, she'll follow procedure to the letter—and then some!*
When it came to council work, Mayrin was a strict principlist through and through.
With cold sweat soaking the back of Simon's neck, Mayrin crossed her arms and stared down at Eshu. "Who's this?"
"Ah…… right! Let me introduce you. This is Eshu Arzel—she's in my group in the department. And this is Mayrin. She's on the student council with me—the Vice President."
*Hm, I see.*
Mayrin gave an indifferent nod, then looked at Simon. "So. What did she do wrong?"
*That's quite a presumption of guilt.*
Then again, to anyone watching, Eshu's face right now practically screamed 'I am guilty, Your Honor.'
"Ahaha, she's just got some personal troubles, I think!" Simon leapt forward, planting himself between them and gesturing at Eshu. "She's been having a really rough time lately!"
"……"
Mayrin's eyelids lowered.
"'Personal troubles,' is it."
Murmuring those words, she walked past Simon and stopped in front of Eshu. Frightened, Eshu turned her head away—but Mayrin quietly crouched down, bringing herself to eye level, and met her gaze.
"I don't know exactly what's going on."
"?"
In the eyes of Eshu—warily half-lidded—a single white business card appeared.
"But if you have worries, the Student Council offers counseling. Or me, if that blockhead there doesn't fill you with confidence."
"Oh."
In a daze, Eshu murmured her thanks and accepted the card. It was simple in design, with the words *Student Concerns Counseling Center* printed across the center.
Mayrin rose to her feet and turned to leave. Then, over her shoulder—
"And if money is the problem—"
"!"
Eshu's and Simon's eyes went wide at the same instant.
"—an official directive will be coming down soon. Verified businesses at Kizen will be permitted to formally hire work-study students for paid labor."
"Ah!"
Eshu's eyes brimmed with tears.
"Th-thank you! Madam Vice President!"
Mayrin waved a hand behind her without turning around, walking off into the distance. Simon, too, watched her retreating figure with a smile.
'Thank you, Mayrin.'
Three weeks flew by like a beam of light.
And then, at last, the day itself arrived.
"On behalf of the Dark Festival, welcome—one and all!"
*KABOOOOM—!*
*Bang! Bang!*
Enormous fireworks and bursts of flowers erupted into the sky as the festival's opening ceremony began.
The students sat in the front rows of the open-air ceremony grounds, dignitaries filled the VIP seats on either side, and around them all, an endless sea of spectators churned shoulder to shoulder with barely room to breathe.
On the ceremony stage stood a man in a dazzling event costume, arms spread wide.
"Good day to you all! I am Saywir Griezman, master of ceremonies for this year's Dark Festival opening!"
He bowed deeply to the crowd like a gentleman, and the crowd answered with an explosive roar—no surprise, given the popularity of a superstar among superstars.
—Saywir!
—Saywir!
"A pleasure, truly. Yes, yes, the pleasure is mine! Hahaha!"
After giving the volume on the amplification crystal orb a quick check, he continued.
"Like so many of you, I once dreamed of becoming a necromancer."
He pressed a hand to his chest.
"I was fortunate enough to be born with an ability—the power to create illusions. And in those days, common wisdom held that an ability user who became a necromancer was set for life. My mother sold off our very estate to pay for my core to be opened, all so I could walk that path."
It was a story from Saywir of Langoustine that no one had heard before. The crowd grew quiet, hanging on his every word.
"But it did not come easily! My ability had no synergy whatsoever with Jet-Black, and my dark magic was worse than mediocre. All ambition and no talent! 'I could do better if only I had the luck!' 'I belong somewhere higher than this!' And so, on the days my superiors chewed me out, I would drape myself in illusions and live inside them. Because in my illusions, my superiors groveled at my feet."
HAHAHAHA!
Knowing laughter rippled through the audience.
"But there were friends who dragged me out of that fantasy and showed me a new road! The very students of this year's 330th Student Council!"
*Oooooh!*
"I never achieved my dream. And perhaps for that very reason, I've come to care so deeply about these young necromancers. May they light up the Dark Alliance—for their own sake, and for mine! Thank you!"
Sincere applause poured out from every corner of the grounds at Saywir's heartfelt words.
"And now, let the Dark Festival begin! Students and honored guests, please rise!"
"Gaaah! Why did he have to bring *us* into it?! So embarrassing."
Mayrin muttered, her face flushed red. Behind her, Camibarez, carefully running a comb through her long hair, beamed.
"I thought it was wonderful that Saywir mentioned us!"
Dick snickered and puffed out his shoulders. "For a shaky second-year council like ours, there's no such thing as too much public attention. That man really knows how to see the big picture!"
They were in the green room behind the stage. Simon was smoothing out his coat among the other members, smiling. His speech was coming up soon, so stylists had come through—teasing out his hair and even applying a touch of makeup.
"Ooh."
The moment the finishing touches were done, Dick sidled up close, mouth curling.
"Cleaned up like this, you actually look pretty grown-up. Don't you think?"
He turned to the others. Mayrin and Camibarez both nodded, wide-eyed.
"W-whatever! Not bad, I guess!"
"It really suits you, Simon!"
"Thanks."
Just then, Saywir's voice rang out.
—And now! Please welcome Student Council President Simon, and the members of his council!
"That's us!"
"Let's go!"
Simon adjusted his tie and strode toward the stage.
Their first major public appearance since forming the student council.
'We will.'
One thought consumed him: they would see this through, flawlessly. Simon walked toward the light and finally stepped out onto the stage.
*WHOOOAAAA—!*
*OOOOHH—!*
A mighty cheer erupted. Simon, the students' chosen representative and the face of this festival, ascended the podium with his council members behind him.
Public ceremony demanded proper form. Simon bowed with careful courtesy and extended his palm toward Mayrin.
'!'
An escort from the Student Council President himself.
She was quietly delighted—but she fought down the grin threatening to break loose across her face and, with the utmost composure in the world, laid her hand atop Simon's.
'Are you watching this?!'
He had no idea whether Serne had come to the opening ceremony, but a powerful urge to whip his head around and scan the crowd surged through him all the same.
At last, the two of them reached the podium.
He exchanged a glance with Saywir and took the amplification crystal orb from his hands. Simon drew a slow, deep breath to steady his nerves, then looked down over the sea of faces below.
Every student of Kizen.
Beside them, the great powers of the Dark Alliance—and surrounding them all, countless ordinary citizens.
This was what the Student Council President saw.
Simon lifted the amplification crystal orb.
"My name is Simon Polentia."