105. Hidden Trump Card
105. Hidden Trump Card
The fact that I wasn't participating in the Hunting Festival must have been seriously shocking, because people kept asking me about it wherever I went.
"Hey, Atlas!"
Edgar Lemnos was one of them.
"I've assembled the ultimate team. No matter how good you are, it'll be tough for you to score higher than my team in the Hunting Festival, won't it? I'll be the one taking the win this time."
Edgar folded his arms and declared confidently.
Behind him stood three people who appeared to be his teammates.
One was naturally Zeke Albion, but the composition of the other two was peculiar.
Edgar's team included the elf exchange student, Cindy Le, and the beastman exchange student, Bol Te Jin.
'Emy... you're going to have to work really hard, huh?'
The team Edgar had assembled was incredibly strong, enough to rival his own.
Cindy, an elf noble, had extensive experience surviving in the forest.
The Black Forest was different from the forests the elves lived in, but her experience was fully applicable within the Black Forest as well.
Bol Te Jin might not possess outstanding knowledge of the forest, but the racial traits of a tiger beastman were tremendously powerful.
They possessed senses far broader than humans, were much more agile than humans, and could even emit low-frequency threatening sounds to immobilize their prey.
I didn't know how he had recruited them, but the abilities they both shared were essential skills for a Ranger.
Incredible tracking abilities and guaranteed individual strength...
They were more than worthy of being called championship contenders.
However, there was one odd thing about Edgar's statement.
"Yeah, work hard. Guess you didn't hear that I'm not participating this time?"
Saying that kind of thing to me was pointless, since I wasn't participating in this Hunting Festival.
"You, not participating in the Hunting Festival... What is the meaning of this..!!"
"It's exactly what you just heard. I'm not participating in the Hunting Festival."
Upon hearing that I wasn't participating, Edgar panicked.
Up until now, I'd always either participated in these things or gotten tangled up in them, so he seemed surprised that I was drawing a line this time.
"What, you're really not joining? Then I guess we'll win."
"No, there are still plenty of people you need to watch out for."
"Then we just need to be careful of the seniors who've already experienced it a few times...?"
"I heard there's even a rumor about someone who's been held back three times and makes a living off the top prize money from every Hunting Festival."
"Hk, there's no way a person like that could exist."
At the news that I wasn't participating, Cindy and Bol were purely delighted.
Both of them had apparently been keeping me in check quite a bit.
"You're not participating in the Hunting Festival?? If it's because you found recruiting teammates bothersome, I'll do it for you."
"Forget it, that kind of thing."
"Surpassing you is what gives it meaning! Do you have any idea how much trouble I went through to recruit these two..!!"
As Edgar made his passionate speech, Cindy and Bol Te beside him smiled awkwardly.
What on earth did they receive as a condition for joining the same team to make him act that way?
"My realm hasn't reached yours yet, but... the Hunting Festival is a team battle, so I figured if I made the best team I'd have a chance, and I worked hard for it, so why..!!"
"Why, you ask... taking care of rotting flesh in the Black Forest, chasing away bugs, and bickering with magical beasts isn't exactly pleasant, you know."
"...Yeah, that's... not exactly pleasant... no...."
When I said I didn't want to bicker in the Black Forest, Edgar's face flushed red and blue before he couldn't say anything and just clutched his forehead with one hand.
Naturally, he'd assumed I would participate, but the reason I wasn't was fairly understandable, so he couldn't seem to refute it.
"Edgar, there's still no change in our goal of winning."
When Zeke nudged him from behind, Edgar regained his composure and shouted confidently.
"You're right. Atlas, then watch closely, because I will definitely win the Hunting Festival. And then I'll tease you with the trophy."
"You picked your teammates well, so good luck aiming for the win."
.
.
.
.
.
After that, I discreetly looked around here and there and heard mostly similar reactions.
Hera also thought I would naturally participate, and so did the Newspaper Club.
It wasn't for nothing that I'd been snooping around everywhere with nothing better to do.
Seeing Edgar's team members, their level was quite high, so I'd gone around checking out the other strong contenders to see what they were like.
I'd heard that last year's victory was taken by the team from the Swordsmanship Research Club led by Hera.
Apparently, Hera had disposed of the solid gold magical beast statue received as a prize and added it to the Swordsmanship Research Club's budget.
She was truly a model club president.
When I glanced over, Hera's team was composed of four swordsmen, including one senior club member with Ranger skills.
While their situational adaptability might drop since they had no mage, Hera's team, having been rigorously trained and drilled in the same club, was on a completely different level compared to other teams in terms of teamwork and proficiency.
Looking purely at the average specs of the party, Edgar's party was higher, but the difference in teamwork could not be ignored.
Because simply being strong didn't necessarily mean you had the advantage in the Hunting Festival.
The Hunting Festival proceeded in a way where, after dispatching prey, you used an artifact given to you against the prey's corpse to acquire points, and at the end, the total sum of points recorded on the artifact was calculated.
The magical beasts released as prey had varying point values depending on their strength, and most of them could be dealt with in an instant even by someone at the mid-Expert level.
In other words, if you had skills at the mid-Expert level or higher, that was sufficient for the Hunting Festival.
'I'm worried about Emy....'
She had set her sights on the championship, but it didn't look easy.
In the end, it seemed Lucia had truly decided to participate in the Hunting Festival alone, without any teammates.
Many people had lined up asking to be on the same team as Lucia, but she refused them all and ultimately decided to participate alone.
She had said she didn't need any other teammate unless she was on a team with me, and she really decided to go alone.
Everyone was worried, but some were also convinced, saying it was a choice befitting a Russell of the Rock.
Since team members had to be decided by this week, everyone participating in the Hunting Festival poured all their energy into recruiting teammates.
And as for me......
"Ahh, it burned again!! Miss Woodville, you're no help at all, so please go over there!!"
"I had all the prepared dough ready, and you say I'm no help—that's too harsh!!"
"You're burning up everything you prepared!!"
I was baking bread and cookies to sell at the tea house with my classmates.
———————————
The day after Class 5 decided to run a tea house during the Hunting Festival period, the students were gathered in an empty lecture hall by Dorothy Woodville.
It wasn't a typical lecture hall.
It was more like a practice room located on the academy's first floor, equipped with full-scale cooking facilities including a hearth, oven, and sink.
'Why on earth does a lecture hall like this even exist?'
There were no lectures currently using this facility in the academy, so perhaps they used to hold cooking practice as an elective in the past?
Even though it was an unused lecture hall, maybe the golems that managed the academy cleaned here too, or perhaps they were ordered to clean it separately—there wasn't a single speck of dust visible.
Dorothy Woodville stood confidently in front of a large table, where something was covered by a white cloth.
"I have no intention of asking anything unreasonable of you all. If you just help me with some very simple things, our class's tea house will end successfully~!!"
I couldn't see well from the back, so I'd moved right to the front, and when I focused on my sense of smell, a rich buttery scent filled the air.
"Now then, allow me to introduce my secret weapon..!!"
As Dorothy confidently lifted the white cloth, something yellowish, stacked in layers on a black tray, appeared from beneath it.
"So that's why you were so confident.... You're quite serious about this."
"Of course."
What Dorothy Woodville revealed was none other than prepared dough.
It consisted of dough that had been stopped mid-process in the creation of various breads and cookies.
"This is 'prepared dough' airlifted directly from Ben's Bakery, the most famous bakery in the Imperial Capital."
"Ben's Bakery??"
"Oh my goodness, even I, who live in the capital, have only been there once..!"
"As expected, you're amazing, Miss Woodville!"
In the world of my previous life, prepared dough was frozen and distributed nationwide, but in this world, they used magic—specifically, they cast a 'preservation' spell to prevent it from spoiling before distributing it.
The magically preserved dough, which didn't even need the bother of thawing, just required you to dispel the preservation magic and bake it in the oven according to the recipe, and a finished product would come right out.
As long as you knew how to control the oven's temperature and timing, you could present the exact taste of a famous bakery.
"I understand the festival is supposed to be prepared by the students' own efforts, but won't something like this... violate the regulations..?"
"Prepared dough is ultimately nothing more than an ingredient. It is not a finished product! We are the ones completing it, after all. I've also already received permission from the Student Council. Now, let's hurry and put it in the oven!"
'It seems even that sort of thing is permitted.'
In that case, the things the students actually had to do decreased drastically.
The pastries would all be finished just by receiving the prepared dough on the morning of the event and spinning it in the oven, and as for the tea, 'boiling it well' was the hard part, not simply steeping the tea leaves.
Dorothy's plan was plausible.
Ben, who ran Ben's Bakery, was a famous pâtissier sometimes invited to the Imperial Palace to showcase his skills.
If they properly promoted that people could enjoy the taste of a famous bakery that even those living in the capital had a hard time trying, everyone would pay attention.
If only they could manage to bake the dough, which had been over 90% completed by that bakery, well... then it would really be possible to achieve the highest sales in the academy.
That was what I thought.
"Th-the bread... it's all turned into lumps of coal!!"
Black lumps sat atop the black tray.
Just a few minutes ago, they had been the prepared dough for Ben's Bakery's special croissants, flaunting a pristine white form.
Yeah, of course things wouldn't end that easily.
The ovens of this world didn't offer precise temperature control just by pressing a button.