Volume 16, Chapter 2: The Footsteps of Turmoil, Part 1

As we arrived at the school building, we occasionally passed by third-year students who commuted from the dormitory to school, and they all looked at me the same way they did back when we were still on the boat. But it doesn’t seem that Sudou has noticed it.

During the summer vacation, I kept seeing the same scene whenever I went outside, but I don’t think I will ever really get used to it. Being watched gives such a strong sense of oppression and blockage. This is something that will continue as long as the existence of these gazes themselves remain.

Kei quickly formed a group of girls and started talking about summer vacation, while Sudou started chatting with his good friends Ike and Hondou. I, too, waited for the bell to ring while chatting briefly with the Ayanokouji group.

Eventually, Chabashira arrived and gave out a speech, looking the same as she did in the first semester.

“This second semester has a few big events coming up for you lot. First of all, there will be the sports festival, which was also held last year, and it will serve as a test for the students’ physical abilities in October. There are some rules that will be different from last year’s, but there are no major differences in the skills required.”

The strong emphasis given out by Chabashira on physical abilities meant that it would require a great deal of physical ability. This could be a problem for students who excel only in their studies.

For example, my close friends Keisei and Airi. They listened to her words with a stiff expression.

Naturally, the new rules would also be concerning.

“In November, we will be holding a cultural festival, which will be the first of its kind at the Advanced Nurturing High School. We will announce the details of the festival in the same way as the sports

festival, but we will also take time to hold this festival in parallel starting in September.”

The month of September would primarily be spent preparing for the sports festival. PE class time will increase by a few hours every week.

September will mainly be spent for the preparation of the Sports Festival, with an extra few hours of PE class per week, and one hour of discussion per week for the Cultural Festival. After the sports festival which will be held in October, the students will then begin preparing for the real festival in earnest, which will be held in November.

There was also a school trip coming up, although it wasn’t clear whether or not it will be related to the special exams.

“In between these events, of course, you will have your midterms and final exams.”

At any rate, there was no doubt that it would be a busy second semester.

“I’ll explain more about the sports festival later, but I will first talk about the cultural festival.”

In terms of order, the sports festival came first, but Chabashira instead began to share details about the cultural festival.

“There will be quite a lot of guests at the cultural festival. You will have to compete with all the classes in all grades in the festival for the total amount of sales. You can apply for as many events as you like, but the budget is limited. Please refer to your tablets for more details.”

Cultural Festival Outline

? For the second years, each class will be given 5,000 private points that can be used only for the preparation of the festival per person, and each student will be allowed to use these funds freely.

(The initial cost will be 5500 points for 1st year students and 4500 points for 3rd year students.)

? Additional funds will be given in exchange for social contributions through voluntary work in the student council, and for contributions made through active participation in club activities.

(Details will be announced for each class once they are finalized.)

? Initial costs and additional funds will not be reflected in the final sales, so if they are unused, they will be forfeited

? Classes in 1st through 4th place will be awarded 100 class points.

magic ? Classes in 5th through 8th place will be awarded 50 class points

? There will be no changes in the class points for classes in 9th to 12th place

In terms of rewards, relatively many classes would be rewarded, and there was no penalty for the classes that place low. Placing 8th or above would be a decent result. The rules are straightforward, and easy to understand with nothing too confusing. It was also clear now as to why the details of the cultural festival were made public before the sports festival. If one didn’t know the rules beforehand, preparation would be impossible. On the other hand, for the sports festival, you could simply improve your physical abilities.

“S-somehow, it just seems like your average and typical cultural festival.”

Shinohara’s heart seemed to skip a beat as she let out a sigh of relief, but it was understandable why she would feel that way.

There wasn’t any risk of losing class points or being expelled. The fact that she couldn’t help but wonder if there was more to the story was proof that us students had become deeply ingrained with the structure of how this school worked.

“It will also be important to decide where you want to set up your stalls within the school grounds and such. For example, if you want to set up your stall near the main gate, where visitors will definitely pass by, you will have to pay the school for the space in order to occupy it.”

The students, including myself, looked over the new information that had been sent to the tablet.

With the title “List of places you could set up a stall”, there was a map of the site and a list of possible locations with a combination of locations and numbers. The location closest to the main gate that Chabashira had mentioned was labeled as “Main Gate 1” and the cost of the location was 10,000 points. If the location is far from the main gate and difficult for guests to get to, it becomes a free location. The budget without taking the additional funds into account was about 200,000. In that sense, 10,000 points was not cheap at all.

However, there was no doubt that this was a prime location expected to attract many visitors.

“It is quite possible that there will be conflicts with other classes and grades regarding the location of the stalls. However, only one class can use each location. In the event of a conflict, there will be a bidding war, and the class that offers the higher price to the school will win the right to use that space.”

In other words, if you are forced to use expensive points to secure a prime location, your budget for the event will be drastically reduced. We had about two months to figure out how to fight effectively with a limited budget.

“The school will not disclose what events each classes will be performing and where the stalls will be until the day of the festival. There will be no leaks of information from the school board, but be aware that you can’t plug the ears of the students. If information is leaked, you should expect to be dealt with mercilessly.”

Even if you come up with an ideal presentation, there is a risk that the other classes would either copy it or take countermeasures against it.

“During your planning process, there will be things that you will need. If there is something you need that you can’t get on the premises, you can apply for permission and get it from outside. As long as you stay within the terms of the rules, you are free to use the budget however you want.”

I guess we’ll be required to look into those certain aspects as well as other details.

“That is all for the explanation of the Cultural Festival and its rules. The specific preparations and set up period will begin after the sports festival is over, but you can begin discussing about it today and using your own time to decide what you lot want to do and how you will allocate the budget for it.”

The more time is devoted to the planning of the cultural festival, the more meticulous it will be.