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

After school, most of my classmates stayed in the classroom, except for those who were going to club activities.

It was, of course, the first discussion for the cultural festival to be held in November.

There was probably a certain number of students who has had their own fair share of experiencing the cultural festival in their middle school years.

I didn’t have any particular information to share, so I decided to just listen in, as usual.

“First off, let’s make a quick, brief list of events that we can think of.”

Yousuke, who had gotten permission to use the classroom monitor, typed on his tablet.

“When you think of a cultural festival, the most common things are food, haunted houses, and the like.”

Food-related events, haunted houses, mazes, cafes, live music performances, plays, etc. One by one, the more obvious ones were added and listed.

“The event will be held from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. As for the food-relating events, we can expect that the adults who will be coming to this event will surely visit it. However, the competition in this area may be high……”

“It’s just a matter of budget, really. Compared to something like a haunted house or a maze, where the cost can be reduced once it’s built, it will inevitably be more expensive.”

Some of the music equipment can be rented out for a fee, but the number was limited, so it was first come, first serve. There was also the question of how many students were skilled enough to make a profit.

“We have 39 students in our class. That means that the budget we’re looking at is 195,000 points. To be honest, it’s not enough. We can’t easily decide to make food.”

“I have a suggestion, if you don’t mind.”

“I welcome your input, Horikita-san.”

“As Hirata-kun had said, the budget for the festival is limited. But no matter how much we discuss it on the table, there are still many things we don’t know. Suppose we were to open up a takoyaki stall. What ingredients, skills, and many other things are necessary? In that sense, I think we should bring our ideas to the entire class and test them repeatedly, even if we have to use private points.”

Many of the students nodded their heads in agreement at the suggestion.

Certainly, it was important to try out the things we would want to do, whether it was food-related or something else like a theatre performance per se.

Of course, there was the risk of paying for it out of our own pockets, but if it pays back in class points later on, it is easy to see it as a necessary upfront investment.

“But……ah, I don’t mean to speak ill of the current idea, but when it comes to cutting your own expenses, some people may be reluctant to do it, right?”

Matsush*ta feared that some of the students might leave the school to their own devices and not put any effort into the festival.

“That’s fine. There’s no need to waste time when it could be used for proposals and planning of the events we will be holding, but we can’t just ignore people who are trying their best to contribute

either. If you have an idea for an event that you think is a good idea, you should actively present it. And if the idea is adopted, how about paying the planner a reward?”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. There’s nothing wrong with rewarding people for their hard work.“

“We’ll work out the specifics later, but for example, if we get 100 class points from the festival, the whole class will get 390,000 private points per month. We’ll divide this by the number of people who planned it and give it to them as a reward. This way, there should be no complaints.”

If you were to organize five events, that would be 78,000 points per person. If there were too many people involved to divide the total, we can divide it by the total amount for two or three months.

This way, the students who were actively involved in the festival will benefit, and the students who cut corners would eventually benefit as well later on. More importantly, it would increase our class points, so it shouldn’t be rejected.

“Also, to avoid having our ideas stolen, keep the information to yourselves. And please be careful about what you say, whether at school, in the dorm, or at the Keyaki Mall.”

Thorough confidentiality. This was very important during the next two months we will be using to make preparations.

The discussion continued, and the first thing my classmates did was to present their own ideas to either Horikita or Yousuke.

Then, if the possibility of adoption arose, it was decided that we would conduct further discussions.