3rd Round (3)

Chapter 87: Episode 37 - 3rd Round (3)

"..."

"..."

"..."

Nobody responded and so, I could feel my spirits slightly diminish.

"I guess it looks bad on me, huh," I responded sadly.

Fraise shook her head to snap out of her thoughts and then a bright cheerful smile crept on her face.

"You look gorgeous! You'll definitely be grabbing customers by the second!" Fraise responded after a moment of silence.

"Yeah, it looks great on you!" Chocolat added in.

"The outfit fits you perfectly," Cafe said approvingly.

"I wish I was as beautiful as Miss Keiko," Caramel responded.

I chuckled at their remarks and took a glance at Andou, Hanabusa, and Kashino. For some strange reason, their eyes were glued onto me and their mouths were gaping wide open.

"Guys? Are you alright?" I asked them but they still didn't move or respond.

'What should I do? They're not moving—almost as if they're frozen. Did the spirits do that to them?'

SLAP! SLAP! SLAP!

All of a sudden, Chocolat, Caramel, and Cafe slapped their partners in the face to wake them up.

"All right, you guys can gawk at Keiko later but close your mouths, blink your eyes, and get ready because we have a competition to participate in!" Fraise said which snapped the sweets princes back into reality.

"WELCOME TO ST. MARIE ACADEMY'S HALLOWEEN FAIR!" After the intercom blasted, so did the people who came running through the gates.

'Here they come. Now it all comes down to whether who can sell the most… Please let us do good…'

"Let's do our best!" I said, trying to pump up my teammates.

It was already designated that I would be at the front, selling out pumpkin cakes to the customers. Hanabusa was assigned to persuade our people into coming into our shop. If we weren't gathering enough people, Hanabusa would recruit some people to purchase our dessert to spread the word while Andou and Kashino would be in the back of the booth, prepping the dessert and making sure that the ice cream on our dish doesn't melt.

Before the people entered, I was worried about countless things. I worried about whether people would really come to our shop, or even if people did, would we even sell enough to make it through to the next round? Not only that, but I even thought that maybe our dessert wouldn't be good to people's tastes no matter how much effort we put in and the feedback we got from our classmates. This train of thought really disturbed me but all I could do was brush it to the side and focus on the task at hand.

Once I stood at the front of our shop and the people were coming in through the gates, I could see countless people staring at me.

'W-why are they staring at me?'

I could feel anxiousness run through me, but all of a sudden, the crowd of people began running towards me and our pumpkin cake shop.

"This is her! Michiko Keiko!"

"We've watched your competitions in the previous rounds and came to support you!"

"Only 2nd years in middle school and you guys are already this far? You guys are amazing!"

"We're rooting for Team Michiko to win the Grand Prix!"

"She's as beautiful as everybody claims she is! Maybe even more than what I've heard!"

"The Sweets Princes are also really handsome and talented!"

"I heard that she was personally judged by Henri Lucas and amazed him with her extraordinary skills!"

"The Ice Princess looks beautiful today!"

"Your dishes have always looked amazing so I'm happy that I can finally try it here today!"

.

.

.

I had no idea what was going on. A crowd of people was forming outside of our booth and I didn't know how to respond.

'They came here… For us?'

I looked at the large crowd again as they stood at our shop, waiting for someone to introduce them to our dessert.

"Keiko, let's get a move on! We've got to sell these desserts fast before the ice cream melts!" Fraise whispered loudly in my ear, snapping me out of my thoughts. She sat on my shoulders but I wasn't worried about people seeing her since normal people can't see sweets spirits unless they form a contract or gather that sweet spirit's attention.

'Gee, now is not the time to be thinking about why a crowd has gathered here! Let's hurry and sell these off!'