Special

"Then, I'll have the shipments arrive by tomorrow morning. Tomorrow's the big day so we don't have much time to make more changes. If you don't think you can handle it, then let the organizer know."

"W-We got it!" The princesses bowed politely, "Thank you for your help!"

"Don't overextend yourselves." Roko called as he moved on.

The temperature of...wherever Memoria Auspice is located has been dropping, heralding the last few days of summer. And apparently it was school tradition to host a culture festival at this time. Students from all classes are tasked with preparing and hosting their own little event for people from all over the country to come and enjoy. Apparently, this was a particularly popular event as with so many princesses from different cultures muddled together the attractions were equally varied and attracted an appropriately varied audience from many countries. That said, since Roko wasn't actually a real student, he didn't have a class to work with and was mostly exempt from all the preparation everyone else was putting in for over a week. Until literally a few days ago where Zadkiel pulled him into her room and appointed him as event organizer for the festival's rehearsal day. Roko had some very choice words for this very sudden and unreasonable responsibility placed on him at the last moment but he begrudgingly agreed as he had nothing better to do.

Roko stumbled as a student ran into him, partially knocking into him as she continued to hurriedly rush past him.

"No running in the halls!" Roko called as he fixed his glasses.

After being exposed to the aged grave spider's venom for so long, Roko was put into the school infirmary for several days to monitor his conditions. But once the fatigue and nausea and numbness wore off, the only real lasting effect was a deterioration to his eyesight. He was assured that it should wear off eventually either by itself or with some medicine but he was given a pair of glasses to help compensate for the effects. Wearing glasses doesn't seem to have affected his spells either but Roko wasn't quite used to wearing them quite yet.

"So one extra shipment of carrots..." Roko muttered, "Some more maple syrup for class D-12. There's some cloths on sale in Galia for Class C-6 that they can use for their play. I need to figure out some sort of way to put an artificial river in class A-7's classroom. If I make a raised platform..."

Roko continued to mutter to himself as he looked over his notes and made his way to the next classroom until he felt a tug at his sleeve. When he stopped and looked up he saw a giant mascot bunny holding onto him.

"Can I help you?" Roko asked, confused.

"Roko..." A sad depressed voice came muffled behind the fake rabbit head. Even as the bunny began to pull off its head, Roko knew he recognized the voice.

"Corissa?" Roko said as Corissa's tearful face looked back at him in her strange animal costume, "What are you doing?"

"My class is doing a bunny girl maid cafe." Corissa sniffed, "But they're making me act as a mascot all day long."

"...And you want to be a maid?" Roko asked.

Corissa nodded.

"Do you know why they're doing this?"

Corissa shook her head.

"...Alright." Roko sighed, "I'll go speak to them. I can try to get someone to substitute for you for a bit. Or at least find out why they're making you wear a mascot costume all day."

"It's because she's too sexy."

"Excuse me?" Roko asked, bewildered.

"She's too sexy." The princess in charge of Corissa's class, Jasmine, just replied as if it was obvious, "If we put Corissa in a maid outfit, it will attract a ton of attention sure but it'll also attract a bunch of touchy feely people. Even if Corissa gets the brunt of the sexual harassment, there's still going to be an amount that spills over to the other girls and that's an issue we can easily avoid by putting Corissa on advertisement."

Roko stared at the princess, not sure if she was being serious or was just playing a joke. Or maybe she was just being spiteful towards Corissa?

"And you're sure this is going to happen?" Roko frowned.

"Happens all the time." Jasmine smirked, "Whenever we have some sort of open invite event, Corissa attracts a crowd and that crowd starts to think they can do anything they want. Trust me, I'm doing this for everyone's good."

Roko turned to look at Corissa who just kinda stood there, depressed in her rabbit costume. She didn't seem surprised or trying to deny the accusations. Just sad as if its happened before. And Jasmine didn't seem vindictive. Roko sighed,

"I can get you a signboard. If you use that for advertisement, can I take Corissa?"

"Yeah sure." Jasmine shrugged, "If you can find somewhere else to put her, that's a load off my back."

"Alright." Roko sighed again, "Come on Corissa."

"Okay..." Corissa said as she began to follow Roko out of the classroom.

"Corissa!" Jasmine called.

"Hm?"

"Change." Jasmine jabbed her thumb at a part of the classroom that was sectioned off with portable walls.

"Oh!" Corissa yelped as she realized she was still in the mascot costume, "Right! Sorry Roko, I'll be right back."

"Take your time." Roko replied as Corissa ran off.

Not long afterwards, Roko was making his way down the hall with a Corissa in her uniform following him.

"Sorry for making you do this, Roko." Corissa sniffed, still depressed.

"It's fine." Roko replied, "I'm sure there's some class that can use your help. Hopefully we can find them while I'm doing the rounds."

"You're the event organizer right?" Corissa smiled, "I hear things are going smoother than expected thanks to you!"

"Only for today." Roko explained, "I barely had time to prepare anything."

"And yet you still took the job." Corissa giggled, "That's so like you."

"I wasn't doing anything anyway." Roko sighed, "Where's Varis by the way?"

"He's helping out with building the outside stalls." Corissa explained, "All the knights basically get used as manual labor around this time."

"I'd hate to be working out in the sun in that black armor all day."

"I've...never considered that." Corissa bit her lip.

"It's probably fine, he knows ice magic. Anyway, we're at our first stop."

Roko stopped in front of a class room that was decorated all over with black drapes and spooky trinkets and art. The student in charge was standing in front of the door, marked with a sign denoting the entrance.

"Hey." Roko called out as he walked up to her, "You need any help?"

"Ah, Roko." The student, Anna, looked up from her clipboard, "Right on time! We were getting antsy."

"Well there were some complications." Roko sighed.

"Is that Corissa? What's she doing here?" Anna blinked.

"Don't mind her. Just think of her as my assistant."

"Right." Anna shrugged, "Anyway, as you can see, my class is doing a haunted house. We've got mostly everything prepared. We were hoping you could help us do a trial run."

"So you just need me to walk through it?" Roko asked, "I'm not exactly easy to scare."

"Don't worry about it, it's just a rehearsal." Anna grinned, "Corissa can come with you."

"Alright then." Roko shrugged.

"Great! That'll be 10 gold!"

"You're...charging an entrance fee?" Roko said, confused.

"Yep." Anna held out her hand expectantly, "It's just a tiny fee, no big deal. We're allowed to make a profit on the side if we want."

"But this is a rehearsal."

"Yeah but we're still putting in work." Anna explained, "I have to pay my workers."

"...Alright..." Roko sighed as he reached for his wallet.

"That's 10 per person."

"I'll cover it." Corissa chuckled awkwardly as she pulled out her purse.

With their entrance fee paid, Anna bid them a farewell before heading to the exit on the other side to wait for them. Roko and Corissa stepped inside the sufficiently dark and shadowy classroom. Panels draped with black cloth sectioned off the classroom and directed the path they were to go down.

"There's hardly any decorations." Roko noted, "Not one for ambiance I see."

"Maybe they ran out of money?" Corissa said.

"Every student here is a princess, they have plenty of money."

"Well just because we have the money doesn't mean we want to use it all the time. Maybe they put themselves on a budget."

"If they're on a budget, they're going to need more money if all they can afford is some cheap Halloween decoration." Roko scoffed as he touched a small cartoon skeleton decoration.

"M-Maybe they put all their efforts in the costumes." Corissa laughed nervously, "Let's just give it a try."

"Fine." Roko sighed as they began walking into the attraction.

As they stepped closer into the classroom, the lighting grew dimmer and creepy ambient sounds began to play in the background. Though the classroom lights were still visible on the ceiling above a thin black drape and the sounds that were meant to be ambient including the loud cartoonish cackling of a witch and some dramatic organs playing.

"Are there stock Halloween sounds on sale in this world?" Roko muttered.

"L-Let's give them a chance..." Corissa said, her optimism wavering.

All of a sudden, one of the drapes burst open and a ghost of...decent quality lunged out at them.

"WHOAAAOAOAOOO!!!" The ghost said as it waved its arms at them.

"Eek!" Corissa playfully grabbed onto Roko's arm, clinging to him despite clearly not being scared.

Roko stared the ghost in the eyes who just kinda waved their arms awkwardly.

"This haunted house needs a lot of work." Roko muttered as he wrote on his clipboard.

"Aw come on, it's not that bad." Corissa smiled.

"They're forcing you to pay 10 gold as an entrance fee, it better instill some sort of dread."

"Well, I'm sure they still have something up their sleeve!" Corissa said, "Go on! Show him, Mr. Ghost!"

"OoOoOo..." The ghost continued to bob up and down, "Sponsored by Nord PNG."

"I'm sorry, what?" Roko looked up.

"The internet is a scary place but with Nord PNG, you can-"

"Alright, we're moving on." Roko frowned as he and Corissa moved past the ghost.

As they rounded the corner, a zombie burst out from the curtains again, swiping gently at them from the shadow.

"Oh! Hello, Merida." Corissa waved at the girl in make-up, "Nice costume!"

Merida gave her a thumbs up.

"It's still a bit too cartoony." Roko frowned, "You could use better make-up."

"It's not that bad!" Corissa cried, "You don't have to be such a harsh critic, Roko!"

"That is literally my job."

"At least they're not trying to advertise something this time!"

"Uoooah..." Merida moaned, "The shadows are full of danger, heroes. But great treasure lies beyond the danger. For that reason you must RAID the SHADOWS, LEGENDS."

Roko and Corissa just stared at the zombie.

"...Sponsored by Baecon earbuds."

"Let's just get out of here." Roko scowled.

Roko and Corissa began to move as fast as they could through the haunted house as more Halloween monsters burst from the walls.

"Get a free audio book at Audtable!"

"Prevent hair growth with Seeps!"

"Get a full meal with Blue Acorn!"

"Learn new things with Pillshare!"

"Find hot single milfs in your area!"

In little time, Roko and Corissa reached the end of the haunted house where Anna was counting the money she made.

"Oh. Hey guys." Anna looked up with a sly smile on her face, "How was it?"

"It was terrifying." Roko scowled, "In an entirely different way."

"Well, seems like it was effective then."

"Why are you putting adverts in your haunted house attraction?"

"For that sweet ad revenue obviously." Anna rubbed the tips of her fingers, "We've got to have money."

"But you're already forcing an entrance fee."

"And you got what you paid for didn't you?"

"I paid for ads?"

"You paid for the sense of fear, dread and anxiety. And that's what we gave you."

"Why do you even need the money?"

"Why do you need to breathe?"

"..."

"..."

Roko sighed, "Then I guess you don't need my input then."

"Are they for free?"

"The advice is free, yes." Roko replied, "And yes, the resources will be covered by the school as well."

"Aw sweet! Let's hear it."

"Before I do anything, I will tell you right now that if we find that you've been misappropriating funds, you will be banned from the culture festival."

"Aw, you don't need to worry about that." Anna grinned, "I'm a business woman, I know when to stick to a good deal."

"Hmhmm..." Roko narrowed his eyes.

"What, don't trust me?" Anna raised an eyebrow, "Don't forget that I'm a princess too and it wouldn't look good for me or my country if I went back on a deal."

Corissa looked at Anna, unconvinced.

"I'm a trust fund, baby. You can trust me."

"Alright." Roko sighed, "Let's just get this over with."

After finishing with Anna, Roko seemed much more exhausted. Anna turned out to be surprisingly ambitious when given a bigger budget for free. So much so that Roko had a hard time keeping her in check while she demanded pyrotechnics and stage floats. They had a long argument about keeping their haunted house in their own classroom versus setting up another booth on the campus. In the end, Roko managed to convince them to stay in the classroom as the heightened production value would just make people more angry that they were getting ads which Anna refused to remove. Contractual obligations she said.

"How does the school find money for this?" Roko grumbled as he double checked the list of stuff that were to be delivered to Anna by the end of the day.

"Well we are all royalty." Corissa giggled softly as they walked through the school.

"I need to check up on G-9 next." Roko muttered to himself, "They still need a lot of stuff for the play they're putting on. Maybe we can use some of that for this stupid haunted house."

Corissa watched anxiously as Roko stress over his clipboard for a while before speaking up, "A-Are you hungry? We could do a check on the food stalls next."

"Hungry?" Roko looked up, "...Yeah I guess it's about time for lunch now isn't it?"

"We can test the cuisine everybody is preparing and report their progress as well!" Corissa smiled, "We could use some air as well."

"...Alright." Roko said as he changed direction, "No point in working on an empty stomach."

Roko and Corissa stepped out into the central courtyard, where stalls were being constructed. Some of them were just tents and some were being constructed fresh from wood. Most of the knights were concentrated here, helping build and move material all around the courtyard. Only about half a dozen of them seemed complete enough to do any business.

"This is pretty sluggish." Roko frowned, "I'm going to need to speak with each of the stall owners."

"Oh no." Corissa sighed, "Let's just grab some lunch first, okay?"

"I got it, I got it." Roko said as he walked into the courtyard.

Like Roko had said only a few stands seemed to be finished but even less of those stalls seemed to be manned or equipped to make any food. For a moment, Corissa was worried there wasn't even any food to be found here when a voice called out to them, "OI! Rissa! Roko!"

The two turned to one of the stands where Helena was waving at them with a grin.

"Funny seeing you two together." Helena smirked as they walked up to her stand, "What are you two on a date?"

"I'm just relocating her." Roko replied as Corissa blushed and looked away, "Her class wasn't really using her."

"The old bunny cafe?" Helena said, "Yeah, I can see why."

"What are you building here?" Corissa asked.

"This? This is a ramen stand!" Helena puffed up her chest proudly, "We had to make something for the festival but everyone in my class wanted to play around instead so we settled on an easy food stall so only a few of us need to work in shifts. I'm taking first shift so I get the afternoon to myself but that also means I'm in charge of construction."

"Do you have everything you need?" Roko asked as he looked over the equipment.

"Pretty much." Helena said as she lit up a burner under a pot, "We even got food and broth all ready for tomorrow. You want a taste?"

"Yes please!" Corissa grinned.

"Alright! Oi, Roland! Table for two."

"Yeah yeah, I got it." Roland walked into the tent from the back, looking pretty fatigued until he saw Roko and Corissa standing there, "What the hell are you two doing together?! Is this a date?!"

"They are friends you know, they can just hang out." Helena frowned, "Anyway, bring out a table and two chairs okay?"

"You're cooking already? Can I get one?"

"Sure but the table's only really big enough for two people."

"Alright so me and Corissa-"

"These two are getting a table. You're getting a chair."

"Oh come on!"

"Do you want to do more work?"

"...I'll get the table." Roland muttered.

Roland brought out a folding table and chairs, letting Corissa and Roko sit down where they waited until Helena walked over with two bowls of ramen and set them in front of them.

"Here's your order! Two miso ramen!" Helena grinned proudly.

"It looks so good!" Corissa said, salivating at the dish in front of her.

"Tastes good too, I promise you."

"You made this?" Roko asked as the two began to eat.

"Well, I put all the ingredients together. Snow was the one who put together the broth. We've got a bunch more flavors in store but miso is all we got right now."

"It's delishush!" Corissa hummed as she ate her noodles.

"I told you so." Helena grinned smugly, "Anyway, what's this about relocating Corissa?"

"Corissa was unhappy with her position in her class so we're looking for something else for her to do." Roko explained.

"What was she doing?"

"Mascot advertisement."

"Hm, that's pretty boring." Helena nodded, "What classes have you visited then?"

"We just finished up checking up on Anna's class." Corissa explained.

"Oh, they're doing a haunted house right? How was it?"

"It was...certainly something." Corissa said, glancing over the apprehensive Roko.

"Is that right?" Helena said noting Roko's reaction, "Maybe I should give it a look once it's festival day."

"Do what you want." Roko replied, "Speaking of, what do you think Corissa? Do you want to work at that haunted house?"

"Ehehe. It seems fun but I think I have too much dignity to work there." Corissa laughed softly.

"Dignity?" Helena raised an eyebrow, "What does that mean?"

"You'll find out when you go there." Roko said as he finished his ramen.

"Well now I have to go." Helena smiled, "Then what about here, Corissa? Feel like making some ramen with me?"

"That sounds fun!" Corissa grinned, "I love cooking!"

"We can always use another hand!" Helena said enthusiastically, "You could wait tables!"

"That just brings up the same issues as the maid cafe." Roko said as he sipped the broth, "If you think you can handle all the attention Corissa apparently brings, then go ahead. Even so, I don't know if you want Corissa and Roland in the same stall together."

"Wow, yeah." Helena frowned, "Those are some serious points."

"You guys talking about me?!" Roland called from his chair.

"No! Keep eating!" Helena cried back before turning back to them, "Well, good luck with that I guess. I'm sure you can find something for Corissa to do. She's a competent one."

"I'm sure she is." Roko said as Helena patted Corissa on the head, "At any rate, is this how you're planning on serving ramen?"

"Yeah." Helena blinked, "Something wrong with it?"

"No, it's just that having porcelain bowls doesn't allow people to carry them as they travel."

"I mean, there's nothing I can do about that." Helena shrugged, "Unless...do you have an idea?"

"If we get some disposable paper bowls made, you can offer smaller portioned but carry able ramen."

"Wait, really?!" Helena cried, "We can do that?!"

"I think I know where I can get something like that." Roko nodded, "The extra supply for a product like this can easily be supplemented. What do you think?"

"What do I think? I think I love you, let's do it!" Helena cried, "I feel sorry for Snow who has to make more broth now but I'm sure she's okay with it."

Roland watched their conversation at a distance as he finished his ramen, "Psh. Show off."