In the student council room, three days had already passed since the homeroom teachers announced the cultural festival to every class.
Today, every student council member was present—because the questions submitted by the students had piled up into a small mountain, and they needed answers fast.
If the student council didn't resolve these uncertainties, then when the cultural festival day arrived, a lot of students would be going in blind, with no idea what they were allowed to do, what they weren't, and how things would actually work.
"Enough small talk. Let's start," Yukio said from the head seat.
He looked across the student council members, then glanced at Arisu Sakayanagi beside him. As the student council secretary, Sakayanagi was naturally in charge of the written submissions.
Sakayanagi nodded, pulled out a stack of questionnaires, and began in her calm, measured tone.
"First question: venue concerns."
"If it's a class project, they can decorate and operate within their own classroom. But what about clubs? Some clubs have activity rooms that are too small to accommodate visitors."
Yukio couldn't be bothered to micromanage these details. He'd basically dumped them on the student council to decide. Ryuuen looked equally uninterested—like he couldn't care less.
But Amasawa was the opposite. She was extremely hyped for the cultural festival.
"That's easy!" she said brightly. "Didn't Yukio-senpai rent out an entire school building for a day last summer by paying with private points?"
"So we just use that as precedent. Let clubs pay private points to temporarily rent spaces for a day—or several days, depending on scheduling. Like the gym, the field for booths, stuff like that."
"Mhm. That's a very good suggestion, Amasawa," Sakayanagi said, praising her while writing it down. At the same time, she subtly angled her gaze toward Yukio—confirming his intent.
Amasawa beamed and started twirling the ends of her twin tails like she'd just won an award.
Yukio, meanwhile, barely stifled a yawn. He couldn't summon energy for small stuff like this. Seeing no objections, he gave the final call with a lazy nod.
"Approved."
Sakayanagi slid the first sheet aside and moved on.
"Second question: whether whipped cream is allowed."
"Huh?" Amasawa blinked. "That's… a question? Who even asked that? If you want to use it, just use it—why are they asking permission?"
Sakayanagi answered patiently.
"It's normal for them to ask. The public health office has rules: for cultural festivals held by schools below university level, if food is sold, it must generally involve on-site heating and be clearly cooked."
Yukio, bored but helpful for once, translated it into blunt terms for Amasawa.
"Basically, ignore college for a second—middle and high school festivals have stricter safety expectations."
"So things like sashimi, canned fruit, and cream-based items usually don't show up at high school and middle school cultural festivals."
"On one hand, they can't guarantee parasite risks. On the other, they're worried students might not know enough to avoid fake or expired canned fruit, dairy products, that kind of thing."
Amasawa immediately deflated. In full view of the entire student council, she did a dramatic forward collapse and flopped onto the wide conference table like a dead fish.
"Ugh. That's so cruel…"
Yukio chuckled.
"Whatever. If it's up to us, we'll allow it."
"The girls in our class are always saying that rule can be 'bypassed'—canned fruit can be swapped out for jam."
"And if you buy 100% frozen whipped cream, that works too. Not a problem."
"Seriously?!" Amasawa snapped upright like someone rewound time. She looked at him like he'd just saved her life.
Yukio nodded firmly.
But it wasn't just Amasawa—Ichinose also lit up, drawing everyone's attention.
"That's actually perfect," Ichinose said quickly, leaning forward with excitement. "After Hoshinomiya-sensei explained the cultural festival to our class, everyone got really happy, and we ended up deciding to do a dessert shop."
"We were worried about the public health office rule, so we submitted that question. If we're allowed to do it, that's amazing… and please come visit our class during the festival!"
"I'm going, I'm going!" Amasawa instantly piled on, looking way too excited.
But Ichinose's slip made several student council members' eyes sharpen.
They already understood: this cultural festival was basically a special exam in disguise, like the sports festival. That meant preparation intel mattered.
No one knew what exact rules the school would announce. Everyone was still in the dark.
But if there was going to be ranking, it would almost certainly come down to something like sales revenue or net profit.
Which meant your class business mattered—how attractive it was, whether visitors would actually open their wallets, how well you designed the whole experience.
And now Ichinose had casually exposed her class's project.
Dessert shop, huh?
Anyone with the same idea was now thinking about changing plans—because a direct collision would split attention and money, dragging both sides down.
And anyone without the same idea was already thinking:
How do we sabotage a dessert shop?
After that, Sakayanagi went page by page through the rest of the questions. Most of the actual discussion came from the three energetic ones—Amasawa, Ichinose, and Kikyo Kushida—who eagerly bounced ideas back and forth.
Yukio and Sakayanagi chimed in occasionally to keep decisions practical and aligned with what students would actually want.
Ryuuen stayed totally disengaged.
Kiriyama sat there without saying a word, eyes distant, like he was already calculating how to crush the other third-year classes.
Horikita tried to speak up—but quickly realized she couldn't really join in.
Her past attitude had been so anti-festival that she'd never actually participated in one. She'd always thought it was a waste of time.
Even though she'd changed and wanted to be more involved now… she had no real experience, so she couldn't offer meaningful suggestions. All she could do was sit there, quietly frustrated, staring.
Yagami was even colder. It was obvious he still had lingering resentment from the last student council meeting, and he didn't join the discussion at all.
Eventually, after a long run of questions, Sakayanagi let out a small breath of relief. Only the final sheet remained.
"Last question: stage arrangements for club performances."
"Some clubs need to perform for large groups of visitors, so they want guidance on stage setup."
The moment Yukio heard "last," he finally perked up.
"Stage setup—lighting, sound system, everything—make it top-tier. Have the acting chairman pay for it."
He leaned back like he'd just solved world peace.
"Meeting over. Everyone off work—no, wait. Adjourned."
The rest of them couldn't help laughing, but they all approved it anyway.
After all… it wasn't coming out of their pockets.