Part-1 Ch-07 Ep-03

 As soon as my short break ended and I returned to the classroom, I was immediately stripped of my clothes and forced into the costume change.

When I asked where on earth they had gotten the outfit, I was told the handicrafts club had taken charge of the costumes and stayed up all night making them. 

A perfectly tailored suit in white as the base color, embellished with gold-thread embroidery in several places. My hair was slicked straight back, and my eyebrows had been subtly thickened with makeup.

I personally thought I looked fairly decent, but did this really make me look like a prince?

“I’m… about to get a nosebleed…”

My childhood friend standing right in front of me had completely transformed into a terminal otaku. Ignoring her reaction, I turned to the classmates around me. “How is it? Do I look like a prince?” I even did a small spin on the spot.

“Perfect! Customers are already peeking in from the hallway. You’ll be the perfect customer-attracting panda!”

The class rep pointed enthusiastically toward the corridor, practically snorting with excitement. Sure enough, students were peering in through the doors and windows here and there. But calling me a customer-attracting panda was going too far, wasn’t it?

At least try to sugarcoat it a little.

“Now then, you’re going to work hard for us. Both the maid outfits and this costume took up a fair chunk of the budget.”

“Yes…”

I answered, overwhelmed by the class rep’s intensity. Well, I was the one who agreed to all this in the first place, so I might as well put in the effort. Maybe rumors had spread that there was a strange person dressed as a prince mixed in among the maids.

The number of customers increased far more than I had expected, and sales were climbing rapidly. Mostly thanks to the huge influx of female customers.

What I was doing felt less like “prince” and more like “butler in a prince’s costume,” though.

For the record, my face is neither particularly masculine nor androgynous. If anything, I look more like a background character, so my features are not especially striking.

Even so, the reason the foot traffic was so good was probably because I had indeed become a rare-sight customer-attracting panda. Some girls even approached me to report, “Um, I joined the fan club the other day…”

That fan club pops up every now and then. I have no idea how many members there are now. I should ask Seishuku-san again later. Throughout it all, Maki kept glancing over at me while waiting on customers.

I never thought she was the dreamy type, but maybe she has a thing for fairytale princes. Or maybe there’s a scene like this in the yuri manga she’s currently reading.

Because of that, even when it was finally her turn for a break, Maki refused to leave the classroom and simply continued staring at me. Perhaps unable to bear it any longer, the class rep finally spoke to the two of us.

“Here.”

What she handed over was a massive placard she had made herself.

“Maid Café Open Now ♡ in Classroom 1-A”

“Uh, what is this?”

“You two go walk around outside and advertise. You can take your break at the same time. With that outfit, just walking around will make you stand out.”

She ended with “I’m counting on you,” and promptly shoved us into the hallway.

Only after the classroom door clicked shut did I realize that the “we’ll make time later” she mentioned earlier had meant this. In the end, I really am nothing more than a customer-attracting panda. I slumped my shoulders.

If it were just inside the classroom, it would be manageable, but once I was thrown out into the corridor crowded with students from other schools as well, the embarrassment washed over me all at once.

I am supposed to be a side character, you know.

Complaining would do nothing, so I resigned myself to it and began walking around the school with Maki, the two of us holding the placard. Maki seemed to be in unusually high spirits.

“How about we link arms or hold hands for a bit? It might help with advertising.”

I politely declined. Strange rumors would only cause trouble. I felt bad for Maki.

“…”

“Huh? Why did you suddenly get so grumpy?”

Isn’t this maid a little too emotionally unstable?

At any rate, when we reached the courtyard, we decided to sit and rest for a while, and it was decided that I would go buy drinks.

I lost at rock-paper-scissors.

So there I was, reluctantly selecting drinks at the vending machine while still dressed as a prince, having completely forgotten one crucial detail at that moment.

That even during this cultural festival, there was supposed to be an encounter event between a capture target and the heroine.