Work during the day and rest during the night.
A balance between work and leisure.
Ever heard of work-life balance?
It would be perfect if one could live such a life.
But sometimes, it’s inevitable to be busy enough to work both day and night.
That’s exactly the purpose of this club retreat.
Preparing plenty of ingredients even in the evenings.
The menus we had to develop anew due to the dwindling stock of 「Flavor Herbs」, such as 「Tteok-bokki」, 「Rabokki」, and 「Budae-jjigae」, turned out to be dishes requiring more time for ingredient preparation than expected.
If it were in a factory, one might not know about seasoning and ingredient handling from scratch to finish, but here in Ludens, I have to do everything myself.
Until now, I’ve been doing it alone.
But if I want to increase the amount of goods to be sold in the future, the help of others is essential.
Especially during the “Club Fair”, where many people will flock to taste our club’s dishes.
Some of them will become customers.
And some may become new workers… no, club members.
“In that sense, I will improve everyone’s cooking skills so that we can produce more goods. That’s the goal before this stay, before the club fair.”
It may not be easy to teach cooking, but with the “Skill Shop” I acquired in the club system, nothing is impossible.
Nymph Delegate Arnoy raised her hand, curious about my aspirations.
“…So, when is the courage test today?”
…Courage test?
Where did that come from in my explanation and conversation just now?
“There isn’t one.”
“That’s quite disappointing…”
Arnoy deflated at my firm answer.
Enio, who was listening to the conversation, also shook her head, saying, “That’s a letdown…”
Wait, why is there suddenly talk of a courage test?
As I was replaying the conversation in my mind, Arnoy said.
“This school is famous for having ghosts…! Yet, there’s no courage test during this stay… That’s like losing half of your school days!”
“Is that so?”
“It’s what Director Nike said…! This school holds terrifying secrets…! There are even things recognized as the Seven Wonders of Ludens…!”
Indeed.
From Arnoy’s peculiar rant, I could understand why the topic of a courage test came up.
It seems that while I was away approving the stay, the women had some discussion among themselves.
I had heard rumors about ghosts appearing in the school.
Passing through the corridors or parks in D&A, you would hear NPCs whispering, ‘Have you heard? Someone saw a ghost in the school…!’
But from my perspective, having achieved up to 87.5% of the achievement points, it seemed like a red herring.
It was just mentioned, never actually seen.
Despite spending days in the school warehouse, I never heard the laughter of ghosts.
━Squeak, squeak.
The rats were very active.
━Squeak, squeak!
Of course, with the wolf spiders blocking all the rats trying to get into the warehouse, it was pleasant to sleep these days.
Nike said.
“Victor! It’s been a while since we had a stay at the school! Why not have a courage test? Wouldn’t it be fun? Huh?”
It was almost the first time Nike had demanded something from me.
Does Nike enjoy such scary stories?
“By the way, Nike. You were the head of the Mokemoke Occult Club.”
“Uh, yeah. It got shut down because we didn’t have any members…”
And it was none other than Victor who shut it down.
While it wasn’t something I did, Nike seemed to have some lingering feelings about the occult, and everyone seemed subtly excited about this courage test, so I nodded.
“Fine. Let’s give it a try if it’s just for an hour. After all, you’re the head of this cooking club, Nike.”
* * *
The old school.
An old and abandoned building.
It wasn’t strange that students’ footsteps dwindled at night.
It felt eerie, as if ghosts might actually appear.
Of course, I wasn’t afraid of such things.
What I found truly scary was my bank balance.
But it seemed different for other students.
Tap, tap.
A bonfire started to burn in the old school building.
Enio shivered as she sat around it with a few others.
“I usually leave before it gets dark, so I didn’t know. It feels like a completely different world at night. Are we the only ones here?”
Teacher Domina, who had been skewering sausages on sticks and continuously roasting them, spoke up.
“Well, diligent students wouldn’t come to such a dangerous place at this hour, would they? But, these sausages are delicious. I thought they were just ordinary sausages, but the taste is different.”
Naturally, since I added seasoning and remade them, the taste would be different from those sold elsewhere.
The problem lies here.
“Domina, how many of those are you eating alone? It’s not a behavior befitting a diligent teacher to take away all the students’ food.”
“…W-well, when payday comes, I’ll treat everyone! Just for the next week…”
Domina, who was trying to justify herself in embarrassment, suddenly fell silent, as if a strange wind blew.
━━━━
A whooshing sound like passing through a thick pipe.
Domina, with narrow eyes, scanned her surroundings.
“Hey, didn’t that sound just now seem like a ghost?”
“It’s just the sound of the wind entering and exiting the old warehouses around here. There are many old warehouses in this area.”
Enio nodded in agreement with my conclusion.
“Victor’s right. There are lots of abandoned warehouses around here. Warehouses left untouched by anyone. Thinking about it now, it’s quite eerie.”
Then Nike asked.
“Do you know why these warehouses and the school building were abandoned? It seems a bit suspicious to simply say the facilities became outdated and the school moved to a new one.”
“Well…”
Enio shook her head as if she didn’t know.
It was Arnoy, who had been poking at the bonfire with a stick while playing, who opened her mouth to speak.
“This Arnoy knows…! When Arnoy was still an innocent first-year student… There were quite a few unsavory incidents that happened in this school…!”
“Unsavory incidents? Arnoy, what are you talking about?”
Nike showed interest.
It’s clear Nike enjoys such stories.
“It’s… the stories of students who suddenly started disappearing one day… Quite a large number of students went missing, so… eventually, they closed down this building and left it abandoned…!”
Such stories.
They existed even in D&A.
There were many veterans who speculated through this MacGuffin, but I even tried writing a few speculative stories based on my own imagination, but eventually gave up because there was no way to prove them.
“Even now, there are rumors that the missing students are scratching the walls somewhere, making sounds like crying echoing through the school…!”
That was one of the Seven Wonders associated with the school.
‘The Disappeared Students and Ghost Sounds’, was it?
The wind blew.
Perhaps because we had just talked about scary stories, everyone’s conversation abruptly ceased.
Were they scared?
Domina, showing some spirit, clapped her hands.
“…Well then. Shall we start eating dinner soon?”
She just wanted to eat dinner.
Thinking it couldn’t be helped, as I was about to put water in the pot…
“A g-g-ghost has appeared…!”
Arnoy began to shout as if frothing at the mouth, holding up a burning stick of firewood. As she pointed with her finger, I looked to see something floating in the haze.
It was even approaching us.
“If you talk about ghosts, the rumor is that the ghosts are listening…! This Arnoy, who hasn’t even graduated yet, doesn’t want to be caught by a ghost…!”
The dim, fuzzy thing approached closer.
Realizing its identity, I said lightly.
“Oh, it’s Victoria.”
“…Who else did you think it was?”
I had slightly hoped a real ghost would appear.
Anyway.
The identity of the dim, fuzzy thing was Victoria.
Her face, illuminated by the moonlight, looked particularly white, making her seem like a ghost or a spirit. As Nike approached Victoria, she sniffed.
“Miss Victoria, you smell good. Soap? No, it smells like perfume… No, it’s the scent of cosmetics! Miss Victoria, did you put on makeup?”
Right.
Did she put on makeup?
Considering Victoria, whose face was already as white as the full moon, had put on makeup, she wouldn’t look strange even if she appeared as just a floating face in the dark.
Victoria bluntly replied.
“I just applied some lotion my sister gave me because my skin was dry. There’s nothing special about it, okay? Anyone would use lotion, right?”
Did she get lotion from Flora?
For someone who applied lotion, she seemed oddly white.
It was bothering.
“Victoria, you don’t have to put on anything.”
It wouldn’t be good to be mistaken for a ghost of the old school, so it seemed best to erase it.
Whether she realized my intention or recognized her own mistake, Victoria seemed embarrassed and said, “If you say it that way, then maybe I should wipe it off…”
* * *
The only functioning bath facilities in the old school.
After dinner, we decided to lightly wash ourselves there.
As I was taking off my clothes, I heard a sound coming through the wall.
“Victoria, what amazing underwear…! The straps…uh-.”
“Shh, Mokemoke! Keep it down!”
Straps?
What straps?
“Makeup was just a deception, and this was the main event, Miss Victoria.”
“Enio, you need to be quiet too.”
“My, how scary. Teacher Domina, Miss Victoria is bothering me.”
With the old facilities, there was no soundproofing at all.
Thanks to that, the women’s chatter could be heard even in the men’s bath.
“Miss Victoria, what in the world did you eat to…”
“Even Arnoy is curious…! This is like an 8th grader… no, a 9th grader…!”
“M-Mokemoke, don’t just touch me!”
Splash. Splash.
“Bigger than Miss Enio.”
“…Mokemoke, have you ever touched Enio’s?”
“No, you can tell just by looking.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Mokemoke, you knew something, didn’t you?”
“…I’m starting to dislike you guys.”
It’s so noisy.
I decided to wait while they finished bathing.
“Victoria, your face isn’t as white as before.”
“Why, what, do you have a problem?”
“No, none. Now that we’ve eaten and bathed, let’s quickly finish that ‘Courage Test’ and teach everyone the ‘Basic Cooking’, the goal of today’s stay.”
We’re short on time.
It’s already eight o’clock.
“So, how do we do this ‘Courage Test’?”
I asked, and Nike, drying her pink hair by the bonfire, said.
“How about we go get something from the old school? There’s a science lab on the 4th floor of the old school. We just need to bring back something like a beaker or flask from there!”
“Simple and nice.”
It seemed like we could clean and use beakers or flasks for various purposes. Thinking about it, I couldn’t sit still.
“I’ll go first.”
But Teacher Domina stopped me.
“Wait, it seems dangerous to go alone. It’s better to move in pairs, two people per team. Since we have six people, three teams will go out.”
Two people per team?
“So, how will we divide the teams then?”
