Campione! - Volume 18 - Chapter 5.2

Part 2 

On a certain day during a three-day break in the middle January...  

Noontime, Kusanagi Godou was at a certain city's civic square in the Saitama prefecture. This place was reachable by train in less than an hour from Nezu's Area 3 in the Bunkyou ward.  

Built along a river, the square was quite close to the train station. Its area was large enough to accommodate three simultaneous baseball matches.  

Today, the civic square was serving as the venue for a gathering of B-class food stalls.  

In addition, someone was accompanying Godou. Upon hearing that there was an event featuring a gathering of cheap food...  

"Japan's pedestrian food has so much variety. It would be nice to go there and sample some of it."  

This pompous statement was issued by Erica Blandelli.  

The lively venue was crowded with people and numerous rows of stalls. Godou and the blonde girl, a striking sight even amidst the massive crowds, went over to vicinity of the target stall.  

After gazing at that stall for a while, Erica slowly remarked:  

"Your family is truly special, Godou."  

"Huh, really? Compared to your family, we're just ordinary commoners. An ordinary family with nothing special."  

Erica's sudden comment caused Godou to blink.  

He never expected to hear something like that from a daughter of the House of Blandelli.  

With a Devil King Campione for an ancestor and a prestigious family in the world of magic, every generation of the Blandelli family had produced cadres in the [Copper Black Cross], one of Italy's top magic associations. A rich and powerful family, that was Erica's background.  

"On the other hand, I do feel that Japanese middle schoolers who grew up in ordinary families would not be running a stall in this sort of place, would they? Shizuka-san seems to be quite active."  

"Well, every family needs to make ends meet somehow."  

Following Erica's gaze, Godou replied.  

Since this was an event for nearby residents to buy food and enjoy a festival atmosphere, attendance was probably in the four-digit range. There was no comparing it to a local food festival gathering tens of thousands of people in a day.  

Even so, the stalls all over the venue were exceptionally busy. Within Erica and Godou's view, Shizuka's stall was over there—  

Lightly dressed in a long-sleeved t-shirt and an apron despite the winter season, the Kusanagi family's eldest and only daughter was facing a steel plate.  

She was in the middle of cooking a large amount of fried noodles. Frying noodles without neglecting to direct the people around her, she worked in a clean and decisive manner.  

Three employees were laboring as hard as they could at the stall. Godou recognized the little sister's friend, a petite girl. She had probably visited the Kusanagi residence before.  

The second employee was Asuka. She had agreed to help out at an hourly wage of 800 yen.  

The last employee was a young man, twenty years old or so. That head of dyed hair—or rather, orange hair resulting from a self-bleaching failure—was truly quite conspicuous.  

"Who is the guy who's clearly the oldest but getting ordered around by Shizukasan?"  

"Someone Shizuka borrowed from a business opened by one of our distant relatives. This kind of stall requires an adult to be in charge of hygiene."  

"What kind of business?"  

"Well, it's a business that works mainly in catering... Currently."  

"Is that so? The way I see it, he looks more like a yakuza flunkie."  

"......"  

As a side note, ten-odd years ago, before this business became legalized, it was a so-called "tekiya" stall whose predecessor was a small local yakuza group.  Even now, many of the staff and part-timers included "rebellious youths."  

As an additional note, this business was left behind by the distant relative who had taught Godou how to gamble in the past.  

The Kusanagi siblings had often helped out with the business, thus earning sizable "tips." Thanks to that, the siblings had also acquired a fair amount of respect in these circles.  

Due to her inborn big-sister personality, Shizuka gained the recognition of the current proprietor, a former employee, and was even granted the authority to command junior staff "on site." No, it would be more apt to say that she had claimed such authority for herself spontaneously.  

"No matter what, as long as business is bustling, it's all good."  

Godou muttered.  

Although the lunch hour had already passed, there were still many people at the venue. There was also a long lineup in front of Shizuka's stall. Aiming to make a killing at a local event, the younger sister had chosen fried noodles, a costeffective type of food.  

Adding beef and sweet miso sauce for seasoning was apparently her means to victory.  

In fact, the aroma of miso and frying was quite fragrant, definitely appetizing.  

"But Godou, is it that easy to set up shop in this kind of event?"  

Looking around, Erica asked. She was most likely searching for the "rare food" she preferred.  

"I feel that there would be eligibility issues and all kinds of troublesome procedures."  

"That's very sharp of you. Well, there are all kinds of conditions such as only permitting local residents of the city to set up shop. This time, we happened to be lucky."  

"Lucky?"  

"Yeah. A certain participating organization suddenly cancelled. Also, my mother has many acquaintances in this city's business promotion association. Even the city councilor is my mother's drinking buddy."  

"......"  

"That's why things were settled within an hour just by giving my mother a bottle of wine."  

"Then Godou, you supplied the capital to set up shop here?"  

"Not just me, but my father too. Although he's a middle-aged delinquent, he dotes on his daughter. Then there are the savings of Shizuka herself and her friend's. They're all good kids who always save up their New Year money. Afterwards, we'll divide up profits proportional to each person's share of capital."  

"So from planning to execution, all this preparation only took a week to complete...?"  

Knowing the gist of things, Erica remarked with slight surprise.  

"In any case, there is one indisputable point. Even judging from the standards of the Blandelli family, Godou's family and relatives are evidently not ordinary at all."  

"Hey hey..."  

Godou never expected to hear something like that from a family whose daily life involved stuff like knights, magic and gods.  

Due to the various complicated situations of his mother, father, and others in the clan, Godou could grudgingly accept a comment of "not ordinary" from Asuka.  

However, he did not want to hear the same from someone like Erica. It was uncertain whether she understood Godou's feelings on this matter, but the Italian girl continued:  

"I fully agree that starting your own business instead of working for someone would be the most efficient way to earn high profits. However, I don't think this is a notion that belongs to an ordinary Japanese student."  

Erica shrugged.  

"I never heard anyone in class talking about investments or entrepreneurship. At most, they only mention part-time jobs at various shops, right?"  

"I-I can't believe I'm hearing you talk about what's 'ordinary' for students, Erica..."  

Always doing as she pleased, the free-spirited girl was talking about common sense.  

Godou was surprised by this. Erica frowned too.  

"I suppose it cannot be helped, even though I have no right to say this. Godou, it's your fault, you know? Because you keep showing us words and actions counter to common sense."  

"......"  

Seeing Erica's look of righteous fury, Godou could not help but swallow his rebuttal down his throat.