Most of these 1,000 transactions occurred in Neranka, but the excitement about new products couldn't last forever. Ina needed to think about ways to increase the sales volume of the Silver Imperial Capital branch.
The business at the Silver Imperial Capital branch was not great, but not terrible either. A large portion of people who walked into the restaurant were put off by the decoration and left, but those who stayed mostly became regular customers.
When Ina shared this confusion with Lusen, he thought for a moment and nodded, "If it was my first time walking into the restaurant, I probably wouldn't dare to eat here either."
Lusen went to the entrance, pretending to be a customer who was visiting Dragonflame Restaurant for the first time. He pushed the door open, saying, "Clearly, I'm looking for a place to have dinner. So when I walk in, the first thing I see is — a strange-looking fish tank."
That was a restaurant decoration that Ina had drawn, a drift bottle fish tank, which was a transparent glass bottle over a meter high. The bottom of the bottle was covered with pink fine sand, a couple of pieces of coral, and a few seaweeds. The mouth of the bottle was tied with a beautiful blue ribbon, and inside it, ornamental fish that Ina had caught from the sea in Neranka was happily wagging their tails. System decorations were like this, magical. Even though the glass bottle looked completely airtight, it still somehow kept the sea fish alive.
"Having seen the fish tank, 'I' see what next? It should be the picture frame on the wall, a frame that changes pictures. At this point, 'I' should realize that the owner of this restaurant is a magic professional practitioner."
Lusen took a few more steps, "Perhaps 'I' would also notice the cleaning automaton, the serving robot bees, all signs indicating that this shop is much more bizarre than one can imagine. So, who am 'I'?" He explained to Ina, "Most likely a student from the Star Academy. There aren't many residents around here, and they don't often eat out."
"So, a magic academy student, seeing all these strange things, their first reaction would naturally be to leave. As a mage or a future mage, one of the lessons we are taught at the academy is that curiosity is good, but it needs to be in the right place. High-level professionals are often eccentric and unpredictable, and it's best to keep your distance when you encounter them. A few months ago, if it wasn't for my desperate situation in the mist Town, I would have run away when I first saw the Glow Stone."
Ina seemed to understand a bit more. The target customer group of the Imperial Capital branch was different from Mist Town and Neranka. It's true that the Star Academy always encourages students to travel, but their curiosity makes them want to understand everything they encounter, which increases their risk. Therefore, the academy teaches them from enrollment that if they encounter anything strange outside and there are no teachers or guards around, they should avoid it.
mist Town and Neranka, on the other hand, are different. The restaurant in Mist Town is a monopoly business. The mercenaries there would rather not cook unless absolutely necessary. They live dangerously and aren't concerned about a powerful mage potentially having any plots against them. Didn't you see Simon of the "Scavengers" squad? He had just seen Ina effortlessly stabbing a dagger into a stone wall, but he was still thinking about the boiled fish in the restaurant when he was in the Midnight Marsh.
Speaking of which, the Neranka branch wasn't all that ordinary either, with ever-blooming white roses on the table, the holographic menu applied to all the restaurants, and several of the mechanical bees also assigned there. Yet even sailors and workers dared to dine there. Why was that?
Ina thought for a while and felt there could be two reasons. First, information spread quickly among sailors and workers. They worked at the port and inevitably chatted while moving goods. If one person had a good sandwich, within a day, around fifty workers nearby would hear about it. Second, the workers dared to enter the Dragonflame Restaurant. Even if the food was expensive and served by strange-looking iron objects rather than people, if they went in and found they couldn't afford the food, they could just walk out!
The situation was different for the students of Star Academy. They were in a position where they were knowledgeable enough to recognize magic machinery, had been warned about the dangerous "outside" environment, and knew a high-level professional could make someone mysteriously disappear. Therefore, it was only natural that they would be a bit wary of Dragonflame Restaurant.
There was a way to solve this predicament: make the restaurant look more normal. But Ina was unwilling to do this. She didn't mind putting away the drift bottle fish tank, but if she didn't use the bee swarm for serving, she would have to hire two waiters; if she didn't use the cleaning automaton, she would have to hire a cleaner.
Most importantly, she had finally drawn a five-star reward— the automatic food-preparing mechanical bee swarm. Given the slim odds of the prize pool, she might not draw another five-star reward in a year or even longer. She had to use it. Why wouldn't she?
Fortunately, there were other ways. As long as she did a good job of promoting and letting everyone know that Dragonflame Restaurant wasn't a dangerous place, the students would naturally be attracted by the food they couldn't get elsewhere.
[You have triggered a random side quest 0-7: Attract More Customers.
Quest Reward: 10 Takeout Ordering Panels
Quest Progress: 0/100
Quest Requirements: Make a lasting impression on over 100 Star Academy students with Dragonflame Restaurant within one week.]
"Are there any big events in the school recently? Like a sports meet? A celebration party?" Ina asked Lusen.
Lusen was somewhat vague about the concept of a sports meet, but he guessed it was probably something similar to a party. "The biggest thing would probably be... the school opening ceremony?"
Star Academy did have the concept of "school opening," but the unfortunate thing was that "school opening" did not mean that they had just returned from a holiday. During the period they were not in class, they either, like Vila and Edith, completed their assessment tasks for advancing to the next grade or conducted research in the lab. The rest, like Lusen, had to go out and travel with their mentor. Even the pure combatants—who only learned magic and practiced mana—had to take this opportunity to meditate to make their mana more abundant.
In short, if you really want a vacation, you better give up the path of being a mage early!
This brought some comfort to Ina. The reason for her poor business was also because it wasn't the school opening period!
However, Star Academy's opening ceremony was vastly different from what Ina had imagined, with the principal's speech and the student representative's speech. It turned out to be a results presentation meeting. As well known as Star Academy's excellent faculty was its financial strain. Perhaps because they saw too many orphans like Lusen who received tuition-free education, this was how Ina understood it.
So most of the project funding for various professors came from external sponsorship. Merchants and nobles sponsored the funds, and of course, they did not do it for nothing. They would put forward some goals they hoped to achieve. Although half of this money would typically be diverted to the projects that the professors really wanted to research, they had to give some explanation to the generous sponsors.
Hence, there was this school opening ceremony. The participants included not only the sponsored merchants and nobles but also the sponsored professors and their students. The professors and students had to show the progress of the project and the efforts they had put in. If the sponsors found out they were being fooled, they might terminate the investment. On the contrary, if a professor performed well, he would receive more favor from the sponsors.
This was a bit like bidding. "Is Professor Derick also participating?" Ina asked.
"The professor is participating in a confidential project, and it will not be made public," Lusen answered.
This piqued Ina's curiosity: "Can you tell me about it? If it's not convenient, never mind."
Lusen didn't mind, Ina had no vested interest. And the reason this project was confidential was just to save some people's faces.
"It's about how to effectively deal with the vampire clan. High-ranking vampires have almost no weaknesses. They are not afraid of the sun, common toxins have no effect on them, they can recover quickly from injuries, and if all else fails, they can escape by transforming into bats, and they move so fast that no one can catch up. So we hope that Professor Derick can develop a potion that can cause damage to high-ranking vampires."
Upon hearing this, Ina was somewhat surprised: "Isn't the Silver Empire ruled by vampires? How can Professor Derick dare to undertake such a project?" She had recently also studied the political situation on the continent. The highest ruling body of the Silver Empire was the Senate, with six seats, three for vampires and three for humans. But when it comes to voting on disagreements, Duke Elvys of Neranka has two votes, so vampires are always the majority. Ina didn't know why there had to be a voting system.
Lusen lowered his voice: "This project is sponsored by Duke Elvys. Some things are complicated to explain, but in any case, the Duke is on the human side."
Interesting, Ina blinked.
Since the "school opening ceremony" was so important, a plan quietly formed in Ina's mind. She instructed Lusen: "If Principal Helena comes to the restaurant for a meal, be sure to let me know."