The Kansai Villain’s Rebirth: I Accidentally Ended Up With a Harem. - Chapter 42: A Kansai Kid Crunches the Numbers.

A Kansai Kid Crunches the Numbers.

“Hmmm…”

After serving takoyaki to the teachers, I sat staring at the class budget the class rep had given me.
I was running numbers in my head—ingredients, materials for the stall, everything we’d need. But no matter how I calculated it, the totals weren’t lining up.

If we run a takoyaki stall all day, how much do we need to sell? What should our revenue target be?

…At this rate, the budget’s not enough.

“Tennouji-kun, something wrong?”

“Yeah. I’ve been comparing the budget with our projected sales, and… we’re a bit short. It’s hard to see everything clearly just calculating in my head. Guess I’ll bring my laptop tomorrow.”

Handling big numbers in my head isn’t exactly my specialty. Time to rely on the blessings of modern civilization.

Apparently, the food stall with the highest sales gets an award and a cash prize.
The class could use it to go out for dinner together.
If that’s the case… might as well aim for the top.

If we’re doing this—we’re doing it right.

***

The next day after school, I stayed behind in the classroom and opened my laptop.

“Dai-chan, you brought your computer?”

“Yep. My laptop. I need to run some calculations.”

“Calculations? For what?”

“For our cultural festival budget and sales plan. How much we need to make—and how much we need to sell—to stay in the black.”

“???”

Ah. Shina-chan just froze. Trying to explain this verbally… yeah, impossible.

The class rep, Mio-san, and Rinoko-san gathered around as I began typing without paying much attention to their reactions.

“Okay, so the budget is… this much… And projected sales would be… maybe here? Our target would be… that? Hmm, breakeven point… doesn’t look good… Wait—if we adjust this… still in the red.”

I muttered to myself as I typed rapidly.
My classmates watched with their mouths half-open.
Guess it must’ve looked weird—me suddenly entering full calculator mode at top speed. Didn’t even notice until later.

“Dai-chan, you’re amazing…”

“His fingers are literally a blur…”

“What’s Tennouji doing now? Something crazy again?”

“Pretty much. With this budget, we’ll lose to the other classes. If we had just a bit more, we’d have a solid shot at taking first place.”

I explained the calculations to the class rep.
It wasn’t impossible to win with the current budget—but it was tough.
If we could increase the budget slightly, our chances would skyrocket.

“Hmm… even if I ask the festival committee now… I don’t know.”

“I’ll go talk to the committee and the supervising teacher myself. Talking alone won’t convince them, but if we bring this much detailed data, I think they’ll hear us out.”

“O-okay… then come with me. You’ll do the explaining. Actually… Tennouji-kun, what are you…?”

I wish I could just say “a former corporate slave”. That’d make everything easier.

Negotiation is one of my specialties— thanks to all the times my terrible boss forced me to go do sales visits even though I was an engineer. Now that I think back… I survived way too much at that company.

***

“So that’s our situation. Could you please consider increasing our budget just a little…?”

We stood in front of the supervising teacher and the festival committee chair for a direct negotiation. The class rep seemed terrified—probably because I suddenly stepped up to talk.

It’s not like I came here to threaten anyone… Being treated like I did was kinda depressing.

“Oh? Tennouji. You’re the one coming forward? That’s rare.”

“If we’re running a food stall, I want to aim for first place. That’s why I presented all these calculations. Sensei, Committee Chair, is there anything you can do?”

“To be honest, other classes have also requested budget increases. But they only said ‘we want more’ without any specifics, so we ignored it… But bringing concrete data like this… Sensei, what do you think?”

“Yes… Tennouji’s enthusiasm certainly comes across. I’ll bring this up at tomorrow’s faculty meeting. I can’t promise anything, but it’s worth a try. If it makes the festival better, it’s a worthwhile investment.”

“Sensei! Please—I’m counting on you!!”

I bowed deeply. If the budget increases, I can go all out.

I’ll grill takoyaki from morning till night, no complaints.

***

“Tennouji-kun, thank you. I hope the budget increase goes through. Are you really planning to cook everything by yourself?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry about me. Just leave it to me.”

“…Alright. Then we’ll do our best to advertise. Your takoyaki was delicious, after all!”

“I’m counting on you.”

The class rep immediately became our strongest ally, saying she’d promote our stall like crazy. We have to aim for first place now.

Three days later, the budget increase was approved. The class rep practically jumped with joy.

***

Since we were now allowed to put up posters, I figured it was time to make some POP designs. When I was about to start, a member of the art club came to get me.

“Tennouji-kun, do you have a minute?”

“Hm? Fushimi-kun, what’s up?”

“Kuzuha-san and I have been brainstorming ideas for the shop name and design. Could you take a look?”

“Oh, seriously?”

That’s amazing—and fast. Let’s see… “Takoyaki Stand — Dai-chan”?

There’s an illustrated octopus, and… what’s this, a mountain? And a five-storied pagoda?

“The octopus is… standing on a mountain?”

“Ah, well, ‘Dai-chan’ has several meanings. This mountain is Mt. Tennou, where the fate of the nation was once decided. And the pagoda represents Shitennouji in Osaka.”

Whoa… the setting is unexpectedly detailed. And it actually looks really cool for a takoyaki stand.

“I love it. This shop name—”

“The whole class helped think about it. Since you’re grilling everything yourself, we figured ‘Dai-chan’ fit perfectly. And from that, we worked out this design.”

“This is awesome. Can I borrow it tomorrow? I want to scan it into my laptop. We can use it for all kinds of stuff.”

“Huh? W-what are you planning?”

“I’ll scan it and make a giant POP board. One sheet of poster paper isn’t enough for this. If I enlarge it digitally, it’ll still come out clean.”

“Really!? So you’re gonna use it for real? That’s great, Kuzuha-san!”

“Yay! Tennouji-kun approved! Everyone! He says it’s good! And he’s okay with naming it Dai-chan!”

Everyone’s morale shot through the roof. This must have taken so much effort—I can’t let it go to waste.

Tomorrow I’ll bring a scanner.

This is starting to get fun.

***

“Tennouji-kun, you brought a lot of stuff today…”

“Yeah. I didn’t want Fushimi and Kuzuha’s work to go to waste. Mio-san, could you plug that in?”

“Sure. Done.”

“Thanks. Alright, let’s scan this… perfect. Now connect the printer… and print.”

Using nine sheets of A4 matte paper, I created a massive POP poster. Cut the borders, tape the pieces together—done.

“Wow, it’s huge! Amazing!”

“Whoa! This is great, Tennouji! With this, we’ll really stand out!”

“When you want attention, you gotta go big. It’s the best way.”

“Thank you for making use of our design!”

“No—thank you. This is incredible work. Super cool.”

“Fushimi and the others are amazing…”

“Leave the stall construction to us! We’ll make it look great!”

“A booth supervised by the art club, huh? Sounds like it’ll be top-tier.”

“We’ll help too!”

“I’ll also help however I can. Ah—the flour should arrive soon, so when it does, I’ll make another test batch.”

“Yay! Can’t wait! It was so good last time!”

“Leave it to me.”

And just like that, Class 2-C’s “Takoyaki Stand — Dai-chan” began its charge toward the cultural festival.