Volume 1 - CH 3.1

Part 1

The next morning (Tuesday), the cast members found a big notice pasted at the staff entrance.

There were 3 main points written:

• Business will be suspended today.

• The cast is to work on the repair and cleanup of their respective stations.

• This suspension shall be effective until visible improvements are seen.

At the bottom of the paper there was the signature of Kanie Seiya, the current acting manager, together with a counter-signature by Latifa Fleuranza.

When Seiya mentioned “the cast”, he was not only referring to the performers, but those in charge of the operations, training, the running of food and ticketing stalls, and the security officers. In essence, everyone working at the park, regardless of whether they came from Maple Land or not, was involved.

“What’s the meaning of this, fumo!?” shouted Moffle, who had just arrived for work, when he saw the notice. He turned around to face the security officer.

“Ookuro-san! Ookuro-san! Who’s responsible for this prank!? There’ll be more trouble if we don’t catch the culprit!”

The officer, who was busy spending his morning shift cleaning up the guardroom, said, “Oh hey, Moffle-san. It’s not a prank; Isuzu and the acting manager came to paste it up this morning.”

“Acting…manager? You mean that kid, fumo.”

“Yeah. He told me to clean the guardroom until it sparkles, and if I slack off he’ll close the security center. Well, anyway, I’m free so I’ll do it properly.”

“Where’s he now, fumo?”

“I believe he’s making his rounds around the park. Give me a sec: he just entered your sweet house 3 minutes ago,” Ookuro said as he searched through the ID card usage log.

“Mofu……!”

Moffle dashed towards the place. He crossed paths with several familiar faces along the way, but did not have time to greet them.

He got on the underground electric cart and started it up, but the speed of the cart was no faster than a crawl. Realizing he’d get there faster on foot, Moffle hopped out and made a run for it. He arrived at Sorcerer’s Hill shortly and entered his everyday workplace, ‘Moffle’s Sweet House’.

Kanie Seiya was at the entrance hall of the sweet house, alone. He was running his fingers along the decorations by the wall.

“What are you doing, fumo!?”

Despite Moffle’s shouting, Seiya did not flinch one bit and calmly turned around.

“Didn’t think you’d come on time.”

“Listen, kid. This is my place, fumo. Don’t just go around touching things around here.”

“I didn’t notice this last Sunday, but the decorations here are quite something. This certainly doesn’t seem like anything that could have been done by the people here. I’d always thought these were made from urethane, but I guess I was wrong. Wait, could this actually be a sculpture?”

“Get out of here, fumo!”

Before Moffle could rush and grab hold of him, Seiya stepped away from the wall and began to pace around the entrance hall.

“I formally accepted Latifa’s offer to be the acting manager of the park yesterday. Shouldn’t I have the freedom to go wherever I want here?”

“And so you chose to come and annoy me, fumo?”

“I’m not that free. Creating miracles isn’t easy.”

“Don’t tell me you’re still going on about that, fumo?” Moffle asked while making piercing eye contact. Seiya shrugged with a grin on his face.

“Anyway, what’s up with that notice back there? You didn’t even inform anyone about this! Throughout Amaburi’s 29 years of history, nothing like this has ever happened!”

“Oh, you’re talking about that.”

Seiya raised his gaze above, and narrowed his eyelids at the bright rays from the sunlight.

“I’ve decided to start with the park’s appearance. This place is all dusty and has waste littered everywhere…absolutely atrocious. The park’s cleanup will take a day, at least.”

“That’s not it! The problem is that you didn’t give ample notice prior, fumo! How are you going to explain to the guests who took the time off to come here?”

Seiya gave a sullen expression.

“It’s a Tuesday. There shouldn’t be many guests coming anyway.”

“There’ll still be people coming! It’s basic respect for us to open our gates to welcome them, even if it’s just one guest, fumo!”

Apart from planned breaks, the cast of Amaburi had worked every day. It was an unspoken rule among businesses. The tradition had continued for 29 years, and breaking it now meant destroying the hard-earned trust they had forged with their guests.

This kid doesn’t get it. There are many businesses like beauty salons and pubs that only get Tuesdays off. Now these workers won’t be able to take their children here to play.

“There’s no need for us to show respect to people who are satisfied with coming to this damned place.”

“…How dare you!”

“But well, I get where you’re coming from. I’ve been inspecting your sweet house earlier—”

Seiya stopped in his tracks.

“—It doesn’t look like this place needs any major cleanup. I can tell you’ve been cleaning the area regularly.”

“?”

“In other words, you’ll be free after the morning meeting. The plaza in front of the main gate will be open, so go deal with the unfortunate guests.”

“What…fumo?”

“Go juggle some balls or dance or whatever. Let those guests have a good time and let them return home satisfied. That’ll be your task for today.”

Moffle was dumbfounded. There would at the very least be several dozens of guests at the plaza, with displeased ones in the mix as well. How would he go about dealing with them?

“Not too tough, is it? You’re a veteran, aren’t you?”

“Mofu…that’s…”

“Can’t do it?”

“Of course I can, fumo!” Moffle forced out a spur-of-the-moment answer.

“Splendid. I’ll send some guys over once they’re done with the cleaning. I’m counting on you.”