So the day had finally come, when we had to go ahead and present the actual project.

I had spent quite a lot of time on it and I wanted it to look good. Even if it wasn't my own project and actually my younger brother's, we had to pull an all-nighter to get it ready. But it was in mostly workable condition at this point at last.

I thought it was good enough to present.

We arrived at the venue early on in the morning and there were other people who were still setting up their own exhibits and presentations.

At this point there was no crowd and the judges certainly had not arrived yet.

Before it all started, I decided to go take a walk around the area to see what the other people were presenting. One of them had made a miniature hydroelectric dam, which was supposed to work with smaller water flows such as with waterfalls. Their pitch was that they could perhaps make this near every waterfall in Japan though, from what I understood based on hydroelectric physics and the amount of energy that a waterfall, at least a normal one would have- this would not be feasible. It still looked like a cool idea though.

It still looked like a good idea though.

Another person was doing something with microbes, which I really didn't understand. Then there was someone who had invented a VR game entirely for cows, saying that it would engage them more and lead to higher milk production. I didn't even know how they would test that or if that would even be possible. But I had to say the competition looked fierce and I wasn't sure if we could make it. That said, even Shindo didn't want a prize. I don't think he was after that. He had just wanted to get away from his college and have our parents foot the bill, and he had wasted enough time with me that I was sure he was already more than satisfied. He just had to put on a token show to demonstrate that he had attempted to do something, that was all.

There was free breakfast for the presenters, so at least I could say that I had gotten something out of this whole ordeal.

The user by the name of SwordMaiden had not replied back yet. So I had nothing on that front but I hadn't really had high expectations that she would reply back for collaborating on anything as it was.

So, for now Raphtalia and I would continue streaming the normal stuff that we did and going onwards with the schedule as it was. The streams were certainly at least growing, but they were growing erratically. I'd expected this but still it was kind of jarring- sometimes we would see no growth for a few days and then a sudden spike a few days later.

At least we weren't on a downward trajectory. I wanted to avoid that at as much as possible, so overall, it was still good.

After breakfast an hour later the judges arrived. They were a bunch of university professors, and were going around seeing whatever everyone had to offer.

It was here at this point that presentation mattered and when it came to presentation, I was going to leave all things up to Shindo. He was far better at making things sound better than they were and quite honestly, if he hadn't gone into engineering, I think he would have made an excellent salesman or marketing expert.

At least his presentation was far better than mine. I was far more concerned with the practicality of something rather than making it look good. But hey, I could see where you would need those sorts of skills. For example, when people complimented my cooking, like I've said before I needed to make it look better, not just taste good.

Shindo couldn't do that as of yet, but I'm sure with practice he could.

As I was content to let Shindo do most of the talking, while I enjoyed the free food and tried to relax. There were times when he didn't know the answer to something, which I would have to help him out with, but really, he should have been studying harder considering this was his project. Or at least this was supposed to be his project, and I was just a law student- he was supposed to be the engineer.

At this point, the general public had started to arrive to look at the various exhibitions

Aside from the judges who would judge based on merit there was also a prize for the most popular exhibit as well. This was to be made by the general public, and at least on this front, I felt like Shindo might have a chance though he probably wouldn't on the other categories.

Especially given the fact that we had some people who would be helping us.

"Hello Mr. Noafumi," Melty said when she saw her our booth. Eclair was traliling behind her and she had another bodyguard whom I had not seen before.

"Hime-sama, glad you could come!" Shindo said.

"Ah, it was nothing," she said.

I had no idea why she had bothered to show up to this kind of place. I mean, it was fine that she was trying to support my younger brother, but I didn't really think she was that much of a fan of him in the first place, at least, not to the extent that she would go out of her way to come here.

"Hey there Melty," I said to her. "This is our exhibit. Shindo, go on and show us how it works."

Using the makeshift bicycle, we had made to try to light up a light bulb that was all it could really do at this point, but it was also capable of charging, a small chargeable battery to some extent.

The only issue was that you would have to bike for about 18 hours for it to fill up, which as you can imagine, not many people would want to do.

"So, this is what you wanted, the parts for?" Eclair asked.

"Yes, indeed," I told her.

I then took a look at Melty.

"So where's your little friend?"

"Eh, what are you talking about?" Melty said, trying to look dumb but failing at it. No matter how hard she tried to be appear pristine, I could see right through her.

"Oh, I know why you bothered coming here in the first place," I told her. "You came here because your parents would allow you to go to some sort of educational conference for the day, but they wouldn't let you wander off for absolutely no reason. Is that correct? And what better place than this to ask Filo for a playdate?"

Melty huffed and looked away, clearly angry that I had seen right through her, but guess what? It looks like Raphtalia wasn't the only one with mind reading powers around here.

"I'm right though, aren't I?"

"Yes," she said, finally admitting it.

"So where is Filo?" I imagined that large swathes of chaos and destruction would herald her arrival, and there was none of that yet, so I figured that she hadn't arrived yet.

"Stop thinking mean things about Magical Girl Kiiroi!" Melty yelled.