[Sebastian]

It was hard to believe it had been a month already. And so many customers! He just knew this contest had been a brilliant idea – the competition had brought in more sales than any silly "Grand Opening" event ever would have on its own. And they were such good friends now! Well... most of them. Lesallia still came by once a week or so to brag about all the money she was supposedly making, but Sebastian preferred to think of her as a common enemy for them all to work together against. But anyway... he'd even managed to sell Fakir on walnuts!

"Are you ever going to sit down?" he asked Sebastian, reaching into the pouch to grab another nut. "You're making me... what's the word? Right. Teeth-grindingly agitated." Crunch.

"You know I can't do that, Fakir!" Sebastian exclaimed as he grabbed a handful for himself, popping them into his mouth in quick succession. "I've got the results in now, and I'm almost ready to announce the winner!"

"The grand prize being, I hope, a lifetime vacation to Sebastian-Doesn't-Live-Here."

"Nope, something even better! You see, I've been taking a cut out of all my sales and saving up for a prize, and... guess what!"

Fakir was really absent-minded sometimes, forgetting to answer people like that...

"Well, anyway, I bought a shop! A real shop with windows and everything!"

"Then get on with it already. I don't know how much longer I can wait to hear that I lost."

There he went again, that Fakir, always looking on the glum side. No wonder his sales were so low. Not that he'd ever asked for help, nope. Just complain, complain, complain. Not that he was wrong, this time.

But that wasn't really important right now. He'd triple-checked his math and was about ready to make the announcement. He just needed to check with his co-judges to make sure they were ready.

He found Sasan busy with a customer, pen in his mouth while he took her measurements for a Magus of the Stars ensemble.

"Hey, Sasan, did you get my numbers? How's everything look?"

Sebastian couldn't quite make out the Ascent's answer with the way he was mumbling, but it sure sounded like "Yep, you're the best, Sebastian." That sounded about right.

By the time he made it over to Kylesti's stand, she was already waiting for him with a pleasant smile on her face. "Indeed," she responded to his question. "I believe we're all ready now. Everyone gather round!"

And whether by coincidence or not, Lesallia, Virgil, and Katrine just happened to be strolling by at that moment.

"And what have we here," the white-haired woman asked as her group came near. "Ready to crown us the winners and get this over with?"

"We'll see about that," Ellysia countered as she arrived. "I've been getting tons of repeat customers thanks to my new marketing strategy."

"Oh, right!" Lesallia answered with feigned excitement. "I heard all about that. Free hair cuts? Really? Are you trying to lose this contest?"

Ellysia was about to say something back, at least judging by the way she got all tall and puffed-up all the sudden, but Fakir interrupted her as he set down the chair he'd carried over and promptly slumped in it. "All right, let's get this over with already."

"Yeah!" Sebastian said, hopping a little and holding his papers in the air. "Is everyone here?" It sure looked like it, including a bunch of customers who had come to watch, as well. "Okay, then! So, the contest parameters were for most items sold, in total. If we were counting by total Aurum earned, that would make... Lesallia the winner. She gets third place. Congratulations!"

He looked up to smile at her, but apparently she had something she needed to do, since she was stomping away in a hurry. Oh, well, he could give her her prize – part of his very own coin collection – later.

"In second place, winning the category of total overall sales, we have... Ellysia, thanks to her brilliant give-away special! She gets this awesome shop card loaded with over FIFTY THOUSAND AURUM to spend on upgrading her shop!"

She seemed to look simultaneously thrilled and disappointed by that. "I knew I should have charged 1 Aurum for those," she said with a smiling sigh.

"And finally, our grand prize winner and new owner of this fabulous store, in first place we have..." He took a moment to read over his notes, for dramatic effect; he knew very well who the winner was.

"Kaimid!" Sebastian might have nearly stumbled on his way down from his leap of excitement. "Who had the most overall sales for profit!"

Another sigh from Ellysia. "I just knew it."

Looking around in suprise, Kaimid stood up, seeming to address mostly Fakir. "Thanks to my squishy-squishy customers, I have prevailed and succceeded in defeating the other participants! Pizza party!" Sebastian wasn't sure where he'd been hiding all that confetti, but he certainly wasn't about to complain.

He threw his bag of walnuts in the air for good measure.

It landed on Fakir's head.