Chapter 40: Maid Cafe Experience
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 40: Maid Cafe Experience
After leaving the coin laundry, Sasha confidently took the lead. She followed a maid who was soliciting customers on the main street, and we arrived at a spacious maid cafe of about 2,100 square feet near Chuo-dori.
We opened the door of the cafe, which had a cutely decorated entrance, and stepped inside. Just as I'd only ever seen on TV or in pictures, employees in maid outfits greeted us with bright smiles.
"Welcome home, Master!"
"Oh. I've always wanted to hear that line."
"...."
It's been a little over two years since I possessed this body, but this was my first time coming to a maid cafe.
The same was true even when I looked back at Kim Yoo-Sung's memories from before I took over.
He was at an age where he was already highly sensitive to what others thought, so it seems a small-statured middle schooler like him didn't have the courage to enter a maid cafe alone.
Even when he happened to be in Akihabara, he probably just glanced at them from a distance.
To be honest, I was the same.
I had a sort of visceral aversion to this unfamiliar culture.
If it weren't for Sasha dragging me here, I might have gone my whole life without ever even thinking of coming.
As we stood at the entrance, looking around cluelessly, one of the maids who was clearing a table approached and asked me in a friendly voice.
"Master, have you visited our main branch before?"
Intimidated by the uniquely strange atmosphere of the maid cafe, I answered in an unconsciously tense voice.
"Ah, no."
"Then, before we serve you, I'll give you a brief explanation. The basic entrance fee for our Machi☆Asobi Maid Akihabara main branch is 800 yen. And when you order, one maid will be assigned exclusively to your table to attend to you, Master. The assigned maid can be random or requested. If you request a specific maid, there will be an additional fee. For your reference, touching the maids is strictly forbidden, as is taking photos inside the cafe. If you'd like to take a Polaroid picture with your assigned maid, please let the staff at the counter know."
The explanation came out like a machine gun, but her pronunciation was perfectly clear, not slurring a single word. It was obvious she'd given this speech more than once or twice.
After finishing her explanation, the black-haired maid guided us to a table by the window where the lighting was good.
"This is today's request list, and this is the menu. When you've decided on your order, please ring the bell on the table to call a maid. Please enjoy your time with us, Master."
Truly professional.
In contrast to her frilly miniskirt maid outfit, her flawless explanation and demeanor were the very model of professional dedication.
While I was marveling at this internally, Sasha rested her chin on her hand and scanned the request list with interest.
Inside the thin file folder were profile pictures of the maids currently working at the cafe, lined up in a row.
"I can choose who to request, right?"
Since we were doing this on her dime anyway, I told her to do as she pleased.
Then, I opened the menu to find something to eat.
"...Expensive."
The word slipped out the moment I saw the prices on the first page of the menu.
The food itself was the kind you could find anywhere, like omurice or pancakes, but the prices were unreasonably high.
I know the price includes the service, but 1500 yen for omurice? What is it made with, golden eggs?
As the son of a restaurant owner, I couldn't accept it, but it would be awkward to come all this way and not eat anything, so I ordered one omurice and one orange juice.
That was 2000 yen for just those two items.
I'd just spent nearly half of my weekly allowance.
Considering the entrance fee, it was by no means cheap.
If I had been paying with my own money, I'm sure I would have choked.
"I've already chosen. What are you getting?"
"Just anything."
"...Then I'll order the same thing."
On the other hand, for Sasha, who casually tossed out wads of million-yen bills for her request fee, this amount of money was probably nothing.
She rested her chin on her hand, studying the maid request list intently, then rang the bell on the table with an elegant motion.
The sight was like a painting, a clear demonstration that Sasha came from a wealthy family.
You could say every single one of her movements overflowed with grace.
She was elegant in a different way than the President.
"Yes~ Did you call, Master?"
The black-haired maid who had served us earlier approached and asked in a friendly voice. Sasha pointed to one of the photos on the request list and spoke to her.
"I'd like to request the cat maid, Hyoneko-ssi."
"Yes~ Right away~"
A cat maid?
For a moment, I doubted my own ears, but the black-haired maid confirmed that such a thing really existed by saying she understood and taking the request list from Sasha.
"Has this Master also decided on a drink or meal?"
"...Ah, two omurice and two orange juices, please."
"Yes~ Right away~"
Never losing her smile, the black-haired maid took our order and scurried toward the kitchen.
Only after she had disappeared from view could I finally relax and lean back in my chair.
I'd only placed one order, but I already felt exhausted.
Just an hour ago, I was brawling with burly Russian machos on the street, and now here I was, on edge in a maid cafe I'd never been to in my life.
If anyone heard this story, they'd tell me to stop joking.
After we finished ordering, Sasha, who had been looking around the cafe with interest, suddenly asked me as I was staring blankly at the ceiling.
"Is this your first time at a maid cafe?"
"Yeah."
"That's surprising. I thought Japanese people came here often."
"No, that's a stereotype. Normal people don't come to maid cafes... probably."
I said, glancing around.
Surprisingly, it seemed like nearby office workers and groups of women came here too.
After a short wait, the maid Sasha had requested walked toward us, carrying a tray with two glasses of orange juice.
Seeing her, Sasha smiled faintly and crossed her long, model-like legs.
"Hello, Master! Thank you for requesting me today-nyan! I'm Hyoneko, the famous cat maid of Machi☆Asobi Maid-nyan!"
The maid, who had short brown hair and was wearing a cat-ear headband, said this with a natural smile.
"...."
I could feel time and space shriveling up around me.
I thought I'd more or less adapted to otaku culture, but this was on a whole other level.
It felt like a middle school student solving math problems was suddenly handed a university-level exam.
As I unconsciously pressed down hard on my thigh, fighting the urge to leave, Sasha nonchalantly tilted her head and asked.
"What can we ask a requested maid to do?"
The cat maid, Hyoneko-ssi, waved her hands with an exaggerated gesture and explained.
"First, when your food arrives, I can draw a picture on it-nyan! Or I can play board games with you-nyan! And finally, it's a little pricey, but if you have a song request, I can sing it for you on the live stage-nyan!"
"Sing?"
Sasha, who had been listening to the explanation with a bored look, her chin in her hand, had her eyes light up at the last part.
She then took a wad of blue bills from the handbag she'd placed next to her chair and set it on the table.
"How much do I have to pay to have her sing for thirty minutes?"
"I-I'll go ask at the counter, so please wait a moment! I mean, wait-nyan!"
Startled by the sudden cash offer, Hyoneko-ssi momentarily forgot her character.
As she scurried off to talk to the cafe manager, Sasha took a sip of her orange juice and gave a sly smile.
"Now things are getting interesting."
What a devil.
*
And so, Hyoneko-ssi the cat maid's live performance suddenly began.
An anisong that sounded vaguely familiar echoed through the cafe.
Sasha, perhaps already knowing the song, hummed along.
Anyway, perhaps because Hyoneko-ssi, the maid we'd requested, was in the middle of singing on stage, the black-haired maid from before served us our omurice in her place.
"Here is the omurice you ordered, Master."
"Oh."
I'd expected it to be a rip-off for 1500 yen, but it was surprisingly a proper, full-fledged omurice.
The portion size seemed quite generous, even for a grown man, so it looked like I wouldn't need to order anything else.
"Shall I cut it for you, then?"
After asking for our permission, the professional maid sliced open the omelet resting on the rice with a knife.
With a soft swoosh, it spread open to both sides, a waterfall of egg cascading over the rice.
Immediately after, she took the ketchup and drew a cute cat on top of the omelet.
"Thank you."
I said, and was just about to lift my spoon for the first bite.
"Ah, just a moment, Master. We're not quite finished yet."
The black-haired maid stopped my movement, formed a heart with her hands, and said,
"Please repeat after me."
Don't tell me...
"Make it yummy~ Make it yummy~ Moe moe kyun♥"
"...."
Faced with this sudden, once-in-a-lifetime crisis, my expression involuntarily hardened.