Chapter 112
Chapter 112
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 112
Chapter Title: Reason for Existence
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“I feel like I’ve seen something I shouldn’t have.”
“Pretend you didn’t see it.”
After I finished my communication with His Majesty the Emperor, someone from our side showed up that very same day to ask if the discussion was over. Whether he was genuinely thrilled or had some other motive, the poor soul who got sent over on the weekend was the one who suffered for it.
The Court Mage arrived with a weary expression, clearly exhausted from being hounded by His Majesty. Without so much as asking or explaining, she got straight to work in the backyard.
As the tiny transfer gate was being set up, Karin and her friends watched the scene with subtle looks on their faces and spoke up.
“Um, the Imir Kingdom doesn’t know about this, right?”
“Most of them don’t even know I’m here to begin with.”
“Depending on how you look at it, this is treason...”
“I have no lingering attachment to the kingdom.”
Sophia, who was technically a noble loyal to the kingdom, looked unusually troubled, which wasn’t like her at all. It seemed she’d secretly hoped I might return someday.
Well, maybe if circumstances changed someday, but basically, I had no plans to leave this place.
In any case, while waiting for the transfer gate installation to finish, I gifted her some homemade chocolate and iced Americano packed for the road.
I handed it out pretty casually to anyone, but the chocolate was still a decent luxury item, so it wasn’t an unworthy gift.
She must’ve been surprised that I was giving her a present myself, because her eyes widened a bit as she took the chocolate and thermos, bowed her head politely, and left.
Professionals really are fast, huh.
Of course, she was a bit slower than Karin, but that was just because Karin was exceptionally talented. For a typical mage working hard, this was probably about the limit.
Not that I could judge accurately since I wasn’t a mage myself.
Anyway, once the magic circle was complete, Karin went over to inspect it, nodded that it looked fine, then scurried back over to me.
“Well, that solves one problem. Should we hit the labyrinth today?”
“Let’s just rest today.”
“Big Sis tired too?”
“Gonna hang out with the Cafe Manager.”
“Sounds good. You girls wanna go off on your own?”
“Yep! Sounds fun!”
Sophia shot her hand up in enthusiastic agreement, and the other two didn’t protest or show any dislike, so I handed them a communication orb—just in case anything came up—and let them head out.
It wasn’t exactly small, so they’d have to carry it in a bag, but with the quick and nimble Natalie along, they’d be fine.
I decided to spend some time chatting casually with my regular customers, whom I hadn’t been able to relax with properly in a while, to soothe my mind.
“Heh heh. Being popular is tough work.”
“What’s that? You’re talking like you were popular back in the day too, old man Dras.”
“I had my share when I was young, living in a dwarf-only settlement.”
“Hm.”
“I was popular too.”
“Blond hair is a big deal for elves, right?”
“Yeah. It’s like a symbol of the World Tree.”
Big Sis said that, then reached out to touch the ends of my hair, which had grown long lately since I hadn’t trimmed it. Well, I did inherit nice blond hair from my parents.
Maybe because it was a fantasy world, hair colors were often a solid, clean shade. Dirty blond like in my past life was actually rarer.
Blond was pretty rare and tied to the meaning of the goddess’s power manifesting, so it held significance even among humans.
“Silver hair has its own meaning too.”
“There are lots of stories like gold for the sun and silver for the moon...”
“Yeah. The imperial family of the empire has had silver hair for generations.”
In modern terms, this would get slapped with racism accusations, but given the worldbuilding, hair and eye colors did matter. Fantasy-style, most people had pale skin anyway, so you could think of hair color as racial markers.
Anyway, debates about hair color were deeply tied to a kind of fatalism. If someone accomplished something great, you’d occasionally hear stuff like “As expected of a blond.”
And viewing it more from a game story or meta perspective, it linked to “role assignment.”
For instance, Mina Big Sis here was a blond elf from the World Tree clan, with the authority to use the goddess’s power, and just happened to be in the city with a labyrinth tied to that exact power.
I’d never played the game where Karin was the protagonist, but game-wise, it fit perfectly: Mr. Dras as the blacksmith selling weapons and armor, Reimi Big Sis as the merchant appraising trophies and selling accessories, and Mina Big Sis as the companion needed to get closer to the goddess’s power.
Whether it was coincidence, inevitability, or the goddess’s arrangement—including even Karin showing up—that they gathered at my cafe...
Whatever the case, we’d grown close by our own will, so I had no intention of blaming or cursing the goddess for it.
“I hear redheads have nasty tempers a lot.”
“Ahaha. I don’t think so about you, Big Sis, but my fiancé has bright red hair too.”
“Oh dear. Suddenly a bad example.”
“He wasn’t that bad. When we were kids.”
Of course, if you asked if I wanted to go back, I’d say absolutely not—that past was gone. But there was no reason to reject the good times from it too.
As I shrugged, Reimi Big Sis chuckled and rested her chin on the table.
Watching me slowly brew the coffee she’d drink, it felt like the cafe had returned to those peaceful days from just a few months ago.
Mina Big Sis was a bit flashier now with all her new accessories, Reimi Big Sis showed more expressions and emotions than before, and Mr. Dras was as busy as ever but still the same. Things had changed a little, but not really.
“I don’t know what the Cafe Manager thinks about it, but...”
“Hm?”
“People sometimes have roles to play. Not lifelong ones maybe, but there are moments when you have to do certain things.”
“Has that happened to you too, Mr. Dras?”
“It has. Even lounging around here comfortably now is only because I finished my duties.”
He took a sip of his coffee. With a relaxed expression, as if reminiscing, Mr. Dras continued.
“So, you don’t have to reject what’s right in front of you or strain to find another path. It’s less stressful to just accept it and act accordingly.”
“That sounds awfully wise.”
“Anyone who knows the gist of your recent situation could say it. The desire to run the cafe leisurely and rest, no lingering attachment but still worrying about your homeland and the people you know, concern for Astraea and Karin due to the labyrinth issues. You’ve got all that, right?”
“...Yeah, pretty much.”
“No one’s blaming the Cafe Manager for it. Just take it easy, do what seems like it needs doing. That’s your role. Isn’t it?”
He said that, laughed heartily, and set his coffee cup down on the table with a clunk. There was an indescribable depth of experience and leisure in Mr. Dras’s expression.
It was different from the wasted old fogeys you sometimes saw among the nobles.
You really had to age properly, even when old.
“I agree with that part too.”
“...You too, Big Sis?”
“Elves, especially the World Tree clan, live a long time, so we’re laid-back. But once you inherit this, the time comes to go back and fulfill your role.”
“I don’t have anything like that. I ditched the Magic Tower and came here.”
“You never know about the future.”
“Eh, maybe, at most.”
Reimi Big Sis downed her coffee in one go.
As everyone said, handling the things right in front of me would bring the destined moments one by one.
Maybe making the right choice then would be key.
At least, the system window seemed to want me to take a protagonist-level role.
Right. Going back a bit, if my route in the original story hadn’t turned into a harem ending, what kind of events would’ve played out?
Julius Lebedev in the original was weak-willed and feeble, looked down on in the Lebedev Duke’s family.
The egg-cracking event only happened after his relationship with Ermina progressed, when he killed Carsis.
So, with that gloomy personality and mediocre skills, if he’d just graduated the academy as is, he probably couldn’t even go home.
He’d end up sold off as a trophy husband to some noble house, but I doubted he’d accept that fate sweetly.
But where would he go? Surely not...
Astraea, maybe? The fact that I had two system windows pop up—was it because one of the sequel’s capture targets was here?
Wait. Think about it.
If I really was another capture target, there’d be something fitting for me to do here.
Capture targets and regular companions were treated differently from the start.
They stuck right by the protagonist’s side, helping her grow while riding her coattails upward—that was the whole deal for capture targets.
And the progress bar in the corner of my vision had suddenly jumped, knocking on 20%.
What I’d done was help Karin channel power into the bracelet.
Provide the strength to descend to lower levels.
And act as the intermediary for her meeting with the goddess, neutralizing Svetlana’s misdeeds.
Only one conclusion left.
‘Protect Karin, conquer the labyrinth, help her fully master the power of the goddess or demon god.’
For the first romance-fantasy’s capture target, it was resolving the academy incidents and subjugating the Demon God Cult with Ermina.
And this was what I had to do as the second romance-fantasy’s capture target.
Right here, right now, it was something only I could do.