Chapter 52
Chapter 52
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: Heretic of the Magic Tower (11)
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“Cafe Manager.”
“Big Sister, at least look this way when you talk.”
“Ah, anyway. Dalia says seven people are coming this time, including her.”
“Yeah. Our shop has fixed tables, so they'll have to split up.”
“They're not planning to all huddle together anyway, so it should be fine.”
I checked the note Leimi Big Sister had scribbled and passed over, avoiding my eyes suspiciously. It listed her tastes and preferences for coffee flavors.
Of course, it differed quite a bit from actual coffee characteristics, so I needed to convert it into a coffee profile in my own way.
I pinned it to the workbench in front of my station, and Leimi Big Sister called out from afar again.
“Um, Cafe Manager.”
“Yes. Come a bit closer and say it.”
“No, it's... I have that libido thing too. Seeing your face makes it...”
“Libido?”
Sudden talk of sex drive? Does she mean looking at me stirs it up? It was so absurd that I made a dumbfounded face, and Leimi Big Sister hid behind the book she was holding.
‘Appropriate Pricing for Magic-Infused Products’
She'd been studying business.
“Anyway, among the people coming this time, there's a guy I don't get along with.”
“Huh? Isn't this not the kind of thing he'd barge into?”
“He's a professor. He heard about the coffee club and muscled in after getting reinstated recently.”
“So what's the reason you don't get along?”
“Yeah. He was a professor I researched with when I was hitting peak results. He had me pegged as his research assistant and planned to keep working together. But I hated the Magic Tower's research-obsessed atmosphere and was thinking of quitting.”
“Ah.”
A student fresh out of university wanting to enter society, and a lecherous old professor trying to hold her back... not quite, but a professor. In modern Korea, she'd just graduate and get a job, no big deal. But this was medieval times, professors were nobles, and Leimi Big Sister was probably from nobility too.
Refusing personal demands could give them an excuse to pick a fight.
That alone was a huge problem.
It must have been a real mental burden.
“He got suspended after all his backroom dealings and threats to use me as a researcher got exposed. He vanished from the Magic Tower for a while, but now he's back, found out I'm here, and wormed his way in.”
“That's tricky. Your family...”
“Not disowned, but too distant for help. Honestly, my backing is barely better than that commoner walking around over there.”
“Hmm.”
I was basically a commoner myself right now.
No easy way to help directly. Unless I baited him into starting something first and beat him down to send him packing.
Of course, expecting to throw my weight around here—where martial powerhouses rare in the Magic Tower were overflowing—would be underestimating the place way too much.
“So I also thought about it, and consulted Dalia.”
“Did a good solution come out?”
“No, um, well. Usually marriage or romance premised on marriage becomes a valid reason preventing relocation, so she told me to make a partner.”
“Don’t tell me… me.”
“…Yes. No matter what, a stranger or a bulky idiot wouldn’t work.”
“Am I acceptable?”
“Huh? Yes? Uh… actually, with Cafe Manager I don’t particularly dislike it. Some people would really like you just by your face, you know?”
“This androgynous face…”
A face that splits opinion on whether male or female being narrative plausibility is hard to believe. But since even in medieval times same-sex preference was common, maybe it’s a face appealing to both men and women.
When I paused to think, Leimi Big Sister panicked.
“Um, you don’t absolutely have to! But when I think of someone, only Cafe Manager comes up. And if my boyfriend were you, that’d be nice too. We get along, conversations flow well, so it’s good, right?”
“If not for my situation or other problems, I think I’d also say I like it if it’s Leimi Big Sister… but…”
“Huh? Yes? Uh? That… makes me happy?”
“First, I’ll check if among the visitors there’s anyone who recognizes me. Nobles of the Imir Kingdom often enter the Magic Tower, so just in case.”
“Ah, of course. That’s fine. …Aren’t you going to check?”
“Yes. You avoid consulting early because you’re embarrassed and hide your face. So how were you planning to act as lovers?”
I took her hand, placed one hand under her shoulder blade like in a ballroom, and led her stepping forward. Though dance is normally led by swinging the partner, Leimi Big Sister, being of noble origin, quickly recognized it as a dance once popular in the Pallan Empire and followed smoothly. After one round of dancing, I received Leimi Big Sister turning toward me, and faced her as her breathing grew slightly rough.
“It’s not that big of a deal, right?”
“…Can I be honest?”
“Yes.”
“You’re annoying because you seem like a player handling women alone. But including that, I don’t dislike it.”
“Well… it’s true I often attended balls with women.”
“I know. It was a joke. Whew, I feel refreshed.”
“Sometimes tension between men and women becomes nothing once you just run straight through.”
In my previous life, I should have been more cautious.
>
>Setting aside filthy stories, speaking cold facts: acting as her lover is simple.
A commoner with minimum martial ability to run a shop in Labyrinth City Astraea, or depending on her situation, a noble. Basically treat her kindly, but firmly say marriage cannot be postponed regarding her, and refuse suggestions to move the shop near the Magic Tower citing coffee bean supply issues. As long as he doesn’t cling obsessively to Leimi Big Sister, it’ll work out. If he does, I beat him.
Good.
“So speak comfortably. Rather than shy fluttering stuff, drinking coffee, looking out the window, watching weather and sky, dozing a bit, sharing a thought that comes to mind and laughing — that’s our daily life, right?”
“…Right. Actually, I never had a fiancé decided in childhood.
As the fifth child, I was meant to be sold wherever the family needed.
Then I entered the Magic Tower directly. Just thinking about dating a normal man made me embarrassed. I even had strange fantasies.”
I decided not to ask whether those fantasies were the libido.
“So customer. Your coffee is cold — would you like to order anew?”
“Please. The usual.”
“Yes. Order received.”
From the bean packs Leimi Big Sister, Mina Big Sister, and Dras always leave in stock, I took beans, ground them, tamped, and pulled espresso. Seeing Leimi Big Sister grimace after tasting the cold coffee made me chuckle. I mixed fresh espresso with water and served it.
“…Coffee is nice. The spreading scent while waiting, the sound of brewing. The gentle steam rising when placed before you. In a quiet cafe, expectations rise through ears and nose first, and finally satisfaction rises through taste. Even if another place sold similar coffee, it couldn’t be the same experience.”
“Yes. At least for those who visit our shop, I want to leave an unforgettable best memory.”
“The most enjoyable period in my life is now. And whenever asked in the future, I’ll answer ‘now’. Because tomorrow will be even more enjoyable. I think it’s because this place with Cafe Manager and the cafe is too comfortable.”
“…Thank you.”
“So don’t go anywhere. …I also will never go.”
“Of course. No matter what happens, I want to say ‘see you tomorrow’.”
“That’s nice. Ah, those damned research maniacs of the Magic Tower. They don’t even understand the strange objects from the labyrinth, yet act arrogant. I’m glad I quit.”
“The Kingdom’s people with no battle experience only brag loudly. Someone called them chicken hawks.”
“Ahahaha. A chicken pretending to be a hawk? That’s good.”
Leimi Big Sister carefully lifted the coffee, took a sip, closed her eyes, then turned to look up at Astraea’s clear sky. I followed her gaze. Desert birds flew — fierce birds, but not threats to adventurers.
“Ah, it’s nice. I felt suffocated from the burden in my heart, but now I feel free like those birds.”
“My cafe originally aims to be a place where hearts rest and heal.”
“Indeed. Then today it fulfilled that purpose.”
She didn’t drink this time, only inhaled the aroma, eyes closed.
“Can I say one more thing?”
“Of course.”
“If I ever marry, I still like you.”
This time I was flustered and looked at the far sky. No matter the place, Am I still a romance target?
>
>Ignoring the Status Window raising chaos at the edge of vision about something happening in the southern region, I looked at the massive structure of the great labyrinth.