Chapter 79
Chapter 79
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 79
Chapter Title: Even If I Cry, I Won't Fall (7)
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In the end, the day I returned, I ended up bedridden. Through all the mental anguish, I'd learned one thing: when a person's emotions wear themselves down to nothing, their body starts to ache too.
Apparently, the fallout with Rias—someone I'd at least gotten along with okay—had hit me harder mentally than my little sister, whom I barely remembered being close to after starting my serious heir training.
After spending the entire day lying in bed, it took until the next day—when my half-broken mind finally pulled itself together—for me to get out of bed.
Since reincarnating, my body had been so ridiculously healthy it felt like it could slice through germs, so this was pretty much my first time getting sick from the inside out.
Still, it wasn't like I'd actually caught a real illness, so I was back to normal after just one day.
I freshened up, tossed the sweat-stained bedsheets and clothes into the laundry hamper, took a thorough shower, and headed to the cafe to unlock the door.
I felt a bit guilty about closing shop for a full day, but there weren't any customers who'd chew me out for it anyway. So I slapped my cheeks a few times and focused on snapping myself out of it.
Maybe some latte art practice would lift my spirits.
I pulled out one of the shorter cups I used for warm lattes, wiped it clean, dried it off, and got to work.
I pulled an espresso shot, frothed some milk with the steam wand, and drew a basic heart with the simplest pouring technique.
Heh. A heart, right after screwing things up with my fiancée.
I couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity. It had turned out pretty nice, but with no one else around to drink it, I wondered if I should just have it myself. That's when the door opened, and Lija walked in.
"...I've got some fresh coffee here. Want it?"
"Uh..."
"I made it for practice, so it's free."
"Heehee. Then yeah, I'll take it."
I looked after her in various ways, and Big Sis Mina checked in on her regularly too, but Lija's wallet wasn't exactly overflowing.
Her goal was to escape the slums and get a proper place of her own, so she couldn't afford much wiggle room with money.
She'd drop by the cafe now and then to grab a meal, but she was always a little hesitant about coffee—something closer to a luxury for her.
Anyway, she stared at the latte I'd whipped up and said,
"Cafe Manager. Is this flirting?"
"What are you talking about? Oh. No, it's not."
"I heard you went to break things off with your fiancée, and now this."
"Cut the weird talk. If you're gonna bring that up, come back when you're an adult."
"In the back alleys, they don't care about age."
"I want to live in the light, though."
As Lija said, in the slums, the law meant nothing once a guy and girl went in together and came out as three or more. But even living in the same city, I had no desire to live that kind of life.
I stuck to treating people as legal adults only.
Lija laughed it off as a joke and slurped down the latte in one go.
She drinks it so refreshingly.
She licked the milk foam off her upper lip and, saying it filled her up thanks to the milk, ordered a sandwich good for breakfast.
This time, I made a simple ham-and-cheese with cold milk on the side.
A menu that never fails.
I prided myself on always using top-quality ingredients, so with something this simple that didn't need any real cooking skill, the taste was guaranteed.
"It's always kinda the same vibe, but why does it always taste so good?"
"I'd feel weird bragging, but if I had to say... you should try eating good stuff like this regularly."
"Filling my preserved rations with good food for the labyrinth would cost too much."
"I've heard that corpses and food spoil fast on certain floors, but you're not at a level where you need to go that deep yet, right?"
"Sellers don't care—they just jack up the prices. There's way too much expensive preserved stuff out there."
I could feel the genuine frustration from Lija as she pouted. In reality, the income distribution for labyrinth divers was far from the normal bell curve people imagined. Rare items only available on specific floors were always in short supply, so earnings jumped in steps depending on whether you could clear those floors.
Unlike games, monsters didn't drop cash directly, not everything from the labyrinth was popular, and rarity didn't always mean high prices. That's what caused the issues, I'd heard. Some floors were just a grind with no payoff—pretty unfair.
Because of that, there was an invisible wall in the labyrinth. Cross a certain floor, and your income skyrocketed, trapping people right before it in a dilemma of no money but sky-high prices for gear.
In the end, supply, demand, and pricing were full of irrationalities, so Lija's complaints were just par for the course.
"I could whip up simple meals anytime for you, but stuff that keeps long is trickier."
"Pfft. If it were that easy, everyone would do it."
"Mana degradation is hard to control."
Anyway, to make sure she at least ate well here, I threw in some chocolate and candies I usually saved for pairing with bitter coffee. As I chatted and packed her up, Lija gave me a strange look and said,
"You feel like a big bro or a dad. Don't have a bro, and my dad's just a faint memory."
"I actually do have a little sister."
"Did you look after her as well as you do me?"
"Nah, not really. If anything, the time I actually did was super short."
"Huh? I can't imagine someone like you not spoiling your sister."
"There were circumstances. Anyway, we're not super close. Even when I went to the academy recently, it wasn't a great reunion."
"Then where'd you learn to be like this?"
At the orphanage in my past life. With kids younger than me.
I couldn't say that, so I just told her I hadn't really learned it anywhere.
After finishing her meal, Lija gathered up everything I'd given her and stood. As I opened the door to see her off, I ran into Big Sis Mina.
"Oh, Lija. Eaten?"
"Yeah! Can't every day, but the Cafe Manager's breakfast hits different."
"His breakfast. Every day...?"
"He makes it every day if I come."
"Then the Cafe Manager for breakfast."
"That's sexual harassment. And not in front of the kid."
"She knows everything already."
As I tried to cover Lija's ears, she dodged and teased me back.
Looking back and forth between Big Sis Mina—middle-school vibes in several ways despite her harsh upbringing making her slim and petite like a high schooler—and Lija, I let out a sigh for multiple reasons.
What was school like in my past life? Seems like every class had one kid who cracked those jokes.
I sent Lija off while dodging Big Sis Mina's touch—way stickier than Leimi's teasing—and sat her down at a table.
Maybe because I was slowly tying up loose ends from my past, her gaze felt off today.
It was a bit late for breakfast, but I avoided her tracking eyes as best I could while prepping a salad.
"Cafe Manager."
"Yes."
"Cafe Manager, Manager."
"Yes, yes."
She grinned, propping her chin with both hands as she watched me. When our eyes met, she shot me a playful wink.
"Sis."
"Yeah?"
"That gesture makes you look kinda old, honestly."
"What."
It was the kind of move a sweet 50s uncle from my past life might pull, and I couldn't hold back words that were practically curses to rational thought. Elves lived long and had a dulled sense of time, so she wasn't great at keeping up with trends.
Shocked, her eyes shook wildly as she pulled something from her pocket and tore it to shreds.
"...A dating manual from the clan."
"...Looks pretty outdated."
"The elf in our clan with outside experience? Youngest is 420."
"Oof. Yeah, tough to reference that age group."
"Useless."
I burst out laughing at Big Sis Mina shredding the paper with a pout.
She saw me laughing and asked outright,
"Why're you laughing?"
"'Cause you're cute."
"Hehe, she says I'm cute."
She bounced right back, and since she always said being myself was best, her good mood had her rolling her head on the table with a smile.
I plated the fully prepped salad, and since she looked like she had something to say, I sat down next to her.
She popped a veggie chunk and said,
"Cafe Manager. Free man now?"
"Still got some loose ends, but pretty much."
"Heeheehee."
She giggled like that, grabbed my hand, and flopped onto the table. When I asked why, she said I looked cooler from that angle.
In the end, we'd just done something awkwardly embarrassing together.
We didn't bring up anything else, just quietly ate and watched each other for a while.