Have A Coffee After School, In Another World's Café Vol 1 Chapter 4

There was something I had always found strange, it was a simple question, and not one I had ever asked anyone. It was something I found myself considering as I lay in bed waiting for sleep or when I sat back in a hot bath and gazed at the ceiling.

Why is it that time seems to pa.s.s before you know it?

When I was a child, each day was long and full, the hands on the clock meandered their way around. Then before I knew it, the hands started moving faster and the day had finished in mere moments, the seasons had changed and it had been more than five years since I last met my friends.

Anyway, time races away. Before we know it, we’re left in the dust, desperately trying to keep up and overlooking lots of things in the process as the time to notice things important to us vanished.

Even though it was hard to slow time down, it was nice to have the time to stop and take stock of what was important to you. To sit down, take a load off and relax. To breathe, enjoy a strong cup of coffee and take a moment for yourself in a place secluded from the rest of the world.

That’s what a café was, and what I wanted to become the proprietor of.

These were my thoughts as I wiped a gla.s.s. Why? Because I had nothing to do.

As ever, there were few customers. It wasn’t like there were absolutely no customers, so I was leagues further ahead compared to when I first opened the café.

In this world, everything was done through word of mouth. Of course, I could have leaflets distributed or put an advertis.e.m.e.nt on some announcement board, but the cost of those methods was enough to make my eyes leap from my head. That’s why the only thing available to me was to gain customers one-by-one.

I couldn’t rush, but the human heart was such that as each day went by with few customers, my impatience and worry grew. I had thankfully grown a group of regular customers, but there were still restless nights due to worry. On those occasions I napped during the day.

While I cleaned the gla.s.ses today, as with any other day, the doorbell rang to signify a customer’s arrival.

A tall woman with long, silver hair entered on soundless feet, so much so that it made you question whether she was floating. Her stride itself drew eyes, her own eyes looking firmly out from the gentle expression on her face.

Coupled with her height, the woman, Albell, gave more of a handsome impression than a cute one as she walked to the counter with a model’s grace.

“Hey, Barkeep,” she greeted.

“Welcome, Albell. It’s rare for you to come at lunchtime.”

“Yeah, I only just got back from the labyrinth last night, so I have today off.”

“I suppose that’s why you’re wearing lighter clothes than usual.”

When she was going to be on her way back to work shortly, she usually wore light armour, and often had a sword at her waist. Today however, she was wearing slightly different clothes. She was wearing cool-coloured knight’s clothes, a pair of trousers that clung to the lines of her legs with a pair of short boots on her feet.

It was a simple outfit, but with her unreal beauty, any praise I could give would sound hackneyed.

I wanted to take a picture and hang it as a poster in my room.

It was then that I realised she was fidgeting restlessly.

“If you stare so much… Does it look odd on me?”

Apparently I’d been looking for too long and been misunderstood.

“No, I’d want you in my room.”

“Eh?”

“I said the wrong thing; it really suits you and doesn’t look odd at all.”

I’d given my honest opinion in the wrong way, so I hastily corrected myself, causing her to let out a breath and smile.

“I’m glad you’d say that, Barkeep. You’re not the type to lie.”

“I just don’t have any need to. I’ll try and think of some better things to say next time, lots of them.”

“I’ll look forward to it. Can I get a blended coffee, the same as usual?” She asked, brushing her hair back.

She had only moved her hair, but it felt like watching a scene from a movie and I was lost in wonder. She was someone that you would want to say was a top model or a big actress, but shockingly, she made her living adventuring in the labyrinth.

Thankfully, she was actually one of the few coffee lovers. While I was adding the water to the syphon and placing the heat lamp under it, Albell had her eyes closed, bordered by long eyelashes as she took in the atmosphere of the café. Eventually the bubbling sound of the coffee within the syphon filled the silence.

“Here you are,” I said, decanting the coffee and holding it out, prompting her to open her eyes and look at me.

“Thank you.”

Her look coupled with her words of thanks stunned me for a moment. Would you say it was sensual? She raised the cup to her mouth and put it to her lips after taking in the scent.

“Yeah, it’s delicious.”

“I’m glad,” I answered.

“Your coffee really is the best, Barkeep.”

“Thank you for that.”

I smiled back at her. We always had the same exchange when she drank my coffee, it was like a traditional greeting between us.

“I’d be glad if I could drink this in the labyrinth too. It might wake you up, but just chewing on the beans isn’t particularly pleasant.”

I grimaced. In this world, coffee was used nearly exclusively as a stimulant, it seemed. It wasn’t roasted, ground and then made up into a drink, and there was absolutely no familiarity with the beverage itself.

In other words, what I called ‘coffee’ was an almost unknown refreshment to the people of this world. While the fruits of my labours were showing with more people finally understanding the joys of the taste, it hadn’t sold at all initially. Though of course, that was only natural. It was a mysterious black drink they had never heard of – to say nothing of the beans it was made from being just a stimulant. Anyone that would happily drink such a thing would have to be an eccentric.

Albell was one of those eccentrics.

She had initially sampled it out of curiosity at my recommendation, but since then Albell had become one of my regulars. She would wander in and enjoy a good few cups whenever she found the time, before she headed out to the labyrinth, after she returned, and whenever she had the day off.

I was grateful for her frequent visits, but I was also worried sometimes that she might end up with a caffeine addiction from drinking so much.

She savoured another mouthful before putting her cup back on its saucer.

“It’s always so nice and peaceful when I come here,” she said as she gazed out of the window with a fond look.

“Well, it’s a normal place.”

She chuckled at my words.

“Normal, huh? I feel like I’ve been forgetting what that is. Especially when I’ve spent so many days in the labyrinth.”

I didn’t say anything about how she obviously would be forgetting what ‘normal’ was.

The labyrinth in this town was truly an alien environment. It kept going further and further underground, and no one was even sure that it stopped. Even now, adventurers searched for ways to progress further inside. They fought unimaginable demons and creatures, so of course it would be separated from normalcy.

“Things have been busy recently, there’s been talk of the Academy wanting to do combat lessons there,” she informed me.

“Ah, the yearly ones?”

“That’s the one.”

We looked at each other and both grimaced.

Once you reached the higher sets in the academy standing in the town centre, there were combat lessons held in the labyrinth where you were literally put in combat against the relatively safe demons of the upper floors. People that wanted to be adventurers, attend sorcery academies and such would partic.i.p.ate in these practical lessons, so it was more common than not to get a cla.s.s full of overconfident fledglings.

“When you say it’s busy, are you?” I asked, leaving the question open.

“Yeah, my party’s in charge of it this year.”

“My sympathies.”

There was nothing more annoying than someone with too much confidence in themselves, a group of people that couldn’t accurately a.s.sess their own strength also wouldn’t be able to guarantee their safety even in the relatively shallow levels of the labyrinth.

“There are seniors who have decent amounts of experience a.s.signed to the cla.s.ses, but they can’t deal with something unforeseen, so they need adventurer support,” she explained as she twirled her hair around a finger.

“It’s like that, you know?”

Her eyes asked me to fill in the blank.

“How much so,” I asked out of curiosity, making her shake her head with a rare expression of exhaustion.

“I’m not suited for it. Teaching people and being a superior, that is. If I had to choose, I’d rather fight an ogre with a sword.”

“And again, my sympathies.”

An ogre was a demon higher in the ranks than a kobold. Whilst they were roughly human in stature, they were musclebound beyond belief; to prefer fighting one, and with just a sword at that, easily showed the difficulty.

“And no matter how many times they’re told at their desk, they still don’t understand the danger of the labyrinth. They read what’s in their books and think that they know it all. They get what they can study, but they don’t get that reality doesn’t always follow what’s written in those books and I worry that someone will die on the day.”

For all that they were in the higher sets, they were still high schoolers like me. It seemed difficult for youths with the same kind of life-experience as me to see things objectively, and then likewise to not only know their limits, but take them into account and act upon them.

“Well, they’re still young, that’s what we’re like at that age.”

Albell’s eyes opened wide in surprise when I said that.

“What’s with that look?” I asked her with a reproachful look.

“Nothing, I was just surprised by how much you underestimate yourself.”

“You say that, but I’m just a bartender at a café, aren’t I? Just a completely ordinary person.”

“Hardly. I’ve got a good opinion of you at least, you’re nothing like those kids at the academy.”

“And I should be saying ‘hardly’ to that. I’m weak and I don’t know anything, I’m way worse, right?”

I spread my arms as if to show that weakness. She put her hand on her chin and looked at me with a considering hum. Ah, what’s this feeling, I’m being stared at by a pretty lady. This feeling in my heart… is this love?

“Well, you certainly don’t have enough muscle.”

“Right?”

“You couldn’t swing a sword.”

“That’s right.”

“Your skin’s pretty.”

“Your focus is off.”

“Your fingers are long, your eyelashes too.”

I sighed, “Is that so?”

“Hmm… what’s with you, are you really a guy? Is it weakness or girlishness? If I dressed you up I might not be able to tell the difference.”

“Nonono, that’s not what I was talking about.”

She was chewing over the thought, but my exclamation brought the conversation back on track.

“Right. Well, you’re too dainty to be an adventurer, but the worth of a person isn’t just determined by strength, is it?”

I nodded, it wasn’t.

“Besides,” she continued, “you can kind of… feel the rings on you.”

“The rings?”

Uh, those things that tell you about the growth of a tree if you look at its stump?

“You’re always calm so it’s like you’re in your thirties.”

“It is?”

I still didn’t really see it myself, but she nodded vigorously.

“I haven’t often met people around your age, but I’ve never met anyone like you. Why’re you so insolent?”

“Well, it’s probably because of how I was raised,”  I said, laughing at her phrasing.

“It’s been on my mind for a while, but you’re really mysterious. Your hair and eye colour make you seem like a foreigner, but your general looks really emphasise it. You have good arithmetic and verbal skills and you behave as if you’re really cultured, but you have a surprisingly low amount of general knowledge on the world. It’s like you’re some foreign n.o.ble or trader’s son…”

Her previously soft expression sharpened and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. She had such a presence about her from just growing a little more serious, how much more terrifying would she be when fighting in the labyrinth?

I startled at her insight and inferences and the intimidation vanished in an instant.

“Ah, sorry,” she apologised, “it’s just a habit of mine. Everyone’s got their own circ.u.mstances and I didn’t mean to pry.”

“No, no, it’s fine.”

“You really are an interesting person though,” she said, sipping her coffee.

“At the very least,” she added, “I’m surprised you made something so delicious.”

Was there anyone that could remain calm in the face of such an alluring smile? No, of course not. The only reason I didn’t propose there and then was the ringing of the bell. My eyes shot in that direction to see a small figure slink in, Noltri.

The weather outside was glorious, but the air around her seemed grey. Her hair was a blue that made it look like rain had collected to form it and was bound in braids. Two cat ears poked out from the hair and lay limply against her as usual. Her eyes were blurred with sleepiness, and the hunched posture with which she walked brought to mind an image of an old person tired of life.

Noltri took her usual chair, the second from the window, and laid her cheek against the counter.

“Yuu… my usual…”

“Morning, Noltri. You look listless again.”

I couldn’t help but smile, Noltri was a small regular here. I did worry what caused such apathy in a ten-year-old, but she was a strong-willed girl that had a charming sort of vitality about her.

I felt bad for leaving Albell, but I set about my work. Making Noltri’s favourite café au lait was an involved task.

Having done this countless times since starting the café, I was fairly skilled, so the brewing was finished in moments and I mixed it with hot milk, flavouring it with sugar to finish.

I placed the drink in front of her limp form and she stared steadily at the bowl before heaving her head alone up and blew cooling air across the beverage. Then just when I thought she was going to drink, she lost her energy again. She really does do things at her own pace.

Her skin was snow-white and her face was on the small side. If she had a look of life in her eyes she would have enough charm that no one would have been able to leave her alone. However, she didn’t have any motivation for anything, so you might never see that, I thought. That was her real charm though.

“Noltri, what about the Academy? I think cla.s.ses have started.”

Noltri lifted her face.

“The… Academy…?”

“Don’t make a face like that’s the first time you’ve heard the word.”

“There… aren’t any… cla.s.ses.”

“Of course there are, I saw kids wearing uniform run past the café.”

“They’re from… another academy…”

“I was under the impression there’s only the one in the town?”

A sheen of sweat grew on her forehead as she chewed at her lip. My advance had left no room for her to manoeuvre. I lifted the bowl of café au lait and used my hand to fan the steam towards her. She let out a noise of dissatisfaction before capitulating.

“I’m skipping…”

“Right, that’s fine then.”

“That’s fine?” Came a murmur from the side. I looked in that direction to see Albell wearing a strained smile. I waved back at her.

“So, did you want to eat lunch?” I asked Noltri, getting a shake of her head in return, signalling that she wasn’t hungry yet. I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to see Albell making a small motion with her hand. I moved towards her thinking she was beckoning me and her cheeks tinted red.

“I… would like some lunch,” she said, hunching in on herself and dropping her gaze as she spoke bashfully. Naturally, I could only oblige. I shuddered as I realised that there were such adorable creatures in this world, before shaking those feelings off with a breath out and then nodded with a smile.

“Is there something you’d like to eat?”

“Anything, as long as it’s fresh, I’ve only had flavourless trail snacks and rations until yesterday,” she spoke like she was testing me, as she smiled and tilted her head, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

I folded my arms and thought.

A salad would be easy for fresh ingredients. She spoke about trail food and rations so she probably hadn’t been able to have anything complex. Nutrition was first and foremost in the labyrinth, and the seasonings could often be on the heavy side. The food was also generally hard and dry to increase its longevity, biscuits, jerky and the like.

That would definitely be best, I thought to myself as I smiled fiercely at her.

“I’ll let you eat something from the reserve.”

I went into the kitchen and took it out of the fridge. There were only two on the tray, it really was a reserve. They were still undergoing trials, so there weren’t many of them.

Across the counter, Albell was cutely straining her neck to try and see what I had. I didn’t say anything and put some heat under a frying pan as I gathered and arranged the various ingredients and spices I would need, pulling from the shelves, fridge, and cupboards.

Thanks to Corleone’s deliveries of tomatoes, I had been eating a lot of tomato based cooking recently, researching new recipes to make with them each day. Therefore I would be using tomatoes even with this reserve.

First, however, I need to sauté several different types of labyrinth mushrooms. Compared to the ones of my home world, they were actually bizarre. Heating them caused liquid to be released, and it served as a good stock to bring all the flavours together.

Apparently, mushrooms were often cultivated in the labyrinth, and on top of that there were a myriad of different varieties. There was essentially a corner of the market dedicated just to mushrooms. There were some that made you doubt they were edible, some that looked more like fruits, and so on, there was no end as you looked. There were too many though, so I didn’t know how to make all of them taste good.

For example, the mushrooms I was using right now looked like king oyster and shiitake mushrooms, but one was pitch black, and the other was a purplish red, so you needed courage to eat them. If you cooked them like this though, they would create a mushroom stock that would make a fine soup, taken as it was.

They were wonderful; tasty enough to be used in haute cuisine, but cheap due to how readily available they were.

Oops, I’ve gone on enough of a sermon on mushrooms.

The mushrooms were bubbling away nicely in their pan. I drained the mushrooms, placing them to one side, and put the reserve into the liquid inside the frying pan. Then I added some steamed, skinned tomatoes and pulped them along with a glug of red wine. I added some herbs to moderate the flavourings and scents and then let it simmer.

“I’m amazed,” said Albell, her eyes wide, “to think you could perform so many techniques, are you also a high-cla.s.s chef?”

Her surprise made me smile.

“Hardly, it’s just my hobby.”

I’d been planning this for myself, so it really was cooking just for myself. The standards of eating were surprisingly high here due to the profusion of spices and ingredients from the labyrinth, high enough that someone from the modern age like me wasn’t at all disappointed. However, that was probably why the art of cooking itself hadn’t grown much. The initial ingredients were good, so there possibly wasn’t much awareness or initiative to be creative, to try and make something nicer, or combining things and eating them like that.

Meat would be seasoned heartily and then fried or boiled. Once you were tired of it you would use a different seasoning, or something like that. There were a lot of adventurers in the town too, so most places served strong tasting food, food that went well with alcohol, or food that could be bought in bulk for cheap. Even if you put the time and effort in to make something different, there was little demand. I’d heard rumours of more development in cooking in the capital, probably because that was a town were a lot of the elite, royalty and n.o.bles lived.

Occasionally I flipped the reserve and tasted the sauce as it reduced. Yeah, that’s good. Finally, I cut a slice from the brick of cheese and placed it on top, and then covered it.

Albell smiled from where she was anxiously awaiting the food after finishing her coffee. I’d given her a sliced baguette and simple salad in the intervening time, but even without looking, I could tell that her attention had been solely on the vapours coming off the frying pan.

I lifted the cover, feeling like a magician as I slowly revealed it. A large amount of steam and condensed scents were trapped in the pan and burst out now like a small explosion, containing all of it: the sweet and sourness of the tomatoes, the richness of the meat, and the overflowing flavours of the mushrooms. The scent rolled out like a strike to the stomach through the café.

The elf in her usual seat looked my way, and the dwarf’s nose moved. And Noltri was asleep.

I filled the plate with the vivid yellow of the melted cheese, and then with the sauce, full of seasoning.

I lifted the plate, straightening naturally as I did. A chef carrying good food without pride ruined the whole thing, so I carefully walked upright to Albell.

“Here, it’s Stewed Hamburg Steak, Tomato, and Mixed Mushrooms. It’s sure to be exquisite, you know?”

She didn’t say anything, just looking at the hamburg steak in front of her. Seeming to make her mind up, she lifted her cutlery and stretched her hand out to cut off a piece.

Se seemed surprised at the softness of the meat and the elasticity against the knife and fork as they connected and she stopped for a moment before moving the piece to her mouth.

“…Yeah, it’s great.”

Those were the only words to escape from her mouth in a murmur.

Her words stopped there and she kept eating. She cut small pieces as if savouring each and every mouthful, closing her eyes with each bite.

I was utterly satisfied, simply by seeing that.

I had cooked for someone and they struggled to find the words to express how nice it was. I watched the smile on her lips and her as she ate for a while.

Then I set about preparing the usual meals for the elf and dwarf. They were true regulars by now, so they had a dish they always had.

The elf had a combination platter of fruit, a salad, and a meatless hot sandwich. The dwarf had a well-grilled meat dish with plenty of harsh spices. And Noltri was sound asleep.

When I took the elf’s hot sandwich set over, she gestured to Albell with her eyes to ask if there was any more, and her shoulders slumped when I told her it was meat, because she couldn’t eat it.

When I took the dwarf’s spicy meat over, he gestured with his nose and asked the same, and grumbled when I told him it was very soft as he’d said he didn’t like eating food without a good bite to it.

When I returned to the counter, Albell had finished eating the meat, along with the bread and salad.

“I’ve never had such soft, rich, and tasty meat,” she said earnestly as she looked mournfully at the remnants of the sauce on her plate.

“I’m glad,” I said as I collected the plate, earning a pitiful cry as I did so. Of course, I wasn’t going to throw it away, there was yet another level to this cooking.

I returned the sauce from the plate to the frying pan and put heat under it. Once it was bubbling away, I deposited a chunk of b.u.t.ter into it. The b.u.t.ter was rather rich, so would normally interfere with the original taste of the meat and delicate flavourings of the mushrooms, but it worked perfectly with the leftovers. Finally, I flavoured it with salt from the labyrinth and put it in a deep dish in front of her with a baguette.

“Put it on the baguette and eat it, I recommend that too.”

Her whole face morphed into a girlish smile and I fell in love, cursing myself for not preparing a wedding ring. I felt no regret at losing my own dinner as I watched her happily eat.

The night had set in and the café was quiet. The bars opened at night and started to fill with the noise of adventurers and people finishing work. I started tidying up in the now-deserted café.

I finished the last of the washing up at the perfect time and took out the last hamburg steak from the fridge, starting to prepare my custom hamburg stew. Thinking of people to share it with, I made a little more.

I kept going through the cooking as I listened to the distantly audible racket.

As I put the lid on for it to stew, the bell rang and when I looked that way, it was who I was expecting.

“Hey, Linaria, come on in,” I greeted.

“Right, is now still good?”

“Of course.”

Her scarlet hair was in a ponytail, and she was wearing her uniform as she pulled out a chair and sighed. Her determined eyes were slightly closed, making her look exhausted.

“You look tired.”

“Yeah, exams are close. I need to study some more in the library after I’ve eaten.”

“…So diligent.”

“Yes, I am, is that a problem?”

She asked with a smile so I shook my head. There was an air of danger there, she was definitely sensitive because of the exams.

I made a sweet café au lait as I listened to the stew bubble away.

“Here, good work today. It’s warm, so settle down with it.”

“Thanks,” she said.

I could hear the sound of her blowing on her drink, the stew bubbling, and the distant tumult of the town. As I strained my ears, trying to take it all in, a strange laugh slipped out.

“What made you laugh all of a sudden?” She asked quizzically.

“I just thought it was nostalgic.”

“Nostalgic? What was?”

“It’s nothing.”

I smiled back at Linaria as she frowned, plating up the stewed hamburg steak as I did.

I placed it in front of her, garnering a smile. Putting good food in front of someone always relaxes them and makes them smile. You are what you eat, so if your eating habits were unbalanced it would have a negative impact on you, and eating unpleasant things would be bad for your feelings.

I made a sandwich as I watched her mood improve, changing completely from when she first arrived.

She finished as I completed the sandwich and put it in a lunch box.

“Thank you, it was delicious,” she said.

“Linaria, here,” I told her, putting it in a cloth bag and handing it to her, “have it for supper.”

“…Are you some kind of housewife?”

“You can call me mom if you like?”

“No way.”

She looked at me steadily, probably thinking about her womanly pride.

“Well then, I’m off.”

“Yeah, good luck.”

She left the café, her ponytail swaying behind her.

She had eaten it all. The salad and bread were gone, and the plate was bare of even remnants of sauce. I took the plate and quickly washed it, suddenly remembering the sight of Linaria from behind as I stood in the empty café.