episode_0433

As time passed, the first day of the festival arrived.

Although there were many things going on, I somehow managed to finish preparing and somehow the first day of business for the Maid & Butler Cafe arrived.

“Welcome, sir. Could you please tell me if anyone is with you?”

“… Two people.”

“Yes. Then, I will guide you to the ‘reception room’ so that you can be comfortable during your stay.”

“The reception room? No matter how I look at it, this is just a cafe… .”

“This is the ‘reception room’, sir. Tea and refreshments are provided, so please take a rest here.”

“Oh, yes… .”

The Maid & Butler Cafe of the ‘Luminor Festival’ started smoothly, although there were still some remaining elements of anxiety.

The theme of the cafe was the concept of having a butler and maid briefly serve guests who come to meet the owner of the mansion in the reception room.

At first, some customers were a little confused because it wasn’t a typical cafe, but that was only at first. Since they openly and shamelessly responded that this was a reception room, there were quite a few people who enjoyed the concept of this maid cafe without any problems.

“Yes! You mean two cups of coffee? I’ll make sure to pass it on!”

-Tadadak!

“… Wow, who’s that guy? We had a kid like that in our academy?”

“The girl you just ordered? She’s Natalie from the fencing club. She’s pretty, so she must be pretty famous in the fencing club, right?”

“You don’t seem like a noble, do you? Should I try to seduce you later?”

“As you wish. But I like Saint Serista more than her. Doesn’t her personality seem easygoing? Doesn’t it feel like she wouldn’t be able to refuse even if you asked her a dirty favor?”

Since this was a place where the prettiest and most attractive women in the academy gathered, there were some men who would criticize the maids like this, but we had our own countermeasures prepared for that as well.

“Well, honestly, Saint Cerista seems a bit easy. If you ask her to do something while kneeling down, she looks reluctant… .”

“… Can I talk to you for a moment, sir?”

“… … Yes?”

“… … .”

“Please, guests, refrain from making remarks about the appearance of the servants of our mansion. Of course, even if you were to speak so carelessly, I, a ‘mere butler’, cannot do anything to harm you.”

“Ah, Prince Antonio… .”

“… Sorry, sorry!”

The men were talking loudly among themselves, then had a few words with Antonio, and then ran away before their drinks were even served.

Prince Antonio’s specialty was to threaten others with soft words. Although his military power may be inferior to that of other men, he was a member of the royal family who still had the right to the throne.

I saw him coaxing the boys on the beach at Pliana last time, so I gave him a try. He performed his role better than I expected, so I was somewhat relieved.

In addition to that, the rest of the staff is arranged so that the warrior with cooking skills and Agnes who uses fire magic are in charge of the kitchen. Thomas and I, who have some dexterity, are in charge of the kitchen.

The serving staff was Natalie, Serista, and Ethan. There was one man and two women, so the balance between the male and female customers was pretty good.

Antonio is currently walking around the store as a guard, just like before, and in Mezlen’s case, she is not very good at serving, so she is in charge of the cashier. Even though it is a maid café, there are probably not many people who can treat the princess like their own servant.

Seraphine and Luke are out promoting the cafe because of their student council work, and last but not least, Silena, who was the most awkward to order around…

-Clang, clang.

“… … .”

“Ah, Miss Silena! We are running low on coffee cups right now, so please wash the coffee cups first!”

“… Okay.”

My role was to constantly deal with the pile of dishes that were piling up on one side of the kitchen.

It can’t be helped. Silena couldn’t keep up with my lectures to the point where she couldn’t play the role of a maid until the end.

Unless she could fix that personality of never opening her mouth first in front of people she didn’t know, she couldn’t be entrusted with serving or cashing. Not to mention, with that attitude, she wouldn’t even be able to serve as a signboard in front of a store.

However, it was also unsettling to entrust cooking to Silena, who had only lived in the forest of the World Tree, so in the end, there was no choice but to use her in this way. It was even more unacceptable to let her do nothing and just ride free on group projects.

In the first place, it was a role that had to be done by someone. I know that it’s much faster if I use Clean Magic, but if I were to wash the dishes with only Clean Magic for five days straight, I’d probably run out of magic by the third day.

‘If you make them do something difficult like this on purpose, they might show some willingness to try it themselves.’

No matter how much you hate dealing with people, you’d rather do it than do the dishes all the time.

In the first place, it was such a waste to use Silena as a resource for dishwashing. She was the only elf among the Academy students, and it was such a waste to waste her beautiful and mysterious appearance on something other than serving customers.

‘Maybe tomorrow I’ll ask my boss to let me do the hospitality business myself.’

Unlike the other people who took turns serving, cashiering, and working in the kitchen, Silena spent the whole day at the sink doing nothing but washing dishes.

But her stubbornness was much stronger than I expected.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

Maid & Butler Cafe, Day 2.

As with most festivals, the busiest days of the festival were the first and last days.

Thanks to this, there is some leeway in the middle dates, and not everyone has to be tied down solely to running the event.

However, the Maid & Butler Cafe, which had gained some word of mouth on the first day for its luxurious management, began to see more customers flock in on the second day.

“Ah, hello… . Se, Serista maid… .”

“… Yes? Oh, I, I’m a maid here, not a saint, so you don’t have to use formal language… .”

“Butler Antonio~! Please look here~!”

“Do you need anything?”

“Wow~! So cool~!”

On the first day, many people visited out of curiosity, wondering what kind of store this was, but on the second day, the number of ‘nominated’ customers who visited because they really wanted to see someone increased significantly.

It seemed like everyone was really enjoying the situation, as it was rare to see people like Antonio and Serista in servant attire.

By the way, titles like ‘Maid’ or ‘Butler’ are titles that customers started using among themselves at some point. Although they treat the customers like maids or butlers in accordance with the concept of the cafe, it is actually done out of courtesy towards those of higher rank.

Originally, it was a title used for people like Serista, Antonio, and Ethan, but from the afternoon onwards, even that became indistinguishable. Even students like Natalie and Thomas, who were originally commoners, were called Maid or Butler.

I was glad that they were able to play around the line without rushing in too aggressively. I think it’s safe to say that we’ve settled into a somewhat good culture.

Thanks to Antonio’s efforts on the first day, I didn’t feel any sexual harassment or assault, so the cafe was starting to run smoothly.

… The cafe itself was extremely busy due to the reduction in the number of people running it.

“Oh, Miss Agnes! Seven cups of coffee and three cups of black tea! Please hurry!”

“… Is that seven glasses including the one I got earlier? Or… .”

“Additional order! If you combine with the previous one, you get ten cups of coffee and five cups of tea!”

“… … Sigh.”

“Please wash the coffee cups quickly, Miss Silena! I’ll help you too!”

“… … .”

The Maid & Butler Cafe, which had ten employees until yesterday, now has seven. This was due to the absence of Natalie, Thomas, and Mezlen.

It’s called the Luminor Festival, but we can’t just work all week, so we decided to take turns resting and visiting other events. But today just so happens to be the three of them’s day off.

As the aces of the hall and kitchen left one by one and even Mezlen, who was in charge of the cashier, left, the workload of the remaining people naturally increased.

Agnes, who boils ten kettles of water with her fever magic, Gyeomjossegi, who cuts up ingredients with her sword, and Ethan, who receives orders from five or six tables at a time and remembers them before delivering them to the kitchen.

I too was busy going back and forth between the kitchen and the hall, catching up on the piled-up dishes with Clean Magic, so I could really feel the absence of Natalie and Thomas.

‘I can’t let the two of them rest apart, so it’s the right decision from a story perspective…’

Today is so busy, I wonder how busy tomorrow and the day after will be.

As I was carrying the finished tea and coffee out of the kitchen, my mind preoccupied with worries about a future that had not yet arrived, a piercing scream suddenly reached my ears.

“Gyaaaahh …

“… … ?!”

The moment when I almost dropped the tray in my hand due to the sudden scream of a woman.

At first, I was relieved that it wasn’t the scream of one of the employees, so I approached where the voice came from, but as soon as I realized who the owner of the voice was, my heart started pounding with a different meaning.

‘……no way.’

A woman with a tea stain on her dress and Ethan looking embarrassed in front of her.

It was a stain so I could just wipe it off with a cleaning magic, but the problem was that the person with the stain was a character I knew all too well.

‘… Rainy, princess.’

It was my first meeting with Princess Raini, a foreign student from the Kingdom of Deprin.