#574 Emerald Water

A green, foamy liquid with a cool and snow-white cream on top.

And let’s not forget the cherry.

Cream soda always comes with a cherry.

The three colors, green, white, and red, create a vivid contrast.

Today, we have created the glorious cream soda in this fantasy world!

“What’s thissssssssssss?!”

“Its color is gween! It’s shining bwightly!!!”

“It’s gween! Verdant gween!”

“It’s so colorful!”

The earth spirits, whom I invited to sample the drink, are squirming in high spirits.

Our menu’s theme is kid-friendly, so I want their opinions. 

Melon soda, the mother of cream soda, has a magnificent green color.

But it doesn’t stop there.

“Huh? Wait...”

“What’s this on top of the green foamy thingy?”

“It’s white...cold... and it’s cweamy?”

“Is this...”

“ICE CWEAAAAAAAAAAAM!!!”

The ice cream excited them even more.

“There’s ice cweam on top!!!”

“It’s peak extwavagant!”

“The fizzy water tastes so good!”

“So is the ice cweam!”

“Mixing the two gives it a diffewent flavor!”

“The cheweee also tastes yummy!”

The earth spirits were drinking the melon soda with more gusto than I expected.

If they’re pleased with the taste, that makes me happy too.

“Heh...You kids are all the same.”

Looking down at the boisterous earth spirits, Veils the dragon displays a mature and calm attitude.

“It’s only natural that Master’s creations taste good. If you’re surprised by every little thing, you’re no different from being immature. Learn to expect that his creations will never disappoint, so that way...”

With that, Veil tries the melon soda.

“Mmmmmmmm! It’s sweet! Cold! Bubbly! Green! Cherry! It has so many good points I’d run out of time to list them allllllllllllllllllll!!!”

Yep. She’s noisy.

Speaking of children, I’m concerned about the thoughts of my own son, Junior.

Now that he’s turning two soon, he can probably have a little taste of carbonated drinks too.

He takes a sip of the cream soda in question and makes a face that says, “What a refreshing melon flavor!” 

I’m glad it’s well-received overall.

I wonder how Mr. Shax will react.

This cream soda is sure to enchant all the little ones in the Demon Capital!

Add cream soda to the menu, and our otherworldly café is ready to take on the world!

“...I have nothing more to say.”

Actually, Mr. Shax has been here since the beginning.

He was watching the unveiling of the cream soda from start to finish.

“I never expected you’d come up with such a wonderful children’s drink...You always exceed my imagination, Lord Saint. It makes me want to ask for exclusive distribution rights for the cream soda, even!” says Mr. Shax, pinching his nose bridge.

And the glass of cream soda I prepared for Mr.Shax...is already empty.

“As I thought, Lord Saint is a higher being, and it’s meaningless for us ordinary people to interfere. I will simply obey, not grumbling a word.”

“Does that mean...!”

“Pandemonium will fully support the launching of the café. We will prepare a prime location in the capital and provide you with the best staff. If there is anything else you need, please let us know.”

Yes!

Finally, an otherworldly café is coming to fruition! I’m so happy that all my hard work has paid off.

“So...Lord Saint, how many establishments shall we open?”

“Huh?”

How...many?

“Since you’re in charge of this project, let’s market it on a grand scale right away! We will expand the chain of stores and eventually launch them all over the Demon Kingdom...no, even in the former Human Kingdom! That way, we’ll have a wider reach! To achieve this, we should open at least a hundred stores in the capital...!”

But my reply to Mr. Shax’s passionate suggestion is...

“It’s okay, just one café is enough.”

“Whaaaaaaat?!”

I don’t want to make a big deal out of it.

The otherworldly café project began with the humble motive of making coffee more familiar to the people of this world.

However, I don’t know if we can handle the whole project if we start too large, and our supply of coffee beans may not be enough.

After all, we’re currently growing coffee beans on our farm only.

“I’d be more than satisfied to start with just one café.”

Even if there’s only one, I hope that coffee lovers will gradually spread from there.

“Then why did you consult with us? Was your plan not to expand the chain and sell it on a large scale?”

“I don’t want to get into trouble like what happened with Bacchus.”

When Bacchus opened an izakaya (oden restaurant) in the capital, it was temporarily shut down for unlicensed operations, which caused a huge commotion. 

I don’t want to make the same mistake I’ve witnessed.

That’s my way of life.

“That’s why I wanted to ask you for legal support so that we wouldn’t get into trouble.”

“Please tell me that sooner!” he says in tears.

It seems that we had already had a misunderstanding.

“What was my advice for...? I thought it would be a big project, so I did thorough research on-site...!”

“No, it was very helpful, Mr. Shax.”

Especially your input about having a menu popular among children.

“I even had the Izakaya Guild’s help to secure the sites and get the manpower for those cafés...!”

“I-I’m sorry...!”

Still, I’m firm with my decision to have one store.

Just one.

I still need your company’s good offices so that there will be no mess in the future.

“By the way...will you only offer coffee and cream soda on your menu?”

“Of course not. There are other items.”

Too many is also bad, but as you can imagine, just two is as sad.

We are going to enrich the variety by adding other items to our light menu.

Since I’m also including pancakes...

“I’ll also add pizza toast to the menu.”

“Pizza toast?”

I’m thinking of using bread instead of pizza dough, sprinkling a lot of cheese, ham, green peppers, onions, and other things on top of it.

It’s a great snack to have at a café.

“I made a sample batch. Please try some.”

“Oh, wow! The cheese is chewy and stretchy! And the toast is so crunchy!!!”

By the way, Veil made the bread.

I almost made Ogura toast but decided against it because of its regional characteristics.

I also wanted to prepare sweets, but shortcakes and tiramisu are hard to make, and our female residents would rather hog them than serve them to people outside.

But I’m stockpiling cookies to serve at the very least.

“Aileron’s team will prepare the cutlery and other utensils for us.”

“Crafts that set state-of-the-art trends by Lady Aileron...?! This is definitely going to be a big hit. And yet, we’re only setting up one shop...!!!”

Mr. Shax starts shedding tears.

Be that as it may, let’s keep up the good work on building our café that is finally taking shape!