#572 Otherworldly Café Project Progress

Now that we have had our fill of cherry blossom viewing, we are ready to take on another challenge: developing a cafe menu that will be popular with kids!

In order to spread coffee to this world, we need to open an otherworldly café. 

But we need a menu that will encourage an entire family to visit.

So, what shall I do?

If I rummage through my old memories, I should have no trouble finding something appropriate.

It has to be something you find in a café and kids like, right?

I can think of a lot.

For example, pancakes.

Kids definitely love them.

You make the batter from flour mixed with sugar and bake it.

I wonder how they become so fluffy and chewy with just those ingredients, though.

Since they’re made of flour and are filling, they are often served at cafés.

Most importantly, I’ve made pancakes before.

I have all the ingredients, and because Platy and Veil love them, I’m used to making them regularly.

The ease of preparation is also an advantage of pancakes.

After taking into account these various points...

All right, pancakes shall be my answer to Mr. Shax’s question!

“No, wait...!”

Isn’t it too early to give an answer?

Even though you could never go wrong with pancakes...

Isn’t that perfection also a potential drawback?

“...Are you thinking of something complicated again, Dear?”

It’s nothing like that, Platy.

Anyway, pancakes are so perfect, risk-free, and inexpensive that they lose some of the surprises essential to this kind of presentation.

“Besides, pancakes can be found in places other than cafés.”

They’re the king of home sweets.

It may be a stretch when trying to “represent” a café. 

And above all, it lacks novelty.

If I were to add it to the menu, I would like to have one more item.

Something that can only be found in a café and that children would love.

What else is there?

Hmm...

Hmm?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

After a few minutes of dredging the depths of my memory...

“Ah.”

I thought of something.

A sparkling green memory of my own childhood encounter at a café...

“Cream soda!”

Children love cream soda.

You can only buy them at cafés.

What could be better suited to fulfill these two conditions?

It’s carbonated, bright green, and topped with ice cream!

This is the ultimate children’s beverage, packed with all the elements that they would enjoy.

However, because of the imbalance of combining ice cream, which cannot be stored at room temperature, and melon soda, a liquid, its shelf life is extremely poor. It cannot be commercially sold in supermarkets.

Having said that, because of its delicate position as both a drink and food, it is not served in ordinary eating establishments and is only suitable in cafés.

This is precisely what I am looking for!

Okay, I’ve decided on my goal this time!

I will develop otherworldly cream soda!

It’s not like I’m straying from my original goal of spreading coffee, but...

Details, schmetails, I’ll keep heading forward!

* * *

Still, making cream soda in another world is quite tricky.

After all, cream soda has soda, a carbonated beverage—the kind that fizzles in your mouth when you drink it.

How can I reproduce that in this world?

I want to probe further, but I fear going in that industrial direction is a bad idea.

If there were special machines or chemicals to make them, we would be at a loss in this world where there isn’t much scientific advancement.

Well, even if there is no logic behind it, I can use the Hand of Supremacy to make bubbles erupt out of mere water.

But this time, there’s a limit to how much I can rely on my ability because the goal is to sell the product outside the farm.

We need a system that allows others to handle it all the way at the Demon Capital and provide a stable supply.

So, let’s explore the process of carbonating drinks a little more.

I think I saw a machine that can make carbonated water at a home appliance store, but I have no idea how it works.

And besides, it’s not like I can do anything about it when there aren’t even electronics stores in this world.

I thought it could at least give me a hint, but that train of thought led me to a dead end.

I have also heard of sparkling water in the form of mineral water.

Though, to be honest, I can’t shake the weird feeling toward that questionable information. Is sparkling water really something that comes out of the ground if you are lucky enough to dig a well?

The more I think about it, the more enigmatic sparkling water is.

Back in my world, I drank a lot of cider and cola without thinking, but now I realize that I was indebted to civilization and benefited from its tremendous power.

Now, I have to abandon the convenience of civilization and recreate carbonated beverages with my own wisdom and inspiration.

How can I reproduce carbonated water in such a fantasy world where there are no machines or chemicals?

...Ah.

* * *

“Please, Sensei!”

I bow my head to Sensei, the Lifeless King, and ask him for a favor.

Yes, even if there are no machines or chemicals in this world, there is an equally super convenient tool: magic. Magic that can rival even scientific civilization by a comfortable margin.

With the power of magic, making soda water should be easy.

There is even a saying that if there’s no science, we can just use magic!

Just kidding. There isn’t.

“So, um... I want to make water that has air and fizzles. Can we do it with magic?” 

“Air...inside the water, you say?”

Sensei tries to catch up with my incoherent explanation.

“I don’t know what that is, but I believe we can manage with the help of the water and wind spirits. Since it seems difficult to convey verbally, I’ll have them look into your mind and grasp the image directly. That way, there will be fewer discrepancies.”

As expected of Sensei!

He understood so much from my awkward explanation!

“I shall initiate physical contact so I can link your imagination. Then, I will talk to the spirits...”

Sensei holds his hand over the glass of water that I had prepared.

“O’ spirits of the wind and water, hear this man’s wish and fill the cup with marvel... The Cider!!!”

With Sensei’s chant, the cup of water shook and bubbled as if it were boiling from the inside.

Soon after, the bubbling subsided, and the rippling water reached a standstill.

Poel’s glass cup lets us see tiny bubbles forming through the glass.

“Please check it, Lord Saint.”

“O-Okay...!”

I anxiously bring the glass to my mouth.

Glug, glug, glug...

...Belch. 

“It’s soda wateeeeeeeeeeeeeer!!!”

This is amazing, Sensei! I didn’t know it was so easy to recreate soda water with magic!

“I have fixed your mental image into a tangible formula. In short, I transformed it into a single spell, and if I teach it to other mages, they can recreate this water anywhere in the world.”

What a dependable immortal king! He really leaves nothing to be desired!

Sensei then magically turned another glass of water into carbonated water and drank it himself.

“It’s good.”

But let’s not forget the water and wind spirits and their efforts.

I’m sure they’re wondering what we plan to do with the soda.

The Cider, the soda water production magic, will be passed on from Sensei to the students studying at the farm, and from there, it will spread to the rest of the world.

This is the peaceful use of magic!