Chapter 99:
Coffee Jelly
ONCE THE MERCILESS SUN and its deadly rays dropped beneath the desert’s horizon, the thin veil of night settled across the sky. In one of numerous Sand Nation towns built next to an oasis, the mage Alef—who’d lived there for years—got up and stretched his arms wide.
“Light come forth…!” He touched his left palm gently, prompting an orange ball of light to appear. Stroking his unkempt beard, Alef whispered to himself. “Hrmph. That was a sound sleep.”
He rose to his feet, put on his sandals, and went outside. As usual, he saw merchants and sand lizards walking beneath the magic lights that illuminated the town.
Lately, merchants and officials from the Eastern Continent’s Empire—a country said to rival even the Kingdom, that continent’s most powerful nation—had frequented the town. The magic lights often surprised them, but in reality, it was common for even illiterate Sand Nation citizens to memorize the incantations for a handful of simple spells. These magic lights were common, too.
“Now then, I’m rather hungry.” Alef rubbed his stomach as the aroma of fried fish caught in the nearby oasis wafted over from nearby stalls. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t eaten since munching some leftover flatbread that morning.
“Wait,” he said to himself. “Today’s the Day of Satur, isn’t it?”
Alef marched toward his new destination; he passed through the crowds of people and entered an empty house. The ceiling had collapsed, allowing moonlight in. At this point, nobody had lived in the rundown building for years. Amid the decay stood a black door.
Yes…the magic power coming from this door is staggering, as always.
A few years ago, Alef—a mage so wise that he was often called a sage—had sensed abnormal magic leaking from this empty house. Soon afterward, he’d found this door. It was powered by elven magic—the same kind that, in ancient times, had birthed the great desert the Sand Nation occupied. When Alef first discovered the door, his own curiosity drove him to open it.
As he listened to the ring of the door’s bell, his empty stomach urged him to hurry.
Beyond the door was an otherworldly eatery lit more brightly than the town he’d just come from. Inside were numerous people—as far as Alef could see, residents of an Eastern Continent nation and another country, various monsters, and all kinds of other strange guests were enjoying warm meals. Observing them all, he sat at an open table.
“Welcome!” called the restaurant’s waitress, a demon with Eastern Continent features. “I’ll be right back with ice water and a moist towel.”
Almost as if she’d been waiting for the exact right time to greet Alef, the waitress quickly brought a warm, moist cloth and a glass of cold water. The latter was a tremendously precious resource in the desert.
“Ah, you have my gratitude. I’m actually ready to order,” Alef replied, taking the water and towel as always. “I’d like today’s special with bread, please. Oh, and could I have an espresso before the meal, and coffee jelly after?”
Those three menu items were Alef’s usual meal at Nekoya. A daily set containing bread, soup, and that day’s main course; cafa (apparently called “coffee” in the other world); and a stiffened-cafa dessert.
“Of course!” confirmed the waitress. “I’ll be sure to bring your espresso as soon as possible.”
“Thanks.” Alef nodded.
When he’d first started coming to the restaurant, this waitress was still quite awkward. Thanks to putting in the time and effort, however, she’d improved at interacting with guests. That kind of small change put a smile on Alef’s face, especially as someone whose daily life rarely changed at all.
Soon, the young waitress returned with Alef’s cafa. “Thank you for waiting. Here’s your espresso.”
A white handled cup sat atop a small white ceramic saucer. The cup was filled to the brim with pitch-black cafa that gave off a rich, familiar smell.
What a delightful fragrance, thought Alef. They used high-quality beans for this.
As he enjoyed the scent, the mage dropped three spoonfuls of sugar from the sugar jar into the cafa, then picked up the tiny spoon next to the saucer and stirred the drink. The small grains of white sugar dissolved into the dark liquid.
Without adding any milk, Alef lifted his cup and drank the cafa slowly. Its strong aroma and bitter flavor melded with the sugar’s sweetness, passing across his tongue into his stomach.
This restaurant is the only place you can get such rich cafa.
The flavor was enough to put a smile on Alef’s face. Like many men of the Sand Nation, Alef loved cafa’s powerful aroma and flavor, and the way it cleared your head when you drank it. He wasn’t fond of the way alcohol muddled one’s mind, so when he wanted to enjoy himself, his drink of choice was cafa.
The other world’s “espresso” cafa had a complex flavor. It isn’t just that the beans are good, Alef thought. They must brew or pour it in some special way.
There were multiple ways to make cafa in the other world. The standard method was to boil water and steep roasted cafa in it. You could also drink it with milk (this was a novelty, since in the Sand Nation people were used to drinking milk straight from a cow’s udders, since it didn’t sour or dry out that way). Then you could drink cafa cold, or, as he was doing now, drink the incredible espresso, nice and rich.
You could also foam the milk, reduce the amount of water in the cafa, and add half-frozen ice cream—a type of cool treat. There were all kinds of otherworldly ways to enjoy cafa, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that was the main reason Alef came to the restaurant.
Just as Alef finished enjoying his espresso, the waitress arrived. “Sorry to keep you waiting. Your meal’s ready! Today’s special is fried shrimp croquettes.”
“Oh. Thank you very much.” The waitress’s words prompted Alef to pick up his fork and prepare to go to “battle.”