Anna settled on mint chocolate, and Melody on tea flavor. The tea (of the liquid variety) arrived first, and they sipped while they waited for their treats. Maid talk returned with force.
“Now, I’ve given quite a lot of thought to the various types of keyholes used for different kinds of doors, and the way the cleaning methods differ for each is really quite fascinating.”
“Not to be rude, Melody,” Anna rasped, “but can we scale up the conversation? Just a tad?”
The ice cream arrived not long after, though long enough that Anna was rendered a husk by extremely dense, domestic technobabble. Seeing those scrumptious scoops, however, put the life back in her eyes. At last. Sustenance.
The butler-themed server placed the desserts before the girls with a soft “Enjoy,” then retreated.
“Oh,” Melody breathed. “I see now.”
It was her first time encountering the confectionery in this reality, but to Anna, it sounded as if it were her first time encountering it ever, as it well may have been for a typical resident of this world.
A humble scoop of ice cream and two wafers each rested in a pair of shallow parfait dishes. Melody’s tea flavor consisted of plain vanilla blended generously with leaves. The sharp, minty aroma of Anna’s pick tingled her nostrils.
“Yours looks good,” Anna said.
“As does yours.”
The ball of mint chocolate was a vibrant shade of green, likely incorporating genuine mint leaves, with a sizable helping of chocolate chips sprinkled on top. It smelled much stronger than anything on Earth.
Presentation-wise, expectations were high. And yet…
“Anna, is it much the same at the Upper District branch?”
To be sure, these treats were plenty sumptuous for a commoner, but for a noble? Melody could not help feeling the ice cream was awfully plain. The cafés she visited in Japan offered servings that seemed like feasts in comparison.
“You really ought to switch your brain off every now and then, Melody. Just enjoy.” Work was rarely a good topic for a date. “Admittedly, it is a little ordinary. Expensive as they are, you’d think there would be a bit more flair to them. Sometimes I do get frustrated that nobles get all the good things.” Anna let out an exaggerated sigh.
Melody giggled. “They do a little extra in the Upper District then?”
“Larger dishes, seasonal fruit, chocolate, cream—they make works of art with all the toppings they have on offer. They forgo it here for the sake of making it affordable.”
“I see. Good to know.” Ever the dedicated servant, Melody filed away that information for later. It might make an excellent surprise for her lady and her family. She’d do well to visit the Upper District location sometime, she noted.
“Anyway, I say we dig in.”
“Right. Let’s.”
Spoons in hand, they each took a bite. Heaven greeted their tongues.
“So good!” they moaned in bliss. Melody had gone especially long since her last indulgence.
Anna glanced at her and considered the beaming smile on her face. The private booth part’s new, but everything seems to be going well. She picked tea. I picked mint chocolate. Meaning…
One of the choices the player could make during this event was what item on the menu the heroine would order. Christopher always picked mint chocolate, and Anna had followed suit. Depending on which flavor the player chose, a certain scene could play out.
“Is there something on my face?” Melody asked.
Anna readied her line. “O-oh, no. I was just thinking, your ice cream looks awfully tasty.”
“It does?” She looked down at her scoop, then at Anna’s, then let out an amused breath. “Oh, fine. Would you like a bite?”
Melody held out her spoon.
Anna let out a deranged squeal in the silence of her mind. Finally! Finally! I get to see the heroine! Er, Melody! But I get to see the heroine’s side of the CG! Screw you, POVs!
This was the raison d’être of café dates, an intrinsic element. One could not exist without the other. It only occurred if the heroine chose a flavor other than Christopher’s, though.
In the game, the heroine was on the prince’s mind ever since their encounter at Royal Academy in April. She left an impression on him in the course of their few meetings in the game, but never so much as when she saved his life at the Spring Ball. He fondly recalled the bravery and dignity of her expression in that moment. But this girl was somehow different. Distant. Fragile, almost. He struggled to recognize the girl who had monopolized his thoughts. She happened to spot him staring as she ate, but he couldn’t admit a whiff of what he was thinking, so he settled on talking about ice cream instead.
The heroine, utterly oblivious to romance, offered the prince the very spoon she’d eaten with. The prince, though flustered, couldn’t refuse. They had to act like a couple, lest they expose their true identities. Hence, with fiery cheeks, he accepted.
Shame I’ll be missing the Christopher CG, but… Oh yeah. Who cares?
Anna gratefully accepted the proffered tea-flavored ice cream and savored every last bite of it. But this wasn’t over yet.
“I hope you don’t plan on being stingy. Fair’s fair.” Melody closed her eyes, parted her fair lips, and waited.
Anna let out a deranged squeal in the silence of her mind. I get to see the heroine! Melody! Whatever! I get to see the heroine’s side of the CG! Screw you, POVs!
This event had it all. Feeding the boy. Being fed by the boy. Colloquially known by fans as “Humiliating His Highness,” this event was obviously a favorite among the game’s community. Many a player took great glee in seeing the crown prince blush so fiercely in one scene after another.
What Melody had for maids, Anna-Marie had for otome games. Maybe they could have made something beautiful together, but the world wasn’t ready for that.
“That was delicious,” Melody said.
“And the ice cream was good too.”
Anna had never been happier to do someone else’s work. She got to experience all her favorite scenes in glorious reality. For better or worse, her little comment slipped past Melody’s ears, and once everyone had had their fill, in all respects, they moved on to the next location.
Paltescia was a grand castle town, layered into three distinct sections. At the center sat the palace, from which all of the royal capital propagated. The Upper District encircled it, and the Lower District encircled that. Generally, the closer one’s residence was to the palace, the greater their standing. This held true for the Lower District as well as the Upper. Dividing the two districts, and thus the highborns from the lowborns, stood a great wall, restricting passage to only those with the proper credentials. Melody had accessed the district on her first day in the capital thanks to a temporary permit issued by the Commerce Guild, but now that she was formally employed, she could come and go as she pleased.
There were other divisions as well, invisible and marked by naught but disparity. The strip of the Lower District directly bordering the Upper District, occupied primarily by wealthy merchants, was commonly referred to as the high quarter. The vast majority of the capital’s residents lived in the inner quarter, the largest of the three subdivisions. Beyond, straddling Paltescia’s outer walls, was the outer quarter, the den of the destitute.
In the game, Prince Christopher often skulked about the Lower District in secret, so as to witness the state of his people with his own eyes. His ostensible “date” with the heroine was but one of many covers he used toward that end.
First, they came to the high quarter. The café would help sell the illusion of their relationship as well as provide the prince a point of comparison with the ice creamery’s Upper District relative. It also served as a window into the common people’s lives. Next, he escorted his fair partner farther out, to the inner quarter, where the blood of the city ran through its thickest arteries. Here, the lower and middle classes mingled, forming the bulk of the commoner population.