CH 42

Yesterday, after handing me the pendant, Grandma went back to the hospital.

Ki Yoohyun also said he need to go because he has something to do.

“Do you have something to do? Now?”

“Yes, I have an urgent business to take care of.”

The eyes that said that were sharp, without even the slightest smile. ‘Take care of‘ doesn’t seem to be something like going to the post office or bank transfer.

Still, both of us stayed up all night. Are you not tired? People need to sleep on time.

I urged him out of pity.

“Would you like to have some coffee at the store?”

“I really want to, but I can’t. I’ll stop by next time.”

Umh, then there’s nothing I can do about that.

By the time I left Ki Yoohyun and returned to the store, it was almost noon.

I stayed up all night, but I wasn’t tired thanks to the high-quality potion Ki Yoohyun gave me. With the joy of finally getting a dark etheric item, my steps were rather light.

“I’m here.”

First of all, I have to feed Mieum and Lime, then contact Choi Yichan and hand him the pendant.

“Did you take good care of the house?”

However, I couldn’t hear Mieum and Lime’s answers.

… Don’t tell me!

I checked the floor first. However, the floor is still clean. Fortunately, they didn’t make a mess of the store with the footprint stamp like last time.

So … where and what are they doing?

“Mieum-ah? Lime-ah? What’s wrong, are you still sleeping?”

Oh, there she is.

“….meooong.”

Suddenly, Mieum appeared from the corner.

But instead of coming close immediately, she swung her paw strangely from afar.

“Huh? What?”

“Meooong….”

I can’t hear you.

“What is it? Mieum-ah, why don’t you come here and tell me?”

The answer came from someone other than Mieum.

“You’re coming quickly.”

“A-aargh!”

I was startled by the cold voice that suddenly interrupted me.

The person, who was sitting in a chair, got up. The action caused Lime, who was on his lap, cried and bounced to the floor.

The owner of the voice was Kwon Jiwoon.

Whoa, I was surprised. I thought he was a thief. Why the hell is Kwon Jiwoon here at this hour?

“Kiyaoong (Where have you been! That man came all of a sudden this morning)!”

Perhaps a lot of complaints were piled up, Mieum threw her front paws at me.

According to Mieum, Kwon Jiwoon suddenly came this morning. What’s more, he has been waiting all this time knowing I’m not here. Without a word, staying still.

It’s a very worrying situation for Mieum, who wants to run around to her heart’s content.

“Waeoooooong (It’s irresponsible to leave us alone with that human)!”

“I had a reason, too.”

I asked Kwon Jiwoon while patting Mieum’s chin gently.

“What happened all of a sudden? Aren’t you busy?”

No matter how much I thought about it, there was nothing for Kwon Jiwoon to suddenly come to see me.

Why did you wait for me here for hours when you must be busy with guild work?

“…..”

“…..”

Flinch. His eyes shook. Kwon Jiwoon did not answer for a moment with a stiff expression.

I waited patiently for his words. The words that came out after a long time were unexpected.

“I’m just here to give this back.”

Tak.

Kwon Jiwoon put a stainless steel thermos on the table.

Ah. I put Americano in that thermos last time. I completely forgot about it.

But … it’s not something that needs to be delivered directly. We’re cousins, but we don’t see each other often.

“You can ask someone else to do it.”

“Kkyuu…”

Is it because of the mood? Lime’s nonsensical cry sounded like it was reprimanding me.

“Or ust leave it there.”

“Waeooong….”

This time, Mieum glared at me.

No, why, what. Why are you looking at me with an expression that I said something senseless? Did I say something weird?

“Meooong (No, you’re screwed up).”

I felt weird being treated like this by a cat.

He’s come all the way here, so I can’t tell him to leave right away. Above all, as if pushed by the silent pressure from Mieum and Lime, I offered him coffee.

“Umh, now that you’re here, would you like to have a cup of coffee?”

I just said it. I asked once out of courtesy.

Of course, I thought Kwon Jiwoon would refuse. Even when I gave him coffee in that thermos before, he didn’t welcome it.

“Yes, shall we?”

“Huh … aren’t you busy with the guild?”

“I’m not always that busy.”

Well, then.

After that, I decided to make the quest menu, vanilla latte and caramel macchiato. I took out the vanilla powder and caramel syrup I bought from the Dimensional Shop.

The vanilla latte was made in a similar way to the cafe latte. First, put vanilla powder in a glass, then pour espresso to dissolve it well. Next, pour the steamed milk with soft foam into the glass and it’s done.

[Item: Vanilla Latte (★★★☆☆)

The caramel macchiato was also not difficult, but the order of putting it into the glass was different. Put the caramel syrup in a glass and pour the steamed milk first. Next, when the espresso is poured, the surface of the drink is marked with brown dots.

Finally, it was completed by sprinkling caramel drizzle in the shape of a honeycomb.

[Item: Caramel Macchiato (★★★☆☆)

Status: Good (Time Remaining: 00:30:00)

Removes a random status abnormality.]

Both glasses have a pretty good effect.

I left the vanilla latte for myself, and handed the caramel macchiato to Kwon Jiwoon.

“….”

“….”

Gulp.

The moment the other person takes a sip of my coffee….

This moment is always tense. Especially, it’s Kwon Jiwoon. Maybe it’s because we feel distant even though we’re cousin.

Kwon Jiwoon, who drank the caramel macchiato, was quiet for a while. He just gently stroked the cup with his fingertips. His expression is also cold, his usual expressionless face, so I have no idea what he is thinking.

“….Strange.”

“Uh, wh-what?”

Unknowingly, I was nervous at the low voice.

“It seems that every time I drink the coffee you give me, I feel better. My potion addiction is finally gone.”

“Ahaha, it must be a coincidence.”

I laughed without realizing it. I was happy to know that the coffee I made was working properly.

The bar of light that appeared above his head slowly fills up. There was no ‘you made a deep connection with coffee‘ notification, but I was happy nonetheless.

“….Kwon Rieul.”

“Uh, huh?”

“I told you to move the cafe to the first floor of our guild before.”

… Gulp.

“Let’s forget about it.”

“I don’t want to move … uh? Really?”

“You followed our grandmother well, so it may be natural that this happened.”

Was it an illusion that those small muffled words sounded bitter?

“Good luck.”

After leaving those words, Kwon Jiwoon went back after drinking all the caramel macchiato.

Admit it … did you get it? Like in a cooking cartoon, you drink a cup of coffee and feel touched, “If it’s you, you can do well here!“, is this that kind of situation?

While I was bewildered, a system notification popped up.

[Congratulations! You have completed ‘Main Quest: The Path of The Barista (2)’.

Please collect the reward.]

[Main Quest: The Path of The Barista (2)

You’re a confident barista now.

Increase the sales menu by completing the cafe’s five basic menus (café latte, cappuccino, cafe mocha, vanilla latte, and caramel macchiato).

[Rewards: Experience (200 EXP), Random Recipe, ???]

Among the quest completion rewards, ‘???’ was the only item other than experience and recipes. So please, I hope it’s a good thing.

With a pounding heart, I chose to collect the rewards.

[Experience: 200 EXP have been acquired.]

[You have reached Level 6.]

[You have acquired the new recipes: ice menus.]

Thud!

Then, a heavy sound pounded the floor.

[The volume of the reward is too large to be received in the inventory.]

[The reward is automatically generated outside your inventory.]

“Oh….”

In this case, I have no choice but to have expectations.

It doesn’t necessarily mean that something big is always good, but how big is it that it doesn’t even fit in the inventory?

Is it furniture?

Why not, Cafe Management games always have interior decoration elements. I thought it would be nice to put a piece of furniture in the empty space over there.

I checked the reward with excitement….

Hence, this signboard appeared.

“…..earthworm?”

“Waeooong (Earthworm)…..”

“Kkyuuu…..”

The cries of Mieum and Lime felt sad.

A squiggly line was drawn on the signboard. To put it bluntly, I would call it an avant-garde design.

No way, I don’t want to believe it, but …. the name of the cafe is ‘Cafe Rieul‘, so did the shape of the letter ‘ㄹ‘ symbolize it?

…………………………………..

…………………………………..

Well, let’s just put it in the warehouse. There’s no way I have to hang this on the wall.

I was trying to drag the signboard and move it to the warehouse, but the system notification popped up again.

[Special effects are applied when signboard is installed.]

[Item: Signboard of Cafe Rieul (★★☆☆☆)]

Type: Sign

The signboard of <Cafe Rieul>. The name of the cafe was completed with a simple yet glamorous, familiar yet unique, classic, and modern touch.

Note: It has the effect of attracting customers’ attention when installed. More customers pay attention to the cafe.]

…………………………………..

Is it a crossroads between performance and appearance? It seems that they forced me to choose between an ugly item that performs well or a pretty trash.

I wanted the eye-catching effect of the customer, but I didn’t want to hang a sign like this on the wall.

“When you have a dilemma, there is only one solution.”

“Kyuu?”

“What is it!”

“I’ll put it off for now.”

I put the sign right in the corner. I was going to leave it as it is for a while.

And I checked one more remaining system notification.

[Achievement: ‘Avoiding the Second Death Crisis‘ has been achieved. Please collect the reward.]

When Grandma Kim Deokyi’s workshop caught fire, this notification popped up.

This is the second crisis after the last time, how many times are there? Why do I have to go through a death crisis when I’m just running a cafe?

Aside from this uncomfortable feeling, the reward was ‘Random Skill Point 1‘. In other words, it would mean that it randomly raises a skill level by one.

I don’t have a good memory with the word random. Before collecting the reward, I checked the skill list. In the meantime, there were also new skills, so there were a total of six skills.

Cafe in My Hand (C)

Details: (Lv. 1) When making drinks in the store, the level of perfection is increased.

The Floor is Shiny (E)

Details: (Lv. 1) You can quickly clean the toilets.

Smile (C)

Details: (Lv. 1) Smiling makes you feel better.

[The Barista’s Extraction (D)

Details: (Lv.2) Extract only the desired substance from the mixed substances.]

[The Barista’s Eyes (D)

Details: (Lv.1) You can find the ingredients.]

[The Bond of a Cup of Coffee (B)

Details: (Lv.1) You can copy the skill of the person who drank the Ultimate Coffee.

Well, among these, the level goes up randomly.

It’s fine as long as it’s not ‘Smile‘ and ‘The Floor is Shiny‘. The other four skills seemed to be useful if they were leveled up.

Four out of six. The probability is about 66%. That’s a pretty high probability.

‘Collect reward.’

Was it a problem to have such expectations?

The result, which appeared with the sound of ‘Tiling‘, was far beyond expectations.

[You have acquired 1 Random Skill Point.]

[The Floor is Shiny (E) level has risen to 2.]

The Floor is Shiny (E)

Details: (Lv. 2) You can quickly clean the floor.]

………………………………………………..

Ugh, you’re a terrible desire sensor….

[Next]

Translator’s Corner:

I’ve already explained this before, but just in case you forget, ‘Rieul’ is the fourth consonant of the Korean alphabet, ㄹ.

and I changed the wording of The Floor is Shiny’s skill details, I’ll edit the details in the previous chapters when I’m not lazy.

(I got headaches from doing the game’s event, so I postponed it and did this chapter instead.)