189: Cafe

Making our way into the carriage, I was surprised to see Lily already inside, taking up an entire bench herself. Well, she was until Sylverith sat on top of her, forcing her to move over. I couldn’t help but laugh at that. If anyone else tried the same move, I’m certain she would not move at all.

We soon arrived at the nobles’ market, as the carriage slowed down while people parted to make way.

“They are not all there for Micca’s shop, are they?” I asked.

Liane chuckled next to me as she looked out the window.

“They probably are, dear. There has been quite the buzz about it,” Sylverith commented.

I couldn’t help but feel nervous now. Was bringing Lily a mistake? I thought that if it wasn’t too busy, then people could easily move around her without the natural pressure causing too much issue.

The carriage came to a halt, and before I could even gather my thoughts, the door opened, looking directly at the entrance to Micca’s cafe. It had been completely changed since I had last seen it. There were now large open windows on the front that looked into the store, with a large wooden double door that was currently closed.

Out front, there appeared to be several tables and chairs set up, with some plants growing in pots. Up top I saw a sign: Ember Cafe.

Just off to the side of the doors I saw George and Darren in brand new full armour that had red embellishments on it, along with an obvious symbol of a dragon on the chest plate. Next to them stood two Royal Guards, making the entrance look very imposing.

Behind the guards, there was a line of people. From what I could see, they were mostly nobles, going by how they were dressed. I didn’t see a weapon or piece of armour at all, with most of them craning their necks to get a look at who had just arrived. I heard some let out a shout as Crisplet and Lily stepped out behind me.

With Liane and Sylverith coming out last.

“Oh, I do like what she’s done with the place,” Sylverith said.

“Is that because she’s gone all in on the dragon decorations?” Liane said with a chuckle.

“Of course, dear. We dragons are prideful after all,” Sylverith commented as she inspected everything.

I nearly laughed out loud as I saw Darren panicking as she was inspecting the dragon image on his chest plate.

Crisplet surprised me. Rather than waiting, he immediately went right next to the entrance and caused a couple more soft screams as he started to build a statue. I watched as I saw what appeared to be a smaller version of the tree that sat outside the front of the house now taking form right next to the entrance.

I also couldn’t help but sigh when Lily chose right there to flop to the ground and observe everything, forcing everyone who would enter the store to walk past her.

The Royal Guards clearly were not sure what to do with the situation, but rather than say anything to us, they instead shuffled the crowd just a little further back to give Crisplet and Lily some space, as the door to the cafe opened and Micca was standing there looking frazzled.

“Great! You’re here. Get in here,” she said.

I was about to take a couple of steps forward when I stopped, looking at Lily and Crisplet. I didn’t want to leave them out front alone, but Crisplet just sent me the feeling of overwhelming excitement as he was quickly building a chest-height version of the tree.

“Lily is going to stay out here and observe,” Sylverith commented.

With that, and one final glance, the three of us stepped inside, the door closing behind us.

Inside, Jen, Milo, and Hari were all sitting at a table with giant grins on their faces. Behind them I could see several people rushing about, heating water and bringing cakes to the display from the kitchen.

“Micca, I have more candies and the lemon tea for you as well,” I said.

There was a look of relief on her as I said it. “Amazing! Because we absolutely were not prepared for a turnout this large and had nowhere near enough tea,” Micca said.

“As I told you, if people miss out, it will only make them want to come back again to figure out what they missed,” Jen said.

Looking out the window, I saw the carriage pull away and was surprised that there was even a crowd watching from the other side of the road.

“We should probably move upstairs before I pull everything out,” I said.

Micca nodded, leading me towards the stairs, with Milo following close behind, heading toward a wooden door off to the side of the room and pulling out a key before unlocking it. That led into a small sitting room with the stairs behind yet another door.

“This was turned into a small waiting room for expected guests to have a private sale,” Micca explained as we walked past the small room.

When we made it upstairs, I saw there was now a study with several shelves and a large desk in the middle. The second room that was up here was now behind a locked door.

On the desk, I removed all the goods I was holding, starting with the jerky, the new candies, and finally all the tea.

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“This next one, though, I need to warn you, it is burnt tea,” I said.

Micca just looked at me strangely.

“Adventurers will still buy it due to the buff it provides despite the unpleasant taste, so sell it, don’t serve it, and let them know it has a strong smoky taste,” Milo said from the doorway.

“And you’re sure we should serve the lemon tea for free today?” Micca said, looking at Milo.

“Absolutely, if you’re okay with it. Again, I’m going to warn you, this will absolutely cause a reaction of some kind. We don’t know how extreme it will be, so there is a risk, and this is your shop,” Milo said.

Micca shrugged. “Let’s do it.”

I noticed that Micca now had a second storage ring on her fingers as she stored everything away before taking a deep breath.

“Ready to do this?” Milo asked.

“Yep. Let’s go,” Micca said with a giant grin.

Heading back downstairs, I saw there was a new carriage sitting out front of the store, one that I was now very familiar with.

“Looks like we were right. Someone from the royal family is here,” Milo commented as we walked past the window.

“Looks like Crisplet has nearly finished the statue too,” I noted.

Micca was slightly confused by that before catching sight of it out the window.

“He made a statue?! I’ll have to look shortly,” Micca said, rushing behind the counter with the tea.