I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level Max Level Witch - Volume 14 - Chapter 5

  WE THOUGHT ABOUT THIS YEAR’S WITCH’S HOUSE CAFÉ  

That day, I went shopping in Flatta with Falfa and Shalsha. Sandra came along, too.

Sandra wasn’t a very straightforward person, so whenever I asked if she’d like to join, she’d usually turn me down by saying she would prefer to photosynthesize or something.

But that didn’t mean she never wanted to come along, nor was she a shut-in. Of course, since she spent most of the day outside in the vegetable garden, shut-in probably didn’t apply, either way.

For that reason, I made sure to invite her along whenever I could. It was a bit of extra work, but I had a feeling most kids were like Sandra. I was cranky when I was a kid, too.

Falfa and Shalsha, on the other hand, were unusually obedient. But that was fine, too.

“Hmm. The townsfolk are different today,” observed Sandra.

She’d noticed that something felt different about Flatta and was busily looking right and left.

“They’re carrying big pieces of cloth and constructing things,” she continued. “Oh, that’s right—isn’t it Dance Festival season soon?”

She’d arrived at the answer so quickly; I was shocked.

“That’s right! You remembered, Sandra. I didn’t think you were all that interested in human festivals, but you’re right. They are getting ready for the Dance Festival!”

“Plants remember well what happens in a year. We have to make sure flowers bloom in the right season, you know.”

I see. That was a good, plantlike reason. A cherry blossom tree that bloomed in autumn wouldn’t have a good time at all… That would be like if someone got the date of a wedding wrong and showed up a day late.

“Mommy, are we doing the Witch’s House Café this year?”

Falfa looked at me expectantly.

That’s right—in the past, the family would hold a one-day-only café up in the house in the highlands the day before the Dance Festival.

Not to brag, but it always gets very busy. Actually yeah, I am bragging. That’s exactly what I’m doing. That said, it’s so successful that I have every reason to be proud.

In fact, I got the feeling Falfa was asking about it now precisely because she knew it had done so well.

“Shalsha believes we can make it even more exciting than last year,” Shalsha said frankly, her enthusiasm obvious.

I, however, couldn’t agree so easily. But I couldn’t stay silent, either, so I said in a low voice:

“Hmm… You’re right, I guess we’ll have to start thinking about the Witch’s House Café…”

I must have sounded half-hearted to the others.

Falfa and Shalsha looked up at me with surprise, so I added, “This is a very important matter, so we’ll have a good talk about it tonight after dinner.”

That night, after Halkara came home, we had our evening meal.

Afterward, everyone stayed in their seats.

*Incidentally, the conversation wouldn’t go anywhere if Halkara was smashed, so I limited her to two drinks.

“All right. Now, we’re going to hold a little meeting so we can decide what to do about this year’s Witch’s House Café!”

“Falfa wants it to be big! I think Miss Beelzebub and the others will help, too!” Falfa said as her hand shot up in the air.

I was very happy she felt that way. And I agreed that Beelzebub would indeed help us every year, even if we didn’t invite her.

“Madam Teacher, we have some space in front of the Halkara Pharmaceuticals Museum. You can leave matters in Nascúte to me.”

Halkara was keen on making some money, it seemed.

“I can ask Muu, too. Maybe the Thursa Thursa Kingdom can lend us a hand! They might even volunteer!”

I was delighted to hear Rosalie’s suggestion. I could tell how enthusiastic everyone was.

But that was why this was so painful for me!

“That’s precisely the problem!” I said, getting to my feet. “Our Witch’s House Café was a huge success last year. But it’s all gotten way too big. Vania even brought over tables and chairs in her leviathan form. It’s become so massive that it’s ceased to be a café…”

In terms of size, it was more like a huge beer garden. The demons Beelzebub brought along had done construction, too. To be honest, I didn’t even remember how many people were working on the day.

“So, uh… What I was originally going for was a little out-of-the-way café where people could catch their breath for a moment. But now, it’s grown into a huge annual event…”

That’s what troubled me.

“At this rate, it will only get bigger… And soon, it’ll be known not only throughout Nanterre but the entire country… It’ll completely eclipse Flatta’s Dance Festival, the original main event…”

The scope was expanding beyond my control. In fact, it had already reached that point the year before.

“Indeed—if tens of thousands of people were to swarm the area, it may attract those wanting to establish commercial stalls, thieves targeting festivalgoers, and other similar problems…,” Laika mused, tilting her head in thought. “That would not be good for Flatta.”

A café that had tens of thousands of customers in one day wasn’t really much of a café anymore.

“Exactly. If this keeps getting bigger and bigger, we might end up spending most of the year preparing… And then we’d just be an events company.”

There were a huge number of events in this world, for some reason, and I was sure none of them started preparation only a month beforehand. They had to recruit vendors, rent out event spaces, look for staff—with all that stuff to think about, they would have to start at least a year in advance.

Even when it came to school cultural festivals, no class chose what they were going to do with only one week to spare. If they were dealing with food, they’d have to send out special notifications, too. The cultural festival committees had to start work well ahead of the event.

The Witch’s House Café wasn’t just starting out—we were waist-deep in the swamp of big event-dom.

“It would probably be difficult to downsize at this point, though, right?” I said. “Word is already spreading, and we know we’ll get even more attendees this time around.”

“Madam Teacher? You’re calling the customers ‘attendees.’ You must already be thinking of it as a big event subconsciously…”

“Oh gosh. You’re right, Halkara.”

Cafés didn’t usually call their customers “attendees.”

To be honest, as the Dance Festival drew closer, I had been starting to worry about how we were going to get through this.

Tears of joy are a normal reaction to a successful business, but right now I just wanted to cry for real.

“Then we should just cancel, Mistress,” Flatorte said breezily. “It’s not like we’ve told anyone we’re doing it this year. No one has any right to complain if we don’t.”

“You truly never think about what you are saying, do you? The café is big enough that it affects the attendance numbers of the entire Dance Festival. We cannot simply cancel it…,” Laika said with a sigh.

“Why do we have to worry about Flatta? That has nothing to do with us. Would fewer people cause the whole festival to fail? Don’t they do it every year regardless?”

“Mgh… If we could push through with logic alone, Lady Azusa would not be so troubled… Think about it for moment, won’t you…?”

Mindful people like Laika always had it rough in situations like this… That said, I did understand what Flatorte was trying to say. Laika was right—it was very logical.

It wasn’t like the village itself was asking us to do this. We didn’t have to. But if we decided not to do it, that might still cause a commotion in the village.

I glanced at Halkara. Maybe this was a good time to ask someone with a managerial perspective.

“Oh, then why don’t we go with a numbered ticket system?” she said.

“A numbered ticket system?”

That was unexpected.

“Yes, yes! We could issue numbered tickets for the café, and only the ones with tickets could come in. That way, the café will never be overcrowded.”

“Shalsha thinks that if you weren’t always inebriated, you’d regularly save the day, Miss Halkara.”

“Is that spite I sense, Shalsha…? Am I really that bad when I’m drunk…?”

“The fact that you aren’t aware of it, Miss Halkara, is already a sign you need to think about your alcohol consumption. Many times, you have nearly reached a point of no return.”

Falfa’s expression was genuinely worried.

Halkara winced sheepishly. “I’ll be as careful as I can from now on… Um, back to the numbered ticket idea.”

That’s right—we weren’t talking about how to fix Halkara’s drinking habit.

“And we can write on the ticket, Your ticket is only valid for the whatever-o’clock time slot. Please come a little earlier. If you are not here on time, we may allow another guest to enter ahead of you. That should help us control the crowd. What do you think?”

“Hmm, hmm. Even if we can whittle down the attendance numbers, if more people than capacity show up, it would still cause problems. In that case, maybe this is our only choice.”

Since the café wasn’t a public service, it would probably be fine to limit attendance.

“That will allow us to keep running the café, so I think we should try it.”

“Oh, but there’s a chance it might not turn out so well…” Halkara went slightly pale. She must have discovered a downside. “If we were to implement a numbered ticket system for something so popular, scalpers would line up to buy the tickets. Then they’d resell them at an inflated price, which would be very bad…”

Crap! I hadn’t even considered a ticket resale problem!

“And if the tickets go for too high a price and no one buys them, we might hand out all the tickets and get no customers. That’d be a tragedy… Still, we can’t charge money for the tickets. Maybe it would be feasible if we only served one set meal, but that’s not how people order at cafés. No one will want to decide what they want weeks in advance… Oh, this isn’t going to work! It just isn’t! I take it all back!”

“I have no idea what just happened, but it looks like the one who came up with the idea is voluntarily withdrawing it.”

I never dreamed I’d ever be worrying about ticket resale issues in this world…

But considering how popular the café was, I was sure there would be people with no interest in the event itself who would try to get a ticket just to sell it for a profit.

“Being alive is rough. It’s always money, money, money, isn’t it?” Rosalie remarked thoughtfully.

“The balance of supply and demand is so difficult… Running a shop is really hard!”

Then Shalsha slowly raised her hand.

“Do you have an idea, Shalsha?”

“Shalsha thinks that one of the reasons the café is so popular is that it only happens once a year. Therefore, many people come because they know they only have one day to visit.”

“Well. I suppose that’s correct.”

“Then the best solution is to make it no longer special. If we run the café all the time, we can avoid most of these problems. That is why I think we should open a permanent Witch’s House Café around Flatta or Nascúte!”

As Shalsha spoke, her eyes grew wider and wider. She seemed very enthusiastic about this idea.

“This keeps getting more and more complicated!”

I had never once thought about opening an actual café.

I didn’t want to shut down my child’s idea, but…I didn’t think that was the solution, either.

“That’d mean working at a restaurant… And I feel like that’s the opposite of relaxing…”

Every morning, we’d have to do prep, and after we closed every evening, we’d have to clean up…

Oh no, I could already see how much trouble it would be. At that point, my job wouldn’t be witch—it’d be restaurateur!

“Why don’t we just open it whenever we feel like it?” said Flatorte. “Whoever happened on us at the right time could consider themselves lucky, and it’d be a lot easier on us.”

Laika gave her another exasperated look.

“Then there is no point in a permanent establishment, is there? And if it is only open for a few days, we will have the problem of swarming customers again.”

“Shalsha thinks there is no reason for members of the family to always be working there. Anyone should be able to cook the food so long as we teach them. None of us cooks as their main job, but we’ve managed thus far. We’ll be fine.”

So Shalsha was of the opinion that we should only be involved in operations…

I put my head down on the table.

“That might solve our congestion problem, but…at that point, it’s not an out-of-the-way café anymore.”

My original goal was long gone.

“It was not that kind of café last year, either, Mom.”

“Shalsha’s correct. Madam Teacher, once popularity hits fever pitch, we can’t hide anymore. Every gourmet knows all the best hidden restaurants in the capital.”

Shalsha and Halkara delivered the coup de grâce. I guess this was what it meant to be popular.

“You’re right. If anyone wants to run the café, they’re more than welcome to. I’m stepping down…”

After I accidentally reached max level, I’d had my relaxed life interrupted on more than a few occasions, but this café’s popularity seemed set to destroy it entirely.

I needed to remember my original intent and stop pushing myself. I didn’t have to do it if I didn’t want to.

Just then, the door flung open.

What was going on? Was that Sandra coming in?

No, Sandra was in her chair. She’d just fallen asleep, since she wasn’t interested in the topic.

Then who was at the door?

“I overheard everything, man!”

Misjantie the pine spirit had come into the house.

“…How were you even listening?” I asked.

“Oh, I wasn’t eavesdropping, man! You’ve got a pine tree growing nearby, yeah? The pine tree just passed it along.”

“Maybe I should cut it down.”

She was eavesdropping. I hated the thought of other people listening in.

“Don’t do that, man! Without that pine tree, I’ll have no reason to keep the Flatta branch around!”

She’d made us plant that tree as a part of her strategy, hadn’t she…?

“What would you like to do about this, then, Miss Misjantie?”

Laika stood and made her way toward the kitchen. I bet she was going to make some tea for Misjantie. She was so good.

“I want you to let me run the Witch’s House Café, man.”

I didn’t think we’d find someone willing to run it so quickly!

“I gotta keep things diversified, otherwise I won’t be able to keep operating my pine shrines. I’m just trying to do everything I can, man.”

“Hmm… So long as you don’t underpay or overwork the locals, I’d be happy to let you do it. Oh, and don’t get greedy and try to mark up the salads by claiming the vegetables all came from the Witch of the Highlands’s garden or something.”

“You don’t trust me at all, Azusa… I’m shocked, man…”

Sorry, but you reap what you sow. Misjantie and Fighsly were evenly matched when it came to greed. If anything, Fighsly was the one with a sound grasp of economics; Misjantie was way more of a problem.

“Don’t worry about that, man. I’m planning on calling on the temple workers to do the job. I’ve gotta go say hi to some of the staff, so I don’t really have a choice.”

“Doesn’t that mean you’d be making the priests take food service jobs…? Isn’t it kind of a big deal to make people do work they’re not suited for…?”

Misjantie shook her head, then let her body droop.

“A lot of the priests have fallen on hard times because they don’t make enough, man… No priest can put food on the table with faith alone nowadays. It’d be perfect if I could just create employment for them, y’know… I’ve got enough to staff the place, so they wouldn’t be working overtime…”

This sounded way too real.

“Fine… Then I’ll let you take care of the Witch’s House Café, Misjantie…”

After she admitted she needed employment for her priests, it became very hard to turn her down. Even if there were problems, this was still a café we were talking about. I doubted anyone would be injured or miserable working there.

“Thanks so much, man! I know this is a well-known establishment, so I’m gonna give it my all!”

“It’s only ever been open for a total of two days, so I don’t know if you can really call it a ‘well-known establishment’…”

It seemed rude to equate it to restaurants that had earned their reputation over years of service.

“At any rate, we’ll teach you the recipes. Everything else we’ll leave up to you.”

“Got it, man. I’ll give you a shout once the shop’s set up and the priests arrive. I’ll only open it once the priests have gone through training and can re-create the flavors flawlessly.”

“Please stop talking about it like it’s a famous restaurant with a long and distinguished history.”

I personally thought the food was pretty good, but the café became popular because of its novelty, not what it served.

Still, if this allowed us to start business well before the Dance Festival, we could almost certainly ease congestion. Travelers could come during the festival, and those who lived nearby could come another day. I bet very few would want to spend a week traveling just to come to the café.

At that point, I was thinking we’d basically solved the café problem, but…I was naive.

“Hey, Big Sis, can I have a sec?” Rosalie said to me from overhead. “I think the biggest draw of the Witch’s House Café was actually a certain someone’s presence…”

When she finished, she turned to look at Laika.

“…Gasp! Miss Rosalie, please do not insinuate such things! I have done nothing particularly impressive or fantastic…,” Laika protested, her face going red.

But the way she protested was so cute that it kind of invalidated her point. Rosalie was right. Laika in her maid uniform was practically legendary. That might sound like an exaggeration, but it was surprisingly close to the truth.

“If she’s not there the day before the Dance Festival, I’m pretty sure people will be disappointed… I can’t force her to do it, but…”

“Y-you misunderstand! A café is not a place where people go to see a particular staff member! It is a haven of r-relaxation!”

What Laika was saying was true, but I knew a lot of our visitors last year had come just to see her.

“Laika, please! You’ve gotta help out, even if it’s just for a short period of time, man! Just a little while! The time right after opening is critical for places like this, man!” Misjantie begged. It all felt a bit dramatic, but Misjantie’s entire temple system always seemed on the verge of bankruptcy, so she probably had no choice but to go all out.

Laika seemed defeated, too.

“Okay, but only because it is a special occasion… I have no intention of dealing with customers for days in a row, all right?” Laika was setting forth some conditions for her agreement.

“That’s perfect, man. We want it to feel really special, so once a year’s all we need.”

Incidentally, Misjantie was a spirit people actually worshipped, so I sometimes wished she’d speak with a little more dignity. But that was neither here nor there.

It looked like the problems surrounding the Witch’s House Café were going to be solved. I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

The café was built in an empty spot about halfway between the towns of Flatta and Nascúte. Construction moved quickly, probably because a tree spirit was in charge, and it was completed two days after they received permission to start building.

“Oh, you’re making its official name House of the Pine Spirit,” I said. “That works for me.”

Since I wasn’t going to be there, this name would be much more accurate than the Witch’s House Café.

“Yes. I didn’t want people complaining about Laika’s absence, so I decided to go with this name instead.”

It sounded petty, but I had the feeling it was a very shrewd decision.

“Okay, man. I’m gonna ask you to check how the food tastes once the priests arrive. They should be getting their oracles from the pines right about now, so they’ll be here soon.”

I wondered how it would feel to be a priest receiving an oracle from the spirit they worshipped asking them to work at a restaurant… But maybe that devotion meant even bizarre oracles wouldn’t faze them.

“To be honest, I wanna give the priests better salaries… I told ’em when I hired ’em that this was a declining temple, though. They were given fair warning, but… Man.”

“That sure is tough…”

Unfortunately, some religions were growing, and some were dying out. That’s just what things were like out there in the world.

That aside, there’d been something bothering me since the moment I got here.

“Why’d you pick such an awkward place to build the café? It’s not close to either town.”

It wasn’t in Nascúte, and it wasn’t in Flatta, either. Maybe it was perfect for those who went back and forth between the two, but it was weirdly inconvenient for most.

“The biggest reason was ’cause the land was cheap, man.”

“That’s not a reason I was expecting to hear from a spirit…”

Well, I guess if she wasn’t strapped for cash, she wouldn’t have offered to run the place.

“And out here, man, we’re not gonna be bothering any neighbors even with a big crowd. If we put it in Flatta, it’d get crowded and awkward during the festival. I don’t wanna deal with any complaints.”

“There’s nothing pine spirity about any of this…”

She was cautious, though. I’d give her that.

“Also, this is the place where the pines grow the healthiest.”

The spot was, in fact, off the main road and through what was basically a pine tree tunnel. Maybe it was due to associations from my previous life, but the pines made the place seem very Japanese. It almost felt like the garden of some fancy Japanese-style restaurant.

“You’re sincere in the weirdest ways, Misjantie, considering you saved that reason for last.”

If she was trying to act the part, that would have been the first thing she said.

“Feelings are important, but so is money, man. And the reality is, money usually wins out.”

“Please don’t say that in front of your priests…”

They’d probably be shocked.

“Oh yeah, there’s a little temple for worship in the back.”

Just as she said, in the back of the building was a small stone shrine with the words Pine Spirit Misjantie carved into it. The building resembled a house with a little shrine in the yard.

In front of the shrine was a notice board.

“You really need to stop begging for offerings whenever you get the chance!”

“Actually, seizing every opportunity is the key to success! Every coin counts, man! If someone give a single gold with feeling, you gotta accept it!”

I couldn’t believe she was trying to turn begging into some kind of lecture on ethics.

“But you’d be happier getting a hundred or a thousand gold over just one, right?”

“Of course, man!”

The more I learned about spirits and gods, the less faith I had in them. It felt a lot like snagging a dream job, only to be hit by the harsh realities of the industry…

Just as Misjantie said, temple priests arrived from all over a few days later, so I headed back out to the House of the Pine Spirit to help teach them our recipes.

When I got there, this is what the priests told me:

“I am so thankful for this opportunity. We were only just scraping by after turning more than half of our lot into carriage parking.” “We sold our land to a company that built a three-story shop on the property, and we’ve been practicing in a small corner in the back.” “The pine on our lot has withered and looks terrible, but we have no money to replant it.” “One cannot make a living on faith alone these days, you know? A second or third job is a must.”

All of them were in deep financial trouble!

Misjantie clapped her hands and addressed the priests.

“Okay, everyone, enough misery poker. We’re gonna have you all perfectly replicate the food from the Witch’s House Café, man!”

“Very well, great Pine Spirit Misjantie.” “I will never forget how you appeared to us in this manner.” “I do not regret my faith!” “We will make this business thrive!”

I was impressed they could stay faithful in the face of such a casual spirit!

“You all listening? Now, Azusa is gonna teach you how to cook everything on the menu. Treat her like another pine spirit, man.”

“Understood!” “I will lick your boots if you ask me to!” “I will not complain even if you poke me with a pine needle.” “If you wish, you may hit me with a pinecone at the speed of a professionally pitched baseball.”

They were humbling themselves in the weirdest ways, and I hated it!

“Just curious,” I said, “but have all of you met the pine spirit in the flesh before? Aren’t you shocked or anything?”

“She is just as casual as the oracle foretold.” “Based on the description I got, I would feel more betrayed if I were met with an old man with a graying beard.” “A follower goes down with their spirit.” “She’s even cuter than my wife.”

I felt like I was at a village meeting.

Though I worried about their futures, I was lucky that the priests were so earnest and hardworking. They picked up the task at hand pretty quickly, too. It wasn’t like we had some super-secret forbidden sauce or anything, so all the food was easy to re-create.

“All right. I’d say they’ve got the flavors down pretty well now,” I said as Misjantie and I sampled the dishes.

The priests were on their break and had gone into to town to enjoy themselves.

“Good, man. Well, so long as we get decent business from Flatta or Nascúte and I can put away a little bit of cash, I’ll call it a success.”

“You don’t have a lot of passion for this, do you, Misjantie? I know you need money, but you don’t seem very motivated to strike it rich.”

That’s what made her different from Fighsly. The latter would do anything to turn a profit.

Misjantie flashed me a cynical smile. “Well, compared to the real Witch’s House Café, we don’t have much of a draw. This place is run by middle-aged guys who can barely keep their own temples going… It’s not gonna be as successful as a place run entirely by cute girls. You gotta understand how important the cute factor is, man…”

I wasn’t sure how to react to that.

“I mean… It’s not like we were running a café staffed by popular actresses from the royal capital or something. We aren’t that special…”

“Azusa, dude, that’s not it. It’s the visual. We just can’t compare. We’re not gonna strike it big even if we replicate the food perfectly. The food’s important, too, but it’s just one of many elements, man.”

“Please don’t say that about running a restaurant.”

I had really complicated feelings about what she was saying, b-but anyway! Hopefully, the House of the Pine Spirit would find its way to success.

The House of the Pine Spirit opened about one month before the Dance Festival.

According to Misjantie, things were going steadily, and they’d started off on a better foot than she’d expected.

It might sound weird to be pleased about a business only doing so-so, but personally, I was relieved. It seemed like this would be a good point of compromise to solve the café’s congestion problem. I felt my stress finally melting away. I could participate in the Dance Festival, free from worry.

That was how I’d originally wanted to spend the Dance Festival, so you might say I was starting over.

But, again, I was naive.

One nice day as the festival was approaching, someone paid us a visit early in the morning. It was Natalie, from the guild.

“Great Witch of the Highlands, we ask that you please hold the Witch’s House Café again this year!”

“Oh, uh. Well, there’s a place called the House of the Pine Spirit that’s—”

“We know your location has moved!”

I didn’t think what we’d done counted as moving locations, but I knew what Natalie was trying to say.

“But it must be a café with you and your family as staff! Please! Please! We would love it if you would go all out for the festival! That is the villagers’ consensus! If only for the duration of the festival, do you think you and your family could appear at the new location?”

Ugh… It was hard to turn down a request from the town itself…

Laika arrived with a cup of tea for Natalie.

“Um… Though it wasn’t my preference, I will be working at the café the day before the festival…”

“Yes! I have heard already, Miss Laika! We expect great things from you!”

“Who told you…? Oh, I suppose it was someone from the café…”

That seemed likely… Misjantie wasn’t going to bury information that might attract customers.

“Still! It’s all of you who make it the Witch’s House Café! If only Laika is there, then it would be the Laika Is Cute House!”

“And I would not work anywhere with a name like that,” she said flatly.

Same here. I’d hate to work at a place called the Witch Is Cute House, too.

“And so there is good reason for all of you to get together and put on the Witch’s House Café! It is the biggest event of the Dance Festival! Everyone in the village agrees!”

“We’ve only held it for two years, you know. Are you really okay with that?”

“Yes! You have lived much longer than the festival has existed anyway!”

Natalie had hit me where it hurt. She was right… From my perspective, the festival was still pretty new.

And not to repeat myself, but it was very difficult to turn down a request from the village. They were always looking out for me, so it felt wrong to refuse them…

“Um, even though the café is in between Flatta and Nascúte, there’s a chance it’s going to be a lot more crowded than it was last year. No, I’m sure it will be.”

“The guild is currently gathering adventurers to work as traffic control. We will do everything in our power to make this work! And we’re establishing a numbered ticket system so that not too many people come!”

“But what about scalpers—?”

“We’ve hired guards and adventurers to combat them!”

They’d thought more carefully about this than I expected! After all that, I really couldn’t say no.

“Fine… But we’ll only do it for one day, on the eve of the festival…”

At the very least, I would. I didn’t think it was right to ask Laika to do this alone.

“Thank you so much! That’s my main task for today all done!”

Natalie went home in high spirits.

Afterward, Misjantie paid us a visit.

“Hey, uh, if possible, could all of you come work at the café the day before the festival? And not just—”

“I know,” I said. “We’ll be there.”

“Please, man, just— Oh. You’ll do it?”

There was no other choice—we’d simply have to give it our all!