VRMMO no Shien Shokunin ～Top Player no Shikakenin～

「Good morning. Master, Mariko-san.」 (Wataru)

「Ah, Wataru-kun. Morning.」(Shirou)

「Morning, Wataru-chan.」 (Mariko)

Saturday morning, I entered the shop for my part-time job, greeted the elderly couple and put on my apron.

They were both currently cleaning the interior and lining up the chairs.

The owner was called Hyuga Shirou-san and his wife Hyuga Mariko-san.

A small coffee shop inconspicuously built in an alleyway in the shopping district, this is where I was working part-time.

I used to work in places like convenience stores and fast food restaurants, but those types of busy stores just didn’t go well with me.

Just when I was thinking about what work I would be able to do for a long time, as if I was pulled by something, I entered this shop and it marked the beginning.

The interior gave an antique and calm feeling and the aroma and deliciousness of master’s coffee…it was love at first sight.

「Today is service day after all. I’ll get fired up!」 (Wataru)

「Don’t force yourself. Jeez, Wataru-chan, you work too hard so auntie is worried.」 (Mariko)

「This is nothing. Since you increased the amount of the menu you are in charge of, it’s been quite comfortable.」 (Wataru)

「Fufu. In that case, shall we make preparations to open the shop?」 (Mariko)

They weren’t supposed to be hiring anyone but I made an unreasonable request for them to hire me.

The reason for that was because this store, 「Sunny place (Hinata) teahouse」 was scheduled to close in a couple months due to financial difficulties.

After that, we borrowed the help of various people and were able to get back on track and that brings us to the current day.

As long as nothing goes wrong, I plan to work here until I graduate from high school.

「Oh right, master. What happens to cocoa when you add salt or black pepper? I read something about it in a magazine a while back.」 (Wataru)

「Hmm? Let’s see…adding salt will increase its sweetness and if you add black pepper it’ll improve its aroma.

「It’ll probably warm up your body even more combined with the original effects of the cocoa.

「Wataru-kun, do you know about spicy cocoa?」 (Shirou)

「No. Do they add cinnamon?」 (Wataru)

「You are right about the cinnamon. Other than that, ginger, red pepper, nutmeg, cardamom…there are quite a few things that go well with it so there are plenty of variants. They have various aromas and flavours, it’s pretty interesting.」 (Shirou)

「I see. I might try it out next time.」 (Wataru)

「Come on you two, your hands have stopped. Men sure end up talking about their knowledge right away…」 (Mariko)

「Ah, I’m sorry.」 (Wataru)

Next to me who was apologizing, master made a bitter smile and proceeded to go and put up the board sign.

Meanwhile, I focused on making preparations for cooking, I made the dough and poured it into the mold.

When I had baked about three of them, the regulars that came to eat in the morning entered through the door.

「Welcome.」 (Shirou)

「Morning, master. A morning A set please.」

「Understood.」 (Shirou)

Once he heard the order, master ground the beans in the manual mill.

For a while, the interior was filled with a great fragrance…hah, I meant this.

As long as this rich fragrance is here, I can feel this sensation of harmony…no good, my poor vocabulary is unable to describe what’s great about this fragrance.

It might be because I took a liking to it, but when you drink it, its flavor is deep and the sourness of its aftertaste is excellent too. I really love the taste of the coffee that master brews.

The morning set that regulars ask for often in the morning are mostly made of toast sets and pasta ones, for the time being, I went back to making preparations.

By the time the ones I started baking are done it’d be around 10am.

I moved around while being busy cleaning tableware and tables, cooking and taking orders.

Mixed in among the regulars that were here for breakfast, you could see that the amount of young women was increasing here and there.

「Welcom-…ah, Saitou-san.」 (Wataru)

「Hey there, Kishikami-kun. Since it’s service day, I came to get some cake.」 (Saitou)

「Thanks. Are you alone today?」 (Wataru)

「Nope, I have plans to go shopping with friends so we decided to meet up here. Both of them are coming later.」 (Saitou)

「I see. In that case, please take a seat in a table.」 (Wataru)

「Yes.」 (Saitou)

I placed a somewhat large piece of chiffon cake on a plate and brought it to her table along with a blend coffee garnished in fresh cream.

Cake set of the day, its cost was a single 500 yen coin.

Usually it would cost 100 yen more…but the difference of 100 yen is no laughing matter for a student.

That’s why it tends to be quite busy when we reduce the price every Saturday.

What I’ve been mixing since this morning, putting it into the molds and baking in high quantities were all chiffon cakes for this cake set of the day.

The weakness of this shop was that it was unable to bring in young customers…in order to fix that, I proposed to serve a cake set of the day at a low price a week after I started working here.

Originally, this shop mainly offered toasts and pasta dishes, if we were talking about sweets, it would be pancakes at most and that bothered me.

Since we were short of hands, we added chocolate cake to the menu, but since we only were able to make 1 type of it, we decided to change it into offering a cake of the day.

The person who spread the word about this shop with word of mouth was actually this Saitou-san.

Even in this age of the internet, it seems that there’s value in word of mouth online.

Right now, you can even see students from the local university.

「Ah, Kisshi a cake set for me too.」

「Watarun, me too.」

「Kishikami-kun, a coffee refill please. The chiffon cake was so fluffy. So good.」 (Saitou)

「…Got it, please wait just a moment.」 (Wataru)

I wonder why it is so hard for people to call me by my given name?

The ones that ordered were the two girls that had suddenly appeared in Saitou-san’s table and her.

It’s a bit lively during this hour…but once it gets close to noon, the age of the people that come to the store will be higher and the atmosphere of the shop will turn calm.

From 3pm to early in the evening it will once again be filled with young people and turn lively.

Adding the original clientele, the store does give quite the nice feeling of rotation.

「Thank you for coming.」 (Wataru)

Saitou-san and the others left the store satisfied.

They said that they would come again later if they had any money left after buying their things…but from what I’ve seen, the chances for that are slim.

They did seem like they were in the mood of letting fate run its course and buy various things.

There was a period of time, where they worried that having too much of an increase in younger customers would destroy the peaceful atmosphere of the shop.

However, luckily both of them said that they were happy because it felt like the number of grandchildren they had, had increased.

There’s also the fact that the times they come don’t tend to overlap with the time the old regulars come and they didn’t seem to lose interest in the shop either so they were relieved at that time.

I saw Saitou-san and the others off, once I got back to the kitchen, Mariko-san approached me.

Even though she’s at this age, her actions are relatively youthful.

That’s why, she asked me this.

「Wataru-chan sure is popular. Who do you prefer among those three?」 (Mariko)

「Mariko-san, please stop that. To begin with, two of them already got boyfriends you know?」 (Wataru)

「Ara, such a shame.」 (Mariko)

「It’s not really a shame.」 (Wataru)

Normies should explode…well not really.

Since it’s like that, I wished they brought their boyfriends to the shop too. It would contribute to the sales.

By the way, the one that is free among those three is Saitou-san. Unfortunately, the number of applications for that position is high.

The busy morning and lunch time’s peak time ended and the customer traffic calmed down a bit.

The one who unexpectedly appeared at that time was Shuuhei, who was completely energetic unlike last night.

「Hey, Wacchi. Since I was free, I came to tease you!」 (Shuuhei)

「…Master, give this guy a blue mountain.」 (Wataru)

「Don’t be like that, Wataru-kun.」 (Shirou)

「Wai-wai-wait! Nearly 1000 Yen for a cup of coffee!? I won’t drink that! I don’t even have a refined tongue to understand the flavor!」 (Shuuhei)

「Since you are already here, order something. If you don’t, I’ll force you to drink a Black Ivory.」 (Wataru)

「My monthly pocket money will all be gone! …Eh, let’s see…a blend coffee and a pizza toast. Wacchi, since you are free, come and talk with me.」 (Shuuhei)

By the way, Black Ivory is a type of coffee beans that’s salvaged from elephant’s excrement, a single cup goes for thousands of Yen, it’s a top class bean.

Occasionally, a gentleman with a perfect suit orders it, so we do have small quantities in our store.

Shuuhei saw that there was not a single customer in the shop and beckoned me to his table.

I’m still in the middle of my shift though…when I looked at master and his wife, they smiled implying they didn’t mind.

「Wataru-chan, go ahead. You still haven’t eaten lunch right? I’ll make something for you.」 (Mariko)

「Ah, is it really OK? In that case…a Naporitan.」 (Wataru)

「Got it. I’ll bring it to your seat, so take it easy. Go with your friend.」 (Mariko)

「Thank you very much! Wacchi, come on.」 (Shuuhei)

「Ah, I’ll be right there. In that case, I’ll take your offer and take a break.」 (Wataru)

「Yes, go ahead.」 (Mariko)

Since it’s Shuuhei, he’s probably going to talk about the game.

Though I’m a bit annoyed that I noticed my face becoming softer too.