Chapter 19: Coffee Float

Chapter 19:
Coffee Float

In the southern region of the Western Continent resided the Sand Nation, a country in which magic flourished.

Approximately half of the Sand Nation’s territory was a vast desert that could bear no vegetation or support human life. In terms of area, the Sand Nation was larger than any country across both continents, though its actual population was about equal to that of some of the other nations on the Western Continent. For citizens of the Sand Nation, their only option was to build their towns and cities next to the ocean, close to rivers, or by the occasional oasis.

Magic use was widespread out of necessity. It was a special technique used by the elves, who some thousand years ago were removed as the rulers of the world by a fast-moving plague. Magic was one of the few ways that the frail humans could fight against the great Mother Nature.

In the case of the Sand Nation, much harsher living conditions compared to the other countries of the world made magic all the more important. There were no trees in the desert that could be used for fires and no landmarks one could use to travel through across the desert accurately. The likelihood of locating water while in the desert, the difference between life and death, was thin. The ability to use magic made many of these problems easier to contend with, if not obsolete. Magic also gave people the ability to deal with the dangerous monsters in the area, as well as the undead born of fallen travelers. (In the other world, those who passed on and were not properly buried became undead beings who brought death to those around them.)

In the Sand Nation, sorcerers were both in high demand and high in quantity, quality notwithstanding. Caravans crossing the desert always hired multiple magic-users to accompany them, and all nobles were assumed to have magical knowledge. As such, it didn’t take long for “that” to spread throughout the nation.

The sun in the sky blazed down with intense heat upon those who walked beneath it. Hoods were raised. A young sorcerer quietly prepared his goods in his shaded stall. Cafa was the Sand Nation’s most common drink, but he was making something altogether different. The young man took the cafa beans and ground them into powder, put it into a bag, and dropped it into a copper pot filled with boiling water. The cafa essence released from the powder dissolved into the hot water, darkening its color. He then mixed sugar into the pot, stirring it all together. Sugar was quite cheap for citizens of the Sand Nation compared to elsewhere in the world, thanks to local trade with nearby island and desert nations.

Up until this point, the young man had made one of the traditional forms of cafa.

It was from here on out that sorcerer did something entirely different. After finishing the process, sorcerers would then begin to cast a spell. This particular type of magic was considered one of the most fundamental arts that a sorcerer in the Sand Nation could learn, on par with fire-starting. It was the ability to control cold air. While the spell wasn’t nearly strong enough to freeze an enemy in battle, it was perfect for cooling objects.

The young sorcerer cast his spell on the copper pot, watching as it and the cafa inside began to chill. After making sure that both were sufficiently cold, he took a sip of the cafa to confirm it was finished. The cool fluid ran down his throat smoothly, completely unlike the hot version of the drink. Its refreshing, sweet, and bitter taste spread throughout his mouth. After checking his product, the young man licked the remaining cafa off of his lips and raised his voice.

“Come one, come all! I got ice-cold, sweet cafa here! It’s nice and refreshing!”

Passersby began to gather around the young man’s stall in droves.

“Let me get a cup!”

“Me, too!”

“Lemme get one!”

The orders came one after the other, none of the customers paying any mind to the hot cafa they normally drank. It made sense to drink something warm after the sun had set and the desert grew cool. But under the ever-watchful burning eye of the sun, a sweet cup of cold cafa felt like the nectar of the gods.

“Ahh!”

The man started to pour cold cafa into ceramic cups, and his customers took their time enjoying its refreshing taste.

“Whew!”

He could hear his customers making satisfied sounds. There was nothing like a cold cup of cafa during a hot day. Its flavor was on a whole different level.

Traditionally, cafa was drunk while hot because once it cooled down, its taste soured. That was common sense. This, however, was magically cooled cafa. It possessed a completely different, delicious flavor from naturally cooled cafa. When the citizens of the magically-inclined Sand Nation discovered this, cold cafa became just another one of their regular drinks.

Now multiple stalls sold cold cafa made in copper pots that wouldn’t shatter even when cooled. They helped keep the citizens of the Sand Nation cool and refreshed.

Hmm, ice coffee sure got big… a passerby thought to himself, walking by the stall on his way out of the city.

The man rode a desert lizard, common to this region, and had a refined face, with beautiful bronze skin and deep, black hair. He was extremely well built, wearing clothes embroidered with fine silk from the Ocean Nation. The young man looked beautiful, as if he should have been adorned with golden accessories and jewels.

The man’s destination was close to the empty desert next to the capital city. There he would find a black door with the mark of a cat on it, sitting out in the open.

His name was Shareef, and he was a regular of the Restaurant to Another World who lived in the Sand Nation.

Shareef was also incredibly nervous.

I wonder if she’s in today… he thought.

The sun had just passed its southern zenith and was slowly making its way west; the hottest time of day. This was usually when she came to the restaurant. That was the only reason why Shareef dared to brave the scorching sun to visit the black door.

I suppose there’s no point in fussing over it, is there? Shareef made peace with himself and opened the door. As usual, he was met with the sound of a bell ringing. He quickly surveyed the interior.

…Hmph, I guess she’s not here today.

There were customers sitting inside, but the girl he was looking for was nowhere to be found. Shareef found himself simultaneously disappointed and relieved. He sat down in the back where he wouldn’t stand out too much.

“Here’s your menu.”

As usual, the master brought the quiet young man a menu and a glass of water.

“Many thanks.”

Shareef nodded in gratitude and looked down at the menu. It was open to the “drinks” section. After taking a look at his options, he placed his order.

“I’ll have a coffee float with ice cream. Please make the cafa nice and sweet.”

“Aye, you got it.”

Shareef handed the master his menu and began to relax as he always did.

This restaurant remains as mysterious as ever.

It was five years ago, just after Shareef had come of age, that he discovered this place. He had treated himself to a night stroll through the castle town, and just happened to come upon the black door. His curiosity got the best of him, and he opened it up only to find an otherworldly restaurant just beyond.

The Restaurant to Another World. It was a place where citizens of Shareef’s world all came together to enjoy strange, new cuisine. The young man dropped by every so often to enjoy the master’s cooking. At most, he came by once a month, typically after the vicious sun had set. Or at least, that used to be the case.

Some months prior, Shareef visited the restaurant during the day on a whim, when the sun was at its hottest. That trip would fundamentally change the way he interacted with Nekoya. From that point on, he visited once every seven days without fail, coming only when the sun was blazing down upon the citizens of the desert.

Shareef had found a reason to do so.

***

The ringing of the bell signified the arrival of yet another customer. Each time the sound found its way into Shareef’s ears, he instinctively turned to look at the entrance.

That’s not her…

Entering the restaurant was a familiar sorcerer. The half-elf was royalty from the Eastern Continent, and she once visited Shareef’s father with her master before he came of age. He let out a sigh. While she was undoubtedly beautiful, she wasn’t quite his type. Not to mention, despite her good looks, she was as old as his parents. That alone was enough to put him off.

“Sorry to keep you waiting! Here’s your coffee float.”

As if noticing Shareef’s expression darken, the master returned and placed the young man’s glass cup down in front of him with a shining silver spoon.

Oh, well. It’s not a complete loss, he thought. Not with this delicious treat, anyway.

Shareef collected himself and cast his gaze downward. Sitting before him was a glass cup filled with cold cafa and hard, transparent ice. Water droplets slid their way down the outsides of the cup. Sitting atop the ice at the top of the cup was a white mound…

Ice cream.

A bent tube stuck out of the cup, not unlike a snake of some kind, allowing for Shareef to drink without having to tilt the glass.

As a citizen of the Sand Nation and a lover of cafa, this was the one item on the menu of the Restaurant to Another World that truly called to him. First, Shareef put his lips on the tube and sucked ever so slightly.

Delicious.

The cold, sweet bitterness of the cafa flooded into his mouth. This variation on the popular drink had only just been discovered in Shareef’s world. Initially, he had his servants use cooling magic to make the drink, and as time passed, it became fairly commonplace at the palace. Eventually, its popularity spread to the nobles, ultimately reaching even the commoners.

The hot coffee of the other world had a strong aroma and was undoubtedly delicious. That being said, cold cafa, with its perfect balance of sweetness and bitterness, was a blessing to those who called the hot desert nations their home. It was no wonder the citizens took to it so quickly. In fact, it was so popular that people had taken to describing unrelated things by saying they were “as different as cafa that’s gone cold and cooled cafa.”

Now then. Next is…

After taking multiple sips of his drink to make sure it wouldn’t spill, Shareef finally turned his attention to the ice cream. He took his spoon and drove it into the white clump, its bright color contrasting sharply with the dark coffee. Shareef then brought the spoonful of frozen goodness to his mouth. Its sweet flavor and aroma immediately spread across his tongue and through his body. The frozen treat left behind a cold, sweet aftertaste of rich milk, eggs, and vanilla as it melted atop his tongue.

The ice cream here is just something else… Shareef thought to himself as he continued to indulge in the coffee float in front of him. The milky treat known as ice cream was slightly different from the icey confectionaries he normally ate. As the prince of the Sand Nation, Shareef was used to eating snacks of all kinds made from frozen fruit juices and sugar water. But they were neither as richly sweet nor soft as ice cream.

The prince was also aware that there was more to the coffee float than just the strong taste of vanilla; there were all sorts of other available flavors. During the summer months at the Restaurant to Another World, the master offered a wider variety of ice cream types than usual. There was the standard vanilla, brown chocolate with its unique sweetness, a variety of different fruit juices, and even a sweet flavor with alcohol in it. All of these were cheap and tasted different, yet each and every one of them were delicious in their own ways. Shareef thoroughly enjoyed sampling them. As much as it pained him to admit it, even the Sand Nation, with its incredible magic and technology above and beyond that of the Kingdom of the Eastern Continent, could not recreate the tremendous flavor of ice cream.

On a whim, he once ordered some to go, as a gift for his little sister. It came in a some kind of box packed with magic ice, trapping the cold air inside and protecting it against the fierce heat capable of even evaporating water. After his sister tried some for herself, she too was of the same opinion as him. Ever since then, she continued to ask her older brother to bring her back ice cream every time he went to the restaurant. Shareef had clearly made a mistake.

The ice cream in the prince’s float had soaked in the unique flavor of the cafa and slightly hardened due to the ice in the glass. It was just as he was enjoying this unique fusion that the bell on the door rang once more.

“Hm?”

Shareef looked toward the door and immediately froze in place.

“Good day, Master.”

There stood the most beautiful of princesses. Unlike Shareef with his bronze skin, hers was a pure white, her cheeks red like roses, and her hair golden. Her eyes were as blue as the ocean itself, and her lips were a pale pink. She wore a rather plain dress, but its actual construction was clearly top class.

It was her.

“Welcome!” said the master. “Will you be having the usual?”

She considered it. “No, not today. Could I see your menu, please? I think I’d like to try one of your other parfaits today.”

She was the reason Shareef became a regular here. He immediately sipped up the last of his cafa.

“Okay. Master, might I trouble you for a coffee jelly parfait?”

“You got it!”

The beautiful princess sat down at a table separate from Shareef. The young prince couldn’t help but follow her beautiful figure with his eyes. For some reason, he got the feeling that the last bit of cafa tasted sweeter than usual.

Hrm, it’s gotten late.

It was just around the time that the sun was setting. Holding a box with the three different types of ice cream that his little sister requested, Shareef left the Restaurant to Another World behind him and returned to the Sand Nation.

She truly is the very definition of beautiful. What a wonderful day it has been!

Only recently had Shareef managed to discover the identity of the woman he so fondly thought of. She was a princess of the Empire, one of the few countries on the Eastern Continent that stood toe to toe with the Kingdom. She was the first princess, Adelheid, and she was more beautiful than any woman in the Sand Nation. The look of pure joy on her face as she enjoyed her parfait was nothing if not radiant.

Every time he saw her, he noticed that her once-pale face was regaining its color. She was overflowing with the liveliness of a girl her age. It was that which utterly charmed Shareef, lighting a fierce fire in his chest.

I really should talk to Father about this, he thought. Which means I need to win Renner over to my side.

Shareef, young but wise beyond his years, decided to enlist the help of his little sister. Renner was the apple of her father’s eyes and could be a huge help in this situation. At the end of the day, Shareef was dealing with a princess of the Empire. While he was royalty in his own right, it certainly couldn’t hurt to have more allies when talking about matters that would affect an entire continent.

Shareef sighed. Oh, beautiful princess. Will you feel for me the way I feel for you?

Shareef returned to the palace, his mind racing. The Sand Nation was located in the southern region of the Western Continent. It wouldn’t be long before the prince would request the imperial princess’s hand in marriage.