The sign was unnecessarily high-quality, but the dragon carved into it was a Black Dragon depicted in a ridiculous, comical fashion.
Justina, looking up at the sign, furrowed her brows in clear displeasure.
"You there, human. Move your eyes, won't you? I am not a spectacle for a low-born creature like you to gawk at."
The man, who had been stealing glances at her out of curiosity toward the Elf, hurriedly turned his head away. Justina continued walking with a haughty expression.
"Shunya, let us go inside."
Though Justina acted high and mighty, she showed a fair amount of intimacy toward Shunya, who had joined the Magic Research Society with her. At Yggdrasil, she spent most of her time with her.
Even though her behavior often resembled how one might treat a precious pet, there was currently no student closer to Justina than Shunya.
As the two stepped inside, Owen, who looked busy, approached them with a smile.
"Oh, Elf-ssi. I didn't expect to see you here?"
"And what is that supposed to mean? Are you saying it is an honor for someone as noble as I to visit such a tawdry place?"
"Uh... something like that."
It was a response given with an awkward laugh, but Justina, thinking Owen was a man who knew his place, sat down in the seat he guided them to.
"Enough with the flattery. Just call that man over."
"That man?"
"I am speaking of Seo Yeon-woo. I thought he was a human with some modicum of wit, but it seems he's quite lacking."
As Justina crossed her arms and maintained her arrogant attitude, Takeo approached with a scowl. Owen secretly gestured for him to stay back and replied.
"Yeon-woo isn't here today."
"What? I heard all students must participate in the festival. Is that vulgar man incapable of following even a single minor rule?"
Because of that very rule, Justina had been forced to work at the hamburger shop Akito had planned.
It was infuriating enough that she, a noble Elf, had to wear a vulgar outfit that exposed her thighs while serving humans. Hearing that someone like Seo Yeon-woo had dared to skip out made Justina's fine brows knit together in a display of rage.
"Ah, I heard there was an accident at his house."
"An accident?"
"Yeah, apparently his house exploded?"
"...I apologize, but I do not yet fully comprehend the low-tier idioms of humans. So, stop speaking in riddles and tell me properly, will you?"
"...No, it really exploded. Literally, pung."
"Pung?"
"Yeah. Pung."
How many times in one's life would they experience their house exploding?
The Wall—and specifically City A, which was surrounded by other cities—was the definition of safety itself, yet they said his house had exploded.
"Did he perform some strange magic experiment? It sounds like a clumsy mistake that a stupid man like him would make."
"I don't know the details. He's being investigated, so he might not be here tomorrow either."
"Sigh... a stupid man through and through."
She had come here to mock him for being popular among humans with low-class palates, but Yeon-woo happened to be absent.
Just as Justina was clicking her tongue because her plan had gone awry from the start, Owen asked.
"Shall I... get you some coffee? Or did you just come to see Yeon-woo?"
"Is there even coffee if that man isn't here?"
"Ah, I heard Yukina and Jade learned the recipe. The two of them are making it right now."
She had come to ridicule Yeon-woo, not to harass others.
Justina debated whether to leave, but then she saw Shunya's sparkling eyes.
The desserts were all purchased from outside, but the patissiers hired with Yeon-woo's financial power boasted a quality that matched the exorbitant amount of money paid.
Seeing Shunya's gaze fixed on the clearly alluring desserts as if she were dying to eat them, Justina decided to grant her wish since they were already there.
"This and this, and for the drink... no. Don't look at me like that, Shunya. A lady does not eat everything at once. One dessert per cup of tea. No matter how much you want to eat, you must maintain your dignity."
Shunya, who had been watching Justina order from the menu with twinkling eyes, let her ears droop in disappointment.
"All the desserts are quite cheap compared to the coffee."
"That's because the coffee is the main attraction."
"Coffee is just coffee, no matter how you look at it. Do you not have black tea?"
"Unfortunately, we only have Magic Coffee in the women-only section. Do you not like coffee?"
"Coffee... I have tried it once. I poured the whole thing down the sink after a single sip."
"Haha, you won't be pouring it out this time."
Owen took the order and headed inside.
Seeing his overflowing confidence, Justina let out a mocking smirk.
They said it was delicious, but how good could something made by that man really be?
Justina was someone who regularly consumed items classified as high-end cuisine.
She had eaten countless dishes and tasted delicacies prepared by magnificent chefs throughout her life.
She was the one who had vastly improved the taste of the hamburger shop Akito opened, and she took pride in the fact that her sense of taste was second to none.
"Hmph—the tea set is acceptable. To think you'd use Hermesh... at least you have some eye for quality."
"I don't know much about it, but Yeon-woo said it was expensive."
"The price is not important. Money does not represent the value of an object."
"Ah... well, anyway, enjoy."
Even the good-natured Owen found Justina difficult to deal with, so he served the coffee and quickly retreated.
Shunya immediately stuffed a dessert into her mouth, and Justina let out a small sigh.
"Goodness, you must enjoy the scent of the tea first. I have much to teach you."
"This is incredibly delicious."
"It seems so. It looks like he managed to source these from master craftsmen somewhere."
There was no equipment visible for making such desserts, nor was there the smell that usually wafts through the air during baking.
Even if it was a festival where amateurs opened shops, once a sign was hung, one should have the pride to make the food themselves. To think he bought food from the outside.
Justina shook her head and lifted her cup.
She was a hardcore black tea enthusiast. She considered coffee to be nothing more than muddy water made from the dregs of seeds, believing black tea to be the true Queen of Teas.
"Shunya, you should drink some too. It is rude to not even taste it, no matter how much of a piece of trash it is."
"Um... actually, I don't really like coffee. It's too bitter."
"Indeed. Black tea is the only real tea."
Swallowing the words that she hated black tea too, Shunya followed Justina and lifted her cup.
Justina personally corrected Shunya's hand positioning on how to hold the cup, and Shunya cautiously brought it to her lips.
Watching her with a satisfied look, Justina put the muddy water to her own mouth.
As she said, it was rude to curse something without even tasting it—no, it wasn't a curse, it was an evaluation.
The Magic Coffee entered Justina's mouth, where she had briefly let her inner thoughts slip.
In an instant, a massive tempest of flavor surged through Justina's body via the taste buds on her tongue.
She didn't want to admit it, but a taste that forced her to submit began to ravage her body indiscriminately.
The advance of flavor that began on her tongue spread in all directions, striking her brain and making her fingertips tingle, before flowing down to her legs and forcibly prying open the thighs she had been tensing to maintain her dignified posture.
"Hwaa..."
Justina, who had almost leaked something from her loosened legs, snapped back to her senses in shock and clamped her thighs and groin tight.
Owen and Takeo, who had been watching her reaction from afar, returned to their tasks with faces that said, 'I knew it.'
Everyone acted like that when they tasted Magic Coffee.
Whether they liked coffee, were aficionados, or hated it, it was a demonic coffee that forced them to find it delicious.
Justina, feeling somehow damp between her tightly closed thighs, endured the disgrace and tried her best to act calm.
Although Owen and Takeo had already witnessed her initial reaction, Justina, who had been momentarily out of her mind, didn't notice and believed she was maintaining her dignity well.
"...Shunya?"
"Hyu-et?"
And what Justina saw upon regaining her composure was Shunya, lying on the floor with her legs spread wide.
It was a stroke of luck that Justina had made Shunya change her clothes before coming, as she couldn't have her walking around in that vulgar and embarrassing hamburger uniform.
If she had been wearing the short uniform instead of pants, Shunya's private parts might have been exposed to everyone through her splayed legs.
Justina didn't know exactly what that posture meant, but Shunya, who had instinctively taken a posture of submission, belatedly snapped out of it and hurriedly sat back in her chair in a panic.
"Ah, that... the co-co-co-coffee was just... so delicious..."
"I-Indeed. It is... somewhat usable. For a human, it's quite decent."
Shunya, her face bright red, bowed her head and sipped the coffee. Justina, still bothered by the dampness between her legs.
The two enjoyed the Magic Coffee with awkward expressions.
"Yawn~"
Damn it, while everyone else is enjoying the festival, youth, and sex, what the hell am I doing here?
Despite the pursuit by Erin and Frey, those mastermind bastards managed to escape well.
I took a stance of 'I don't know anything,' but... that won't be enough to escape their gaze, will it?
Was that orb called the Sisa or whatever really that important?
Still, those mastermind bastards pathologically hate having their identities revealed, and since they caused such a big scene this time, they'll probably stay quiet for a while.
And they'll have to worry about the Zvoni too, so it should be fine... right?
It's unsettling because the game gave so little information on the masterminds, but if I remember correctly, all the executives are deployed around this time to accelerate the Whiteout Phenomenon in the Zvoni world.
It was a ritual to spread the Whiteout Phenomenon, and a spell like that couldn't be easy.
That's why they were quiet when the humans and Zvoni were at war.
If those guys are wandering around worrying about me, does that mean the damage to the Zvoni decreases by that much? Is that a win?
I don't really like the idea of gaining a benefit by putting my own life on the line, though.
But what can I do? It's already happened, so I just have to be more careful.
I just have to hope the two who escaped report that I don't know about the orb and stop caring about me.
Anyway, thanks to those mastermind bastards, I've been suffering like crazy since last night.
First, my house was blown away so I came to Yggdrasil, and I've been under investigation ever since.
Can't they just organize the questions and have one person come?
Safety measures? This department, that position—they keep taking turns investigating and interrogating me, and it's driving me insane.
I couldn't exactly say 'There are masterminds, please go crush them,' so I had a hard time making up stories.
If it weren't for the Whiteout Phenomenon, I'd just run to a broadcasting station and expose everything.
As the story progresses, Akito gains the power to resolve the Whiteout Phenomenon because of the things the masterminds do, so I have to maintain the status quo to some extent.
Can't they just give him the power all at once? Release Lilia's seal, need Tyran's energy, strange items for the poison planted in the body, magic formulas, and even the Source and Enlightenment.
Why is it so complicated? Those fucking developer bastards, why couldn't they just make the progression simple instead of having so many plot points rely on coincidence?
Thanks to them, I'm the only one suffering.
I was investigated until dawn, got only a few hours of sleep, was investigated again, and another investigation is scheduled shortly.
The fact that I'm at Yggdrasil and can hear the sounds of people enjoying the festival in the distance makes it even more frustrating.
If I just go one block from here, I can enjoy the festival.
I'm technically under protection, but I'm basically in a state of detention and can't leave.
The government will only let me go if I faithfully participate in the investigation.
The waiting room is on the first floor, so it's peaceful as can be outside the window.
As I leaned my head against the window frame, passing the idle time, someone walked this way.
They weren't aiming for me; it seemed they were looking for a place with fewer people since the main festival street was crowded. But since I'm here, this is a restricted area they shouldn't just wander into.
Brown hair and a cute face—it's the pauper.
That orange hamburger shop uniform really stands out everywhere.
The pauper looked around cautiously and then opened a small box she was carrying.
Is that takoyaki?
Looking at the food in the box with an expression that looked like she might start drooling any second, the pauper carefully picked one up, put it in her mouth, and then stomped her feet in joy.
That stuff is delicious. I know because I bought one and tried it too.
The pauper jumped for joy every time she ate one.
It's the kind of cute reaction that would make anyone happy to see someone eating the food they made like that.
The price was only 1 Wit, so it could be eaten without much burden, but for the pauper, it was likely a purchase she made after a big decision.
But... why is she alone?
Come to think of it, even though she joined Akito's follower group, the pauper wasn't seen much.
She wasn't there when we went on the Shrine Maiden clan request last time either, right?
This is the problem when things become reality.
There's a limit on the number of people for requests, so if the research society members increase, it won't feel like much if someone is left out, but since there aren't many right now, the sense of alienation from being left out of the party must be insane.
Is that why she can't get along with the members?
Whether she was savoring it or not, the pauper, who had been chewing thoroughly after every bite, held the last one and gulped.
Are you disarming a bomb or something? Why so serious?
After taking a deep breath, the pauper slowly moved the takoyaki toward her mouth, but perhaps because she had been holding it on the toothpick for too long, it fell.
"Ah! Eut! Aaah! Haat!!!"
Wow... she's a gag character among the heroines, but just watching her from the side is entertaining.
The pauper, who performed all sorts of physical comedy to keep the takoyaki from hitting the ground, sprawled out pitifully, and the takoyaki fell right in front of her.
"Noooo..."
The pauper, looking devastated as if a lover had died, stared blankly for a moment before picking herself up and looking around.
But can't you see me right next to you?
The pauper was sitting down and I was looking down from above her head, so I guess I wasn't in her field of vision.
After checking her surroundings, the pauper looked at the takoyaki on the ground with eyes filled with greed.
...No, right? The 3-second rule is already over.
Seeing the pauper sneakily approaching while checking her surroundings again, I let out a sigh.
By the way, what was her name? I only called her 'the pauper' when playing the game, so I can't remember.
"Hey, pauper."
"Hyaak-!"
The pauper, jumping in surprise, stared at me blankly.
I toyed with the Wit I had stacked on the window frame and smiled at her.
"Do an errand for me."
"Yes?"
"I'll give you 5 Wit if you do."
It's 100G per Wit.
About a thousand won in Korean currency. Last year, a bottled elephant sold at the festival was 10 Wit, so you can get a sense of how cheap the items sold at the festival are.
It was only 500G, but the pauper, while still staring at me blankly, automatically nodded her head.
Just how little money does this girl have?