by CHIROLU
“Is that so? Right now, we’re packed, so there aren’t any seats open...” Latina said, looking a bit troubled as she addressed her childhood friend.
“I don’t mind. He can join me,” one of the regulars shouted out.
Latina looked fairly relieved, but a chill ran down Rudolph’s spine.
“Captain,” Latina said in a tone like she was little girl again, smiling at the man. “You’re alright with sharing a table?”
“It’s not as if we aren’t acquainted. Come on, have a seat over here.”
“Thank you.”
To Latina, even this man who led the group of ruffians known as the town guard of Kreuz was nothing more than one of the nice middle-aged men who had doted over her since she was little.
That wasn’t the case for Rudolph, though. As a member who was at the bottom of the organization and still learning the ropes, this man was high up in the clouds at the very top. And all the other members of his table stood in the upper ranks of the guards in terms of position and ability. Rudolph got the feeling that he wouldn’t be able to force anything down his throat at such a table.
To the middle-aged men, it was like they’d found an interesting toy. And with him by their side, their favorite adorable waitress would likely come by their table more often than usual.
That boy was that valuable, and he had ended up at the most terrifying table in the shop.
“What will you have, Rudy?”
“Um...”
“Hey, Schmidt, you don’t need to hold back. Come on, drink up!”
“R-Right!”
“You’re still just half a man, so start with this much.”
“Right!”
Seeing her childhood friend gulp down the mug he was handed, Latina turned around and hurried into the kitchen. At this rate, he’d come crashing down before long. She grabbed a large glass and filled it to the brim with water.
The concepts of harassment from a superior or being forced to drink didn’t exist in this world. If a superior said it, then that may not be enough to turn white to black, but you’d have to think of it as a dark grey. Society was unreasonable like that.
It was improper to have children drink alcohol, but then the question became what constituted an “adult.” In Laband, one was generally said to have come of age when they turned eighteen. But there were also places like Dale’s home village of Tislow where one was treated like an adult at fifteen. As such, age couldn’t be used as the basis for whether or not one was an adult, and generally, such milestones were nothing but a yardstick for roughly deciding when someone could work, be independent, or get married.
In Kreuz, most children started learning a trade while working in a subordinate position after finishing primary school. After that period of apprenticeship, they started to be treated as proper adults.
If one was earning money by their own hand and living independently, it was only natural to say that they were capable of being responsible for themselves. And so there was no reason to find fault with Rudolph, who had become a proper member of the guards, and adventurers of the same age who took on requests drinking alcohol at the Dancing Ocelot.
Even so, Rudolph was still young, and there was no way he could handle the strong liquor recommended by the veteran men, so after chugging it down, he started hacking. As he coughed and choked with tears in his eyes, the middle-aged men who had once faced such an initiation themselves broke out in hearty laughter.
“Are you alright, Rudy?” Latina came running with the water, clearly flustered. While rubbing his back, she rapidly chanted off a simple detoxification spell. “You shouldn’t push yourself when drinking. It’s dangerous.”
She’d lived at the Ocelot since she was young, so she was accustomed to seeing rookie adventurers collapse from acute alcohol poisoning and drunkards pass out from overdrinking. Worried about such customers, Latina learned detoxification magic to heal such symptoms, but that led to a vicious circle, as it made the customers feel more comfortable drinking themselves dead-drunk. In this specific magic alone, Latina was likely more experienced than the priests from the clinic at the temple of Niili.
After having Rudolph drink his water, Latina furrowed her brows a bit and faced the regulars at the table.
“Captain, you did that on purpose, didn’t you?” Latina asked, trying to act intimidating, but there was no gravity or power behind it.
“Ooh, scary!” Unfortunately, her words only served to delight the middle-aged men.
And as a result, they established that by messing with her childhood friend, they could make the naturally kind, adorable little waitress come running out of concern. They brought their hands together in prayer to thank the gods for this revelation.
By the way, having lived surrounded by drunken middle-aged men since she was little, Latina understood that reasoning didn’t work on drunks, so she gave them some leeway. The men were also aware of this, and they knew they could get away with this much without her hating them, so they didn’t hold back.
As the sad result of all that, Rudolph was promptly crushed. It was bad enough that if Latina hadn’t been around to heal him, it wouldn’t have been strange for him to be immediately carried off to the Niili clinic.
But even after all that, Rudolph wasn’t discouraged at all, and he visited the Dancing Ocelot again the next day.
Many young adventurers saw Dale’s absence as the perfect chance to make a move and get close to their idol, Latina, so they were clearly hostile towards Rudolph, who was unusually friendly with her.
Even the easy-going Latina noticed the strained atmosphere and looked confused.
“Did you get in a fight or something?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Hmm... Well, if anything happens then tell me, alright?”
After having that conversation with Latina, Rudolph took a sip of his sweet cider. At other shops, drinking such a girly drink would get you laughed at and called a kid, but it was a popular item at the Dancing Ocelot. The reason why was incredibly simple: it was part of their favorite adorable waitress’s special menu. Regardless of taste, Latina was bad with alcohol in general, and apparently even sampling was beyond her. She’d been seen having just a sip, a half-filled small glass’s worth, and turning deep red.
“You get along with that lad pretty well, don’t ya, little lady?” Sylvester called out, having noticed Rudolph and Latina talking.
Not seeming to grasp the intent behind the question, Latina tilted her head a bit and approached his table, then nonchalantly responded, “You know him, right, Mr. Syl? He’s Rudy, and he used to come here a lot. He’s a town guard now.”
“Um, little lady...”
“He’s no longer in training, so he’s started coming to the Ocelot,” Latina declared earnestly, and Sylvester responded with an awkward smile.
Staring at Latina as she headed back to work, Sylvester gave a sigh.
“You’ve got no room to talk about him either, little lady...” Sylvester muttered into his glass, so quietly that no one else could hear. Whether it made them feel anxious or jealous, Rudolph’s feelings were clear to everyone around him, but Latina herself remained oblivious. There were those who sneered at Rudolph for that, but Latina was so blatantly clueless that Rudolph’s rivals in love couldn’t help but see themselves in his place and feel sympathy for him.
However, Rudolph wasn’t discouraged, and he continued his daily visits to the Ocelot. He was well aware of how dense his childhood friend was and challenged that fact head-on. That much wouldn’t cause him to lose heart. He’d gone to see her every day as her old friend only for his feelings to be ignored. He had grown so used to it that he didn’t even realize how sad the whole thing was.
And in that way, he came to realize that ever since the “disaster of the night festival,” the relationship between Dale and Latina had become strangely strained and that Dale had left for work without settling things between them.
Rudolph knew that Latin
a was always looking at someone else. Though Latina looked like the youngest of all of them because of her small build and her clumsy speech, her friends all knew that in truth, she was mentally the most mature. They were aware of her feelings for her guardian—the feelings which could only be called “love” despite her young age.
Latina had never referred to Dale as her “parent” even once to her friends. She’d been sharp ever since she was young, so she understood that he was her guardian and was responsible for looking out for her. On top of that, she frequently joyously talked about Dale as someone precious to her.
That whole time, she was always chasing after him.
She couldn’t reduce the gap in their ages, but because she wanted to become an adult as soon as possible and be treated as one, she strived beyond her age at work and chores. She was a hard worker by nature, but more than that, she was pushing herself, wanting to be a woman who could always stand by his side.
Rudolph knew all that, and because he knew Dale was the one that Latina had feelings for, he was also striving his hardest to catch up to the other man. That large, far-off back of his couldn’t be easily reached, no matter how hard Rudolph ran or pushed himself. But even so, not wanting to give up on his feelings, he desperately struggled to improve himself and had grown stronger, and even though he was acknowledged and accepted by those around him, it still wasn’t enough, and he pushed himself further.
And so, Rudolph understood how Latina felt better than anyone. They had both spent so much time trying to catch up to Dale, and while their reasons may have been different, their feelings were similar.
After thinking on such matters, Rudolph gave a heavy sigh.
No matter how I look at it, I can’t help but think this is my only chance...
He arrived at the same conclusion no matter how often he thought it over, and he had to hold himself back from sighing again.
If I wait for Latina to get completely back to normal... I probably won’t have a chance to say it...
Dale had been absent for several days now, and at a glance, Latina seemed to be acting like her normal self. But to Rudolph, it still looked like she was pushing herself somehow. He had long since realized that he felt jealous that that guy could cause her to feel so depressed.
Rudolph looked down into his glass and lost himself further in his thoughts. Even though the hustle and bustle around him grew distant, his ears unconsciously picked up on Latina’s voice.
I can’t worry about taking advantage of her weakness...
He wasn’t in a position where he could act cool and say that he’d never do such a thing. He was fully aware that things weren’t so easy for him that he could say that. It was well known that on the field of battle, you needed to take advantage of any chance you got.
If I could just give up on her that easily without even saying anything, then... things wouldn’t have been like this for years now.
Hearing Latina desperately speak up during the night festival, her ears red as she forced the trembling in her voice to stop, had made him feel dizzy. He felt jealous of Dale having that voice and expression pointed towards him, and also despaired at the thought that things would end with his own feelings left unspoken.
Now that he’d been given a second chance, he couldn’t let it slip away so easily.
When Dale was standing watch, it was just too terrifying, and Rudolph didn’t think he could do it. If there was even the slightest chance, it had to be now, when Latina had her guard down.
While thinking rather pathetic thoughts, Rudolph’s determination showed on his face, only for Latina to suddenly pop up far closer than he’d expected. He was so shocked that he almost dropped his glass, but he instead hurriedly put it down on the table. It came down with a clatter that reflected the turbulent state of his heart.
“What’s wrong, Rudy? You look serious. Is something troubling you?” Her adorable face was clouded with concern, and her big grey eyes stared straight at him without a hint of shyness. She hadn’t changed since they were little.
Oblivious to the sort of affections and desires members of the opposite sex pointed her way, she got every bit as close to Rudolph as she had when they were children. She had no idea how much she was stirring him up as she defenselessly smiled at him and sat close enough that he could touch her just by reaching out a bit.
“Rudy?”
As she called out to him again, he came back to his senses. As he let out a big gulp, he swallowed down his own nervousness as well without thinking.
Latina didn’t realize any of this and instead looked at the glass that Rudolph had loudly set down. She looked happy to see that it was almost empty.
“Rudy, you drink that a lot. How is it? Is it tasty? Or do you think something a little less sweet would be better?” Latina asked, leaning forward and pressing him a bit; she was concerned with his evaluation of the menu she had put together.
“No, I think this is good,” Rudolph responded, giving his assent.
Hearing his response, she broke out in a carefree smile, like a blooming flower. In that instant, Rudolph earnestly thought, She’s so cute, and forgot all about the worries that had just been agonizing him. All that was left was obsessive determination to say those simple words he’d regret leaving unsaid.
“Latina.”
“What is it?”
“I love you.”
“Huh?” Latina blinked her big, wide eyes, not understanding the meaning of those simple words he’d so frankly stated.
“I’ve been coming to this shop to see you.”
“...Wha?”
“I’ve always loved you. That’s all I wanted to say...”
“Wha...?”
Unable to look Latina in the eyes as she made that strange sound in response, Rudolph ended things there and stood up from his seat. Without even looking back, he headed straight for the shop’s exit.
As the lukewarm night air cooled his flushed cheeks, the energy drained from him. Even the massive, staggering sound—a sound like a table being flipped over—coming out of the shop that he’d just exited didn’t reach Rudolph over the thumping of his own heart.
“What is it? What happened?!”
Hearing that tremendous sound, Kenneth came flying out of the kitchen and found Latina had collapsed on the floor amongst scattered plates and glasses.
“What happened?!” Kenneth asked about the clearly abnormal situation, a serious expression on his face.
“Wah!” Latina, who had for some reason been absentmindedly hugging a tray, shot up with a start. She started looking over the scattered dinnerware again. “I-I dropped it... I-I’m sorry...!”
“You’re not hurt, are you?” Kenneth asked, softening his voice and expression when he saw that there didn’t seem to be anything seriously wrong. Far later than she should have, Latina realized that everything had broken.
“Wah... I’m sorry, the plate’s broken...! Ow!”
She had reflexively reached out for the shattered pieces only to suddenly pull her hand back. Apparently, she had cut herself.
“Are you alright?”
“It’s just a little cut... I have healing magic, so I’ll be fine...”
“Just stay still and hold on a moment. I’m going to go grab something to clean this up with.”
“Wah... I’m sorry...” Latina said in a pathetic voice, her shoulders sagging. Leaving her behind, Kenneth returned to the kitchen.
Though Latina had helped out in the Dancing Ocelot since she was little, she’d never made such a big mistake before. Kenneth grabbed a broom while tilting his head.
The regulars who had seen her slip-up were flustered, too, though for a different reason than Kenneth. After all, they’d seen their idol being confessed to.
It may not have been true for all of them, but for most of the customers, each and every adorable action of the shop’s signature waitress had become their favorite “dish” to pair with their drinks, so the shop’s regulars were always watchi
ng over Latina.
And then, the “confession” happened. Depending on how things played out, they may have needed to punish Rudolph, but before they could even start to threaten him, he had left the shop. And seeing how dismayed Latina was in the aftermath, they had bigger things to worry about.
There was no chance here to tease her or poke fun. This was the first huge incident since the founding of her fan club, so no one could even form a quip.
“Gwah!”
“Latina?!” Kenneth called out, flustered as he saw Latina slip on a small puddle on the floor and fall flat on her rear.
Nobody had ever seen Latina like this before.
After Rudy left, Latina’s mind was clearly somewhere else, so she kept slipping up.
For example: She forgot orders. She brought the same dish to a customer twice. She forgot what she’d just been doing and glanced around. She fell down numerous times.
“Waaaaah... I’m sorry, I’m sorry...!”
Each time, she’d bow repeatedly and apologize, her face red and her voice pathetic.
As the regulars all completely forgave her mistakes and clumsiness, feeling like they’d gotten to see something rare, this was truly a pitiable incident.
Latina remained like that into the next morning, too. She even screwed up the omelets she always made, with half of them turning into scrambled eggs, while she burned a number of the rest. Screwing up even tasks she should have long since mastered, like omelet-making, caused Latina to fall into a deeper and deeper state of confusion, making for a vicious cycle.
“Sis, the eggs are bitter.”
“S-Sorry, Theo...”
“You’re hopeless, Sis.” While chewing away at breakfast, Theo spoke his opinion bluntly and with a lack of tact that was only allowed of young children like him.
“Woof!” It was an arrogant comment, but Vint agreed, causing Latina’s shoulders to droop even more pathetically.
After finishing off her morning work in such a way, Latina immediately headed to her friend’s house.
“Um... He did it now, of all times?”
