“So, you came here to commission something from me?”
I confessed to Lily that I was not actually a debt collector. I had wondered whether she might fly into a rage after realizing that I had deceived her, but instead, she seemed relieved to learn that I was not there to collect a debt.
“I can’t believe it. I never expected anyone to ask me to make equipment for them. That actually makes it even more disappointing. I don’t know what you’re planning to commission, but I probably won’t be able to accept it.”
“Why do you think that?”
“I have no talent for making Combat Artifacts.”
It was probably because of Lily’s trauma. She had an aversion to Combat Artifacts, equipment used for battle and warfare, despite the fact that they were the workshop’s primary products.
She possessed talent but was unable to let it bloom.
However, I was someone who had already seen how Lily would eventually rise to become the next Workshop Master and what values would guide her along the way.
She had no talent for making Combat Artifacts?
Then all I had to do was find work that would allow Lily’s actual talents to flourish.
“I’m not sure why you assumed I came here to commission a Combat Artifact.”
“Well, naturally, nearly every noble who visits the workshop comes here to commission Combat Artifacts....”
“Good grief. I have no interest in equipment meant for people to beat and kill one another. I’m far more interested in equipment that can improve people’s everyday lives.”
“Oh? You think the same way I do! I feel exactly the same! Magical engineering may require expensive materials and high commission fees, but I believe that someday it will become a widespread technology that makes people’s lives more convenient!”
“What a coincidence. It seems we have quite a lot in common.”
When I played along, Lily’s face brightened, and she began pouring out her story. She told me how frustrating it had been to remain the workshop’s perpetual rookie simply because she lacked talent for Combat Artifacts, and how the reason she had gone into debt in the first place was because she had invested in developing equipment intended to make people’s lives easier.
“There’s no need to force yourself to do something you can’t do. Nor is there any need to force yourself to do something you hate. If you can excel at something you genuinely want to do, what could be better than that?”
“Wow! Our values are so similar. This is really amazing....”
“If our values are that similar, I trust you’ll also understand the equipment I intend to commission fairly quickly. These are some designs I’ve been working on. Would you take a look?”
“Yes!”
Calling them blueprints would have been generous considering how crude they were, but I supplemented them with detailed explanations. What amazed me was how easily Lily, who had never encountered modern technology before, understood everything as though she were already familiar with it.
‘So this is what it means when someone understands perfectly no matter how badly you explain it.’
The first item I commissioned was our shop’s future logo—in other words, an image representing the brand—made from Glowstones. It would have been simple enough in the modern world, but that was not the case here.
“It’s a logo with my name written horizontally around an image of a coffee cup. The difficult part is that it has to be made with Glowstones rather than simply drawn with a pen.”
“Ah, so this is the logo?”
“That’s right. When I asked at the smithy before, they told me that altering the shape of a Glowstone causes it to lose its original properties. The important part is preserving the Glowstone’s effect.”
“Oh! I thought it was going to be something difficult.”
Lily continued as though it were no great concern.
“You could probably do it yourself once I explained it to you. Before processing them, you would use a preservation magic formula to create circuits across multiple Glowstones. Since the formula has to be applied to each individual Glowstone, the circuits could become tangled during processing, but you could solve that by applying Drakan’s circuit-organizing technique....”
I could do it easily if she explained it to me?
Nonsense.
I could not even understand what she was saying right now, so what exactly was I supposed to do with that knowledge? For reference, despite having played LotSH for years, I had never once heard the name Drakan.
‘Is she mocking me?’
Lily continued this absurd display while I explained the second item I wanted commissioned.
It was a semi-automatic grinder, and despite having never seen anything like it before, she immediately grasped both its name and purpose.
“So basically, you want it to dose the beans stored in the hopper according to the desired grind size and quantity, right? For the semi-automatic mechanism, I think we could use a Mana Stone to create a mana-powered drive system. Since the key is being able to grind the beans to various degrees, we’ll need to put particular care into manufacturing the steel grinding discs....”
She continued adding technical explanations, but once again, none of them meant anything to me.
So merely listening to her speak was not enough for me to tell whether she was genuinely talented.
Even so, I was certain Lily was a genius.
I had personally seen the future Lily who would become the next Workshop Master, but there was also evidence far more definitive right in front of me.
[ Lily Page ]
― Age/Gender: 21/Female
― Race: Human
― Occupation: Junior Magical Engineer at Griffin’s Workshop
― Achievements/Renown: None
― Stamina: 3/ View Details >>
― Intelligence: 14/ View Details >>
― Mana: 11/ View Details >>
― Dexterity: 14/ View Details >>
― Traits: [Eccentric Inventor LV3], [Unyielding Conviction LV3], [Mana Manipulation LV4], [Concentration LV3]/ View Details >>
Although she was not a main character, her abilities were comparable to those of the protagonists.
These stats were more than sufficient for someone destined to become the owner of the greatest workshop in the empire.
In particular, ‘Eccentric Inventor’ and ‘Unyielding Conviction’ were both considered A-rank traits in the game. They had probably been what shaped her into an unconventional genius whose trauma prevented her from making Combat Artifacts.
In this era, Lily’s unconventional nature might be considered a flaw.
But to me, that very flaw was an advantage.
‘What’s so difficult about having an eye for people? Can’t you just look at them like this?’
Using the designs I had given her as a foundation, Lily was already beginning to devise entirely new blueprints of her own. Watching her work with such obvious enthusiasm brought a thought to mind.
Perhaps this was how a regressor felt after memorizing the winning lottery numbers.
That was probably the closest comparison to how I felt right now.
***
The moment Maxim left, Lily began working.
She became so absorbed in making the commissioned equipment that she sweated profusely as she worked, and midnight passed without her even noticing how much time had gone by.
If the senior assigned to supervise her had not suddenly opened the laboratory door and walked inside, she probably would not even have thought to check the time.
“Rookie. I’ve taken plenty of commissions from academy students, so I know the type. Apparently, that client of yours, Maxim Edwell, is infamous throughout the academy as an outrageous scoundrel. I know you’re excited because this is your first commission, but I think you should be careful.”
Her senior spoke with a faintly mocking tone before leaving and slamming the laboratory door shut.
BANG—
Lily stared at the closed door, gave a small scoff, and muttered to herself.
“What a liar.”
Perhaps it was because the warning had come from the senior who was always making her life difficult.
To Lily, it simply sounded unpleasant.
If it had been sincere advice, perhaps she might have taken it seriously. But when she recalled what her client had said before leaving, the idea that he was some kind of scoundrel seemed utterly ridiculous.
― Use this money to pay off your debts. Consider whatever remains the commission fee.
What kind of scoundrel paid off someone else’s debts?
It was enough money for her to repay everything she owed and live for quite some time without worrying about making ends meet.
How could anyone call such a person a scoundrel?
“He’s practically an angel! An angel, I tell you!”
As gratitude toward Maxim filled Lily’s heart, the hardships of her past flashed through her mind like a panorama.
Her mother and father had been killed by Combat Artifacts during the war, and afterward, her family had gradually fallen into ruin....
Her family had once been known as a prestigious house of magic, so magic was essentially the only thing Lily knew how to do. It was also the only practical way she had to earn a living.
But she did not want to use it to harm people.
Unfortunately, the workshop where she had finally managed to find employment was no different.
Perhaps because the era was still consumed by war, most of the commissions they received were for Combat Artifacts. Magical engineering itself required expensive commission fees, so the workshop was equally preoccupied with producing profitable equipment for wealthy nobles.
Everything was meant for people to tear one another apart....
Was it because she had witnessed her parents’ deaths?
Lily was terrified that one of her inventions might someday be used to hurt people, just as Combat Artifacts had killed her parents.
And that fear only continued to grow.
Should I change careers before it’s too late?
While she had been struggling with that question, a man named Maxim had created a place for Lily to do the kind of work she actually wanted to do.
― I told you, didn’t I? I’m buying your talent. So if you want to repay me, show me through the results. Prove that my judgment wasn’t wrong.
In a sense, Maxim had given her a stage where she could finally spread her wings.
And more than anything, this was Lily’s very first commission.
“I don’t know what he saw in me that made him trust me so much, but I can’t disappoint the first person who believed in me enough to give me a commission!”
There was always something special about a first experience.
And for Lily, that special moment was also a source of hope. Perhaps, even after many years had passed, it would remain a precious memory.
If only for the sake of the version of herself who had endured all those hardships to reach this point....
Lily refused to let this exhilarating moment go to waste.
***
The next day, Isaac approached me as I stood outside the shop looking up at the signboard. His gaze followed mine toward the empty space along the edge of the sign.
“I had wondered why you deliberately left that section of the signboard empty. You intended to put the shop’s logo there all along, didn’t you?”
“That’s right. Once that logo is placed there, it will become our brand.”
“...Brand?”
“Hmm. Isaac, when you see the emblem representing House Edwell, what is the first thing that comes to mind?”
“Naturally, I think of the fact that it is a family of knights. I picture courageous and honorable knights sweating in the training grounds or taking up their swords to fight in defense of others.”
“To put it simply, that is a brand. And that is brand power.”
“......?”
“The reason a single glance at House Edwell’s emblem brings those images to mind is because the family has spent generations cultivating that reputation. Being founding contributors of the empire, being renowned for swordsmanship—things like that are all part of it.”
A single emblem could embody a family’s nature and defining characteristics.
That, in turn, became part of House Edwell’s strength. It inspired public trust in the family and even translated into social influence.
“Our shop needs that kind of symbolic image too. The very concept of a café is unfamiliar here, but the moment people see our logo, they need to immediately think, ‘That’s the place that sells coffee.’ We need to establish that association.”
“That will take quite a long time. House Edwell also required many years to reach its current standing.”
“Of course. But if we continue serving good coffee and providing good service, people will eventually come to see us that way. Someday, I want them to feel a sense of trust in our shop from the logo alone.”
It would not be easy.
But I could do it.
After all, had I not already witnessed the remarkable sight of a brand bearing my own name expanding from a single location to nearly a thousand?
“You truly are admirable, Young Master. So that is why you incorporated your name into the logo.”
“Hm? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“Although you may currently have the reputation of a scoundrel, does it not represent your determination to reinvent yourself as someone people can trust? I assume that is also why you named the shop as you did.”
“Uh... yes. Exactly. That’s precisely it. Impressive that you figured it out.”
Truthfully, I had not thought that far ahead.
Perhaps I had spoken too solemnly, causing Isaac to read far more meaning into it than I had intended....
There had been no profound significance behind the shop’s name.
‘Coffee is JIN.’
In my previous life, I had simply used my own name, Seong Woo-jin, for my brand, so this time I had named the shop in a similar fashion.
< Coffee is MAKSIM >
Isaac looked up at the signboard again with a pleased smile.
“Coffee is Maxim....”
Then he turned toward me and raised his thumb.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how you change, Young Master.”
“What exactly are you expecting that has you grinning like that?”
“I was merely entertaining an amusing thought. If your name someday becomes even more widely known than House Edwell’s, perhaps a family of knights could become a family of coffee.”
“A family of coffee? Now that I like!”
Isaac and I chuckled as we let our imaginations run wild.
We were already counting our chickens before they had hatched when a familiar face appeared in the distance.
Lily was running toward the shop at full speed, her curly hair flying behind her and an impossibly bright smile on her face.
“Huh?”
For a moment, though I knew I should not....
I could not help imagining a shaggy puppy racing over to its master in hopes of being praised.
“Lord Maxim! I finished the logo! I even changed the colors to make it stand out more!”
Had she not told me herself just yesterday that an ordinary person would need about a week to finish it?
“Once I actually started, it was even easier than I expected! It wasn’t something that should take that long at all! Hehehe!”
If this was yet another display of a genius making the impossible look effortless....
Then I would gladly welcome this kind of deception anytime.