“Using the grinder is very simple. You put the coffee beans into this hopper here, adjust the grind size and dosing amount with these two knobs, then lightly press a cup against this little protruding part, and the beans are ground and dispensed automatically. Would you like to give it a try?”
Isaac’s eyes widened in surprise as he listened to Lily’s explanation. Until now, he had been grinding coffee beans with a manual grinder until his arms ached. How could he not be astonished after witnessing a marvelous new device that accomplished the entire process at the press of a single button?
‘I asked her for a semi-automatic grinder, and she practically made me a fully automatic one.’
It looked somewhat crude compared to modern equipment, but with a device this close to a fully automatic grinder, we could drastically reduce the amount of time it took to make coffee.
“Young Master, with this equipment, I think I could even handle the lunch rush by myself.”
After trying out the grinder for practice, Isaac could not contain his admiration. Considering that lunch was when we had the greatest influx of customers, the fact that he would say such a thing showed just how enormous an impact a single piece of equipment could have.
‘Just how much more will our sales increase?’
We could nearly cut the time required to make a cup of coffee in half. That did not mean our sales would double as well, but if we could simply serve the customers we had previously lost because we were pressed for time....
‘Even at the very least, this should be as efficient as hiring one more employee!’
Once people sat down, they wanted to lie down, and once they lay down, they wanted to sleep.
Yulia becoming an employee had given me more free time, but I had still found myself wanting another employee so that I could devote more attention to other aspects of the business.
However, no one had applied after Yulia, so I had given up on that desire.
I never expected the grinder to satisfy it instead.
“You worked hard, Lily. This grinder will be a tremendous help in running the shop. As it happens, there’s another piece of equipment I’d like to commission, but I don’t think I can make the time right now....”
“Please come by the workshop around this evening. I’ll be waiting for you.”
“Thank you for understanding. Then I’ll see you later.”
I had a number of things to take care of, so I postponed my visit to the workshop for a while. I needed to adjust the grind setting on the new fully automatic grinder so that it matched the grind size I had used when grinding the Edwell Blend with the manual grinder.
I also needed to test whether the new equipment affected the taste of the coffee. Fortunately, the tests revealed no issues. I even kept an eye on it until evening in case there were any problems with operating the equipment, but nothing unusual occurred.
‘They probably don’t even need me here.’
Working alongside Isaac felt considerably more relaxed than before. Perhaps because of the fully automatic grinder, we had far more breathing room not only during lunch but during the evening as well. On top of that, Yulia would be arriving for work soon, so it seemed I had more than enough time to step out for a while.
“Isaac, I’m going to the workshop for a bit.”
“Yes, by all means, Young Master.”
Isaac readily nodded. He used to become anxious and start worrying whenever I so much as tried to leave the shop for a moment, but perhaps thanks to Yulia and the new equipment, he seemed perfectly capable of managing even without me now.
“Huh? Boss?”
Just as I was about to leave the shop, Yulia arrived for work.
“Where are you going? There was something about coffee I really wanted to ask you when I came in today.”
“Something about coffee?”
Yet for some reason, something about Yulia felt strangely off.
After thinking carefully about what it could be....
“Wait, why are you suddenly speaking so formally to me?”
“Th-that’s because the Manager told me I should keep my personal and professional relationships separate while I’m at work.”
Isaac looked at me with a broad grin.
I had told him to train Yulia properly, and apparently he had gone so far as to teach her things like that. Never in my life had I imagined I would hear Yulia, of all people, speaking formally to me.
“Sorry, Yulia, but I already have an appointment today. I might be back late. Would it be all right if I taught you about the coffee tomorrow?”
“Ah?”
“Young Master, there’s no need to worry so much. Please go ahead and visit the workshop. I’ll make sure to properly teach Miss Yulia whatever she’s curious about regarding coffee.”
“The Manager says he’ll teach you instead?”
“Yes! Then that’s fine. Don’t worry about us and enjoy your trip.”
I encouraged my employees before leaving the shop.
Their repeated assurances that I had nothing to worry about remained in my mind, and a smile escaped me without my realizing it.
I had never felt this relaxed while leaving the shop to take care of outside business. I had always been anxious, worrying about what would happen if customers suddenly flooded in while I was away. Yet today, for some reason, my steps toward the workshop felt extraordinarily light.
***
You had to row while the tide was in. With Yulia joining as an employee and the fully automatic grinder lending us a hand as well, I had finally gained some spare time. I needed to use that time as efficiently as possible.
For example, there was the menu board inside the shop.
Compared to those from the modern world, it was painfully sparse.
‘Now that Yulia is working at our shop, we’re getting more student customers, and people have started asking for other menu items too. That means it’s about time to start adding more items to the menu.’
Unlike before, when everything had been so hectic, things were manageable enough now that developing new menu items seemed far easier. And I did not mean something as simple as hazelnut coffee, where I merely added syrup.
‘I’ll introduce coffee they’ve never even heard of in this world.’
That was why I had come to see Lily.
As I approached her laboratory inside the workshop, I heard cheerful singing coming from within. Judging by the voice, it was unmistakably Lily.
‘Did something good happen?’
When I knocked, her singing stopped. I carefully opened the door, and amid the signs of her ongoing research, Lily’s visibly excited face came into view.
“You’re here, Lord Maxim?”
“Yes. I was wondering if I might have come too late.”
“Please don’t say that. If you told me you were coming, Lord Maxim, I’d be ready to leap out of bed even if I were asleep!”
I had been about to thank her for saying so, but judging by the look in her eyes, she appeared disconcertingly sincere, so I swallowed the words instead. Before getting to the main subject, I sat across from her and noticed that the atmosphere around her had changed.
“You seem much brighter. Far more than before.”
“I suppose it’s because nothing but good things have been happening to me lately. Ever since you commissioned me, Lord Maxim, I’ve also formed a connection with Howard, and thanks to that, I’ve risen into the upper ranks of the workshop’s performance evaluations.”
“Oh? Then perhaps we’ll be hearing some good news before long.”
“This is a little bit of bragging on my part, but I’ve even been nominated as a candidate for promotion to Senior Magical Engineer. Hehe.”
Seeing her bright, innocent expression brought a smile to my own face before I realized it. From my perspective, I had merely commissioned her because I needed her abilities, but I could not help being pleased that my involvement had brought good things into her life as well.
“If you become a Senior Magical Engineer, you’ll have many more opportunities to catch the attention of other clients. That will also give you more chances to demonstrate your talent.”
“Oh, come on! Do you really think I could become a Senior Magical Engineer? I’m satisfied just being nominated. In the past, I wouldn’t even have dreamed of becoming a candidate.”
“I don’t understand why you think you can’t.”
“Because there’s no precedent? I’ve only been working at the workshop for two years. Not once has a Junior Magical Engineer with less than five years of experience been promoted to Senior.”
“You could simply become the first precedent yourself.”
“Hmm. Becoming a Senior would certainly be wonderful. But even now, I feel as though I’m enjoying days far better than I deserve. I realized that when I visited your shop this afternoon and saw how crowded it was.”
“At my shop?”
“Yes. I thought, ‘Ah! The equipment I make can actually bring joy to people!’ And also, ‘Lord Maxim and his employees are happy with what I made. It feels as though my work is finally being recognized!’ Things like that.”
“Ah....”
“For the first time since I started magical engineering, I felt proud of what I’d accomplished. And I found the motivation I needed to keep doing this work. I’ve figured out what I like, what I’m good at, and why I should keep doing it. That alone is enough to make me perfectly satisfied right now.”
That was why she had been humming a song despite expecting to fail the Senior promotion.
It was something I had never realized while playing the game, but she seemed to possess an extraordinarily pure-hearted side.
‘Perhaps that very attitude was what gave Lily the strength to climb even higher.’
Lily shrugged before continuing.
“But that doesn’t mean I intend to remain complacent forever. Once I’ve completed a full five years as a Junior, I’m definitely going to aim for Senior!”
“May I make a prediction?”
“A-a prediction?”
“Miss Lily, you’ll become a Senior before you reach five years. You said you’re in your second year now, right? I’d say around next year, when you enter your third?”
“...Lord Maxim, do you happen to practice astrology or something?”
According to the original storyline, Lily would indeed become a Senior, just as she had said, once she reached her fifth year.
But I wondered whether that point might come a little sooner this time.
Originally, she had not even been nominated as a Senior candidate around this point in the story. If that milestone had been moved forward, perhaps the time when she actually became a Senior would be moved forward as well....
To be perfectly frank, I had simply thrown the prediction out there.
Since I knew the future anyway, I had wanted to show off a little.
“Anyway, if I really do become a Senior next year as you said, Lord Maxim, that would certainly be amazing. Seniors are allowed to use much more of the workshop’s equipment, so I’d be able to help you far more as well.”
Right. If something was good, there was no reason to complain.
If Lily could become a Senior earlier, just as I had predicted, it would benefit both of us.
‘There’s such a thing as the Pygmalion Effect, after all.’
I quickly changed the subject before she could ask me why I had made that prediction.
“Let’s get to the main point.”
“Ah! You said you had another piece of equipment you wanted to commission.”
“Could you give me a pen and some paper? I need to get what’s in my head down on paper.”
I began drawing the design I had envisioned.
Once again, I produced an absolutely terrible blueprint, but I had no doubt that Lily would understand it perfectly.
Using my blueprint as a basis, Lily reconstructed it into a proper design of her own. At a glance, it looked like an ordinary kettle, but its purpose might have seemed somewhat unfamiliar by comparison.
“We can make a container around here, and if we fit a gasket with a rubber ring beneath the container, that should work. We’ll install the basket for the ground coffee beans here in the center.”
“I suppose the boiler will be the troublesome part to make?”
“Yes, but since I understand the principle, I don’t think it will be too difficult. When the water boils inside the boiler, the steam pressure pushes the water upward and forces it through the coffee grounds, correct?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“The pressure weight will probably require the most care.”
“The equipment itself will probably have its limits, but if you can increase the pressure, please raise it as high as possible. That will be the key to extracting the coffee.”
“But this equipment feels rather unfamiliar compared to the grinder. Grinding coffee beans is an obvious part of making coffee, so there was nothing strange about that. But this ‘moka pot’ you’ve commissioned, Lord Maxim, works on a fundamentally different principle from the way we’ve made coffee until now.”
“If drip coffee uses gravity to brew coffee, this uses pressure to extract it within a short period of time. Naturally, there’s bound to be a difference in taste compared to drip coffee.”
Its principle was similar to that of a coffee machine.
If the coffee machine was the culmination of modern science in the café industry, the moka pot was a more classical device that could still extract coffee with a similar flavor.
It was fairly common in European countries such as Italy, and even now, one could occasionally find old cafés that brewed coffee with moka pots. Back home, however, it was mostly a device used only by enthusiasts.
‘If I had my way, I’d ask her to make a coffee machine right now....’
Even Lily would not be capable of that yet. For the time being, the best option was to use the moka pot as an intermediate step before the coffee machine. To put it another way, it was essentially a lesser substitute for a coffee machine.
It was a method of extracting coffee that simply did not exist in a place where only drip coffee had ever been served.
Since the very concept did not exist here, it was understandable that Lily found it fascinating.
“Then wouldn’t it be better to give the coffee extracted with the moka pot a different name so that people can distinguish it from the coffee we’ve served until now?”
“Ah, the name has already been decided.”
“What is it?”
There was no need to agonize over what to call it.
There was already a familiar name for it where I came from.
“Espresso.”
And from now on, that was what it would be called here as well.