Chapter 210: The Incredibly Popular Coffee Shop
Today was a good day in Ashmelion.
Businesses were booming as usual, and there were a lot of people gathered outside of their houses for a stroll.
However, for the Captivating Fragrance Coffee Shop...
Today was more than just a good day.
Well, supposedly...
If not for the fact that the Cavaliers aside from Calvin had been sanctioned and they were now in prison for the crime of mutiny.
Yes, it should've been a good day.
But now it was the exact opposite.
The Captivating Fragrance Coffee Shop had become so popular to the masses of the Center Borough that they even had to add some chairs and tables on the second floor of the shop to accommodate all of the customers.
Furthermore, since Calvin was the only member of the Cavaliers available...
This meant that only two people were working in the shop.
Calvin and Charlotte were doing the brewing, while Cecilia was serving the customers as the waitress.
At first, Calvin didn't want to let Cecilia do any work. But the young lass was strangely insistent, saying that she wasn't a kid anymore. She wanted to try to do a job that adults often do, and even at this moment... She was doing the best that she could, carrying trays with coffee and desserts on top of them for the customers.
"Charlotte, you sure did improve the foot traffic in this place, eh? To think that we would have this many customers even though we had just opened..." Calvin wiped the sweat that formed on his forehead.
Charlotte handed him over a towel and Calvin nodded his head, expressing his gratitude with a smile.
"I just find that the way sir Ron runs his business doesn't make sense... Hahaha, did I go overboard with my meddling?" Charlotte smiled.
Calvin shook his head, "Nope, you did the right thing. I'm really proud of you that you managed to propose these changes. Although it's a bit more of common sense than something that should be learned..."
"The fact that you are now able to calculate profit margins from someone who didn't even know what arithmetic is when we first met, is such a tremendous improvement..."
"I'm proud of you, Charlotte."
Charlotte hung her head low, the smile on her face became tinged with sweetness as she softly asked, "Hey, dear..."
"Can you not call me by my name?"
"Oh? What do you want me to call you then?" Calvin raised an eyebrow.
"Well, just call me anything aside from my name."
"Hmmm..." Calvin thought for a moment before replying, "How about 'fantastic woman?'"
"That sounds like a title..." Charlotte bitterly smiled.
"Hahaha..." Calvin boisterously laughed. He stretched his hand out and patted her head as he replied, "I shall refer to you as 'Dear' then."
"Will that be okay?" He stared right at Charlotte who became increasingly embarrassed.
Her cheeks flushed crimson as she stood there before softly nodding her head.
"Daddy! I got orders from customers! One Latte, two Honey Coffee, and pancakes with syrup!"
Cecilia interrupted the conversation of the two as both Charlotte and Calvin awakened from their trance. She was now standing right in front of the counter with her hands akimbo.
The waitress dress that Charlotte seemed to have made specifically for her really did make her stand out amidst the crowd.
"Dear, were you planning to let Cecilia work in the coffee shop? I don't think that a dress like that can be made in just a single day." Calvin glanced at Charlotte's fingers and noticed that she had several slightly deep wounds made by needles.
Charlotte quickly hid her hands and replied, "Dear, you're becoming too smart for your own good!' She puffed her cheeks as she said, "How am I supposed to surprise you with things in the future if you're so observant?"
Calvin lightly chuckled, "All right, I'll pretend to be surprised then."
"That's not allowed!" Charlotte pointed a finger at him.
"Daddy!" Cecilia interrupted once more, "I have another set of orders—three latte, one pure-black coffee, three pancakes with syrup, and a hotcake to-go." The young lass recited the words so fluently that Calvin doubted if his ears were malfunctioning.
Charlotte couldn't help but laugh when she noticed how dumbfounded he was, "Cecilia, it seems that we've successfully surprised your daddy... Look at him, he really didn't expect you to reach such a degree of fluency after such a short period of time."
Calvin didn't know what to say.
He coldly snorted and waved his hand, "Enough with the nonsense. We have customers to serve." He turned around and both Charlotte and Cecilia felt as if he had tucked his tails and ran away to escape, eliciting laughter from the pair of mother and daughter.
"Damn there's no end to them..." Calvin was in the middle of brewing fresh coffee for the pending orders when he noticed another pair of customers walking into the shop. However, his eyes widened in astonishment when he saw who were the customers. The two customers that had just entered seemed to be sisters due to how similar they looked...
When the customers saw the crest on the necklace hanging around the necks of the sisters, all of them stepped aside and made way.
It was because these two sisters were from the Fayke Aristocrat Family.
Elene Fayke and Luisa Fayke!
These two women were accompanied by a butler and a young man who looked to be the same age as them. With sideburns that emphasized his facial features, the young man sure did look attractive by the standards of nobles. Furthermore, the way he carried himself also made everyone feel subconsciously submissive to him.
Calvin couldn't possibly be mistaken.
This young man...
Is a young master!
Calvin exclaimed in his heart.
He had met countless young masters in the previous timeline and all of them spelled trouble.
'Damn it, I hope this young master isn't as arrogant as those that I have met!' Calvin had just said these words in his heart when the young man in question suddenly kicked a commoner out of his seat and shouted.
"Scram!"
"Hieeek!" The middle-aged man was so startled and scared that he quickly got out of the coffee shop. Sensing the smell of trouble, the other customers also made their escape. Some of them hadn't even paid yet.
"Ah! They ran!" Cecilia's eyes widened and she ran to Charlotte in shock, "Mommy, why did the customers run? They still haven't paid yet!"
"It's okay, Cecilia... They'll be back..."
Charlotte comforted Cecilia as she rubbed the young lass's back, "They'll return once the trouble has passed."
"Hey, hey, hey!" The young man's eyes narrowed into slits. It seemed that she heard Charlotte saying that he was 'trouble'.
"Are you insulting me?" The young man stared right at Charlotte as Cecilia started trembling in fear. Her eyes blanked out as if she could remember the times when she was being beaten up by loan sharks along with her mother back in the Northern Borough.
"My friend, if you came here to drink and eat our delicacies. Then, I'll be welcome to serve you. But if you came here to shove our customers away and terrorize my mother and daughter, then that would be a problem." Calvin's cold voice rang from behind the counter.
When he revealed himself, Elena and Luisa stared at each other for a moment before they exclaimed in surprise.
"Calvin?!" Elena was the first one to speak, "Have you been working here?"
Calvin simply nodded.
He noticed that this young man seemed to be infatuated with the sisters.
A sneer came out of Calvin's mouth as he said, "I'm giving you another advice like what I've done before we arrived at Ashmelion, Elena. You've got to stop meeting this guy. If you ever get into a relationship with him, then you'll regret it."
"What did you say?!" The young man roared, enraged.
Calvin merely glanced over him with a cold look and released a little bit of his killing intent, "Young man, come here if you must eat or drink..."
"You can try to ruin our business or what, come at me with whatever tricks you have up in your sleeves."
"But never come here to take it out on my mother and daughter..."
The coldness in Calvin's eyes seemed to be similar to that of a thousand-year-old icy cavern as the young man's expression blanched. He surreptitiously glanced at his butler and noticed that the old man was also frozen stiff, like a helpless prey waiting to be eaten.
'Impossible! This butler of mine is a retired officer from the Ashmelion Border Territory!'
'Why... why does he look like he's afraid of this person?'
The young man might be arrogant, but he sure knew how to submit to the circumstances.
Gnashing his teeth, he coldly snorted and turned around to leave.
"Wait up." Calvin's cold voice rang out, "You forgot something."
"What is it?" The young man stared at Calvin seriously.
"To pay." Calvin simply replied.
"To pay?! I didn't even order anything!" The young man didn't know whether to laugh or to cry.
"I know..." Calvin nodded, "But you forced out customers out of the shop, basically crippling our profits for the day. You must compensate us for this loss, or I will have you pay more than what you can afford."
The look on Calvin's face when he said all of these was so cold that the young man knew that if he forced the butler to fight against Calvin; the former would definitely lose.
"All right!" The young man gnashed his teeth and hurled a pouch of coins over to Calvin.
Calvin felt the pouch for a moment before he handed it over to the excited Cecilia.
"You might take your leave now." Calvin waved his hand, "I hope you'll come again."
The young man who had already walked out of the coffee shop almost stumbled onto the ground when he heard Calvin's words.
Come again? Fuck you! I'd never come back here again!
He grumbled in his heart as he paid another glance to both Elena and Luisa.
These two women might be somehow useful to his quest of obtaining the inheritance of his family, but they weren't so important to the point that they couldn't be replaced. Snorting in his heart, the young man seemed to have come to a decision as he walked away and returned to his residence.
Back in the Captivating Fragrance Coffee Shop.
Elena and Luisa stared at each other with bitter smiles on their faces.
Calvin saw their bitterness and he chuckled to lighten the mood, "I apologize for that. With what I've done, both of you would definitely lose one of your countless suitors today!"
"Hahaha..." Elena and Luisa laughed, "It's fine. You did us a favor for helping us getting rid of that pesky guy."
"I can only imagine how irritating he is when he's with both of you considering how arrogant he was earlier." Calvin smiled.
"Yeah..." Elena's eyes darted to the young lass sitting before a table. The young lass was focused on counting the coins that the pouch contained and the glimmer of gold seemed to be reflected in her eyes, "I heard her call you... daddy, earlier. Is she your daughter?"
"Yup." Calvin was quick to nod his head. How could he not know that these two sisters were fond of him? Ever since the display of skills and knowledge that he had done back in that carriage, Elena and Luisa seemed to have fallen for him. But Calvin knew that their infatuation would never bear fruit. This was why Calvin has to end their love to him right now than later.
"I see..." Luisa and Elena's eyes seemed to have dimmed, "All right, we'll be going then."
"Oh, are you not going to order anything?" Calvin stopped them in their tracks.
Elena turned around and stared at him, "Nope... We don't have our wallets with us."
"I see..." Calvin smiled.
The light in Elena and Luisa's eyes became even more sorrowful. How could he not offer them to drink or eat for free?
This could only mean one thing.
Taking a deep breath, Elena and Luisa forced themselves to accept the cruel truth.
Mustering a smile on their faces with all of their courage, the two of them smiled at Calvin one more time and said.
"Thank you, we'll be off, then."
"Goodbye."
The two soon disappeared in Calvin's eyes.
They would probably never meet anymore in the future considering their statuses.
The Fayke Aristocrat Family might look stable in the eyes of the commoners, but not in the eyes of the nobles.
As someone that had explored Ashmelion's depths and knew of its murky politics back in the previous timeline, how could Calvin not understand the anxiousness and worry that both Elena and Luisa had in their hearts? As members and daughters of the Fayke family, there could only be one fate for the two of them.
It was to become a marriage tool in order to strengthen the family.
Such was the fate of these two women.
If Calvin wanted to save them from this inevitable fate, then he would have to fight his way up the ranks of the nobles and become someone worthy of their hand. But Calvin was never good in politics and he also couldn't let these two women stay with a man like him who would inevitably suffer countless arduous hardships in the future.
Shaking his head, Calvin could only pray that destiny wouldn't be so harsh on both Elena and Luisa.
Charlotte observed the changing expressions on Calvin's face and she seemed to have come to a decision.
"Hey, dear... what do you think if I let Cecilia sleep at my friend's house tonight?"
The voice that she used when she said all of these sounded so low that it was comparable to a mosquito's droning.
Calvin turned to look at her and he was greeted with a tantalizing sight.
Her cheeks were flushed so crimson that the redness encroached upon her neck. Furthermore, the slight trembling of her shoulders emphasized her nervousness as she bit on her lips, seemingly having made a tough decision.
But Calvin furrowed his eyebrows, "What? Why would you let Cecilia go sleep somewhere else when we have the entire coffee shop for us?"
Charlotte was shell-shocked and dumbfounded.
He hadn't expected Calvin to be this dense.
Puffing her cheeks, she turned her head away and grumbled, "Dear husband, why are you so insensitive?"
"I hear you..."
Calvin was a Cavalier whose body had undergone a mutation; his senses were so sharp that Charlotte's incredibly low sounding voice didn't escape his ears.
"Ah!" Charlotte cried out in embarrassment. She didn't expect that Calvin would hear her complaints to herself.
"Dear wife, why must you be so dense?"
"Hey, that's my line!" Charlotte interrupted.
"Hahaha..." Calvin chuckled. He moved closer to Charlotte, grasped her hips, and whispered into her ears, "The entire building is ours for tonight. I can just carry Cecilia into another room when she falls asleep."
The hotness of his breath stained Charlotte's ears crimson as she felt her knees going weak.
Cecilia who was still counting the coins on the table smiled to herself.
'It seems that Mommy and Daddy are going to sleep together tonight...'
'Lea told me that to have a baby brother, I must let Daddy and Mommy sleep together on their own.'
'All right...' Cecilia came to a decision, 'I'll sleep in the other room tonight!'