"What about the remaining two?"
Although the Café—or rather, Rejedo's—inclinations were already apparent from the first option, Bethel still intended to hear everything out, just to be safe.
"The second option is, of course, to pay the full price. It's just that each of these three services is exceedingly valuable."
Rejedo pulled an abacus from behind his back.
"Considering that the services were rendered before we sought your consent, one Uniqueness or two Sequence One Extraordinary Characteristics can offset one of them... If you have three identical Sequence One Extraordinary Characteristics, they can offset two."
"A reasonable price."
Bethel nodded. This price could even be considered overly generous, since each of those three services had saved his life.
Bethel valued his own life greatly and had no intention of depreciating its worth.
"Then what is the third option?"
"As I mentioned earlier, the three services were provided without seeking your consent. The Café follows the principle of equivalent exchange, so naturally, we would never force a sale."
Rejedo maintained his smile.
"If you don't wish to purchase these three services, we also accept returns. We can return everything to the state it was in before any of this happened."
A return...
Bethel pondered the term, unable to determine whether returning everything to the state before it happened meant killing him, thus restoring the outcome he would have faced had the Café not provided those three services...
Or whether it meant what Rejedo had demonstrated when he activated the space-time seal before: seemingly reversing time and truly returning everything to before it occurred.
Bethel did not dwell on the matter, because regardless of which possibility it was, the final outcome would be the same for him. He did not wish to try either.
"I choose the first option."
"A wise choice."