Girls' Afternoon Tea

While Angell and Mithril argued over the workshop's budget, the "Street Volunteer Committee" led by Thornmoon had already begun its operations, and the distribution of the Game Tables was proceeding in an orderly fashion.

In just one week, Thornmoon had negotiated rental agreements for the Game Tables with the three largest shopping malls in Cecilia City, the most popular tavern, and the two largest squares, exhausting Angell's entire inventory of tables.

The massive gear hanging in the sky had already let the people of Cecilia City know that "Magic Gear" had reopened, but when the workshop's Magic Items appeared in the entertainment venues people frequented, the Game Tables became a hot topic of conversation.

"The Rose Tavern put out a Magic Item, and it's so much fun!"

"Oh, the table-shaped one, right? I saw one at Garden Square, too!"

"It seems like the games are different in different places?"

"You have to go to Magic Gear to play them all at once."

"I got five thousand points on it; it seems my magic talent isn't as bad as the school said!"

"No, anyone average can get over ten thousand, right?"

On the streets, such conversations could be heard at any time.

As the first batch of players and members of the Game Tables, the children from the Charity School felt a sense of pride.

"The Game Tables have really taken off!" Maya said happily. "When I went to Central Avenue earlier, I saw one at the Clock Tower Square there, and people were lining up to play. I played a couple of rounds myself."

Liti said, "It must be more expensive outside of the workshop, right?"

"Exactly, it costs two hundred and fifty cents a round over there! And they only have the Summer Table."

"Then why did you still play?"

"My membership token gives me free rounds regardless of where I am!" Maya said smugly. "At the time, several people came over to ask me how to get a membership token!"

Indeed, in addition to the scattered income, the Game Tables placed around the city were providing a steady stream of workshop members.

Right now, the Membership Crystals at Magic Gear were running low, to the point where Angell was considering whether to implement a membership qualification test—for example, requiring a certain amount of top-ups, or perhaps a certain number of game points to become a member.

--Enlise felt those two were the same thing, because doesn't playing the game cost money anyway? And for some people with poor skills, it would probably cost even more.

Thinking this, Enlise looked toward the Game Table inside the mall.

Of course, Enlise and her two good friends hadn't come out just to play the Game Tables.

The teachers at the Charity School seemed to have an important meeting today, so the afternoon classes were canceled. The girls, having spent all their recent time at Magic Gear, decided to go shopping on Central Street, the busiest street in the city.

However, Enlise was no longer as worried as she had been a month ago.

She no longer had to think about where vegetables were on sale or where bread was discounted; she could be like an ordinary, carefree twelve-year-old girl, looking at things she liked and even buying them with her own pocket money.

It was just that, most of the time, Enlise couldn't bring herself to do it.

Like Mithril, she had been poor for too long.

Moreover, Enlise was very used to thinking about her "family" while shopping:

"People really love the Game Tables. When we go back and tell Mr. Angell, he'll be very happy, won't he?"

Looking at the crowd queuing in front of the Game Table, Enlise thought exactly that.

But when her peripheral vision caught someone else staring at the Game Table just as intently as she was, her body stiffened.

"Enlise, let's go look over there!" At that moment, Liti affectionately linked her arm with Enlise's. "I heard a new crepe shop opened over there... what's wrong?"

Liti keenly sensed that something was wrong with Enlise's mood.

Maya asked bluntly from the side, "It couldn't be because you're out of pocket money, could it? I'm telling you, the workshop business is so good now; if that Black Mage is still being stingy with your allowance, he's just—"

"No, Mr. Angell is very generous to me, even though I told him I didn't need an allowance," Enlise said softly.

Her allowance was on par with the wages of the Cat Waiter.

Fifteen silver a month.

(The Cat Waiter also received commissions.)

Enlise felt guilty because she was supposed to be in school and wasn't doing any real work, so she decided to save the money secretly to buy gifts for Angell in the future.

Regardless, for Enlise, days like these felt like a beautiful dream she didn't want to wake up from.

And yet, this beautiful dream had been brought about by the workshop's bankruptcy.

Enlise shifted her gaze and lowered her voice. "It's over there... I've seen that person before."

"Over there?" Liti and Maya curiously looked in the direction Enlise had just been staring.

They noticed two gentlemen leaning on canes standing there, also gazing at the Game Table.

Enlise said, "That person, I remember him being the one who persuaded Master Boris to produce Magic Wands!"

"Magic Wands?" Maya asked, puzzled.

"That was the business deal that almost led to Magic Gear's bankruptcy... right?" Liti said uncertainly.

She didn't know the inside story, but she could roughly guess from Enlise's reaction.

"Ah, he's that swindler!" Maya exclaimed upon hearing this. Filled with righteous indignation, she rolled up her sleeves. "Let's go settle the score with him!"

"No, don't!"

"Stop!"

Enlise and Liti hurriedly grabbed Maya.

Neither of them understood how Maya had the confidence to settle scores with two grown men.

Furthermore, Maya's commotion seemed to have caught the attention of nearby passersby, who looked over with curiosity.

Enlise and Liti immediately noticed this. They exchanged a nod, covered the mouth of the still-struggling Maya, and quickly dragged her away from the street.

"Listen, Maya, I'm not angry!" Enlise said to her friend, who wanted to avenge her, once she was sure they were out of the man's line of sight. "Although I know it's not right to think this way, it's because of him that I was able to meet Mr. Angell and live the life I have now."

As for Boris from before, while Enlise was grateful to him—he had at least raised her for so many years—the way that Mr. Boris looked at her never felt right. It was like a pig farmer looking at his piglets, which made Enlise feel afraid.

Maya and Liti understood Enlise's feelings.

"That's true, the former owner of the Workshop always smelled kind of rotten," Maya immediately agreed with Enlise's point. She paused and asked curiously, "So, do you want to thank this swindler?"

Liti almost wanted to cover her face at her friend's lack of social awareness.

"How could there be any reason to thank a swindler? Besides, that man ruining the Workshop might not have been just about scamming money," Liti said. "Those two men were just standing there looking at the Game Table; Enlise is worried they might make a move against Mr. Angell, right?"

"..." Enlise nodded.

"That makes so much sense! Those two really did look suspicious!" Maya recalled, then asked indignantly, "Then why did you stop me? That's all the more reason to warn them not to do anything bad!"

"Are you a member of the Street Volunteer Committee?"

Liti retorted with a smile.

She then looked at Enlise with concern and said, "If you're really worried, do you want to use magic to peek at what they're saying?"

"Peek?"

"I've been reading about similar magic lately..." Liti said shyly.

After she said this, it was no surprise to see her two friends staring with wide eyes, looking as if they had seen a ghost.

"You know magic?!" Maya shrieked.

"No, I haven't exactly mastered it. It's just that after playing the Game Table for a while, I felt my mana had increased quite a bit, so I went to the Old Bookstore and bought a magic book to try it out. It seems quite useful—"

"Damn it! You're just showing off!" Maya shook Liti by the shoulders. "We all started playing the Game Table together! It's one thing that your score is far ahead of everyone else's, but now you can even use magic! Why are you so talented?"

"Liti, you're amazing!" Enlise added with admiration.

No, you're the amazing one.

Liti thought to herself.

Liti was actually lying.

Everything she had told Enlise before about never having come into contact with magical items was a lie.

Liti's family was a family of Witches—the kind that would be tied to a stake and burned if discovered during the Magic Era. Even after entering the modern age, they had always been shunned by the world, so Liti had always carefully hidden her mana under the guidance of her mother and grandmother, feigning ignorance of magic.

It wasn't until she came into contact with the Game Table that Liti accidentally played too much and inadvertently exposed her "strength."

Liti easily achieved a high score and even gained a group of fans on the Magic Gear Leaderboard.

What made Liti breathe a sigh of relief (and feel a bit of resentment) was that even so, her ranking always hovered between third and fourth place, trailing far behind the top two.

Moreover, all the students addicted to the Game Table saw improvements in their magic grades, making Liti appear unremarkable.

Among them, the second-place Kata had even passed the Mana Appraisal fair and square, leading everyone to believe it was perfectly normal.

...Not to mention, there was Enlise.

To match her rising game ranking, Liti decided to show a corresponding improvement in her grades, only to find she couldn't outscore Enlise at all!

She was one point behind last time, and she was still one point behind this time.

Come to think of it, since they started school, it seemed no one had ever been able to outscore Enlise.

It made Liti want to try using magic to see if she could win by cheating.

Ah, she was just joking.

Liti struggled to break free from Maya's grip. She looked at Enlise and said, "The magic I accidentally read about last time can peek into other people's malice. Do you want to try it?"

"Hmm..." Enlise looked a bit hesitant.

Liti didn't urge her, even holding back Maya, who wanted to speak.

Liti felt that Enlise's hesitation was only natural.

Unlike her, a Witch-in-training, Enlise was a truly gentle and kind-hearted girl, so she might not be able to bring herself to spy on other people's secrets; it was only natural for her to refuse.

But that was fine. If Enlise refused, she and Maya could just go and take a look in secret later.

If those two men were truly dangerous, she would just tell Enlise's current guardian.

That Black Robe surely wouldn't let a potential enemy go!

Liti calculated in her heart.

"I want to see!" Enlise replied at that moment.

"Ah, you really don't... wait, you want to see?!" Liti looked at Enlise in surprise. "But this is peeking at others! It's not a good thing to do!"

"But I can't always trouble others, and I want to protect Mr. Angell too!" Enlise said firmly.

As she said this, Enlise paused and gave Liti an embarrassed look. "Even though I say that, I'm troubling you again!"

"Enlise is never a trouble! It's perfectly fine to rely on others a little!"

Liti hugged Enlise tightly.

"Liti..." Enlise was also moved.

Maya rubbed her arms from the side and said, "Wow, you two are so gross."

Just as they were feeling touched...

So, why did I become friends with this thing?

Liti had to exercise great restraint to keep from showing her disgust toward "this thing."

"This thing" was clearly oblivious, but she was full of interest in Liti's magic. "So, what do we do next? Go find that liar and pull out a strand of hair?"

"...That would basically be exposing ourselves!" Liti said.

A Witch wouldn't be that dim-witted!

As weak women with poor physical stamina, the highest element of their magic lay in being silent and unseen.

"Whatever passes by must leave a trace; we don't need to get too close to them." Liti glanced at the direction of the game table from earlier and grabbed Enlise and Maya by the arms. "Let's go to our usual spot first!"

The place where Enlise, Maya, and Liti often gathered was a flower shop that doubled as a coffee shop on Central Avenue.

Back when Enlise was short on money, she and Liti would often come here to work part-time. The shop owner was very fond of them, so she would provide the girls with free black tea.

Now that Enlise had pocket money, she didn't mind coming here to order a small cake.

Today, the girls weren't just here to drink tea.

"Please give us two cups of clean, boiled water, a small leaf of bergamot, a small bottle of salt, a violet-scented candle, and a small bouquet of lily of the valley and a rose," Liti requested skillfully. "Finally, could we borrow a small mirror you've used? Ms. Rue, we will pay for it!"

The proprietress of the flower shop chuckled. "Are you girls planning to tell fortunes?"

It was common for girls to perform tarot readings in her coffee shop, so she was used to providing various props and wasn't surprised.

"Yes, a love divination!" Maya answered righteously.

She was actually being clever for once: "So you absolutely cannot peek!"

"Hehehe, even if I did peek, it wouldn't matter, because it definitely has nothing to do with little Maya." Ms. Rue said.

"? What does that mean?!"

Ms. Rue was clearly just teasing Maya.

Of course, she wouldn't peek at the divination ritual the little girls thought was so important, and she even considerately placed their seats in the back of the coffee shop, where a flower wall blocked them from anyone's view.

"Alright! Let's begin!" Liti said seriously.

"First, light the candle, toast the lily of the valley petals over the flame until dry, and put them in the water along with the bergamot leaf, then set it aside," Liti instructed. "Don't you dare drink it; it's poisonous!"

"I'm not a dog, I won't just put anything in my mouth," Maya protested, though she looked like she really wanted to take a sip. "What about the rose? Should that go in too?"

"No, that's just to fool Ms. Rue," Liti said with rigorous logic.

"Next, we use the salt to sprinkle a pattern on the paper to summon an imp, so it can spy on our enemies for us," Liti said, first drawing a magic circle on a notepad she had on hand.

Then, she handed the salt shaker to Enlise. "You have to do this step, because you are the one involved."

Enlise took the salt shaker.

"This step might be a bit difficult, but try to be as fast as you can. It must be done before the candle burns out," Liti said.

Enlise succeeded on her first try.

"As expected of Enlise," Liti said, holding up the mirror. "Now, hold the magic circle made of salt over the candle to toast it, and recall the appearance of your enemy—"

Enlise did as Liti said, a look of recollection on her face.

Liti aimed the mirror at the candle being used for the toasting, muttering an incantation in a language no one understood, while adjusting the angle of the mirror to reflect the candlelight into the two teacups.

On the shimmering surface of the water in the cups, two magic circle patterns suddenly appeared.

Then, the patterns seemed to burn, transforming into the faces of the two men the girls had seen earlier.

"Whoa! Whoa!" Maya shrieked.

But what surprised her most wasn't just that; she heard the reflections in the water cups talking to each other:

"...So, it was a total failure?"

"Yes! That Black Robe refused to sell the test edition of the game table! And the official edition is not only expensive, but it's already been completely reserved by the young lady of the Roy House; there's no stock at all!"

"Then why not just rent one?"

"Renting won't work. Renting requires signing a magic contract; if you dismantle it, you'll suffer the backlash of the contract!"

"Can't you find someone to break the contract?"

"That's a contract from an intermediate mage! We had someone look at it; it requires a high-level mage who specializes in runes to break it! Do you know how high those mages charge? Just for them to help appraise it, it's equivalent to buying five official edition game tables! Not to mention dismantling it—we'd be better off just waiting for the stock!"

"So you're just giving up?"

"The Peige Family is giving up, and there are several others just like them who want to quit too! Besides, leasing is an option anyway, and the costs are lower, so why must we buy them?"

"You all are truly..."

Listening to the gnashing of teeth coming from the teacup, Enlise felt a sense of relief.

"It seems they have no way to deal with that Black Mage!" Maya laughed.

"Indeed, everything is within Mr. Angell's calculations," Enlise said lightly.

Liti made a shushing gesture, allowing the conversation inside the water cup to continue:

"...Forget it, you hopeless lot! Since it has come to this, let's increase the leasing of the Game Tables!"

"Eh? Increase?"

"That's right! The brat at the Alchemy Workshop is clearly getting carried away, wanting to cover the entire city with Game Tables. Let's see if he can even break even! We should give him as many orders as possible and see when his capital chain snaps!"

Hearing this, Enlise furrowed her brows.

This tactic was cut from the same cloth as the one used for the Magic Wand.

"Enlise, are you alright?" Liti asked with concern.

"It's fine, these things are all part of Mr. Angell's plan," Enlise said.

Liti nodded, but she did not put down the mirror. The image in the water cup flickered as if the scene had changed, and the conversation continued:

"What is this? The Charity School wants to order a large batch of Game Tables too?!"

"Uh, it hasn't reached the point of a large-scale order yet... I heard those two old geezers, Owen and Hume, are stirring up trouble. They attended the opening ceremony of the Magic Gear and decided that the Game Tables are great for sparking children's interest in magic, so they are preparing to run a pilot program."

"That's practically the same as a large-scale order!"

The man's voice in the water cup grew louder: "With this order from the school! Any number of Alchemy Workshops could be brought back to life!"

"Calm down! The situation isn't that dire," a third voice interjected smoothly.

Enlise sat up straight.

She felt this voice was somewhat familiar; she had heard it somewhere recently.

The voice said, "I actually think this is an opportunity."

"An opportunity?"

"Look, regardless of whether the Game Tables can improve children's enthusiasm for magic, they are still 'games'! Everyone on every street corner is playing them. We can have the Newspaper report more on this, for instance, 'How much money someone spent on a Game Table' or 'Someone is so addicted to the game that they stay by the table until midnight.' We can form public opinion first... and wouldn't it look ridiculous for the Mayor and the Branch President of the Magic Association to pilot these 'Game Tables' in schools?"

"Hmm—"

Hearing this, Enlise gripped her skirt tightly.

"How could they do such a thing?!"

Maya jumped up from her chair. Her movement knocked into the table, shattering the image in the water cup and causing the conversation to vanish completely.

Maya didn't care about that, however; she shouted at Enlise, "So the school is planning to let us play with the Game Tables... no, wait, if this happens, won't we be unable to play at school?!"

"Not only that, if there are reports everywhere about the downsides of Game Tables, Mother will definitely forbid me from going to the workshop in the future," Liti immediately realized the consequences as well.

"No! We absolutely cannot let them do this!"

Maya grabbed Enlise's hand and said, "You must tell that Black Mage about this and have him stop those villains!"

"I know!"

Enlise nodded solemnly.

In the end, Enlise did not get to eat her crepe.

Carrying a heavy sense of mission, she hurried back to the workshop, only to find Angell covered in bloodstains and tiny ink-stained paw prints.

"Mr. Angell?" Enlise was startled by Angell's appearance.

"It's nothing, I was just balancing the accounts with the Mithril," Angell reassured her.

How could balancing accounts result in this?

Enlise thought it strange, but she had no time to ask.

Recalling what she had heard earlier, Enlise asked anxiously, "By the way, Mr. Angell, I have something I want to—"

"Right, I noticed you've been reading Rune Basics lately. Can you write the first rune, '_'?" Angell suddenly asked. "Could you demonstrate it for me?"

"But?" Enlise said, "The first rune...?"

Enlise could hardly bear to refuse any of Angell's requests. Even though she was in a hurry, she obediently wrote the rune Angell requested in the air.

The rune she wrote left a glowing trail in the air, and then a square frame popped up, filled with a dense grid of squares containing various runes.

"Eh, does this not require a Game Table?" Enlise was taken aback. "Also, are these runes meant to be written?"

"No, you just need to find the identical runes on the outer edge and connect them," Angell said.

He demonstrated by finding two identical runes and connecting them.

The runes emitted their syllables, then burst into flames, destroying each other.

Enlise stared at the scene in a daze, subconsciously wanting to find two identical runes to connect them.

"This is actually a little game called Link and Match... no, it's a rune-recognition learning method called Link and Match," Angell said. "There are 2,876 runes in total, which must be troublesome to learn, so perhaps this can increase your enthusiasm for identifying them."

Even if it didn't increase their enthusiasm for learning, it didn't matter; a large amount of mana would be generated while they focused on playing Link and Match.

And this mana would be recovered through the Mana Base Station.

When Angell reached this point, he cast a resentful glance at Mithril. "Because that Miser Cat refused to give me a budget for the base station, I had to open up the network within the Workshop first so everyone could experience the benefits of the Magic Net."

"Hmph, meow!" Mithril turned her head away.

"Enlise, what do you think?" Angell asked cautiously.

Enlise stared blankly at the "learning method" before her, then broke into a smile. "...It's amazing. Mr. Angell is truly amazing! It seems no tricks are effective against Mr. Angell at all!"