Chapter 41
"Hey, miss, how much is this outfit?"
Lingmeng pointed to the clothes she was wearing as she asked.
The saleswoman gave Lingmeng a quick once-over and put on a professional smile.
"That'll be ten thousand yen altogether."
Ten thousand yen? That feels pretty expensive. Well, I have money now, so I'll treat myself for once!
With that thought, Lingmeng transferred ten thousand yen to the store without another moment's hesitation.
It hurt her wallet, but Lingmeng felt pretty good. She had new clothes to wear, after all.
"I've paid. Shiori, shall we go?"
"Mm..."
Lingmeng glanced at Shiori as she spoke. Shiori nodded shyly and followed her toward the door.
"Thank you for shopping with us. Please come again."
With the woman at the Front Desk calling out her farewell, Lingmeng and Shiori left the clothing store.
"Wow, it's already noon?" Lingmeng checked the time on her phone. "Shiori, are you hungry? Want to get something to eat?"
"Hungry? Now that you mention it, a little..."
Shiori rubbed his stomach. In truth, he hadn't eaten anything since morning—
First, he'd had to put on makeup.
Second, he'd had to deal with Tohka, who wanted to come along on the date, so he hadn't had time to eat.
The moment Lingmeng mentioned food, his stomach betrayed him with a growl.
"Ugh..." Embarrassed that Lingmeng had seen how hungry he was, Shiori lowered his head and let out a cute little sound.
"Haha, don't be shy. It's normal for your stomach to growl when you're hungry." Lingmeng smiled. "I'll treat you."
"Huh? No, you don't have to. Shouldn't the guy be paying at a time like this?"
Shiori hurriedly waved his hands in refusal.
"Oh, it's fine. All my money came from your Ratatoskr anyway. Just think of it as me paying you back. ╮(￣▽￣)╭"
"All right, then... Where should we eat?"
After a moment's hesitation, Shiori agreed.
"Where should we eat?"
Lingmeng scratched her cheek and looked around. Then she spotted something and pointed to a shop across the street with a smile.
"Let's eat there!"
"Hm?" Shiori followed Lingmeng's finger, puzzled.
It was a fairly large shop, and its sign read—
"Spirit Maid Café"...
So It Really Is a Spirit Maid Café?
"Lingmeng, are you seriously planning to eat there?" Shiori looked at the shop. "Isn't that a Maid Café?"
"Yeah. I've never been to one. What, Shiori-chan, are you afraid I'll start chatting with a cute maid and ignore you?"
Lingmeng shrugged and grinned teasingly.
Lingmeng had seen plenty of Maid Cafés in anime, but she'd never been to one in real life. Now that she had the chance to try it, of course she wanted to go.
"Th-that's not what I was thinking! If you want to go, then let's go."
Shiori's face reddened as he answered.
Lingmeng only smiled at how adorable he looked.
"Then let's go!"
She grabbed Shiori's hand and led him cheerfully into the Maid Café.
"Welcome home, masters!" ×N
The moment they stepped through the door, several girls inside the café called out a greeting.
Their voices were perfectly in sync, and honestly, it sounded pretty fun.
"Hey, I'm home!"
Lingmeng waved as though she were a regular, slipping right into the spirit of things.
"Um... thank you..." Compared with Lingmeng, Shiori was much more reserved. He shifted awkwardly, circling his index fingers around each other.
To be honest, this was Shiori's first time at a Maid Café too.
He was acting like this because he'd never been anywhere like it before.
"There are two of us." Lingmeng pointed to Shiori beside her and held up two fingers.
"Two guests, is that right?"
One of the blonde servers dressed as a maid bowed to Lingmeng as she replied.
"Please follow me, masters."
With that, the maid turned and walked ahead. Lingmeng and Shiori hurried after her.
"Here are your seats, masters." The blonde maid gestured to a table for two.
Lingmeng and Shiori sat down. The maid handed each of them a menu, then took a notebook and ballpoint pen from her pocket.
"What would you like to eat today, masters?"
"I'll have omurice and a cup of coffee!" Lingmeng put down her menu and went straight for omurice, the must-order Maid Café dish she'd seen in anime.
"Omurice, then?"
After noting Lingmeng's order, the blonde maid turned to Shiori.
"And what would you like, master?"
"Um..." Shiori glanced over the menu. "Could I have beef curry and a glass of orange juice?"
"Of course. Please wait a moment, masters." The blonde maid quickly wrote down Shiori's order, smiled, and headed into the back.
"Wow, all the girls playing maids here are so pretty."
Lingmeng looked around at the maids and sighed with genuine admiration.
To be fair, when she'd first seen the words "Spirit Maid Café," perhaps because she was a Spirit herself now—
Lingmeng had pictured a whole group of Spirits like her working here as maids.
But she'd quickly dismissed the thought. Spirits weren't exactly a dime a dozen; she couldn't expect to find a whole crowd of them on a casual date. She'd figured the shop's name was just a coincidence.
After entering, though, she'd changed her mind again.
Nearly every maid here was breathtakingly beautiful. The blonde, blue-eyed maid who had shown them to their seats, for instance, was hardly any less beautiful than real Spirits like Lingmeng and Tohka.
Perhaps the maids were all as beautiful as Spirits. If so, Lingmeng thought the café deserved its name.
While Lingmeng was still thinking about that, the blonde maid returned with their orders.
"Masters, your food is ready."
After setting their food and utensils in front of them, the blonde maid suddenly asked,
"Masters, would you like me to cast a spell to make your food taste even better?"
"A spell to make food taste better? What's that?" Shiori tilted his head in confusion.
"Yes, please! Go ahead! (^0^)/" Lingmeng agreed excitedly.
"Certainly." The maid nodded, held both hands out toward the food, and said in a cute voice,
"Let me pour my love for my masters into your food. Food, become delicious! Mari mari hon!"
Then, from somewhere, she produced a bottle of ketchup and immediately drew a heart on Lingmeng's omurice, writing "love" inside it.
Th-this is the spell that makes food taste better? This is so embarrassing...
Watching from the side, Shiori's mouth twitched. The maid's actions had left him utterly baffled.
"All done! The spell has been cast. Please enjoy your meal, masters~"
"Mm, thanks."
The maid waved to Lingmeng and Shiori, then took her leave.
After that, Lingmeng and Shiori quietly dug into their food...
"Masters, it's time for some fun! Would you like to play with us?"
Lingmeng and Shiori had finished eating, and before they knew it, the café's scheduled time for maids and customers to play games together had arrived.
The blonde maid was still the one speaking to them, but now she had many other girls in matching uniforms beside her.
Only when they came this close did Lingmeng notice that every maid wore a badge on her chest.
Each badge bore a name in cartoonish lettering. Those had to be the maids' names, right?
Lingmeng skimmed the names on their badges—
"Xinggong Liuyue"
"Bai Wuling"
"Su Ming"
"Kongying Qianxin"
"Yuehuang Qianzui"
"Amakusa Liuxing"
...and many more.
A few seconds later, Lingmeng had more or less memorized the names of every maid present.
"Lingmeng... are we staying?"
Shiori asked uneasily.
Being surrounded so suddenly by so many beautiful girls—girls as beautiful as Spirits, no less—made him terribly nervous. Even in men's clothes, he would have been a wreck, let alone dressed as a girl.
"Oh, it's fine, Shiori. Let's try it out. Besides, who wouldn't want to play games with pretty girls?"
Lingmeng waved a hand and smiled.
Unlike Shiori, Lingmeng was delighted. Surrounded by so many beautiful girls, she felt as though she'd arrived in heaven...
(Zhongsheng, laughing: "Now these are real Spirit maids. No doubt about it.")
How About Wearing a Maid Outfit?
Quite some time passed, with Lingmeng, Shiori, and the maids having a wonderful time together.
Shiori had been uncomfortable at first, but before long, he too had settled into the cheerful atmosphere.
"Hey, your uniforms are really cute."
Lingmeng admired the maids' uniforms as she complimented them.