Layla had only casually mentioned opening a hot pot restaurant to Ur before.
Neither Ur nor Layla took it seriously afterward.
Irene, however, did.
Selene also decided to join in, but the two of them were not opening a hot pot restaurant.
They wanted to open an afternoon tea shop, mainly serving coffee, sweets, black tea, and other afternoon tea items.
The shop was not meant to make a profit.
As long as it gave Irene a place to occasionally develop desserts and coffee, that was enough.
As for staff, Irene planned to use Personality Enchant on three more swords.
Together with Heine and Juliet, that would give the café five employees, which was basically enough.
Then came the location.
"What? You two want to open a café?!"
Raizel, who had been called to the castle and was currently drinking black tea, almost sprayed it out.
He looked at Irene and Selene sitting across from him with an indescribably strange expression.
Irene did not care about his look at all and answered as if nothing were unusual.
"You seem fairly familiar with the mayor. I'd like you to ask if there are any shops being transferred. The location isn't important."
"All right. That's not a big deal. Leave it to me."
After leaving the castle, Raizel bought a gift and went to find the mayor.
He asked whether there were any shops currently being transferred, and if not, whether one could be bought at a higher price.
"It doesn't have to be a café. Ideally, it should have two floors, and the space doesn't need to be too large."
The mayor frowned and shook his head.
"You didn't need to bring a gift. I don't really keep track of things like this, but I can ask."
Then he turned to his assistant.
"Saul, go check."
...
"There really is one!"
Saul returned to the office with a smile.
"It's not a café, though. It's a bookstore! The space is pretty decent, and it's run by an elderly couple. Their family wants to bring them to Crocus to live long-term, so they were just thinking of transferring it."
Saul handed Raizel a handwritten sticky note.
"This is the address. They're still at the shop now, so you can go straight there."
After saying goodbye to the mayor, Raizel looked at the address.
It was three streets away from the guild tavern, not too far, and the area was a little over a hundred square meters.
Raizel had some impression of that shop.
Calling it a bookstore was not exactly wrong, since it did sell books, but overall, it was more of a store selling all kinds of random decorations and souvenirs.
One glance was enough to tell that it was not profitable.
Very few people went there on normal days, and the old couple had kept it open purely because they enjoyed it.
The discussion went smoothly. The shop itself belonged to the old couple, and the second floor was where they lived.
Since they were already planning to move to Crocus, they sold the whole place at a slight discount.
Irene paid the money, and all the documents and procedures were handled quickly without any trouble.
Before long, the shop was registered under Irene's name.
However, the lighting inside was rather dim, so it needed a proper renovation.
For Irene, renovation did not even require using her hands.
...
Three days later—
This shop is not open yet.
Raizel ignored the sign and pushed the door open.
Selene and Irene had asked him to come and take a look.
Most cafés were probably decorated in more or less the same way, creating a deliberately elegant atmosphere that suited people who longed for a refined, comfortable lifestyle.
It was full of that small-bourgeois feeling.
Irene had not escaped that style either.
When Raizel pushed open the door, three uniformed employees stood behind the counter.
Hanging plants decorated the corners of the walls, and a record player played a vinyl record Raizel had never heard before.
One side of the shop had a full floor-to-ceiling window, with sunlight spilling over the tables and genuine leather sofas.
In the seat where the sunlight fell best, it shone over Selene's tied-up pale-gold hair and Irene's crimson braid.
A steaming cup of coffee sat in front of each of them, and both women quietly looked out the window at the street and the passersby.
Raizel suddenly felt that in winter, this place might make for a pretty nice view.
Neither of them greeted him, so Raizel casually walked around the shop.
On the second floor, the side by the window had two independent lounges, each with a wooden plaque hanging on the door.
Irene.
Selene.
The furnishings inside were simple. Each room had two sofa recliners and a small wooden table where snacks and coffee could be placed.
The floor was covered with carpet, so sitting directly on the ground would not be a problem either.
'Lying here with a book, coffee, and sunlight would probably feel pretty good. Would it be even better with some fish tanks?'
There were rooms on the other side as well, but those had beds inside.
They were probably where the three employees would stay.
As for Heine and Juliet, they would still return to the castle with Irene.
Overall, it was a normally decorated café. There was nothing especially outstanding about it.
If there was anything special, it was probably the fact that the owners were Irene and Selene.
Raizel went over and sat down in front of the two of them, and Heine brought him a cup of hot tea.
"How is it?"
Raizel thought for a moment and decided to tell the truth.
"Honestly, the decoration is pretty normal."
His first impression was that the place felt secluded.
Fairy Tail's guild building sat near the outer edge of Magnolia, and this shop was three streets away from it, so it was not exactly in a prime location. Its main appeal was the quiet, hidden feeling.
Irene's lips curved slightly.
"That is enough. I never planned to make money from it. A little quiet is better."
Selene also put on an expression that made her look as if she were taking this very seriously.
"Fewer people is fine too. I can read here quietly and observe humans at the same time."
Raizel shook his head and laughed softly.
"I wasn't finished. The decoration is normal, but with you two as the owners, I doubt the shop will lose money."
Selene rested her cheek lightly on one hand and teased,
"Are you calling us beautiful?"
Raizel raised an eyebrow and looked at Selene with some surprise.
"You can called it that way."
After taking a sip of coffee, Irene's lips lifted slightly.
"In that case, we'll open tomorrow."
There was no custom here that required choosing an auspicious day before opening a shop or getting married.
Besides, Irene and Selene had no intention of holding any kind of opening ceremony.
Tomorrow, they would simply open the door and count that as the grand opening.
Selene and Irene had already decided on the café's name: Parnell Café.
There was no special meaning behind it, they had chosen it casually.
Raizel had asked Irene why she wanted to open this café, and Irene's answer was simple.
She had felt like it, and she had money.
Buying a building and opening a café here was nothing to her, she was not expecting it to earn money.
It was basically like playing an RPG.
...
The next day, Irene and Selene's café opened in an extremely casual manner.
Neither of them had any intention of welcoming customers at the door, leaving all the work to Heine, Juliet, and the others.
But Juliet was very good with words, and her voice was pleasant to listen to.
On top of that, new shops always attracted people who wanted to try something fresh.
Raizel, Ultear, Erza, Mira, and the others came to show support and ended up seeing quite a few familiar Magnolia residents.
Heine and Juliet were doing two jobs at once and did not even require wages.
Rare tool people like them were truly precious.
'Wait.'
'I have five tool people too.'
They were the five Wendy had enchanted and given to Raizel earlier.
Since Raizel had nowhere to place them, he had dumped them all into Irene's castle.
Their daily work was mostly taking care of the garden and other similar tasks!
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